There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, vastly different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority it must be given over general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities of spelling?
      If spelling becomes the only focal point of his teacher's interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to "play safe". He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid adventurous language. That's why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.
      I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience: "This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling errors and your writing is illegible." It may have been a sharp criticism of the pupil's technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child's deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centered on the child's ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more motivation to seek improvement.

        Men have traveled ever since they first appeared on the earth.
        In primitive times they did not travel for pleasure but to find new places where their herds could feed, or to escape from hostile neighbors, or to find more favorable climates. They traveled on foot. Their journeys were long, tiring, and often dangerous. They protected themselves with simple weapons, such as wooden sticks or stone clubs, and by lighting fires at night and, above all, by keeping together.
        Being intelligent and creative, they soon discovered easier ways of traveling. They rode on the backs of their domesticated animals; they hollowed out tree trunks and, by using bits of wood as paddles, were able to travel across water.
        Later they traveled, not from necessity, but for the joy and excitement of seeing and experiencing new things, This is still the main reason why we travel today.
        Traveling, of course, has now become a highly organized business. There are cars and splendid roads, express trains, huge ships and jet airliners, all of which provide us with comforts and security. This sounds wonderful. But there are difficulties. If you want to go abroad, you need a passport and a visa, ticket, luggage, and a hundred of other things. If you lose any of them, your journey may be ruined.

    Debate is a valuable way to practice communicating. It can also bring long-lasting rewards, especially for people working with Western businesses. The main activity of debate is presenting one's opinion and supporting it with evidence, such as statistics or facts. It is a way of persuasive communication.
    Charles Lebeau helped create the "Discover Debate" method. He says debate is important to understanding how people communicate in Western business. Successful debaters learn how to give their opinion, reasons and support. "What we are trying to do is to develop a kind of thinking or approach to discussion and how to interact (交流) with someone else's opinion, rather than brush their opinion aside."

    Debate skills are also important in selling a product, he says. In that situation, the judges are the customers. "So on Monday, for example, one company may come in and present their case to the customer and they'll make as strong a case as they can. On Tuesday, the next day, another company will come in and present their case to the customer. Usually the party that can present the strongest case wins."
    Debate also strengthens critical thinking. In other words, it helps students learn to ask questions and try to understand someone's reasons and evidence.
    Mr. Lebeau points out that successful debaters learn to listen carefully to what other people are saying. Then, they look for the weak points in someone else's opinion or argument. He says debate teaches a systematic way of questioning.
    Successful debaters also learn to think from someone else's point of view. Mr. Lebeau says debate can help broaden the mind. "There's an expression in English: don't criticize another person before you have walked in their shoes. I think the wonderful thing about debate is, it puts us in another person's shoes."

        Almost every family buys at least one copy of a newspaper every day. Some people subscribe to as many as two or three different newspapers. But why do people read newspapers? 

        Five hundred years ago, news of important happenings--battles lost and won, kings or rulers overthrown or killed—took months and even years to travel from one country to another. The news passed by word of mouth and was never accurate. Today we can read in our newspapers of important events that occur in faraway countries on the same day they happen.
        Apart from supplying news from all over the world, newspapers give us a lot of other useful information. There are weather reports, radio, television and film guides, book reviews, stories, and, of course, advertisements. There are all sorts of advertisements. The bigger ones are put in by large companies to bring attention to their products. They pay the newspapers thousands of dollars for their advertising space, but it is worth the money, for news of their products goes into almost every home in the country. For those who produce newspapers, advertisements are also important. Money earned from advertisements makes it possible for them to sell their newspapers at a low price and still make a profit.

        Have you ever argued with your loved ones over simple misunderstandings（误解）? Little wonder. We often believe we' re more skillful in getting our point across than we actually are, according to Boza Keysar, a professor at the University of Chicago. In his recent study, speakers tried to express their meanings using unclear sentences. Speakers who thought listeners understood were wrong nearly half the time. Here' s some good advice to reduce misunderstanding:
        (1) Don' t trust what you see from the listener. Listeners often nod, look at you or say "uhhuh" to be polite or move the conversation along. But it' s easy to consider these as signs of understanding.
        (2) Train the editor（编辑）in your head. If you say, "Beth discusses her problems with her husband, " it' s not clear whether she' s talking to her husband or about him. Try instead, "Beth talks to her husband about her problems. " or "Beth talks to others about the problems with her husband. "
        (3) Ask listeners to repeat your message. Introduce your request by saying "I want to be sure I said that right. " Questions like "How does that sound?" or "Does that make sense?" may also work.
        (4) Listen well. When on the receiving end, ask questions to be sure you' re on the same page. After all, it isn' t just the speaker' s job to make his speech understood.

        Like any teenagers, the face of One Teen Story is changing fast. Just a year old, the monthly magazine of short fiction for young people is getting a new editor-in-chief: Patrick Ryan, 47, the associate editor of Granta from 2009 to 2013. He left the London-based literary journal last month.
　　Editing One Teen Story—the younger sibling(姊妹篇)of One Story magazine—will offer Ryan a chance to reach a whole new audience. “It’ s really the only magazine for young adult short fiction,” he says from his office in New York. “It’ s tremendously exciting that there are younger people out there who have subscriptions and look forward to getting these stories once a month. That form is usually only presented when it’ s forced upon them in schools.”
　　Designed for readers 14 and up, One Teen Story publishes nine issues a year. Like its sibling magazine, it doesn’ t carry photographs or advertising. It’ s just exactly what it says: one story per issue.
　　Ryan says young people are “looking for engaging reads about people whom they can identify with. It’ s not about having a message or positive spin(说教). It always starts on a character level, and it has to have an interesting story. If you look at the ‘Twilight’ characters and the ‘Harry Potter’ characters, they feel very contemporary.”
　　Ryan also sees the magazine as a way to encourage talented authors. “I would love to make One Teen Story the first publication for writers who then go on and keep at this business. I just really love the idea that this magazine would be the starting point for somebody—would be the push to make a talented writer feel that it was worth keeping at this.”

     Mrs. Peters stopped playing the piano when she began to work. She had lived in a very small flat, and there had been no room for a piano. But when she married, she had a new flat which was big enough for one. So she decided to get one and her husband agreed and helped her. She saved some money, and her parents gave her a generous amount of money for her birthday. Then she went to a shop and said, "I'll choose whichever piano does not cost too much and fits into my living room.”
     When she had paid for the piano, the shop assistant asked her if she would like him to get it tuned(调音) every few months. Mrs. Peters agreed.
     A few months later she heard from the shop that a man was coming to tune the piano at ten that morning. Now she had not cleaned the house yet, so it was dusty and untidy. Mrs. Peters hated having even the least amount of dirt, and felt ashamed whenever strange people saw her house like that. So she had to hurry to clean everything carefully. It meant a lot of effort, and it made her hot and tired, but anyhow, by the time the man arrived, everything was finished.
     She opened the door, and the man was standing there with a big dog. "Good morning," the man said politely, "Will it disturb you if I bring my dog in, please? I'm blind, and he leads me wherever I go." 

        When you pat your pet dog, he wags(摆来摆去)his tail. That is his way of saying that he loves you. And, if you pay attention, you will see that he uses his tail to say so many things. Every movement of the tail means a different thing. If the dog is wagging its tail, it is a sign of friendliness; if his tail is straight, it means he is getting ready for a fight; and if his tail is tucked(塞)behind his legs, it means he is giving up the fight.
　　Unlike dogs, cats’ tail language is not so expressive. When a cat feels threatened, he puffs himself up to appear big and his tail shakes with tension. And when he is displeased with something, he lashes out(甩动)his tail.
　　The tail language of dogs and cats has a little story behind it. Earlier, when dogs and cats had not become friends with human beings, they were predators. They used to hunt other animals for their food. When dogs went out hunting with their friends, tail language came handy. When they were close to each other, dogs could use facial expressions to talk. But, for long-distance communication, they used their tails. Unlike dogs, cats liked to hunt alone. So, they did not need to use tail language too often. As a result, their vocabulary in tail language is much smaller than that of dogs’.

      There is no creature that does not need sleep or complete rest every day.
      If you want to know why, just try going without sleep for a long period of time. You will discover that your mind and body would become too tired to work properly. You would become irritable and find it hard to think clearly or concentrate on your work. So sleep is quite simply the time when the cells of your body recover from the work of the day and build up supplies of energy for the next period of activity.
      One of the things we all know about sleep is that we are unconscious in sleep. We do not know what is going on around us. But that doesn’t mean the body stops all activity. The important organs continue to work during sleep, but most of the body functions are slowed down.
      For example, our breathing becomes slower and deeper. The heart beats more slowly, and the blood pressure is lower. Our arms and legs become limp(柔软的) and muscles are at rest. It would be impossible for our body to relax to such an extent if we were awake. So sleep does for us what the most quiet rest can not do.
      Your body temperature becomes lower when you are asleep, which is the reason people go to sleep under some kind of covers. And even though you are unconscious, many of your reflexes(习惯性思维) still work. For instance, if someone tickles(使觉得痒) your foot, you will put it away in your sleep, or even brush a fly from your forehead. You do these things without knowing it.

        We can make mistakes at any age. Some mistakes we make are about money. But most mistakes are about people. "Did Jerry really care when I broke up with Helen?" "When I got that great job, did Jim really feel good about it, as a friend? Or did he envy my luck?" When we look back, doubts like these can make us feel bad. But when we look back, it' s too late.
        Why do we go wrong about our friends or our enemies? Sometimes what people say hides their real meaning. And if we don' t really listen closely we miss the feeling behind the words. Suppose someone tells you, "You' re a lucky dog." That' s being friendly. But "lucky dog" ? There' s a bit of envy in those words. Maybe he doesn' t see it himself. But bringing in the "dog" puts you down a little. What he may be saying is that he doesn' t think you deserve your luck.
       "Just think of all the things you have to be thankful for" is another noise that says one thing and means another. It could mean that the speaker is trying to get you to see your problem as part of your life as a whole. But is he? Wrapped up in this phrase is the thought that your problem isn' t important. It' s telling you to think of all the starving people in the world when you haven' t got a date for Saturday night.
        How can you tell the real meaning behind someone' s words? One way is to take a good look at the person talking. Do his words fit the way he looks? Does what he says agree with the tone of voice? His posture? The look in his eyes? Stop and think. The minute you spend thinking about the real meaning of what people say to you may save another mistake.

      Animals have different ways of protecting themselves against wintertime weather. Some animals grow heavy coats of fur or feathers, while others dig into the ground to find a warm wintertime home.
      Some animals spend the winter in a deep sleep because by going to sleep they avoid the time of the year when food is scarce and the temperatures are low. Their sleep is known as hibernation.
      There is much about hibernation that puzzles scientists. For example, they are wondering how hibernation came into being. Some scientists have explored the possibility that animals release a chemical that starts them hibernating.
      One thing that scientists are certain about is that animals hibernate only when it is cold. Hibernation is a seasonal practice.
      Some animals that fall into a wintertime sleep are not true hibernators because they spend only a part of the cold season asleep. Bears, for example, can easily be awakened from their winter nap. They are not true hibernators.
      Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether a particular animal is a true hibernator. For example, some mice hibernate, but others do not. The same is true of bats. Some of them hibernate. Others do not.

        One evening Mr. Green was driving home along a lonely country road. He had ￡1,000 in his pocket. At the loneliest part of the road, a man asked for a lift(搭车). Mr. Green told him to get into the car and continued his driving. When he talked to the man and learned that the man had been in prison for robbery and had broken out of prison two days before, Mr. Green was very worried.
        Suddenly he saw a police-car and had a bright idea. He just reached a small town where the speed limit was 30 miles an hour. But he drove the car as fast as it could go. He looked back and saw that the police-car had begun to chase him. After a mile or so the police-car overtook(赶上)him and ordered him to stop. A policeman got out and came to Mr. Green' s car. Mr. Green hoped that he could tell the policeman about the escaped robber, but he felt the man had put a gun against his back. The policeman took out his notebook and pencil, saying he wanted Mr. Green' s name and address. Mr. Green asked to be taken to the police station, but the policeman said, “No, you will have to appear at the police station later." Mr. Green had to do as the policeman told him. The policeman wrote his name and address down, put his notebook and pencil back in his pocket and gave Mr. Green a talk about dangerous driving. Then Mr. Green started up his car again and drove on.
        Just as he reached the suburb of London, the passenger said, “I want to get off here.” Mr. Green stopped the car, the man got out and said, “Thanks for the lift. You’ ye been good to me. This is the least I can do in return.” And he handed Mr. Green the policeman’ s notebook, which he stole while the policeman was talking to Mr. Green.

      Most students choose "Homestay" accommodation when they study abroad; others select Homestay even if they are not on a study visit. Statistics show that it ' s a form of accommodation gaining in popularity all the time. 

      But what is Homestay? And what makes it so popular?
      Homestay means hying with a family, or "host family" as we say. There are three ways of doing it:
      · choose to learn English in a language school near to your Homestay location;
      · have your English classes in the house with a member of the family who is a qualified teacher;
      · select not to have classes at all when you visit—a popular choice if you want to do the tourist thing for example. 

      Even in their busy summer period the organizations that arrange the Homestays will always try to place you with the most suitable host family to match your requirements. Placement (安置) organizations think about location, interests, language level, eating requirements, allergies (过敏) and other requests you may have.

      Though prices vary according to your needs, good quality Homestay accommodation can be relatively economical—and although you may be charged an extra amount of money if you want your Homestay in or near the city centre. Even if you stay further out, you can expect your journey into the centre not to exceed 30 minutes.
      Not only does Homestay accommodation represent value for money, it also gives you an excellent opportunity to practise English with your host family. This is a very important extra for students who like to speak as much English as possible. But if you plan to learn English, why not have your English classes in your host family? There' s no better way to learn English than this—the perfect combination of learning and accommodation combined with the cultural experience!

        Most people usually traveled by ship and train which are driven by steam engine. It played an important part in many kinds of vehicles several scores of years ago. Who invented steam engine and what units could be used to measure the power of engine?
　　The word “horse-power” was first used two hundred years ago. James Watt from a worker’s family made the world first widely used steam engine. At first, he couldn’t tell people how powerful it was, because there were no units at that time. Watt decided to find out how much work one strong horse could do in one minute. He named that unit one horse-power. In this way he could measure the work of his steam engine.
　　He discovered that a horse could lift a 3300-pound weight 10 feet into the air in one minute. His engine could lift a 3300-pound weight 100 feet in one minute. Because his engine did ten times as much work as the horse, Watt called it a ten horse-power engine.

        About 79 million Americans have pre-diabetes(糖尿病前期). That means they have blood sugar that’s higher than normal but not high enough to be diagnosed(诊断)with type 2—at least not yet. One long-term study reported by the American Diabetes Association found that 11% of people with pre-diabetes develop the full-blown disease each year. Another study shows that pre-diabetes will probably become type 2 in 10 years or less.
　　Yet, that process is not inevitable. Last year, scientists in Colorado found that people with pre-diabetes who lowered their blood sugar to normal levels—levels—even briefly—were 56% less likely to reach type 2 levels.
　　If you have pre-diabetes, here are four steps to help prevent or delay a diabetes diagnosis:
　　Lose 7% of your body weight. That is about 15 pounds for the persons who weigh 200. Dropping that small percentage has been shown to lower the risk of developing type 2 by close to 60%.
　　Exercise 30 minutes five days a week. Whether you do the 30 minutes in one shot or in three 10-minute sessions, the benefit is the same. Choose certain exercises, such as fast walking, playing tennis or lifting weights. Physical activity such as sweeping floors works, too.
　　Turn to your doctor. In some cases, pre-diabetes raises the risk of heart disease and stroke by 50%. Your doctor may use some medicine to control your glucose(葡萄糖)levels and keep your blood pressure in check.
　　Know your numbers. To see if your pre-diabetes is improving, have your blood sugar checked regularly. A fasting blood sugar of 100 to 125 mg/dl suggests pre-diabetes; 126 mg/dl or above is diabetes; and below 100 is normal. Other tests, including glucose tolerance and AIC, also are used to monitor blood sugar.

      ​I talk to strangers for a living and love the challenge of getting their stories published in news- papers. I've been married for years, but until six months ago, I could be a typical absent-minded husband. Often I was just nodding when I was supposed to. When my wife asked, "Did you even hear what I just said?" I would defensively say,"Of course I did". 

      In January, I began to lose my voice. Doctors told me I needed surgery, or my throat would be permanently damaged. Total silence would be required for the first few weeks of my recovery.
      Two hours after the surgery, my eyes filled with tears as my two-year-old son looked puzzled because I wouldn't answer his questions. I wanted to talk but couldn't. Luckily, I' d recorded myself reading some of his favorite books. That would come in handy the next couple of weeks.

      When I got home, I noticed a "side effect" : as my wife talked to me to keep up my spirits, I wasn't just hearing her; I was listening to her. Over the next few weeks, I didn't want to miss a word she said. I began to hear sweetness in her voice. It had never left. I' d just stopped noticing. I found myself understanding her better on topics I' d previously dismissed as "things I just don' t get as a guy". I also realized my son wasn't just talking nonstop but that he often had thoughtful things to say. Even while walking my dog in the woods near our home, I began hearing pleasant patterns in birdsongs. Before my surgery, I' d have spent those walks on my phone.

      After several weeks, I was fully recovered. Conversation in our house is better now, not because I' m talking more. I' m just listening better and becoming less and less surprised that I like what I hear.

      In ancient times wealth was measured and exchanged in things that could be touched: food, tools, and precious metals and stones. Then the barter system was replaced by coins, which still had real value since they were pieces of rare metal. Coins were followed by fiat money, paper notes that have value only because everyone agrees to accept them.
     Today electronic monetary systems are gradually being introduced that will transform money into even less tangible forms, reducing it to a series of "bits and bytes", or units of computerized information, going between machines at the speed of light. Already, electronic fund transfer allows money to be instantly sent and received by different banks, companies, and countries through computers and telecommunications devices.

      ​Coconut (椰子) is an unusual food for many reasons. It is one of the largest edible seeds produced by any plant. Its unusual contents also make it unique in the seed world--it consists of both"meat" and "water" inside. The coconut meat is the white substance with which we are all familiar, as it is used extensively for cooking and flavorings; the coconut water is a white and sweet liquid. 

      Portuguese (葡萄牙) explorers gave the nut its name in the 15th century, referring to it as coco, meaning "ghost" in their language. The outside appearance of coconuts reminded them of a ghost's face, and the tree has had that name ever since. 

      The coconut has varied uses. It is used to make various cooking oils for fast-food restaurants around the world to make diet materials. The coconut fluid is a favorite drink in hot climates, providing a cool and refreshing beverage right off the tree. This water is also used by manufacturers of various sports drinks. Even the shell itself has many uses, including animal food and fertilizer.
      Yet the coconut is also useful in many ways that have nothing to do with food. Coconut oil is used for cosmetics (化妆品), medicines, and so on. Dried coconut shells are used in many countries as a tool for shining wood floors. The shells are also used for shirt buttons, and are commonly found on Hawaiian clothing. They are even used for musical instruments and bird houses.
      And all these are only some of the uses found for the coconut fruit. The coconut tree, which produces the nut,also produces many useful things. It' s no wonder that the coconut tree has been taken as "the tree of life".

​

     Claude-Oscar Monet (1840-1926) was a French artist and a leading member of the Impressionist group of painters. Born in Paris, Monet spent his childhood in Le Havre. There he met a local artist, Eugène Boudin, who encouraged him to become a landscape painter.
     In 1859, Monet went to Paris to study at the Académie Suisse. Between 1860 and 1862, Monet served in the army in Algeria (阿尔及利亚). He returned to Paris where he met most of the major artists of the era.
     In 1870, Monet married Camille Doncieux. To escape the Franco-Prussian war, they moved to London. Back to France, they settled at Argenteuil, a boating centre on the Seine (塞纳河) which drew many other Impressionist painters. Working from nature was a particular symbol of the Impressionist movement, and one that Monet valued, reflecting in his paintings the ever-changing impact of light and weather conditions.
     In 1872, he visited Le Havre where he painted "An Impression, Sunrise". When exhibited in 1874, part of its title was used by a critic to label the whole movement "Impressionism".
     Monet's wife died in 1879, and he set up home with Alice Hoschedé, the wife of one of his most important sponsors. During the 1880s, Monet traveled through France painting a variety of landscapes. He gradually became better known and for the last 30 years of his life he was regarded as the greatest of the Impressionists.
     From 1890 he began to paint a series (系列) of pictures of one subject, including "Haystacks" "Rouen Cathedral" and "Waterlilies". The latter were painted in the fine garden Monet created at his house at Giverny, where he lived from 1883 on. He painted them over and over again, most significantly in a series especially for a museum in Paris. 

        When you pat your pet dog, he wags(摆来摆去)his tail. That is his way of saying that he loves you. And, if you pay attention, you will see that he uses his tail to say so many things. Every movement of the tail means a different thing. If the dog is wagging its tail, it is a sign of friendliness; if his tail is straight, it means he is getting ready for a fight; and if his tail is tucked(塞)behind his legs, it means he is giving up the fight.
　　Unlike dogs, cats’ tail language is not so expressive. When a cat feels threatened, he puffs himself up to appear big and his tail shakes with tension. And when he is displeased with something, he lashes out(甩动)his tail.
　　The tail language of dogs and cats has a little story behind it. Earlier, when dogs and cats had not become friends with human beings, they were predators. They used to hunt other animals for their food. When dogs went out hunting with their friends, tail language came handy. When they were close to each other, dogs could use facial expressions to talk. But, for long-distance communication, they used their tails. Unlike dogs, cats liked to hunt alone. So, they did not need to use tail language too often. As a result, their vocabulary in tail language is much smaller than that of dogs’.