-Yes, ________.
-That's all right.________.
Each new school year brings fresh reminders of what educators call the summer learning gap. Some call it the summer learning setback. Simply speaking, it means the longer kids are out of school, the more they forget. The only thing they might gain is weight.
Most American schools follow a traditional nine-month calendar. Students get winter and spring breaks and about ten weeks of summer vacation. Some schools follow a year-round calendar. They hold classes for about e ight weeks at a time, with a few weeks off in between. The National Association for Year-Round Education says there were fewer than three thousand such schools at last count. They were spread among forty-six of the fifty states.
But many experts point out that the number of class days in a year-round school is generally the same as in a traditional school. Lead researcher Paul von Hippel said, “Year-round schools don't really solve the problem of the summer learning setback. They simply spread it out across the year.”
Across the country, research shows that students from poor families fall farther behind over the summer than other students. Experts say this can be prevented. They note that many schools and local governments offer programs that can help.
But calling them “summer school” could be a problem. The director of the summer learning center at Johns Hopkins, Ron Fairchild, said research with groups of different parents in Chicago and Baltimore found that almost all strongly disliked the term “summer school”. In American culture, the idea of summer vacation is connected to beliefs about freedom and the joys of childhood. The parents welcomed other terms like “summer camp”, “enrichment”, “extra time” and “hands-on learning”.
信件要点包括：
① 陈述写信原因
② 简要描述该行李
③ 说明其重要性
④ 期待回复并表示感谢
注意：
① 词数100左右。
② 信件格式已为你给出。
Dear Sir/Madam,
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua.
Last month，my younger sister Michelle，four of my friends and I held our first charity art exhibitions.The exhibitions, containing 140 paintings，raised 44,000 yuan，all donated to Stepping Stones，a charity that supports poor children in China.
Ever since l was a little girl, I have been in love with art.I have always been fascinated with the idea of creating beauty and emotion—how imagination can transform a simple piece of paper into something beyond the possibilities of the real world.I watched others create magic by simply moving their hands，and felt thrilled as I gradually learned to do this myself.
Passion results in creation.In nine years，I had accumulated more pieces than I could count.My finished paintings were set aside，gathering dust as time passed.So I decided to hold exhibitions to find a home and some appreciation for my artwork.
Nonetheless，I was extremely nervous.After all，I am only a l5yearold child who has a passion，but not necessarily one who creates artwork that others want to buy.
However，the turnout was more than I could ever have imagined，and the amount of money we raised quadrupled(四倍于)our original target.We were very lucky to find a charity，Stepping Stone，that would show us exactly how our money would be used：to teach English to poor children in the country.I was even offered an opportunity to teach the children myself.
Through this experience，I not only gained more confidence in my art，but also discovered its impact.I realized a paintbrush could paint not only a canvas，but also new opportunities for others who don't have as many choices in who they want to be，or what they want to do.Although this cannot transform the world，this may transform the world for one child，or even more.
Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to the patients at the clinic.
One evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awfullooking man. He's hardly taller than my eightyearold son. “Good evening. I've come to see if you've a room. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus till morning.” He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success. “I guess it's my face...I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments...” For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: “I could sleep in this chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning.”
I told him we would find him a bed. When I had finished the dishes, I talked with him. He told me he fished for a living to support his five children, and his wife, who was hopelessly crippled (残疾的) from a back injury. He didn't tell it by way of complaint. Next morning, just before he left, as if asking a great favor, he said, “Could I come back and stay the next time？” He added, “Your children made me feel at home.”
On his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and the largest oysters (牡蛎) I had ever seen. I knew his bus left at 4：00 a．m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us and there was never a time that he did not bring us vegetables from his garden. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned how to accept the bad without complaint when facing the misfortune.
Speedreading is a necessary skill in the Internet age.We skim over articles, emails and Wechat to try to grasp key words and the essential meaning of a certain text.Surrounded with information from our electronic devices, it would be impossible to cope if we read word by word, line by line.But a new trend calls on people to unplug and enjoy reading slowly, listing benefits beyond the intelligent stimulation.
A recent story from The Wall Street Journal reported on a book club in Wellington, New Zealand, where members meet in a cafe and turn off their smart phones.They sink into cozy chairs and read in silence for an hour.Unlike traditional book clubs, the point of the slow reading club isn't exchanging ideas about a certain book, but to get away from electronic devices and read in a quiet, relaxed environment.According to the Journal, the Wellington book club is just one example of a movement started by book lovers who miss the oldfashioned way of reading before the Internet and smart phones.
Slow readers, such as The Atlantic's Maura Kelly, say a regular reading habit sharpens the mind, improves concentration, reduces stress levels and deepens the ability to sympathize. Another study published last year in Science showed that reading novels helps people understand others' mental states and beliefs, a fundamental skill in building relationships. Yet technology has made us less attentive readers. Screens have changed our reading patterns from the straight and lefttoright sequence to a wild skimming and skipping pattern as we hunt for important words and information. Reading text punctuated with links leads to weaker comprehension than reading plain text. The Internet may have made us stupider, says Patrick Kingsley from The Guardian. Because of the Internet, he says, we have become very good at collecting a wide range of interesting news, but we are also gradually forgetting how to sit back, reflect, and relate all these facts to each other.
Slow reading means a return to an uninterrupted, straight pattern, in a quiet environment free of distractions. Aim for 30 minutes a day, advises Kelly from The Atlantic.“You can squeeze in that half hour pretty easily if only during your free moments, you pick up a meaningful work of literature，” Kelly said.“Reach for your ereader, if you like.Kindles make books like War and Peace less heavy, not less substantive, and also ensure you'll never lose your place.”
In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity (繁荣). Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their selfworth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often lifeanddeath affairs. In their singleminded pursuit(追求)of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which only values the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among those who are against competition are young people who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn't matter because I really didn't try.” What is not usually admitted by them is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot.
Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one's selfrespect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to disappear can we discover a new meaning in competition.
Many people admit that they aren't prepared financially for life's unexpected challenges and emergencies. If your New Year's decision is to become more financially prepared for a“rainy day”，the following tips are helpful for you to save.
Start saving now.
Set specific savings goals and break them down to a set dollar amount to save each paycheck. Save at least a small portion of each paycheck and remain committed to saving, and then look for ways each month to increase the amount.
One of the simplest ways to find money to put toward your rainy day fund is to keep a close eye on where your money is beingspent. For two or three months, try keeping track of every expense, includingsmall ones. Once you have a better idea of where your money is going, make a budget that includes a spending and savings plan.
Make saving automatic.
If your goal is to save $5,000 this year,calculate the amount you'll need to save from each paycheck, then arrange tohave it automatically saved into your savings account each time you get paid.Visit your bank branch and ask a banker if you can set up automatic transfers into your savings account.
Go on a spending diet.
Avoid spending any money on non-essentials for30 days and challenge yourself to save as much as you can to put toward your rainy clay fund. Then make a list and determine not to spend on these items for one month.
A．Track your spending.
B．Put your savings to work.
C．Do remember: Actions always speak louder than words.
D．The important thing is to start saving now, no matter howlittle.
E．Treat your rainy day account like you'd treat any otherfinancial obligation(债务)．
F．Review your budget at the end of every month and determineif your spending is in line with your plan.
G．Review your budget and identify extra or nonessentialexpenses, such as eating out, shopping, entertainment, etc.
