who use shared bikes to travel in cities.
I've heard such a story. On a Friday 1, a poor young artist stood at the gate of the subway station, playing his violin. The music was 2, and many people who hurried to go home 3 and put some money into the hat of the young man.
The next night, the young artist took out a large piece of 4 and laid it on the ground. Then he began 5. The music sounded more pleasant. Some people gathered and they found the 6 on that paper, "Last night, a gentleman put a (n) 7 thing into my hat. Please come to get it back." When the people saw that, they felt very curious and 8 what it could be. After about half an hour, a man 9 there in a hurry and said, "It can't be true! You... you..."
The young violinist asked, "Did you 10 something?" "A lottery ticket (彩票)," the man answered 11.
The violinist took out a lottery ticket. “Is it?” he asked.
The man was too 12 to say a word... He 13 a lottery ticket a few days ago. The awards (奖) opened yesterday and he won $ 500, 000. So lucky and excited did he feel that he 14 50 dollars and put it into the hat when hearing the music. However, the lottery ticket was also thrown into the hat without being 15. After the violinist finished his performance, he 16 the lottery ticket in his hat. 17 that the owner would probably 18 to look for it, he came back to where he was given the lottery ticket.
Someone asked the violinist why he returned the lottery ticket to the man. He said, "Although I don't have much 19, I live happily; but if I lose 20, I won't be happy forever."
Recently, we've been talking about how we need better teachers. There's no doubt that a great teacher can help in a student's achievement but here's what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents.
Every three years, the organization called O. E. C. D. organizes exams as part of the Program for International Student Assessment (评估), or PISA, which tests 15-year-olds on their abilities to solve real problems. America's
15-year-olds have not done as well as students in Singapore, Finland and Shanghai in the PISA exams.
To better understand the reasons, the PISA team, starting with four countries in 2006, and then adding 14 more in 2009, went to the parents of 5,000 students. They interviewed them about how they raised their kids and then compared it with the test results for each of those years. Two weeks ago, the PISA team published the main finding of its study.
15-year-olds whose parents often read books with them during their first year of primary school get much higher scores in PISA than students whose parents don't often read with them or not at all. Parents' concern for their children is strongly connected with better results in PISA.
According to Schleicher, the leader of the team, just asking your children how their school day was and showing great interest in their learning can help a lot. It is something every parent can do, no matter what their education level is.
The study found that getting parents concerned about their children's learning at home is more powerful than parents attending parent-teacher meetings, volunteering in classrooms, taking part in money-raising, and showing up at back-to-school nights.
To be sure, nothing can replace a good teacher. But let's stop putting the whole responsibility on teachers. We also need better parents. Better parents can make teaching more effective (有效的).
