Maybe you are an average student.You probably think you will never be a top student. This is not necessarily so,however. Anyone can become a better student if he or she wants to. Here's how：
When planning your work, you should make a list of things that you have to do. After making this list, you shouldmake a schedule of your time. First your time for eating, sleeping, dressing,etc.Then decide a good, regular time for studying.A weekly schedule may not solve all your problems, but it will force you to realize what is happening to your time.
Find a good place to study. Look around the house for a good study area.Keep this space, which may be a desk or simply a corner of your room, free of everything but study materials. No games, radios,or television. When you sit down to study, concentrate on the subject.
Make good use of your time in class.Listening carefully in class meansless work later. Taking notes will help you remember what the teacher says.
Study regularly. When you get home from school, go over your notes, review the important points that your teacher is going to discuss the next day, read that material.If you do these things regularly, the material will become more meaningful, and you'll remember it longer.
Develop a good attitude towards tests.The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. They help you remember your new knowledge.The world won't end if you don't pass a test, so don't be overworried.
Youwill probably discover them after you have tried these.
A．There are other methods that might help you with your studying.
B．Don't forget to set aside enough time for entertainment.
C．Take advantage of class time to listen to everything the teacher says.
D．No one can become a top student unles she or she works hard.
E．Plan your time carefully.
F．Make full use of class time to take notes of what the teacher says in class.
G．This will help you understand the nextclass.
Every year in America, high-school students who want to go to college take a national examination called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT in a shortened way. Their score is an important factor in determining which colleges will admit them or whether any will be admitted at all. The Scholastic Aptitude Test measures one's mathematical ability and use of the English language. Traditionally, the English part involved grammatical questions and paragraphs that test reading comprehension.
But the SAT folks have added a single question, to be answered in an essay, hand-written on the spot. That's an interesting way to test writing ability, but content aside, have you ever seen young people's handwriting lately? Or anyone's for that matter, in this age of computer keyboards? Students write numbers and sign their names on bank checks. They scribble class notes in what can generously be described as the written word.
Yet today's kids are asked to write, thoughtfully and clearly, for several minutes on this SAT Test. Good luck to the text scorers who must work out difficultly the scrawl (潦草的字迹) of young people who've been typing on computers since the age of three! Teachers insist that good handwriting can not only help one's score on the SAT, but also, later on in life, impress potential employers. And don't forget, we all have to turn to handwriting from time to time, as computers go down when power goes out.
Then how to improve the handwriting? Well, with a few simple steps you can improve your hand writing.
Position the pen. You should hold the pen between the forefinger and the thumb, then rest it near the first knuckle (指节) of the middle finger. The rest of your fingers should be curled (卷曲) under your hand and your hand should remain relaxed.
Evaluate your writing. Make changes to your letters till you like how they look.
Take your time. Speed is bound to make your writing messy-looking.
Practice. Practice it a lot; it's not enough to do it once and hope for the best. It has to be something you work at to make great improvements.
Renaissance is a French word. It means “rebirth”. It's a strange name for a period of history. What was exactly “ reborn” during the Renaissance?
To answer this question, we need to look back at the time of the Roman Empire. At this time Roman artists, scientists and writers influenced by Greek ideas were the world's most advanced. They had become skilled observers of the natural world around them, and had become experts in studying animals, plants, the human body or the stars and planets. They wrote down their ideas about what they saw, and based their theories about the world on their observations.
During the fourth and fifth centuries the Roman Empire slowly broke down. Many of the Romans' art and sculptures were destroyed and some manuscripts（原稿）were lost as well. But most importantly, some of the ancient attitudes were lost. A questioning approach to the world was replaced by an unquestioning one.
Why did this happen? One reason was to do with the influence of the Christian Church. Through the thousand years following the fall of the Roman Empire, the Church controlled many aspects of life including education and learning. The Church ran all the universities and thought that the aim of a university should be to teach old ideas more clearly, not to introduce new ones. The scholars in the universities were expected to study God and heaven from the Bible and ancient books, rather than the world around them.
Take medicine for example. The main textbook for doctors had been written by a Greek doctor called Galen more than a thousand years earlier. But when Roger Bacon, a thirteenth-century priest（牧师）, said that a new approach to medicine was needed — doctors should do their own original research instead of reading writers from the past such as Galen-the Church put him in prison.
By the time of the fourteenth century, however, some parts of the Christian Church were becoming less strict about their ideas and there was a new state of mind among artists, doctors and scientist. People wanted to find out more about the world by studying it. This attitude of investigation had been common in classical scholars, and it was ‘reborn' during the Renaissance.
Argentina in the late nineteenth century was an exciting place. Around 1870, it was experiencing an economic boom（繁荣）, and the capital, Buenos Aires, attracted many people. Farmers, as well as a flood of foreigners from Spain and Italy, came to Buenos Aires seeking jobs. These jobs didn't pay well, and the people felt lonely and disappointed with their new life in the city. As the unhappy newcomers mixed together in the poor parts of the city, the dance known as the tango(探戈舞) came into being.
At the beginning the tango was a dance of the lower classes. It was danced in the bars and streets. At that time there were many fewer women than men, so if a man didn't want to be left out, his only choice was to dance with another man so that he could attract the attention of the few available women. Gradually, the dance spread into the upper classes of Argentinean society and became more respectable.
In Europe at this time, strong interest in dance from around the world was beginning. This interest in international dance was especially evident in Paris. Every kind of dance from ballet(芭蕾舞) to belly dancing could be found on the stages of the Paris theaters. After tango dancers from Argentina arrived in Europe, they began to draw the interest of the public as they performed their exciting dance in cafes. Though not everyone approved of the new dance, saying it was a little too shocking, the dance did find enough supporters to make it popular.
The popularity of the tango continued to grow in many other parts of the world. Soldiers who returned to the United States from World War I brought the tango to North America. It reached Japan in 1926, and in 2003 the Argentinean embassy(大使馆) in Seoul hired a local tango dancer to act as a kind of dance ambassador, and promote tango dancing throughout South Korea.
D
Adults understand what it feels like to be flooded with objects. Why do we often assume that more is more when it comes to kids and their belongings? The good news is that I can help my own kids learn earlier than I did how to live more with less.
I found the pre-holidays a good time to encourage young children to donate less-used things, and it worked. Because of our efforts, our daughter Georgia did decide to donate a large bag of toys to a little girl whose mother was unable to pay for her holiday due to illness. She chose to sell a few larger objects that were less often used when we promised to put the money into her school fund(基金）(our kindergarten daughter is serious about becoming a doctor)
For weeks, I've been thinking of bigger, deeper questions: How do we make it a habit for them? And how do we train ourselves to help them live with, need, and use less? Yesterday, I sat with my son, Shepherd, determined to test my own theory on this. I decided to play with him with only one toy for as long as it would keep his interest. I expected that one toy would keep his attention for about five minutes, ten minutes, max. I chose a red rubber ball-simple, universally available. We passed it, he tried to put it in his mouth, he tried bouncing it, rolling it, sitting on it, throwing it. It was totally, completely enough for him. Before I knew it an hour had passed and it was time to move on to lunch.
We both became absorbed in the simplicity of playing together. He had my full attention and I had his. My little experiment to find joy in a single object worked for both of us.
Hear the Wind Blow by Mary Downing Hahn
On a cold, snowy night, 13-year-old Haswell Magruder makes an important decision. A wounded Confederate soldier appears at the family's farm, and Haswell convinces his mother to take the man in. Unfortunately, this sets off a horrific chain of events that leaves their house burned to the ground and their farm in ruins. With no home left, Haswell sets out in search of his older brother, a Confederate soldier.
Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford
Thirteen-year-old Milo is, once again, spending the winter holidays stuck in a house full of guests who are not what they seem. There are fresh clues to uncover as friends old and new join in his search for a mysterious map. The exciting ending to the beloved book is sure to thrill both fans and newcomers.
Marge in Charge by Isla Fisher
Jemima and Jake Button don't know what to make of their new babysitter, Marge. When she first arrives, she's dressed like a grandma and looks very serious. But as soon as Mommy and Dad are gone, Marge lets down her hair and the adventures begin. Jemima and Jake aren't supposed to shoot apple juice out of water guns, or throw impromptu (即兴的) concerts during music class—but with Marge here, everything's gone messy!
Max Tilt: Fire the Depths by Peter Lerangis
When 13 year old Max Tilt finds his great-great-grandfather Jules Verne's unfinished, unpublished manuscript (手稿), The Lost Treasures, he doesn't realize that he's found the answers to all his problems. He realizes that the book holds the key to something incredibly valuable. A treasure that can save his house — and maybe his entire family.
From: terri @ wombat. Com. Au
To: (happylizijun) @ yaboo. com. cn
Subject: My school
Hi, Li Zijun,
Thanks very much for your email. I really enjoyed reading it. I think we have a lot in common. I wonder if our school life is similar too.
I go to a big high school in Sydney called Maylands High School. There are about 1000 students and 80 teachers. My class has 25 students in it, which is normal for a Year 11 class. In the junior school there are about 30 students in a class.
In the senior high school we have lots of subjects to choose from, like maths, physics, chemistry, biology, history, German, law, geography, software design, graphic arts and media studies. (Different schools sometime have different optional subjects.) English is a must for everyone and we have to do least three other subjects in Year 11 and 12. At the end of Year 12 we sit for a public exam called the High School Certificate.
As well as school subjects, most of us do other activities at school such as playing a sport, singing in the choir or playing in the school band. We can also belong to clubs, such as the drama club, the chess club and the debating society.
We have a lot of homework to do in senior school to prepare for our exam, so unless I have basketball practice, I usually go straight home and start studying. I arrive home about 4 pm, make myself a snack and work till 6 pm. Then I help the family to make dinner and we all eat together. I'm usually back in my room studying by 8 pm. I stop at about 10 o'clock and watch TV or read a book for half an hour to relax. On Saturdays, I usually go out with my family or with friends and I sleep in till late on Sunday morning. Then it's back to the books on Sunday afternoon.
How about you? What's your school life like? Do you have a lot of homework? What do you do to relax when you're not studying? I'm looking forward to finding out.
Your Australian friend
Terrie
D
Many people expect that they can learn a language fast. But learning a language well requires time and determination.
I came to Finland four years ago. I realized soon that if I wanted to become part of the Finnish society and befriend the Finns, I would need to learn their language. My roommate, who was a Finn, was very helpful, repeating words and talking slowly to me, but of course he was not a professional teacher. So I had to be a self-learner. I carried a notebook and wrote down every Finnish word I heard. I took online courses, watched learning videos and went through all the study material I got my hands on. Luckily there are many chances to do that for free nowadays.
For me, as for many other people, the most difficult phase in learning a language is to start speaking it. You have to overcome your own barriers, especially the fear of making mistakes.
After staying three months in Finland I found a language cafe, which was a meeting point for Finnish language learners. As a beginner, I only knew how to introduce myself in Finnish, but here were many people to help me. It was also a relief to notice that I was not the only one struggling with the language.
I want to stay in Finland and I would like to build my life here. This is why I have also worked hard to write Finnish well. I have studied Finnish even harder after I got into the University of Helsinki to study international politics. Now I am finishing my studies and I am looking for a job where I can take advantage of my Finnish skills. Although it is difficult to get a professional job here, I'm not ready to give up yet.
Finnish makes me feel modest as there is still much to learn. So far, all the work I have done has paid off. I feel that I am now closer to the Finns.
Persuasion is the art of convincing someone to agree with you. According to the ancient Greeks, there are three basic tools of persuasion: ethos, pathos, and logos.
Ethos is a speaker's way of convincing the audience that she is trustworthy, honest and reliable. One common way a speaker can develop ethos is by explaining how much experience or education she has in the field. After all, you're more likely to listen to advice about how to take care of your teeth from a dentist than a fireman. A speaker can also create ethos by convincing the audience that she is a good person. If an audience cannot trust you, you will not be able to persuade them.
Pathos is a speaker's way of connecting with an audience's emotions. For example, a politician who is trying to convince an audience to vote for him might say that he alone can save the country from a terrible war. These words are intended to fill the audience with fear, thus making them support him. Similarly, an animal charity might show an audience pictures of injured dogs and cats, to make the viewers feel pity. If the audience feels bad for the animals, they will be more likely to donate money.
Logos is the use of facts, statistics, or other evidence to support your argument. An audience will be more likely to believe you if you have convincing data to back up your claims. Presenting this evidence is much more persuasive than simply saying "believe me".
Although ethos, pathos, and logos all have their strengths, they are often most effective when used together. Indeed, most speakers use a combination of ethos, pathos, and logos to persuade their audiences. So, the next time you listen to a speech, watch a commercial, or listen to a friend try to convince you to lend him some money, be on the lookout for these ancient Greek tools of persuasion.
It's never easy to explain exactly when a specific language began, and in the case of English we can hardly regard it as a separate language before the Anglo-Saxons came to Britain. Germanic invaders (入侵者) came and settled in Britain from the north-western coastline of continental Europe in the fifth centuries. The invaders all spoke a language that was Germanic (related to Dutch, Frisian, German and the Scandinavian languages), but we'll probably never know how different their speech was from that of their continental neighbors.
The reason that we know so little about the language in this period is because we do not have much in the way of written records from any of the Germanic languages until several centuries later. When Old English writings began to appear in the seventh and eighth centuries there was a good deal of regional variation (变化), but not more than that found in later periods.
The Celts already lived in Britain when the Anglo-Saxons arrived, but there are few obvious signs of their language in English today. Some scholars have suggested that the Celtic tongue might have had some influence on the grammatical development of English, particularly in some parts of the country, but this is highly speculative (猜测). The number of borrowed words that have entered Old English from this language is very small. Those that survive in modern English include “comb” (a type of valley), alongside some place names.
Even though it's the 18th movie from the Marvel Universe, Black Panther is the first one to feature a black superhero with a primarily black cast(演员阵容).
The film tells the story of the Black Panther, a superhero who takes his father's place as king of the fictional African country Wakanda. The film came out in Chinese mainland cinemas on March 9, passing the $1 billion (about 6 billion yuan) mark at the global box office and becoming the No. 2 superhero release of all time on March 10.
However, Black Panther means more than just the money it's making. As the Guardian noted, the film is already being regarded as "a positive force for social change".
The wild success of Black Panther lies in the fact that it gives voices to minorities who are rarely given room in popular culture. "It carries a weight that neither Thor nor Captain America could lift: serving a black audience that has long gone under-represented," Time noted.
"It makes me feel proud and confident that we made it on screen in that way," Rasheed Butler, 14, from a black community in California, US, told the Marin Independent Journal.
The superhero Black Panther is inspiring, but the movie also highlights brilliant black women. For example, Black Panther's teenage sister is a tech genius. She designs gadgets for her brother and develops resources that make the isolated Wakanda wealthy scientifically and technologically advanced.
"What I love about the way this film represents women is that each and every one of us is an individual, unique," Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o, who plays a spy in the movie, told the Los Angeles Times. "I think that's a very powerful message to send to children – both male and female."
Powerful characters aside, the movie has social implications. While the Black Panther tries to keep his country and people away from the outside world, others want to make use of Wakanda's advanced technology to fight injustice. "But neither option is truly tenable," The Verge noted. "It suggests that these destructive cycles may only be broken through guidance, education, and global leadership."
Instead of hiding away from current issues of race and economic differences, the movie explores what it means to be black in the US, in Africa and in the world. It deals "head-on with the issues affecting modern-day black life", Time concluded.
If you wish to become a better reader, here are four important points to remember about rate, or speed, of reading:
⒈Knowing why you are reading—what you are reading to find out—will often help you to know whether to read rapidly or slowly.
⒉Some things should be read slowly throughout. Examples are directions for making or doing something, arithmetic problems, science and history books, which are full of important information. You must read such things slowly to remember each important step and understand each important idea.
⒊Some things should be read rapidly throughout. Examples are simple stories meant for enjoyment, news, and letters from friends, items, or bits of news from local, or hometown, paper, telling what is happening to friends and neighbors.
⒋In some of your readings, you must change your speed from fast to slow to fast, as you go along. You need to read certain pages rapidly and then slow down and do more careful readings when you come to important ideas which must be remembered.
There are so many expressions in American English that sound pleasant but are not.
“Face the music” is a good example. When someone says they have to face the music, it does not mean they are going to a musical performance or concert. To face the music means to accept the unpleasant results of an action.
Imagine a friend asks you to take care of her beautiful red sports car. She gives you the keys and says, “Thanks so much for watching my car while I'm away. But please do not drive it. It is an extremely fast car.” But you do not listen. You want to show off and pretend the car is yours. So, you drive it around town. As bad luck would have it, you lose control of the car and drive it into a stop sign. The damage is serious. When your friend returns, you must tell her what you have done and “face the music”. That could mean losing her friendship or paying for repairs to her sports car or both. Whatever the music is, you must face it.
There are other American expressions that mean the same as “face the music”.
To “take your medicine” means to accept the results from something bad you have done. And if someone says, “You made your bed. Now lie in it.” He means you created a bad situation and now you will experience the results, or as we say in American spoken English, you must deal with it!
“Pay the piper” also means the same as “face the music”. But, that expression has its own very interesting beginning. We will talk about that on another Words and Their Stories.
There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have ever taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill. There are, however, different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority (优先) 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 (复杂性) of spelling. That's why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content (内容) rather than spelling.
If spelling becomes the only focus 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.
I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a piece of writing about a personal experience. "This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling mistakes and your writing is terrible." It may have been a sharp comment on the pupil's spelling in writing, but it was also a sad sign that the teacher had failed to read the composition, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child's deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the mistakes, but if his priorities had centered on the child's ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the spelling would have given the pupil more encouragement to seek improvement.
There is a truth generally acknowledged by drivers in India, honk your horn (按喇叭) loud enough and the traffic light will surely change to green. But, fed up with the drivers who have no patience and cause a deafening noise every time they are forced to stop, the police in Mumbai have come up with a new system to punish those people. The new system, said the police, was quite simple: “Honk more, wait more.”
Known as “the punishing signal”, the Mumbai police fixed a new traffic light system to deal with the problem of “reckless honkers”, which resets the red traffic signal every time the sound of car horns goes above 85 decibels. For particularly honk- happy drivers, it could mean a very long wait at the lights.
Mumbai was recently listed as the fourth most congested city in the world, according to the TomTom traffic index, with 65% congestion and drivers spending an average of eight days and 17 hours in traffic each year. Speaking to local media, Mumbai traffic police commissioner Madhukar Pandey said, “Sadly, many Mumbaikars are addicted to reckless honking which not only causes noise pollution, but hurts eardrums, increases heart rates, causes stress and adds to traffic disturbance.”
He added, “All recognize it, but do little to control it. With this, I am sure that our road discipline can become better and the new system ensures honk-less, noise-free and stress free travel on Mumbai roads.”
The idea, which was tested in November and December, 2019, has already gained momentum and there is a plan for rolling it out in other cities in India. Across the country, Indian cities have the worst traffic in the world. Bangalore was recently named as the world's most congested city, with drivers spending an average of 10 days stuck in traffic, while both Delhi and Pune were also in the top 10.
A decade ago, at the end of my first semester teaching at Captain, my student Jack stopped by for office hours. He sat down and burst into tears. My mind started cycling through a list of events that could make a college junior cry: His girlfriend had broken up with him; he had been accused of cheating in exams; he forgot to turn in papers before the deadline. "I just got my first A minus," he said.
Year after year, I watch in depression as students are crazy about getting straight A's. Some sacrifice their health; a few have even tried to charge their school after failure. They believe top marks are a ticket to elite graduate schools and rewarding job opportunities. I was one of them. I started college with the goal of graduating with a GPA of 4.0. It would be a reflection of my brainpower and willpower, showing that I had the right things to succeed. But I was wrong.
The evidence is clear: Across industries, research shows that the association between grades and job performance is modest in the first year after college and insignificant within a handful of years. For example, at Microsoft, once employees are two or three years out of college, their grades have nothing to do with their performance.( Of course, it must be said that if you got D's, you probably wouldn't end up at Microsoft.)
Academic grades rarely assess qualities like creativity, leadership and teamwork skills, or social, emotional and political intelligence. Yes, straight A students master large amounts of information and reproduce it in exams. But career success is rarely about finding the right solution to a problem—it's more about finding the right problem to solve. This might explain why Steve Jobs finished high school with a GPA of 2.65, and Martin Luther King Jr. got only one A in his four years at Morehouse.
Recess (课间休息) time has been dropping for many children in America. This drop began the same year the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed. The law aimed to make American education system more internationally competitive by introducing achievement goals for schools. And the goals are gauged (评定) by standardized tests in reading and math. If schools missed their achievement goals, they could be in trouble, including loss of funding.
It's no surprise that teachers have felt the pressure to make sure students perform well on standardized tests. When educators are facing pay cuts, loss of funding to their school and perhaps even the loss of their jobs, it's no wonder that they started questioning if recess was a waste of time. This pressure to bring even more learning into the school day is especially felt by underperforming, low-income schools that are already short of funding.
It may seem strange to send kids out to play when they're falling below state standards, but getting outside for unstructured (散乱的) play may be more helpful than keeping kids in the classroom all day.
"Moving, running and playing outdoors freely have great influence on children. These activities play a role in children's abilities to focus and control themselves throughout the day," Marie Conti says, a famous educator of early childhood education. The mind cannot be educated without using the body. Learning is a whole of thinking and moving," she added.
Recess time makes it possible for children to learn something they can't get in class. Asking other kids to play, explaining the rules of a complex game and ending arguments are all important life lessons that children can only learn if they're given time to play. When something unhappy happens, children can find a way to get back to having fun themselves.
The physical activities kids take part in during recess can also reduce stress levels and allow children to feel more relaxed. In an education system that. Continues to place higher expectations on children to perform to a certain standard, less stress is just what the doctor ordered.
A few years ago, my sister-in-law started to feel concerned about her teenage daughter. What was she doing after school? Where was she spending her time? My niece was an excellent student, and took part in all kinds of after-class activities. Even so, her mom decided to put a tracking app(跟踪应用程序)on the kid's phone.
At first, this made my sister-in-law "feel better". Then the good situation suddenly ended. She recalled, "I found out that she was someplace that she said she wasn't. I went out in the middle of the night and found her walking without shoes in the middle of the street with some friends." Things went quickly downhill for the mother and the daughter after that.
With 73 % of teens having their own smart phones now, according to a 2015 Pew study, more and more of their parents are facing the question: To watch or not ?
Ana Homayoun, founder of Green Ivy Educational Consulting, has advised many parents and their kids about this. "I've found teens are more acceptable to tracking apps when it is included as part of a family agreement to improve safety than when it is placed as a secret tool to watch them," she said.
Mark Bell, a father of a teenage girl, said, "We don't have tracking apps, but we have set some ground rules that my daughter must follow in exchange for us providing a smart phone," he said. For example, his daughter must "friend" him on social media so that he can read posts, and must share all passwords.
When you're trying to build trust, you need to create an environment that encourages it. So, to win their trust, you always need to be straight with your children. "Parents must let children know how and when they'll be watching them," said Doctor Pauleh Weigle. If they're not open about it, he warns, it can "greatly damage the parent and child relationship".
Frankly, I appreciate myself very much. Yes, I admit I'm in many aspects not as good as other people, but I don't think I'm always not good. When I find what I've done or written is okay, I'll remain pleased with myself for quite a few days, and if I receive praise for it, I'll even become so excited as to add a few words to reward myself.
True, I'm not modest at all. People may call me conceited (自负的). But I think otherwise.
I appreciate other people. I appreciate anything good. Isn't it unfair to forget appreciating myself while appreciating others?
We Chinese generally tend to be modest, and we take pride in being so. For example, a Chinese man will call his own wife zhuojing, meaning "my humble wife", and his own writings zhuozuo, meaning "my poor writings". But if you call his wife a "rustic (乡村的) woman" or his writings "trash", he would, I'm sure, declare he would make a clean break with you angrily. As a matter of fact, there is probably no difference at all between what is said by him and you.
I don't think it's wrong of you to freely praise yourself if you're really worthy of praise. As we know, there is an old Chinese saying disparaging (蔑视) a melon seller, named Lao Wang, who keeps praising his own goods. Well, why can't he praise his melons if they are really sweet and juicy?
Lao Wang sells melons for a living. How could he carry on business if he, by imitating the affectations (装模作样) of us intellectuals, were to show false modesty about his melons? He would sure enough die of starvation.
Self-appreciation is therefore a key to professional dedication and enjoyment of work. Needless to say, the same is true of those who make a living with their pen. One will lose confidence in writing when he stops admiring his own essays.
No poem should ever be discussed or analyzed, until it has been read aloud by someone, teacher or student. Better still, perhaps, is the practice of reading it twice, once at the beginning of the discussion and once at the end. All discussions of poetry are, in fact, preparations for reading it aloud, and the reading of the poem is, finally, the most telling "interpretation" of it, suggesting tone, rhythm, and meaning all at once.
Hearing a poet read the work in his or her own voice, on records or on films, is obviously a special reward. But even those aids to teaching cannot replace the student and the teacher reading it or, best of all, reciting it.
I have come to think, in fact, that time spent reading a poem aloud is much more important than analyzing it, if there isn't time for both. I think one of our goals as teachers of English is to have students love poetry. Poetry is a criticism of life, and a heightening (提升) of life. It is an approach to the truth of feeling, and it can save your life.
I am not saying that every English teacher must teach poetry. Those who don't like it should not be forced to put that dislike on anyone else. But those who do teach poetry must keep in mind a few things about its essential nature, about its sound as well as its sense, and they must make room in the classroom for hearing poetry as well as thinking about it.
