选择知识点

Low-Cost Gifts for Mother's Day

Gift No. 1

Offer to be your mother's health friend. Promise to be there for any and all doctor's visits whether a disease or a regular medical check-up. Most mothers always say "no need," another set of eyes and ears is always a good idea at a doctor's visit. The best part? This one is free.

Gift No. 2

Help your mother organize all of her medical records, which include the test results and medical information. Put them all in one place. Be sure to make a list of all of her medicines and what times she takes them. "Having all this information in one place could end up saving your mother's life," Dr. Marie Savard said.

Gift No. 3

Enough sleep is connected to general health conditions. "Buy your mother cotton sheets and comfortable pillows to encourage better sleep," Savard said. "We know that good sleep is very important to our health."

Gift No. 4

Some gift companies such as Presents for Purpose allow you to pay it forward this Mother's Day by picking gifts in which 10 percent of the price you pay goes to a charity (慈善机构) Gift givers can choose from a wide variety of useful but inexpensive things -many of which are "green" - and then choose a meaningful charity from a list. When your mother gets the gift, she will be told that she has helped the chosen charity.

Beep …beep … There went the bell! Robbie opened his eyes. He had been sitting in the room for a whole day, and now it was time for him to do something. Robbie looked out of the window. It was still snowing heavily and there was ice on the window. It was another cold day. Robbie was told to turn the heat on before the family got home. And he did it.Then Robbie was told to do some cleaning work at once. It was an easy job for him, but a tough one for his master, Helen. He kept on working until every room was clean and tidy.

  For now, he had to cook supper for the family.The first thing Robbie did was to get the big pot(锅) in the kitchen. Then he put some water in the pot and put it on the stove. He used one of his hands to cut up a chicken and added the pieces to the water to make a good soup. Then he got some tomatoes, cabbages and carrots to make a vegetable salad.

At ten past eight he laid t he table. Then he put some bread, the chicken soup and the salad on it. What a sweet smell! The moment he turned on the lights, the whole family came home. 

“The soup smells great, Victor,” said Helen. “You really know how to tell Robbie what to do.” Robbie is one robot that really saves the family a lot of work.

Goldfish have pretty boring lives, so maybe it’s a good thing they can only concentrate for nine seconds! But according to new research, humans are becoming like goldfish. Our attention span (时长) is getting shorter ...and it’s all because of technology.　

“We move quickly from one site to another on the web,”says Doctor Ted Selker,  a computer scientist from Massachusetts,“and we are losing the ability to concentrate.”With millions of websites to choose from, the attention span of the average internet user is just seconds. There are other digital distractions（分心）too: email, instant messaging and quickie movies on websites. Some people are worried about the effect on young people.“You need time to understand and think about what you read,”says Julia Wood, from London.“Young people search the net all the time and their brains become full of useless information but there is no time to make sense of it. I am trying to persuade my pupils to read more books, so that they concentrate on one subject for longer.”　　

Other teachers are trying more unusual methods to improve students’ concentration.AnneSavan, from Wales, was so worried about her students that she started playing Mozart during her science lessons. She says that it had an amazing effect:“The music made them calmer, and their concentration was much better.”　　

But not everyone believes that there is a problem. Ray Cole, an educational psychologist says:“On the web, young people learn to make quick decisions about what is and isn’t worth reading.

They might look at five unhelpful websites very quickly, before stopping and reading a sixth useful website more carefully. In a world with so much information available, this is an important skill.”

A

Vacation

   Getting enough sleep is important for everyone. If you don't sleep well at night, you aren't going to study well during the day. Good sleep is also important for your health. If you don’t have a good sleep, you may get ill.
   Some people go to sleep easily. Other people can't. A lot of things can help you go to sleep easily and get a good sleep. Doing some exercises during the day can help you go to sleep. Walking, running and bike riding are good exercises. You can also play ball games, like basketball, soccer or tennis.
   Before you go to bed, you shouldn't drink coffee or eat chocolates. Drinking a cup of warm milk may help you go to sleep. Many people also find that listening to quiet music helps them go to sleep. Please take a warm shower before you go to bed. It can also help you relax and go to sleep.
   Follow the advice and have a good sleep every day, so you can wake up (醒来) happily in the morning and maintain good health.

C

     Children usually love dogs. And even those who are afraid of them at first grow to love these lovely animals once they get to know them. So let’s find out which small dogs is the most suitable as a pet for your child, in case your little one is asking for a dog of his/her own.

      When you choose a dog for children, a number of factors need to be kept in mind. People usually choose a dog based on its looks. However, looks can be cheating, as a lovely looking dog might be aggressive, and a strong looking dog might be gentle. Therefore, it is very important to choose a dog based on its character, rather than its looks. Some dogs are known to be very amicable and gentle, while other dogs are unfriendly and rude. However, one should not choose a dog based only on its breed either, as there are always exceptions. The character of a dog depends on the individual dog, as much as it does on the breed it belongs to.

        Another factor that needs to be kept in mind, while you choose small dogs for your child, is the character of the child who is going to be with the dog. If the child is active, the dog should be energetic, strong, and patient, so that it can take all the actions the child gives it. On the other hand, if the child has a quiet nature, a dog that is gentle, calm and sensitive will be more suitable.

       It is also good to have a dog that is easy to train, so that it can be taught to behave properly with children. This will ensure that the child is safe with the dog. However, it is not a good idea to leave a young child alone with a dog.

Zheng Pengyu: Interest is the best teacher. Classrooms that weren’t fixed could give students the chance to explore their interests. At the same time, they would be able to learn on their own because they would have to make their own decisions. All in all, the new system would be a good chance to inspire students’ love for studying.
    Sun Yao: Despite its benefits, I’m worried about whether the new system would work. Going to different classrooms would take up a big part of our break time and we would have less time to relax after class. Also, not all schools could offer so many different classes.

Shi Zhenghan: I support students learning in different classes. It would solve the problem of some students thinking the classes are too easy while some think they are too difficult. Teachers could also teach more effectively. What’s more, friendships built while in different classes might be a pleasant surprise.

Zhou Qingqing: In my opinion, studying in different classrooms might affect students’ psychological development. They might find it difficult to develop deep and strong friendships with other students if they had to change classrooms constantly. They would also lose their sense of belonging to a certain class.

Hu Qile: I applaud the idea. It would help teachers set up special teaching plans for different classes. For students, making choices by themselves could encourage them to be responsible. Changing classrooms could also help remove the boredom of doing the same dull routine every day.

Wang Xiaoqian: The new system might help with students’ individual development, but I still prefer the current system. Studying in one fixed classroom, students with different academic levels can help each other. Spending your senior middle school years with the same classmates is an unforget table experience.

D

I’m sitting here in this coffee shop. You know the one there by Allen street. The town is filled with thousands of middle class college kids living off their parent’s money.

The coffee shop is where the ones come to play the part of sophisticated bohemians (放荡不羁的文化人). The pretensions (自命不凡) glow from their line-less faces as they sip cappuccinos and chew strawberry cookies. The boys to my right are discussing Nabokov with a serious air, a copy of Sartre’s Cuba lies on the table.

The young woman on my left is declaring that she can never allow her creativity to be killed by entering the work force. The man with her scratches his goatee (胡子) in agreement, occasionally suggesting they go back to his place to hear his new Washington Squares CD. Matt has just designed a new international symbol for peace. He moves from table to table trying to sell hand painted T-shirts that bear the design. Tomorrow he’s leaving for the 25th anniversary Woodstock concert where he hopes to strike it rich with his creation.

Gopha the skinny Indian boy feels like singing me a verse of ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ when I ask him if he’s a friend of Monica’s. Jason is trying to talk Gopha into a dollar bet on a game of chess. Between times Jason will chew your ear off with his plans to conquer the music industry while studying entertainment law, but when it comes to his never ending dollar chess matches he’s quiet as a church mouse.

I sit among them. To all surface appearances one and the same. If they could only see I would rather reach into their flesh and tear out their shallow little hearts than listen to another second of their prattle (闲扯).

With no job, no gigs, and my girlfriend’s so far gone she might as well be on another planet, I’ve been leading the writer’s quiet cafe life, spending my free time outdoors drinking iced teas and cheap wines. I chat warmly with whoever decides to squander away their hours in my surrounding area.

But behind my eyes is an unspoken challenge to any and every one of these social elites (精英) to just once say one thing that would inspire me. Just one little idea which is new and meaningful. Unfortunately original thoughts are zero here.

In my secret mind I wish to run like a madman banging gongs and speaking in tongues. Or maybe jump on a table and sing the Star Spangled Banner in the forgotten language of the Hottentots. I know these thoughts only reveal me as a fool because the spark I search for cannot be found in acts of shocking performance art. Where it truly comes from is one of the mysteries which will always hang around me.