The arts, especially music, should be part of every school’s lessons at every grade level. Students will be much smarter if they have some musical experience. They could improve their classroom skills, like paying attention and following directions. People develop all these skills when they learn music. Making music also lets children use their imagination. It provides students with a chance to try out their own ideas.

Music not only makes children better students, but also gives them something positive to do. In a music program, children can be part of a band instead of joining a gang (一群可能肇事的年轻人). Parents can enjoy listening to their children’s music instead of seeing them glued to a computer or TV screen. In a school band, students get to be part of a team. They can get along well with old friends and make new friends through music.

Music builds self-confidence, too. It gives children a sense of achievement and success. Making music is something for them to be proud of, and it lets kids practice performing in front of an audience. Music gives children an opportunity for self-expression, and that helps develop their self-confidence.

In a word, music is important because it can make children better students, give them something positive to do, and build their character. That is why music should be offered in every single grade in every school.

   Some authors have made some predictions (预测) about what our modern life could become. Here are four books that, somehow, managed to predict the future.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

This novel was published in 1935. It’s about a dance marathon competition. Competitors who last the longest can get prize money. It’s just like reality TV shows. In reality shows, people voluntarily do things that are physically and mentally tiring or embarrassing.

Neuromancer

William Gibson’s 1984 novel, Neuromancer, not only gave birth to the cyberpunk genre, but it also predicted cyberspace (网络空间) and the Internet. In 1984, there was already a network, but only several universities used it. Gibson predicted the rise of technological addiction and people’s need to be online.

Earth

In 1990, Brin published the novel where the story takes place in the year 2038. A black hole has fallen into the Earth’s core. Scientists have a year to fix it, or the earth may be destroyed. And Brin correctly predicted the World Wide Web (Web) that was invented a year after the book was published. In Earth, the characters don’t think they would find any Earth-like planets. In reality, we have found several Earth-like planets.

Childhood’s End

Childhood’s End is about an invasion (入侵) of Earth by aliens called the Overlords. They help advance human technology. One of those technologies they introduce is a type of virtual reality that is like a movie. The author also predicted that in the early 2000s, people might watch TV for three hours a day.

   When you are visiting Maui, one of the most beautiful islands in the world, there are so many attractions for you.

HALEAKALA

Mt. Haleakala is 10,023 feet high and is one of the two volcanoes that created this incredible Hawaiian island. Haleakala National Park offers a variety of activities, making it one of the most revisited attractions in all the Hawaiian Islands. The most popular activities include enjoying sunrise and sunset, hiking, and backcountry camping on Maui.

ROAD TO HANA

There are many ways to experience the Road to Hana, and the sleepy coastal Town of Hana, Maui. Visitors can go by group and private tours, or explore on their own by renting a vehicle. Beginning at the historic Town of Paia, visitors can enjoy decorated coastlines all the way to Hana, world-famous beaches in Hawaii, tropical landscapes, waterfalls, scenic lookout points, and cultural attractions that mark significant points in Maui’s unique Hawaiian history.

HO’OKIPA BEACH PARK

Ho’okipa Beach Park is one of the most famous beaches in the world for professional surfing and wind-surfing. In the ancient Hawaiian language, “ho’okipa” means hospitality, which is exactly what this Beach Park offers. At Ho’okipa, visitors can see the powerful coastline from the top parking lot for amazing photo opportunities. Or you can go to the sand for afternoon BBQs and the glorious Maui sunshine.

OHE’O GULCH POOLS

The Ohe’o Gulch Pools, more commonly referred to as the Seven Sacred Pools, is a wonderful place to explore Maui on vacation. The lower pools are more easily accessed and perhaps the best choice for visitors who want to jump in. Due to the popularity of the Seven Sacred Pools, it is highly suggested to arrive early for a chance to enjoy privacy in this beautiful location.

   Mary Verdi-Fletcher was born with spina bifida (脊柱裂), a disease that causes weakness in the legs and spine. Undiscouraged, she was not about to be told what she could or could not do. She believes that someone who is an artist is an artist from the day he or she is born. She dreamed of dancing and made up her mind to make her dream a reality. While still young, Verdi-Fletcher — dancing in her wheelchair — entered a dance competition with a friend. They won first prize. Later she won more competitions, refusing to listen to people who said to her “ You can’t dance if you’re in a wheelchair” or “ Dancing in a chair is not really dancing”.

However, Verdi-Fletcher was not pleased with personal success alone. She wanted to make dance available to others with disabilities. In 1980, she founded a dance company called Dancing Wheels Company. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Dancing Wheels Company performs all over the world. In productions like “ The Snowman”, sit-down dancers perform with stand-up dancers. Modern lighting designs, attractive sets (布景), wonderful music, and festive costuming draw audience into fairy tales and other stories.

In one show, a young stand-up dancer named Devin played “The Brother Who Cannot See” while a young sit-down dancer named Jenny performed the role of “ The Sister Who Cannot Walk” . It was a lovely way to express a theme Verdi-Fletcher has represented all through her life: We all have disabilities. Some disabilities may be more noticeable, but hard work and devotion to our dreams can make the seemingly impossible become a reality.

   Steve and Mark were good friends. They decided to spend their vacation in Haiti. Since they _____ no French, they took a French wordbook with them and hoped it would help them in difficult situations.

The flight was _____ , and the hotel was very comfortable. Each day after breakfast, Steve and Mark_____a picnic lunch and dinner and went off to visit _____ of interest. After a while, the boys became tired of eating picnic meals and decided to eat a big fish dinner in a good restaurant. Unfortunately, they _____ their wordbook in the hotel.

They _____ the menu carefully. After ten minutes, Steve said to Mark, “ I don’t understand this menu.” “Neither do I,” said Mark. “I see poison on this menu. Are they _____ here?” “Maybe. They even spelled poison _____ They spelled it p-o-i-s-s-o-n instead of p-o-i-s-o-n. But it must mean the same thing. Maybe we should go to _____ restaurant. Because I don’t ______ to eat something that will kill me. “ But Mark was ______ So he said, “There is no other restaurant near here, and I’m tired of walking around the city. Let’s order something else instead. It’s _____ here, so the food must be good.”

The boys looked at the menu again. They finally decided to order steak,______ they really wanted fish. The boys just pointed to the word steak, and the waiter ______.

As they were eating they ______ some tourists speaking English. “ This ______ is delicious.”

“We’re lucky we picked a restaurant that’s famous for its fish”.

Steve and Mark wondered about what they ______ . “Famous for its fish? There was no fish on the ______ !” said Mark.

Finally, Steve decided to find out what all this was about. “ Excuse me, how did you order fish when it wasn’t on the menu?” “ Sure it’s on the menu. It’s right here. Poisson.” Steve shouted, “ Poisson. That’s poison ! We were ______ why a restaurant like this could have poison on the menu.”

The tourists ______ One of them said, “ No. Poisson is French for fish.”

Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to this class 【小题1】 English words. I am Professor John Morris ; I 【小题2】 ( be) your teacher for the next thirteen weeks. As you can 【小题3】 ( probable) tell, this is one of the most popular — and crowded — classes; indeed, every time this course 【小题4】 ( offer), this room is very full. Why is that? Well, in order to use the English language, it is very important to have at least a basic 【小题5】( understand) of how words are formed. Just to mention one figure — and there are many — there are about one million words in English. If you are an English learner, you might wonder 【小题6】 you can possibly remember all of these words. Well, you know, there are shortcuts. For example,【小题7】 you know how words are formed by using parts of words from other 【小题8】 (language), such as Greek and French, you’ll understand a good number of English words when you first come across 【小题9】 ( they) . Let me put it this way,【小题10】 (know) the rules will help you to master a large number of words. This is probably the number one reason why this class is so popular.

In our daily life, if we want to do our work good, we must learn what to work together with others. Working together can save us time and energy. Beside, we can learn much from our partners by working with them.

Work with those we like can be joy. We can share pleasure and sad with them. But it challenged us to work with people we dislike. In such situation, just pay attention on the work itself. Perhaps by working together for a long time, we’ll find it that they are easy to get along with.

   Here are four principles (行为准则) I live by. Whenever I follow these guidelines, I am at my very best, feeling productive and happy.

Devote time.

No matter how talented we may be, it’s wrong to think we can do it all. 【小题1】 The value of our achievements is greatly decided by what we spend our time on. We need to realize that every day we should devote the time to what matters and have the courage to let the unimportant things go.

Focus your attention.

Very often it seems that we just can’t focus our attention, even though we know what we should be doing, right? Resistance (阻力) makes us get disturbed by distractions.【小题2】 Developing a plan for overcoming resistance is important for maximum productivity.

【小题3】

We need to make a balance between work and play, between creation and pleasure.【小题4】 Even if we feel energetic to work long hours, the most effective long-term way is to hold ourselves back when we feel crazy and follow a proper pace instead.

Keep moving on.

More important than setting big goals is to just keep going. I know this goes against most of the “ set great goals for yourself” advice, but it’s what works for me.【小题5】 And it always made me more worried than it helped. Now, what does work for me is to think about how to improve my life and take small steps to make it happen.

I’m a senior high school student named Li Hua. Now many students have iPads and think it’s a fashion to use them._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua