After a year of studies, an elementary school in New York decided that math worksheets and essay assignments（作业）were actually a waste of time. In February, head teacher Jane Hsu sent a letter to parents _____ that the prekindergarten through fifth-grade students would not be given any traditional homework to _____ kids to spend more free time reading, playing outside or doing activities they enjoy.

Some parents,_____ , disagree with the policy change, thinking that a lack of homework will cause children’s academic（学术的）performance to _____ Homework has been a part of _____ from the beginning, and has increased in _____ in recent years.

Hsu’s advice that children should read and spend time with their families has _____ some parents who even consider _____ their children out of the school. This group feels that homework assignments give their children a(n) _____ to work toward.

Others feel so ______ about the importance of homework that they have begun ______ their own homework assignments to their children.

An Australian Childhood Foundation’s ______ found that 71% of Australian parents feel they do not spend ______ time with their children mainly because of running the household or helping with homework. Education experts in Australia are saying that parents should ______ helping. Doing so will give kids more ______, will give parents more free time and will help ______ the number of arguments in the family caused by homework.

Some research suggests that homework has ______ academic benefit for elementary students, while other research shows homework can help kids ______ independence and confidence. When parents try to help their children with homework, the ______ can take away that feeling and can also make the busy working parents more ______.

The "selfie" is used to describe the self-taken photo, often from a smartphone. Someone takes about 10 selfies each time he does, and he only ends up 【小题1】（post）one or two of them online. He picks the one that he feels makes him look the 【小题2】（good）. In that picture, he gains confidence. For that moment, everything bad or terrible that has happened to him 【小题3】（remove）, because that smile is what gives him the 【小题4】（determine） to love himself.

I read a poem 【小题5】（recent） and the young man said, "If I ask you 【小题6】 you love, the answers will most likely roll off your tongue. You love to read. You love to write. You love your mom, your daughter, or your friends. How long do you think you can go on and on before you say 'I love 【小题7】（I）'?"

That statement hits me like a ton of bricks. I've struggled 【小题8】 confidence all my life. I still do. And in no way am I saying that taking a selfie is a gateway to confidence. 【小题9】, the selfie does deserve some credit for allowing individuals 【小题10】（express）themselves.

Due to better equipment，training and diet，the records in many sports have been broken，but recently，improvements 【小题1】 (begin）to slow down. Thus some experts predict a ceiling for many events.

In order to enhance 【小题2】 (perform), some athletes take the drugs which can get people more excited and 【小题3】 (energy) than in a normal situation and which are originally developed 【小题4】 (help) people with illnesses.  Taking these drugs is known as“doping”and 【小题5】 they improve performance, they also cause serious health problems in later life for those who abuse them.

The Olympic spirit — the spirit of competition which 【小题6】 (emphasise) taking part rather than winning — 【小题7】 (violate) by the desire to succeed at all costs so far. So the sports world does not tolerate doping as it is 【小题8】 fundamental form of cheating. However, it appears as if all efforts are 【小题9】 vain to athletes.

Anyway，the fight will and must 【小题10】 (fierce) go on and we all hope the word“hero”won't lose its meaning.

   For the last few decades，women have been breaking barriers in professions. But a new study shows that there is a hidden barrier girls are meeting with.

"Girls are facing prejudice（偏见）from boys，from some parents，and even from each other. We have made a lot of progress in gender（性别）equality but we still have a long way to go，"said Richard Weissbourd，who conducted this study. The prejudice could hold girls back from succeeding.

The study shows only 8%of girls prefer female political leaders. Many tend to believe males have always led，so they have a preference for males' leading，which becomes one of their habits. What's more surprising is that even some mothers appear to be prejudiced，supporting school councils more led by men. The girls say that they feel threatened by boys' successes in school.

Rachel Simmons says these findings are amazing，but she's not really surprised by them. "Even today we've given girls every opportunity but our attitudes still have to change，"Simmons said. "We're still giving girls messages to look at each other as threats. Girls are not looking at each other for support，and they're also feeling so insecure about how they look."

Simmons offers ways to parents to help break these patterns of gender prejudice：

Research shows that chores（日常琐事）can be given to kids in really gendered ways. Change it at home. That's a big thing parents can do. Let boys do some care-giving because attitudes start very early and parents can help kids change them very early in the home. Another thing is to change the way we talk to our kids. If you have an outspoken girl，do you call her a bossy-boots，or do you say" I'm so glad you spoke up"？

We all have our own prejudice. I have a 3-year-old daughter and when she doesn't want to wear a dress, I get a little upset about it. Again, every parent has to look at their own prejudice. What toys are we buying for our kids? Are we buying girls the make-up kits and boys the science kits?

   It is a familiar scene these days: employees taking newly laid-off co-workers out for a drink for comfort. But which side deserves more sympathy，the jobless or the still employed？On March 6，researchers at a conference at the University of Cambridge suggested it was the latter.

Brendan Burchell，a Cambridge sociologist，presented his analysis based on various surveys conducted across Europe. The data suggest that employed people who feel insecure in their jobs show similar levels of anxiety and depression as those who are unemployed. Although a newly jobless person's mental health may“bottom out”after about six months，and then may even begin to improve，the mental state of people who are continuously worried about losing their own job“just continues to get worse and worse”, Burchell says.

Psychologists support this theory by arguing that human beings feel more stressed during times of insecurity because they sense an immediate but invisible threat. Patients have been known to experience higher levels of anxiety, for example, while waiting for examination results than knowing what they are suffering from—even if the results are cancer. It's better to get the bad news and start doing something about it rather than wait with anxiety.  When the uncertainty continues, people stay in a nonstop“fight or flight”response, which leads to damaging stress.

But not every employee in insecure industries has such a discouraging view, Burchell says. In general, women get on better. While reporting higher levels of anxiety than men when directly questioned, women score lower in stress on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, even when they have a job they feel insecure about losing.  As Burchell explains,“For women, most studies show that any job—it doesn't matter whether it is secure or insecure—gives psychological improvement over unemployment.”He supposes that the difference in men is that they tend to feel pressure not only to be employed, but also to be the primary breadwinners, and that more of a man's self-worth depends on his job.