Selfie

Social media and the mobile web have given rise to a strange phenomenon called the selfie. But not everyone is familiar with the term, so here’s a brief definition. 【小题1】 Everyone takes selfies, but the younger crowd seems to be especially involved in the trend. Some selfies are extreme close-ups, other show part of an arm held straight outward and a few of the great ones even feature the subject standing in front of a bathroom mirror so that they can get a full body shot of their reflection. 【小题2】 Since social media is the driving force of most selfie activity, younger kids interested in staying connected to their friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. are more active in sharing selfies on a regular basis.

Who knows what kind of psychological factors drive any specific person to take a selfies and upload it to a social networking site. 【小题3】

Here's one. Not only are young people plugged into the web at all times, but they also have more self-esteem issues—and many of these teens or college kids might upload selfies to deal with their own self-consciousness. 【小题4】 When you feel good or look good about yourself, it's far too easy to reach for you phone and document it all through one or several selfies. Kids who are connected on a social network to someone they admire may be more driven to upload attractive selfies as a way to seek attention, especially if they're too shy to do it in person.

Besides, there are people who are bored at work, bored at school, etc. So they will take selfies because they have nothing else better to do. Last but not least, social media is about being social! If that means uploading as many selfies as possible, then so be it. 【小题5】 They just do it because they like to do it, it's fun, and it’s a cool way to sort of document your own life.

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.

Bad Things About Cell Phones in School

Giving your schoolchild a cell phone has a very positive effect. 【小题1】 However, at school especially in the classroom, cell phones cause a lot of problems.

The Internet capabilities (联网功能) of phones will make students absent from their tasks. 【小题2】 In addition to sending text messages, smartphones have email and Internet capabilities. All of these features will distract (使分心) children from their tasks at hand.

【小题3】 The most common means by which the whole class distraction happens is when a cell phone rings during the middle of a class, attracting students’ attention towards the noise. A student with a cell phone may also encourage others to play the game on his cell phone or share information that comes up on the Internet.

The use of phones may contribute to the students’cheating in the exams. Students can take advantage of cell phones’ Internet capabilities to look for answers to questions for tests for which they haven’t studied. Having a palm-sized computer may give students the chance to cheat in exams. 【小题4】

Using a phone may reduce children’s social behavior. If a student has a cell phone, particularly one with an Internet connection, it must reduce his necessity to socially communicate with others. 【小题5】

   Thousands of Burbank students biked to school on Wednesday morning and the children at Community Day School were not going to miss out on the event.

With the help from two local bicycle enthusiast groups，the campus' 25 middle and high school students were able to pedal（骑）down the bikeway for a 10-mile morning bike ride.

Krohn, headmaster of the school，considered having her students participate in Walk/Bike to School Day. But when she found most of her students had no bicycles, she connected the Bike Angels, who donate （捐赠）bicycles to children in Burbank during the holidays.

“The bikes that the Bike Angels get are donated, but so many of them are broken,” said Ernie, one of Krohn's teachers, an eager cyclist with some knowledge of bike repairs. “So we made judgements about what needed to be done. ”

As word spread about their efforts, a member from the WalkBike volunteered to help Ernie, and some students also stepped up to help repair the bikes in time for the event.

One of Ernie's students, 16-year-old Jacob, volunteered on Saturdays to help fix bicycles for his classmates. “I had a bike with a broken tire that I wanted to use to come to school. I asked my teacher if he could help me fix bikes, he taught me everything, and later I started volunteering there. I just started loving fixing bikes. ” He added that he planned to continue volunteering with the Bike Angels to repair bicycles for the community.

Ernie said that the biking event ended up with more students participating in a nationwide event in the US.

I’m writing to tell you about discussion we recently had about if it is good or not for families to own cars.

As the development of people’s living conditions, more and more people have our own cars. Some of us think it’s good to own a car. Firstly, it’s a convenient, fast, and comfortable mean of transportation. Secondly, it shows that people are becoming richer, and the country much strong. It also makes relative businesses and industries to develop faster.

Others have different opinions. They think that cars give off waste gases and polluted the environment. Too many cars will have some bad effects, such as more accidents. Beside, the limited parking space is another big problem.

In my view, people should think careful before they buy a car.

Yours truly,

Li Hua