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 ______.

   “Can I get a light?”This question is the commonest among smokers. What if this question is to come from an unusual source? The National Health Promotion Foundation uploaded an anti-smoking advertisement onto YouTube. The anti-smoking ad has quickly been known as the“most powerful anti-smoking ad”.

The anti-smoking video, called the “Smoking Kid”, features children walking up to adult smokers asking for a light. The children in the ad are actors but the adults smoking are unsuspecting participants in the project.

The video begins with the statement “Adults know that smoking is harmful, but don’t remind themselves of this fact”. Once a “smoking kid” approaches the adults, every adult asked is shocked that the child with a cigarette in his hand is asking for a light. The first adult starts by saying “I’m not giving it to you” and the video goes on to state “every adult filmed said no and reminded the children that smoking is bad”.

Before going away, the kid hands each adult a booklet after being turned down for a light. The booklet says, “You worry about me, but why not about yourself?”Each adult looks around for the child as their faces are filled with confusion and discomfort.

The video shows that a few of the smokers quickly throw away their cigarettes or put their cigarettes away, showing that this experiment was effective at that moment.

The most influential element in the ad isn’t the use of children or the responses from the smoking adults. It comes down to something much simpler than that. Why is it that we worry about other people, forgetting to worry about ourselves?

   In our modern world, when something wears out, we throw it away and buy a new one. The ___ is that countries around the world have growing mountains of ___ because people are throwing out more rubbish than ever before.

How did we ___ a throwaway society? First of all, it is now easier to ___ an object than to spend time and money to repair it. ___ modern manufacturing(制造业)and technology, companies are able to produce products quickly and inexpensively. Products are plentiful and ___.

Another cause is our ___of disposable(一次性的)products. As ___ people, we are always looking for ___ to save time and make our lives easier. Companies ____ thousands of different kinds of disposable products:paper plates, plastic cups, and cameras, to name a few.

Our appetite for new products also ____ to the problem. We are ____ buying new things. Advertisements persuade us that ____ is better and that we will be happier with the latest products. The result is that we ____ useful possessions to make room for new ones.

All around the world, we can see the ____ of this throwaway lifestyle. Mountains of rubbish just keep getting bigger. To ____ the amount of rubbish and to protect the ____, more governments are requiring people to recycle materials. ____, this is not enough to solve(解决)our problem.

Maybe there is another way out. We need to repair our possessions ____ throwing them away. We also need to rethink our attitudes about ____. Repairing our possessions and changing our spending habits may be the best way to reduce the amount of rubbish and take care of our environment.

   Every pet owner loves his pet. There is no argument here.

But when we asked our readers whether they would clone their beloved animals，the responses（反应）were split almost down the middle. Of the 228 readers who answered it，108 would clone their beloved animals，111 would not and nine weighed each side without offering an opinion.

Clearly，from readers’responses，this is an issue that reaches deeply into both the joy and eventual sadness of owning a pet. It also shows people’s widely different expectations over the developing scientific procedure.

Most of the respondents who favored the idea strongly believed it would produce at least a close copy of the original；many felt the process would actually return an exact copy. Those on the other side，however，held little hope that cloning could truly recreate a pet；many simply didn’t wish to go against the natural law of life and death.

Both sides expressed equal love for their animals. More than a few respondents owned“the dog/cat in the world”.They thought of their pets as their“best friend”，“a member of the family”，“the light of their life”.They told moving stories of pets’ heroism，intelligence and selfless devotion.

Few wonder the loss is so disturbing（令人不安的）and the cloning so attractive.“People become very close to their animals，and the loss can be just as hard to bear as when a friend or family member dies，”says Gary A. Kowalski，author of Goodbye Friend：Healing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet. “For me，cloning feels like an attempt to turn death away... It’s understandable. Death is always painful. It’s difficult to deal with it. It’s hard to accept.”

But would cloning reduce the blow? This question seemed to be at the heart of this problem.

With the development of the Internet, more and more people turn to it instead of newspapers for information. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________