Harry Potter brings us a wonderful world of magic that has caught the imagination of millions of people on both the printed page and the silver screen with best-selling novels and popular films. However, you may be surprised to hear that children in Britain, home to the world's most popular novel Harry Potter, have a problem with reading. The problem, as far as the government, experts and many parents are concerned, is that kids are just not doing enough of it.

It's not just a question of children not reading the classics（经典作品）-difficult works by William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. Reading generally is in crisis（危机）in the UK. Many different reasons are gven: lack of encouragement from parents, competition from TV and the Internet and computer games. But the government and schools have not given up on the young. There are many activities to encourage kids to read more and develop children's love for reading.

The National Literacy Trust（NLT）, an organization set up by the government, has a plan called "Reading Champions". This summer Reading Champions has a challenge called "Quest Seekers". It is designed to take children into a mysterious and wonderful land where they can discover the joy of reading. The idea is to turn a trip to their local libraries into a kind of magical adventure, the kind that young readers love in the Harry Potter books.

Many older British people like myself feel sad because so few of the younger generation read books. We know that when you have a book, you will never be bored. Unlike some other school subjects like math and science, for many which will always be a necessary thing to learn rather than much fun, reading can be a real pleasure and books are lifelong friends.

As everyone knows it, people can get many information through the Internet. Meanwhile, people are also clear aware of its disadvantages, and some children don't realize they sometimes make friends with bad people online. In my opinion, people can use the Internet make friends, download useful materials and go shopping online. However, there were also many disadvantages of the Internet. If you can't use it correctly, it may be harmful for you. In junior middle school, I was once crazy about play online games and I couldn't control myself. As the result, my study results were getting from bad to worse. Besides, if you believe whichever your friends say online, you will be cheated by them some day.

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.

Nowadays, with the growing popular of computers, more and more people are paying less and less attention to their handwriting. According to recent survey, about 85.8 percent of middle school students think of that their handwriting is poor. And for various reasons, many students don’t want to improve his handwriting. 51.5 percent of the students thought that they can just use a computer, so there is no need to waste time improve their handwriting. Which the saying goes, “Writing style shows the man.” Beautiful and neat handwriting is beneficial, especial for middle school students. However, in my opinion, more emphasis should be placed on this aspect in future.

What Is Emotional Eating?

Emotional eating is when people use food as a way to deal with feelings instead of satisfying hunger.【小题1】Have you ever finished a whole bag of chips out of boredom or downed cookie after cookie while preparing for a big test? But when done a lot — especially without realizing it — emotional eating can affect weight, health, and overall well-being.

Not many of us make the connection between eating and our feelings.

【小题2】One of the biggest myths about emotional eating is that it’s caused by negative feelings. Yes, people often turn to food when they’re stressed out, lonely, sad, anxious, or bored. But emotional eating can be linked to positive feelings too, like the romance of sharing dessert on Valentine’s Day or the celebration of a holiday feast. Sometimes emotional eating is tied to major life events, like a death or a divorce. 【小题3】

Emotional eating patterns can be learned: A child who is given candy after a big achievement may grow up using candy as a reward for a job well done. 【小题4】It’s not easy to “unlearn” patterns of emotional eating. But it is possible. And it starts with an awareness of what’s going on.

We’re all emotional eaters to a degree. But for some people emotional eating can be a real problem, causing serious weight gain or other problems. The trouble with emotional eating is that once the pleasure of eating is gone, the feelings that cause it remain. 【小题5】That’s why it helps to know the difference between physical hunger and emotional hunger.

Next time you reach for a snack, wait and think about which type of hunger is driving it.