I used to be crazy about the hunting season. The excitement of waiting for a prey(猎物)and the pride of showing off the kill fascinated me. However, everything changed after that cold morning.
Early on that day of the late fall, I set off alone for the woods, packing a gun, a bottle of hot coffee and three thick sandwiches. After finding the fresh deer's tracks in the snow, I settled down behind a little bush.
I sat there for about an hour. It was then that I saw him. A deer, a big beautiful deer! There was no cover nearer to him than 30 yards. Surely I couldn't miss! I waited for him to realize I was there. I waited for him to be shocked and run away. But he fooled me completely. He came towards me! He was curious, I suppose, or maybe he was stupid—how else can you explain it? Well, that deer walked right up to where I was sitting. Then he stopped and looked at me!
What happened next is hard to believe, but it's true. And it all seemed quite natural. Just as when a friendly young deer comes near you, I reached up and scratched his head. And he liked to be scratched. In fact, he practically asked for more. Then, I fed him my sandwich! Yes, I know what a deer eats, but that deer ate my sandwich. Well, he finally went his way, down the hill and up the deer trail. Shoot him? Not me. You wouldn't have either, not after that. I just watched him go.
When I was about half way back, I heard two shots, followed by a dull slam(撞击)a few seconds later. Those two shots usually mean a kill. I had forgotten there were other hunters that day.
Those hunters would never know they could have scratched his head.
Many kids help out around the house with chores(家庭杂务) such as emptying the dishwasher, putting laundry away, and taking out the trash. In exchange, some kids get allowances(补贴) or other rewards such as extra computer time.
But some people do not think that kids should get rewards for doing chores. Susie Walton, a parenting educator and family coach, believes that by rewarding kids, parents are sending a message that work isn't worth doing unless you get something in return. "Running any kind of household is a team effort," Susie said, "a home is a living space for everyone in the family. It's important for kids to see that we all have responsibilities in the house, and that families decide together how they want their home to look, and how they are going to keep it looking like everyone wants it to look."
Other people believe that getting a cash allowance or other rewards motivates kids to do chores, and it also teaches them real world lessons about how we need to work to earn money. There are also new applications that give kids points and digital gifts that can be redeemed(兑取) either online or in the real world. With the Chore Monster app kids earn digital points by completing chores that they can turn in for real-life rewards such as extra Xbox time or a trip to the mall. "Our goal is to encourage kids to earn rewards" says Chris Bergman, founder of Chore Monster, "Kids need positive reinforcement(强化) to help motivate them."
What do you think? Should kids be rewarded for doing chores? Or should kids help out around their homes without getting anything in return? Write a 200-word response. Send it to tfkasks4you@timeforkids.com. Your response may be published in a future issue of Time For Kids. Please include your grade and contact information of your parent or teacher if you want your response to be published. The deadline for responding is February 18.
Imagine a cat that does not need someone to clean up after it keeps an older person company and help them remember to take their medicine. That is the shared dream of the toy maker Hasbro and scientists at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The researchers received a $3-million-dollar award from the National Science Foundation for a special project. They want to find ways to add artificial intelligence, or A.I., to Hasbro's "Joy for All" robotic cat.
The cat has already been for sale for two years. Though priced over 1000 dollars, it sold quite well. It was meant to act as a "companion" for older people. Now the project is aimed at developing additional abilities for the cat. Researchers at Brown's Humanity-Centered Robotics Initiative are working to decide which activities older adults may need the most. They hope to make the cat perform a small number of activities very well. Such activities include finding lost objects and reminding the person to take medicine or visit their doctor. They also want to keep the cost down to just a few hundred dollars.
It is an idea that has appealed to Jeanne Elliott. Her 93-year-old mother Mary Derr lives with her in South Kingstown. Derr has dementia (痴呆). The Joy for All cat that Elliott bought this year has become a true companion for Derr. The cat stays with Derr and keeps her calm while Eliot is at work. Elliott said a robotic cat that helps her mother to remember to take her medicine and be careful when she walks would be greater.
The researchers are trying to learn how the improved cats will complete helpful activities and how they will communicate. They say that they do not want a talking cat, however. Instead they are trying to design a cat that can move its head in a special way to successfully communicate its message. In the end, they hope to create an exchange between the human and the cat in which the human feels the cat needs them. By doing so, the researchers hope they can even help prevent feelings of loneliness and sadness among elderly people.
How to be a better reader
Reading is an extremely important skill. Here are some suggestions onhow to be a better reader.
Know your reading purpose. The kind of reading you do in class or for your homework is different from how you read a novel for pleasure in the summer vacation. If you know your reading purposes, you can choose the best reading methods.
Use all the information in the book. Good textbooks are well-organized with title subtitles, introductions, summaries or conclusions. Many books also have pictures with captions(说明文字). Another aspect of good writing is that each paragraph has a topic sentence. If you concentrate on understanding the topic sentence this may help you to understand what comes next.
You can't really expect to understand a difficult book if you are trying to read in the same room with the television on and your little brother distracting(使某人分心) you. The same goes for reading on the bus on the way to school. You can't expect to read a textbook and listen to music at the same time either. Try to find a quiet and comfortable place with good light, and your dictionaries and other materials nearby.
Use your dictionary wisely. A common mistake of ESL students is to look up each unknown word in the texts they are given to read. It can even make understanding more difficult because by the time you reach the end of the paragraph you have forgotten what you read at the beginning! So use your dictionary wisely.
A. Choose the right time to read.
B. Choose a right place to read.
C. Look at all these first before starting to read.
D. But it takes a long time and can be very boring.
E. The wider your vocabulary is, the easier you will find your reading.
F. Reading is also an excellent way to improve your general English.
G. the way you read a book or a text depends largely on your reasons for reading it.
The Sweetest Thing
When I was ten, I was crazy about candy. Whenever in our small-town 1 with my mom, I would run my fingers through my favorite candy on the shelf.
Once there, thinking about all things sweet, I noticed a man a few feet away pushing buttons on the ATM machine. Dressed in a suit, he seemed to be late for something, 2 waiting for his cash to appear. The machine made a noise, and he immediately 3 a pile of bills and headed out. Curiously, I walked over to the ATM, where I started pressing the buttons as if knowing the 4 . Then I looked into the bottom of the machine. There I saw it: a beautiful, crisp $20 bill! 5 I wanted to believe my magic made the cash appear, I knew the man in the suit must have left it behind.
I held the money in my hand, staring at the number "20" and feeling 6 than I ever had. I thought about slipping the money into my pocket. No one would know, but it didn't feel 7 . I knew it didn't belong to me. I had to find its owner and give it back! So I told my mom what had happened. "We'll look for him." she said kindly. We rushed out and found him stepping into his car in the parking lot! We 8 him and asked whether he had left money at the cash machine.
"Let me 9," he said, pulling out his wallet and bills. "Twenty, forty, eighty…Oh! You're right," he said with surprise, "I'm 10 a $20 bill."
"Here you go," I said, smiling with pride, as if I was a(n) 11 who had solved a mystery. "Thank you so much," he said, bending down and shaking my hand. My heart 12. Before saying goodbye, he asked my mom for my name and 13. "I want to send your daughter a thank-you card," he said.
On my way home, my 14 was racing. Twenty dollars. What could I have done with it? I bet I could have bought a puppy or every single candy bar in town! But now 15 of that would happen. Yet I knew I had done the right thing.
A few weeks later, I got a box with a note. I ripped it open to find packages of candy.
"Dear Felice, Thank you very much for 16 my $20. You are a great girl, and I appreciate your 17. I hope you enjoy this candy. Best Wishes, Tom." Tom included his business card. It turned out he was vice-president for the candy company. The candy tasted sweet, each 18 reminding me that what I had done mattered. Although my honesty wouldn't always be 19 with candy, it would make a difference to someone. And that was the 20 part of all.
China is a big old country. has a history of more than five thousand years. We are proud of (it)culture and part of the culture even influences the world (great), for example, the thought of Confucius(孔子). As Chinese economy develops very fast and plays important role in the world, more and more (foreign) learn mandarin(普通话) in Confucius institutions. The Chinese traditional culture can (test) by the time It unites the whole nation no matter what kind of disaster comes, we will fight together for the country's future. Today, many young people lose faith traditional culture and they are crazy about the western culture They follow the western fashion, (think) we are the old style. But some day, they (realize)it is wrong for them to ignore traditional culture.
If you're worried that too much "screen time "could badly influence your child's intelligence, new research suggests you might be right. By analyzing the data gathered from over 4,500U. S. kids aged 8 to 11 between 2016 and 2017, Jeremy Walsh, a postdoctoral fellow with the CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa, found that too much "screen time" could be harming your child's intelligence.
Kids with the sharpest intellects spent less than two hours a day on their cellophanes, tablets and computers coupled with 9 to 11 hours of sleep and at least an hour of physical activity. Too much screen time could be affecting kids ability to focus, especially if they are switching between apps on a device or between different screens at the same time, Walsh suggested. " One leading theory is that much time on screens is spent multitasking using multiple apps or devices at once," he said. "This can interfere with a child's ability to focus and keep interest on a task. It can be damaging the building blocks for good cognition(认知)."
Sleep is important for brain development, since that's when the brain reorganizes itself and grows, Walsh added. Besides, exercise has been shown to increase blood flow to the brain and oxygenation of brain tissues, and increases the connectivity of networks in the brain. Too much screen time could lead to a" cascade"(瀑布) effect where kids don't get enough sleep and then are less active during the day." You can see how this would have an impact on brain health," Walsh said.
What should parents do? Walsh advised setting firm rules about the use of screens including how long children are using the screens, the kinds of apps they are using and how many screens they are using at once. Concerned parents also should preview games or apps before letting their child play, seek out more interactive(交互的)options that engage the child's mind, and use parental controls to block or filter content and limit screen time.
