Helping your children to read and write at home will improve their skills and confidence—it will also make them get ready for learning in the classroom environment.
　    　 are needed by every child in every subject in every year of their life in or outside school. Students who improve their reading and writing skills will increase their vocabulary and their ability（能力）to use the English language correctly. As parents, you can play an important role in improving your children’s literacy（读写能力）. You can make a difference by listening, asking questions, giving information, and reading with your children outside school hours.
Here are 8 tips on how to help your children to read and write:
²  having everyday conversations with your children
²  trying to ask more “wh-” questions instead of easy “yes” or “no” questions
²  encouraging your children to talk about events you don’t know
²  reading to your children each night
²  listening to your children read
²  teaching your children how to use dictionaries
²  talking about your children’s writings
²  practicing filling in forms, writing letters, sending cards or emails
You can also encourage your children to join the Reading Challenge Club and discuss the books they are reading together. In the club, children must read 15 books from the Challenge book list and 5 more books chosen by themselves. There are over 1,000 books on the list. The reading must be done in one year. What’s more, it is a wonderful way to help your children to write. For example, you can encourage them to write diaries or book reviews. Remember to make positive comments as much as possible.
【小题1】This passage is mainly written for __________.

Students learn their lessons in class. In class teachers teach them. Students sit in the classroom listening to the teacher. This is a way of learning. Is this the only way for students to learn something? Of course not. There is another way to learn: students can teach themselves. For example, if you can’t remember something when you are doing your homework, you can look at your book to find the answer. This is a way to teach yourself. And it is not a difficult thing. We can do this at any place and at any time.

How do you teach yourself? The first thing you must do is reading. Read something you are interested in. or you have to read. The second is that you must ask yourself questions. The question is something you don’t understand, or you want to know more about. You can write down these questions. A clever student is usually good at asking questions. The third is to answer the question yourself by thinking hard, by reading the passage or other books, and sometimes by asking other people. This is the way of teaching yourself. And you must do this all by yourself. If you keep doing like for a long time, you are sure to succeed in your study.

1.Listening to the teacher is ______for students to learn something.

A．not a way         B．the best way       C．the only way       D．not the only way

2.Which of the following is right?________

A student can teach himself only in class.

B.It is a bad way to learn from the teacher.

C.A student can learn to teach himself if he wants to.

D.Students know very well how to teach themselves.

3.In teaching yourself, the first thing you must do is_______.

A．writing           B．reading           C．asking            D．answering

4.A clever student usually likes _______.

A．asking questions                        B．answering questions

C．finding answers                         D．teaching others

5.If you want to succeed, you’d better learn _______.

A．how to teach others                     B．how to teach yourself

C．to read and write carefully                D．how to ask questions

Dear Mr Zhu,
I am writing to your magazine’s “Teenagers Now” column(专栏) to ask for some help with my 16-year-old son. At the moment, he refuses to do almost everything his mother and I ask him to do. He is our only child and we treat him very well. His grandparents buy him many things, and yet he is still rude to us. He refuses to spend time with us or do as we tell him. Sometimes he acts as if he doesn’t even love us at all.
Now he refuses to do his homework, and instead insists on wasting his time watching DVDs and listening to foreign music. I cannot understand this music, but I don’t like it. He also spends too much time in Internet cafes, where he either plays games or chats online. He is wasting valuable time during this important period in his life!
What am I to do? At present, to prevent making his mother unhappy with an argument, I am allowing him his freedom. However, I am worried that if I keep allowing him to do what he wants, he may fail at school, or worse.
How can I help my son without harming our relationship?
Yours,
Liu Zhenhua
【小题1】What’s Mr. Zhu’s job?

Peter is thirteen. He is   1  Grade Two this year. He likes to play football and watch football matches. And he often   2  newspapers. He does his best to know where and when a football match will be.
Now Peter is having lunch. He is   3  the radio, too.  He is very happy   4  there will be a nice football match on TV at four   5  this afternoon. He wants   6  it very much. But he is going to have English and Chinese lessons. It’s   7  for him to find a way.
“Hello, Mrs. Black,” Peter says to his teacher   8  the phone. “Peter is ill in bed. He wants to ask for half a day’s leave(请假).”
“Oh, I’m   9  to hear that,” says Mrs. Black. “But   10  is that?”
“It’s my father, Mrs. Black.”