An allowance（零花钱）is an important tool for teaching kids how to budget, save and make their own decision. Children remember and learn from mistakes when their own dollars are lost or spent foolishly. 

How large an allowance is appropriate? Experts say there is not a right amount. Actually amounts differ from region to region, and from family to family.

To set an appropriate allowance for your child, work out a weekly budget. Allow for entertainment expenditures(花费) such as movies and snacks. Next, include everyday expenses such as lunch money, bus fare, school supplies. “If you make the child responsible for these bills,” Says Josephine Swanson, a consumer specialist, “he or she will learn to budget for necessary expenditures.”

Finally, add some extra money to make saving possible. If you can, keep your child’s allowance in line with that of his friends. A child whose purchasing power falls away below his peer’s can feel left out.

It can be tough, but avoid excusing your children when they make a mistake with their allowance. When Brooke Stephens was ten, her mother gave her $1, 75% of which for bus fare and lunch. “If you lose your money,” Brooke’s mother told her, “you walk home.”

    One week the girl spent all her allowance in a candy store, then she called home for a ride. “Mom made me walk home.” recalled Stephens, now a financial planner. “ At first I was angry, but I finally realized that she was trying to teach me an important lesson.”

Experts advise that an allowance not be tied directly to child’s daily chores（日常家务）.

Kids should help around the house not because they get paid for it but because they share responsibilities as members of a family. You might, however, pay a child for doing extra jobs at home that can develop his or her initiative.

How to protect children Web fans from unsuitable material on-line while encouraging them to use the Internet has long been discussed in the U.S.

For some parents, the Internet can seem like a jungle, filled with danger for their children. But jungles contain wonders as well as dangers and with good guides, some education, and a few precautions(预防措施), the wilds of the Internet can be safely navigated(航行). “Kids have to be on-line. If we tell our kids they can’t have access(机会) to the Internet, we’re cutting them off from their future,” said an expert.

Most kids have started to use search engines. Many of them are great for finding tons of interesting Internet sites, and they can also locate places where you might not want your kids to go. There are search engines designed just for kids. A certain software contains only sites that have been selected as safe. The most popular way to limit access would be to use what is known as a “content screener(过滤器)”. But this can’t be wholly reliable(可靠), and the best thing parents can do is to talk to their kids and let them know what is OK or not OK to see or do on the Internet. Another way is that mum or dad is nearby when the child is surfing(浏览) the Internet.

A few other tips

●Don’t put the PC in a child’s room but keep it in an area where mum or dad can keep an eye on things. That also makes the Internet more of a family activity.

●Ask your child what he or she has been doing and about any friends they make on-line.

●Tell your child not to give on-line strangers personal information, especially like address and phone number.

●And tell your children never to talk to anyone they meet on-line over the phone, send them anything, accept anything from them or agree to meet with them unless you go along.

1. The passage is mainly about the subject of _______.

A. American children going on-line             B. Internet in America

C. appreciating Internet                              D. opposing children’s on-line

2. The best way to protect children from improper material is _______.

A. to install(安装) a content screener on the computer

B. to buy some search engines for the children

C. to be nearby when they are surfing the Internet

D. to talk to the children and persuade them to tell right from wrong

3. Which of the following is right according to the passage?

A. Surfing the Internet is the best method of educating children.

B. Children’s not having access to Internet may have effect on their progress.

C. Using a content screener is most reliable for keeping children having access to Internet.

D. Searching engines can help children to select materials fit for them.

4. According to the passage, we can infer that _______.

A. soft wares fit for children want programming

B. a child who is on-line is in danger

C. Internet is a jungle full of danger

D. Internet contains a lot of harmful sites

Homework and stress are rarely reduced inside the classroom. Meanwhile, outside the classroom, the pressure is on to find scholarships for college.

According to Braintrack, a higher education database with worldwide reach, more than 3 billion US dollars (18 billion yuan) in private scholarships are awarded to college students annually. Average awards range from $2,000 to $3,000.

The scholarship application process is similar to the college application process: forms to be completed, test scores and transcripts to be sent, essays to be written and often interviews to be prepared for.

A few great places to start looking for scholarships are: www.fastweb.com, www.finaid.org and www.collegexpress.com.Check out the annual scholarship guidebooks Scholarships, Grants & Prizes by Peterson’s and the Ultimate Scholarship Book: Billions of Dollars in Scholarships, Grants and Prizes by Gen Tanabe and Kelly Tanabe.

Be selective. Thoroughly research the qualifications required by each of the scholarships. Don’t waste your time applying for those that are need-based if you can’t produce the appropriate documents.

Research past recipients (接受者). Check out the websites of the organizations sponsoring the scholarships. Many post the biographies of past recipients. You don’t need to have cured cancer, but if you don’t think your résumé (履历) measures up to the past winners’, you might be better served by moving onto the next scholarship on your list. Prepare for the interview.

You’ll want to dazzle them with your personality, but above all you’ll want to be prepared. Find someone you trust to conduct a similar interview with you – someone who will be honest with you and provide valuable suggestions.

Let your personality shine through in your essays. The essays are the best way for students to share who they are, where they’ve come from, what they’ve overcome and so on. Tell your story in an interesting and persuasive? way. And if you do have an interview, send a thank-you note afterward.

By Lee Bierer

1.What is the author’s main purpose in writing the article?

A. To explain where to find scholarships for US colleges.

B. To inform readers of the scholarship application process.

C. To introduce some typical scholarships offered by US colleges.

D. To give tips on applying for US college scholarships.

2.If you want to learn about past recipients of a scholarship, you can use __.

A. www.collegexpress.com

B. the annual scholarship guidebooks published by Peterson’s

C. the websites of the organizations sponsoring the scholarships

D.The Ultimate Scholarship Book: Billions of Dollars in Scholarships, Grants and Prizes

3.The underlined word “dazzle” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to ___.

A. influence ???? B. impress? ??????? C. guide ?????? D. present

4.To increase your chance of winning a scholarship, you are advised to ____.

A. apply for as many scholarships as you can

B. tell an interesting story in your essay

C. do a similar interview to help you prepare for the real one

D. have a talk with past recipients and try to talk like they do

Laugh and the world laughs with you. Even better, you might live longer, an American researcher reports.

“Adults who have ___1.___ sense of humor live longer than those who don’t find life funny, and the survival edge is ___2.__ (particular) large for people ___3.___ cancer,” says Richard Smith of the Columbia University of Science and Technology.

He ___4.___ (present) his study of about 54,000 Americans, ___5.___ he had followed for seven years, at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting last Monday.

At the start, patients filled out questionnaires on how easily they found humor in real-life situations __6.___ how important a ___7.___ (humor) idea was.

The study showed next the greater role humor played in their lives, the greater their chances were in ___8.___（survive）the seven years. Adults scoring in the top one-quarter for humor appreciation were 35% more likely to be alive ___9.__ those in the bottom quarter. In a smaller group of 2,015 people who had a cancer diagnosis(诊断) at the start, the study found ___10.__ important that a great sense of humor cut the chances of dying by about 70%.