I liked reading when I was a boy. I would read every word on everything I saw. Most of the time when other kids were playing outside, I enjoyed reading books alone at home. Even now, that reading habit has been with me. I always have at least one book being read books. And I’m always talking about real books, books made of paper and you can hold in your hand to read at the table or on the underground.

However, the number of people reading books is dropping. A recent survey tells us that on average (平均), each American only reads three books a year and in China, about half of the people say they didn’t read a book last year! So what’s stopping people from reading?

The answer is the changes that the phone brings to our life. Why read a book when we can watch a movie or a TV play on our smart phones or iPads? For young people, books may not be as exciting as online games.

But we can still fall in love with books easily. We all have this thing called imagination. It is more powerful than any computer. In fact, any online game is written in words as a story by its writer at first. It’s all about his or her imagination.

So we need to read—if we do not read, it will be hard for us to improve our ability (能力) to have an imagination. Reading is a process(过程) in which we need to compare and connect other things we read and saw in the past. If we do not read, this will influence our study as well as our social life in the future.

So why not follow me to enjoy reading now?

I’m Lisa, a 13-year-old girl. I have a brother. His name is Jim and he’s 15 now. We’re in the same middle school, but we’re not in the same class.

Chart I

Chart Ⅱ

We all know middle school students must sleep (睡觉) for about nine hours a day. But I find many of them don’t have enough (足够的) sleep.

But getting enough sleep can help us keep healthy. Then how can we do that? Here are some useful ways.

* ________

Some students like to go to bed late on Saturdays and Sundays. But it’s not right. To have a good sleeping habit, you must go to bed and get up early (早) every day.

*Say no to your phone and TV

Don’t play on your phone or watch TV before going to bed. It’s not good for your sleep.

*Don’t eat too much in the evening

Don’t eat too much for dinner. You can have a cup of milk before going to bed. It is healthy and can help you sleep well.

Going to bed late is not good for us. We should go to bed early and get enough sleep. Then we can have a healthy life.

I remember the first time I suggested screen-free days in our school to some of our student leaders. I played a joke on my group and said,“What do you think if we go a week without using our computers or smartphones?”

They laughed, and one of them said,“No way, Mr. White. That’s impossible for us!” I could feel their worry, and told them that I was only considering the days without “screens”. Even that idea left them feeling upset.

According to a survey we did, most students in our school spend about six hours a day on screens. Many of my students start their day by checking their smartphones. I often see them looking at their phones when getting off the bus or at parents’ drop-off because they can’t use their own “screens” at school. They usually work on computers at school for at least two hours during the day.

It’s clear that our students spend a lot of time on screens. There’s no doubt that we can see the advantages of technology. However, we teachers also want to make sure that students have balanced leaning and social experiences away from their screens. That’s why we have come up with the idea of screen-free days.

During the course of the year, we have built in several screen-free days that require us to make different plans for our students about how they will communicate with one another and the world around them without “screens”.

Fun activities, for example, card games and room escape(密室逃脱) games, are organized at school. In these activities, students make social communications without smartphones and have face-to-face communication without checking on“likes”(点赞) they’ve got online. These fun activities also make it possible for the whole grade to enjoy the company of their friends with no smartphones.

After our first screen-free day, students mentioned that they were surprised they enjoyed it. It is important to find ways to help our students connect with one another. While technology is already part of our world, it shouldn’t play such an important role in a learner’s life.