School systems（制度）are different from country to country.

Unlike us, students in Singapore, where I am studying, have a flexible（灵活）timetable. My friend Amanda is a science student. She chose Chinese literature and language, chemistry and economics. 【小题1】 On Friday, Amanda only has one PE, one general paper and one economics lesson. On Thursday, however, she has six lessons. “Gloomy （郁闷的）Thursday,” she said humorously.

【小题2】 On Tuesday, Amanda has lunch at 10:30 a.m. because she has a PE class at noon. On Thursday since the first four lessons take up the whole morning and the noon, she has lunch at 1:00 p.m. The different lunchtimes solve the problem of long queues（排队）in the student canteen.

【小题3】 Walking in the school, you always see students rushing toward the next classroom, with their schoolbags on their shoulders. Sometimes the ten-minute-break seems to be too short. I remember on the first day that no sooner had Amanda and I arrived in the classroom than the bell rang. No time to go to the washroom or for snacks.

And another discovery surprised me. 【小题4】 The students in Singapore calculate everything using calculators. They even use a calculator to find out the sum（总和）of 200 and 300!

【小题5】 I hope the schools in different countries can learn from each other and the world’s education make progress.

Since the introduction of the new “double reduction” education policy, the school has been reducing students’ homework and after-school tutoring (培训) pressure. Now, Wang Mei, a journalist, is interviewing some students about the policy.

Shen Yuzhe, 13, Beijing	The “double reduction” policy really helps me. Our homework is clearly less than before. I can finish it at school so that I don’t have to take it home. I can now review or preview school work when I’m home. We don’t need to buy workbooks any more and the exercises are mainly from the textbook. I’m also happy to find that there are fewer exams.
Zhang       Hangming,13, Tianjin	The best thing about the “double reduction” is that we have more time to do after-school activities such as dancing, volleyball and so on. I have joined a group called “leadership development”. I can learn all kinds of useful skills there. Teachers are also giving us more chances to learn from real life. For example, during a biology class we learned about earthworms, common long worms that live in soil.
Cui Ruqi, 12, Liaoning	I have got more time to read extracurricular(课外的) books and play sports. The art subjects are becoming more important. For example, I have been learning music for a long time. Now I feel more encouraged to do so. However, we can no longer see the rankings(排名) after each exam. There is no doubt that I feel less stress without knowing them. But at the same time, I don’t know what level I am at.