Few students like homework， but it is an important part of middle school life in the UK．

The UK has these rules for homework： Grades 7 and 8（ages 11 to 13）： 45 to 90 minutes per day； Grade 9（ages 14 to 15）： 1 to 2 hours a day．

Today， many homework tasks are done on a computer． For example， preparing reports， using the Internet or doing online tasks． So schools are usually open before and after normal hours． In this way， students without computers or the Internet at home can use the schools' facilities（设备）．

Sometimes， students are given extended learning tasks． That means they need to do more research and analysis（分析）． But however big a task is， teachers always give feedback（反馈） to help   students find the areas where they can improve．

Some schools send students home with home diaries． They advise parents to check on their children's progress． Sadly， not every parent takes much interest． In a survey of 1，000 students aged 1l to 18， over 10 percent said that they did not have space at home to do homework． Almost 15 percent said their families did not support them enough．

Zhang Guimei, the headmaster of Huaping High School for Girls in Lijiang city of Yunnan Province, got the title “Role Model of the Times（时代楷模）” in 2020, because of what she has done for the girls from poor families. When Zhang was teaching at Huaping Minority Middle School, she noticed fewer girls attended school in Huaping. So she started visiting the homes of the girls who had left school and she learned the main reasons. The parents thought that it was useless to send girls for education. Most of them wanted the girls to marry. However, they treated the boys differently. This made Zhang realize that how difficult it was for girls to get an education. She came up with an idea of establishing a special school for girls. Huaping High School for Girls, a free school for girls, was completed in 2008 after overcoming all kinds of difficulties.

Anybody who knows Zhang’s own conditions will be more deeply moved by her. Since the school started, she has been living with her students. And she spent most of her money she had or received on her students, although she has serious health problems herself. Besides her work at school, she also has a part-time job to help the children who have lost their parents. Thanks to her efforts, more than 1,800 girls from poor families have entered universities since 2008. What’s more, many of her students have chosen to teach in poor areas, while some have even come back to teach in her high school. Her efforts have also helped to improve the local education. Education for girls in poor areas has received more attention and help from all parts of the country. What she has done will be long remembered and encourage more to follow her example.

“Take a walk with three people and at least one of them will have something to teach you.” Do you know who said that? 【小题1】

2023 was his 2,574th birthday. 【小题2】 Students in Confucius’s Colleges in other countries also had birthday parties for him.

Confucius was born in 551 BC in the state of Lu, in today’s Shandong Province. When Confucius was young, he visited many famous teachers and studied music, history, poetry and sports. At a very young age, he became a teacher himself and started his own school. 【小题3】 His thoughts spread all over Asia.

【小题4】 He also said that everyone should go to school if they wanted to learn. Confucius said that young people should take care of the old. Some of Confucius’s most famous sayings are “A kind person should care for others.” and “Bo strict with yourself, but be kind to others.”