It is never too late to develop good study habits. Follow these good habits, and you will become a good student.

Plan your time carefully. Make a list of your weekly tasks (任务). 【小题1】 Then decide on good time for studying. This weekly plan may not solve all of your problems, but it will make you know how to spend your time.

Find a good place to study. 【小题2】 It may be a desk or a chair at home or in the school library, but it should be quiet. When you begin to work, you should be able to pay more attention to the subject.

【小题3】 Listening to what the teacher says in class means less work later. Sit where you can see and hear well. Get ready for your notebook. 【小题4】   

If you follow these suggestions, you will study better.

These days, teenagers are heavily influenced by the media (媒体). Many of them have watched thousands of hours of TV. That’s more time than they spend with teachers at school. And we haven’t yet considered the hours they spend using the Internet and reading newspapers.

However, several studies have shown a serious problem: today’s teenagers lack (缺乏) media literacy (媒体素养). In other words, they have difficultly critical (批判性的) thinking about the information they see. One study that was done on middle school students showed that more than 80 percent of them couldn’t tell the difference between real stories and ads that looked like news.

Stanford professor Kevin John teaches a class called Media Effects. He tries to help his students learn media literacy (媒体素养). The professor gave an example that shows why media literacy is important. In the example, two news stations report a snowstorm. One focuses on (关注) the terrible road conditions. The other focuses on kids playing in the snow. “With a news story. News stations tell you what they feel are the important details (细节). These details mostly depend on the opinions of the news director.” said John. “A person who has media literacy would realize that each story is about one side at this time. There is more going on.”

Some experts think school is the best place to teach media literacy. Others believe that everyone-from parents to reporters-should help teenagers learn the skills.

As for the best time to start learning media literacy, many experts suggest the age of 12. But some basic ideas can be taught even earlier. “It’s never too early to start learning media literacy,” John said.

There are students from all over the world at the United World School. In this school these students study and spend their free time together. The school believes this will help them grow up to be knowledgeable, caring and friendly.

Once a year, there is a special “United Nations” show. Students are allowed to show anything they want, but anything that comes from their traditional cultures. To get ready for the festival, they have to teach each other. And the school believes this will help them understand and enjoy the culture of their friends better.

This school also believes that students should be allowed to make some decisions themselves. For example, the older students are allowed to wear what they want and the younger students are allowed to choose which kind of uniform they want to wear. But all students are asked not to wear an expensive necklace or something else like that, and not to wear clothes that will make other students unhappy.

It is never possible to make everybody happy, but if we want to have a much more wonderful world, it is important for students to understand and enjoy other cultures as well as to be proud of their own.