Four ways to have a good school life

Your schooldays should be some of the best and happiest days of your life. How can you get   the most from them, and be sure you do not waste（浪费）this great chance to learn?

Be active（积极的）at school. Don’t say things are difficult or boring. 【小题1】 Join lots of activities. Put up your hands quickly in class. Go around the school with a big smile. If you are not working, you are wasting your time at school.

Keep fit. If you don’t eat good breakfast, you will be thinking about food in class. 【小题2】 Play enough sports every day in order to keep your body strong.

Face the problem. Do not say you will do things tomorrow. If you get behind the class, it is very difficult to get back in front. You cannot finish the race if you rest all the time. Everyone fails some exams, loses some matches and has bad days. Don’t make small problems very big and important. 【小题3】 You are young, and no one thinks you must do everything quite well!

Spend the weekends. 【小题4】 Go and play sports, get together with friends in the park to relax, learn to play the piano, or help someone with problem. If you don’t want to go out, there are also a lot of things to do. You may read a book, practice English or help Mum with housework.

【小题5】

In 2003, China sent its first astronaut, Yang Liwei, into space. Since then, 13 Chinese astronauts have “reached for the stars”. Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu are three of them. They carried out the latest (最近的) Shenzhou XIII mission (任务). Have you ever dreamed of becoming an astronaut like them? How did they get there?

●Health is important

To be an astronaut, you need to be very healthy. Good eyesight, a strong heart and lungs (肺) are important. You’d better not have other small problems. For example a decayed tooth (龋齿) could get worse in space and bring trouble to astronauts. You can’t have scars (伤疤) either. They may split (裂开) in space.

●Become stronger with hard training

For example, you need to build your muscles (肌肉) as strong as professional athletes (专业运动员) by running, swimming and doing pull-up (引体向上). You will also wear a 200-kilogram suit and do tasks underwater for six or seven hours without eating or going to the toilet. This is like doing tasks during a spacewalk.

●Learn science

Knowledge is important as well. Astronauts take 60 courses to get ready for a mission, including math, English, spacecraft design (设计), physics and many more. So they will know what to do when emergencies (紧急情况) happen during the mission. They can also do scientific experiments (实验) in space.

What do you usually do in your spare time? Chatting online is now a national pastime（消遣）in China, especially among the post-90s and post-00s generation. To some people, however, online chats can seem like a kind of polite conversation. Yet hidden rules do exist（存在）, as long as you take the time to look for them.

Get to the Point

When sending a friend request, include your real name and any other identifying（身份辨别）information. Remember, everybody’s time is valuable. If there’s something you want, cut right to the chase. Never send an “Are you there?” without any follow-up messages. The quicker that you get to the point, the more likely the other person is to reply.

Send the Right Things

Please send texts, not voice messages. It might be easier for you to speak than type, but what about the person on the other end? They may be unable to listen to a 59-second message right now. Also, never send information by voice message—it is hard to note down. Emojis（表情符号）and GIFs can save the day when you find yourself in an embarrassing conversation, or words fail you.

Try to Understand

You can always judge a person’s mood by their text messages. If the person you’re talking to says “Good night” or “I’m going to take a shower”, that’s probably not what they’re actually going to do. It is just an excuse to stop talking to you. If someone waits for longer than three seconds before saying “Yes”, they probably really mean “No”. If you receive these emojis from friends who are older, read them literally（照字面地）（such as a smile or a wave）. For the post-90s and post-00s generation, however, they could be speechlessness（无语）.