Students get a taste of the adult world

For some teenagers, being an adult is the coolest thing in the world. Adults don’t do homework or take exams. They do what they like and earn money. How wonderful! But is it true?

Last month. Grade 7 students at Qiaoyi Middle School in Wuxi, Jiangsu, had a taste of the adult world. They had the homework called “Working with your parents for one day”.

What did they find?

Wu Jing’s mother works as a ticket collector in a park. At 6：00 a.m., the 14-year-old gir1 went to work with her mother. It Was dark and cold. Before the park opened, they did the cleaning, checked tickets and counted change. When the visitors came, they greeted them with a smile. After standing for the whole day. Wu was worn out.

“Every day Mom makes dinner for me and I take it for granted (认为理所当然),” said Wu, “Now I know how tired she must be, I should help her more.”

Li Shiyi, 14, spent her day in a car. Her father is a taxi driver. She picked up call and gave change back. Li thought it’d be easy to sit in a car and tour the city. But soon she found that her father didn't even have time for lunch.

“Now I know how hard it is to earn money ,” Li said, “We should do what we can for our parents and never waste money.”

There was a little boy with a bad temper (脾气). His father gave him some nails (钉子) to drive into the fence (栅栏) when he lost his temper.

The first day the boy drove 37 nails into the fence. Then it began to become less. He found it was easier to control his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy should now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to control his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but you look at the fence. It will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar (伤痕) just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound (伤口) is still there. A verbal (言语) wound is as bad as a physical one. It is important to practise self-control.”

My name is Lucy Smith. Look at this photo of my family. This is my mother. She is nice and looks very young. She is in a middle school. She is a hero(英雄) in my eyes. That man in a black jacket is my father. He is a driver. Look at this boy. He is my brother David, a ten-year-old boy. He likes UFOs. He has some models of UFOs in his bookcase. My grandmother likes him very much. She is a nurse. She is very tidy. My grandfather is that old man in a brown jacket. He works in a middle school, too. He likes to play with my brother and me. Can you see me? I’m in the middle of the photo. I have a happy family.

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