Research and Annotations

Bored? Looking for a new challenge?
You can watch basketball, baseball, track, gymnastics, tennis, aerobics, volleyball, and weight lifting on ESPN, or you can get out and enjoy them by joining your school team. Not into team sports? There's French club, the debating team, chess club, student government, radio, newspaper, yearbook, environmental club, 4-H, drama, choir, photography, Students Against Destructive Decisions, jazz band, Business Professionals of America, computer club, and more.
So many choices can seem overwhelming, but getting involved in new activities with new people is a fun way to challenge yourself. Here are some basics and benefits of getting involved.
Benefits of Extracurricular Activities
So what's in it for you? You get to explore your physical, creative, social, political, and career interests with like-minded people. You'll find friends: Trying something different may bring you in contact with people you didn't know who share your interests and curiosity.
You can get involved with groups as a way to get support from other students with your background, such as Latino or Jewish clubs. A club or group also can be a great way to meet people who are different from you. Lots of youth programs bring people together with those who are different as a way to break down the barriers between people. Mark, a senior who lives in Washington, DC, discovered this when he volunteered for a group that uses baseball as a way to bring special-education kids and kids with disabilities together with regular kids.
Participating in extracurricular activities helps you in other ways, too: It looks good on college and job applications and shows admissions officers and employers you're well-rounded and responsible. Specific activities help with specific goals — if you want to teach language or get a bilingual job, being the president of the Spanish club shows the depth of your commitment.
The most basic reason for joining a club or team is that it gives you something better to do than staring at the wall, wandering the hall, or napping all afternoon. People who are involved and engaged are less likely to become addicted to bad habits, like smoking or drinking.
Finding the Right Activity for You
Review the activities your school offers and listen to other students' experiences to find an activity that meets your needs. Think about your interests, abilities, and time — is your sister tired of playing chess with you? Do you wish you had more computer time? Are you tired of shooting hoops alone? Are you looking to meet friends or get support? Do you need to increase the appeal of your college application? Don't limit yourself to the familiar — try something new.
Think about different roles within groups that you might want to try — president, captain, participant, leader, support person. Each role is important. Being president teaches you leadership and management skills, but involves more responsibility; being a member gives you structure and is less stressful. You can also lend your skills in areas that are needed, such as using your financial skills to be a group's treasurer.
How to Get Involved
At the beginning of the school year, teachers and principals often have a list of activities to join or make announcements — for example, your history teacher may be the debating team advisor. Look on school bulletin boards and in the school newspaper. Ask friends what they like. Join right away or wait to see how your schedule will be and join later.
Ask questions of the activity advisor before you join. Some things to ask include:
Age. You may have to be a certain age or in a certain grade to join an activity.
Fees. Do you have to pay to join? How much? Are there fees for outings, uniforms, costumes, or other expenses? You may be required to help raise money.
Physical. If you're joining a team, you may need to take a physical. Talking with your family doctor may help you decide whether a team is a good choice for you.
Grades. Many groups require a minimum GPA to join.
Time. If you're involved in competitive sports, you need to have the time to practice and compete. There's also the time it takes to get ready emotionally for a game, and the time you spend getting pizza with the team after games. Team members are often responsible for setting up for a game or helping in other ways. Clubs can meet as infrequently as once every other week, but some teams have practice every day after school and meets on the weekend.
Each school is unique with its own array of offerings, but if you don't find what you want, try a community center or volunteer for a local nonprofit organization or business. Also consider organizations like Youth in Action, a group for teens who want to participate in service projects.
Too Much of a Good Thing?
It's easy to join one too many exciting activities. Ask as many questions as possible before you join. Sit down with your school schedule, work schedule, and other activities and try to map out what's realistic. Are you taking a class this semester that requires extra studying time? Do you need to focus on grades? Does your bus only come once an hour by the time practice is over instead of every 15 minutes? Will you have time to eat, sleep, and relax? Everyone needs downtime. If an activity adds lots of stress to your life, it's not for you.
Once you've joined an activity, if you feel stressed out, reconsider। It's important to keep a balance between schoolwork, extracurricular activities, a job, social life, and your health. If you join a club and need to quit for any reason, talk with the advisor or coach. Be direct and polite and explain your situation and feelings. Sometimes it's just not the right match for you or it's too time-consuming. Perhaps you can participate in a less time-consuming way or rejoin later. You won't be helping yourself or the group if you frantically do homework during a competition or fall asleep during practice. Saying "no" can be the most mature and responsible thing to do.

Is it worthy of participating extracurricular activities?

There are so many extracurricular activities held in NCU every semester. Including clubs, camps and the activities of their own departments. Almost every student has the experience of participating extracurricular activities. Some people would even have two or three extracurricular activities at the same time. They would sleep at an exaggerate time like four or five o’clock in the morning for preparing for an activity.

I have experienced about four activities after I was received in NCU, including three camps and a activity of my department. A camp held for children studied in elementary school is the first extracurricular activity in my freshman life. For me, it was very special to hold activities, because I just joined the activities and did not know how the activities from zero to a real one. But after so many activities, I feel confused. Because I just feel tired and do not know what I have learned and got. Maybe I did not sense the growing of myself. But I still have some problem about my mind, I do not know why should pay so much and get nothing. Sometimes I would even think that it is waste of time, but I do not want to stay in the dorm all day and play computer. Is it the only motivation for me to join an activity?

I have asked some people who have much experience about activities. They told me that I have to change my mind and build my mind. During the preparing period, it is normal for me to feel tired. But after seeing the happy face of those students who came to join this activities, you would feel that everything is all right. Now I am preparing a camp for freshmen in English department, I hope that I can get new touching!

news synopsis

Revise version:
Everyone pay much attention to their homework.Even there are still some mistake. When we read news, we have to know what the news article want to tell us and what we can infer from the article.

This semester we read many news articles. We have learned much.According those news articles, we can know what happened around us. Not only us, but the earth.And we learn some way to analyze the news, to figure out the gist. Thanks for the teacher and the TA.

The New York Times

URL:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/us/02school.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=slogin

The discussion:Junk Food in School

Annta: What’s your opinion on selling junk food like candy, chocolate, drink in school?
Paloma: It’s will provide the percentage of obesity.
Beverly: If pupils have too much junk food in their daily life, they will loose their interests in vegetables.
Lisa: Besides, it can cause cancer.
Annta: Our future will die in ingesting too much junk food.
Paloma: Should schools sell junk food or not?
Annta: I think selling an average of snacks can be accepted. We can’t take away the students’ rights to have snacks.
Beverly: I still don’t agree that junk food is available in school.
Lisa: Due to the news, lots of children who like sweets get overweight easily. Therefore, the frequency of exercising decreases.
Paloma: I think that junk food is still being sold in schools, but schools should also teach them that eating junk food harms their health.
Beverly: We should promote that milk and vegetable are healthier than junk food.
Annta: Companies that sell snacks may argue with this politic that their benefit in schools have been cut down. So the government should think of other ways to help these companies.
Lisa: Also, these snack companies should produce snacks based on students’ health. For example, some factories were reported using trans fats just to save more money, and this is very bad.
Beverly: When they are producing those snacks, they should add more nutrients like Vitamin A and Calcium.
Paloma: The kitchens in schools should use Oliver oil instead of trans fats to fry food.
Annta: The problems of selling junk food in schools have been discussed for years, but haven’t got any solutions. Food factories should make some changes on the ingredient of their products, that way; the whole society will become healthier.
Lisa: Governments should take this issue really seriously. After all, these kids are the masters of the country in the future. The fatter they are, the weaker the country will be.
Beverly: Every one of us would become parents, so next time when we are having chips, we should think twice before we put them into our mouths.
Paloma: I think that junk food is fast to acquire and sometimes it’s delicious, but we still shouldn’t eat too much of it, and we cant’s take it as ordinary meal as well.

msn news

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21567822/

Summary:From the disaster continue happening aroud the world, we can know that the global warming is getting worse.Ad the sea levels are getting higher.It is true that the situation is getting worse, not exaggeration. But different people have different view toward the Global warming.Not only the sea level but also the creatures lived in the sea would be affected by the change of the temperature.With the soaring temperature, some places may face droughts.Because of the problem, some ski resorts began to use snowmaking capacity.The way to deal with the problem is needed.

Yahoo News

(1).URL:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071005/ap_on_he_me/diet_pregnancy_weight;_ylt=AuDbmKM6u2ZGw7V3PFQUu_.9j7AB

(2).Questions:
1.Who can get little or no weight during pregnancy?
Answer:Obese women,and somtimes even lose a few pounds.
2.The gaining weight during the pregnancy would afffect what?
Answer:Blood pressure and the baby's birth weight.it also increases the risk of miscarriage and other complication.
3. The experts suggest what the mother-to-be should do to prevent getting to much weight?
Answer: They can eat a balanced diet low in sugarand to get moderate exercise,like walking and swimming.
4.How much weight should overweight mother-to-be get during pregnancy?
Answer:15 to 25 pounds.And the normal women are encouraged to get 25 to 35 pounds.
5.What is the porpurse of research?
Answer:To tell the pregnancy women to have a good concept about the weight changing during pregnancy.

(3).10 keywords:
1.pregnancy:In mammals, the condition of being with young, or of carrying unborn young.
2.obese:Very fat,unhealthy fat.
3.deleterious:harmful.
4.analyze:To separate into parts.
5. miscarriage: A premature birth; abortion.
6.complication:A new illness that arises during the course of another illness.
7.recommend:To advise; suggest.
8. institute: A building devoted to the work of such an organization.
9.guideline:Guide for authority.
10.lump:To make lumps on or in.

(5).Summary:
This article is about a research about weight during prgnancy.It said that obese one get lower pregnancy weight.They also told us some way to control weight.And the suitable weight we should get.Because if we get too much weight during pregnancy ,maybe we would get some disease.

CNN

1.news URL:http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/09/05/healthy.eating/index.html

2.summary:In our busy life, sometimes, we would ignore the importance of eating healthy. The experts suggested that we eat as much fiber as possible. And they advise us to bring food with us when traveling for business. When we have to go to business dinners, we can order some restaurants’ vegetarian options which are higher-fiber, low-fat, low-calorie meals, even when we are in fast-food restaurants, we can choose healthy food like salad.

3thoughts:Eating healthy is important to everyone. When we have healthy body, we can enjoy our life, Because most peoples’ income get higher, they would eat many unhealthy but expensive food. And they would forget that health is more significant than satisfy your desire to eat delicious food. I live in a dorm now. I know it is difficult for me to eat healthy. So when I buy my food, I would think what is good for me or what is bad for me. This habit would confirm that what I have eaten does no harm to me.