Waste of paper （浪费纸张）

由于工作（功课）繁重，老师和学生们的情绪都进入了低潮，每两三天递交一次的STSs开始出现白纸，有同学问这样做是否浪费纸张。我怀着沉重的心情写了这篇STS.

　　TEACHER'S

　　Dear students，

　　Some of the students think that it is a waste of paper to turn in to me a blank STS worksheet when they have nothing to say. Of course， they are not interested in what I say to them either. Well， I think they may be right. Okay， let me put it this way——you don't have to turn in a blank STS worksheet to me if you don't want to write me anything or to hear anything from me. Then nobody will blame me for wasting paper. Some of you are very much concerned about when and how to change your seating plan. I am sorry that I cannot change it right away. I will stick to my original plan， i.e.， changing to a new seating plan in early November， using the same old method which is by far the best method ever known to me. You will be asked to write down ten seats in order of your preference. A seat will be allocated to you according to your own choice. But， of course， this time “the first will become the last and the last will become the first”， to be fair.

　　I understand that some of you are faced with problems that make you very unhappy. Let me tell you that I am faced with problems too. Very often， students think that we teachers do not have problems like theirs. They are wrong. Many teachers are having GREAT problems. I am no exception. Some teachers could not solve the problems and they did not want to face the problems， so they killed themselves. Poor！ But that was selfish behaviour. They didn't settle anything but just passed over the problems to their friends. relatives， family， colleagues， boyfriends， girlfriends， …

　　Hold on， my dear， hold on， the problems will soon be gone.

　　Yes， I know the night is dark， but when morning comes， a brand new heart！

　　Dennis

　　当waste是名词解作“浪费”时，是以单数的形式出现：a waste of money/time/energy.

　　they have nothing to say= they do not have anything to say

　　either和too都可解作“也是”，但用法不同，留意正确用法：

　　·They don't like it either.√

　　·They don't like it too.×

　　·They like it too.√

　　·They like it either.×

　　留意blame的两种用法：

　　·…put the blame on me.√

　　·…blame me for doing…√

　　are concerned about和are concerned with都可解作“关心”，are concerned with还可解作“关于”。

　　stick to的意思是“严格遵照”。

　　by far的意思是“……得多；最……（修饰比较级、级）”。

　　这句的意思是：“上次获得优先分配的今次便失去优先权。”

　　are faced with以are facing来代替也可，但后者有另一含意“积极地面对（问题）”。

　　严格来说，这里加上逗号较恰当：we， teachers…

　　此处用theirs的意思是their

　　problems.其他可接受的句子有：

　　·…do not have problems like them.

　　·…do not have problems as they do.

　　这里用killed themselves比用commit suicide有更强的传意效果。

　　poor有三个不同的解释：贫穷的/劣质的/可怜的“；此处解作”可怜的“。

　　以solve来代替不太恰当，因solve通常跟problems连在一起，settle用途较广泛，例如：settle the problem/argument/case，等等。

　　hold on的意思是“坚持下去”。

　　此处的gone是形容词，解作“过去”。

　　a brand new heart这短句属诗词形式，故并不一定是完整的句子。

　　a brand new跟new同义但前者强调某事物是“全新”的。

　　LANGUAGE SKILL

　　Passive voice

　　不少中五学生对“被动语态”（passive voice）的运用仍然感到陌生。在这种情况下，我建议他们尽量避免使用被动语态，以免给阅卷者留下坏印象。绝大部分以被动语态来陈述的句子，都可以改用“主动语态”（active voice）来陈述。请看本单元的例子。

　　EXAMPLE

　　不过，若学生们有信心能准确运用被动语态，可在写作时加上三两句以被动语态陈述的句子，使文章里的句子多点变化和生气。但以被动语态陈述的句子绝不能多用，否则整篇文章读起来欠通顺。

　　对于中四学生来说，读书和测验占据了他们生活的大部分时间。所以STSs的内容，不少是跟这些事情有关的。以下的STSs中某些被动语态的动词有错，请画上横线并将正确答案填写在右栏上，如该行没有错误，请打√。

　　Test Your Understanding

　　1. Sorry！ I'm very sorry， Sir. I think I cannot write too much to you today A History test will be hold tomorrow A lot of my time has been spend preparing for the test. I am not sure if I can finish my homework in time. Please pardon me if I can't. I hope that my exercise book will put on your desk before the deadline.

　　2. Last night I revised History to prepare for the test. I felt tired. Soon I will be boring to death by all these tests. But I have got no choice； I have to do it because I don't want to fail in these tests. I really worry that during the History test all will be forgot owing to my nervousness.

　　3. Do you know that I passed the last History test？ Only eight students managed to pass the test and I was one of them. I was very happy. But honestly， much effort has been spend preparing for that. Another History test has be scheduled for tomorrow. I have to prepare for that now. Bye！