Being a father is tough （做父亲并不容易）

照顾孩子确实并非易事，“睡眠不足”便是有婴儿的父母亲的通病。在某种程度上，照顾婴儿会影响我们白天的工作。

　　TEACHER'S

　　Dear students，

　　It is 7：25 early in the morning. I am right now writing this in Staff Room A. The reason is simple. Last night I tried to make my boy sleep before I could write my STS. But he was very energetic——running around the room， jumping， shouting， screaming …I didn't know when he fell asleep because we all slept when he was still playing around the room. When I woke up at about two in the morning， of course he was already fast asleep （sleeping tight， sleeping soundly）。 I got up to tidy up the room， move my son to his bed， make the bed， go over to my daughter's room to check whether she was properly covered with the blanket， go to the bathroom to brush my teeth … Originally， I wanted to start working on my STS but I felt really sleepy. So I gave up. I went to bed.

　　Yesterday， the same thing happened to me. I was sitting in Staff Room A during the fifth period and doing something. I felt very drowsy （sleepy）。 I looked at the clock and saw that it was 12：15 in the afternoon.I thought it would be good to have 5 minutes' rest before going to class， so I bent over my table and had a nap. The bell rang but I did not hear it. When I woke up， it was already half past twelve. I gathered everything and quickly raced up to Geography Room for an English class with 4D. There was a big red mark on my forehead because of the pressure from my arm. They were surprised to see that and I told them the reason. I think they should have sent somebody down to wake me up earlier. Perhaps they enjoyed that——the teacher being late for a class. Just kidding！

　　Well， maybe I am getting tired and should have a little more rest. Thank heavens that the Christmas holiday is coming. But before I can really take a rest， I have to complete two pieces of homework. One should be about seven-thousand-word long while the other one should be two thousand words. I had better stop now to have a quick breakfast. Bye.

　　Dennis

　　留意表达时间的正确方法：

　　·Now is 7：25…×

　　·It is 7：25…√

　　·Now it is 7：25…√

　　·It is now 7：25…√

　　make的意思可以包括“吩咐”、“帮助”或“鼓励”。

　　energetic（解作“活跃的”）是一个较正面的形容词，意思是 filled with energy或full of energy .若用hyperactive（解作“过分活跃”）则带有负面含意。

　　shouting是大声呼叫，而screaming则是尖叫。

　　fast asleep、sleeping tight和sleeping soundly三个短语都是解作“熟睡”。

　　make the bed的意思是“铺床”。

　　whether在这里可用 if代替。

　　在这里若用 was well covered不太恰当，因为 well covered通常是指“完全覆盖”。

　　这里用writing代替也可，但workingon的应用范围更广。

　　同学们须特别留意几个数词的拼法，它们是： fifth、 ninth、 twelfth 及fortieth .

　　这里不可写作sleep（slept）on thetable或 lie（lay） on the table，因为它们的意思是“整个人睡在桌上”。

　　nap的意思是“小睡”，即short sleep.

　　在这里若用listen不太恰当，因为listen通常是指“留心地听/倾听”；而hear则泛指“听见（声音）”。

　　gathered可用collected代替。

　　raced的同义词包括： ran、 rushed、dashed及hurried.

　　because of在这里可以用 as a result of或 resulting from代替。

　　should have sent somebody…的意思是“本该派人……”。

　　kidding 可以用joking代替。

　　这里的have用take或get代替都可以。

　　Thank heavens这句习惯上省略了主语。

　　因homework是不可数名词所以两份作业是two pieces of homework.

　　I had better…不是过去时，它的意思是“我……”，即：It is better for me to…

　　LANGUAGE

　　Length of sentence

　　学生们经常会问我：“写作时应多用短句（short sentence），还是多用长句（lengthy sentence）？”我的回答是：

　　少量长句可表现语言能力；

　　少量短句可使文章简明扼要；

　　不过大部分句子应不长不短。

　　若不明白，请看以下例子。

　　EXAMPLE

　　这是学生们最后一次写给我的STSs.他们都有点依依不舍。因此，我给了他们我的通讯地址，欢迎他们写信给我。请把每一段STS中画上横线的短句转变成一句长句，并将答案填写在右栏上（留意其中的提示）。

　　Test Your Understanding