A new school term begins, Is anything new at your school? Sichuan students are getting an extra (额外的)hour to sleep in the morning.
This year, Sichuan schools decided that students should start classes later. This should help them feel less tired, For Junior high schools, the first classes will begin no earlier than 8:30 am.
The changes have made students happy.
Liu Xian, 15, said his class was excited by the news on the first day of school. “It’s so good we can get up later!” said Liu.
Liu studies in Chengdu No.4 Middle School. He used to get up at 6:40 am. Now he can get up at 7:40 am because class doesn’t start until 8:40 am.
Wu Hongli, 15, said the new timetable is good for her health. “I used to drink coffee every night or I would feel to sleepy to finish my homework, ”said Wu. “Now I can finish it without coffee.”She used to get up at 6:30 am. Now she can get up at 7:30 am.
Wu Hongli’s mother was happy, too. She thought more sleep would help her daughter grow taller.
But some parents worried that more sleep would mean less learning. There used to be five classes in the morning. Now there are only four.
Many teachers, though, say the changes will help students learn better.
“Students used to doze(瞌睡)for the first two classes in the morning,”said Wu Zongping, an English teacher at Chendu No.12 Middle School. “But now they look fine and they learn much better than before.”
【小题1】What made the Sichuan middle school students happy?

Learning English grammar and English vocabulary can be hard enough, but trying to understand English sayings can be more difficult. Some are just hard to figure out and others don’t make any sense at all. Here are four funny English sayings that you can use every day.
I’m happy as a clam(蛤).
Think of a clam. It doesn’t have to do anything. It just sits on a beach or on the bottom of the ocean all day doing nothing. It never has to work. That sounds like happiness, doesn’t it? If someone asks, “How are you today?” you can answer “I am happy as a clam” to let him or her know what a great mood you are in.
I wouldn’t touch that (or him/her) with a ten-foot pole.
Maybe there is a person who you don’t want to be friends with or even talk to. Well, this saying means that you dislike him or her so much that you don’t want to touch or go near him or her, even within ten feet!
You don’t have a leg to stand on.
This saying doesn’t mean that the person you’re talking to has no legs. It means that his or her argument is incorrect. He or she doesn’t have a leg to stand on because he or she has no facts to support what he or she is saying. This saying is a good way to tell people that you think they’re wrong.
Break a leg!
This saying actually means the opposite of what it sounds like. If you tell this to a person, you’re wishing him or her good luck！The saying comes from a superstition(迷信) that whatever you say aloud, the opposite will come true.
【小题1】The first paragraph mainly tells us____________________.