Brush your teeth every day, dentists say. In the south of Africa, some people brush their teeth with sticks first.
They keep a small stick in their mouth to chew (咀嚼) or scrub (洗刷) their teeth all day. People cut the sticks from trees. They are the African toothbrushes. People there are used to brushing their teeth with sticks.
Africans think the sticks work better than toothbrushes. The sticks come from nature, and it is said that there is something special about them. The special thing may stop many kinds of tooth problems. “If you have a bad tooth, it is a medicine,” said Diop, a seller in Africa.
The sticks also cost less than toothbrushes.
In Senegal (塞内加尔), the chewing stick is called “sothio”. It means “to clean” in their language. In east Africa, the stick is called “mswaki”. It’s their word for “toothbrush”.
Nowadays, some nice health stores in the United States start to sell chewing sticks. They think that the stick is natural kind of tooth care.
大连的天气与丹东的天气一样凉爽吗?
Is the weather in Dalian _______ that in Dandong?
Tyler was a troublesome student. He sat in the back row. Every time I called him to answer questions, he’d reply with a flip(轻率的)answer. If he got it wrong, he would get very angry.
Usually kids could sit quietly in class. However, Tyler was just loud. One day, Tyler was talking while I was teaching. I said to him, “Tyler, why not join in our discussion instead of having one of your own?” He got up from his chair, pushed it over, and shouted something I can’t remember. I sent him to the office and he received a week’s out-of-school punishment.
The week was a wonderful time for me, but when it came to an end, I began to feel worried. So I came up with a plan. On the day of his return, I told him I wanted to start over with him. If he felt like he was going to lose control in class, he could step outside the door for a moment.
From then on, Tyler was a changed student in my classroom. In fact he was a smart child and he even stopped a fight between two students one day. And he never used the privilege(特权)to leave the class for a moment. I believe that just letting him decide for himself made all the difference.
When the year was over, he wrote me a thank-you note about how good the year had been for him. I still have it today and find it very moving to reread when I get stressed about teaching.
- When are we going to see the movie ZooTopia, this afternoon or tonight?
- ______ is OK. I’m free today.