American secondary school（中学）life

       American secondary school life is rich and colorful. American students pay much attention to the participation(参与) in school activities such as sports, clubs, service parties, associations (社团;协会), entertainment and other hobby groups. By undertaking（从事） those activities, the school tries to not only teach students social abilities and teamwork skills(能力；技能), but also nurture(培养) students’ personalities such as being self-independent(自主的), self-respect(自尊的), open-minded and positive(积极的).

       In America, the primary school（小学）students don’t have to pass an exam to get the entrance (进入许可) of the secondary school. They can continue their study at their local secondary school straight after their graduation（毕业） from the primary school. The secondary school subjects include Maths, English, science, social science, and French. Different schools have different exam systems and also have different teaching methods because of different subjects. In general, American teachers in the secondary school will not grade students based on(基于) one exam, but according to the students’ internal assessments(评价) of the whole semester(学期), which include(包含) course reports, assignments(作业), in-class discussion, in-class tests and the midterm or final exams. In addition, the compulsory education(义务教育) in America usually ends when students are sixteen. The students normally need to pass all compulsory courses to graduate from the school.