Reading: At school in Japan

Read the text and do the tasks.

At school in Japan.

It is the end of a school day. Senzo is cleaning the floors in the toilets. '' Cleaning the toilets is the worst job. I hate it '', laughs Senzo.

In Japan children at the age of 6 to 18 clean their school. They spend fifteen minutes to half an hour a day cleaning , taking out the rubbish and removing graffiti from the walls.

''Kids write graffiti in pencil'', explains Miyuki Shibhara, a teacher, ''because they have to clean the walls themselves''.

All students in Japan wear school uniform, and there are a lot of school rules. But the teenagers don't always follow the rules. For example, one 15-year-old boy in Omiya changed the colour of his hair from black to brown, but the teachers made him change it back again!

Students in Japanese schools work very hard. Shingo is a typical 16-year-old boy. He catches a train to school at 7 a.m. every morning. After school he and his friends do extra school activities. Shingo plays basketball and gets home at 8 p.m. He goes 2 or 3 hours of homework. ''I have no time for friends'', he says. ''We work very hard because we want to go to good universities''.

Many Japanese students are among the best in the world in Maths and Science. Should our schools be more like Japanese schools?

Choose the correct answers ( T or F).

Students in Japanese schools clean the schools themselves.

Japanese students don't wear school uniform

Students always follow the rules

Japanese students do extra activities after school.

Many students in Japan are good at languages.

Students usually do one hour of homework.

Answer the questions.

What age do students in Japan clean their school?

How much time do students spend a day cleaning the school and taking the rubbish out?

Why do students in this country work very hard?

They do their homework ... .

They are good at ... .

Shingo plays ... and gets home at 8p.m.