Online Jobs for School Students

Design Your Own Products
Age requirement: 13 to 19
Earning potential: Dependent on sales

Selling products online is a great way to earn extra cash while showcasing your creativity. Online retailers (零售商) like CafePress, Redbubble, and Society6 allow you to create custom designs for a variety of products, including shirts, mugs, tote bags, buttons, and stickers. Creators generally earn 10% — 20% of the sale price.

Become a Tutor
Age requirement: 16 to 19
Earnings: $10 — 40 per hour for high school students

If you excel in one or more academic subjects and already have some experience instructing your fellow students, you can find tutoring jobs or advertise your services on Facebook. If you’re 18 or older, you may be able to find clients through a tutoring site like Wyzant.

Do Voice-overs
Age requirement: 13 to 18
Earning potential: $50 per hour or more

Do you have a beautiful voice? Are you able to speak in different accents and take on different voice “personas?” If so, you might consider offering your services as a voice actor. Businesses often need voice actors for things like commercials, videos, audiobooks, games, and more. You will likely need to buy professional recording equipment, so be sure to research the market demands on your voice before investing in equipment.

Tackle Programming Projects
Age requirement: 13 years old or elder
Earning potential: $ 10 — 20 per hour

Technologically-skillful teens may want to pursue work as a programmer. If you know HTML 5, CSS, Java, Python, or another programming language, consider putting your expertise to use with a job in coding. You can advertise your skills and availability on Fiverr or Upwork, or look for open assignments on Craigslist.

1. What can you do at Wyzant?

A．Find potential students to teach.	B．Discover your own teaching style.
C．Direct your fellow students.	D．Share programming language.

2. What do you need to know before purchasing recording equipment?

A．Accents you can speak in.	B．Experiences you already have.
C．Market needs for your voice.	D．Available resources on the website.

3. Which job requires the widest age range?

A．Design Your Own Products.	B．Become a Tutor.
C．Do Voice-overs.	D．Tackle Programming Projects.

I’d been making sweaters for a few years and giving them away as gifts. Funny, I rarely knew whom would be given the sweater to when I started a new one. But eventually, a name would pop into my head. I’d given one of my sweaters to a coworker with a difficult pregnancy (怀孕). One to a friend entering recovery. Usually, a voice was in time to tell me who needed comfort.

“Did you hear about Susan?” I looked up. My friend Lori, one of the directors of our company, had stopped by my desk. We’d cooperated with Susan on a project recently, but I only saw her in meetings. We’d never had a private conversation. Susan was way above my rank, so to speak. I just worked with the data her department provided.

“Is she okay?” I asked. “She’s in the hospital for an operation,” Lori said.

There’s my name, I thought. The sweater was for Susan.

But sending something personally seemed presumptuous (冒昧的). Wouldn’t she think it strange to receive a gift from a random programmer? Besides, Lori mentioned that the office would send something from all of us. I looked up the website of the hospital where Susan was having her surgery. There were patient pages, where people could leave good wishes. Susan’s page was full of messages. Friends and family were visiting, bringing her chocolates and dropping off meals for her family. Susan has a great support network. Surely, the sweater ought to go to someone else.

A voice seemed to come from deep inside me, “Vicki, maybe Susan needs it.”

Well, I knew what I should do. I mailed the sweater to her, with a little note: “I hope this brings you comfort.” Beyond my expectation, Susan sent me a nice thank-you note, saying, “Your gift meant much to me.”

I’d worried I was being inappropriate, thinking I was the wrong person to reach out. But the voice helped me make the right decision.

4. How did Vicki decide on the receiver of her sweater?

A．By consulting with Lori.

B．By following her inner voice.

C．By assessing the receiver’s difficulty.

D．By randomly choosing one from her friends.

5. What can we know about Susan from Paragraph 2?

A．She took charge of Vicki’s company.

B．She had a close relationship with Lori.

C．She was unfamiliar to Vicki.

D．She bore responsibility for providing data to Vicki.

6. What is the main purpose of Paragraph 5?

A．To praise the hospital’s facility.

B．To show Susan’s popularity among her friends.

C．To give a detailed account of Susan’s serious condition.

D．To list some reasons for not giving Susan the sweater.

7. Which of the following words can be used to describe Vicki?

A．Fun and ambitious.	B．Considerate and kind.
C．Faithful and curious.	D．Brave and creative.

If you work in a white-collar job in an office, it is likely that you will wear a uniform. Why do you need to wear one?

For employers who require it, there are several arguments in favour of uniforms. They help ensure a level of professionalism in appearance. They project a brand identity, from the red coats of Virgin Atlantic crew to the “Browns” uniform of UPS delivery drivers. They may have useful job-specific features.

A study by Robert Smith of Tilburg University and his colleagues asked people to imagine being on the receiving end of poor service when ordering a pizza. They were then shown pictures of the uniformed or non-uniformed employee. The person without a uniform who had treated them badly was circled. In this sense, if corporate clothing is a symbol of good service, the authors suggest that it may be a good idea not to give it to inexperienced workers, because, to some extent, it’s a representative of a profession.

Uniforms can also affect the psychology of employees. In 2012, Hajo Adam, a professor in Columbia Business School, coined the term “enclothed cognition (认知)” to describe the effect that specific clothes have on the way that people think and feel. Questions have been raised over the validity of enclothed cognition, but a new meta-analysis by Messrs Adam and Galinsky, along with Carl Blaine Horton of Columbia Business School, concludes that the phenomenon is real.

The obvious objection to uniforms, at least from people who do not wear them, is that they limit individuality and autonomy. But employees who do not have to wear a formal uniform often gravitate towards a costume anyway. Some coders (编码人员) seem to be under an unspoken duty to wear T-shirts. The combination of shirt, trousers and Patagonia gilet (马甲) is known as the “midtown uniform” for finance types in New York. Bosses build brands by wearing the same outfit day after day. Therefore, you may not be required to wear a uniform when you head off to work. You may still be in uniform.

8. Why is Virgin Atlantic crew mentioned in Paragraph 2?

A．To emphasize the need for uniforms in all industries.

B．To highlight the importance of job-specific features in uniforms.

C．To provide an example of how uniforms establish a brand image.

D．To discuss the variety of uniform styles across different professions.

9. What can we infer about uniforms from Robert Smith’s study?

A．They mean professional.

B．They impress customers.

C．They guarantee quality service.

D．They symbolize the corporate image.

10. What does the underlined word “validity” mean in Paragraph 3?

A．The variety of the coined term.

B．The state of being logical and true.

C．The context of questions being raised.

D．The complexity of the phenomenon.

11. What is the author’s attitude towards uniforms?

A．Opposed.

B．Dismissive.

C．Approving.

D．Doubtful.

The western tanagers (唐纳雀) spend their winters in Central America and can be found in a variety of habitats. In spring, they prepare to migrate (迁移), flying through grasslands, deserts, and occasionally, suburban yards.

To fuel them on their lengthy journey, western tanagers fill up on insects and berries. Like most migrating birds, they eat enormous amounts of food. But as global climate change causes spring to start earlier, they arrive at their destination after what’s known as “green-up”, when flowers begin blooming and insects emerge.

According to a study published in the journal PNAS, this kind of timing mismatch between migrants and their food sources, could have affected migratory birds’ survival. “In discussing climate change, we often focus on warming,” says Scott Loss, a professor and co-author of the study. “But few people have noticed that the length and timing of seasons—like when winter ends and spring begins—are some of the most dramatic effects of climate change.”

The awe-inspiring migration has attracted humans for many years, yet scientists have limited knowledge of how birds manage to fly as far as they do, up to tens of thousands of miles a trip. The migratory cues (提示) that birds rely on are various: temperature, day length, landforms, the stars, as well as the instructions coded in their genes (基因). Some of the environmental cues, such as temperature, are likely affected by climate change. But others, such as day length and stars, are not. “That might be one reason why some migratory birds are more affected by climate change than others,” Loss says.

Worldwide, bird populations are in decline. The number of birds in North America has dropped by roughly 30 percent since 1970. Even species with large population, such as crows, have suffered a population decrease. Scott Loss says that the migration research could information efforts in the future. And he hopes that the information will serve to highlight the urgent need to come up strategies to deal with climate change.

12. What does “green-up” refer to in Paragraph 2?

A．The phenomenon of birds’ greeting spring.	B．The phase when plants flower and insects appear.
C．A project to plant more trees and restore greenery.	D．A term describing the period when birds migrate.

13. What is often overlooked about the effects of climate change according to Scott Loss?

A．The length and timing of seasons.	B．The change of birds’ flying habit.
C．The habitat destruction.	D．The reduction of food resources.

14. What might be used to help migratory birds decide the right time to migrate?

A．Day length.

B．Instructions from genes.

C．Temperature.

D．Stars.

15. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Climate Change Is Too Fast For Migrating Birds

B．The Journey Of Migratory Birds Is Full Of Adventure

C．Bird Migration Serves As A Warning Of Climate Change

D．Immediate Action Must Be Taken To Carry Out Research On Birds