When you were at school, one thing you probably hated to do most was spend your weekends going to work. There was homework to do, sport to play and fun to have. But our parents probably asked us to find a job to earn some money and get some life experience. When I was a teenager, I had to have a paper round: delivering newspapers to people’s homes. I then progressed to a Saturday job in a supermarket: stacking shelves and working at the checkout.
Today in the UK you are allowed to work from the age of 13, and many children do take up part-time jobs. It’s one of those things that are seen almost as a rite of passage (成人仪式). It’s a taste of independence and sometimes a useful thing to put on your CV (简历). Teenagers agree that it teaches valuable lessons about working with adults and also about managing their money.
Some research has shown that not taking up a Saturday or holiday job could be harmful to a person later on. A 2015 study by the UK Commission on Employment and Skills found that not taking part in part-time work at school age had been thought badly of by employer’s organizations for young adults being badly prepared for full-time work, but despite this, recent statistics have shown that the number of schoolchildren in the UK with a part-time job has fallen by a fifth in the past five years.
So, does this mean that British teenagers are now afraid of hard work? Probably not. Some experts feel that young people feel going out to work will affect their performance at school, and they are under more pressure now to study hard and get good exam results—and a good job in the long term. However, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told BBC News that “Properly regulated (控制的) part-time work is a good way of helping young people learn skills that they will need in their working lives.” In reality, it’s all about getting the right balance between doing part-time work and having enough time to study and rest.
1. How did the author feel about doing part-time jobs on weekends when he was a teenager?| A．Unwilling. | B．Interested. | C．Delighted. | D．Bored. |
| A．Learning to be independent. | B．Gaining some life experience. |
| C．Spending what they earn as they like. | D．Being prepared for future jobs. |
| A．In America part-time jobs have decreased by a fifth. |
| B．Taking up a part-time job could be harmful to a person later on. |
| C．Students are badly prepared for full-time work by doing part-time jobs. |
| D．Employer’s organizations think it bad for students not to do part-time jobs. |
| A．Students should spend all their time on studies. |
| B．Students should have as many part-time jobs as possible. |
| C．Doing part-time jobs must affect students’ school results. |
| D．It’s important for students to balance part-time jobs and studies. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Make Money This Summer with Sunny Libraries!
Do you have too much free time this summer vacation? Do you need a summer job to earn extra money? Do you want to be involved in your community? Sunny Area Library System (SALS) has job opportunities for high school students. These are good chances to get work experience.
Book Theater brings children’s book stories to life. It has shows at all Sunny Libraries. Applicants should enjoy performing in front of an audience and working with young children. Work Hours: Practice: Fridays 4:00 p. m. —6:00 p. m. Performance: Tuesdays 10:00 a. m. Rate of Pay: $ 16/performance | Computer Tutor helps guests to deal with technology problems, involving Internet searches and using the SALS Website to find materials. Applicants should have computer skills. Work Hours: Monday—Friday 9:00 a m. —5:00 p. m. Rate of Pay: $ 8/hour |
Bookmobile helps the driver find the routes to libraries. The truck you work in is air-conditioned, and the driver is friendly. Applicants must be able to lift heavy boxes. Work Hours: Sunday and Friday 9:00a m —4:00 p. m. Rate of Pay: $ 10/hour | Reader Desk provides service with a smile while checking materials in and out to guests. Friendly attitude and ability to work on library data system required. Work Hours: Monday—Tuesday 8:00 a m. —4:00 p. m. Rate of Pay: $ 7.50/hour |
| A．$ 64. | B．$ 120. | C．$ 140. | D．$ 320. |
| A．To repair computers. | B．To lift heavy boxes. |
| C．To check materials for guests. | D．To work with young children. |
| A．Book Theater | B．Computer Tutor |
| C．Bookmobile | D．Reader Desk |
| A．To provide job opportunities. | B．To raise money for libraries. |
| C．To introduce new books. | D．To attract students to libraries. |
【推荐2】We thought we had it all---a beautiful house, three healthy children and one more on the way, two cars, a couple of four-wheelers for entertainment---and we loved it. Then, the market turned and my husband’s job at a construction company was gone. The company was closing down for good.
We both started looking for jobs right away, but there weren't any to be found. With each passing day we were getting increasingly worried and we continued to work together in order to pull our family through. The more we pulled together, the closer we got. I felt feelings of admiration for my husband that I hadn't felt in years.
That's why it was so hard for me to watch him blame himself for our present situation. I continually asked him to stop, but he seemed to want to punish himself for not having a job.
Finally, one afternoon I pulled him aside and said, “We have four healthy children. That's what's important. That makes you a rich man.”
“But what if we lose the house? They'll hate me-you'll hate me,” he replied.
I smiled at him and put my hands on both sides of his face to make him look me in the eye. “No matter where we live I will be happy--as long as I have you.” I smiled again. In all the struggling together I had found that deep love for him that I had on the day we said “I do”.
I could see his shoulders and neck relaxed. He held me close and we were able to talk and plan and dream together in a way that we hadn't for quite some time. It was a turning point for us as a couple and a family.
We are still struggling for our better life, but I consider us well-off because we have something that money can't buy and no one can take away from us.
1. Why was it hard for the author to watch her husband blame himself?| A．She thought she should be blamed |
| B．She thought he had tried his best |
| C．She thought he would get a job someday |
| D．She thought it would remind her of sad memories |
| A．Bitter but quiet | B．Comfortable and easy |
| C．Hard but happy | D．Well-off and relaxing |
| A．We Have It All | B．We Find It Again |
| C．A Perfect Couple | D．A Hard Time |
【推荐3】I took a job as a receptionist for a vet almost five decades ago. As a keen animal lover, I accepted the position on the condition that I wouldn’t have to assist with any wounded animals. I couldn’t bear to see any creature in pain.
At the end of my first week, we were closing the office for the day when a young man ran up to us holding a severely injured Doberman puppy in his arms and begging us to save his life. The four- month-old pup had been hit by a car.
The doctor and I ran back into the operating room. The only place the skin was still attached to this poor little animal’s body was around one shoulder. The vet worked tirelessly for what seemed like hours, stitching him back together again. That was the easy part. The puppy had broken multiple bones, including his spine(脊椎). If he survived the next few days, we were quite sure he would never walk again.
That day forever changed my life. The vet mentored me, and I became his assistant in all things medical. One of my first jobs was to give that Doberman puppy daily physical therapy. I remember moving his tiny legs to try to keep his muscles from withering.
Weeks went by until one day, I felt this little fighter push back ever so slightly. And he continued to push back till he could finally use his legs.
Fas-forward about a year, I walked into the clinic’s crowded waiting room and called the name of the next client. Suddenly, a huge Doberman who had been standing quietly with his owner on the opposite side of the room broke loose and rushed toward me. I found myself pinned against the wall with this magnificent dog standing on his hind legs, his front paws on my shoulders, washing my face with abundant and joyful kisses!
I am still amazed at the display of love and gratitude the dog had for me that day all those years ago. I went on to be a vet tech for 14 years, and since retirement, I’ve volunteered at a no-kill animal shelter.
1. Why was the author unwilling to assist the vet with injured animals at first?| A．She didn’t like animals at all. | B．She couldn’t stand working with the vet. |
| C．She had no experience of tending animals. | D．She would feel sad seeing animals injured. |
| A．would not survive | B．would lose the ability to walk |
| C．would recover soon | D．would suffer great pain |
| A．Humorous. | B．Caring. |
| C．Ambitious. | D．Demanding. |
| A．A dog’s gratitude. | B．An experience in clinic. |
| C．I, an animal lover. | D．An incredible miracle. |
【推荐1】When you were at school, were you ever told to stop daydreaming and concentrate? It was easy for your mind to wander if you weren’t interested in what you were learning or if you had better things to think about.
Scientists have looked at what makes us procrastinate (拖延) and found a number of ways to help us stay focused.
There are more practical tips toward keeping your mind focused. These include making a list or timetable of the tasks you have to do, finding a workspace where you’re not tempted to do other things, or chewing some gum! It’s possible the movement in your mouth occupies parts of the brain that might otherwise get distracted.
| A．But distraction isn’t all bad. |
| B．Staying focused can still be a challenge in adult life. |
| C．Therefore, keeping yourself busy might be one answer. |
| D．Your ability to concentrate well affects how effective you are. |
| E．Another possible cure for a short attention span is brain training. |
| F．One obvious solution is to get rid of distracting noises or use “white noise”. |
| G．Some people procrastinate because they worry that won’t be able to complete tasks perfectly. |
【推荐2】In gardens across Britain the grass has stopped growing.
But now Britons have fallen in love with artificial grass. Evergreens UK, which sells the stuff, says it has seen a 120% rise in sales since 2015. Grass Direct reports they are up by 50% this year.
Artificial grass is popular with families who have children or dogs and don’t want mud pulled behind through their houses. It has an attractive factor, too. Andy Driver of Evergreens UK says people now see gardens as “outside rooms,”-pairing carpets of artificial grass with comfortable seating.
Not everyone is a fan.
Three protestors have tried to stop artificial grass spreading.
| A．Britons are fascinated by lawns. |
| B．They are not lacking water or drought-stricken. |
| C．These eco-gardeners are more likely to be environmentalists. |
| D．Betap, a Dutch firm, has recently launched its first British designs. |
| E．Artificial grasses contain microplastics that ruin soil and risk flooding. |
| F．Wildlife-loving gardeners are growing, many preferring to catch the insects. |
| G．The government says restricting what people do in their backyards is wrong. |
【推荐3】There will finally come a day when The New York Times ceases (停止) to publish stories on newsprint. Exactly when that day will be is a matter of debate. “Sometime in the future,” the paper’s publisher said back in 2010.
Nostalgia (怀旧) for ink on paper and the rustle of pages aside, there’s plenty of motivation to ditch (放弃) print. The infrastructure required to make a physical newspaper-printing presses, delivery trucks—isn’t just expensive; it’s excessive at a time when online-only competitors don’t have the same set of financial requirements. Readers are migrating away from print anyway. And though print ad sales still dwarf their online and mobile counterparts, revenue (收入) from print is still declining.
Overhead may be high and circulation may be lower, but rushing to eliminate (淘汰) its print edition would be a mistake, says BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti.
Peretti says the Times shouldn’t waste time getting out of the print business, but only if they go about doing it the right way. “Figuring out a way to accelerate that transition would make sense for them,” he said, “but if you discontinue it, you’re going have your most loyal customers really upset with you.”
Sometimes that’s worth making a change anyway. Peretti gives the example of Netfix discontinuing its DVD-mailing service to focus on streaming. “It was seen as blunder,” he said. The move turned out to be foresighted. And if Peretti were in charge at the Times? “I wouldn’t pick a year to end print,” he said “I would raise prices and make it into more of a legacy product.”
The most loyal customers would still get the product they favor, the idea goes, and they’d feel like they were helping sustain the quality of something they believe in. “So if you’re overpaying for print, you could feel like you were helping,” Peretti said. “Then increase it at a higher rate each year and essentially try to generate additional revenue.” In other words, if you’re going to make a print product, make it for the people who are already obsessed with it. Which may be what the Times is doing already. Getting the print edition seven days a week costs nearly $500 a year—more than twice as much as a digital - only subscription.
“It’s a really hard thing to do and it’s a tremendous luxury that BuzzFeed doesn’t have a legacy business,” Peretti remarked. “But we’re going to have questions like that where we have things were doing that don’t make sense when the market changes and the world changes. In those situations, it’s better to be more aggressive than less aggressive.”
1. Peretti suggests that in face of the present situation, The Times should ______.| A．make strategic adjustments |
| B．end the print sedition for good |
| C．seek new sources of leadership |
| D．aim for efficient management |
| A．helps restore the glory of former times |
| B．is meant for the most loyal customers |
| C．will have the cost of printing reduced |
| D．expands the popularity of the paper |
| A．traditional luxuries can stay unaffected |
| B．cautiousness facilitates problem-solving |
| C．aggressiveness better meets challenges |
| D．legacy businesses are becoming out dated |
| A．Shift to online newspapers all at once |
| B．Cherish the Newspapers still in your hand |
| C．Keep your Newspapers forever in fashion |
| D．Make your print Newspapers a luxury good |
【推荐1】Math and music are two entirely different fields of study, but there is a strong relevance between them. At some point, they tend to overlap, and it is common for people good at math to be good at music. It may seem illogical to compare the two, but there are more similarities between math and music than you would imagine.
Numbers can tell us more about music. Sounds strange but it’s true. Music is divided into sections that are called measures, where each measure has equal amounts of beats. This is comparable to mathematical divisions of time. Now, each piece of music will tell us how many beats there are in each measure. All the music notes have numerical connections and a number of beats. It is important to understand the value of fractions (分数) and notes to count the music correctly.
The biggest similarity between math and music in pattern. For example, music has repeating choruses while math uses patterns to explain the unknown. You can use different mathematical phenomena in music. These include geometry (几何学), signal processing, etc. In fact, research has shown that when music shows some mathematical structure, it tends to be more popular.
In addition to their shared elements, math and music can be taught using the principles of both. A student who enjoys math and music can benefit from both. For example, music can enhance cognition and reasoning skills. For instance, Einstein listened to music when solving math problems to increase clarity. Similarly, playing music can improve cognition, as it increases communication between the two brains.
Music is a gateway to many things, and until now, you probably didn’t realize that it’s just as demanding, analytical, logical and scientific as math. Something as simple as learning “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on the piano is actually setting your child up for bigger and better things; maybe they’ll pick up Pythagoras (毕达哥拉斯) in a flash, maybe they’ll be a genius in math, perhaps they’ll one day discover their own theory of relativity.
1. What does the author think about math and music?| A．Math and music are deeply intertwined. |
| B．Music is a totally different subject from math. |
| C．It sounds reasonable to compare math and music. |
| D．People expert at math all tend to be music lovers. |
| A．Measure is a piece of music. | B．Math helps in reading music. |
| C．Music sound appears strange. | D．Music beats equal to math numbers. |
| A．Patterns are common in both math and music. |
| B．Certain music skills are practised via choruses. |
| C．Music principle seems easier than mathematics. |
| D．Reasoning skills in math chiefly rely on music. |
| A．Musical involvement promotes to be a genius. |
| B．Music allows kids to combine math with piano. |
| C．Music offers kids potential success in mathematics. |
| D．Music may enhance the mathematics skills of all kids. |
Real riches consist of well-developed and hearty capacities (能力) to enjoy life. Most people are already swamped (淹没) with things. They eat, wear, go and talk too much. They live in too big a house with too many rooms, yet their house of life is a hut.
Your house of life ought to be a mansion (豪宅) , a royal palace. Every new taste, every additional interest, every fresh enthusiasm adds a room. Here are several rooms your house of life should have.
Art should be a desire for you to develop simply because the world is full of beautiful things. If you only understood how to enjoy them and feed your spirit on them, they would make you as happy as to find plenty of hamburgers and eggs when you're hungry.
Literature, classic literature, is a beautiful, richly furnished room where you might find many an hour of rest and refreshment. To gain that love would go toward making you a rich person, for a rich person is not someone who has a library but who likes a library.
Music like Mozart's and Bach's shouldn't be absent. Real riches are of the spirit. And when you've brought that spirit up to where classical music feeds it and makes you a little drunk, you have increased your thrills and bettered them. And life is a matter of thrills.
Sports, without which you remain poor, mean a lot in life. No matter who you are, you would be more human, and your house of life would be better supported against the bad days, if you could, and did, played a bit.
Whatever rooms you might add to your house of life, the secret of enjoying life is to keep adding.
1. The author intends to tell us that____________.
| A．true happiness lies in achieving wealth by fair means |
| B．big houses are people's most valued possessions |
| C．big houses can in a sense bring richness of life |
| D．true happiness comes from spiritual riches |
| A．however materially rich, they never seem to be satisfied |
| B．however materially rich, they remain spiritually poor |
| C．though their house is big, they prefer a simple life |
| D．though their house is big, it seems to be a cage |
| A．more money brings more happiness |
| B．art is needed to make your house beautiful |
| C．literature can enrich your spiritual life |
| D．sports contribute mainly to your physical fitness |
| A．House of Life | B．Secret of Wealth |
| C．Rest and Refreshment | D．Interest and Enthusiasm |
【推荐3】From now on, never spend your precious time thinking of reasons for your failures and shortcomings. Instead, realize that the seeds of success were planted within you when you were born. Only you have the power to make those seeds grow.
The seeds, and the power to grow them, are contained in the most awesome machine ever created: the human mind. Success is a choice and not a chance. You were born a winner. You were born rich. You can be a success if only you make the right choice.
You cannot be successful without first developing your self-esteem. Your level of self-esteem is always based on the degree of control that you are able to exercise over yourself, and thus over your life. People with low self-esteem are people who do not believe that they have any power, or responsibility for their lives. They are the perennial (长期的) victims and martyrs. They are leaves tossed (摇摆) by the winds of chance blown about with any sudden change in the weather.
You can exercise control over your life only to the degree that you believe that you are responsible for everything that happens in your life. Failures think that everything happens by accident and chance. Successful people realize that they are responsible.
Everything happens as a result of something. If we can identify the cause, we can control the effect. We are responsible for what we choose to think and believe. One generally rises to the level that one expects. We are responsible for setting our expectations. Our success is dependent upon our level of confidence.
If you associate with positive-thinking people, you are definitely going to achieve success. On the contrary, the opposite happens. We are responsible for finding, planting, and nurturing the seeds that contain future victory, born from setbacks.
In short, in all areas of your life, whether they be financial, physical, emotional, or spiritual, you are responsible. Once you recognize this, accept it, and firmly believe it, you are on the road to success.
1. People with low self-esteem are compared to leaves because they ______.| A．are ready to change their minds |
| B．are easily affected by windy weather |
| C．have the power to face their fate |
| D．can’t exercise control over themselves |
| A．success is the result of hard work |
| B．working hard will lead to success |
| C．their failure is only because of bad luck |
| D．they don’t make efforts to succeed |
| A．Whether we will succeed depends on our attitudes. |
| B．Confidence can contribute to success. |
| C．Thoughts and beliefs are the result of creative mind. |
| D．Setting our expectations is essential. |
| A．the proof of the author’s points |
| B．the conclusion of the argument |
| C．an introduction to another topic |
| D．a comparison between two views |
| A．Success Is a Choice |
| B．Be Responsible for Our Future |
| C．Develop Our Confidence |
| D．Success and Self-esteem |
