【推荐1】Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. connected   B. estimates   C. free   D. ideally   E. lasting   F. promoted G. restrictive   H. scenes     I. sense     J. understood   K. questionably

Home schooling is hard even for the best of us

Many parents have toyed with home schooling. The idea is associated with images of children and parents sitting at the kitchen table, solving the mysteries of maths, science and languages     1     of traditional education.

This week, parents have encountered a harder reality — not home schooling in the usual     2    , but enforced schooling-for-home. Kitchen tables piled with books and bowls; frustrated parents trying to remember how to do improper fractions (可约分数) while taking part in a video conference with work colleagues; fights over laptops as children insist they need to log on to online lessons — such     3     will have been repeated in households across the world.

Home learning, as more usually     4    , is not a new idea. The modern home-school movement emerged in the 1970s,     5     by the bikes of John Holt, an American teacher and education writer. He advised parents to fit the curriculum to the child’s interests, not the other way around. The most recent     6     suggest that close to 60,000 children are home schooled in England, for reasons including mental health issues and special educational needs. Some parents have given up on what they see as a(n)     7     “one-size fits all” education system. Educationalists, including Britain’s Sir Ken Robinson, have complained that schools’ need to follow strict curriculums can harm children’s natural creativity.

For parents in today’s health crisis, technology is proving a lifeline. School by Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams or Zoom has been hugely popular to keep children focused as well as     8     as class. For younger children, various British celebrities (名流) are offering their services to help with lessons in maths, English as well as history.

How best to make it work? Experts say children need a clear structure. They should rise, breakfast and work according to a clear timetable in line with normal schooling,     9     studying in a place without distractions. Make the most of “live” online classes, and additional work and resources, that schools are offering. Allow time for physical exercise, and family time - and arguably less homework after studying finishes. Above all, parents should take a deep breath and keep calm. One     10     lesson many home workers-cum-home schoolers will draw from today’s crisis is this: teachers will never again have to prove that they are worth it.

【推荐2】Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once.

A. physical   B. practical   C. popular   D. capable   AB. range   AC. blame AD. return   BC. concerns   BD. dropped   CD. shared   ABC. improvements

Born and raised in a digital age, today’s young people are generally tech savvy （技术娴熟的). But when it comes to basic life skills, they are less     1     than the older generation.

According to a recent study by YouGov, a UK-based market research firm, 69 percent of 18-24-olds in the UK have no idea how to bleed a radiator (暖气片换水). About 35 percent of them don’t know how to sew on a button, while about 11 percent don’t understand how to change a light bulb or iron clothes.

In fact, the problem is     2    by young people in the United States. According to a report by Forbes in 2014, most millennial (千禧一代) drivers don’t know how to check their tire pressure. Cooking is another basic life skill that has been     3     as millennials are much more likely to order food deliveries than previous generations.

Technology may be to     4     for this generational gap. “Skills at using phones and computers are the ones valued these days, and the     5     hands-on skills of yesteryear are now seen as functions that can be easily outsourced (外包),” Sandi Mann, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, told the Mirror.

Indeed,     6     in technology have made young people unfamiliar with many basic life skills. For example, with GPS always at hand, young people have had no need to learn how to read     7     maps,

However, this change has raised     8     among many people. “If you have your master’s degree and you can’t live within your means or go home from your job and feed yourself a nutritious meal, you’re not a complete graduate,” Chris Moore, a professor from Brigham Young University, US, told HuffPost.

That’s why there’s an increasing call for the     9     of “home ec” in the US, short for home economics, which teaches basic life skills like cooking and how to do laundry. It was very     10    in the early 20^th century, but was later taken out of schools and universities because of budget cuts. But recently, home ec was reintroduced in a small number of schools and universities.

【推荐3】Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. prey     B. internalize     C. attachment     D. initial       E. insufficient F. struggling G. capped H. edge I. imposed     J. suspected   K. ignorance

As colleges and universities nationwide revealed their admission decisions, news broke of a dramatic decline in acceptance rates-and not just at Ivy League schools. The shift meant that many high school students who pinned all their hopes on particular dream schools might find themselves     1     with real disappointment.

Why were admissions so low these years? It’s a number game. These years, colleges saw the number of applicants soar to record-high levels. But considering     2     budgets, the number of spots colleges could offer had to be     3    . As a result, both state schools and private colleges kept seeing their acceptance rates fall rapidly.

It’s not that most students won’t get into colleges at all. Instead, there are more than enough spots nationwide for every qualified applicant to find a place for study. But for many, the school they end up enrolling in may not have been their first, or even third choice. The     4     strike of rejection, in some cases, could be heartbreaking. These are kids who are used to being the best of the best.

But some of the pressure is     5    , without excuses, by students themselves, according to Laurence Steinberg, professor of Psychology. He thinks that Americans fall     6     to their own addiction to school rankings and fame. Students and their parents have formed strong commitments to particular schools long before admission decisions are made. “When they are rejected, it’s like being rejected by a boyfriend or girlfriend,” Steinberg says. “They     7     it: What’s the matter with me? What could I have done differently?”

That emotional     8     is often only about what school name students will paste on their parents’ cars but it may also lead to families’     9     of what may actually be the suitable school for the students.

Actually, painful as the rejection is, in the long run, getting into a high-ranking university doesn’t necessarily mean competitive     10     in terms of job prospects and earnings. A research shows that many students rejected by highly selective schools earn as much as Ivy League graduates. What really matters is how seriously students take their studies.