【推荐1】Life is a cyclical course

Life is a cyclical course of lessons, growth and expansion. When you are truly listening to the messages along the way, you find your life transformations are surprising. The following are universal truths that have the ability to change your life for the better.    1    

●Following your heart is everything. We’ve been taught that the best way to achieve our desires is to set a goal, create a plan and take action.    2    The best way is to listen to your heart, be open to the possibilities and take action on the inspired ideas. If so, you will reach your goals faster than ever before.

●     3    Too often we spend our tie paying attention to what isn’t working and what’s just going wrong in our lives and that only keeps us stuck. When you let go of the outcome, the struggle and the constant worry, you will make room for the magic of the universe to bring in your every desire.

●You are enough.     4     It may take some learning, support, and help from others. But when you trust that you are not only good enough, but worthy too, there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.

●     5    You can make a number of excuses about why starting, but the truth is your time is now. no matter what dream or desire you have, you will never have more time in your life to bring those desires to finish. Do your future a favor, drop the excuses and start now.

A．Letting go is the answer.

B．There is no better time to begin than now.

C．You will find strength you never thought you had.

D．So read, embrace and allow them to transform your life into beautiful ways.

E．In my experience that is certainly one way to do it, but it’s not the best way.

F．When you change your belief, you have the power to transform any situation better.

G．Feeling not good enough is another way you may be holding yourself back from the life.

【推荐2】School phobia is a type of illness which causes the students, typically between the ages of 8-13, to be afraid to go to school. Symptoms include stomach aches, tiredness, shaking, a racing heart and frequent trips to the toilet.

    1     Most commonly it is the result of separation anxiety, but it can also be caused by different kinds of stress. A child who has recently moved, suffered a loss, or gone through a divorce may develop school phobia, and phobias can also develop in response to bullying, an unrecognized learning disability, and poor self-image.    2    

Many techniques can be used to manage school phobia. But research suggests that much more effective treatment is required for school phobia to prevent problems developing in later life. Children with this condition usually benefit from seeing a psychologist or doctor who can help the child and provide assistance to help parents and school officials support the child. As soon as school phobia is identified, parents should take action too.     3    , and it can prevent the child from succeeding in school.

    4     If bullying in school is a cause, for example, the bullying situation should be solved. A teacher can meet the child at the door and take him or her to class, and provide support so that the child feels a friendly adult is always available. Changes at home can include supportive language from parents, along with support like assistance with homework. If a child lacks confidence, parents may encourage the child to take up new hobbies.     5     Parents might also talk to their children about their own fears of school and how they got over them, and their own enjoyment of school and school-like activities.

A．It will help children to feel good about themselves

B．But a child with phobia refuses to accept adults' support

C．Adjustments can be made at home and in the classroom to help

D．This common phobia is associated with a wide variety of causes

E．Like other phobias, school phobia gets worse if it is left untreated

F．The most effective treatment is to help the child have a sense of success

G．Understanding the cause of school phobia is an important step in providing treatment

【推荐3】

A recent study by Citi Retail Services found that a growing number of people are embracing digital wallets or e-wallets, due in large part to their convenience and ease of use. E-wallets have been called the future of real-world payment technology.With major players like Alipay, WeChat and Apple Pay becoming popular, it seems to be a safe bet that a change in consumer payment technology is coming soon.

CNN reporter Paul Ripley experienced a day in Beijing without his wallet."In China's largest cities,you can definitely survive without carrying a pocket full of cash and credit cards-as long as you've got your smartphone."He paid for breakfast by scanning a QR code on the window of a hole-in-the-wall restaurant.All he had to do was to enter a password and the transaction was complete.

Unlike the situations in the US and other countries,"China doesn't have a really money-making credit card system,so Chinese people just skipped credit cards and went straight to mobile payments."Gu Yu,co-founder of the new payment app Mileslife,told CNN.He also pointed out the advantages of mobile payments."No coins or bills that can be lost or stolen.electronic receipts,the ease of keeping track of spending-and of course,no wallet taking up space."he said.

However, if we want to make e-wallets a mainstream trend a lot of things will have to change over the coming years.Perhaps one of the most important things that need to be changed is how people regard e-wallets. Linda Barrabee, research director for NPD Connected Intelligence, said in a statement."In order to promote on-the-go consumer transactions and commerce,wireless carriers,credit card companies,and e-commerce companies need to make sure the process is convenient,simple,and secure for consumers."

1. More consumers tend to use e-wallets because they are       .

A．fashionable	B．enjoyable
C．handy	D．economic

2. Paul Ripley's example is used mainly to show that       .

A．Smartphone payments are available in every part of China now.

B．Life in Beijing has become the most advanced in the world

C．You can buy anything you want using mobile payments in Beijing.

D．Mobile payments are popular in large cities in China like Beijing

3. Which of the following statement is NOT rue according to the passage?

A．There will be no more cash or credit card payments in the near future.

B．Digital-wallets will save up much space in your bag when you go out.

C．How people consider digital wallets will influence the popularity of digital wallet

D．The Chinese credit card system has partly caused the popularity of digital wallets

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．E-wallets is much safer and more convenient than traditional payments.

B．There is still a long way to make e-wallets become the main trend in our life.

C．E-wallets will be definitely a mainstream trend in our life.

D．E-commerce companies will make great profits by using e-wallets in the future.

【推荐1】You want your essay to be the one that is passed around the admissions office or not? It's a little bit like the difference between being famous and infamous. Here are some basic tips to avoid that infamous essay：

● Don't write the “safe” essay.

    1       It could be something that others have also experienced, but make sure to say how it affected you. Something personal and unique never fails to stand out.

● Avoid the generic and get specific.

Never write that you're “well rounded” or that “many people have influenced” you.     2     Real and specific experiences are a lot more convincing than something you copy from the Internet.

●    3    

There is no need to share your participation level (hours per week and weeks per year) because colleges ask for that information on your activity list. It is important for the students to use every opportunity to show who they are and impress the admissions office.

● Don't talk about rankings.

Many students love focusing on the numbers when they are writing their “why this college” essay. They believe they are flattering (讨好) the college by saying the reason why they want to attend is that the college is highly ranked in US News & World Report. Obviously schools are aware of their rankings.     4    

● Don't complain.

If you have gone through difficult circumstances, you should share your story. Don't point fingers.     5     A better essay will talk about how you have dealt with, and hopefully overcome the obstacles you came across.

A．It's important to show patience and determination.

B．This applies to all types of essays.

C．Don't forget about the activity list.

D．Pick a topic that only you can write about.

E．They just want to know why you want to attend.

F．Don't repeat information that is elsewhere in your application.

G．Tell the reader what you've done, how you've been influenced, and by whom.

【推荐2】It is that time of the year again. Up and down the country, thousands of students stay in the library, attempting to cram(死记硬背)the information necessary to get through finals. I am one of them — a Cambridge finalist, attempting to deal with the Oxbridge stress in the only way I know: caffeine hits and reclusion(遁生活) Whether you love or hate Oxbridge, the fact that these two universities provide unique learning environments is something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, students have access to some of the best education in the world; on the other hand, the pressure that comes with this can prove damaging to them and can't be swept under the carpet for they have to face it eventually.

Many Cambridge students find themselves trapped in a pressure of expectation, whether this comes from their supervisors or tutors, their director of studies or even from themselves. The drive towards achievement is either the key to success or to possible serious personal issues, as Mark Phippen, head of the University of Cambridge's Counseling Service said, ''There are plenty of perfectionists in Cambridge, but it can work two ways: it can push them to accomplish and to achieve, or it can get out of hand, disabling them. ''

Many students say that they can’t handle it any more while working in certain libraries which are filled with other students hard at work. The competition and paranoia(疑)are more common than what we realize or question: you can feel as if you are being judged for how much time you spend on Facebook or YouTube, or how little time you spend reading.

Too many students feel almost frustrated by the pressure to achieve but feel unable to speak about it. As everyone seems to be coping, they must also pretend to cope too. The only thing students have: tutors and supervisors regularly encourage students to avoid extracurricular activities, urging them to focus on their studies to such an extent that many find it hard to handle it. One current Cambridge tutor has been known for checking up on the activities of students involved in extracurricular theatre by searching for them on the camdram.net website, which details who is involved in certain plays each term — just in case it affects the student’s work output.

Problems arise when the pressure produces mental health issues. Problems have been brought to attention in articles primarily from Oxford's Cherwell and Cambridge's The Tab. The attention has made the Cambridge University Student Union set up Students Deserve Better — a campaign to handle complaints about supervisors and tutors lacking the ability to provide proper spiritual support. ''When I told my supervisor about my problems with anxiety and therefore about my worries surrounding the workload she was suggesting, she said that I would probably feel less anxious once the work was done, '' a finalist student called Jane said. ''It shouldn't be an accepted response in one of the world's best universities. Their responses only worsened any feelings I had concerning my final year. ''

Phippen said, ''At this point the exams seem like the most important thing in the world. However, two years down the line you’ll realize that the exams you did at university aren't very important at all, as what then becomes more important is what you have done within those two years afterwards. Finalist exams can become depressing for students studying at any university. All you must remember is that you are not alone and you are good enough, and that a few years down the line, your ability to recount the plots of Euripides' nineteen plays will no longer matter. So why worry? ''

1. The underlined part ''be swept under the carpet'' in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ''______''.

A．be covered up	B．be dealt with
C．be given up	D．be figured out

2. What's Mark Phippen's attitude towards the pressure put on the students at Oxbridge?

A．Critical.	B．Doubtful.
C．Objective.	D．Ambiguous.

3. What can we know from Paragraph 4?

A．Extracurricular activities fail to appeal to most students.

B．Some tutors and supervisors push their students too hard.

C．There is a lack of communication between students and their supervisors.

D．Some students don't speak about the pressure because they think they can handle it.

4. What Jane said in Paragraph 5 suggests that she ______ .

A．didn't get her problems across to her supervisor

B．had expected better spiritual guidance from her tutors

C．was dissatisfied with her supervisor's delayed responses

D．was glad that Students Deserve Better was set up to help students like her

5. Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

A．Oxbridge pressure: the key to students' achievements

B．Oxbridge finals: the toughest exams in the country

C．Oxbridge graduates: the strongest competitors in the job market

D．Oxbridge success: the result of teacher-student interaction

【推荐3】Students should be able to show what they know. Many folks take this as a self-evident truth. But I think it demands closer examination.

Possessing a skill or piece of knowledge is not the same thing as being able to show it. This is why many smart young people hate school. Understanding, figuring out, and getting a handle on a piece of knowledge is really exciting, but having to prove to somebody else that you understand is a big fat pain in the neck.

Finding proof of student learning is a huge part of the teacher's job, and whether it is done poorly or not makes all the difference in that teacher's effectiveness. There is a huge difference between “How do I figure out if this student understands” and “How do I make this student prove to me he gets it.” The first is a valuable approach; the second is the first step on the road toward wasting everybody's time.

And there's the problem. If we start with the assumption（假定）that a student who knows must be able to show his knowledge to our satisfaction, we will be traveling down the wrong road. The more we demand that students prove to us that they know the stuff, the more we will design artificial tasks that demand a set of skills and knowledge entirely different from the skills and knowledge we really want to measure.

As a classroom teacher, I have to remember that the burden is on me to find a way to see what my students know; the burden is not on them to put on whatever trained monkey show I design for my own ease and convenience.

It may not be the worst thing ever to say “Students should be able to show what they know.” But I think it's far more useful to say, “Teachers should be able to discover what students know.”

1. What does the underlined phrase in the second paragraph mean?

A．Very dangerous.	B．Very annoying.
C．Very difficult.	D．Very frequent.

2. According to the third paragraph, a teacher should have the ability to       .

A．discover whether his students know

B．avoid wasting the precious time in class

C．apply various approaches while teaching

D．give students the chance to prove themselves

3. What does the author think of the artificial tasks designed to test students' learning?

A．They should be limited in number.

B．They are a huge burden on teachers.

C．They should mainly focus on effectiveness.

D．They slide away from their original purpose.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Students should be able to show what they know.

B．There are many ways to find proof of student learning.

C．Teachers should be able to discover what students know.

D．There should be better understanding between teachers and students.