Congratulations! Your application to study Bachelor of Information Technology at Victoria University (VU) has been successful. I’m pleased to offer you the opportunity to study at VU as an international student.

VU has a long history of providing high-quality education, through predecessor (前身) institutions, including the Footscray Technical School which was founded in 1916. In 2016, we proudly celebrated 100 years of history and our 25th anniversary (周年庆) as a university.

Today we have 48,900 students, including over 9,400 students studying a VU course at one of our partner institutions in China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore.

By selecting VU you will study at one of the top 4% of universities in the world. With more than 24,000 alumni (校友) working or residing outside Australia, a qualification from VU will prepare you for an international career.

This document contains important information about your courses including costs and your rights and obligations. If you have any questions about your offer, please email intapps@vu.edu.au.

To accept your offer to study at VU, you must:

1.Read the terms and conditions of this Letter of Offer very carefully,

2.Sign this Letter of Offer in Section 14,

3.Pay the fees in Section 8,

4.Return this whole document to VU.

Please note that if this offer includes one or more conditions for entry into a course, you will not be able to accept it until these conditions have been met. Any conditions are specified in Section 5 of this letter. We look forward to welcoming you to Victoria University.

Yours sincerely,

Dimi Christou

Senior Manager, International Admissions Victoria University

【推荐2】When I graduated from high school, I attended a community college. There I majored(主修) in office-related subjects.

One of the required courses was Typing 101. At that time the classrooms were filled with electric typewriters, which were a far cry from the ones that I was familiar with. Often I would stay late working in the student typing lab trying hard to get my pitiful typing to speed up. At that time I was certain I wasn’t typing 30 wpm. I had the hardest time placing my hands properly over the keys. After the first term I was very disappointed when I received an “F” grade.

My father came to the rescue. K-Mart was one of his favourite places to shop. So we got in the car and it just happened that K-Mart was selling the electric typewriters, at reasonable prices. It was deep blue in colour with a plastic carrying case. After looking at it over and over again, we decided this would work for me. So he bought one for me. While I continued to be a regular attendee in my typing lab, I was also actively practising on my own at home. Progress was being made. When the next grading period came around, I received a more acceptable “C”. By the end of the year I made a “B”.

Years later the technology world developed with the introduction of computers for use. My father and I still laugh at that electric typewriter bought at K-mart. It has only been within the last 7 years or so that I have got rid of it. Learning to type has opened up new opportunities for career growth and even being a contributor(投稿者) here at Yahoo. Isn’t it interesting how things turn out for the best after all? Maybe that “F” was a blessing in disguise.

【推荐2】Niels Eék, psychologist and co-founder of mental health and self-development platform Remente, gives advice on how to manage your mental health when returning to work.

The prospect of going back to work may cause some nervousness and anxiety, especially after spending so long with limited face-to-face contact. Upon returning to the office, you may want to keep track of how much time you are devoting to work when you return home in the evenings.

Remote working can blur the boundaries between your professional and personal life, so it’s important to re-establish this division, particularly if you have spent the last four months working from home. Reading and receiving emails and messages outside of working hours can make some people feel more anxious. To avoid this, you may want to set clear boundaries at home, where you do not address work emails during certain hours, to give yourself time to relax ready for the next day.

Of course, some tasks may be urgent, so ask your manager to phone you if something needs to be immediately addressed. That way, you don’t need to be constantly checking your device and can instead focus on your own mental and physical well-being. Go to bed at a time that allows you to rise well-rested, cook nutritious meals that you enjoy, or perhaps take an evening walk to relax. Returning to work is likely to be a shock after so long, so make sure to do what you need to do to feel relaxed each evening.

Talking to a friend or colleague can be extremely useful when addressing these anxieties. It is good to remember that these feelings are something that many people face, so being open about your emotions is nothing to feel uncomfortable about. “Remember that it is OK to tell your friends and co-workers that you need some time out” as you return to regular interactions with people after months of isolation. It may take some time to adapt to the change in circumstances, but this is totally normal.

【推荐1】A heatwave has hit many countries in Europe, pushing temperatures over 40℃. A heatwave is along period of unusually hot weather. The heat is expected to continue until the end of July.

The Italian Island of Sardinia reached 46℃ on 18 July. The Italy government has asked people to dress in linen (a thin, light material) and to stay indoors between 10 am and 6 pm. The government has asked people to drink plenty of water but avoid alcohol, fizzy drinks and coffee, which can make you feel thirstier. In Rome, the country’s capital, people aged over 70 can go to swimming pools for free to help them keep cool.

Wildfires have broken out in many places. In Greece, which recorded 41℃ on 18 July, fires near the capital, Athens, have destroyed huge areas of forest and thousands of people have been moved to safety. Heatwaves can make fires worse because hot weather dries plants, which fuel the fires.

In the US, temperatures in Death Valley, California, hit 53’℃ on 18 July, close to the hottest ever recorded on Earth. On 16 July, the US National Weather Service issued warnings in parts of the country, affecting more than 80 million people.

Despite the high temperatures in many European countries, the UK is not experiencing a heatwave. This is because a different weather pattern has brought rain and lower temperatures to the UK.

The heatwave in Europe is being caused by a weather pattern that has stopped the air from moving very much. That means the hot, dry weather has got stuck and temperatures have kept rising. Earth is also experiencing a natural climate pattern called El Nino (厄尔尼诺), which causes the water in the eastern Pacific Ocean to warm up more than usual. This can lead to hot weather around the world. Temperatures in some parts of Europe were expected to fall on 20 July.

【推荐2】The researchers drew a conclusion that orphaned (成为孤儿) elephants would be more stressed out than non-orphans. There’s a lot of evidence that the mother-child bond helps reduce stress in animals, which has been demonstrated previously in rats and birds, says the study leader Jenna Parker. Elephants have complicated social structures and deep family bonds. Because orphaned elephants in the same region die at a higher rate than elephants with living mothers, it seemed like a no-brainer that surviving orphans would be stressed out.

The team, however, made an unexpected finding: There really wasn’t a difference in the stress hormone (荷尔蒙) levels of orphaned and non-orphaned elephants, as long as they lived with family members, such as aunts, cousins, or brothers and sisters. Elephants — even the orphans — that lived in groups with fellows of their own age turned out to be under less stress than those that didn’t.

Parker recalls two orphans in the study, Frida and Rothko. “Frida had a non-functional left ear and Rothko had a non-functional right ear,” and they were inseparable, she says. “It was as though they had at least one good set of ears as long as they were together!” The findings also fit with previous social research in African elephants, Parker says. “Orphans increase interaction with their age mates after their mother’s death.” She notes that dominance is structured by age in elephants: Older elephants may outrank younger elephants when it comes to food, for example, but elephants of the same age are generally equals.

With human-wildlife conflict and drought threats to elephants in the region, the findings published today in Communications Biology offer a new insight into how having a strong fellow group may contribute to elephants’ survival. This information could also help recovery facilities that take in orphaned elephants set the animals up for a successful future in the wild — releasing them in large groups of bonded fellows, for example. “The bottom line here is that elephants need elephants,” says Parker. “And when the worst happens, like losing a mother, some find new ways to survive and grow happily.”