What does it take to graduate from university? Some papers or high scores in exams? Well, these are not enough if you are a student at Tsinghua University. According to a new rule of the university, students must prove (证明) themselves in the swimming pool. They need to pass a swimming test of at least 50 meters, and those who fail the test will be required to take a swimming course throughout their school years. By the time they graduate, they will have known how to swim; otherwise they can’t graduate with their bachelor’s degrees (学士学位).
The news made waves in Chinese social media (媒体). Some people praised the university for requiring a necessary skill that can save lives, and they also believed that the rule would help improve students’ health. However, others questioned if it was fair to expect those who come from inland cities (内陆城市) to be able to swim.
In fact, this is not a new rule. Tsinghua University first made swimming a requirement in 1919 but later gave it up because the number of students became too large and there were not enough swimming pools in the school for them to learn swimming.
Anyway, it is still good news that Chinese students’ health has become more and more valued. Why not just take this chance to learn one more life-saving ability?
1. According to the passage, what does it take for a student to graduate from Tsinghua university?| A．Some papers. | B．High scores in exams |
| C．Passing a swimming test. | D．All of the above. |
| A．caused a heated discussion | B．spread widely | C．made a requirement | D．proved the rule |
① Because many students failed the swimming test.
② Because some people disagreed with the rule
③ Because there were too many students.
④Because there were not enough swimming pools.
| A．①② | B．②③ | C．③④ | D．①④ |
| A．Different people hold different opinions about a new rule. |
| B．Tsinghua University has made a new rule of graduation |
| C．Chinese students’ health should be more and more valued. |
| D．There is a new chance to learn another life-saving ability. |
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【推荐1】Fear started taking over. I was walking into my first school in America. I had traveled a long distance from India in order to join my mother, who had been here for three years, hoping America would help my future. My father decided that I would be better off going to school here, so I enrolled (注册) in the local high school in my new town.
I had no idea what to do. I didn’t know anybody in my classes. On the first day, I went to my second period class after I had missed my first. I was already confused because in India the teachers change according to periods while most of the students have the same periods.
With concern on one hand and fear on the other, I opened the door slowly. Everyone’s eyes were on me as I entered the room. Without paying attention to them, I went straight to the teacher and asked if this was the right class. With a soft voice he answered, “Yes.” His voice made me feel a little relaxed. He gave me a piece of paper called Course Requirements, which I would never get in my previous school in India because we didn’t have anything like that. Then he asked me to choose where I would sit. I didn’t actually want to pick a seat. In India we had our own seat, so I never needed to worry about that. I spent the rest of the class taking notes from the pictures produced by the overhead projector (投影仪). In Indian schools, we didn’t use the technology we had. We had to take notes as the teacher spoke.
Since it was my first day, I was confused about which hallway to use, but I managed to get to my classes without asking anyone. Every confusion seemed like an obstacle (障碍) I had to get through to reach my goal. At the end of the day, I was on my way to the bus which we didn’t have in India either. I saw my bus and sat down inside happily. I was thinking, “today wasn’t so bad”. As time passed that year, I developed some friendships and started to love my school.
1. What made the author feel a little better in his second period class?| A．The comfortable seat. |
| B．The students’ kindness. |
| C．The teacher’s soft voice. |
| D．The modern overhead projector. |
| A．Nervous and puzzled. |
| B．Excited and worried. |
| C．Disappointed and amazed. |
| D．Bored and embarrassed. |
| A．developed a friendship on the first day |
| B．got used to the new school life at last |
| C．thought badly of the first period class |
| D．liked the bus system in America |
| A．My New Teacher in America |
| B．My New School Life in America |
| C．The Development of Education in India |
| D．The Difference Between American and Indian Education |
【推荐2】I ask every student I interview for admission to my institution, Pitzer College, the same question, “What do you look forward to the most in college?” I was surprised and delighted recently when a student called David replied. “I look forward to the possibility of failure.” Of course, this is not how most students respond to the question when siting before the person who can make decisions about their academic future. “You see, my parents have never let me fail,” he said. “When I want to take a chance at something, they remind me it’s not a safe route to take. Taking a more challenging course or trying an activity I may not succeed in, they tell me, will ruin my chances at college admission.”
I wish I could tell you this is an uncommon story. Students are usually in shock when I tell them I never expect perfection. But these days finding imperfections in a college application is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Students only tell us things they believe we will find impressive. And this is supported by a secondary school culture where teachers are under pressure to give students nothing less than an A, and counselors are told not to report disciplinary infractions to colleges.
Admission officers are digging deeper to find out who students really are outside of their medals or test scores. We get most excited when we read an application that seems real. It’s so rare to hear stories of defeat and win that when we do, we cheer. If their perspectives are of lessons learned or challenges overcome, these applicants tend to jump to the top of the heap at highly selective colleges. We believe an error in high school should not define the rest of your life, but how you respond could shape you forever.
During my weekend of interviews, another student Jefferson told me, “I’m ashamed to admit I failed calculus, but I decided to take it again and got a B-plus. I will still take calculus, even though I don’t like it.” I asked him what he had learned from the experience. “I learned to let go of shame,” he said. “I realized that I can’t let a grade define my success. I also learned that if you want anything bad enough, you can achieve it.”
I smiled as I wrote his words down on the application-review form. Apparently, he has the coping skills he needs to adjust to college life. Failure is about growth, learning, overcoming and moving on. Let’s allow young people to fail. Not only will they learn something, it might even get them into college!
1. What can we learn from David’s reply?| A．He wanted to show he had never failed before. |
| B．He wanted to prove he was an independent thinker. |
| C．He wanted to set himself apart from other applicants. |
| D．He wanted to try something new, even though he might fail. |
| A．Students lie about what they have achieved. |
| B．Students list everything in their applications. |
| C．Students just show their best in their applications. |
| D．Students show good writing skills in their applications. |
| A．The one that shows a balance between life and study. |
| B．The one that proves a student focuses on test scores less. |
| C．The one that proves a student understands what college life is. |
| D．The one that shows a student has struggled and overcome a barrier. |
| A．He didn’t care that Jefferson failed calculus. |
| B．He appreciated Jefferson’s attitude to failure. |
| C．He found Jefferson’s self-awareness impressive. |
| D．He appreciated that Jefferson was open about college life. |
| A．Teachers should be responsible for helping students succeed. |
| B．Students would benefit from the positive attitude to failure. |
| C．Parents should try to keep their kids from suffering failure. |
| D．Experiences of enough failure could shape students’ future. |
Your undergraduate days are arguably some of the most stressful of your life. The best way to get it all out is to express yourself creatively. Here is how to get started:
Take a course.
Join a club or make one. Chances are that there are other students at your school that share the same interests as you.
Constantly search for inspiration.
Even if you don't feel that you have enough talent to make your art a part of your professional career, it never hurts to try. The skills that you learn while working at your art might even possibly help you in the workplace down the road.
| A．Learn how to make a club. |
| B．Everyone is busy in college. |
| C．Make time in your schedule. |
| D．You should try to make you a well-rounded and interesting person. |
| E．Visit your university's websites and see what clubs exist that relate to the art you practice. |
| F．The easiest way to make time to express yourself is to fit it into your academic schedule. |
| G．You should always be looking for the next thing that will inspire your work even further. |
【推荐1】Here is something you can do to experience another culture which may be different from yours.
La Tomatina, Spain
Once a year, in the Valencian town of Buñol, the Spanish gather to throw tomatoes at each other. The world’s largest tomato fight, La Tomatina now attracts many participants from around the world.
Battaglia delle Arance, Italy
If you don’t fancy throwing tomatoes, how about oranges? During the Carnevale di Ivrea each year, residents of Ivrea, Italian come together to throw oranges at each other. The tradition is in memory of a battle between the locals and a bad ruler, with oranges thrown as part of the fight for freedom.
La Mordida, Mexico
If you like to take small bites of your birthday cake, it might be best not to spend your birthday in Mexico. After singing “Happy Birthday”, guests watch while the birthday boy or girl blows out their candles. They then lean over and take a bite of the cake, at which point someone will push their faces into it.
Baking (烘烤) Money into Food, Bolivia
Speaking of food, did you know that, in Bolivia, it is traditional to bake money into sweet pastries (油酥糕点) and cakes on New Year’s Eve? It’s a tradition in which bakeries across the country take part. Those who find a coin in their cakes can look forward to plenty of good luck in the new year.
1. What is Battaglia delle Arance in honour of?| A．A fight for freedom. | B．Residents living in Ivrea. |
| C．Oranges harvested in Ivrea. | D．A battle with foreign enemies. |
| A．La Tomatina. | B．Battaglia delle Arance. |
| C．La Mordida. | D．Baking Money into Food. |
| A．They are related to food. | B．They focus on human rights. |
| C．They are traditions in Europe. | D．They bring good luck to people. |
Brain, 58, was treated in intensive care for a severe case. As soon as his condition had stabilized, he was sent home with equipment including a phone and a blood pressure monitor.
“Every day I would input my vital signs on the app,” Brain said. “If anything went wrong or wasn’t right, a nurse would call me straight away.”
Brain spent six weeks on this “virtual ward (病房)”, run by his local NHS hospital in partnership with Doccla, a healthcare technology company. He is one of thousands of patients to have been treated in new “hospitals at home”, seen by NHS leaders as a “lifeline” for overwhelmed hospitals that have run out of beds. 2,500 virtual ward beds were already in use, ensuring that people could “get the care they need from their own homes”.
Retz, founder of Docile, said soon there could be “regional command centers”, where a doctor or nurse monitored data from hundreds of patients displayed on a dashboard. “It works in a similar way to traditional ward rounds in a hospital, with patients submitting data once or twice a day, which is reviewed by a doctor,” he said.
Noel O’Kelly, clinical director at Spirit Health, said, “Older people want to spend as little time in hospital as possible and avoid hospital visits, particularly as frequent visits and long periods of time spent in hospital can be damaging to the health of older patients. We have already seen very encouraging results from the use of virtual wards for older patients.”
Virtual wards allow real potential to support people to recover well in the community. The model is not a silver bullet and health leaders are mindful that it should not worsen health inequalities, but it could present a vital lifeline for the system.
1. How was Brain treated after his condition stabilized?2. What do “regional command centers” and traditional ward rounds have in common?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
> Older patients want to spend as little time in hospital as possible because medical resources in hospitals are limited.
4. Besides what’s mentioned in the passage, what other benefit(s) do you think virtual hospitals may have? (In about 40 words)
【推荐3】We all know donating blood provides a vital lifeline to those in need, but a growing body of research suggests that it could have health benefits for the donor too.
Findings have shown that donating blood reduces the risk of heart attacks and even cancer.
It even burns quite a bit of energy — 650 calories (卡路里) for every pint (568 mL) given.
The news could come as a promotion (宣传) of British blood banks which use an average of 7,000 units of blood every day.
It is thought that the benefits arise from lowering high iron levels.
Iron affects how thick and sticky the blood is. High iron levels cause the blood to be thicker.
Raised iron levels also keep blood from flowing smoothly.
Because donating blood removes some of its iron, it may therefore have a protective benefit if done on a consistent basis by helping thin the blood.
According to a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that those aged 43 to 61 had fewer heart attacks when they donated blood every six months.
A study of 2,682 men from Finland found they had an 88 percent reduced risk of heart attacks than those who didn’t donate, reported Medical Daily.
Likewise, a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute also links iron to an increased cancer risk.
The four-and-a-half-year study involving 1,200 people found those who made blood donations twice a year had a lower risk of cancer and death than those who didn’t.
However, these benefits depend on making donations on a regular basis, rather than once in a while.
Another side effect of donating blood is that it can burn a large number of calories too.
The University of California in San Diego says that for every one pint of blood donated, 650 calories are burned as the body must fill itself up.
Although this seems to be an attractive effort-free way to lose weight, the NHS Blood and Transplant centre still encourages people to donate for the benefit of others first, rather than for themselves.
1. How can giving blood prevent heart disease?| A．By keeping blood from flowing fast. | B．By increasing blood’s thickness. |
| C．By reducing iron in the blood. | D．By helping iron work better. |
| A．Give blood regularly. | B．Give blood every six months. |
| C．Make donations in middle age | D．Donate a small amount each time. |
| A．prove the serious harm of cancer | B．solve the problems of giving blood |
| C．explain the reasons for heart disease | D．show the benefits of blood donations |
| A．is an attractive way to lose weight | B．should be based on selflessness |
| C．involves some degree of risk | D．may burn too many calories |
