【推荐1】Common phrases like “no pains, no gains” give the impression that we ought to be suffering while we study. It’s almost as though the only way to know if we’re putting in enough work is the sense of hardship we bear.

When we haven’t taken the time to come up with another idea, all we know how to do is shut ourselves in a room with a book. It’s no surprise that we find revision boring and difficult. Just as children learn about from playing, we can learn from doing, or at least from study techniques that interest us, rather than make use switch off.

Shutting yourself away can make you learn to hate studying. This leads to a situation where instead of being able to concentrate on your work, you are troubled by how unfair it is that you must study.

When you hate your work it’s very difficult to make yourself start, or approach it with enthusiasm. This can be part of a vicious cycle that traps you into ineffective revision, your poor progress fueling further annoyance.

Just being around other people really helps fight against feelings of loneliness and, thankfully, it’s perfectly possible to work in the company of other people. We just need to learn how to deal with distractions.

It’s not necessary to avoid all company, just idle company. Studying in the same room as someone who is ironing or working out is perfectly possible. People who are bored and looking to be distracted, however, are terrible to work around. They constantly try to keep others in conversation.

It’s also a good idea to avoid the company of people involved in activities that you would rather be doing than studying. Working while sitting next to someone playing video games is much more likely to end with a new high score than a productive few hours of revision.

If being around others means working in a noisy environment, a pair of headphones and some background music can block out even noisy children. They also act as a psychological barrier, so that people think twice before interrupting you.

When you’re studying for a big exam, it seems like your whole life is taken up with study. Friends and family can lessen feelings of isolation. And connecting with other people makes us happy, so it’s important not to give that up and to make sure that we take the time to socialize.

【推荐2】Trips to museums are part of many children's education in the United States. Many U. S. schools are most concerned about students performing well on required math and science tests. Because of this, administrators and teachers might rarely see the value of art-related museum trips.

Jay Greene is a professor of education policy at the University of Arkansas. He and his research team are studying how attending cultural events help a student's education, and he told the reporter, "We found that students who visited an art museum were more tolerant, more empathetic, and also learned a lot of content about the art they saw and developed stronger critical thinking skills about art.” Greene's researchers also examined how going to a live theater performance can affect students. Greene said that students who saw a live performance "experienced improvement in tolerance and empathy”, while those who watched a movie version of the same play did not experience the same results. The students who saw the live performance learned the story and related vocabulary better than those who watched the movie version, he said.

"Our most surprising result is that we saw improvements in math and reading test score performance for students in Atlanta after they went on multiple enriching field trips." Greene says that the fact they did welt on the tests “suggests that motivation is a very important part of success in school”. This is true for students of all ages. Students' behavior in school also improved. Greene thinks part of that may be because they were doing something fun in school.

“Because if the school doesn't do it for kids from more disadvantaged backgrounds, then it’s possible these kids won't get much exposure to the arts at all.” And that, he says, may hurt their future.

Melissa Reyes is with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. She said that, in addition to their usual arts field trips, the museum also offers “STEM-based tours”. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math — areas of great concern to many schools. Reyes explained that these tours look at connections “between art and science, art and math, and art and architecture”. She said, “These experiences complement learning goals in both the arts and the STEM categories.”

【推荐3】Many Chinese people have awakened their interest in classical Chinese poetry recently thanks to a popular TV show that aims to “appreciate classical Chinese poetry, explore cultural genes and enjoy the beauty of life” by combining traditional literary form with light-hearted TV quizzes.

The ten-episode “Chinese Poetry Competition”, since its broadcast has been praised for injecting vitality into TV programs with fantastic performances of contestants, impressive comments from judges as well as its innovative interactive mode. In the show, poems can be adapted into songs or depicted through artistic pictures. Any contestant who can memorize the largest number of poems may not necessarily be the final winner.     1    

Wu Yishu, a 16-year-old student from the High School Attached to Fudan University in Shanghai, is the champion of this season. Her rich knowledge of classical poetry impressed everyone and she rose to become famous online.     2     She amazingly recited lines from the Classic of Poetry(《诗经》), the earliest collection of poems in China.

“    3     The power of poetry lies in shaping one’s view of life and developing one’s inner world.” said Li Bo, an expert guest at the Chinese Poetry Competition’s second season.

When it comes to teaching people about poetry, Li Dingguang, the show’s academic advisor, suggested that teachers should explain more about the beauty of the poetry from both the aesthetic (审美的) and emotional sides, and guide students to lose themselves in the poems’ rhythmic and rhyming lines.

“Although the proportion of ancient Chinese poems in the textbooks of primary and secondary schools has increased, many students still learn them for exams.” Li Dingguang said,   “Therefore,     4    ”

【推荐2】In America, drivers’ education is part of the regular high school curriculum (课程). Every student in his or her second year of high school is required to take a class in driver’s education. However, unlike other courses, it is not given during the regular school year. Instead it is a summer course.

The course is divided up into two parts: class time for learning laws and regulations, and driving time to practise driving. Class time is not unlike any other class. The students study the basic traffic laws from a text to pass the written driving test that is given to anyone who wants to get a driver’s license.

Driving time is a chance for the students to get behind the wheel (steering wheel) and practise starting steering, backing up, parking, switching lanes, turning corners, and all the other maneuvers (操作) required to drive a car. Each student is required to drive a total of six hours.The students are divided up into groups of four. The students and the instructor go out driving for two hour blocks of time. Thus, each student gets half an hour driving time per outing. The instructor and “driver” sit in the front seats and the other three students sit in the back.

After the student has passed the driver’s education course and reached the appropriate age to drive (this age differs in every state but in most cases the person must be 16 years old), they can go to a designated (指定的) state office to take their driver’s test, which is made up of an eye examination, a written test, and a road test. The person must pass all three tests in order to be given a driver’s license. If the person does well in his or her driver’s education class, he or she will pass the test with flying colors and get a driver’s license.

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