Choosing the right job is probably one of the most important decisions we have to make in life, and it is frequently one of the hardest decisions we have to make. One important question that you might ask yourself is: “How do I get a good job?”
There are people who can answer an insignificant advertisement in the local paper and land the best job in the world; others write to all sorts of places all over the country, and never seem to get a reply at all. Still others believe that the in person, door-to-door approach is by far the best way to get a job; and then there are those who, through no active decision of their own, just seem to be in the right place at the right time.
Sometimes we hear stories about people who break all the rules and still seem to land plum jobs(美差). When you go for a job interview or fill out an application, you are expected to say nice things about the company to which you are applying. But there was one person who landed an excellent job by telling the interviewer all the company’s faults. And within a year this person had become general manger of the company.
| A．This story also illustrates the importance of seizing an opportunity when it presents itself. |
| B．People find jobs in an infinite number of ways. |
| C．it’s almost impossible to find a good job by answering advertisement in newspapers |
| D．Take for example the young man who wanted to be a sailor. |
| E．It is very important to seize an opportunity when it presents itself. |
| F．He spent the rest of his life happily sailing the ships he had always loved. |
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【推荐1】In many countries of the world people do what is called house-sitting. It means that if the owners of a house are going away, they want someone to come into their home and look after the house and maybe pets while they are away.
In Australia, a great many people travel. After people retire, they might buy a van (面包车) and travel all over the country.
Housesitters might have to care for pets. Also, quite a few people have swimming pools in their back yard and they need cleaning.
There are plenty of websites where you can find a lot of advertisements post by people who want to travel, and by replying to these advertisement, you can make arrangements to go and look after their houses.
A number of house-sitting jobs are just for a few days or a couple of weeks while the house owners have a short holiday.
You can show these letters to possible house owners and they know you will do a good job.
| A．Sometimes it is for much longer |
| B．I have done house-sitting many times |
| C．Thousands of people do this all the time |
| D．It is also possible to do house-sitting in other countries |
| E．You must take a little care over what your description says about you |
| F．This is an international house-sitting service for all city and country areas |
| G．There are some requirements to be a housesitter |
【推荐2】Dossantos grew up among the banana trees of East Timor, a state in Maritime Southeast Asia, and never imagined he would work on Australian farms.
Last week he was picking pumpkins (南瓜) out of the rich red Ord valley soils of Ivanhoe Farms in Western Australia’s far north, working with five other East Timorese employees in Kununurra’s 381℃heat.
Dossantos is part of a group of 30 East Timorese in the area for six months as seasonal workers, laboring (劳动) on smaller fruit and vegetable farms that were part of Ord stage one, developed in the 1970s. The men are employed by happy farmers across the Ord valley, many of whom have struggled, in the past with their dependence on not always reliable backpackers to plant their crops on time and pick full-grown I fruit and vegetables.
Dossantos is typical of the group; he speaks little English, has worked on farms in East Timor and wants to earn an Australian salary (工资) for four to six months before returning home late this month as the wet season arrives, to build a better life.
“It’s a good job; hard work and hot but with good money,” Dossantos says. “I work for four months, send my money back to Mom and Dad and then go home; it’s enough to last me for the next six months and then I hope to come back here again to work next year.”
Itis music to the ears of Matt and Melanie Gray, who have had up to 12 East Timorese workers picking pumpkins on their Ceres Farm for the past few months.
Like many growers in the Ord, the Grays welcomed the opportunity this year to employ full-time visiing East
Timorese employees to do most of their continuous crop picking. “It has been a win-win situation; they seem really happy with the work, the money and opportunities it provides them with back home, while for us they provide us with reliability through the season and the likelihood (可能性) that 80 percent will want to come back again next year,” Melanie Gray says.
1. What are farmers in the Ord valley happy with?
| A．The good weather. | B．The dependable pickers. |
| C．The sale of their products. | D．The backpackers’ hard work. |
| A．It should pay more. | B．It is progressing slowly. |
| C．It is not easy but worthwhile. | D．It lasts too long in the wet season. |
| A．The big harvest. | B．The good money. |
| C．The laborer’s positive opinion. | D．The laborer’s returning to East Timor- |
| A．The farmers can offer full-time jobs. |
| B．The laborers can stay in Australia all year long. |
| C．The farmers can grow high-quality fruit and vegetables. |
| D．The laborers can find satisfaction in working in Australia. |
【推荐3】In the US, tornadoes (龙卷风) are responsible for 80 deaths and more than 1,500 injuries each year. Although they happen quite frequently, tornadoes are difficult to predict. Why? Tornadoes develop from storms, but only some storms are likely to become tornadoes. Scientists don’t know where and when a storm will touch the ground and turn into a tornado. Today, the warning time for a tornado is usually just 13 minutes.
Time Samaras is a storm chaser. His job is to find tornadoes and follow them. When he gets close to a tornado, he puts a special tool called a turtle probe on the ground. This tool measures things like a tornado’s temperature, humidity (湿度), and wind speed. With this information, Samaras can learn what causes tornadoes to develop. If meteorologists (气象学家) understand this, they can warn people about tornadoes sooner and save lives.
How does Samaras hunt tornadoes? It’s not easy. First, he has to find one. Tornadoes are too small to see using weather satellites. So Samaras can’t rely on these tools to find a tornado. Instead, he waits for tornadoes to develop. Every May and June, Samaras drives about 40,000 kilometers across an area known as Tornado Alley, looking and hoping to spot a tornado.
Once Samaras sees a tornado, the chase begins. But a tornado is hard to follow. Some tornadoes change direction several times — for example, moving east and then west and then east again. When Samaras finally gets near a tornado, he puts the turtle probe on the ground. Being this close to a tornado is terrifying. Debris (碎片) is flying in the air. Then wind is blowing at high speed. He must get away quickly.
The work is risky, even for a skilled chaser like Samaras. But danger won’t stop his hunt for the perfect storm.
1. What do we know about tornadoes?| A．They can be predicted by satellites. | B．They usually come down in winter. |
| C．The warning time for them is very short. | D．They often develop into storms. |
| A．predict tornadoes | B．collect information about tornadoes |
| C．chase tornadoes | D．decrease the power of tornadoes |
| A．how tornadoes develop | B．how the turtle probe works |
| C．how powerful Tornado Alley is | D．how Samaras chases a tornado |
| A．difficult and dangerous | B．stressful and troublesome |
| C．mysterious and interesting | D．exciting and popular |
【推荐1】The International Baccalaureate (IB) Program is an internationally recognized qualification for entry into higher education. Usually, 16- to 19-year-olds take it during the last two years of high school. High-achieving high school students who want an international perspective in a variety of subjects should consider this program.
The IB Program includes three required courses. The first, Theory of Knowledge, discusses where knowledge comes from and how to analyze information. The second required course, Extended Essay, involves researching a subject of the student’s choice and writing a 4,000-word essay on it. The third requirement, called Creativity, Activity, Service, requires 50 hours of work outside of class in each of the three areas. Creativity includes theater, music and art. Activity refers to sports, and service means volunteering.
The program includes classes in six other subject areas as well: language and literature, language acquisition, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics and the arts. Students are expected to take one class from each subject area. However, they can choose an additional course from one of the other areas as a substitution for the arts requirement.
The IB Program introduces students to a wide range of courses. This can give students a leg up in university applications because it shows they can learn about many different subjects. On the other hand, the variety of subjects means that students can only take one or two classes in any one area. Therefore, students who want to specialize in fields such as medicine or engineering may as well take more classes in a single subject area. IB may not be a good fit for these students.
The IB Program is time-consuming and intellectually challenging. Not all students will desire or feel equipped to put in the work. For those who pursue it, however, the IB Program offers a wide-ranging education focused on developing skills students will need in life.
1. Who is recommended to participate in the IB Program?| A．Students pursuing engineering. | B．Students wanting to serve others. |
| C．Students hunting for an occupation. | D．Students interested in various fields. |
| A．It demands students should be good at a particular sport. |
| B．It allows students to select another course to replace arts. |
| C．It advises students should graduate from high school first. |
| D．It requires students to choose one course in each subject area. |
| A．An advantage. | B．A certificate. | C．A fast speed. | D．A suggestion. |
| A．Applications for IB Program. | B．Required courses in IB Program. |
| C．An introduction of IB Program. | D．Suitable participants for IB Program. |
【推荐2】Monarch butterflies migrate (迁徙) by the millions each year, making the trip from northern areas of the Continent to California and Mexico and back. Because most butterflies only live for a few weeks to a few months, it takes several generations of butterflies to complete the migration
As monarch butterflies are a threatened species with their population numbers in decline, Patrick Guerra, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, and his colleagues wanted to see what types of environmental stress might be linked to their decline.
“We use monarch butterflies as a model system to understand long-distance animal migration. Our goal was to understand how environmental stress, such as different types of stress caused by urbanization, impacts animal migratory phenomena,” Guerra says.
For their study, researchers conducted lab studies where they reproduced the effects of artificial light pollution with butterflies using a flight simulator (模拟器).
“The flight simulator is like a butterfly treadmill (跑步机), in which we can study the flight behavior of insects in controlled, experimental conditions. We first tested if monarchs treated a single, artificial light source as if it were the actual sun during the day,” Guerra says.
“Once we established that they did, we then tested how the monarchs would behave when exposed to this same artificial light source during their night.”
Butterflies stayed quiet and unmoving when they were first placed in the flight simulator in the dark. But as soon as scientists turned on the light, they started flying. The light made them believe that night was day and this can cause them to fly longer at night or start flying too early.
The study has found that the internal circadian (昼夜) clock of butterflies functions normally when they are exposed to natural day night lighting cycles, but artificial light, such as a streetlight, at night can throw off a monarch butterfly’s internal compass. It can affect their circadian rhythms, which can make the monarch butterflies get lost when they try to fly the next day. This shows without darkness, the circadian clock of butterflies cannot function properly.
“When exposed to artificial light, the light can perturb the normal functioning of the animal’s circadian clock,” Guerra says. “Light pollution, particularly nighttime light pollution, causes animals to experience light at a time when they are not supposed to, e.g., at night when they are normally in the dark, and are at rest. Exposure to such light can prevent the behavior and biological process of animals which they rely on or that are regulated by the circadian clock.”
1. Why did the researchers carry out the study?| A．To look for the reason for butterflies’ migration |
| B．To test what action should be taken to protect butterflies. |
| C．To know about the circadian rhythms of migratory animals. |
| D．To find out how the environmental stress affects animal migration. |
| A．The monarchs mistook a single, artificial light as the actual sun during the day. |
| B．The Butterflies moved quietly when first placed in the flight simulator in the dark |
| C．The monarchs got lost in direction when the light in the flight simulator was on. |
| D．The Butterflies were never at rest when they are exposed to the light. |
| A．Natural light contributes much to pollution |
| B．Migratory animals often lose their way, |
| C．Light pollution is increasingly serious |
| D．Darkness is vital to migratory animals. |
| A．Stop | B．Disturb. | C．Reflect | D．Enhance. |
| A．Light pollution can interfere with butterfly migration |
| B．Efforts are made to save the endangered monarch butterflies. |
| C．Butterflies’ circadian cycle is revealed in research. |
| D．Human activity impacts the rest of nature negatively. |
【推荐3】National Poetry Month is to bring about awareness and appreciation of poetry. Some of the goals include reading poems, writing poems and helping teachers bring poetry into the classroom. Here are some activities in National Poetry Month.
Recite Poetry to a Pet
We’ve come up with some fun exercises to get you into the spirit of creative expression. You can recite poetry to a pet by changing the sound or speaking loudly and clearly enough to communicate without explanations. Doing this can not only help strengthen public speaking ability but also deepen your understanding of a particular piece.
Become a Romantic
Do you ever notice how beautiful the nature is? There are so many wonderful poems which have been inspired by the seasons, celebrating the beauty of a snowflake or the spring sunshine awakening the plants and animals. Why not become a poet yourself and share the beauty you saw in the nature with others?
Act out a Poem
Many poets find it hard to share their words because what they write about are personal subjects. But not all poetry is about emotions. Poetry is a living force that can be very powerful when it is shown both as a performance and as words on social media.
Poetry by Heart
We take pleasure in reading or hearing something that reflects what is in our minds or in our hearts. We experience relief if it expresses feelings we’ve kept bottled up. Similarly, reciting a poem to yourself or to someone else can be very rewarding. Sometimes it’s easier to say how we feel with someone else’s words than our own, especially if they’re put together beautifully.
1. The main purpose of the National Poetry Month is to help people ____________.| A．appreciate the beauty of old poetry. | B．combine poetry with their daily life. |
| C．learn more about poetry and enjoy it. | D．get creative ideas to celebrate poetry. |
| A．Adjust to the changing of the seasons. | B．Find and enjoy the beauty of nature. |
| C．Get inspiration from beautiful seasons. | D．Try to write and share their own poems. |
| A．By presenting its benefit. | B．By showing the reciting process. |
| C．By explaining the way of doing it. | D．By giving tips on reciting a poem. |
