【推荐1】We might be surprised at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person’s knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to design anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. For the claim that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack(窍门) of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person’s true ability and attitude.

As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the marks of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don’t count: the exam goes on. No one can give his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of various competitions where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of ‘drop-outs’: young people who are written off as failures before they have even started a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?

A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus(教学大纲), so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive(剥夺) the teacher of all freedoms. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under pressure.

The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark piles of hastily scrawled (潦草的) scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight. After a judge’s decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner’s. There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person’s true abilities.

【推荐2】Teamwork is all about working together to achieve a common goal or purpose. Is teamwork out of date? Why is it so hard to effectively conduct teamwork in those things?

One way we employ teamwork in everyday lives is by becoming a parent. It is a parent’s job to teach their children the fundamental skills and give them the knowledge they need to be successful in life. So why is teamwork disappearing in this aspect of our lives? Well in today’s society, we find that more and more parents are experiencing that the teamwork is a one-sided thing. According to a 2009 report from the US, there are 13.7 million single parents raising their children in the US and this amount could be due to the fact that parents are not stepping up and taking responsibility for their children or they don’t have the means to, so they leave one parent to do it by themselves. This is a saddening fact, but it reflects that effective teamwork is losing ground in the parenting aspect of our everyday lives.

Another place where teamwork affects us greatly is in our jobs. It doesn’t matter if you are a small or large company; if you have at least one employee and yourself, then teamwork will be present. I have noticed that with the current economic recession (衰退), people are racing to grab jobs but the quality of people’s work has gone down greatly. It just appears to me that people do not take pride in their work anymore. They want to get to work and work as fast as they can, just to receive the paycheck, but their quality standards fly right out the window. This type of behavior is where I think teamwork is losing its ground in the workforce. There are too many people who want to work independently and forget they are a part of a team.

As you can see, we run into the aspects of teamwork in just about everything we do. Do you believe teamwork is really losing ground in today’s society? I think it is. What’s your opinion?

【推荐3】The phrase "digital nomads(游民)" suggests joyful people who escape their daily work to travel the world, working with laptops on beaches. Relevant statistics regularly made the headline: “There will be one billion digital nomads by 2035".

I started researching digital nomads in 2015, and it took me three years to develop an understanding of what might be going on. I've met hundreds of people who think of themselves as digital nomads and many more who have dreamed about becoming one. The first thing I learned is that how people feel about the label “digital nomad" changes over time. People starting out often assume it's a permanent lifestyle, but that's rarely the case. One of my respondents explained, “I don't go around calling myself a digital nomad now. It's a bit silly." Indeed, there's still debate about whether it's a buzzword(时髦用语) or a real phenomenon. Some have even tried to figure out how “authentic" a digital nomad is, by how much they move from place to place. And there has been heated debate online about who's a real digital nomad, and who is merely self-promoting.

Most of the digital nomads I spoke to, who once had well-paid jobs, told me that they were escaping from deeply-rooted problems in the contemporary Western workplace. One of my respondents, Zeb, was working three restaurant jobs to pay the rent in San Francisco. The city sucked up all his time and money. This made him abandon his plans to sell recycled products online. Swapping expensive California for affordable South-East Asia helped Zeb to launch his own business. Lisette a skilled translator from Hamburg, Germany, is able to produce high-quality work quickly. She soon tired of the culture of presenteeism (出勤主义) at her workplace. She explained, “I'm efficient and I like to get the work done and leave on time. :Others were obviously scared to leave first, so they would sit at their desks and play with their computers."

Nearly 40% of British adults believe their jobs don't make sense. Their housing is of poor quality and too expensive, and the economies don't provide young people with wages they can live on. With these challenges, it's hardly surprising that those new to the world are already desperate to escape. Yet there are certain complexities that come with living as a citizen of the world. As Lsstte said, "Digital nomads can quickly become isolated." Digital nomads have to shoulder responsibility for almost every aspect of modern life: their mental health, daily routine, income, safety and shelter. Most digital nomads travel on tourist visas, which requires them to move regularly ---an experience my participants have described as disorienting (使人迷失方向的).

For those digital nomads who make a living as professional bloggers, it's also part of their job to sell the life-style. As a result, many try to present a stable and happy image online. Lissette explained, "There 's a danger---when my aunt sees my picture online, she thinks that everything looks so happy here on the beach. Of course, my digital identity always looks happier than my real life." But at some point, most of my research participants feel sorrow for the loss of some aspects, such as location dependence, regular work hours. or an office party. They miss some of the things they were escaping. Many nomads I've interviewed just pack up and go home without telling anyone. Being a digital nomad can be rewarding and offers an escape from the boring office hour. But it’s important that digital nomads think deeply about the importance of community and mental health in their lives. Freedom does not mean the same thing for everyone.

【推荐1】It has become acceptable for people to say that women work less than men and therefore deserve less! It may have been true in the past when women were expected to stay at home and look after children, but women have changed over the years. They have “come out”! Gone are the days when they toiled the kitchen stove all day long; they are now aware of their needs and are willing to fight for them. They expect to be given the respect they deserve, both at home and at work. They have realized their intellectual potential and have determined to do something about it!

Women on two wheels have become a familiar sight on the roads of most Asian countries during the past few years. It is common to find a woman taking her children on her bicycle to school and then reach her office in time. She has become a major part in family decisions in every aspect and how those decisions are carried out. It would have been unimaginable a few years ago!

It is rather difficult to combine a career and a decent home life, “super woman” though she is. She needs to feel supported and fulfilled. She may arrive at work feeling as if she has already done a full day’s work. If colleagues doubt her commitment to her job, she will feel sad. At the same time, women of today expect their partners to contribute towards childcare and household chores.

Today’s women are learning to avoid situations that make them feel more stressed and it is a hard struggle. Despite all this, the new woman, “the superpower” has arrived. She still believes in the power and value of a family unit and she holds it in high esteem（尊重）.

【推荐3】Commencement (毕业典礼)is a time for idealism.

But economic reality is cruel everywhere; especially for new college graduates. They have been told repeatedly that a college degree is an open sesame (芝麻) to the global economy. But that’s not necessarily so, according to new research by two economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Frank Levy and Peter Temin.

It is true that people with college degrees make more money than people without degrees. The gap has narrowed somewhat in recent years, which is disturbing. But the earning power of college graduates still far outpaces that of less-educated workers.

The bad news, though, is that a college degree does not ensure a bigger share of the economic pie for many graduates. In recent decades Mr. Levy and Mr. Temin show, only college-educated women have seen their income grow in line with economy wide gains in productivity. The earnings of male college graduates have failed to keep pace with productivity gains.

Instead, a huge share of productivity growth, which expands the nation’s total income, is going to Americans on the top of the income scale. In 2005, the latest year with available data, the top 1 percent of Americans--whose average annual income was $1.1 million--took in 21.8 percent of the nation’s income, their largest share since 1929.

Administration officials, and other politicians and economists, often, believe that income inequality reflects an education gap. But Mr. Levy and Mr. Temin show that in the case of men, the average bachelor’s degree is not enough to catch the rising tide of the global economy.

They argue that the real reason that inequality is worsening is the lack of strong policies that broadly distribute economic gains. In the past, for example, a more progressive income tax and unions promote equality. Positive measures have also helped and probably accounts, in part, for the pay growth of college-educated women. But such measures have been eroding and new ones have not yet emerged, making the income gap even greater.

Mr. Levy and Mr. Temin conclude that only a new government policy can restore general prosperity. That’s a challenge to the nation’s leaders and today’s graduates. America needs them to contribute to the development of the nation in a global economy.