1 . The brown paper bag hit the ground. A Michelin engineer picked it up and opened it, revealing a cracked, leaking egg. The third graders at A.J. Whittenberg Elementary School were disappointed when they saw the runny mess.

It was engineering week at A.J. Whittenberg, a public primary school in Greenville, South Carolina. One week per month, engineers from local industries visit the classrooms and talk to students about their careers.

Greenville is now introducing the idea of a career path to students in primary school and giving students the option to follow those programs to middle and high schools. Each primary school focuses on a specific technical skill. The district allows students to attend schools outside of their attendance boundaries as long as space is available, which means students can choose to continue to follow their chosen career pathway at a middle school with corresponding programs.

The effort in Greenville is part of a growing national trend in which school districts partner with local industries to develop curriculum (课程) and expose students to specialized careers at a young age.

Some education experts worry the focus on industry qualifications has resulted in schools taking on responsibilities that should fall to businesses, like training workers for specific job duties, damaging a more comprehensive education in schools. “Schools are to not just prepare people for work and strengthen the economy, but also a place where students should experience art, music and think creatively,” said Jack Schneider, a professor of education at the University of Massachusetts.

A teacher from Greenville, however, said, “Career exposure has a big impact on kids. We’re not really wanting them to make a decision—‘I’m in the second grade and now I’m locked in to being whatever when I graduate from high school in 10 years.’ We just hope students walk across the graduation stage with plans for a career in mind.”

Modern times need modern solutions. When students leave school, they need to be already down their road to college, if that’s what they’re going to do, or schools need to give them something that allows them to get to work and earn a living. Just getting out with a high school degree doesn’t do that.

1. Why were the third graders disappointed?

A．Their test failed.	B．The bag missed the target.
C．Engineers disturbed them.	D．They had to clean the ground.

2. What does Greenville do to help students follow their chosen path?

A．Design more career paths.	B．Invite engineers to their schools.
C．Adopt the open enrollment policy.	D．Offer more courses for them to choose.

3. What is Jack Schneider concerned about?

A．People’s employment.	B．Students’ overall development.
C．The nation’s economy.	D．The school’s innovative education.

4. Which statement would the author most likely agree with?

A．Modern solutions are hard to find.

B．More students need college education.

C．Greenville’s practice is not acceptable.

D．A high school degree is not enough for jobs.

2 . How to choose a college major and develop a career plan

Going to college can seem daunting (使人畏惧的), and no small part of that is the prospect of having to choose a major, which will set the course for the rest of your career life. Here are some steps that might help make your decision easier:

Step 1: Consider your interests and passions.

Do you want a career where you’ll be able to express yourself, or work with numbers?     1     The average person will spend nearly 100,000 hours working in their profession before retirement. Make sure that time will be spent doing something you enjoy!

Step 2: Consider how long you want to be in school.

If you’re pursuing a career in professional fields like medicine or law, you may require more than a four-year degree to get the job that you want.     2     Will you want to jump right into a job after you graduate, or do you really want to dive into higher education? These are important when deciding what major is the best fit for you.

Step 3: Research prospective careers.

If you think you have a career in mind, do some investigating in person or online. Try connecting with people in the field and ask them what challenges they faced in getting their degrees and finding jobs afterwards.     3     Their journeys to success might surprise you!

Step 4:     4    

Remember, you don’t have to make this decision right away. Taking basic-level courses when you first get to college helps decide your level of interest in pursuing a degree program. Plus, you could always decide to be an Interdisciplinary (跨学科的) studies major!     5     Thus, you can discover where your interests lie, and have classes related to the career that you want.

A．Give yourself enough time to decide.

B．Think about what you like to do in high school.

C．What if your major conflicts with your parents’ expectations?

D．Are you passionate about justice, or do you want to have a career focused on helping people?

E．If you can’t connect in person, try to find role models online and read about their histories.

F．This degree program gives you the freedom and flexibility to take a wide variety of classes.

G．On the other hand, there are some careers where a master’s degree won’t necessarily be helpful.

3 . As you work to develop your career (事业), whether you are applying for a job right now or planning what you will do in the future, three things are vital: your passion (激情), your value and your goals. These are three obvious but related beliefs that you need to both know for yourself and be able to communicate to others.     1    

Passion is what drives you. Your passion is what brings a smile to your face, what lights your creative engine and what makes you approach a problem with passion. Your passion could be for a specific field, profession, industry, customer, type of problem, or some combination.     2     The success itself is enough.

    3     It consists mainly of your problem-solving abilities and all the qualities that come with them, such as your skills, knowledge and experience. When you know your value, you can state this to develop cooperation and to encourage employers to hire you.

Goals are what you want to do.     4     They may be very specific, like “I want to work in City X on consumer products in the beauty industry.” Or they could be more general, such as “I want to use my passion for science communications to advance STEM.”

Knowing your passion can help you better define (界定) your value and clarify your goals. And understanding your goals can help you go better to your passion and pronounce your value.     5    

A．But what are they exactly.

B．Thus how can we behave properly.

C．Value is what you offer to a partner.

D．Your goals may be personal or professional, a big picture or otherwise.

E．When your work performs your passion, it’s no need rewarding yourself.

F．Whatever your career is, you are to learn cooperation and communication.

G．The more you know about these three, the better you can build your career.