The benefits of having a higher education are manifold (多样的) and range from financial to cultural and from common benefits to some unexpected surprises, below you will find a number of reasons which will help to serve as justification for a higher education.
For many high school students, it is hard to imagine what the long-term benefits of a college education might be. College is demanding; the work seems challenging, and meeting all new people seems overwhelming. However, what most young people do not realize is that there is a high likelihood at college that you will find new friends with similar interests and values. You may find yourself developing new interests by getting along with those who have completely different life experiences. An opportunity to get to know your professors can also be counted one of the benefits of having a college education. These intellectuals can be counted on to welcome questions and discussion from students. Therefore, one of the key benefits of a college education is the social bonds created and developed during this unique time in a person’s life.
Besides, the fact that you’ll be building a career for the rest of your life is reason enough to make time for a college education. Indeed, a clear benefit of a college education is that not only will it give you time to better know your likes and dislikes before entering the labor force, it will also enhance the likelihood of a more successful career for you. Many young people are uncertain about a career path at the start of college. This is a time of exploration, and taking the time to explore a variety of college majors is time well spent.
One more justification for higher education could be that it is the best way to enhance yourself in an all-round way. Getting a good education may be the most important price you can pay for your personal advancement, because perhaps more than anything else, what you do with that huge gray material between your ears will determine your future. You never know where your talent could reach. So higher education can provide you with the chance to realize your personal value.
Therefore, never undervalue the benefits of entering a higher education, which surely will bring you something beyond expectation.
2 . Each year, backed up by a growing anti-consumerist movement, people are using the holiday season to call on us all to shop less.
Driven by concerns about resource exhaustion, over recent years environmentalists have increasingly turned their sights on our “consumer culture”. Groups such as The Story of Stuff and Buy Nothing New Day are growing as a movement that increasingly blames all our ills on our desire to shop.
We clearly have a growing resource problem. The produces we make, buy, and use are often linked to the destruction of our waterways, biodiversity, climate and the land on which millions of people live. But to blame these issues on Christmas shoppers is misguided, and puts us in the old trap of blaming individuals for what is a systematic problem.
While we complain about environmental destruction over Christmas, environmentalists often forget what the holiday season actually means for many people. For most, Christmas isn’t an add-on to an already heavy shopping year. In fact, it is likely the only time of year many have the opportunity to spend on friends and family, or even just to buy the necessities needed for modern life.
This is particularly, true for Boxing Day, often the target of the strongest derision(嘲弄) by anti-consumerists. While we may laugh at the queues in front of the shops, for many, those sales provide the one chance to buy items they’ve needed all year. As Leigh Phillips argues, “this is one of the few times of the year that people can even hope to afford such ‘luxuries’, the Christmas presents their kids are asking for, or just an appliance that works.”
Indeed, the richest 7% of people are responsible for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. This becomes particularly harmful when you take into account that those shopping on Boxing Day are only a small part of our consumption “problem” anyway. Why are environmentalists attacking these individuals, while ignoring such people as Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has his own￡1.5bn yacht with a missile defence system?
Anyway, anti-consumerism has become a movement of wealthy people talking down to the working class about their life choices, while ignoring the real cause of our environmental problems. It is no wonder one is changing their behaviours—or that environmental destruction continues without any reduction in intensity.
1. It is indicated in the 1st paragraph that during the holiday season, many consumers .| A．ignore resource problems |
| B．are fascinated with presents |
| C．are encouraged to spend less |
| D．show great interest in the movement. |
| A．has targeted the wrong persons |
| B．has achieved its intended purposes |
| C．has taken environment-friendly measures |
| D．has benefited both consumers and producers |
| A．madness about life choices |
| B．discontent with rich lifestyle |
| C．ignorance about the real cause |
| D．disrespect for holiday shoppers |
| A．anything less than a responsibility | B．nothing more than a bias |
| C．indicative of environmental awareness | D．unacceptable to ordinary people |
Online “friends” – a threat to development
The impact of technology on the nature of our friendships has been a much - debated topic since the dramatic rise of social networks. Advances in mobile technology and social networking websites mean we spend more time online than ever before. It is therefore not surprising that so many psychologists, sociologists, and others are eager to give their thoughts on how this is impacting negatively on our society.
There is one element of social networking that is deeply worrying. We find ourselves in a hyper - connected world where people access social media day and night, excited to make announcements about the tiniest details of their lives. Research is starting to show that this culture is negatively affecting not our friendships but our character. Professor Larry D. Rosen says that young people who overuse social networking sites can become ineffective, and display anti -social behavior in their offline lives. But perhaps an even more disturbing effect is that one of our most basic emotions seems to be disappearing --empathy. This is the emotion that allows us to see the world from our friends’ points of view. Without it, we are far less able to connect and form meaningful adult relationships.
Professor Sherry Turkle suggests that people are no longer comfortable being alone. This is something confirmed by a study where 200 university students were asked to go without social media for 24 hours. Many admitted an addiction to their online social network; most complained that they felt cut off from family and friends. And yet being alone is a time when we self-reflect and get in touch with who we really are. It is only when we do this that we can make meaningful friendships with others.
These potential changes in our characters are rather alarming, so it is clear that we can’t neglect those negative impacts of social networks.
According to an official report on youth violence.“In our country today, the greatest threat to the lives of children and adolescents is not disease or starvation or abandonment, but the terrible reality of violence.”Given that this is the case, why aren’t students taught to manage conflict the way they are taught to solve math problems, drive cars, or stay physically fit?
First of all, students need to realize that conflict is unavoidable. It is reported that most violent incidents between students begin with a relatively minor insult. For example, a fight could start over the fact that one student eats a peanut butter sandwich each lunchtime. Laughter over the sandwich can lead to insults, which in turn can lead to violence.
If the conflict occurs, students can practice the golden rule of conflict resolution: stay calm.
Once the student feels calmer. Once the student feels calmer. He or she should choose words that will calm the other person down as well. Rude words and accusations only add fuel to the emotional fire while soft words can put out the fire before it explodes out of control.
After that, they can use another key strategy for conflict resolution. Listening allows the two sides to understand each other. One person should describe his or her side: and the other person should listen without interrupting. Afterwards, the listener can ask non-threatening questions to clarify the speaker’s position. Then the two people should change roles.
Finally, students need to consider what they are hearing. An argument doesn’t mean trying to figure out the fault of the other person but means understanding what the real issue is. As the issue becomes clearer, the conflict often simply becomes smaller.(280 words)
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最近一本在线杂志发表了一篇文章，文中询问，在公众眼中，什么样的人是适合做年轻人的榜样（role model）。请你写封信给该杂志，推荐一位你认为适合做榜样的名人（celebrity）。你的文章须包括：
简单介绍这位名人；
为何这位名人适合做年轻人的榜样。
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6 . As the world changes, our language changes with it. That's why Merriam-Webster recently added more than 250 new words to its online dictionary,
“These new words have been added to the dictionary because they have
Here our newspaper has chosen three of the dictionary’s new entries. Let’s take a look.
Froyo(冻酸奶)
While ice cream has been around for more than 100 years, froyo or frozen yogurt--is comparatively new. Even though it was first invented back in the 1970s, it only started to gain
Compared to ice cream, the main
Word salad(文字沙拉)
It was first used to refer to a series of words said by people with mental illness. Just like the vegetables in a salad bowl, each word makes perfect sense by itself, but when put together, they become hard to
Now the phrase is more often used to refer to the words of a politician, although this refers to the speaker's logic rather than their mental state. US President Donald Trump,'s interviews are often referred to as word salad.
Troll (网络喷子)
The
Other phrases and usage have also been
| A．overtaking | B．covering | C．engaging | D．experiencing |
| A．enjoyed | B．polished | C．established | D．trapped |
| A．release | B．congress | C．negotiation | D．demonstration |
| A．permission | B．package | C．popularity | D．patent |
| A．turning | B．cooling | C．starting | D．selling |
| A．guilt | B．taste | C．appetite | D．diet |
| A．resolution | B．revolution | C．recommendation | D．reservation |
| A．interrupt | B．indicate | C．interact | D．interpret |
| A．in a word | B．For instance | C．All in all | D．As a result |
| A．cultural | B．obvious | C．original | D．hidden |
| A．creature | B．giant | C．worm | D．ghost |
| A．dramatically | B．delicately | C．disorderly | D．deliberately |
| A．offensive | B．objective | C．progressive | D．productive |
| A．evolved | B．invented | C．expanded | D．transformed |
| A．civilian | B．fairy | C．victim | D．pedestrian |
Where do you think the world’s happiest people live? Somewhere hot with sandy beaches? A country with a tradition of the fine food and culture? Not according to a recent study by the university of Leicester. Who are the happiest people on Earth?
Let’s start with all that tax they pay. The Danish government provides its people with one of the finest education and health systems in the world. It spends more on children and elderly people per capital than other country.
And there’s another advantage to those high taxes. Because a shop assistant’s final salary is not that much less than someone who works in a bank, for example, Danes don’t choose their careers based on money or status as people in other countries do. They choose the job they want to do. There’s a philosophy in Denmark known as “Jante-lov”, which translates as “you’re no better than anybody else.”
Money doesn’t seem as important in Denmark. It has been called a “post consumerist” society.
| A．In a list ranking countries by the happiness of their citizens, it pm tropical Fiji 50 places below freezing Iceland. |
| B．The street sweeper can hold his head up high as he proudly does his job. |
| C．Danish people aren’t as suspicious as many other nations. |
| D．Most Danes are used to seeing between 50-70% of their salary going to the government! |
| E．Those 5.5 million people who call Denmark their home. |
| F．People have nice things in their houses, but they’re not mad about shopping and spending. |
A Father’s Influence Makes for Better Grades
Adolescents from low-income families in particular are more likely than their middle-class peers to underachieve and to drop out of school. Studies have shown that a positive attitude towards school work and the support and encouragement from their parents can help at-risk youngsters to overcome the economic barriers and lack of resources they face. Most of the evidence about the effects of parental involvement comes from research on mothers. Little is known, however, about how adolescents experience their fathers’ warmth and the beliefs and behaviors that are most affected by it.
This new study is part of a larger one focusing on low-income families conducted in four middle schools in the southwestern United States. Data were analyzed from questionnaires completed by 183 sixth-graders about how optimistic and motivated they were about their schoolwork, and how they experienced their fathers. The questionnaires were completed primarily by respondents of Mexican American, African American and European American descent. Their maths and language arts grades were also obtained.
Their findings show how fathers can support their teenagers in ways that result in greater optimism, self-efficacy, and, ultimately, higher achievement at school.
These positive effects extend to both sons and daughters, while in different ways. Experiencing their father’s warmth first influences daughters’ sense of optimism, and then spills over into their feeling more determined and certain about their academic abilities. This in turn leads to better math grades. There is a more direct link between their fathers’ involvement and teenage boys’ belief in their ability to succeed on the academic front. This heightened self-confidence increased their success in English language arts classes.
Suizzo suggests that counselors and educators should encourage fathers to communicate warmth and acceptance to their children, because of the positive influence these emotions have on their well-being.
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9 . A sensational new scientific discovery in the ocean near Australia may explain the most massive extinction of living things in Earth’s history. For years, scholars have been frustrated in trying to analyze why 90 to 95 percent of sea life and 75 percent of and life vanished about 250 million years ago. The extinctions were so enormous that they are called The Great Dying. To date, some authorities on ancient life thought that a volcanic eruption or a sudden change in the environment affected all life on Earth. Other specialists have doubted these theories, maintaining that it was not plausible that a solo volcano could bring about such chaos. From the outset, critics believed these claims were exaggerated.
By contrast, there is wide acceptance of the idea that a meteor (流星)which hit Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago was the primary cause of the dinosaurs’ extinction. Nevertheless, until now they had no evidence of an intense meteor impact 185 mill on years earlier. Now they do.
American geologists have been examining rock samples from a deep sea crater (火山口)near the northwest coast of Australia. The samples were initially collected and preserved by petroleum technicians seeking oil. Now the geologists and their colleagues believe that the precise splits in the rock’s structure show a typical pattern for meteors. There is a clear distinction from volcanic patterns. In fact, a spokesperson went so far as to say that these rocks completely revise the way scientists perceive the mass extinctions from the ancient era. Academics say that the meteor’s crater s the size of Mount Qomolangma, the highest mountain on Earth! Literally, the meteor made a mark on Earth as it drowned in the sea. The Earth could not absorb such a harsh blow without sustaining global devastation. Things must have come to a standstill. Evidently, the blow was fatal for many forms of life.
Bear in mind that all this was long before mammals---including humans--emerged in Earth’s history. Still, we would be wise to pay attention to the damage a meteor can cause. Fortunately, meteor strikes on Earth are few and far between.
1. The word “plausible” (paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to “______”.| A．available | B．incredible |
| C．reasonable | D．ridiculous |
| A．Because they were very resistant | B．Because there weren’t any then |
| C．Because they lived in isolated areas | D．Because they hid themselves in the caves |
| A．Scholars agreed that a single volcano caused The Great Dying |
| B．75 percent of land life continued 250 million years ago |
| C．Volcanic rocks and meteors have different patterns |
| D．When the meteor hit land Mount Qomolangma sprang up. |
| A．The Dinosaurs’ End | B．Crater on Qomolangma |
| C．Contradictory Claims | D．A Meteor’s Impact |
Most people get sweaty palms just staring at EI Capitan, a breathtaking rock formation i Yosemite National Park, California. Alex Honnold’s stayed dry. And this June, he managed to climb the 900-meter vertical wall, pulling on edges barely big enough for
Honnold could not
EI Capitan had been climbed
The achievement marks the latest in a series of milestones for sport climbing (竞技攀岩). In 2015, two other American Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson, established a route up the Dawn Wall, EI Capitan’s
These have strengthened climbing’s position in the sporting circle in America and elsewhere. Google has invited Jorgeson to give a motivational talk to its employees. Climbing gyms have appeared around the globe over the past decade, making the event safer and more
