1 . It’s a picture we often see.     1     He is trying not to fall asleep as his teacher drills the class in the body structure of a man: the heart is here; the lungs are here… The teacher then gives the class a worksheet and asks them to answer questions like which body parts go where. At the end of the period, the only way to measure whether the students have learned anything is based on this worksheet and the unit test.

    2     Primary school students walk into a classroom and see a basic skeleton with models of the heart, lungs, and the stomach lying on a table in the center of the room. Students gather around in a circle, see the model organs, laugh, and begin to guess the name of each body part and its function. Through trial and error, they figure out where each model organ fits in the skeleton.

The differences between these two types of classes are obvious. One has students actively involved. The other relies on direct instruction, rote learning, and remembering information for the test.    3     The other relies on students memorizing information. Which lesson will leave a lasting impression?

    4     Why? Lessons should be based on students’ psychological needs and help them achieve learning outcomes. If an educator takes a child ‘s development into consideration, he or she can prepare lessons that will not only engage the student but also leave a lasting impression.

Many famous educators like John Dewey have written about student-centered learning and they think highly of it.     5     Whatever the reasons are, educators are making efforts to make a change.

A．Now imagine another picture.

B．One is memorable for students.

C．Classes should be made effective and meaningful.

D．A primary school student sits at his desk and looks bored.

E．But many teachers are still adopting a wait-and-see approach to it.

F．Teaching methods that rely on student-centered learning are more effective.

G．Students thus actively participate instead of passively receiving knowledge.

3 . It's difficult not to admire the talent of a skilled musician. Whether it is a pianist, a violinist or a drummer, these individuals have shown devotion and passion over a long period of time to reach the highest levels of performance. But they say it is never too late to learn a musical instrument.    1    

Learning to play an instrument when growing up can improve hearing in adulthood. According to a study by Professor Nina Kraus, children who played musical instruments were better at recognizing different frequencies. This enhanced hearing skill into later life.Moreover, it could also have some academic benefits too,     2    

For the adults who don't have the opportunity to learn one in childhood, whether you choose to play the piano. or learn a drumbeat, you could end up joining a band or orchestra. This can in turn enrich your social life.     3     Mastering the perfect chord is one way, but what if you got together with a bunch of friends and entered into a competition-and won?

    4     Obviously, picking up an instrument can help them kill time. But more importantly,it can effectively prevent them from dementia(老年痴呆)as several regions in the brain are active in the process of playing instruments.

    5     Why not begin by yourself? Chances are that you can establish a band with your children and parents.

A．They also take pride in their own achievements.

B．Will you simply admire others' talents and performances?

C．Positive effects on those who have retired cannot be ignored.

D．So what are the benefits for children, adults and even seniors?

E．Learning an instrument can also give you a sense of achievement.

F．A band or orchestra always needs performers of different instruments.

G．Students involved in musical activities scored significantly higher in maths.

6 . Studies have shown that about 30% of the children in America aged 6 to 19 are either overweight ar obese（肥胖的）.     1     Besides, the situation in the countries of the European Union is similar.

If you are gaining weight, it does not always mean that you are becoming obese. After all, children and young adults need nutrients（营养物）to grow.     2     However, if you begin putting on too much weight, you may be on the road to obesity.

    3     Genes are one of the factors that can lead to it. Genes determine how your body stores food and how well it turns food into energy. Your genes come from your parents, so overweight parents are more likely to have overweight children.

Although you may have good genes, you can still become obese. In fact, the lack of physical exercise can also cause obesity.     4     For example, compared with going outside and doing some physical activities, children now prefer to sit still for hours in front of computers or TVs.

Many of us eat up to four meals a day thanks to excessive（过度的）snacking. And when we have a snack, we may not consider eating fruits. But this is not always the children’s fault.     5    

A．Fast food is another reason for obesity.

B．But what may cause childhood obesity？

C．That is almost one out of three young Americans.

D．This increases their chances of becoming overweight.

E．So it is normal for them to gain weight as time goes on.

F．Nowadays, our free time activities have greatly changed.

G．After all, there are many stores offering all of snacks near schools.

7 . When Failure Is a Good Thing

Failure is an important process you can learn from.    1    

Most people view failure as something that should be avoided at all costs.    2    It may have been an “F” we received on a paper or the high expectations our parents placed upon our shoulders that stopped us from trying.

Award-winning psychologist and author, Ron Friedman, tells the story of how Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, revolutionized the women's clothing industry and became a billionaire in his book, The Best Place To Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace.

    3     She had zero experience in the clothing industry, lacked an education in business and raised only $5,000 to invest. When asked where she found the courage, she gave all credit to her dad. While most parents ask their kids, “How was your day?" when sitting down for dinner, Sara's parents asked her and her brother, “What did you fail at today?” each and every night.

When interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper, Sara said, “Instead of failure being the outcome, failure became not trying. It forced me at a young age to want to push myself so much further out of my comfort zone.”     4     It became more about learning and less about a personal weakness.

If we view failure as weakness, we avoid stepping out of our comfort zone.     5     It does not define us, but instead matures us. I 'm sure that there are many risks we would all take in our personal, professional and spiritual lives if we could get past a fear of failure.

What has been the greatest lesson you have learned when taking a chance? Please share with us.

A．And, most importantly, it means you tried.

B．Let's take a look at how Sara faced failures.

C．In reality, Sara's father had re-defined failure.

D．Early on, Sara overcame a series of difficulties.

E．Instead, we must remind ourselves that failure is an action.

F．It is important to reflect on what can be learnt from failure.

G．We tend to connect failure with a bad experience we had as a child.

8 . The vast majority of parents expect their children to grow up to be healthy, happy, and productive members of society.     1     If we don’t give parenting everything we’ve got, our kids will wind up unemployed, living in our basements, and there will be no one to blame but ourselves. That’s what I like to call the “perfect parent myth”.

The standards of perfection for parents these days are extremely high. Perfect parenting expectations begin with a drug free natural birth. Once our young are born we must breastfeed each baby for years. If we can’t breasted, we must at least feed on demand.     2     Let’s also not forget to organize our children’s days so they are engaged in educational pursuits in case they fall behind the curve (弯道). We must be involved in every aspect of our children’s schools. There is no free time for the perfect parent.     3    

These standards are unreasonable. They’re also crazy. Parents can’t be perfect. Why? Because we’re human and so are our children.     4    They are predictable and when they are unruly we can shut them down. Parenting is nothing like that.

    5    But, by the parent being less than perfect, the child will need to adapt and develop skills to overcome little disappointments. There is flexibility and room for real-life mistakes and limitations to our parenting abilities.

A．We must make our own baby food.

B．They are pushing themselves too far.

C．Robots would be much easier to parent.

D．There is only unlimited devotion to our children.

E．A good enough parent meets the needs of their children.

F．Parents have no enough time to live up to these high standards.

G．To meet those goals, parents are told that they must spare no effort.

9 . Thinking about the past week, did any of you forget where you put your phone? Did you have a word stuck on the tip of your tongue? You couldn’t remember the name of the movie a friend recommended? What is going on here? Is your memory failing?

It’s not.     1    Despite memory’s extraordinary, necessary and common presence in our lives, it is far from perfect. Our brains are not designed to remember people’s names, to remember to do something later or to catalogue everything we experience.     2     Even in the smartest heads, memory is likely to be wrong. So what determines what we remember and what we forget?

    3    Your memory is not a video camera recording a constant stream of every sight and sound you're exposed to. You can only remember what you are concerned about. Accordingly, one major reason for forgetting what someone said or where you parked your car is lack of attention.

The other has something to do with stimulus(刺激物). For example, the tip of the tongue is one of the most common experiences of memory failure.     4    Why does this happen? The tip of the tongue can occur when there’s only partial or weak activation(激活)of the nerve cells that connect to the word you’re looking for.

So when you walk into a room and suddenly don’t know why you’re there, you’re not going crazy or getting Alzheimer’s disease, and your memory isn’t terrible. Go back to the room you were in before you landed in this one and imagine the clues that were there.     5    

A．One necessary factor is attention.

B．It’s doing exactly what it's supposed to do.

C．These imperfections are simply the factory settings.

D．Our brains tend to remember what is meaningful and forget what isn’t.

E．You’re trying to come up with a word, but you cannot find it in your memory.

F．It will instantly deliver what you were completely confused about a moment ago.

G．Memory is amazing and is essential for the functioning of almost everything we do.

10 . Underground farming, as the name may suggest, is the practice of growing food underground.     1     Food can then be grown in stable, predictable and sustainable ways there.

Until recently, underground farming is a recent and important trend, but why? Because of its potential (潜力) and the benefits that it brings.

·    2    

It has been estimated that even if cities were to build rooftop greenhouses on every possible building and fill the parking spots with growing containers — it would only be able to reach around 5% of the crop requirements of the city.     3     Rooftop greenhouses, on the other hand, require buildings that have very large flat roofs and are strong enough structurally, yet most buildings simply don’t have that. That’s where underground farms stand out. They require less surface space and can be applied to almost any new building.

·Lowers Heating Costs for Building Above

Even the most efficient LED lights generate waste heat, which means that they heat up the farm, and for most modern indoor farms that's a major issue because not only energy is lost through lighting, but it's also required to cool down the farm.     4     Besides, people are working on ways to recycle the waste heat in order to help heat the building above and reduce its energy.

·Enables Farming in Unfriendly Environments

Obviously when going under a certain depth, the weather and environmental conditions of the surface have no effect on the growing environment.     5    

A．Replaces rooftop greenhouses.

B．Increases the urban farming capacity (容量).

C．Underground farms have a big advantage here.

D．It aims at creating stable underground environments.

E．Growing in cities is highly limited due to less empty space.

F．Underground farms can reduce that waste of energy as much as possible.

G．So it's possible to build productive farms in deserts and even mountainous areas.