现在网络媒体过多关注明星绯闻，而对于科学家等真正对社会做出巨大贡献的人关注和报道不足。请结合实例，谈谈你的看法。
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Major trends that may affect education systems
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which promotes policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world, has been looking at the future of global education. Its head of education, Andreas Schleicher, has been talking about some major international trends affecting education systems around the world.
One trend is the widening gap between rich and poor. In OECD countries, the richest 10% have incomes 10 times greater than the poorest 10%. This inequality is a challenge for schools who want to offer equal and fair access to education for everyone.
Another trend is the rising wealth in Asia. It’s suggested that a large rise in the middle-classes in countries like India will increase demand for university places. Andreas Schleicher asks the question “What values will these newly wealthy consumers want from their schools?”
Increasing migration will also have an impact on education systems. Mobility results in more culturally diverse students eager to learn and develop good life for themselves. But that can be challenge, too, as Andreas Schleicher asks: “How should schools support pupils arriving from around the world? Will schools have a bigger role in teaching about shared values?”
Funding pressure is another issue: as our demand and expectation for education rises and more people go to university, who’s going to pay for it all? The rise in dependency on technology is another concern. What should students learn when many of their talents can be reproduced by machines? And how reliant should we be on learning from the internet?
These are just some of the issues the OECD is highlighting. But they remain irrelevant for hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest children who don’t even have access to school places or receive such low-quality education that they leave without the most basic literacy or numeracy.
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请针对图片反映的社会现象，写一篇短文，谈谈你对此现象的看法。词数：150左右。内容包括：
a. 简要描述图片;
b. 分析原因和提出建议。
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The Metaverse(元宇宙): The Future of Web Design and Development?
To many, the Metaverse might seem like this is something that is still far from becoming a reality. To others, it is the inevitable future of web design and development.
The Metaverse is an ambitious project that seeks to bring together many different web development and HiTech technologies in order to offer users a new experience of the web. Today, users view content on the web. On the Metaverse, users will be immersed(沉浸在)in the content thanks to technologies like Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Machine Learning, and other forms of Artificial Intelligence.
In brief, it is the next iteration(迭代)of the Internet where users will be able to navigate through a virtual space instead of the current two-dimensional screens. Although much has been said about it, there is still much that needs to be done, and this is both an opportunity and a challenge. Whatever the case is, it is the future of web design, and companies need to start thinking about how to reap the benefits of it.
One of the most important implications of this upgraded version of the web is the impact it will have on apps and websites. The rise of the Metaverse will not eliminate digital products as we currently know them. On the contrary, it will most likely be the case that both will coexist in new and more powerful forms.
This means that business websites will not become obsolete(淘汰的). As a matter of fact, they will probably become more relevant. Traditional websites will probably end up coexisting with the Metaverse, creating synergies(协同作用)that benefit users and businesses alike.
Aside from the impact on business websites, it is also important to consider operational aspects like the changes in the role of the typical web designer and developer. Digital product teams will have to rethink the tech stacks(一大推)they use in order to build interfaces and experiences for the user journeys coming our way.
Business decision-makers need to understand this and allow their teams to experiment with what might be the future of web experiences for users. Yes, it is a risky bet, but this is something that is gaining a lot of strength, and we might be hearing more about it sooner than we expect.
As mentioned above, traditional websites and other digital products aren’t going anywhere, but they surely need to be reworked in terms of what is expected of the future of web design.
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假设你是明启中学高三学生王林，最近读到了如下新闻：有一名小学生通过代他人写作业赚取了一万多元。你对此新闻颇有感触，写一篇日记表达你的想法；
1. 你认为这件事反应了什么问题；
2. 你认为应该怎么解决这个问题。
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Why true happiness isn't about being happy all the time
Over the past two decades, the positive psychology movement has brightened up psychological rescarch with its science of happiness and human potential. It argues that psychologists should not only investigate mental illness but also what makes life worth living.
The founding father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, describes happiness as experiencing frequent positive emotions, such as joy, excitement and satisfaction, combined with deeper feelings of meaning and purpose. It implies a positive attitude in the present and an optimistic outlook for the future. Importantly, happiness experts have argued that happiness is not a stable ,unchangeable feature but something flexible that we can work on and eventually strive towards.
Recent research indicates that psychological flexibility is the key to greater happiness and well-being.For example,being open to emotional experiences and the ability to endure periods of discomfort can allow us to move towards a richer, more meaningful existence. Studies have also demonstrated that the way we respond to the circumstances of our lives has more influence on our happiness than the events themselves. Experiencing stress, sadness and anxiety in the short term doesn't mean we can't be happy in the long term. Putting up with sorrow can make us tougher and lead us to take action in our lives, such as changing jobs or overcoming hardship. Often when people have faced difficulty, illness or loss, they describe their lives as happier and more meaningful as a result.
Unlike feeling happy, which is a temporary state, leading a happier life is about individual growth through finding meaning. It is about accepting our humanity with all its ups and downs, enjoying the positive emotions, and making use of painful feelings in order to reach our full potential.
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Scrolling through your WeChat moments, you came across a post saying: “I just got accepted to Harvard AND Oxford! Are they sure they didn't mix my applications up with somebody else?!" This person is clearly humblebragging. The term“humblebrag'"was first coined to describe when someone makes a seemingly modest statement, but the actual purpose is to bring attention to something they are proud of.
Although those who humblebrag think it will make them more likable because they aren't loudly boasting about their triumphs,a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology showed that humblebragging actually has the opposite effect. "Humblebragging backfires because it seems very fake. That 'woe is me' attitude combined with self-promotion does not lead to a favorable impression,"said Ovul Sezer,the lead author of the study."Even simply bragging or complaining is better, because at least those messages are seen as more sincere."
Sezer's study also found that nearly 60 percent of humblebrags were complaint-based humblebragging, with most people humblebragging about their looks, followed by their money or wealth, and finally about their performance at work.“It's such a common phenomenon. All of us know some people in our lives, whether in social media or in the workplace, who do this annoying thing,"commented Sezer, adding that we all do it to some extent.
So, if you want to share your achievements with others, what's the best way to do it then? Sezer suggests that people“own their self-promotion and reap the rewards of being sincere". She also suggested finding a wingman:"If someone brags for you,that's the best thing that can happen to you, because then you don't seem like you're bragging.
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Offshore production
The world’s consumption of fashion is huge. The European Union imported textiles (clothing and carpets) to the value of €83.7 billion in 2010. Prices have fallen, too, with hand-finished shirts costing less than five euros. To make clothes at these low prices, companies have to keep costs down. They use offshore production to do this. Large companies make their products in developing countries where workers are paid much less than in developed countries.
A point that should be considered in that case is that developing countries encourage developed countries to invest in them to provide jobs. Supporters of overseas production point out that increased investment has positive effects in the long term. Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman points out that the growth in manufacturing has an impact on the rest of the economy, because it reduces the number of people needing to work in agriculture and increases competition for labour. This leads to higher wages, which lead to other improvements, such as the ability to send children to school. On the other hand, the disadvantage of this foreign investment is the fact that it can have a negative impact on the economy of developed countries, because people lose their jobs when production is outsourced to other countries.
It seems that if multinationals are going to benefit from low production costs by using overseas suppliers, they should do more to improve the social situation-for example, by building schools for the children in those communities. It is also clear that multinationals should invest in communities in the developed countries where they sell their products. Furthermore, given multinationals do benefit from lower costs of production in developing countries and their workers, they need to feel obliged to protect the workers in overseas manufacturing plants.
New look on the Museum
Museums have changed. They are no longer places for the privileged few or for bored vacationers to visit on rainy days.
At a science museum in Ontario, Canada you can feel your hair stand on end as harmless electricity passes through your body. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, you can look at 17 century instruments while listening to their music. At the Modern Museum in Sweden, you can put on costumes provided by the Stockholm Opera. As these examples show, museums are reaching out to new audiences, particularly the young, the poor and the less educated members of the population. As a result, attendance is interesting.
Many museums have changed in appearance. Some old, gray museums have been rebuilt, and the newer ones are open and modern in their architecture. Inside, there is modern lighting, color, and sound. Instead of displaying everything they own, museum directors show fewer objects and leave open spaces where visitor can gather and sit down. They also bring together in one display a group of objects drawn drawn from various parts of the museum to represent the whole lifestyle of region or a historical period. In one room, for instance, you may find materials, clothing, tools, cooking pots, furniture, and art works of a particular place and time.
More and more museum directors are realizing that people learn best when they can somehow become part of what they are seeing. In many science museums, for example, there are no guided tours. The visitor is encouraged to touch, listen, operate, and experiment so as to discover scientific principles for himself. The purpose is not only to provide fun but also to help people feel at home in the world of science. The theory is that people who do not understand science will probably fear it, and those who fear science will not use it to the best advantage.
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The lost art of listening
Do you think you’re a good listener? Chances are that you do. But studies show that most people seriously overestimate their ability to listen. The truth is we are generally not good at listening, and our listening comprehension declines as we age.
This was proven by Dr. Ralph Nichols, who conducted a simple experiment to test students’ listening skills. He had some Minnesota teachers stop what they were doing mid-class, and then asked students to describe what their teachers had been talking about. While older kids with more developed brains, are usually assumed to be better listeners, the results, however, showed otherwise: While 90 percent of first-and second-graders gave correct responses, this percentage dropped rapidly as the students got older.
One reason for our poor listening concerns the speed at which we think. The adult brain can process up to around 400 words per minute, more than three times faster than the speed an average person speaks. This means we can easily think about something else while someone is talking to us, allowing our mind to wander or get sidetracked. The younger students in Dr. Nichols’s experiment were better listeners partly because their brains were less developed — they lacked the extra brain power to be distracted.
Another factor that contributes to our poor listening is our ever-decreasing attention span. According to a Mircrosoft study, the age of smartphones has had a negative impact here. In 2000 — around the time the mobile revolution began — the average human attention span was 12 seconds; by 2013, it had fallen to 8 seconds. Even a goldfish — with an average attention span of 9 seconds — can hold a thought for longer!
More and more people now realize that listening is a skill that can be developed through practice. Learning to observe a speaker’s body language and emotions, for example, can improve our active listening. Even the simple act of note-taking or making eye contact can help us stay focused while listening.
