1 . What is an Adult?

How do you know when a person is an adult? Does the person’s age tell you? Or is an adult a person who takes on responsibility for work and family? There are different ways to define (定义) an adult.

Age

One way to define an adult is by age, but countries have very different ideas about the legal age of an adult. In India, a man can’t marry without his parents’ permission until age 21, and a woman can’t marry until age 18. However, in Jordan, the legal ages are 16 for men and 15 for women. In Brazil, a 16-year-old can vote, but in most African nations, people don’t have this right until they are 21. The legal driving age in Ethiopia is 14, and in Russia it is 18. The legal age of an adult is different around the world.

Body

Another way to define an adult is by the person’s body. An adult is a person who is grown and can have children. This is a physical definition of an adult. According to this definition, a 16-year-old is usually an adult.

Brain

Teenagers may have fully grown bodies, but they don’t usually think like adults. Their bodies usually stop growing at about age 17, but one part of the brain continues to grow until a person is about 25. This part of the brain, the frontal lobe, helps a person to understand cause and effect. It also helps a person to use good judgment to make decisions, solve problems, plan, and organize. When this part of the brain is fully grown at age 25, a person thinks like an adult.

Responsibilities

Another way of defining an adult is as a person who can take on important responsibilities like a job and a family. An adult respects others and understands that his or her own needs are not always the most important. This is the social definition of an adult. Some teenagers behave like adults, but most are not that responsible until they are over 20 years old.

What Is an Adult?

In conclusion, teenagers look like adults but are not yet adults. Some countries give teenagers the right to have adult responsibilities like marriage, voting, and driving, but teenagers don’t always think or act like adults. Most people agree that after age 25, a person is an adult.

1. Read the statements. Write T(true) or F(false).
_________ Countries have the same ideas about the legal age of adults.
_________When a teenager’s body stops growing, she or he is always an adult.
_________Teenagers’ brains continue to grow after their bodies have stopped growing.
_________Teenagers with jobs and a family are adults according to one definition.
2. A man in India can marry without his parents’ permission when he is ________ years old.

A．16

B．18

C．21

3. People in Brazil can vote when they are ________.

A．16

B．18

C．21

4. People can get a driver’s license in Ethiopia when they are ________.

A．14

B．16

C．18

5. The human brain does dot stop growing until a person is about ________.

A．18

B．21

C．25

6. The last part of the brain to grow is the part that helps a person ________.

A．be intelligent

B．use good judgment（判断）

C．learn languages

7. You can learn from the conclusion that most people think ________.

A．a person is an adult after age 25

B．a person is an adult when his or her body is grown

C．a person is an adult when she or he acts like an adult

2 . Universities are expanding opportunities to spend a year overseas, meaning that not only language students benefit from time spent in another culture. Amanda Harper, head of placements and Bath University, says going abroad offers students the chance to widen their cultural horizons and develop an international network of friends and contacts.

‘One of my science students learned to dance salsa and speak Spanish during his year in Costa Rica,’ she says. ‘The students mature and their confidence increases. These changes are unquantifiable in terms of marks are the time management skills, presentation skills and ability to deal with the world of vastly improved when they come back from their placements.’

As it becomes increasingly difficult to stand out in the graduate job market, a year’s experience in another country could be what separates one student from others with the same results. A survey for the confederation of British industry found that fifty six percent of employers were not satisfied with graduates’ foreign language skills and forty percent were dissatisfied with candidates’ international cultural awareness.

Most overseas placements are taken in the third year of university, after which students return for a fourth and final year. Cassandra Popli, 22, who spent a year at California State University in Long Beach, got a job in California which she will take up after graduating from Swansea University this summer. ‘I feel like I have got so much more from that year abroad than I would have if I had stayed here,’ she adds.

Read the article and find words that collocate with the words 1-6. （从文中找出与以下结构搭配的词，每空填一个词）
1. expand __________
2. go __________
3. widen __________
4. __________ a network
5. increase __________
6. take up a __________