2 . There is a traditional view that a degree from top universities can in itself place you on the highest career path. If your career playing field is assessed purely by salary, then the data support this view: Oxford and Cambridge graduates have the highest median incomes of all employed graduates, five years after leaving university.

In any event, it is not just university choice that affects your career outcome. Sometimes, biases exist. For example, on Wall Street, male applicants form upper-middle-class backgrounds with an interest in team sports are particularly preferred.

Some employers are leveling the playing field, actively seeking graduates from other well-known universities, to increase diversity and perhaps because the courses at these universities offer their students advantages, including vocational elements. Other employers are trying out “background blind” admissions, removing from applications references to schools or universities.

While there may be peer or family pressure to study at certain universities, your long-term career success depends on more than the brand name, including what you can demonstrate in terms of technical and employability skills.

Research all leading universities to decide which course would suit you best, including the content, style and intensity of teaching, and examination methods. You may also consider which institution would provide the best extra-curricular (课程以外的) opportunities.

Even if Oxbridge doors close for you, other doors will open: employers will be impressed by what you do with the opportunities you actually had, not what might have been.

3 . At the start of every vacation, many parents spend their time wondering: What will the children do? When I was a child in the 1950s, the answer was easy. The children would play. We played feely with other children, in our own chosen ways, away from adults. When we got bored, we found ways to overcome it. We took up _________, took risks, sometimes hurt ourselves, got into trouble, and _________ how to get out of it.

During such play, we acquired knowledge and skills that couldn’t be taught to us in school. We learned how to take _________, make our own decisions, solve our own problems, get along with peers as equals, experience fear and then find ways to manage it, experience anger and then find ways to overcome it. We also discovered our interests, _________ them, and became skilled at them—interests that for many of us later became _________.

Over the past 60 years, however, we’ve seen a huge _________ in children’s freedom and opportunity to play on their own. Over this same period, we’ve also seen a dramatic increase in the rates of _________ and anxiety disorders among young people- five to eight times what they were in the 1950s.

Our children love to play in moderately _________ ways. Through such play, they acquire the physical, social and emotional capacities required for healthy development. They learn to get along with one another by playing socially, and they learn to deal with emergencies by playing in ways that involve risk.

Why is such play so _________? It can cause injury, so why hasn’t natural selection __________ the inner desire for it? We have some clues from laboratory experiments.

Researchers have found that when young rats or monkeys are deprived (剥夺) of play during critical periods in their development, the animals grow up as emotional cripples (跛者). They are __________ disabled when placed in new, slightly frightening environments to which normally raised animals would __________. They repeated between incapacitating fear and inappropriate aggression when placed with __________ peers. So it is no surprise to me that play-deprived human children grow up insufficient in the social and emotional skills required to deal well with life’s inevitable stressors (应激源). They may also grow up __________ the abilities to think creatively, take initiative, and assume responsibility.

We have deprived children of free, risky play, probably for their own good. In the process we have denied them the opportunity to learn how to be __________ by playing in risky ways.

Our children need more freedom, not more adult control.

5 . In today’s society, despite higher education becoming more accessible, admission to it is getting increasingly competitive. However, admission systems differ from country to country, _________ different types of competition.

_________, an average high school student in China is devoted to mastering everything that can _________ appear on the “holy (神圣的)” exam—the college entrance examination, known as the gaokao. As a good score on this exam almost _________ admission to a good colleges, it’s worth the 12 years of hard work.

In the United States, _________, education is different. To get into a good college, a regular U.S. student must keep a high and stable GPA (grade pint average), _________ extracurricular activities, and get high standardized test scores. Once a school recognizes a student’s academic performance and personal development, he or she will have a chance to be admitted.

In both countries, the _________ is getting more intense. High schools in China focus on preparing students for the gaokao. Even outside of school, many parents _________ tutoring sessions for their children. And in the U.S., _________ heavy workloads in school, students are often pushed to be involved in many activities including sports, arts and volunteering. Some students even run their own non-profits. With some colleges’ acceptance rates as low as 4.8 percent, students compete to build the most __________ resume.

__________many people criticize education in China, it’s __________ impossible to use a personalized admission system in the world’s most populated country. Just imagine how many admission officers a Chinese university would need to evaluate all of the application, not to mention the time it would take for them to make their decisions.

While the current system needs reform, the __________ of parents and students also needs to change. A score shouldn’t __________ a student’s future. Everyone is gifted in different areas and needs to take some time to discover what those areas are. If you’re not good at tests, maybe communicating with others comes to you easier.

Once you step outside this box, you’ll discover more about yourself. __________, exams are only the means, not the end.

Born and raised in a digital age, today’s young people are generally tech savvy （技术娴熟的). But when it comes to basic life skills, they are less     1     than the older generation.

According to a recent study by YouGov, a UK-based market research firm, 69 percent of 18-24-olds in the UK have no idea how to bleed a radiator (暖气片换水). About 35 percent of them don’t know how to sew on a button, while about 11 percent don’t understand how to change a light bulb or iron clothes.

In fact, the problem is     2    by young people in the United States. According to a report by Forbes in 2014, most millennial (千禧一代) drivers don’t know how to check their tire pressure. Cooking is another basic life skill that has been     3     as millennials are much more likely to order food deliveries than previous generations.

Technology may be to     4     for this generational gap. “Skills at using phones and computers are the ones valued these days, and the     5     hands-on skills of yesteryear are now seen as functions that can be easily outsourced (外包),” Sandi Mann, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, told the Mirror.

Indeed,     6     in technology have made young people unfamiliar with many basic life skills. For example, with GPS always at hand, young people have had no need to learn how to read     7     maps,

However, this change has raised     8     among many people. “If you have your master’s degree and you can’t live within your means or go home from your job and feed yourself a nutritious meal, you’re not a complete graduate,” Chris Moore, a professor from Brigham Young University, US, told HuffPost.

That’s why there’s an increasing call for the     9     of “home ec” in the US, short for home economics, which teaches basic life skills like cooking and how to do laundry. It was very     10    in the early 20^th century, but was later taken out of schools and universities because of budget cuts. But recently, home ec was reintroduced in a small number of schools and universities.

8 . In rich countries like America, the absence of professional waste-pickers presents a problem. The general public is not very good at sorting rubbish. Households and businesses serviced by municipal waste-management providers may actually have got worse at sorting in the past 20 years, says Peter Keller of Republic Services, America's second-biggest waste management firm, which runs Newby Island in San Jose.

Citizens of rich countries, where almost 100% of municipal waste gets collected, take such services for granted - unless the collectors go on strike (罢工),as happened in the Belgian city of Ghent in early August, leaving streets in a stink (恶臭) for days. In some industrialized nations, increasingly, residents are charged based on volume (known as "pay-as-you-throw") To encourage sorting, such schemes often exempt recyclables.

The volume of recyclables has reached 1,400 tons a day, a lot by American standards, says Mr. Keller. That should come as no surprise. After all, inhabitants of the San Francisco Bay area pride themselves on their recycling ability. San Francisco boasts a recycling rate of 80% one of the highest of any rich-world city. San Franciscans may therefore be shocked to learn that a lot of them, as Mr. Keller puts it, “aren't very good at it"

Two possible reasons account for Mr. Keller's remarks. The first is that many people do not know what is recyclable. Beer bottles and soft-drink cans are, he says. Egg cartons and magazines are not, for there is not market for the materials of which they are made. Some things are recyclable on their own, but not when combined, such as "paper" cups lined with plastic film. It is hard to blame consumers for feeling increasingly puzzled, he admits

The other problem is that residents only have to separate recyclables from non-recyclables Cans, bottles and papers are all thrown into one bin. This mix can, to some degree, be sorted at plants like Newby, enabled by clever technology which uses optical sensor;(光电感应器) and magnets to separate materials automatically. Anyway, these was no match for humans when it came to sorting.

As the volume of recyclables increased in America and Europe, the quality of recycled output decreased because everything was mixed in together. This did not trouble materials. recovery facilities (MRF) operators so long as they would offload their increasingly impure stock abroad. Then China announced it would not accept any plastics or carboard, and American waste-management companies have been struggling to find what to do with their poor-quality waste.

To Binge or Not to Binge?(要不要熬夜追剧?)

What are your plans for this weekend? In addition to completing homework, you may take time to catch up with friends, visit your grandparents and maybe even catch up on your     1    TV series. If you've downloaded or streamed the show, you may settle into your favorite fictional world by binge-watching several episodes or even an entire season.

You probably feel that most of your days are spent “binge-studying”, so why not reward yourself by     2     into another reality for a little while? What's the harm, right? Well, according to researchers, binge-watching, defined as watching at least 2.3 episodes in one sitting, may be more than a     3     escape.

Do you frequently spend hours in the evenings and on weekends completely absorbed in the fictional lives of TV characters? All of those hours of     4     could be turning you into an unhealthy couch potato. Studies have shown that side effects such as fatigue and obesity could be in your future.

In addition to physical health concerns, there could also be mental and emotional impacts, such as     5     feelings of loneliness sadness and depression. Some people may use watching TV as a means of escape from such feelings, but that is likely to make the problem worse in the long run.

Of course, if you're sitting around for hours with your eyes     6     to a screen, there is another obvious concern --you're missing out on lots of other important stuff! You may be missing time with friends and family, missing out on other activities that you enjoy,     7     out on school responsibilities, and possibly even missing meals and losing sleep.

When this starts happening, you know you have a problem.

Don't get me wrong. TV is an entertaining and sometimes     8     activity. It can even help you improve your English (or other languages) and help you learn about other cultures.

The reality is, with more and more TV series now     9     for streaming, there is nothing but our own willpower to stop us from binging. So when you sit down to watch a show, decide in advance to     10     the number of episodes you'll watch. Besides, it's always better when good things last longer.