1 . Global Essay Competition

The John Locke Institute encourages young people to develop the characteristics that turn good students into great writers. Our Essay Competition invites students to explore a wide range of challenging and interesting questions beyond the limits of the school curriculum (课程).

All of our essay prizes are judged by senior academics from the University of Oxford. The judges will choose their favourite essay from each subject category and an overall “best essay” across six subjects: Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History, Psychology and Law.

Entry Requirements

Entry is open to students from any country. Candidates must be eighteen years old, or younger, on the date of the submission deadline, 30 June. Candidates for the Junior Prize must be fourteen years old, or younger, on the date of the submission deadline. Each essay should address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed (超过) 2, 000 words.

Key Dates

30 June: Submission deadline

14 July: Short-listed candidates informed

26 August: Awards Dinner for the Junior Prize

2. September: Awards Dinner for the Economics Prize and other prizes

Prizes

There is a prize for the best essay in each category. The prize for each winner of a subject category, and the winner of the Junior category, is a scholarship worth US $2,000 towards the cost of attending any John Locke Institute programme, and the essays will be published on the Institute’s website. The prize-giving ceremony will take place in Oxford.

The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be awarded an honorary John Locke Institute Junior, Fellowship, which comes with a US $10, 000 scholarship to attend one or more of our summer schools.

1. What should the entry be about?

A．The limits of school courses.	B．The characteristics of great writers.
C．One of the given questions.	D．Anything in the chosen fields.

2. What is NOT true about the competition?

A．It sets a word limit on essays.

B．It has six subject categories.

C．Its prizes are judged by voting online.

D．It is open to any student regardless of his or her nationality.

3. Those who want to compete for the Junior Prize should not be over _________years old.

A．10

B．14

C．18

D．20

4. When will the Law Prize winner attend the awards dinner?

A．On 30 June.	B．On 14 July.
C．On 26 August.	D．On 2 September.

5. What will the overall best essay candidate receive?

A．A fellowship at Oxford University.	B．A summer school scholarship.
C．A chance to get published.	D．A US $1, 000 award.

2 . Heroes Stamp Design Competition

Welcome to the Heroes Stamp Design Competition! Children aged 4-14years are invited to design a stamp. Eight designs will be chosen for this stamp series from the Royal Mail. One of the designs could be yours. There are 120 great prizes on offer for area winners and runners-up. Plus, cash prizes for the winning schools too.

Stamp Designing

The stamp design will be based on your hero or heroes of the coronavirus pandemic. The past year has been very difficult for so many people. There are countless frontline workers and volunteers who have continued to work tirelessly to keep the country moving.

Being a stamp designer is a very skilled job. One of the jobs of a stamp designer is to reduce the size of a picture to fit the stamp. When designing your stamp, have a think about what kind of image of your hero or heroes would make a good miniature (微型的) design for a stamp. The final stamps produced will be about 3.7cm wide×3.5cm high.

Things to consider

 Your stamp design must be drawn on the official competition entry form (报名表) which your teacher will give you.

 Your design must be your own original work.

 Drawings must be flat, so please don’t stick any materials or textures (纹理) to your design.

 Please use lots of colour (no black and white images) in your design.

 Please avoid using highlighter pens (荧光笔).

Good Luck

The closing date for the competition is 28th May. Please ask your teacher, or parent, for one of the official entry forms. You’re then ready to start designing! We can’t wait to see all of the amazing designs from gifted children across the country.

Good Luck!

1. Who would probably take part in the competition?

A．Students.	B．Doctors.
C．School teachers.	D．Professional designers.

2. What do we know about the competition?

A．It will begin on 28th May.

B．It is for a series of four stamps.

C．It asks competitors to honour heroes on their stamps.

D．It will provide each competing school with cash prizes.

3. What’s the requirement for the size of your stamps?

A．About 3.5cm wide×3.5cm high.	B．About 3.7cm wide×3.7cm high.
C．About 3.5cm wide×3.7cm high.	D．About 3.7cm wide×3.5cm high.

4. What is a requirement for the stamp design?

A．It should be black and white.

B．It should be drawn with highlighter pens.

C．It should be flat with textures.

D．It should be drawn on a given form.

5. The author writes the text mainly to       .

A．advertise for some newly issued stamps	B．send a notice about designing stamps
C．call on people to respect modern heroes	D．encourage people to be frontline workers

3 . My dad, Greg Newman, had wanted to be a race car driver, but things didn’t work out for him. So I guess having a son who could become a race car driver was the next best thing. Don’t get me wrong — Dad didn’t push me into racing. In fact, when I was about 10 years old, my dad was afraid that driving a car wasn’t my dream. So he took the racing away from me. I wasn’t very happy with that decision. It wasn’t long before Dad realized that racing was what I loved.

At four, Dad bought me my first Quarter Midget (袖珍赛车) and that’s really where it started for us. Back then, Dad coached me. He would stick out (伸出) his foot in the path of the race car, and then tell me to exactly hit his foot. By repeating this again and again, Dad believed that I would be faster and sharper on the race track.

Dad worked really long hours at his car repair business to make money so that I could race each weekend. I can remember that every night before he turned off the lights in the garage, Dad would tell me: “Don’t forget to kiss your race car good night.” He was trying to teach me that if I show respect, it’s returned. He wanted me to show thankfulness and respect for my race car and for all the hard work that we and many others had put into the dream.

My dad, my mom and my sister gave up a lot of things to help me race. For us, there was no better moment than winning the 50th running of the Daytona 500 in 2018. That evening in February 2018, I knew I had gotten a good push. I could hear the excitement. My father couldn’t speak a word, and when he got to Victory Lane (车道), he nearly knocked me over and gave me such a big hug.

1. Why did Greg Newman stop his son to race when his son was 10 years old?

A．Because he thought racing was dangerous.

B．Because he worried that his son didn’t like racing.

C．Because he didn’t want his son to fail like he did.

D．Because he couldn’t afford the money.

2. Greg Newman did all the following things to support his son’s dream EXCEPT ________.

A．training his son to race

B．working hard to make money

C．buying his son a mini racing car

D．changing his job as a race car driver

3. Why did Greg Newman let his son hit his foot?

A．To improve his son’s skill.	B．To help his son to be braver.
C．To have fun with his son.	D．To make his son more careful.

4. Greg Newman asked his son to kiss his race car good night to ________.

A．get help from his family

B．treat the race car as his son

C．feel grateful that he could follow his dream

D．develop a close relationship with his race car

5. In the 50th running of the Daytona 500, Greg Newman couldn’t say anything because he was ________.

A．disappointed

B．surprised

C．sad

D．excited