Choosing to Study Overseas
Every year, thousands of students choose to study in another country for a semester, the summer, or a year. Studying overseas can be an exciting experience for many people.
Living in another country can help you to learn a language, and about another culture.
Overseas study may also look good on your future resume. Many companies today want employees who speak a second language, or have experienced living or working in another country.
Making the right choice
Once you decide to study overseas, you have to make some choices. To choose the right country or school. Ask yourself: Where do I want to go and why? How much do I want to pay? Do I want to live with a host family, with roommates, or alone?
Getting ready to go
Get your passport and visa early! Learn about the money. Bring some of it, and a credit card, with you.
Once you are there
After the first few weeks overseas, many students will feel a little homesick. They may miss their family, friends, and familiar ways of doing things. When you feel sad or homesick, try to talk to others, or write about your feelings in a notebook.
| A．You should improve your mother tongue before you go. |
| B．Why do it? |
| C．large number of students can’t afford to study overseas. |
| D．How long do I want to study overseas? |
E. Remember that it takes time to get used to a new place, school, and culture.
F. You will see the world in a new way, and learn more about yourself.
G. Before you go, learn some of the language, and read about some common customs in your host country.
Life on the Earth is wiped out every 27million years---and we have about 16 million years left until the next extinction, according to scientists.
Research into so-called ‘extinction events’ for our planet over the past 500 million years---twice as long as any previous studies ----has proved that they crop up with metronomic(有节奏的) regularity .
Scientists from the university of Kansas and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC are 99 percent confident that there are extinction every 27 million years.
In the 1980s scientists believed that Earth’s regular extinctions could be the result of a distant dark twin of the Sun, called Nemesis.
The theory was that Nemesis crashed through the Oort cloud every 27 million years and sent a shower of comets in our direction.
The Ocrt cloud is a vast belt of dust and ice that is believed to lie around one light year from the Sun and is the origin of many of the comets that pass through our solar system.
But now scientists claim that the regularity of the mass extinctions actually disproves the Nemesis theory because its orbit would have change over time as it interacted with other stars.
“Fossil data, which motivated the idea of Nemesis, now militate against(妨碍) it,” said the researchers.
The last extinctions event, 11 millions years ago, saw 10 percent of the Earth’s inhabitants (居民) wiped out.
This means there is around 16 million years until the next event takes place, although the graph shows that it occasionally the event takes place up to 10 million years early.
Asteroids(小行星) crashing into the Earth are commonly believed to be one of the main reasons behind mass extinctions like that suffered by the dinosaurs ---the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction (白垩-第三纪灭绝事件).
The extinction wiped out more than half of all species on the planet clearing the way for mammals to become the dominant species(优势物种) on Earth.
The extinction was caused by a massive asteroid slamming into Earth at Chicxulub in Mexico.
The asteroid, which was around 15 kilometers wide, is believed to have hit Earth with a force one billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. How many years are left until the next extinctions comes? (No more 6 words) (2′)
___________________________________________________________________What resulted in the Earth’s regular extinctions according to scientists in the 1980s? (No more than 10words) (2′)
____________________________________________________________________ What did the last extinction event cause to the Earth? (No more than 10 words)(3′)
____________________________________________________________________What’s believed to be one of the main reasons behind mass extinctions like that suffered by the dinosaurs? (No more than 7 words) (3′)
____________________________________________________________________
What do you usually use your cellphone for? Calling friends or sending them text messages?
As technology develops，nowadays cellphones can do much more than that．They have become all-in-one cell-phones.
A typical example is Apple’s phone.The touch-screen cellphone plays music，connects to the Web，sends emails and takes photos. More than 1 million Apple’s phones have been sold since it was sold in June.
“Today’s young people enjoy using all kinds of digital functions，such as those of a music player，a camera and even a computer. An all-in-one cellphone is easy to carry. That is the goal of developing a technology to make our lives more convenient，simple and relaxed，said Professor Ding Shouqian at Nankai University．
However, the all-in-one cellphones come with some problems. Users have complained that they are too complicated to use them, and that their battery life is too short. Cellphone producers say that they are working hard to make their phones even better.
It is very convenient to use it. “We are trying to make the cellphones in a way that people can quickly move from phoning to taking pictures to listening to music, said Alastair Curtis, Nokia’s chief designer.“If you look at the Nokia 3250 model, it has a twisting(转动) bottom. So you twist it half a turn，and it’s in camera mode. You twist it another 90 degrees, and it’s in music player mode．”Japanese companies such as Toshiba and Fujitsu are also working to develop a new kind of battery for cellphones．
If all the problems are solved in the future, all-in-one phones will change our lives for the better.
| Title: |
Situation |
With the |
| Functions |
◆It plays music. ◆It is ◆It can send e-mails and take photos. ◆It can even be used as |
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| |
◆The cellphones are ◆The cellphone is designed to bring people much more |
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| Problem |
◆They are too complicated to use. ◆Their battery life is short. |
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◆To make it easy and ◆The companies make better batteries that last |
In side their one-storey, metal-roofed house on Vancouver Island’s west coast，Janet Schwartz and her domesticated(驯养的) deer, Bimbo，are returning to their normal lives. The law—represented by men and women dressed in black uniforms and carrying guns — is no longer threatening to forcibly separate Schwartz and Bimbo，freeing the l0-year-old deer to the fates (命运) of the surrounding rainforest and its hungry wolves and black bears．
“We love each other，”said Schwartz who turned 70 on Saturday. “she’ll come up to me and she’ll kiss me right on the lips，1ike a man kisses a woman’’
For four days last week，Schwartz’ life turned as rocky as the rough logging road that connected her life to the outside world. Conservation officers had arrived with orders to 1oose Bimbo. Schwartz was to1d she wasn’t allowed to touch Bimbo any more It seemed somebody had complained，said Environment Minister Terry Lake earlier in the week, noting it’s illegal to keep wild animals as pets.
During those tense days，sleepless nights were made even more restless by nightmares，said Schwartz. There were news stories and Facebook pages which supported Schwartz and by Friday，the government had changed its mind. Schwartz could keep her pet with the help of a veterinarian and conservation officers.
“It makes me feel good，”said Schwartz of the announcement．“She is my life．and I’ve had her since the day she’s been born.”
The relationship began when a friend found the orphaned fawn (幼鹿) along a nearby logging road，more than a kilometer away from her current home，said Schwartz. The friend brought the fawn over because she knew Schwartz had raised a deer before.
Schwartz named the fawn Bimbo，based on a Gene Autry song that was playing inside her home at the time，and began feeding the animal goat’s milk.
Days turned into months and years, and now Bimbo’s a part of the family.According to Paragraph 1 , Janet Schwartz’s life is returning to normal because______.
| A．no one disturbs her life again |
| B．she can continue to keep the deer |
| C．she has married again |
| D．Bimbo has returned to the forest |
Why didn’t Schwartz want to loose the deer?
| A．It was the only companion in her house |
| B．She wanted to study the lifestyle of the deer． |
| C．The deer had become part of her life． |
| D．She had a veterinarian to help her． |
Conservation officers ordered Janet to loose Bimbo because .
| A．the deer was not properly taken care of |
| B．the deer brought harm to the neighborhood |
| C．it was against the law to keep the deer as a pet |
| D．the deer made too much noise |
What made the government change its mind?
| A．Schwartz’s love for the deer. |
| B．The threat to the deer in the wild. |
| C．The change of the law. |
| D．The influence from the press and the Web. |
What can we conclude from the text?
| A．Bimbo will continue to stay with Schwartz. |
| B．Bimbo will be loosed to the wild. |
| C．A professional worker will take over Bimbo. |
| D．Bimbo will stay m a nearby Zoo. |
Every athlete，from Tiger Woods(a golf player)to a high school quarterback(橄榄球赛中指挥反攻的四分卫)，uses a form of self-hypnosis(自我催眠)to move their game to the next level Use the Olympics to 1earn how to use the amazing power of your subconscious(潜在意识)to do the same with your sport.
Here are some examples of how to best use the power of the mind:
During the 2004 Olympics，one of the swimmers told of how she would fall asleep each night with the picture of a clock in her mind. It was the timer’s clock she would see at the end of her Olympic swim and it always had her world-record-breaking time on it.
In his pre-shot routine, Tiger Woods never varies the number of practice swings or intensity of his concentration．The pre-shot routine is always the same so that the stroke will always be the same.
Michael Phelps，American Swimming Gold Medalist, always stretches out his back and arms by swinging both arms three times before his event. Not 2，not 4: always 3. He is anchoring(固定)in his winning state of mind and state of body as well as stretching．
In athletics, an anchor is a gesture or series of gestures that put you into the frame-of mind(and body)you want to be in to win．Repetition is what makes it work .That means practice，practice，practice ---- with your body as well as your mind.
Begin right now creating a ritual(固定程序)before you exercise．Visualize yourself doing whatever you do faster, longer, higher—whatever adverb works best for your particular activity. Then begin to mentally practice it. See or imagine yourself-----with your ideal body ---- doing your activity better, faster, longer, etc. Using both the power of your brain and the activity of your body, soon you will be better and fitter as you use the Olympics to help you create a happier and healthier you.From the third paragraph, we know_______.
| A．the swimmer has already broken the world record once |
| B．the swimmer was using her mind power to build up confidence |
| C．the swimmer was too nervous to go to sleep before the Games |
| D．the swimmer has a problem in counting |
The example of Tiger Woods shows that .
| A．golf players always do the same pre—shots before events |
| B．Tiger Woods attaches great importance to mind power |
| C．Tiger Woods doesn’t want to give away his skills before events |
| D．golf players never change their habits |
Why does Michael Phelps always take the same warming-up activities before his events?
| A．Because back and arms are the most important parts for a swimmer. |
| B．Because this is the best stretching for any swimmer. |
| C．Because this is the best way to adjust his state |
| D．Because he wants to confuse his opponents (对手). |
From the sixth paragraph，we know that______.
| A．an anchor is the state of mind and body you want to win |
| B．you can make an anchor work by constant practice |
| C．the anchor is mainly related to the practice of the body in athletics |
| D．an anchor can make sure that you will do well in sports |
What’s the purpose of the text?
| A．To introduce some interesting habits of several famous athletes． |
| B．To remind us to take warming-up activities before taking exercise. |
| C．To encourage us to learn the warming-up exercise from successful athletes. |
| D．To advise us to learn to use the power of the mind. |
The only survivor of one of the two Sandy Hook Elementary School first-grade classrooms where Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children tricked the gunman by playing dead，the girl’s pastor(牧师)said.
“She ran out of the school building covered from head to toe with blood and the first thing she said to her mom was,“Mommy，I’m OK but all my friends are dead” Pastor Jim Solomon told ABC News’ Lara Spencer this weekend
“Somehow，at that moment, by God’s grace，she was able to act as she was already dead.”he said.
The girl, a 6-year-old whose name is not being announced for privacy(隐私)reasons，was the first student to appear from the lockdown(封锁)at Sandy Hook，Solomon said．He said the young girl described the shooter to her mom in a way that only a young child can．
“Well, she saw someone who she felt was angry and someone she felt was very mad，”Solomon said. “I think it's impossible without the help of God. She has wisdom beyond her years, for sure’’
Of the 20 children killed on Friday in the Newtown，Conn., school, eight were boys and l2 were girls Six staff members，all female, were also killed. The gunman,whose mother was also killed by him before he went to the schoo1 classrooms, was found dead at the present spot.
“The mom told me—and I thought this was very insightful(有深刻见解的)—that she was suffering from what she felt was survivor’s guilt because so many of her friends no longer have their children but she has hers,” Solomon said how the girl’s mother and father are handling the trauma(伤害)．“I don’t know whether l would have the type of faith that they have if the same thing happened to me.”How did the girl manage to avoid being shot?
| A．She pretended to be dead |
| B．She hid herself under the desk |
| C．She rushed out of the school building in time |
| D．She persuaded the shooter into not shooting her． |
Which of the following best describes the girl ?
| A．Talented and innocent | B．Serious and insightful |
| C．Active and happy | D．Clever and brave |
The killing case which happened in Sandy Hook Elementary School .
| A．ended up with the shooter being killed |
| B．was a shooting by a group of people |
| C．was due to the gunman getting angry with the pupils |
| D．was not open to the public for the moment |
Which of the following is TRUE about the girl’s mom?
| A．She was disappointed with the pastor |
| B．She felt very dissatisfied with other parents |
| C．She felt terribly sorry for those who had lost their children |
| D．She strongly condemned the police． |
What can we know from the text?
| A．It is not difficult for the parents to handle the trauma. |
| B．The girl’s parents have asked for help from their pastor． |
| C．The girl has helped the police in catching the gunman. |
| D．The gunman has worked in the school. |
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