The UN has recognized the contributions of volunteers on Dec. 5, International Volunteer Day. Here, the four things are offered to consider before taking the leap into overseas volunteering.
Choose your organization carefully
1. volunteering may be a fundraising mechanism(筹资机制) for a development project. For others, volunteering is fundamental to their programs, and those serving take on professional roles in longer-term development.
2.
Volunteers want to help and make a difference, but most know this isn’t a purely selfless act. You will learn new skills, broaden your horizons and come to better understand yourself and the world. 3. Reflect on your motivations. You want to help reduce global poverty or protect the natural world, but what else? Have you always wanted to travel, but not as a tourist? Work with kids? When you understand your motivations, you’ll be in a better position to choose the option that is right for you.
Work alongside the local community
Often times, travelers volunteer in isolation(隔离) from the local community in which they are working in. 4. This enables you to ensure you are committing to a project that promotes long term and sustainable change.
A volunteer trip is just the beginning
5. Further ignite(点燃) the global change maker in you by taking your experience one step further when you return home. Spread the message of your transformative experience to others, helping to spark the change within them.
A. And that’s all OK.
B. Know why you’re going.
C. Don’t assume you know it all.
D. Communities always welcome volunteers.
E. Volunteer travel is a life-changing experience.
F. Some organizations require you to pay your own way, and often include a fee.
G. Make sure to travel with organizations that have strong partnerships with local communities.
What’s small, buzzes here and there and visits flowers? If you said bees or hummingbirds, you got it. You wouldn’t be the first if you mixed the two up. Now a group of researchers even say we should embrace our history of considering the two together in the same group. The way scientists study bees could help them study hummingbird behavior, too.
Scientists first compared the two back in the 1970s when studying how animals search for food. The idea is that animals use a kind of math to make choices in order to minimize the work it takes to earn maximum rewards. Researchers at the time focused on movement rules, like the order in which they visited flowers, and where flowers were located relative to others. It was “almost like an algorithm(算法)” for efficient searching, said David Pritchard, a biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Hummingbirds and bees had similar solutions.
As the field of animal cognition(认知) appeared, hummingbird and bee research parted. Neuroscientists and behavioral ecologists developed ways to study bee behavior in naturalistic settings. Hummingbird researchers compared hummingbirds to other birds and borrowed methods from psychology to study their ability to learn in the lab. To be fair, hummingbirds and bees differ. For example, hummingbirds have more advanced eyes and brains than bees. Honeybees and bumblebees are social; hummingbirds typically aren’t.
But however they perceive(感知) or process information, they both experience similar information, Dr. Pritchard said. In day-to-day searching for food, for example, hummingbirds may rely on more of a bee’s-eye view than a bird’s-eye view. Like other birds, they rely on landmarks, distances and directions to make maps when travelling long distances, but they don’t use these cues to find flowers. Move a flower just an inch or so away from where a hummingbird thought it was and it will hover over the flower’s original location. Dr. Pritchard is investigating if, like bees, hummingbirds engage in view matching — hovering, scanning snapshots of a place to its memory and using those as references later.
1.What is the center of research on hummingbirds and bees in the 1970s?
A. Memory.
B. Movement rules.
C. Reward calculating.
D. Information processing.
2.Which subject’s research methods were adopted to study the learning ability of Hummingbirds?
A. Math.
B. Biology.
C. Ecology.
D. Psychology.
3.How do researchers find out that hummingbirds are not like birds?
A. By setting them free.
B. By moving flowers.
C. By matching view.
D. By making maps.
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A. Hummingbirds and Bees
B. Hummingbirds in the Lab
C. New Trends in Studying Bees
D. Thinking of Hummingbirds as Bees
A few weeks ago, I called an Uber to take me to the Boston airport for a flight home for the holidays. As I slid into the back seat of the car, the warm intonations(语调) of the driver’s accent washed over me in a familiar way.
I learned that he was a recent West African immigrant with a few young children, working hard to provide for his family. I could relate: I am the daughter of two Ethiopian immigrants who made their share of sacrifices to ensure my success. I told him I was on a college break and headed home to visit my parents. That’s how he found out I go to Harvard. An approving eye glinted at me in the rearview window, and quickly, we crossed the boundaries of rider and driver. I became his daughter, all grown up — the product of his sacrifice.
And then came the fateful question: “What do you study?” I answered “history and literature” and the pride in his voice faded, as I knew it might. I didn’t even get to add “and African-American studies” before he cut in, his voice thick with disappointment, “All that work to get into Harvard, and you study history?”
Here I was, his daughter, squandering the biggest opportunity of her life. He went on to deliver the age-old lecture that all immigrant kids know. We are to become doctors (or lawyers, if our parents are being generous) — to make money and send money back home. The unspoken demand, made across generations, which my Uber driver laid out plainly, is simple: Fulfill your role in the narrative(故事) of upward mobility so your children can do the same.
I used to feel anxious and backed into a corner by the questioning, but now as a junior in college, I’m grateful for their support more than anything. This holiday season, I’ve promised myself I won’t huff and get annoyed at their inquiries. I won’t defensively respond with “but I plan to go to law school!” when I get unrequested advice. I’ll just smile and nod, and enjoy the warmth of the occasion.
1.What disappointed the driver?
A. The author’s attitude towards him.
B. The school that the author is attending.
C. The author’s majors in history and literature.
D. The author’s interests in African American studies.
2.Which of the following can replace the underlined word “squandering” in Paragraph 4?
A. wasting
B. creating
C. valuing
D. seizing
3.Why are immigrant kids expected to be doctors or lawyers?
A. Their parents want them to move upward in society.
B. Their parents are high achieving as well.
C. They have more opportunities.
D. They are very smart in general.
4.How did the author react to the driver’s questioning?
A. Getting upset.
B. Feeling satisfied.
C. Defending herself.
D. Appreciating his concern.
Everyone should be so lucky as to have a friend like Francia Raisa. On Thursday, singer and actress Selena Gomez, 25, used Instagram to explain why she was “laying low” this summer. She posted a photo of herself in a hospital bed with her friend Francia Raisa holding hands. She said she recently received a kidney transplant from her best friend because of complications(并发症) from lupus(狼疮), an autoimmune disease, which means it is the result of the immune system attacking normal tissue, including the kidneys, brain, heart and lungs.
People with lupus may first experience tiredness, joint pain or a little bit of rash(皮疹) on their bodies and can go for a long time before their doctors realize it is more serious. Many people see two or four doctors before the real problem is picked up. According to Dr. Kyriakos Kirou, roughly a third to one-half of people with lupus develop kidney disease, and up to one in five of them will eventually need a transplant, sometimes because they weren’t treated with effective drugs to prevent the immune system from attacking the kidneys. Though Gomez said that she was “very well now,” she warned about the dangers of not taking medical diagnoses seriously, like she initially did.
Her Instagram post also called attention to two major health topics: the need for living organ donators and the fact that Gomez represents three groups more likely to be diagnosed with lupus and lupus-related kidney disease. Nine out of 10 people diagnosed with lupus are women, and most develop the disease between the ages of 15 to 44. And lupus is two to three times more common among women of color, including Hispanic women, according to the Lupus Foundation.
Raisa is Latina, and Gomez’s father is of Mexican origin. While it’s not essential that the organ donator and receiver be of the same ethnicity, people who share a similar background sometimes are better matched, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing.
1.What can we learn about Francia Raisa?
A. She is lucky.
B. She is selfless.
C. She is optimistic.
D. She is encouraging.
2.What is lupus like at its early stage?
A. It is deadly.
B. It is hard to recognize.
C. Its symptoms are psychological.
D. It reminds you of a kidney disease.
3.What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A. People with lupus.
B. Colored women lupus patients.
C. Lupus patients with kidney disease.
D. Women between the ages of 15 to 44.
4.What does the last paragraph mainly tell us?
A. Raisa and Gomez have a similar background.
B. Gomez has fully recovered thanks to the kidney from Raisa.
C. It is vital for the donator and receiver to be of the same race.
D. The organ from the donator of the same race matches the receiver better.
Choosing where to live may be one of the biggest decisions you’ll make when you move to Sydney, but you’ll have plenty of help.
Temporary arrival accommodation
Before you move to Sydney, we recommend that you book a temporary place to stay. Once you get here, you can look for longer-term accommodation.
--sydney.edu.au/accommodation/short-term
On-campus-residential colleges (fully catered饮食全包的)
The University has eight residential colleges on the Camperdown/Darlington Campus, including International House, a residential community of global scholars. Colleges provide comfortable, fully furnished single rooms and daily meals, along with sporting, cultural, leadership and social programs. They also include on-site tutorials(辅导课) in addition to campus-based classes.
--sydney.edu.au/colleges
On-campus residences (self-catered饮食自理的)
The University has two self-run residences—Queen Mary Building (QMB) and Abercrombie Student Accommodation—on the Camperdown/Darlington Campus. Both just under a year old, they house up to 1000 students. These residences provide modern single-study rooms with large common living, learning and study spaces, shared kitchens, a theatre, gyms, soundproofed music rooms, art studios, sky lounges and rooftop gardens.
--sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-on-campus.html
Off-campus living
More than 90 percent of our students live off campus. The University is close to many dynamic and multicultural suburbs such as Annandale, Newtown, Chippendale and Glebe. A great place to search is our large online database of properties.
--sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-off-campus.html
1.Where can you find a place to live temporarily?
A. On “sydney.edu.au/colleges”.
B. On “sydney.edu.au/accommodation/short-term”.
C. On “sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-on-campus.html”.
D. On “sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-off-campus.html”.
2.What do students living in QMB have access to?
A. Their own kitchens.
B. On-site tutorials.
C. Daily meals.
D. Gyms.
3.What is the most popular choice among students?
A. Living off campus.
B. Living in host families.
C. Living in self-catered flats on campus.
D. Living in fully catered houses on campus.
请阅读下面短文，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
Film and television adaptations of classic literature works have held a long-standing appeal for audiences, reshaping our cultural landscape.
In 2017, a nine-episode TV adaptation of Chinese literature classic, The Dream of the Red Mansion, featured young cast aged 6-12 portraying the characters vividly and won applause among faithful readers of this classic work. To them, these young performers have brought the characters alive again. “I was impressed by their perfect acting in the TV series. I never expected they could play so well. It is as good as the 1987 TV adaptation,” a Douban user commented. Before the shooting of the 1987 TV version, all the actors and actresses received systematic acting training and guided studyt of the original work. This time, Ouyang Fenqiang, who played the leading role, Jia Baoyu, in the 1987 version, was invited to instruct the young performers.
However, this is only one of the very few cases of being faithful to the original literature. Recent years have witnessed a large number of poor-quality film and TV adaptations of literature classics, spoiling the understanding of the original work. Whether classic literature works should be adapted into film or TV series is worthy of discussion.
[写作内容]
1．用约30个单词概括上述文字材料的主要内容。
2． 用120个单词发表你的观点，内容包括：
（1） 支持或反对把经典文学作品改编为影视作品；
（2） 用2-3个理由或论据支撑你的观点。
[写作要求]
1． 表明个人观点，同时提供理由或论据；
2． 阐述观点或提供论据时，不得直接引用原文中的句子；
3． 文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
4． 不必写标题。
[评分标准]、
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
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