At 88, I remain a competitive runner. The finish line of my life is drawing close, and I hope to reach it having given the best of myself along the way. I’ve been training my body to meet the demands of this final stretch. But, I wonder, should I have asked more of my mind?
If I didn’t exercise, I would release the hungry beasts that seek their elderly prey on couches, but not in the gym. The more I sweated, the more likely it was my doctor would continue to say, “Keep doing what you’re doing, and I’ll see you next year.” My mind, on the other hand, seems less willing to give in to discipline. I have tried internet “brain games”, solving algebraic problems flashing past and changing the route of virtual trains to avoid crashes. But these never approach my determination to remain physically fit as I move deeper into old age.
Despite having many friends in their 70s, 80s and 90s, I’ve been far too slow to realize that how we respond to aging is a choice made in the mind, not in the gym. Some of my healthiest friends carry themselves as victims abused by time. Other friends, many whose aching knees and hips are the least of their physical problems, find comfort in their ability to accept old age as just another stage of life to deal with. I would use the word “heroic” to describe the way they cope with aging.
One such friend recently called from a hospital to tell me a sudden brain disease had made him legally blind. He interrupted me as I began telling him how terribly sorry I was, “Bob, it could have been worse. I could have become deaf instead of blind.”
Despite all the time I spend lifting weights and exercising, I realized I lack the strength to have said those words. It suddenly struck me I’ve paid a price for being a “gym rat.” If there is one characteristic common to friends who are aging with a graceful acceptance of life’s attacks, it is contentment. Aging had to be more than what I saw in a mirror.
But rather than undertaking a fundamental change in the way I face aging, I felt the place to begin would be to start small. A recent lunch provided a perfect example.
I’ve always found it extremely difficult to concentrate when I’m in a noisy setting. At this lunch with a friend in an outdoor restaurant, a landscaper began blowing leaves from underneath the bushes surrounding our table. Typically, after such a noisy interruption, I would have snapped, “Let’s wait until he’s finished!” then fallen silent. When the roar eventually faded, my roar would have drained (消耗) the conversation of any warmth. It troubled me that even a passing distraction could so easily take me from enjoying lunch with a good friend to a place that gave me no pleasure at all. I wanted this meal to be different.
My years in gyms had taught me to shake off pains and other distractions, never permitting them to stop my workout or run. I decided to treat the noise this way. I continued talking with my friend, challenging myself to hear the noise, but to hold it at a distance. The discipline so familiar to me in the gym - this time applied to my mind - proved equally effective in the restaurant. It was as though I had taken my brain to a mental fitness center.
Learning to ignore a leaf blower’s roar hardly equips me to find contentment during my passage into ever-deeper old age. But I left the lunch feeling I had at least taken a small first step in changing behavior that stood in the way of that contentment.
Could I employ that same discipline to accept with dignity the inevitable decline awaiting me like the finish line? Hoping that contentment will guide me as I make my way along the path yet to be traveled.
1.The author’s question in Paragraph 1 implies that ________.
A.he has never believed the necessity of mind training
B.he has realized he should mentally prepare for aging
C.he feels regret for not sharpening his thinking skills
D.he feels unsatisfied with the result of the brain games
2.The author uses his friends as examples to ________.
A.stress aging is an unavoidable stage of life to face
B.indicate that people see life from many different angles
C.prove it’s significant to be surrounded with positive friends
D.show it’s important to take health seriously in a sensible way
3.What can we learn from the author’s friend mentioned in Paragraph 4?
A.He fears that his illness will become worse.
B.He takes physical illnesses as they come.
C.He needs to find a way through those hardships.
D.He sees life as a series of disappointments.
4.After that recent lunch, the author realized that ________.
A.distractions were not uncommon in everyday life
B.the restaurant was not an ideal place for eating
C.his roar had spoiled the friendly conversation
D.he had made small changes to adapt to aging
5.What’s the author’s attitude towards exercising in the end?
A.Doubtful. B.Indifferent. C.Positive. D.Ambiguous.
6.Which of the following could be the best title for the passage?
A.Old age curse and blessing B.The secret to aging well
C.Benefits of regular exercise D.Never too old to learn
As PhD research goes, Brian Wisenden was enviable, watching baby fish swimming swiftly through the clear waters in the Costa Rican tropical dry forest. By recording their growth and numbers, he hoped to look at their risks of being eaten. Instead, he witnessed something odd. Many groups were increasing in numbers. In these groups, some were smaller than others, suggesting they weren’t siblings (兄弟姐妹). Wisenden had accidentally discovered that the fish, called convict cichlids, adopt each other’s babies. Why would they do that, he wondered?
In the human world, we think of adoption as a selfless act. But in nature, its presence is puzzling. Taking on the burden of bringing up babies with no genetic link would seem to reduce an animal’s chances of survival or at least provide no gain. Yet, adoption is surprisingly common in the world.
Take the eastern grey kangaroo. Between 2008 and 2013, Wisenden followed the fates of 326 baby kangaroos in the National Park in Victoria and recorded 11 cases of pouch swapping. The circumstances behind some of these adoptions aren’t known, but four were straight swaps and another four occurred after a mother had lost her own baby.
How come? Before independence, baby kangaroos go through a period inside and outside their mother’s pouch. Following out-of-pouch forays, mothers normally sniff their young before allowing them back in, but Wisenden’s team suspect that during an emergency they may skip the sniff test, allowing a vulnerable baby to quickly climb in before fleeing from danger. Once inside the wrong pouch, the young may fake the mother’s odor, making them smell confusingly like her own progeny. So, poor baby recognition is the prime cause of “accidental” adoption.
Some of nature’s adoptions are, actually, driven by young looking for better prospects. In burrower bugs, for example, females lay a nest of eggs close to those of unrelated bugs. Mother bugs tend their developing eggs before they hatch, then feed their babies nuts from weedy mint plants. Finding nuts is a competitive business, so not every mother bug gets her fair share. And if the delivery rate isn’t up to scratch, clever young may abandon their mothers to join a better-fed group. That’s similar to behavior in several species of gull whose babies, if poorly fed, may leave home in search of better parents.
The consequences of adoption following mistaken identity can be dire. The true babies of adopting mothers were abandoned. But it can have remarkable benefits, not just for adoptees but also for adoptive parents.
1.It can be inferred from the passage that Wisenden’s findings are .
A.too weird to be witnessed B.out of his own expectations
C.envied by his peer co-researchers D.a sound proof of his research object
2.Which is NOT the reason for adoption in the animal kingdom?
A.Baby animals’ looking for better parenting.
B.Parents’ failure to recognize their own babies.
C.Selfless adoption commonly seen in animal world.
D.Parents, inability to provide enough food.
3.The underlined word “vulnerable” in the fourth paragraph means .
A.weak and easily attacked B.naughty and easily hurt
C.independent and well-fed D.fragile and poorly raised
4.What will the author most probably talk about next?
A.The benefits for baby animals. B.The benefits for adopters.
C.The consequences of adoption. D.The consequences of wrong identity.
Two recently released books offer significant criticisms of the current landscape of higher education. As to what we should do about those problems, the two books propose completely opposed solutions.
Bryan Caplan, a professor of economics at George Mason University, gives away his big idea in his title, “The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money.” Caplan argues that the primary value of a college degree is in what it “signals” rather than what people may have learned or experienced.
In Caplan’s view, most education is wasted on the young, who are incapable of appreciating or benefiting freedom education. Caplan’s solution is to “stop using tax dollars to fund education of any kind.” He sees a greater role for vocational or trade education, starting early as children fail to show interest or aptitude (资质) in school subjects, which should primarily focus on the “practical”-not art, music or anything else. Caplan even puts in a good word for child labor as an alternative to the schooling they neither enjoy nor appreciate.
Cathy Davidson, director of the Futures Initiative at the City University of New York, offers a different attitude in “The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux (变化).”
Davidson also believes higher education needs to change, but rather than starving it, she advocates for a broad-based “revolution” that attacks the barriers between students and learning, including educational costs, approaches to curriculum, and how we measure and credential (提供证明) students. Davidson has a chapter on “college for everyone”, examining the potential to innovate community colleges to serve as ladders to social mobility.
Education does need to continue to evolve. But it’s Davidson who has a vision for what education could and should be that’s consistent with the traditional values of freedom, opportunity and progress we associate with education. As to which of these two visions we’d like to follow, we have a choice. I hope we choose wisely.
1.Why does Bryan Caplan criticize the present higher education?
A.It fails to teach students overall knowledge.
B.It spends too much time on ungifted students.
C.It costs students much money for education in college.
D.It wastes students’ time in learning unpractical knowledge.
2.What can we learn from Cathy Davidson’s book?
A.Higher education should be accessible to all students.
B.Government shouldn’t fund college students with tax dollars.
C.The barriers between students and learning won’t be broken down.
D.Community colleges have helped more students achieve social mobility.
3.The two books are introduced in the passage to stress ________.
A.the problems with higher education
B.the necessity of higher education reform
C.the situation of the present higher education
D.the popularity of the two newly released books
Subject Art & Design, Craft & Creative, Beauty
Delivery method Online
Study level Professional development, Short, Accredited
Ref FACE-GUARD
Price £30, was £299, use code: GUARD90
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Module 5 Pricing and Costs
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Module 10 How to do a Monkey / Frog Face Paint Design
Module 11 How to do a Rabbit / Swan Face Paint Design
Module 12 How to do a Tiger / Dinosaur Face Paint Design
Module 13 How to do a Spiderman / Batman Face Paint Design
Module 14 How to do a Minnie Mouse / Princess Face Paint Design
1.The course is intended mainly for those ________.
A.keen on showing off new skills B.eager to get an academy diploma
C.interested in learning face painting D.equipped with a unique taste for art
2.Which of the following statements is TRUE about the course?
A.It is presented both online and offline.
B.It provides more than lessons on business.
C.The diploma can be obtained in one day.
D.Some clients will be invited to examine your qualification.
At age 19, Yohannes Gehregeoris borrowed a soft-cover romance novel entitled Love Kitten that changed his life forever. Born in rural Ethiopia to an uneducated cattle merchant who _______ his son’s education, Gebregeorgis had seen a few books in school. But it was the experience of having a book of his own that sparked a lifelong _______.
Today, at 56, Gebregeorgis is _______ libraries and literacy programs to connect Ethiopian children with books. “Most Ethiopian children have only _______ to textbooks in the classroom,” says Gebregeorgis. “Books children read _______ of school, those are the spices of education.”
Forced to _______ Ethiopia to the United States as a political refugee in 1981, Gebregeorgis finally _______ himself through university, receiving a graduate degree _______ library science. He took a _______ at the San Francisco Childhren’s Library in 1985. There, he realized the ________ children’s books could have on a child’s sense of wonder and vision.
“Children could imagine everything from books — ________ to other cultures, to other people, to other children, and to the universe ________,” recalls Gebregeorgis. “It gives them hope and pleasure. It gives them everything that they cannot ________ get in regular textbooks.” ________ Gebregeorgis found that there were none in Amharic, the primary language of Ethiopia. When the library __________ $1, 200 for the purchase of Ethiopian books, Gebregeorgis was ________ to find any.
So he wrote one and founded Ethiopia Reads in 1988. The nonprofit ________ his efforts to bring children’s libraries to Ethiopia. In 2002, Gebregeorgis ________ his job and his home and returned to Ethiopia. Then he opened the Shola Children’s Library on the first floor of his home.
Reading storybooks to children who have no access to television or computers, Gebregeorgis believes that literacy and education will ________ his poor homeland affected by AIDS. “With literate children there is no ________ as to how much we can do.”
1.A.decided on B.insisted on C.counted on D.acted on
2.A.appointment B.judgement C.encouragement D.commitment
3.A.establishing B.constructing C.assessing D.distributing
4.A.avenue B.admission C.access D.approach
5.A.inside B.beside C.offside D.outside
6.A.flee B.abandon C.escape D.withdraw
7.A.get B.pull C.put D.push
8.A.at B.in C.on D.from
9.A.session B.assembly C.post D.course
10.A.effort B.impact C.impression D.assumption
11.A.contradictions B.combinations C.compositions D.connections
12.A.at ease B.at large C.at random D.at length
13.A.somewhat B.furthermore C.otherwise D.therefore
14.A.But B.For C.And D.Or
15.A.anticipated B.allocated C.assigned D.accommodated
16.A.unconscious B.unlike C.unwilling D.unable
17.A.financed B.owed C.invested D.purchased
18.A.sacrificed B.resigned C.left D.deserted
19.A.contribute B.liberate C.promote D.reform
20.A.prevention B.barrier C.ban D.limit
— I’m afraid I can only make a small contribution this time.
—______. We really appreciate your assistance.
A.Every little helps
B.It’s better to give than to receive
C.The more, the better
D.The best things come in small packages
