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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。

My friend Maria and I got our degrees at the same time — hers in Engineering, mine in Mathematics. These subjects, in case you aren’t aware, are tough! There were classes we really had to struggle with, fight to get through, and survived only by digging our fingers in with everything we had. Along the way, many of the people who started at the same time dropped out, changed majors, etc. They quit. Maria and I didn’t and we have degrees to show for it.

Maria and I came up with a saying, ＂We’re not quitters. We’re failures！＂ We’d rather fail a class three times and eventually pass it than quit and resign ourselves to the idea that we ＂just can’t get it＂. That kind of sob story defeatism has to be removed from your mind. While there are things that you can’t do — like flying via pixie dust — you can have most of the things you want in life, but only if you treat failure as a part of the learning process. If you see failure as an end, that makes you a quitter.

（写作内容）

1. 用约30个单词写出上文概要；

2. 用约120个单词阐述你对上述情况的看法，并用2 ~3个理由或论据支撑你的看法。

（写作要求）

1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；

2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；

3. 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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    Marketers have more options in today’s increasingly multilingual society — a variety of electronic and print media can address groups of consumers in different languages. Various factors influence the choice of media and language. In some cases, it’s simply practical to advertise in the consumer’s native language, particularly if many of the consumers in this group are primarily monolingual. In other cases, by advertising on, say, a Spanish television channel in the US, an advertiser may earn the respect of the consumer by addressing him in his native language, as well as develop positive associations with the medium and its unique content. Now, marketers have another factor to consider when deciding where to advertise and in what language. A paper. Do bilinguals have two personalities? A special case of cultural frame switching published by researchers at the University of Texas, shows that bilingual individuals exhibit different personality characteristics when speaking different languages.

Lead researcher Nairan Ramirez-Esparza, tested individuals who were bilingual in English and Spanish for various personality traits, and found that the subjects answered the questions differently when asked in English and Spanish. The new work built on past research showed the values of subjects changed when they were surrounded by stimuli from different cultures.

How can marketers take advantage of “cultural frame switching”? It may sound challenging without specific research, but at least for Spanish, English bilinguals in the US, there is now some hard data on the language-related personality shift. Extrapolating to other language combinations may be possible, too. Since the Spanish/English bilingual results seem to be in agreement with testing of monolingual Spanish and English speakers, language-specific testing of bilingual subjects may not be essential to get an idea of what kind of cultural frame switching might occur in other bilingual combinations. Rather, comparing known personality differences for each language/ culture would give an indication of the differences bilingual individuals would exhibit.

I think it would be a mistake to over-emphasize this phenomenon over other criteria affecting the selection of appropriate media and language to reach a target market. Clearly, the major considerations of demographics (人口统计资料), perception of the medium, language fluency, etc. should remain major factors. Besides, the language-driven cultural frame switching may not make much difference to many products or services. If the product does attract one cultural personality more, though, it may make sense to exploit that difference of the other decision criteria are more or less equivalent.

The researchers point out that the differences aren’t great. Even if slight, though, the differences are noticeable.

    There are an extremely large number of ants worldwide. Each individual(个体的) ant hardly weighs anything, but put together they weigh roughly the same as all of mankind. They also live nearly everywhere, except on frozen mountain tops and around the poles. For animals their size, ants have been astonishingly successful, largely due to their wonderful social behavior.

In colonies(群体)that range in size from a few hundred to tens of millions, they organize their lives with a clear division of labor. Even more amazing is how they achieve this level of organization. Where we use sound and sight to communicate, ants depend primarily on pheromones(外激素),chemicals sent out by individuals and smelled or tasted by fellow members of their colony. When an ant finds food, it produces a pheromone that will lead others straight to where the food is. When an individual ant comes under attack or is dying, it sends out an alarm pheromone to warn the colony to prepare for a conflict as a defense unit.

In fact, when it comes to the art of war, ants have no equal. They are completely fearless and will readily take on a creature much larger than themselves, attacking in large groups and overcoming their target. Such is their devotion to the common good of the colony that not only soldier ants but also worker ants will sacrifice their lives to help defeat an enemy.

Behaving in this selfless and devoted manner, these little creatures have survived on Earth for more than 140 million years, far longer than dinosaurs. Because they think as one, they have a collective(集体的)intelligence greater than you would expect from its individual parts.

1.We can learn from the passage that ants are______.

A.not willing to share food B.not found around the poles

C.more successful than all other animals D.too many to achieve any level of organization

2.Ants can use pheromones for______.

A.escape B.communication C.warning enemies D.arranging labor

    More students than ever before are taking a gap year (间隔年) before going to university. It used to be called the “year off” between school and university. The gap-year phenomenon originated (起源) with the months left over to Oxbridge applicants between entrance exams in November and the start of the next academic year.

This year, 25,310 students who have accepted places in higher education institutions have put off their entry until next year, according to statistics on university entrance provided by the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS).

That is a record 14.7% increase in the number of students taking a gap year. Tony Higgins from UCAS said that the statistics are good news for everyone in higher education. “Students who take a well-planned year out are more likely to be satisfied with, and complete, their chosen course. Students who take a gap year are often more mature and responsible.” he said.

But not everyone is happy. Owain James, the president of the National Union of Students (NUS), argued that the increase is evidence of student hardship—young people are being forced into earning money before finishing their education. “New students are now aware that they are likely to leave university up to £ 15,000 in debt. It is not surprising that more and more students are taking a gap year to earn money to support their study for the degree. NUS statistics show that over 40% of students are forced to work during term time and the figure increases to 90% during vacation periods,” he said.

1.What do we learn about the gap year from the text?

A.It is flexible in length. B.It is a time for relaxation.

C.It is increasingly popular. D.It is required by universities.

2.According to Tony Higgins, students taking a gap year       .

A.are better prepared for college studies

B.know a lot more about their future jobs

C.are more likely to leave university in debt

D.have a better chance to enter top universities

3.How does Owain James feel about the gap-year phenomenon?

A.He’s puzzled. B.He’s worried.

C.He’s surprised. D.He’s annoyed.

4.What would most students do on their vacation according to NUS statistics?

A.Attend additional courses. B.Make plans for the new term.

C.Earn money for their education. D.Prepare for their graduate studies.

阅读下列材料，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题纸上将该选项标号涂黑。

A

From the very beginning of school we make books and reading a constant source of possible failure and public humiliation. When children are little we make them read aloud, before the teacher and other children, so that we can be sure they “know” all the words they are reading. This means that when they don’t know a word, they are going to make a mistake, right in front of everyone. After having taught fifth-grade classes for four years, I decided to try at all costs to rid them of their fear and dislike of books, and to get them to read oftener and more adventurously.

One day soon after school had started, I said to them, “Now I’m going to say something about reading that you have probably never heard a teacher say before. I would like you to read a lot of  books this year, but I want you to read them only for pleasure. I am not going to ask you questions to find out whether you understand the books or not. If you understand enough of a book to enjoy it and want to go on reading it, that’s enough for me. Also I’m not going to ask you what words mean. “

The children sat stunned and silent. Was this a teacher talking? One girl, who had just come to us from a school where she had had a very hard time, looked at me steadily for a long time after I had finished. Then, still looking at me, she said slowly and seriously, Mr Holt, do you really mean that?” I said just as seriously, “I mean every word of it.

During the spring she really astonished me. One day, she was reading at her desk, From a glimpse of the illustrations I thought I knew what the book was. I said to myself, “It can’t be,” and went to take a closer look. Sure enough, she was reading Moby Dick , in edition with woodcuts. I said, “Don’t you find parts of it rather heavy going?” She answered, Oh, sure, but I just skip over those parts and go on to the next good part. “

This is exactly what reading should be and in school so seldom is, an exciting, joyous adventure. Find something, dive into it, take the good parts, skip the bad parts, get what you can out of it, go on to something else. How different is our mean-spirited, picky insistence that every child get every last little scrap of “understanding” that can be dug out of a book.

1.According to the passage, children’s fear and dislike of books may result from________.

A.reading little and thinking little

B.reading often and adventurously

C.being made to read too much

D.being made to read aloud before others

2.The teacher told his students to read______ .

A.for enjoyment

B.for knowledge

C.for a larger vocabulary

D.for higher scores in exams

3.Upon hearing the teacher’s talk, the children probably felt that________.

A.it sounded stupid

B.it was not surprising at all

C.it sounded too good to be true

D.it was no different from other teachers' talk

4.Which of the following statements about the girl is TRUE according to the passage?

A.She skipped over those easy parts while reading.

B.She had a hard time finishing the required reading tasks.

C.She learned to appreciate some parts of the difficult books.

D.She turned out to be a top student after coming to this school.

5.From the teacher's point of view,_________ .

A.children cannot tell good parts from bad parts while reading

B.children should be left to decide what to read and how to read

C.reading is never a pleasant and inspiring experience in school

D.reading involves understanding every little piece of information