Mrs. Obama spoke to the graduates of Martin Luther King Jr. High School on Saturday in her only high school commencement (毕业典礼) speech this year. The ceremony took place in the gymnasium of Tennessee State University.
The first lady told the 170 graduates that she spent too much of her time in college focusing on academic achievements. While her success in college and law school led to a highprofile job, she said, she ended up leaving to focus on public service. “My message to you today is that don't waste a minute living someone else's dream,” she said. “It takes lots of real work to discover what brings you joy and you won't find what you love simply by checking mailboxes or surfing the Internet.”
She said MLK reminded her of her own high school experience in Chicago.“My No.1 goal was to go to a high school that would push me and challenge me,” she said. “I wanted to go somewhere that would celebrate achievements.” “Unfortunately, schools like this don't exist for every kid,” she said. “You are blessed.”
The first lady told the graduates that failure may be a part of their college careers, and that how they respond to difficulties determines what they will become. “That's when you find out what you're really made of in those hard times,” she said. “But you can only do that if you're willing to put yourself in a position where you might fail. Overcoming difficulties has been a mark of many great people,” she said. “Oprah Winfrey was demoted(降职) from her first job as a news reporter, and now she doesn't even need a last name,” she said of media giant Oprah Winfrey. “And then there's this guy Barack Obama. I could take up a whole afternoon talking about his failures. He lost his first race for Congress,” the first lady joked, “and now he gets to call himself my husband.”
1.When choosing her high school, Mrs Obama .
A. wanted to study law
B. was pushed to make a choice
C. failed to find an ideal school
D. was willing to meet challenges
2.By mentioning Oprah's example, Mrs Obama wanted to tell the graduates .
A. to be brave enough to risk failing
B. to work hard to get promoted
C. to start as a news reporter
D. not to waste time doing what they dislike
3.Where can you probably find this text?
A. In a news report.
B. In a politics book.
C. In a graduation paper.
D. On Mrs Obama's blog.
4.What do we know about Mrs Obama from the text?
A. She is a graduate of Tennessee State University.
B. This is the first time she has given a speech to graduates.
C. She complained about her school life in her speech.
D. She is enthusiastic about public service.
Heads turned, tears dropped, and gossip-filled whispers went on and on from the hospital passages to the house windows. There was a problem: a daughter had been born. She wasn’t the first disappointment born to her family. Although my aunt didn’t care about giving birth to a girl, her mother-in-law constantly reminded her of the criticism she would have to face if she gave birth to a daughter. In India, most people held these views.
When I visited my relatives during the summer, one sentence managed to fill me with anger and start arguments with my so-called relatives. “You are a girl, stay within your limits.” They simply don’t know how different it is living in the US. Anyway, comparisons to my cousins led me to end the arguments for the moment and accept the way they lived their lives.
My words didn’t make sense to them so my mind was set on proving them wrong.
Although their words didn’t tear me apart, their actions managed to. The amount of sexism(性别歧视) in this culture, especially my hometown, made me feel bad. It was the 21st century, yet women had to eat after the men at family gatherings. They had to cook all the family meals and were asked to take jobs that required little skill or education. It was time to change these views.
As I was growing older, the same relatives repeatedly questioned me about my future: “What do you want to be?” And the answer was always the same：electrical engineer. I have a passion for electronics; as clichéd(陈词滥调的) as it sounds, I was born to do it. When I connect wires together to repair something, I can’t contain my excitement. But when I tried to explain this to my relatives, all of them, except for my parents and grandparents, would be shocked and laugh at me — laugh because they didn’t think I could live up to my goals, being a “girl and all”. It was time to change these views.
In my world, being a girl is not a problem. Rather, it is an opportunity to allow passion, not stereotypes(成见), to shape my future. I decided to channel my relatives’ views into positive energy. Rather than letting them bring me down, I let them be motivation to achieve my goal of becoming an engineer. I, a female, will become a successful engineer.
1.The first paragraph was mainly written to .
A. describe how bad the author’s aunt felt for having a baby girl
B. describe the pressure the author’s aunt had to face when she was going to have a baby
C. show that most Indian people are strongly prejudiced against women
D. show that the author’s aunt’s generation is fighting against prejudice against women
2.From the second and third paragraphs, it can be concluded that .
A. the author realized that just using words couldn’t change the relatives’ sexism
B. the author’s friends and relatives were jealous about her life in the US
C. the author got used to being reminded to stay within her limits after she was born
D. the author often argued with her relatives because she believed US lifestyles were right
3.According to the text, the author decided to change her relatives’ views by .
A. achieving her ambition of changing her hometown
B. using her relatives’ comments as motivation
C. letting stereotypes influence her future decisions
D. achieving her dream of becoming an engineer
4.In the article, in what way does the author show how serious the amount of sexism was in her hometown?
A. By describing feeling defeated after arguments.
B. By describing people’s words, behavior and common practices.
C. By stressing the conflicts she had with her relatives.
D. By giving examples of how her goals were laughed at repeatedly.
The Score: Looking for Jobs Online
Analysis shows that record numbers of Americans are visiting Job Search sites; younger women make up the biggest audience. The recent flood of advertisements from Monster.com and Career Builder has reminded us that the New Year is a time to re-evaluate one's current job and perhaps seek a better career.
In Search of Skilled Workers, Employers Go to Summer Camp
With skilled-labor shortages looming, some employers are moving to solve the problem by winning the hearts and minds of the young -- the very young. In an effort to tap future workers in middle school or earlier, big employers, including IBM and Boeing, are increasing their backing of career-driven summer camps. The camps promote kids' interest in all kinds of fields. The efforts are yielding new opportunities for families, and insights into how to help kids explore promising careers.
More Women Decide to Extend Careers
Three years ago, after a long career with FedEx, Anne made a difficult decision: She accepted an early retirement offer when the company was downsizing.
"It was a bit of an identity crisis for me," says Anne, who is in her early 60s and divorced. "I wasn't sure what I wanted to do." After a lengthy search, she found another position in public relations at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. "I needed the structure of a full-time job, the stimulation of working with others, and the reward of being productive," she says. "The income was also welcome.”
1.On the website “Monster.com” we can see lots of advertisements about .
A. clothes B. foods
C. monsters D. jobs
2.In order to get skilled workers for the future, most big companies .
A. go to world-famous universities to hire employees
B. begin to support the career-driven summer camps
C. begin to train middle school students even earlier in many ways
D. spend much money on training their employees
3.From the last paragraph we can know that .
A. Anne really didn’t want to retire early
B. Anne enjoys a higher salary than before
C. Anne was very happy to retire and found a new job
D. Anne found the present job easily
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Everybody loves self-improvement. That’s why we’re such enthusiastic consumers of “top 10” lists of things to do to be a more productive, promotable, mindful— you name it—leader. But these lists seldom work. What if we didn’t think of self-improvement as work? What if we thought of it as play—specifically, as playing with our sense of self?
Traditionally, people work on themselves, committed to doing everything in their power to change their leadership style. You set your goals and objectives, you are mindful of your time, and seek efficient solutions. You’re not going to deviate(偏离) from the straight and narrow. You focus on what you should do, especially as others see it, as opposed to what you want to do. It’s all very serious and not whole of fun. There is one right answer. Success or failure is the outcome. We judge ourselves.
In contrast, no matter what you’re up to, when you’re in “play” mode, your primary drivers are enjoyment and discovery instead of goals and objectives. You’re curious. You lose track of time. Like in all forms if play, the journey becomes more important than a pre-set destination.
Much research shows how play develops creativity and innovation. Play with your own idea of yourself is similar to playing with future possibilities. So, we stop evaluating today’s self against unachievable ideal of leadership that doesn’t really exist. We also stop trying to will ourselves to “commit” to becoming something we are not even sure we want to be—what we call the “feared self”, which is composed of images negative role models. And, we shift direction from submitting to what other people want us to be to becoming more self-authoring. As a result, when you play, you’re more creative and more open to what you might learn about yourself.
Unfortunately, we don’t often get —or give ourselves—permission to play with our sense of self. In life, we equate playfulness with the person who dips into a great variety of possibilities, never committing to any. We find inconsistency distasteful, so we exclude options that seem too far off from today’s “authentic self”, without ever giving them a try. This kills the discontinuous growth that only comes when we surprise ourselves.
Psychoanalyst Adam Phillips once said, “people tend to play only with serious things—madness, disaster, other people.” Playing with your self is a serious effort because who we might become is not knowable or predictable at the start. That’s why it’s as dangerous as it is necessary for growth.
Lead-in |
|
2.between the two mode | In work mode |
In play method | |
The8.with application of play mode | We usually regard playfulness as equal to non-professional. |
9. | 10.danger, playfulness is a must for our self-growth. |
If you hard at school, you a college student now and would get a good job in the future.
A. had studied; would have been B. would have studied; could be
C. had studied; would be D. studied; could be
He you more help, even though he was very busy.
A. might have given B. might give
C. may have given D. may give
