This is what's known as a 'Buddy' or Friendship Bench'. They're needed because playgrounds can be lonely places sometimes. And these benches can help pupils feeling lonely to find a friend. Benches like this have been around for a while now in many schools. But in Ireland, they are trying to do something a bit different with them.
This school in Cork in the south of Ireland is the 247th to get one from a social enterprise called Buddy Bench Ireland that doesn't just provide schools with benches, it also runs special workshops with trained child psychiatrists（精神病专家）.They use the bench as an opportunity to start conversations about mental well-being. They talk about the importance of being aware of your feelings and those of others. The children need to understand what the bench is about, what it symbolizes--- friendship, inclusion, listening to each other and the most important thing, that it's important to express feelings.
But do children actually use the bench? It's something an independent academic study has been looking at. We found that 40% of the children told us that they had actually used the benches at the time of the study. And over 90% said that they would talk to a child if that child was sitting on the bench. So, certainly there doesn't appear to be any issues around stigma. Children's mental health at school is increasingly a concern in many countries. In Ireland, they're hoping these benches will not only tackle issues like social isolation and bullying but also give a future generation the confidence to open up about their feelings.
1.Why the school in Cork in the south of Ireland uses the bench?
A.To start conversations about mental well-being.
B.To replace the old benches in school.
C.To cut the cost of school's facility.
D.To help children with psychological problems fully recover.
2.What makes the bench work in Ireland schools?
A.Teachers and parents encourage children to try it.
B.Most children are willing to express feelings.
C.All the children understand what the bench is about.
D.The bench helps children get rid of loneliness.
3.What do schools expect of the bench?
A.It will deal with social isolation and bullying completely.
B.It will motivate a future generation to bravely convey their feelings.
C.It will make children prefer the bench to old one.
D.It will spread in most schools in Ireland soon.
4.Where is the text most likely from?
A.A fiction B.A guidebook
C.A diary D.A magazine
In Sao Paulo, a baby boy is smiling, unaware that a court is deciding his fate. If it finds in his father's favor, he is in all kinds of trouble. There may be a law in Brazil against giving your child a name that might cause him to be laughed at, but daddy wants to call his son Osama bin Laden. The same father, Osvaldo Oliveria Soares, has a habit of trying to use babies as political statements. Nine years ago, he was banned from naming a previous son Saddam Hussein.
Unlike Brazil, there is no law Britain that constrains a parent's right to name their child. "It's not for the officials to say if someone has picked a name they don't think is suitable," says Alison Cathcart, superintendent official at Westminster register office. "But if someone is from a different culture and wants to register a name that sounds like a swear word in English then we do advise them of that."
"Naming does matter," says Helen Petrie, a professor at the City University of London. "We have fixed beliefs of what sort of people are behind certain names. There are studies of teachers in primary schools in the US that show they rate children with certain names as less capable."
"The name is the first thing we find out when we meet someone. If you call your child an unusual silly name like Fifi Trixibelle, as did Bob Geldof and Paula Yates, it can make life hard for your child — especially if you want him to be smart and are not in the least bit superficial"
There's also the class factor. “Fifty years ago there was no cross-over of names between classes. Now everyone can buy Tatler and see the name Tarquin," says Petrie. "Until the 60s, Tracey was a fashionable Chelsea name. Now it has a terrible image fixed in people's mind. I've interviewed some Traceys who find their name a huge burden. However high up they may be in their profession, people hear their name and think they're the cleaner."
1.The Brazilian court may rule against Osvaldo Olveria Soares if he ______.
A.states that he admires Osama bin Laden B.gives his son a name that will be laughed at
C.uses his babies as political statements D.keeps his habit of interfering in politics
2.What does the underlined word “constrain” in the passage most likely mean?
A.abolish B.acknowledge
C.defend D.restrict
3.As it is indicated in the third paragraph, the teacher rate some children as less capable because ______.
A.the students do not perform well in class
B.they do not love those children's name
C.they think a name can reveal one' ability
D.they understand the psychology of naming
4.What do we learn about the names?
A.A person named Fifi is usually silly.
B.Paula Yates is a name which sounds superficial.
C.Tatler is a name of low grade.
D.Tracey is still a fashionable Chelsea name.
Barbie Room at the Hilton Hotel in Buenos Aires
The doll most loved by many and treasured by kids, Barbie, comes to life in this room as she brings about recall of childhood memories. Feeling like a princess yourself living in a giant dollhouse, mix and match clothes and shoes and make your Barbie fashion statement,
Underwater Room at the Talay Karon Beach Resort in Thailand
As if you're in a submarine, be attracted by the beauty of the sea in this splendid underwater room. Look outside and see a world full of sea creatures and water adventure. Find out how it feels to sleep in the middle and the bottom of the sea.
SpongeBob Room at the Nickelodeon Hotel in Orlando
Kids and adults alike laugh at the funny sound and sense of Spongebob. You will feel like playing in the cartoon film. Meanwhile, you will have the one of a kind opportunity to share a room with all his friends, Patrick, Bob and Mr. Krabs and kids will enjoy plenty of games to play.
Flintstones Room at the Melia Hotel in Spain
Have an unforgettable and enjoyable holiday, ideal for both children and parents, in this hotel located in Spain. The Flintstones is a classic and it will be wonderful to be surrounded with Dinosaurs!
Harry Potter Room at The Georgian House in London
Cleverly made by imaginative hotel owners, they have brought to life Hogwarts in this elegant room. Here you belong in the wizard world and must be lost in its magic!
1.When you are at the Hilton Hotel, you will ______ .
A.experience sleeping in the middle of the sea
B.experience a life in Hogwarts like Harry Potter
C.meet your princess or prince in your mind
D.see the beautiful Barbie in the dollhouse
2.If you want to see some sea creatures, you are advised to visit ______.
A.room Underwater Talay Karon Beach Resort
B.Harry Potter Room at The Georgian House
C.Flintstnes Room at the Melia Hotel
D.Room SpongeBob Nickelodeon Hotel
3.What is Spongebob?
A.The name of a famous ship.
B.The name of a captain of a ship.
C.The name of a character in a cartoon film.
D.The name of the owner of Nicklodeon Hotel.
“Please put your phone down Daddy, we haven’t finished the story!” Hearing these heartfelt words from my four-year-old daughter was an uncomfortable wake-up call. How had I let the shiny electronic box in my hand take so much of my attention that it could even interrupt a short bedtime story with my precious children?
It’s no exaggeration to suggest that our mobile devices are in danger of taking over our entire lives. Time magazine found that 68% of users take their devices to bed with them, 20% check their phones every ten minutes and one third report feeling anxious when briefly separated from their beloved gadget. According to Osterman research, 79% of respondents take their work-related device on vacation and 33% admit to hiding from family and friends in order to check Facebook and Twitter. It’s hard to deny that these are worrying trends.
（写作内容）
1.用大约30字概括上文和图表的主要内容；
2.结合上述信息，用大约120字论述：
(1)科技的发展是否意味着人们生活更幸福。（选择“是”或“否”并论述你的观点）
(2)你认为在生活中应当如何处理人和科技的关系。
（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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请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意:请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填一个单词。
Reputation of the corporate kind is a ''strategic asset(资产) '' that can be employed to gain ''competitive advantage'', a ''safety buffer(缓冲) '' that can be called upon to protect you against ''negative news''.
The Reputation Institute has offices in 30 countries. Plenty of other organizations offer firms advice on improving their reputations, such as Perception Partners in the United States or specialized divisions within many big consultancies. And a rapidly growing number of consultancies, like Reputation Defender, give people advice on managing their reputations online. For example, they offer tips on how to push positive items up the Google ranking and neutralize(抵消)negative ones.
It's easy to see why so many bosses are such eager consumers of this kind of advice. The market value of companies is increasingly determined by the things you cannot touch: their brands and their intellectual capital, for example, rather than their factories or fleets of trucks. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) can turn on a company in an instant and accuse it of racism or crimes against the environment. Customers can trash its products on Twitter. Corporate giants such as Toyota and BP have seen their reputations collapse in the blink of an eye.
Nevertheless, there're three objections to the reputation-management industry. The first is that it conflates(混合)many different things-from the quality of a company's products to its relationship with NGOs-into a single notion of ''reputation''. It also seems to be divided between public-relations specialists (who want to put the best possible information on the news) and corporate-social-responsibility types (who want the company to improve the world and be thanked for it).
The second objection is that the industry depends on a naive(天真的)view of the power of reputation: that companies with positive reputations will find it easier to attract customers and survive crises. It's not hard to think of counter-examples. Tobacco companies make vast profits despite their awful reputations. Everybody strongly criticizes Ryanair for its bad service and the Daily Mail for its mean-spirited journalism. But both firms are highly successful.
The biggest problem with the reputation industry, however, is that the way to deal with potential threats to your reputation is to work harder at managing your reputation. The opposite is more likely: the best strategy may be to think less about managing your reputation and concentrate more on producing the best products and services you can. Many successful companies, such as Amazon, Costco Southwest Airlines and Zappos, have been notable for their intense focus on their businesses, not for their fancy marketing. If you do your job well, customers will say nice things about you and your products.
What's in a name? | |
Values of managing reputation | ● Companies can get1. in competition through the use of strategies to manage reputation. ● Positive reputations tend to reduce the influence of negative news. |
Popularity of consultancies | ● Many organizations provide companies with advice on how to 2.up their reputations. ● Online reputation-management consultancies are on the sharp3.. |
Reasons for bosses being eager for advice about managing reputation | ● The market value of companies increasingly4. on untouchable things. ● Reputation is getting even5. to manage. |
6. to the reputation-management industry | ● It is a(n)7. of too many things, and it seems that opinions about it are8. between public-relations and corporate-social-responsibility specialists. ● The reputation-management industry naively 9. the success of a company to its positive reputation. ● The reputation industry wrongly thinks that the strategy to handle potential threats to a company is to 10. more on its reputation instead of its product quality and services. |
On his deathbed in 1638 John Harvard gave away half of his estate, about £800 and his library of some 400 books to a new college in present-day Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard's founders decided to name their new university after its first big benefactor.
About 370 years ago the first Harvard scholarship to help ''some poor scholars'' was set up thanks to £100 donated by Ann Radcliffe. The university continues to be the beneficiary of generous donors. Last year, John Paulson, an investor, donated $400m to Harvard's engineering school, its largest gift ever. Last year it raised more than $1 billion. Some of its graduates think this ought to be sufficient to cancel tuition fees.
Among them are Ralph Nader, a veteran political activist, and Ron Unz, author of a number of searing articles on American meritocracy(英才管理). Both are hoping to win election to the university's board of overseers, from which they want to make Harvard free for all students to attend, and also pressure its admissions office to make data on how it chooses which students to admit known to the public.
America's universities raised a record $40.3 billion last year, according to the Council for Aid to Education. Donations are not usually used to lower tuition fees, but they can be used to provide scholarships and financial aid to students who cannot afford to pay (70% of students at Harvard get some assistance with fees and living costs).
Some lawmakers are wondering whether threats to change the tax-free status of donations might be used to persuade colleges to bring down the cost of tuition, which has increased by 220% in real terms since 1980. Nexus Research and Policy Centre says colleges receive $80 billion in support from state and local governments every year, which ought to give politicians some leverage(影响) in return.
In January Tom Reed, a Republican congressman from New York, proposed a bill requiring donations of more than $1 billion to allocate 25% for financial aid. Two congressional committees, the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, have sent letters to the heads of the colleges with the biggest donations asking about spending, conflicts of interest and fee arrangements. The 56 largest private university donations have to explain how they use their tax-free investment earnings.
The colleges have their defenders. ''Most of these places are providing a fair amount of financial aid for students well beyond the poverty line, '' says Kim Rueben of the Tax Policy Centre. Kevin Weinman, Amherst's chief financial officer, says his university's donation offers $90m to the college's budget, $30m more than tuition, room board and various fees combined. This school year, it will spend $50,000 per student funding financial aid, pay faculty and fund student activities. After Congress last examined the topic in 2007, more colleges began to award grants instead of loans. Financial aid has doubled over the past decade. Rhode Island also make voluntary payments in place of property taxes.
In addition to pointing out their generosity, most colleges also argue that forcing them to spend donation money on free tuition might even be illegal. Donors can restrict their tax-free gift to a legally-binding particular purpose, such as creating a chair, establishing a scholarship or building a new lab. Around 70% of donations are restricted funds.
If the wealthiest colleges have already spent so much on financial aid, what is the problem? Mr. Unz argues that endowment-fuelled spending on new buildings, sports facilities and the hiring of administrators has created an arms-race in higher education, pushing up prices at those universities that are not fortunate enough to have lots of generous benefactors. Harvard could cancel tuition payments without damaging its finances or touching the restricted portion of its endowment, he says. Furthermore, the abolition of both complicated financial-aid forms and terrifying sticker prices for tuition could, he argues, do much to encourage applicants from beyond the plutocracy(富豪阶级).
1.The underlined word in Paragraph 1 can be replaced by .
A.founder B.donor C.defender D.innovator
2.According to the passage, Ralph Nader and Ron Unz hope that they can .
A.help Harvard to enroll new students
B.learn about how Harvard spends its donations
C.make free education to all students at Harvard possible
D.negotiate with the Harvard's board of overseers about tuition fees
3.What can we infer from Kim Rueben's words in Paragraph 7?
A.The colleges are making full use of their donations.
B.Ordinary families cannot afford the increasing tuition fees.
C.More attention should be paid to students below the poverty line.
D.Property taxes on the colleges ought to be canceled permanently.
4.According to the last but one paragraph, most colleges hold the idea that .
A.donors should keep a check on where their money goes
B.the financial aid they receive every year is far from enough
C.they shouldn't be forced to spend donation money on free tuition
D.most donations should be used to improve colleges' infrastructure
5.According to the last paragraph, Mr Unz thinks .
A.the competition between universities is necessary
B.Harvard should offer help to those who lack money
C.financial-aid forms offered by universities should be simplified
D.arms-races in higher education may lead to higher tuition fees
6.What can be the best title for this passage?
A.Should Harvard's tuition fees be canceled?
B.How does Harvard make use of its donations?
C.What do Harvard and lawmakers disagree about?
D.Why does Harvard get more donations than other universities?
