-
When you’re having a hard time with your homework or when you’re preparing for your term paper, these student-focused websites can help you with just about anything you need. The key to getting the most out of these online resources is to know how they can best be used to your advantage.
Facebook
Although Facebook can be one of your biggest time-wasters and distractions when you are supposed to be getting work done, it can also be one of your most valuable resources. Most of your classmates will probably have a Facebook account, so anyone you need to connect with about a class you missed or about a problem is usually just a few clicks away.
SparkNotes
With a free library of history timeline, philosophy study guides and library summaries, SparkNotes has covered just about any reading-related jam you find yourself in. Just run a search for the book, play, or short summary of the material you are supposed to read.
Amazon.com
Do you finish every term with many expensive textbooks you will never open again? Instead of letting the money spent go to waste, get back some of your cash by selling your books on Amazon.
RateMyProfessors.com
Choosing new classes can sometimes be like trying to pick out your clothes in the dark, a total guessing game. Which teacher gives out the hardest problem sets? How much homework will that history professor give you every week? At RateMyProfessors.com, students all over the country rate their professors on quality, helpfulness, and how hard their classes are.
Wikipedia
While Wikipedia isn’t aimed specifically at students, it is difficult to think of another website that does more to reduce the pain of paper writing and researching. Wikipedia gives you a quick way to find sources and get the details of almost any topic you need to research — all without walking to the library.
1.The passage was mainly written to ________.
A. explain some websites for parents
B. compare some educational websites
C. offer some websites that may help students
D. introduce different parts of a website
2.While you are taking great pains to write a research report, ________ can most probably be a help.
A. Facebook B. Wikipedia C. Amazon.com D. SparkNotes
3.RateMyPorfessors.com is a place ________.
A. where you can make friends all over the country
B. that gives you information about professors in advance
C. where you can communicate with your professors
D. that gives tips on how to get along with your professors
4.Which of the following will you most probably refer to, if you need brief ideas for class discussion in reading?
A. Wikipedia. B. Facebook. C. SparkNotes. D. Amazon.com.
-
Every man wants his son to be somewhat of a clone, not in features but in footsteps. As he grows you also age, and your ambitions become more unachievable. You begin to realize that your boy, in your footsteps, could probably accomplish what you hoped for. But footsteps can be muddied and they can go off in different directions.
My son Jody has hated school since day one in kindergarten. Science projects waited until the last moment. Book reports weren’t written until the final threat.
I’ve been a newspaperman all my adult life. My daughter is a university graduate working towards her master’s degree in English. But Jody? When he entered the tenth grade he became a “vo-tech” student (技校学生). They’re called “motorheads” by the rest of the student body.
When a secretary in my office first called him “motorhead”, I was shocked. “Hey, he’s a good kid, ” I wanted to say. “And smart, really.”
I learned later that motorheads are, indeed, different. They usually have dirty hands and wear dirty work clothes. And they don’t often make school honor rolls (光荣榜).
But being the parent of a motorhead is itself an experience in education. We who labor in clean shirts in offices don’t have the abilities that motorheads have. I began to learn this when I had my car crashed. The cost to repair it was estimated at $800. “Hey, I can fix it,” said Jody. I doubted it, but let him go ahead, for I had nothing to lose.
My son, with other motorheads, fixed the car. They got parts from a junkyard, and ability from vo-tech classes. The cost was $25 instead of $800.
Since that first repair job, a broken air-conditioner, a non-functioning washer and a non-toasting toaster have been fixed. Neighbours and co-workers trust their car repairs to him.
These kids are happiest when doing repairs. They joke and laugh and are living in their own relaxed world. And their minds are bright despite their dirty hands and clothes.
I have learned a lot from my motorhead: publishers need printers, engineers need mechanics, and architects need builders. Most important, I have learned that fathers don’t need clones in footsteps or anywhere else.
My son may never make the school honor roll. But he made mine.
1.What used to be the author’s hope for his son?
A.To avoid becoming his clone. B.To resemble him in appearance.
C.To develop in a different direction. D.To reach the author’s unachieved goals.
2.What can we learn about the author’s children?
A.His daughter docs better in school.
B.His daughter has got a master’s degree.
C.His son tried hard to finish homework.
D.His son couldn’t write his book reports.
3.The author let his son repair the car because he believed that .
A.his son had the ability to fix it B.it would save him much time
C.it wouldn’t cause him any more loss D.other motorheads would come to help
4.What did the author realize in the end?
A.It is unwise to expect your child to follow your path.
B.It is important for one to make the honor roll.
C.Architects play a more important role than builders.
D.Motorheads have greater ability than office workers.
-
Young sunflowers turn and swing every day. New findings add to evidence that the plants are animal-like.
Harmer, a professor in the University of California at Davis, Department of Plant Biology, carried out a series of experiments on sunflowers in the field, in pots outdoors and in indoor growth chambers.
By staking plants so that they could not move, Harmer showed that he could destroy their ability to track the sun. He also noticed that sunflowers prevented from moving were not as tough and leafy as those that were free to move. When plants were moved indoor with a settled overhead light, they continued to swing back and forth for a few days.
The indoor plants did start tracking the “sun” again when the apparent source of lighting was moved across the room. The plants could reliably track the movement and return at night when the artificial day was close to a 24-hour cycle, but not when it was closer to 30 hours.
When sunflowers track the sun, the east sides of their stems grew more rapidly than the west sides. At night, the west sides grew faster as the stem swung the other way. The team identified a number of genes that were expressed at higher levels on the sunward side of the plant during the day or on the other side at night. A plant growth-regulating hormone (激素), called auxin, appears to be a key driver.
The “dance” to the sun cycle obviously slows when the sunflower matures (成熟) and its flowers open up. At that point, the plants stop moving during the day and settle down facing the sun in the east.
“Bees like warm flowers.” Harmer said, adding that the bees are cold-blooded, so landing on a warm flower saves them energy and perhaps feels really good.
“The morning warmth changes the flowers in a way to make them more appealing to insects, perhaps causing them to release more attractive scents earlier in the day.” he said “We’re currently testing this idea.”
1.Why did Harmer do the experiment on sunflowers?
A.To see how sunflowers grow up.
B.To show what sunflowers’ genes are.
C.To study why sunflowers track the sun.
D.To check if sunflowers swing in cloudy days.
2.What does the underlined word “staking” probably mean in Paragraph 3?
A.Tracking. B.Fining.
C.Growing. D.Searching.
3.What is the result of sunflowers being stopped from moving?
A.They will produce a number of new genes.
B.They will grow faster than usual.
C.They won’t swing back though set free.
D.They won’t grow well.
4.What is the advantage of sunflowers’ dance to the sun?
A.They attract more insects. B.They save more energy.
C.They mature more rapidly. D.They produce more flowers.
-
A new international study shows that some peopled biological clock plays a powerful role for their life expectancy, regardless of lifestyle choices.
Published in the latest issue of Aging on Wednesday, the study has found the most definitive evidence to explain why some people keep healthy lifestyle but die younger than others.
Geneticist Steve Horvath from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), led a team of 65 scientists around the world to record age-related changes to human DNA, analyse blood samples collected from 13,000 people and estimate their lifespan.
A higher biological age, regardless of actual age, consistently predicts an earlier death, the study says.
“You get people who are vegan, sleep 10 hours a day, have a low-stress job, and still end up dying young,” Horvath said in a statement. “We have shown some people have a faster innate aging rate.”
The findings discovered that 5 percent of the population ages at a faster biological rate, which translated to a roughly 50 percent higher than average risk of death at any age.
“The great hope is that we find anti-aging interventions that would slow your innate aging rate,” Horvath said, adding that “this is an important milestone to realizing this dream.
1.How was the study conducted?
A.By collecting and analyzing data
B.By interviewing lots of people
C.By researching previous studies
D.By studying different lifestyles
2.Some people keep healthy lifestyle but die younger than others because .
A.the biological clock is not powerful enough
B.the most definitive evidence has been found
C.they have a higher actual age than others
D.they ages at a relatively faster biological rate
3.According to the study, it can be inferred that .
A.people who keep healthy lifestyle tend to live longer
B.people’s lifespan can be predicted by their age
C.anti-aging interventions have proved to slow the innate aging rate
D.5 percent of people are believed to have a faster innate aging rate
