英语 热门试卷

The Common Application for college, known as the Common App, is a timesaving tool accepted by more and more schools each years—public, private, large, and small. Depending on where you plan to apply, you may be able to save yourself from writer’s cramp(痉挛)because you only have to complete it once, filling out the typical pages of information just a single time. After that ,you can send it out over and over again in clear photocopy form. Better yet, it can be completed online at www.commonapp.org.

Member schools of the Common Application organization are allowed membership only if they stick to a whole applicant evaluation process. If you’re checking the sites of your favorite colleges and they’re members of the organization, then there’s a good chance they’ll have a link right on their site that will take you straight to the college Common Application at its home website. As an added bonus, several dozens of these schools will reduce or give up their application charge if you apply online.

It’s not unusual for some colleges to require a brief supplement(补充)unique to their school in addition to the Common Application. Many of those supplements require applicants to write an extra essay or two, so if you plan to use the Common Application, make sure you’re submitting everything that the school is requesting.

There’re rumors(谣言)that some schools don’t treat the Common Application with the same regard as their own unique applications. Thankfully,such rumors appear to be mostly just that—rumors.Colleges accepting the Common Application promise to give it equal weight, and they do. In fact, more and more schools now only use the Common Application.

For a list of participating schools and to access the college Common Application online, visit www.commonapp.org. Peterson’s is your guide to college information. Use Peterson’s college search to find the best college or university for you.

【语篇导读】本文介绍了一种在线申请大学的方法。

There are moments in life when you’re in the middle of some activity and think, “I love doing this. Love it!” Maybe it happens on the golf course, or camping, or when you’re having dinner at a favorite restaurant. There are so many things to love about modern life.

I’m in love with 35 miles per hour.

It’s a difficult kind of love to talk about in the present age of TV commercials and big-budget movies that constantly promote and glorify images of vehicles with roaring engines and smoking tires thundering across city streets in endless pursuit of adventure.

My personality has never had a fast-and-crazy side. I vividly recall going to Disneyland as a young teenager and being emotionally thrashed on the Matterhorn roller coaster ride. Other kids were howling with delight at the sharp turns and steep drops while I was mentally repeating the phrases “Please be over soon” and “I don’t want to die”.

Do not, however, assume I spend most of my road time trembling behind the steering wheel. Freeway fright is not my partner. After 45-plus years on the road, I can handle a vast range of traffic hardships. I’ve had my share of rigid joints and sweaty palms but not one accident since a curving fender(挡泥板)incident in college. I go with the flow.

But in private situations, alone on some suburban avenue or country lane, I like to ease off the gas pedal, settle in at a smooth 35 mph.

It’s a speed that allows me to appreciate my surroundings because the scenery doesn’t flash by in a blur. There’s also a significant safety factor because slowing down means I have more time to react and avoid holes, bouncing balls, wild animals, or other risks that may appear unexpectedly.

This is my way of pushing back against the insistently increasing pace of our high-intensity, on-demand society. Think of it as a car drive on a trail. When you load up for a trip, you don’t race across the countryside at a full dash. It’s much nicer to wander along and find pleasure in the journey.

Saying “I’m sorry” when you’ve hurt someone can be a hard thing to do. We’re stubborn creatures, after all, and don’t love dealing with it when we’re wrong. But apologizing, and meaning it, is an important part of the forgiveness process.

Michael McCullough made a research and found that the most sincere, forgiveness-inducing apologies include saying “I’m sorry”, offering to make up for the wrongdoing in some way, and taking responsibility. And the reason why they work so well is largely based on principles of evolution: the apologies make the transgressor(犯错的人)seem more valuable as a relationship partner, and also help the victim feel less at risk of getting hurt again.

One basic scientific implication of the results is that the human psychology of conflict resolution is usually similar to that of animals which live in groups. “Many group-living animals, but particularly mammals, seem to use ‘peace-making gestures’ as signals of their desire to end conflict and restore cooperative relationships with other individuals after aggressive conflict has occurred,” McCullough said. “We seem to reach a common view on this point.”

“I would say that empathy(情感共鸣)is a part of good mental health, and that could be a part of the natural selection process, too,” Bethany Marshall says. “Humans with empathy tend to be healthier and make better choices in life, while those who are aggressive don’t tend to do as well.”

And having empathy when you’ve hurt someone, she says, is the best way to apologize. “The most important thing is that you feel the other person’s pain,” she explains. “So instead of using logic to explain or defend, look inward to identify why you did the bad thing. Then convey that to them and say that you would like to make it better. That counts.”

You can make it even better by making sure to act differently the next time around—what the study authors referred to as “compensation”(补偿). But what tends to happen often, says Marshall, is that people get defensive about what they’ve done, or even mad at the person they’ve wronged. So watch your response, because the worst apology, she adds, “is one where the victim is blamed.”

【语篇导读】关于道歉的研究成果。

阅读下面短文，掌握大意，然后从16-35各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

For my 8th birthday my bd blank was a shiny blue bike. My older sisters decided to teach me to ride. We lived on Edgewood Avenue at the top of a steep hill. My bd blank , Agnes and Christina, put me on my bike and bd blank me hard, yelling instructions, “Peddle! Steer! Use the brakes!” Needless to say, I was rushing down the street bd blank trying to hold on.

I bumped into the curb（路缘）， bd blank over the handlebars onto the sidewalk, skinning my knees, hunting my hands and crying loudly. Instead of offering bd blank ,my sisters yelled at me bd blank I hadn’t listened to their instructions.Weeks bd blank before I tried again. This time I walked my bike to the bd blank parking lot behind the schoolyard. I kept repeating the instructions to myself and after a few awkward bd blank and even more painful spills I leaned to ride a bike.

Learning life lesson is bd blank like learning to ride a bike. Some life lessons are bd blank to learn. We don’t always get to choose where we learn them; we don’t always have good teachers and we are not always bd blank . Sometimes we find ourselves madly trying to hold on.

But things are different now.

My husband, Rich, bd blank my sons to ride a bike. First he raised the training wheels a little and they rode around the block getting used to the unstable bd blank . After he removed the training wheels he would run along the side of the bike holding on to the seat to bd blank them. Up and down our street, he would go with Rich calling out, “You bd blank have it! You’re doing great!” until my son would call out “Let go”. Rich would let go but still run along, just bd blank . It was a happy day in the neighborhood.

When the life lessons come along in this New Year you may bd blank them from a patient and kind teacher; you may have them surrounded by bd blank and encouragement. And you may have someone stay by your side until you have found victory.

【语篇解读】本文是一篇记叙文，文章通过描述主人公小时候学习自行车的经历，以及现在他的儿子学习自行车的经历，对比了两段学习自行车经历的教育方法。

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

So you want to be a civilian scientist? The National Science Foundation(NSF)has got you covered. NSF supports civilian science across all area of science, whether your passion is to scan the night sky, or explore your own backyard.

Join a group of birders.

eBird is an online platform that allows bird-watchers to go online and record their sightings to a database.With more than 100,000 active users, eBird’s system is a treasure of information on bird population, distribution and habitat, with users can explore in real time.

Count every drop.

The Community Collaborative Rain. Hall and Snow Network(CoCoRaHS) is the largest provider of daily precipitation(降水)observations in the United States.Volunteers set up rain gauges(测量仪器)and record data every time rain or snow passes over. Data is organized and shared on the CoCoRaHS website, and used by scientists, farmers and more.

Search for stars with your computer.

Einstein@Home uses your computer’s spare time to search for space signals. The project has already had major successes; Volunteer discovered about 50 stars, using data from Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory and Australia’s Parkess Observatory. Einstein@Home also searches for gravitational-wave signals using data from NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory.

Be part of a supercomputer.

To link all those home computers, Einstein@Home uses the software called the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, better known as BOINC. The software choreographs(编排)the technical aspect of volunteer computing and help you use radio telescope signals to search for creatures outside the earth.

Join the Plankton Party.

Without plankton, life in the ocean would not exist. These tiny organisms form the base of the food chain, and play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Plankton Portal enlists(征募) civilian scientists to identify images of plankton, snapped by In Situ Icthyo plankton Imagine System(ISIIS),an underwater robot engineered at the University of Miami. ISIIS has taken millions of images in oceans around the world; classifying the images helps researchers understand plankton diversity, habitat and behavior.

【语篇导读】本文介绍了如何成为一名民间科学家。