This summer, Monika Lutz’s life took an unusual turn. Instead of heading off to college, the high school graduate packed her bags for a Bengali jungle. Lutz, like a growing number of other young Americans, is taking a year off. Gap(间隔) years are quite common in Britain and Australia, but they are just beginning to catch on in the U.S. Lutz, who grew up in Boulder, Colo., has put together a 14-month schedule that includes helping deliver solar power to some communities in India and interning (实习) for a fashion designer in Shanghai---experiences that are worlds away from the lecture halls and university dormitories that await other students. “I could not be happier,” she says.

Why are students attracted to the gap-year concept? According to new survey data from Karl Haigler and Rae Nelson, education-policy experts and co-authors of The Gap-Year Advantage, the most common reason for this is to avoid burnout. “I felt like I was focused on college as a means to an end,” says Kelsi Morgan, an incoming Middlebury College freshman who spent last year interning for a judge in Tulsa, Okla., and teaching English at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. The hope is that after a year out of the classroom, students will enter college more energized, focused and mature. That can be an advantage for colleges too. Robert Clagett, dean of admissions at Middlebury, did some research a few years ago and found that a single gap semester was the strongest predictor of academic success at his school.

Most experts recommend securing a spot in college before taking a gap year and warn against using the time off to lengthen your resume. “Most admissions folks can see right through that,” says Jim Jump, the academic dean of St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, Va. But for students like Lutz, who, after getting rejected from five Ivies, decided to take time off, a gap year can help focus interests. Lutz now plans to apply mostly to non-Ivies that have strong marketing programs. “This experience has really opened my eyes to the opportunities the world has to offer,” she says.

But at least one education expert doesn’t want schools spreading the gap-year message. In a study that followed 11,000 members of the high school class of 1992 for eight years after graduation, Stefanie DeLuca, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University, found that, all things being equal, those who delayed college by a year were 64% less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree than those who didn’t. DeLuca did not say whether these students voluntarily started college late, but at the very least, her work indicates that taking a gap year doesn’t guarantee success. “I’m not going to say that time off does not have benefits,” says DeLuca. “But I think we should not be so enthusiastic.”

1.The students take gap years mainly because ______.

A. they want to be more unusual

B. they want to refresh themselves

C. some experts advise them to do so

D. their parents think it good for them

2.According to Lutz, the gap year has made her more ______.

A. energetic B. relaxed

C. practical D. enthusiastic

3.Stefanie DeLuca probably agrees that ______.

A. students should think twice before taking gap years

B. taking gap years enables students to achieve success

C. schools should encourage their students to take gap years

D. taking gap years increases students’ chances of getting a good job

4.What’s the author’s attitude towards gap years?

A. Sceptical. B. Positive.

C. Disapproving. D. Objective.

Google has kicked off Google Science Fair (GSF) 2014, its annual online competition for

bright, creative and ambitious teenagers who want to change the world with science. While the project is led by Google, it also has the backing of the Lego Group and world-famous publications National Geographic and Scientific American. The competition is open for students aged 13 to 18, who can sign-up now, form a team and begin working on a submission.

The winner will be rewarded with a ten-day exploration to the Galapagos Islands aboard the National Geographic Endeavor, as well as a VIP tour of ‘Spaceport America’ in New Mexico. Google is also throwing in a $50,000 scholarship and $10,000 for the winner’s school to purchase cutting-edge science lab equipment.

Google suggests that each project should be “an in-depth investigation of a science question or engineering problem” but otherwise, it’s up to students to pick and develop an idea that follows the competition rules.

Completed projects need to be submitted by May 12, 2014 at 11:59 PDT. Google will announce the regional competitors in June, ahead of global finalists in August and the competition winners in September.

Interested? Here are the rules.

If you want to enter the competition as an individual (个人), you should register first. Complete requested information about yourself and your project in the registration section before creating your project. You may edit this later. Click the box stating that you have read, accept, and agree to be bound by these Official Rules and Terms.

Upon completion of registration you may begin working on your project. The project must follow the technical, creative, and legal entry requirements set out in these Official Rules and the Googlesciencefair.com Site. You will be required to complete all sections of the Project Site.

You may begin working on your project after completing the registration process, however, you may not submit it for judging until you have requested and received parental consent (允许). Once you have done this, your parent or guardian will receive an email from Google with instructions on how they can give their consent for you to participate. The project will not be judged unless this consent is received.

1.From the first paragraph, we can learn that ________.

A. GSF is a science competition

B. teenagers should form a team

C. every teenager can take part in it

D. GSF is organized by Google alone

2.What is mainly discussed in the last paragraph?

A. Parental consent.

B. Submission time.

C. Registration process.

D. Project requirements.

3.If you plan to enter GSF alone, you ________.

A. should create your project first

B. you needn’t follow the official rules

C. you should provide some personal information

D. your should start your project before registration

4.The main purpose of the passage is to ________.

A. offer tips on how to enter GSF

B. provide information about GSF

C. persuade teenagers to enter GSF

D. show teenagers the importance of GSF

A glass a day keeps obesity at bay.Alcohol has always been thought to cause weight gain because of its high sugar content, but new research suggests a glass a day could form part of a diet.Looking at past studies they found that, while heavy drinkers do put on weight, those who drink in moderation can actually lose weight.

A spokesman for the research team at Navarro University in Spain says, “Light to moderate alcohol intake, especially of wine, may be more likely to protect against, rather than promote, weight gain”.The International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research reviewed the findings and agreed with most of the conclusions, particularly that current data do not clearly indicate if moderate drinking increases weight.

Boston University’s Dr.Harvey Finkel found that the biologic mechanisms (生物学机制) relating alcohol to changes in body weight are not properly understood.His team pointed out the strong protective effects of moderate drinking on the risk of getting conditions like diabetes(糖尿病),which relate to increasing obesity.Some studies suggest that even very obese people may be at lower risk of diabetes if they are moderate drinkers.

The group says alcohol provides calories that are quickly absorbed into the body and are not stored in fat, and that this process could explain the differences in its effects from those of other foods.They agree that future research should be directed towards assessing the roles of different types of alcoholic drinks, taking into consideration drinking patterns and including the past tendency of participants to gain weight.

For now there is little evidence that consuming small to moderate amounts of alcohol on a regular basis increases one’s risk of becoming obese.What’s more, a study three years ago suggested that reveratrol, a compound present in grapes and red wine, destroys fat cells.

1.The passage is mainly for those ______.

A.who produce wine

B.who are eager to lose weight

C.who go on a diet

D.who have a drinking habit

2.The underlined phrase “in moderation” in the first paragraph means ______.

A.properly B.carefully

C.excitedly D.frequently

3.Why has alcohol been thought to cause weight gain?

A.Because its calories are stored in fat.

B.Because it is rich in sugar.

C.Because it changes drinking patterns.

D.Because it increases the risk of diabetes.

4.What can we learn from the passage?

A.The specific roles of different types of alcoholic drinks are very clear.

B.Resveratrol is proved to increase the risk of becoming fat.

C.The research found moderate drinking has a strong protective effect.

D.Current data clearly show that moderate drinking increases weight.

5.What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?

A.How to do some easy experiments.

B.How to prove the finding mentioned above.

C.How to make wine in a healthy way.

D.How to reduce the calories contained in wine.

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