At age 19, Yohannes Gehregeoris borrowed a soft-cover romance novel entitled Love Kitten that changed his life forever. Born in rural Ethiopia to an uneducated cattle merchant who 1 his son's education, Gebregeorgis had seen a few books in school. But it was the experience of having a book of his own that sparked a lifelong 2.
Today, at 56, Gebregeorgis is 3 libraries and literacy programs to connect Ethiopian children with books. "Most Ethiopian children have only 4 to textbooks in the classroom," says Gebregeorgis. "Books children read 5 of school, those are the spices of education."
Forced to 6 Ethiopia to the United States as a political refugee in 1981, Gebregeorgis finally 7 himself through university, receiving a graduate degree 8 library science. He took a 9 at the San Francisco Childhren's Library in 1985. There, he realized the 10 children's books could have on a child's sense of wonder and vision.
"Children could imagine everything from books — 11 to other cultures, to other people, to other children, and to the universe 12," recalls Gebregeorgis. "It gives them hope and pleasure. It gives them everything that they cannot 13get in regular textbooks." 14 Gebregeorgis found that there were none in Amharic, the primary language of Ethiopia. When the library 15 $1, 200 for the purchase of Ethiopian books, Gebregeorgis was 16 to find any.
So he wrote one and founded Ethiopia Reads in 1988. The nonprofit 17 his efforts to bring children's libraries to Ethiopia. In 2002, Gebregeorgis 18 his job and his home and returned to Ethiopia. Then he opened the Shola Children's Library on the first floor of his home.
Reading storybooks to children who have no access to television or computers, Gebregeorgis believes that literacy and education will 19 his poor homeland affected by AIDS. "With literate children there is no 20 as to how much we can do."
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Two recently released books offer significant criticisms of the current landscape of higher education. As to what we should do about those problems, the two books propose completely opposed solutions.
Bryan Caplan, a professor of economics at George Mason University, gives away his big idea in his title, "The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money." Caplan argues that the primary value of a college degree is in what it "signals" rather than what people may have learned or experienced.
In Caplan's view, most education is wasted on the young, who are incapable of appreciating or benefiting freedom education. Caplan's solution is to "stop using tax dollars to fund education of any kind." He sees a greater role for vocational or trade education, starting early as children fail to show interest or aptitude (资质) in school subjects, which should primarily focus on the "practical"-not art, music or anything else. Caplan even puts in a good word for child labor as an alternative to the schooling they neither enjoy nor appreciate.
Cathy Davidson, director of the Futures Initiative at the City University of New York, offers a different attitude in "The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux (变化)."
Davidson also believes higher education needs to change, but rather than starving it, she advocates for a broad-based "revolution" that attacks the barriers between students and learning, including educational costs, approaches to curriculum, and how we measure and credential (提供证明) students. Davidson has a chapter on "college for everyone", examining the potential to innovate community colleges to serve as ladders to social mobility.
Education does need to continue to evolve. But it's Davidson who has a vision for what education could and should be that's consistent with the traditional values of freedom, opportunity and progress we associate with education. As to which of these two visions we'd like to follow, we have a choice. I hope we choose wisely.
As PhD research goes, Brian Wisenden was enviable, watching baby fish swimming swiftly through the clear waters in the Costa Rican tropical dry forest. By recording their growth and numbers, he hoped to look at their risks of being eaten. Instead, he witnessed something odd. Many groups were increasing in numbers. In these groups, some were smaller than others, suggesting they weren't siblings (兄弟姐妹). Wisenden had accidentally discovered that the fish, called convict cichlids, adopt each other's babies. Why would they do that, he wondered?
In the human world, we think of adoption as a selfless act. But in nature, its presence is puzzling. Taking on the burden of bringing up babies with no genetic link would seem to reduce an animal's chances of survival or at least provide no gain. Yet, adoption is surprisingly common in the world.
Take the eastern grey kangaroo. Between 2008 and 2013, Wisenden followed the fates of 326 baby kangaroos in the National Park in Victoria and recorded 11 cases of pouch swapping. The circumstances behind some of these adoptions aren't known, but four were straight swaps and another four occurred after a mother had lost her own baby.
How come? Before independence, baby kangaroos go through a period inside and outside their mother's pouch. Following out-of-pouch forays, mothers normally sniff their young before allowing them back in, but Wisenden's team suspect that during an emergency they may skip the sniff test, allowing a vulnerable baby to quickly climb in before fleeing from danger. Once inside the wrong pouch, the young may fake the mother's odor, making them smell confusingly like her own progeny. So, poor baby recognition is the prime cause of "accidental" adoption.
Some of nature's adoptions are, actually, driven by young looking for better prospects. In burrower bugs, for example, females lay a nest of eggs close to those of unrelated bugs. Mother bugs tend their developing eggs before they hatch, then feed their babies nuts from weedy mint plants. Finding nuts is a competitive business, so not every mother bug gets her fair share. And if the delivery rate isn't up to scratch, clever young may abandon their mothers to join a better-fed group. That's similar to behavior in several species of gull whose babies, if poorly fed, may leave home in search of better parents.
The consequences of adoption following mistaken identity can be dire. The true babies of adopting mothers were abandoned. But it can have remarkable benefits, not just for adoptees but also for adoptive parents.
At 88, I remain a competitive runner. The finish line of my life is drawing close, and I hope to reach it having given the best of myself along the way. I've been training my body to meet the demands of this final stretch. But, I wonder, should I have asked more of my mind?
If I didn't exercise, I would release the hungry beasts that seek their elderly prey on couches, but not in the gym. The more I sweated, the more likely it was my doctor would continue to say, "Keep doing what you're doing, and I'll see you next year." My mind, on the other hand, seems less willing to give in to discipline. I have tried internet "brain games", solving algebraic problems flashing past and changing the route of virtual trains to avoid crashes. But these never approach my determination to remain physically fit as I move deeper into old age.
Despite having many friends in their 70s, 80s and 90s, I've been far too slow to realize that how we respond to aging is a choice made in the mind, not in the gym. Some of my healthiest friends carry themselves as victims abused by time. Other friends, many whose aching knees and hips are the least of their physical problems, find comfort in their ability to accept old age as just another stage of life to deal with. I would use the word "heroic" to describe the way they cope with aging.
One such friend recently called from a hospital to tell me a sudden brain disease had made him legally blind. He interrupted me as I began telling him how terribly sorry I was, "Bob, it could have been worse. I could have become deaf instead of blind."
Despite all the time I spend lifting weights and exercising, I realized I lack the strength to have said those words. It suddenly struck me I've paid a price for being a "gym rat." If there is one characteristic common to friends who are aging with a graceful acceptance of life's attacks, it is contentment. Aging had to be more than what I saw in a mirror.
But rather than undertaking a fundamental change in the way I face aging, I felt the place to begin would be to start small. A recent lunch provided a perfect example.
I've always found it extremely difficult to concentrate when I'm in a noisy setting. At this lunch with a friend in an outdoor restaurant, a landscaper began blowing leaves from underneath the bushes surrounding our table. Typically, after such a noisy interruption, I would have snapped, "Let's wait until he's finished!" then fallen silent. When the roar eventually faded, my roar would have drained (消耗) the conversation of any warmth. It troubled me that even a passing distraction could so easily take me from enjoying lunch with a good friend to a place that gave me no pleasure at all. I wanted this meal to be different.
My years in gyms had taught me to shake off pains and other distractions, never permitting them to stop my workout or run. I decided to treat the noise this way. I continued talking with my friend, challenging myself to hear the noise, but to hold it at a distance. The discipline so familiar to me in the gym - this time applied to my mind - proved equally effective in the restaurant. It was as though I had taken my brain to a mental fitness center.
Learning to ignore a leaf blower's roar hardly equips me to find contentment during my passage into ever-deeper old age. But I left the lunch feeling I had at least taken a small first step in changing behavior that stood in the way of that contentment.
Could I employ that same discipline to accept with dignity the inevitable decline awaiting me like the finish line? Hoping that contentment will guide me as I make my way along the path yet to be traveled.
The exact data on women in agriculture is difficult to pin down. There are variations between countries and agriculture data is challenging to collect. What is clear, however, is that most small-scale farmers are women, making up 60-80 percent of farmers in developing countries. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN) estimates that between 43 percent to even 70 percent of agricultural labor in some countries comes from women.
But women still don't have the same rights as men when it comes to farming, making food production harder for women because of gender inequality. For female farmers, it is unquestionably a challenging job to engage in food production.
In the first place, purchasing land, farming equipment and hiring labor can be expensive. These costs are even harder on women because many of them lack access to credit. In nearly 48 economies women face legal restrictions to having control of their own finances.
Getting to the bank is hard too. Mobility for women in rural parts of developing countries is a big concern. Better transportation and infrastructure could help make access to credit more practicable for women. Credit and finance should be equal for everyone, especially women who are held back by gender restrictions.
Sadly, women may run the world, but they do not own it. Women are virtually denied property rights. Traditional customs in place can pass down land through the male side of the family, leaving women out of land rights completely. Other times, women need permission from a male relative or husband to own land.
It has been apparent that women are not as productive farmers as men and work longer hours in some countries like Indonesia. This is largely due to a lack of education. When education is considered more valuable for men (and thus mainly given to men), women farmers are less informed about the best production methods, thus producing less yield in crops and becoming "less productive". This can all be changed through providing education for women. Removing gender inequality can help feed 130 million people who are currently undernourished.
Despite these barriers, women are definitely not leaving the "field". In countries experiencing urban growth, men are migrating to urban areas for other jobs while women stay in rural areas, taking on jobs in farming and agriculture. Healthier children, education, and investment into the community are all benefits that female farmers are shown to have on their communities.
Let's close the gender gap and give women the tools they need to succeed. If women farmers in developing countries have the same rights and opportunities, they will be just as productive. With increasing population, and the need for better food security, supporting women in agriculture is something that cannot afford not to be invested in.
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Women running most small farms |
Women in developing countries for a large proportion of the labor force in the agricultural sector. |
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Women's to food production |
Without credit, many women farmers can't the cost of large farms. * The law sets a on women's freedom to manage money. * It is a struggle for women in the countryside to enjoy bank service. |
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Women in many countries do not have easy to the ownership of property. * can take over land from the previous generation. * Without a male's permission women cannot take possession of land. |
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The education system men over women, resulting in different levels of productivity. * Unlike men, women are often ignorant of agricultural science. * Women could become more if they were to enjoy equal education. |
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Expected support for women farmers |
Considering women' to society, we are supposed to end gender discrimination and up women in agriculture. |
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Li Jiang When I was in the primary school, I often met with problems which I could not work out on my own, especially in English and arithmetic. So I downloaded an online educational app named Zuoyebang. Since then, I have been using several kinds of such software, for example, Xuebajun and Haofenshu. Whenever I have a problem, I will turn to them. As a result, my study has been progressing steadily. I will strongly recommend these apps to my friends. |
| Su Hua After entering the senior high, I found I had more and more difficulty learning maths and English. As many online learning products are quite popular among other students, my parents subscribed to one for me too. After that, however, I feel as if I were going to two schools, one real-world school and one online school. Every day I have endless exercises to do and feel very tired. Worse still, I feel I have lost interest in my study now. What shall I do? |
【写作内容】
1）用约30个词概括上述利用在线教育app学习的现象；
2）你是支持还是反对利用在线教育app学习？请谈谈你的看法，并用2-3个理由或论据支撑你的看法。
【写作要求】
1）作文中可以利用了解到的经历，也可以参照阅读材料的内容，但不得直接引用原文中的句子；
2）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 
