When times get tough, we all look for ways to cut back. When we're hungry, we eat at home instead of going out. We take buses instead of taxis. And we wear our old designer jeans just a few months longer. With college expenses at all－time highs, high school students are eager to do anything to cut the cost of a university education.

      One cost－cutting proposal is to allow college students to get a bachelor' s degree in three years instead of four. Educational institutions have been actively exploring ways to make the learning process more efficient. But there's a question: Would the quality of undergraduate(本科生)education suffer? Few US universities have formally approved a “three－year degree” model.

      I doubt that mainstream North American colleges will carry out a three－year curriculum(课程) any time soon. For one thing, most universities already allow highly qualified students to graduate early by testing out of certain classes and obtaining a number of college credits(学分). In addition, at famous universities, the committee who determine which courses are required and which courses are electives are unlikely to suddenly “throw out” one quarter of the required credits. Professors will resist “diluting(稀释)” the quality of the education they offer.

     In my opinion, a quality four－year education is always superior to a quality three－year education. A college education requires sufficient time for a student to become skilled in their major and do coursework in fields outside their major. It is not a good idea to water down education, any more than it' s not a good idea to water down medicine. If we want to help students find their way through university, we should help them understand early on what knowledge and skills they need to have upon graduation. We should allow students to test out of as many courses as possible. We should give them a chance to earn money as interns(实习生)in meaningful part－time jobs that relate to their university studies, such as the five－year co－op program at Northeastern University.

Former Irish President Mary Robinson was just making a polite conversation with an Ethiopian (埃塞俄比亚的) teenager about her wedding day.The 16yearold had already been married for a year.“She looked at me with the saddest eyes and said，‘I had to drop out of school，' ” Robinson said in a telephone interview.“That conveyed to me the reality，” said Robinson，the first woman to serve as Ireland's president and former U．N.High Commissioner for Human Rights.“Her life，as far as she is concerned，had more or less ended.”

     Robinson said keeping girls in school was one of the most important things policymakers could do to address the coming challenges of an ever­increasing population，predicted by the United Nations to reach 7 billion soon.“European countries are concerned about aging populations，but this is much less of an issue than the huge number of people which we are going to see over the next 40 years when the population goes from 7 billion to 9 billion，”she said.“Almost all of that increase will be in poor developing countries，so that we have a very big challenge.”

Family planning experts worry in particular about the future population explosion in SubSaharan Africa.In May，the United Nations projected the world population would reach 9.3 billion in 2050 and 10.1 billion by 2100.Much of that growth will come from Africa，where the population is growing at 2.3 percent a year—more than double Asia's 1 percent growth rate.If that rate stays consistent，which is not certain，Africa's population will reach 3.6 billion by 2100 from the present 1 billion.

Joel Cohen，a professor of population studies at Rockefeller University and Columbia University in New York，said universal secondary education offered a way to reduce population in high birth rate regions.In addition to providing information about birth control，a secondary education teaches women to reduce their own fertility，improve the health of their children and allows them to move from a mindset of having many children in the hope that some will survive to improve the quality of each child's life，Cohen wrote in the journal Nature.

      It's normal to wake briefly during the night. But if you're waking up duringthe night and having trouble falling back asleep, the following tips may help.

     Stay out of your head. The key to getting back to sleep is continuing to prepareyour body for sleep, so remain in bed in a relaxed position. Hard as it may be,try not to stress over the fact that you're awake, because that very stress andanxiety encourage your body to stay awake.

If you are finding it hard to fall back asleep, try a relaxation technique suchas visualization(想象),or deep breathing, which can be done without even getting out of bed. Remindyourself that although they're not a replacement for sleep, rest and relaxationstill help refresh your body.

    Do a quiet, non－stimulatingactivity. If you've been awake for more than 15 minutes, try getting out of bedand doing a quiet, non－stimulatingactivity, such as reading a book. Keep the lights dim so as not to think thatit's time to wake up.   A light snackmight relax you, but be careful not to eat so much that your body begins toexpect a meal at that time of the day.

If you wake during the night feeling anxious about something, make a brief noteof it on paper and delay worrying about it until the next day when you arefresh and it will be easier to resolve.

a．Make relaxation your goal, not sleep.

b．Put off worries and troubles.

c．Use a flashlight to go to the bathroomat night.

d．In fact, a good sleeper won't evenremember it.

e．Also avoid screens of anykind—computers, TVs, cell phones, iPads.

f．You'll be much more productive andcreative after a good night's rest.

g．A good way to stay out of your head isto focus on the feeling in your body.

             A mong all the fast growing science and technology, the research of human genes, biological engineering as people call it, is drawing more and more attentionnow. Sometimes it is a hot topic (discuss) by people.

          The greatest thing that gene technology can do is to cure serious diseases thatdoctors at present can almost do nothing with, such as cancer and heartdisease. Every year, millions of people are murdered by these two (kill).And to date, doctors have not found effective way to cure them. But if thegene technology (apply) , not only these two diseases can be curedcompletely, (bring) happiness and more living days to the patients, butalso the great amount of money people spent on curing their diseases can besaved, so benefits the economy as well. In addition, human life span(寿命) can be prolonged.

         Gene   technology can help people to give birth to more healthy and clever children.Some families, with the English imperial(皇室)family being a good example, have hereditary diseases. This means theirchildren will for sure have the family disease, is a great trouble forthese families. In the past, doctors could do nothing about hereditarydiseases, gene technology can solve this problem (perfect). Thescientist just needs to find the wrong gene and correct it, and a healthy childwill be born.

      I'm sitting in a quiet room at the Millcroft Hotel, a peaceful place hidden back among pine trees about an hour out of Toronto. It's just past noon, lateJuly, and I'm1the desperate sounds of a life­-or-death2going on a few feet away.

      There's a small3burning out the last of its short life's energies in a(an)4to fly through the glass of the window.5, it's not working. The great effort offers no hope for survival. Ironically (讽刺地)，the struggle is part of the trap. It is6for the fly to try hard enough to succeed in7through the glass. This fly is doomed (注定失败). It will8there on the windows ill.

      Across the room, tensteps9, the door is open. Ten seconds of flying time and this small creature could reach the outside world it10. With only a small effort now being11, it could be free of this self­set12. The breakthrough possibility is there. It would be so13.

        Why doesn't the fly try another approach, 14dramatically different? How did it get so locked in on the idea15this particular route and determined effort offer the most promise for success?

       No doubt this way makes16to the fly. Regrettably, it's an idea that will kill it.

       Trying harder isn't necessarily the solution17achieving more. It may not offer any real18for getting what you want out of life. Sometimes, in fact, it's a big part of the problem.

       If you19your hopes for a breakthrough on trying harder than ever, you may20your chances for success.

—________.You're here now. Come in and sit down.