Happy Graduation, Seniors! Congratulations! What’s next? Below is some sociologically-inspired, out-of-the-box advice on work, love, family, friendship, and the meaning of life. For new grads from the two of us!
1. Don’t Worry About Making Your Dreams Come True
College graduates are often told: “follow your passion,” do “what you love,” what you were “meant to do,” or “make your dreams come true.” Two-thirds think they’re going find a job that allows them to change the world, half within five years. Yikes.
This sets young people up to fail. The truth is that most of us will not be employed in a job that is both our lifelong passion and a world-changer; that’s just not the way our global economy is. So it’s ok to set your sights just a tad below occupational ecstasy. Just find a job that you like. Use that job to help you have a full life with lots of good things and pleasure and helping others and stuff. A great life is pretty good, even if it’s not perfect.
2. Make Friends
Americans emphasize finding Mr. or Ms. Right and getting married. We think this will bring us happiness. In fact, however, both psychological well-being and health are more strongly related to friendship. If you have good friends, you’ll be less likely to get the common cold, less likely to die from cancer, recover better from the loss of a spouse, and keep your mental acuity as you age. You’ll also be able to face life’s challenges, be less likely to feed depressed, and be happier in old age.
Having happy friends increases your chance of being happy as much as an extra $145,500 a year does. So, make friends!
3. Don’t Worry about Being Single
Single people, especially women, are stigmatized in our society: we’re all familiar with the image of a sad, lonely woman eating ice cream with her cats in her pajamas on Saturday night. But about 45% of U.S. adults aren’t married and around 1 in 7 lives alone.
This might be you. Research shows that young people’s expectations about their marital status (e.g., the desire to be married by 30 and have kids by 32) have little or no relationship to what actually happens to people. So, go with the flow.
And, if you’re single, you’re in good company. Single people spend more time with friends, volunteer more, and are more involved in their communities than married people. Never-married and divorced women are happier, on average, than married women. So, don’t buy into the myth of the miserable singleton.
4. Don’t Take Your Ideas about Gender and Marriage Too Seriously
If you do get married, be both principled and flexible. Relationship satisfaction, financial security, and happy kids are more strongly related to the ability to adapt in the face of life’s challenges than any particular way of organizing families. The most functional families are ones that can bend. So partnering with someone who thinks that one partner should support their families and the other should take responsibility for the house and children is a recipe for disaster. So is being equally rigid about non-traditional divisions of labor. It’s okay to have ideas about how to organize your
family – and, for the love of god, please talk about both your ideals and fallback positions on this – but your best bet for happiness is to be flexible.
5. Think Hard About Whether to Buy a House
Our current image of the American Dream revolves around homeownership, and buying a home is often considered as a stage on the path to full-fledge adulthood. But the ideal of universal home ownership was born in the 1950s. It’s a rather new idea.
With such a short history, it’s funny that people often insist that buying a house is a fool-proof investment and the best way to secure retirement. In fact, buying a house may not be the best choice for you. The mortgage may be less than rent, but there are also taxes, insurance, and the increasingly common Home Owners Association (HOA) fees. You may someday sell the house for more than you bought it but, if you paid interest on a mortgage, you also paid far more than the sale price. You have freedom from a landlord, but may discover your HOA is just as controlling, or worse. And then there’s the headache: renting makes you avoid the stress of being responsible for repairs. It also offers a freedom of movement that you might cherish.
So, think carefully about whether buying or renting is a better fit for your finances, lifestyle, and future goals. This New York Times rent vs. buy calculator is a good start.
| 1. Don’t Worry About |
◆College grads are reminded to follow their passion. ◆The ◆Just find a great job that can make your life full, even if it’s not perfect. |
| 2. Make Friends. |
◆Americans put a lot of emphasis on getting married. ◆Both psychological well-being and health are more strongly related to ◆With good company, you will keep away from illness and have the |
| 3. Don’t Worry about Being a Bachelor. |
◆Single women adults ◆If single, be actively |
| 4. Don’t Take Your Ideas about Gender and Marriage Too Seriously. |
◆The most functional families are ones that can bend, that is to say , to be principled and more |
| 5. Think Hard About Whether to Buy a House. |
◆Buying a home is often considered as a stage on the path to full-fledge ◆In fact, buying a house may not be the best choice for you to invest and to secure retirement. ◆Renting |
第Ⅱ卷
第一节短文填空（共10分）
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller is
the most ____________(有影响的) book in my life. 1. ___________
It is filled _________ courage, struggle and faith throughout. 2. ___________
Helen Keller was once in deep despair in her childhood, but finally she decided
to o________ her physical disabilities and live happily. 3. ___________
Furthermore, she showed great patience ______ her long and 4. ___________
hard learning period. I have learned, above all, two lessons from her story. First, she taught me that often the road to s________ is to 5. ____________
face hardships ______(勇敢地). Maybe you are born under an ill 6.____________
star yet you can stand a better chance ________ others. 7.____________
It is therefore important that you screw up your courage when courage is needed.
Second, the damaged part of her senses did not p______ her learning. 8.____________
On the ___________, she had made 9. ___________
continual ________(努力) to go deeper into the field of knowledge. 10. ___________
第二卷（共35分）
第四部分：写作（共两节，满分35分）
第一节短文填词（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
阅读下面短文，根据以下提示：1）汉语提示；2）首字母提示；3）语境提示，在每个空格内填入一个适当的英语单词，并将该词完整地写在右边相对应的横线上。所填单词要求意义准确、拼写正确。
Peter was a warm-hearted boy. He is always ready to help others.
On the morning of last Friday, Peter went to school as u________.76.________
He was walking along the road _______ he saw a well uncovered. 77._____________
He thought it was ________ (危险的) for passers-by, so he decided to 78._____________
cover the well. The cover was ______ heavy that he took great trouble 79._____________
to remove it. At last he m______ to cover the well. Hardly had he turned 80._____________
his back and gone when he heard a cry “help” c______ from the well. 81._____________
So he turned back and moved the cover away. To his ______ (惊奇), a 82._____________
worker was inside the well. Peter tried his best to ______ (拉)the worker 83._____________
out of the well. After that, Peter covered the well again properly.
As he was walking away, he thought to h_______ , “No matter 84._____________
______ I do later, I should always remember to have a double check.” 85._____________
第二卷（共35分）
第四部分：写作（共两节，满分35分）
第一节：短文填词（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
阅读下面短文，根据以下提示：1）汉语提示；2）首字母提示；3）语境提示，在每个空格内填入一个适当的英语单词，并将该词完整地写在右边相对应的横线上。所填单词要求意义准确、拼写正确
On May 9th, 1906, an American Anne Jevis’s mother died. Ann was in deep
sorrow. In order to memorize her mother, she forward a suggestion to 76.
fix a day as Mother’s Day. On May 7th, 1914 a law was passed, m the 77.
second Sunday of May “Mother’s Day”. Today (百万) of Americans 78.
(庆祝) Mother’s Day in some way. They buy more than 150,000,000 79.
Mother’s Day greeting cards. There are d kinds of greeting cards, 80.
most of show pictures of flowers, hearts or other things to express 81.
a person’s love for his or her mother. Jevis’s mother was f of the 82.
white carnation, so carnations are specially c for Mother’s Day. 83.
And it is one of the days of the year for the whole flower 84.
(产业) as there are too many flowers to be sent at the same time. 85.
五、短文填词
Do you like friends who can teach you a lot every day? Books are s friends because they bring knowledge to us and keep us ____(陪伴) through our life. They are so valuable that libraries are b______ to keep them. A____ all great men are lovers of books. Franklin said that it was books that led him to success and that he could have a______(获得) nothing without books. Books are the holders of mankind’s _______(经验) and imagination. They enable us to see through the past and predict the . So when you open a book, you would get into a world ______ you have never been before. A good book i
s a good teacher that h you to get over difficulties. No matter what
you are, _______or old, poor or rich, books are your devoted friends.
1. ___________ 2. ___________3. ___________4. ___________5. ___________
6. ___________7. ___________8. __________9. ___________10.___________
第四部分：写作（共两节满分 35分）
第一节：语篇填空（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
Ladies and gentlemen:
Welcome to our class and to our evening party. Here we
feel greatly _____ (荣幸) to have a good chance to be with you. 76.________
First of all, let me say a few words a____ our class. There are 77.________
45 students in our class. 32 of us are boys, ___ the rest are 78.________
girls. Most of us are studying English, and we_____(通常)spend 79.________
much time on it. We often read English______(杂志),newspapers 80.________
and watch English programs on TV in our spare time. We are ________(决心) 81. _______
to learn English well so ____ to have a better job in the future.82.________
In our program tonight, t___ are cross talks, short plays, group singing, 83.________
popular songs and so on. I hope you will enjoy them and ____ a good time. 84.________
And of c______ your participation would be appreciated. 85.________
Thank you.