May the first is an important date in the college admission process in the United States. This is the last day for high school seniors to accept or reject offers of admission in the fall. But according to a recent report, there is a great change. Acceptance rates at the top colleges this year were lower than ever. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 

      These days, college applicants are applying to more colleges because online and common applications make the process easier. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} On the other hand, deciding students for top colleges to accept can be difficult because it takes much time. Students may not like being put on waiting lists．Also, common colleges work more to getthe students they accept to accept them. Some colleges hold visiting days that offer a chance to attend classes and stay overnight. Some universities send gifts. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

      For many families, the most important thing colleges can do is show them the money, especially this year; the weak economymakes parents nervous. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The recent problems that spread from thehousing market to credit markets have even affected student's loans．Solately, top schools have to spare lots of money to increase their financial aidfor students.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}The Education Department expects the number of highschool graduates to start to go down. This will happen as the last of thechildren of the baby boom generation finish high school. Thenumber is not expected to start rising again until 2016.

A．Besides, top colleges are facing changesin the population.

B．What contributes to it?

C．But a mistake can be costly if ithappens.

D．But top colleges ignore them．.

E．They have international students whoknow English.

F．It can mean several acceptances tochoose from.

G．They cannot afford college as planned.

Ways to sleep smarter

    Studies show that poor sleep influences people to make good decisions, concentrate on tasks or even manage a friendly mood(情绪) at work. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Today we've got our top favorite sleep tips and facts.

Set a regular bedtime

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Choose a time when you normally feel tired. Try not to break this routine(惯例) on weekends when you will probably stay up late. If you want to change your bedtime, make the change gradually, such as 15 minutes earlier or later each day.

Eat the right food

    Some foods are more helpful to a better night's sleep than others. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Others like bananas, potatoes, and whole-wheat bread are also helpful.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Exercising provides lots of good health benefits(好处). A good night's sleep is one of them. But make sure you exercise in the morning or afternoon. The National Sleep Foundation reports that exercise in the morning or afternoon can help deepen sleep. However, those who worked out in the evening hours saw little or no improvement in their sleep.

Reduce(减少) screen time before bed

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} A recent study shows that people who use electronic media(媒体) just before bedtime report lower-quality sleep even when they get as much sleep as those who don't.

How to Introduce Yourself Before Giving a Speech

    Greet the audience and state your name. If you're giving a speech, it's important to state your first and last name. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Don't state down or at some aimless point in the corner of the room. If you don't like the thought of looking into that many eyes, look at their eyebrows or noses—they won't be able to tell the difference.

    Share some relevant（相关的）information about yourself. After you provide your name, share why you and the speech are relevant, making sure you provide something believable. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} If you're giving a speech about the importance of eating organic foods, tell people that you're a scientist, chef, or environmental professional. If you're giving a speech about child development, be sure to include that you are a child psychologist.

    Communicate effectively. From the very start, make sure your voice is loud enough for everyone to hear you. You can even ask the audience if you are speaking loudly enough for all to hear. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Move your body. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Stand up tall, move your shoulders back, and keep your hands free, using them to gesture when necessary. You can walk around to show the crowd how comfortable you are and to make yourself look less stiff.

A. Make eye contact with a few people.

B. Focus just on what you are going to talk about.

C. Stand with good posture（姿势）, and move freely while you speak.

D. As you say hello and give your name, remember to speak clearly and confidently.

E. It depends on the context of the conversation, but start off by telling something about yourself.

F. People will not be able to understand you or respect what you are sharing if they cannot hear you.

G. The sort of information you share will depend on the audience and the subject you'll talk about.

    Good time management allows you to complete more in a shorter period of time, lowers the amount of pressure(压力), and leads to career success. Here is some advice for you.

    Make a plan

    List all the tasks that are important. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} , Next, highlight the tasks on your list to show their urgency(紧急). Then focus only on one item at a time and enjoy the pleasure of crossing off the completed items.

    Stay away from distractions(分散注意力的事)

    Though the e-mail and social media are important to your everyday communication, they require much of your attention. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    Learn to say "no" {#blank#}3{#/blank#}. Although saying no to someone older than you is much more difficult, it's important to be honest and to look after your health. Sharing your list with him/her will help to refuse the additional work.

    Give yourself a break

    Don't be hard on yourself. You will actually perform better if you take breaks. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. The world will not fall down if you put off opening some e-mails.

    Improve your plan

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}, Remake your plan and take off the distracting tasks to focus on a solution. Dealing with problems in the face of time pressure will be one of your most valuable experiences in your future employment.

 A. Try not to do more work if possible

 B. Taking breaks is good for your brains

 C. Be honest with yourself as well as others

 D. Avoid looking at your work e-mails when not working

 E. Write them down and don't just rely on your memory

 F. Review your work plan regularly when things are not going well

 G. Shut them off as you work on a task requiring your full attention

    Unless you think you're the smartest, who doesn't want to be smarter? Of course I want to be smarter too. So I try to find out who's the real smart guy that maybe I can learn from.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    ▲ They probably do social media. Not always, but probably.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} They also use this to ensure they can feed their brains with things they otherwise wouldn't have come across.

    ▲ {#blank#}3{#/blank#} They never bother their head about the problem of "work-life balance" and somehow manage to seem 100% engaged in what they're doing, on all fronts simultaneously(同时), even though you know they're taking appropriate steps behind the scenes to make sure their lives are well balanced.

    ▲ They know they are the smartest in the room, but they don't spend much time talking about that.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} That is, they challenge themselves to make everyone else in the room the smartest person too.

    ▲ They never, ever, under any circumstances, make you look stupid, even though it would be easy to do so. They've learned through bitter experience that the only thing that happens when you make someone look bad is that you look bad yourself.

    ▲ If they are managers, they will make every effort to get people more connected and more popular than them in their teams.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} They're not threatened because they know that smartness is synergistic.(相互促进的)

A. It is not only a chance to listen.

B. They know it is an advantage to them.

C. They take it as a personal challenge instead.

D. They will be smiling even when things go wrong.

E. Now I've got an answer about whether someone's smart.

F. They also ensure their smart people look smarter than them.

G. They deal with home, work and personal interests perfectly.

My, what a big beak you have!

For humans, adapting to climate change will mostly be a matter of technology. More air conditioning, better-designed houses and bigger flood defenses may help to make the effects of a warmer world less harmful. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}In a paper published in Trends & Evolution, a team led by Sara Ryding, a PhD candidate at Deakin University, shows that is already. happening. Climate change is already changing the bodies of many animal species: bigger beaks (喙), limbs and ears.

In some species of Australian parrot, for instance, beak size has increased by between 4% and 10%since 1871. Another study, this time in North American dark-eyed juncos, another bird, found the same pattern.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

All that is perfectly consistent with evolutionary (进化) theory, "Allen's rule". Allen suggested it in 1877, holding that warm-blooded animals in hot places tend to have larger body parts than those in temperate (温带的) regions.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}Being richly filled with blood vessels (血管), and not covered by feathers, beaks make an ideal place for birds to get rid of heat.

Ms. Ryding examined museum specimens (标本) to prove that climate change was the cause of an anatomical (解剖学的) changes. All sorts of other factors might have been driving the changes. Her team combined data from different species in different places. They have little in common apart from living on a warming planet.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

For now, at least, the increase is small, never much more than 10%{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Since any evolutionary adaptation comes with trade-offs (妥协), it is unclear how far the process might go.

A. Therefore, climate change is the most reasonable explanation.

B. That may change as warming accelerates (加速).

C. Animals will have to rely on changing their bodies or their behaviors.

D. It seems that the future world is going to be hotter than humans are used to.

E. Therefore, the negative effects of a warmer world are visible in these animals' bodies.

F. Such adaptations boost an animal's surface area relative to its body, helping it to release extra heat.

G. Similar trends are seen in mammals, with species of mice and bats evolving bigger ears, legs and wings.