A student walks into his first class and realizes he forgot all about the midterm exam. He knows he needs to bring his grades up, and getting a zero will make it nearly impossible. He quickly jots down some notes and shoves them under his lap hoping it will help him pass. Cheating is a major concern in all academic environments. Students are creating new and more outrageous(令人吃惊的）ways of cheating every day: some claim that certain accounts of cheating can be justified, but overall it can always be prevented.

    Cheating has been around forever, and millions of ways to cheat have been fashioned. Copying homework and cheat sheets are some of the most basic ways students in all education levels have cheated. Some students think nothing about writing a few answers on their hand, in a gum wrapper, or boldly using a study guide to cheat. Desperate students have even gone as far as to steal the test or scan in bottle wrappers and put answers into the nutrition label. The internet has now become available in almost every location. Computers can be accessed at school, at home, and now even on cell phones. This opens a doorway for even more methods of cheating to be born.

    There are countless opinions on whether or not cheating can be justified. The truth is this behavior will always be a matter of opinion with each scenario of cheating. Students often rationalize their cheating by claiming they forgot to look over the material or did not understand what the teacher or professor was saying. Some may counter these arguments by saying that the student could have set reminders or asked the teacher to explain the material before the day of the test. Some other reasons students believe cheating is justified are their heavy workloads and trying to find time for school, sports, friends, and family. This may be true in certain instances, however, all students have these problems, and it is unfair to the students refrain(制止) from cheating when the student who is dishonest receives a better grade. The majority of students who think cheating is acceptable may believe the reason for this is that sometimes students are unaware they are cheating, there is not enough time given for assignments, or that the information is too much for the course.

    It may be difficult to accomplish, hut cheating can be prevented. 1'eachers and professors have tried many options to stop cheating. These options can range anywhere from simply spreading test-takers out in a room, to expelling（驱逐）a student, which will most likely hinder their plans of getting into another college. One simple way to fix the problem is to scold the student when caught. They may be so scared or embarrassed that they never do it again. This is a risky way to prevent cheating in some cases, however, because it can possibly damage self-esteem. Another simple way 10 avoid cheating is to create many different kinds of the same test. This prohibits students from getting the answers off of a neighbor's test, but students still have the option of using other cheating tactics.

    There may be a million ways to cheat and get away with it, but there are few times, if any, that it is justified. Cheating never has to be a necessity and is never worth compromising morals and losing years worth of working towards a degree. This problem is spreading throughout America; with everyone's help, it can be stopped.

Word of the Day Writing Competition

    Days are getting colder, and everyone is slowly backing to the warm comfort of their homes. It's the best opportunity to make good use of the quietness and peace of the season by taking pen and paper(or a computer) out to write.

OxfordWords of Oxford University Press(OUP) is calling all aspiring(有抱负的) authors out there to take part in our writing competition. What we're looking for are imaginative(富有想象力的) short stories—not more than 500 words—that include every Word of the Day (WOTD) from November.

    Each entry will be carefully considered by the OxfordWords team before deciding on a winner. The best storyteller will be given a year's fee to OxfordDictionaries.com, as well as ￡50 worth of OUP books, and have his or her piece published on that website.

    Before you get started, please make sure you're read our terms and conditions. Entries can be submitted(递交) through the entry form, or posted into the comment section. Closing date for the competition is 5th January 2015.

    And finally, for inspiration, have a look at the charming short story that gives us the idea for this competition, written by a fellow Oxford Dictionaries team member, and including all thirty one Words of the Day from October.

    Find out more about our Word of the Day service and sign up to receive the words via email, or on Facebook, Google, and Twitter.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    Making friends is a skill like most skills. It improves with practice. If you want to meet people and make friends, you must be willing to take some action. You must first go where there are people. You won't make friends staying home alone.

    Joining a club or a group, talking with those who like the same things as you do is much easier. Or join someone in some activity.

    Many people are nervous when talking to new people. After all meeting strangers means facing the unknown. And it's human nature to feel a bit uncomfortable about unknown. Most of our fears about dealing with new people comes from doubts about ourselves. We imagine other people are judging us, finding us too tall or too short, too this or too that. But don't forget that they must be feeling the same way. Try to accept yourself as you are, and try to put the other person at ease. You'll both feel more comfortable.

    Try to act self-confident even if you don't feel that way. When you enter a room full of strangers, such as a new classroom, walk tall and straight, look directly at other people and smile.

    If you see someone you'd like to speak to, say something. Don't wait for the other person to start a conversation.

    Just meeting someone new does not mean that you will make friends with that person—friendship is based on mutual liking and “give and take”. It takes time and effort to develop.

    It's the holiday season, the time when we connect with family and friends. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are full of festive pictures, featuring parents' catching and sharing those special family moments, their child's wish list, and maybe even a cute video of their child dancing to “Jingle Bell Rock” while wearing a diaper (尿片) and Santa hat. Swelling with pride, parents can't wait to get approval with a “thumbs up” or better yet a personalized message on their treasured post.

    Adults should be able to post what they want online. However, when exposing family moments online, are they sharing too much information? Do parents have the right to share those cute now, but embarrassing later moments about kids? Have children willingly given their agreement to sharing their cute but funny video online?

    A recent study found that 75% of parents turn to social media for parenting-related information and social support. There is even a term used to describe the overuse of sharing too much information about kids on social media: “sharenting”. Research also finds that “sharenting” isn't going anywhere anytime soon. What's troublesome is that a typical parent has about 150 Facebook friends and only a third of them are actual friends. So that brings up good questions – Who are we really sharing our information with and why? Who knows when and where that photo could resurface in the future?

    While there's no reliable information on how young children feel about things posted online, we do have information about how teens feel. According to a report by the Family Online Safety Institute, 76% of teens are concerned about their privacy. Many teens constantly search for new apps that allow anonymity. When names are required, they use screen names that don't reveal real information. If our teens are doing a better job of protecting themselves online, shouldn't parents take the lead and do the same? Plus, with more and more college admission representatives and potential employers surfing the internet for potential candidates, we'd hate for one of our posts to change an important decision. Think about it … online reputations are now becoming inseparable with real life ones.

    Of course, we can secure our privacy settings, only allowing our friends to view pictures, posts and videos, but that doesn't stop others from uploading our pictures. Adults need to be cautious of sharing information online, especially information about children.

    So, this holiday season, enjoy family time and share those special memories with family and friends. Before clicking the app to upload photos or videos, stop and think twice.

    The technique can lead to new ways to produce medicines, the researchers from the universities of Istanbul and Hawaii hope.

    As part of an effort to improve treatments for life-threatening illnesses, a team of scientists have created rabbits that glow(发光) in the dark.

    Their efforts produced two rabbits out of a litter of eight that went from being a normal, fluffy white to glowing green in the dark. The rabbits were born at the University of Istanbul as part of a collaboration（合作） between scientists from universities in Turkey and Hawaii.

    The rabbits glow to show that a genetic manipulation technique can work efficiently, though the specific color is more cosmetic than scientific. "The green is not important at all – it's just a marker to show the experiment can be done successfully," said University of Hawaii associate professor Stefan Moisyadi.

    To produce the glowing effect, researchers injected jellyfish DNA into a mother rabbit's embryos. Those altered embryos（胚胎）. Those altered embryos were then inserted back into the mother. Similar experiments have resulted in glowing cockroaches and cats.

    Eventually, the researchers hope the technique can lead to new ways to produce medicines, Moisyadi said. “The final goal is to develop animals that act as barrier reactive to produce beneficial molecules in their milk that can be cheaply extracted, especially in countries that can't afford big pharma plants that make drugs, that usually cost $1bn to build, and be able to produce their own protein-based medication in animals," Moisyadi said.

    The rabbits are expected to have the same life span as their non-glowing counterparts（副本）, but Moisyadi said he understands people can object to this kind of experimentation involving live animals.

    "To the people against, I say: think about, what are the benefits and what are the injuries?" Moisyadi said. "And if the benefits outweigh the injuries, let's go with the benefits."

    Moisyadi, a native of Turkey who is now with the University of Hawaii, started developing the project in 2006, and researchers are now waiting to see if pregnant sheep produce similar results.

Open Letter to an Editor

I had an interesting conversation with a reporter recently — one who works for you. In fact, he's one of your best reporters. He wants to leave.

    Your reporter gave me a copy of his resume(简历) and photocopies of six stories that he wrote for you. The headlines showed you played them proudly. With great enthusiasm, he talked about how he finds issues(问题), approaches them, and writes about them, which tells me he is one of your best. I'm sure you would hate to lose him. Surprisingly, your reporter is not unhappy. In fact, he told me he really likes his job. He has a great assignment (分工), and said you run a great paper. It would be easy for you to keep him, he said. He knows that the paper values him. He appreciates the responsibility you've given him, takes ownership of his profession, and enjoys his freedom.

    So why is he looking for a way out?

    He talked to me because he wants his editors to demand so much more of him. He wants to be pushed, challenged, coached to new heights.

    The reporter believes that good stories spring from good questions, but his editors usually ask how long the story will be, when it will be in, where it can play, and what the budget is.

    He longs for conversations with an editor who will help him turn his good ideas into great ones. He wants someone to get excited about what he's doing and to help him turn his story idea upside down and inside out, exploring the best ways to report it. He wants to be more valuable for your paper. That's what you want for him, too, isn't it?

    So your reporter has set me thinking.

Our best hope in keeping our best reporters, copy editors, photographers, artists — everyone — is to work harder to make sure they get the help they are demanding to reach their potential. If we can't do it, they'll find someone who can.