Twenty-five years ago, most young Britons wanted a career in law, to be a doctor, or, if they were creative enough, to take up singing. But today, things stand differently.

    According to a survey by Tesco Mobile, a UK company, the “dream job” of young people aged between 16 and 25 in the UK is a video blogger, or “vlogger”. The survey, carried out among 1,002 people, found that as much as 40 percent of them put vlogger as their number one choice on a list of ideal careers.

    This change is undoubtedly as a result of the Internet and social media. They have made it so much easier to reach audience of the world, without having to enter a career in show business in the traditional way.

    In the past, the biggest stars were trained by the Hollywood studios; now, anyone with a computer camera can become a star. Vloggers are the big stars of today because they are normal people interacting with their fans about everyday life.”

    However, what people see is only the bright side of being a vlogger and they fail to notice the fact that only those who are successful earn fame(名声) and fortune. For every success there are hundreds of others who never get off the starting line. There are the dreams that come true and the dreams that remain dreams forever.

    Although being vloggers is popular, some young people choose to follow careers that don't necessarily earn them fame, but allow them to make good use of the Internet to share their hobbies. Young Israeli David Leshaw, for example, runs a business called the Finishers Club. It's an online platform for runners to keep a record of their races. His job allows him to express his enthusiasm, and is always a learning experience. And that's enough for him.

    The end of the school year is in sight — Christmas cards, candy canes and of course, end of year reports.

    While most parents welcome an assessment of their kids' performance, they do not expect their own input to be evaluated. But a school in the UK is changing that. As well as assessing their students, they are dishing out grades to mums and dads. Parents that are really involved in their kids' education are rewarded with an A, and parents that haven't done their bit get a disappointing D.

    The school, Greasley Beauvale Primary in Nottinghamshire, uses standard such as whether mums and dads have attended school events such as plays and parent teacher evenings to decide on the grade. The school's principal, Donna Chambers, said that the scheme had been well received.

    “There were some critics. In spite of it, between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of parents started out in the lower categories but now that has been reduced to just two per cent,” she explained.

    Chambers hopes that the scheme will help motivate parental involvement. “The system is important because you have got to get the parents on board from day one. That one hour initial conversation saying they could improve will make a difference to the rest of that child's academic life”, she said.

    But while the scheme may be well intentioned, it is likely to be connected with parent shaming. There are lots of reasons why some mums and dads might not be involved in school activities such as work commitments, looking after younger children or caring for elderly relatives.

    And of course, being involved in your kid's education doesn't begin and end at school. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes from helping with homework to keeping uniforms freshly laundered. And what about all the parents who stayed up sewing special costumes at the last minute? Surely that earns a gold star instead of a grade!

Kids with Special Needs

    Kids with special needs refer to any kid who might need extra help because of medical, emotional, or learning problems. For example, disabled kids need wheelchairs. They not only need the equipment that helps them get around, but they might need to have ramps(斜坡) or elevators available.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Kids with an illness would have special needs, too. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Kids with sight problems might need Braille books to read. Kids with hearing problems might need hearing aids.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} It might be harder to do normal things—like learning to read or just getting around school. The good news is that parents, doctors, nurses, teachers, and others can help. The goal is to help kids be as independent as possible.

    Other kids also can be a big help. How? By being a friend. Kids who use a wheelchair or have lots of health problems want friends just as you do. But meeting people and making friends can be difficult. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    Be sure to tell a teacher if you see someone being bullied(欺侮) or teased.

   {#blank#}5{#/blank#} You might carry the person's books or do something simple, such as asking him or her to join you and your friends at lunch. It's also important not to be “overly helpful” when no help is needed. Why? Because just like you, kids with special needs like to be as independent as they can be.

    Being friendly to kids with special needs is one of the best ways to be helpful. As you get to know, they may help you understand what it's like to be in their shoes. And you'll be helping fill a very special need, one that everybody has—the need for good friends.

A.Some kids might laugh at or make fun of them.

B.They also might need to get a special bus to school.

C.Life can be challenging for a kid with special needs.

D.It's good manners to try to offer help to kids with special needs.

E.Also try to be helpful if you know someone with special needs.

F.Kids with special needs usually live a harder life than normal kids.

G.They might need medicine or other help as they go about their daily activities.

    Some inventions are so useful, but seem so simple, that we wonder why no one thought of them long ago. Post-it Notes, the pieces of paper that you can stick almost anywhere and then remove without leaving any sign that they are there, are an example of such an invention.

    Post-it Notes were invented about twenty years ago by Art Fry, a scientist at 3M Corporation. The idea for the product came from an upsetting experience he often had while singing in his church choir. Fry used pieces of paper as bookmarks to mark the places in his book of songs, but these bookmarks were always falling out. He knew he needed a bookmark that would stay where he put it, but that he could remove without damaging the pages.

    Around that time, Fry heard about a new adhesive(粘合剂) that a colleague, Dr. Spence Silver had created. This adhesive was special because it was sticky, but not too sticky. It was strong enough to hold papers together, but weak enough not to tear the paper when it was removed. Fry saw that the new adhesive could help solve his bookmark problem. One morning, Fry put some of the adhesive on the edge of a piece of paper. Just as he hoped, it made a perfect bookmark.

    A short time later, Fry realized that his new invention had even more uses than being a great bookmark. He came to this realization when he wrote a note on one of his new “bookmarks” and attached it to a report he was going to give to a colleague. Soon, co-workers were asking Fry for more sample of his invention so that they could use the new type of notes themselves.

    Fry and some other people at 3M believed so much in the new product that they persuaded the company to give away thousands of the sticky pieces of paper for trial use. When some salespeople at 3M went to offices and showed workers just how helpful the new type of notes could be, they immediately received many orders. As more and more people discovered how useful Post-it Notes could be, the product took off.

    This may be sad to hear, but the number of Britain's famous red telephone boxes has been falling for decades. The phone box is well-known to foreign fans of Britain and visitors to the country. There are still many left to enjoy, however.

    There is deep feeling for the bright red boxes with the Queen's coat of arms (盾形徽章). The places that still have the red box are mostly small and in the countryside. In these places, the phone box may be a symbol of community, as well as a landmark (地标).

    But there are still several cities, including London, that still have original red phone boxes in place.

    For tourists, they probably make the perfect place for a selfie (自拍照). Visit London any day in the summer and you'll see people with their smartphones taking photos with the red box behind them. People who receive the photo will have no trouble guessing where the selfie was taken.

    Ever since mobile phones became more widespread, there has been less and less point in public phones. But although the red boxes are no longer popular places to make a call from, new uses are being found for them all the time. The famous design created by Giles Gilbert Scott back in 1924 lives on, but in ways the British architect (建筑师) would never have imagined.

    Some of the new ways the phone boxes are being used are quite unusual. For example, some have been changed into tiny coffee shops. Others are hat stores. In one distant area of the country, a red box that had not been used for a long time has been turned into a small lending library.

    Even back in their heyday in the last century, phone boxes were put to other uses. Some people even used them as toilets in an emergency.

But for many, they were a safe place to hide if you were caught up in the rain. Britain's weather is unpredictable: sun one moment, heavy rain the next. So if you are planning to visit the UK and want the perfect British selfie, standing inside a red telephone box in a rainstorm may be your best bet.

Most people assume that the human brain is set on "automatic"—that means it learns all by itself. But this isn't always true. We need to train ourselves to be better learners—to actively take part in the learning process and to reflect on what we have learnt. These kinds of learning behaviours are called "active learning". I suggest doing four things to take an active role in your learning.

Listen to the outer voice

There are two kinds of voices: the inner voice and the outer voice. Your inner voice expresses your personal opinions, while the outer voice tells you about opinions from what you hear or read. Although your inner voice can be useful, it can also get in the way of learning. If you keep paying too much attention to it, you risk missing important information. Instead, active learners are open-minded and focus on what the speaker/ write is saying, not on what their brain is saying in the background. In this way, they are in a better position to make decisions.

Ask questions

Asking questions is the easiest way to promote active learning. When you get information from someone, from books or the Internet, ask two, three, even five question about the topic. The answers will lead you to further learning, and the very act of working out questions will help you to achieve a higher level of understanding about the topic. In short: Do not stop being curious.

Get to the truth

Active learners do not accept everything they learn. They attempt to find the truth at the heart of each idea. Even when an idea sounds entirely unlikely, there may be an aspect of it that is based on truth. So if someone says that dinosaurs still exist today, think about why they believe this. Where does the idea come from? Do they have enough data to support their views? If you try to find out the source of an idea, no matter how crazy it seems, you will increase your chance of learning something.

Focus on the message

Many people miss out on learning opportunities because they let their feelings get in the way. They refuse to learn or ignore what is said because of who the speaker/ writer is. It is true that we cannot help disliking some people —this is human nature, after all. But do not forget you can still learn from them. Active learners do not judge people based on firs impressions or personal feelings. Instead, they separate the message from the message. This goes the other way as well—do not just assume that some people are always right because of who they are or just because they are your friends.