I'm a 34-year-old man, married, lived in a nice house, and have a successful career as an educational consultant. But my life was not always so great. I had a learning disability from an early age. I went to a special school where I got plenty of extra help. Still, I suffered the rest of my school days in public schools.

       My life improved remarkably when I discovered art. The art world gave me a chance to express myself without words. I went to a workshop and gradually got good at making things with clay(黏土). Here I learned my first important lesson: disabled as I was in language. I could still be smart and well express myself with clay. And my confidence came along.

I got my next lesson from rock climbing. It was a fun thing but I was scared from the start. I soon noticed it wasn't a talent thing; it was practice. So I did it more. After about five years of climbing, I found myself in Yosemite Valley on a big wall. I learned that if you fall in love with something and do it all the time, you will get better at it.

       Later I decided to apply my previous experience to learning how to read and write. Every day I practiced reading and writing, which I used to avoid as much as possible. After two hard years, I was literate.

       Having gone through the long process with art, rock climbing, and reading and writing, now I've got to a point in my life where I know I am smart enough to dive into an area that is totally unknown, hard, but interesting.

Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage.

    A wise teacher once told me that every teenager needs to experience a not-so-fun first job from working at a grocery store to the fast food industry.

    Now I still remember my first day at a fast food restaurant three years ago. I wanted to save up money and buy my own car, so I applied everywhere I could that summer. The restaurant called me right away and I thought to myself, this is going to be easy. Within four hours of my first shift (.轮班)， I had angry customers who complained how slow I was. I watched in fear as a kid spilled his milk everywhere, and I heard the words that no 16-year-old boy or anyone for that matter wants to hear: "Mike, there's a problem in the men's bathroom and you might want gloves for this one." I realized right away that working at the restaurant was not going to be a picnic. The manager expected a clean environment and, particularly, fast service with a friendly smile.

    Over three years later I still work at that restaurant whenever I go home during vacations. I love my co-workers there and all the customers know who I am. Every morning the same senior citizens come in and get their morning coffees. They chat with us workers and joke around. Our smiles have just as much to do with them making us a part of their everyday lives as the coffee does.

    From my first job at the restaurant, I learned teamwork and devotion. I also learned staying positive no matter how rough things seem to get. I will forever carry the experience that I gained at the restaurant with me as I go forward in my life.

A nurse of 78 this weekend celebrates 60 years of walking the wards - and she has no plans to retire.

Jackie Reid was 18 when she started work in 1953 - when the National Health Service (NHS) was just five years old - and is believed to be the oldest nurse in Britain.

The diabetes(糖尿病) specialist had to retire at 65 but returned as a nurse within two weeks and still does up to four seven-and-a-half hour shifts(轮班）each week.

Mrs. Reid said: "Nursing is hard if you do it correctly but I love my job. Working for the NHS has been my life. I have no other hobbies because I have worked all my life.

Jackie has worked at a number of different hospitals--including one in Scotland.

Her specialist field has been diabetes for the past 40 years. She retrained after her 12-year-old daughter Michelle developed the disease. She currently works at Southend Hospital, Essex.

    Over the last 60years she has treated tens of thousands of patients.

    Jackie believes nursing should be protected from government cuts. She said: "There're lots of things I would say to the government. If you are going to get good care you have to have the resources(资源), you can't do it without enough money. They shouldn't need the cuts that there are in the NHS. It's hard now because there's a shortage of staff."

Jackie has lived alone in Grays, Essex, since her husband did three years ago.

    The couple have two daughters Michelle, 50, and Karen, 54. Jackie added: "My youngest daughter worried about me - she doesn't think I should work as much as I do. I constantly say 'don't worry about me, I'm fine', but she never believes me. I don't like the thought of giving it up and will try to keep going forever."

    Walk Out of the Comfort Zone and Try New Things

    For most high school students, free periods are useless. From what I have seen, few do homework, instead many are on their phones and talking, making it impossible for those who actually want to do work to complete any. As a senior next year, I think extra periods should be used to take optional subjects.

Our school offers many classes. Now is the time to experiment in different fields of study. We will never know if we are interested or talented in a subject if we don't try it.

    In my 8th grade, I was told that I had to take an art class as a graduation requirement; so in the 9th grade I took Studio and Art. One of the projects was to build a clay pot, but I built mine incorrectly, so it broke in the kiln (窑). I found out that I have no artistic ability at all, and now I know for sure that I do not want to be an artist. However, the class was one of my favorites that year. I was able to try new activities and test my ability.

    Walk out of our comfort zone and try new things! College is when we should focus on a specific major, but high school is when we have to figure it out.

    Half of all college students change their major at some point. By doing that hundreds of dollars are wasted on classes that they would have never needed to take. So use our extra periods to find out what we want to do in college. The classes we choose can impact us in future. Taking optional subjects will enrich our mind. It will also show colleges we are diverse students.

    When you're sitting at your computer, do you work all day without a break? Or do you allow yourself to become distracted (分心）now and again ... to open a few extra tabs, check social media, read a bit of news, keep up with the latest fashion trends, and maybe catch up on some celebrity gossip.

    Stop! You're 'cyberloafing'. This word is a combination of cyber which means 'related to computers', and 'loafing', which means ' relaxing in a lazy way ' .We do it, and we do it a lot. A study from the University of Texas suggests we are guilty of this form of procrastination (拖延）for 14% of our working day. On a Friday afternoon, I expect it's more than that.

    I'll admit to losing myself in cyberloafing. In fact, I've already done it in the course of writing this story. Okay, more than once. It can damage your productivity and even your career because according to the University of Texas research, each time a worker gets distracted by the Internet, it takes an average of 23 minutes to get back to work.

    More than that, cyberloafing has a dark side, according to a report published in The Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace. It argues that cyberloafing is connected to several negative personality qualities. People who cyberloaf are more likely to be selfish and tricky.

    Why do we do it? For some, it's most likely an escape from what they're supposed to be doing. Others might get a feeling of satisfaction from finding a great deal online.

    When you have the whole world of the Internet at your fingertips, it's hard to resist.

    How do we solve this problem? If you can truly ask yourself why you are cyberloafing, then that can help identify the base problem. And if that sounds like too much hard work, you could just switch off the Internet for a couple of hours!

    So, in the meantime, let me just close those extra tabs.