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.

    While contact between adolescents (between the ages of fifteen and nineteen) and their peers (同龄人) is a universal characteristic of all cultures, the nature and the degree of such contact vary a great deal. In American contemporary society, adolescents spend much more time with their peers than with younger children or adults.

    This pattern of age segregation(隔离) in American society did not become usual until the beginning of the industrialized society. Changes in the workplace separated children from adults, with adults working and children attending school. The dramatic increase of mothers in the workplace has further contributed to the reduction in the amount of time adolescents spend with adults. School reform efforts during the nineteenth century, which resulted in age-segregated schools and grades, have reduced the amount of time adolescents spend with younger children. Finally, the changes in population are considered a factor that may have contributed to the emergence of adolescent peer culture. From 1955 t0 1975, the adolescent population increased dramatically, from 11 percent t0 20.9 percent. This increase in the number of adolescents might be a contributing factor to the increase in adolescent peer culture in terms of growth in size.

    Research supports the view that adolescents spend a great deal of time with their peers. Reed Larson and his colleagues examined adolescents' daily activities and found that they spend more time talking to their friends than engaging in any other activity. In a typical week, high school students will spend twice as much time with their peers as with adults. This gradual withdrawal from adults begins in early adolescence. In sixth grade, adults (excluding parents) account for only 25 percent of adolescent social networks. Another important characteristic of  adolescent peer culture is its increasingly autonomous (白治的) function. While childhood peer groups are conducted under the close supervision of parents, adolescent peer groups typically make an effort to escape adult supervision and usually succeed in doing so.

    (Note: Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN EIGHT WORDS.)

    My name is Clara. I still remember that chilly December day, sitting in science class. I'd finished a worksheet early and picked up a Time for Kids magazine. A piece of news caught my eye. NASA was holding an essay contest to name its Mars rover (火星探测器). Before I even knew anything else about it, a single word flooded my 11-year-old mind: Curiosity.

    I couldn't wait for the bell to ring so I could get started on my essay. That afternoon, I raced home, sat down at the computer, and typed until my fingers ached. “Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind…”

Five months later, my mom received a phone call, and immediately, a wide smile spread across her face.

    On August 5, 2012, at 10:31 p.m., the rover named Curiosity touched down safely on the surface of Mars, and I was honored to have a front-row seat in NASA.

    Curiosity is such an important part of who I am. I have always been fascinated by the stars, the planets, the sky and the universe. I remember as a little girl, my grandmother and I would sit together in the backyard for hours. She'd tell me stories and point out the stars. Grandma lived in China, thousands of miles away from my home in Kansas, but the stars kept us together even when we were apart. They were always there, yet there was so much I didn't know about them. That's what I love so much about space.

    People often ask me why we go to faraway places like Mars. My answer is simple because we're curious. We human beings do not just hole up in one place. We are constantly wondering and trying to find out what's over the hill and beyond the horizon.

    [1] Nowadays the cost of a new car has fallen in real terms so that it is cheaper than ever to own one, and better road conditions have also attracted more drivers. The result is overcrowding on the road system, which is one of the problems the local governments are faced with.

     [2] When people travel to other towns, the problem might be relieved by getting them to park outside the town. Buses could be provided to take them into the centre. These Park and Ride projects are increasingly popular in the UK. At Southerton, for example, a council-funded project led to a 15% drop in city centre traffic over five months.

     [3] What the council found, though, was that the project proved somewhat unpopular with shop owners in the area outside the centre. Many of their shops relied on passing car drivers for some of their trade. As the number of people driving past dropped, so did their incomes.

     [4] Making car driving expensive is another way of ____________. Road taxes tend to mean that people use their cars less. Fining drivers who are in areas where cars have been banned can also tend to encourage them to leave their cars behind.

     [5] However, one thing has to be got right for any solution to succeed. If we expect people to give up the habit of driving, we must give them an alternative they can rely on. Constant delays, unannounced changes to the timetable and sudden cancellations all discourage people from using public transport. People will only see it as a real choice if the buses and trains are on time.

    Youth sport has the potential to accomplish three important objectives in children's development. First, sport programs can provide youth with opportunities to be physically active, which can lead to improved physical health. Second, youth sport programs have long been considered important to youth's psychosocial development, providing opportunities to learn important life skills such as cooperation, discipline, leadership, and self-control. Third, youth sport programs are critical for the learning of motor skills; these motor skills serve as a foundation for future national sport stars and recreational adult sport participants. When coachers develop activities for youth practices and when sport organizations design youth-sport programs, they must consider the implication of deliberate play and deliberate practice.

Research from Telama （2006） states that regular participation in deliberate play or deliberate practice activities during childhood and youth （ages nine to eighteen） increases the likelihood of participation in sports during adulthood by six times for both males and females. Côté （2002） defines deliberate play activities in sport as those designed to maximize enjoyment. These activities are regulated by flexible rules adapted from standardized sport rules and are set up by the children or by an involved adult. Children typically change rules to find a point where their game is similar to the actual sport but still allows for play at their level. For example, children may change soccer and basketball rules to suit their needs and environment （e.g. in the street. on a playing field or in someone's backyard）. When involved in deliberate play activities, children are less concerned with the outcome of their outcome of their behavior. （whether they win or lose） than with the behavior. （having fun）.

    On the other hand, Ericsson （1993） suggests that the most effective learning occurs through involvement in highly structured activities defined as deliberate practice. Deliberate practice activities require effort, produce no immediate rewards, and are motivated by the goal of improving performance rather than the goal of enjoyment. When individuals are involved in deliberate play, they experiment with different combinations of behaviors, but not necessarily in the most effective way to improve performance. In contrast, when individuals are involved in deliberate practice, they exhibit behavior. focused on improving performance by the most effective means available. For example, the backhand skills in tennis could be learned and improved over time by playing matches or by creating fun practice situations. However, players could more effectively improve their backhand performance by practicing drills that might be considered less enjoyable. Although drills are used in most effective means available practice might not be the most enjoyable, they might be the most relevant to improving performance.

    （Note: Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN TEN WORDS）

    Six days a week, up and down the red hills of northeast Georgia, my grandfather brought the mail to the folks there. At age 68, he retired from the post office, but he never stopped serving the community.

    On his 80th birthday, I sent him a letter, noting the things we all should be thankful for — good health, good friends and good outcomes. By most measurements he was a happy man. Then I suggested it was time for him to slow down. At long last, in a comfortable home, with a generous pension, he should learn to take things easy.

     “Thank you for your nice words,” he wrote in his letter back, “and I know what you meant, but slowing down scares me. Life isn't having it made; it's getting it made.”

     “The finest and happiest years of our lives were not when all the debts were paid, and all difficult experiences had passed, and we had settled into a comfortable home. No. I go back years ago, when we lived in a three-room house, when we got up before daylight and worked till after dark to make ends meet. I rarely had more than four hours of sleep. But what I still can't figure out is why I never got tired, never felt better in my life. I guess the answer is, we were fighting for survival, protecting and providing for those we loved. What matters are not the great moments, but the partial victories, the waiting, and even the defeats. It's the journey, not the arrival, that counts.”

    The letter ended with a personal request: “Boy, on my next birthday, just tell me to wake up and get going, because I will have one less year to do things — and there are ten million things waiting to be done.”

    Christina Rossetti, an English poet, once said: “Does the road wind uphill all the way? Yes, to the very end.” Today, at 96, my grandfather is still on that long road, climbing.