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.

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.

    Sarah Hughes won the gold medal in women's figure skating at the 2002 Winter Olympics.A graduate of Yale University,she is writing her first book.She owes her success to her parents' support.

    “I started skating when I was 3 years old.Competing in the Olympic Games had been my dream from the beginning.When I was 12 years old,my mother was hospitalized with breast cancer.I was on the way to making my first national team.Seeing my excitement at each stage gave her strength through her illness.On days when she was too weak to walk,she would think,‘I have to make it through.I have to be there for my kids.' My mom was able to leave the hospital to come to Philadelphia from New York to watch me win the Junior Ladies title.That day I was skating for more than just the judges.My parents' support made all the difference when I performed on the skating stage.When I won the Olympic medal,I was able to share more than just my skating experience with the people who were with me all along.I was raised in a stable,supportive environment."

【写作内容】

1).用约30个单词写出上文概要；

2).用约120个单词阐述你对“父母支持”的看法，并用2~3个理由或论据支撑你的看法。

【写作要求】

1).写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；

2).作文中不能出现真实姓名；

3).不必写标题。

    The 18-year-old girl from Linyi, Shandong province scored 568 points on her college entrance exam this year and was admitted to Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications.

    On Aug 19, Xu received a phone call from an unknown person telling her that she was due to receive student funding. Following the call, Xu transferred a 9,900-yuan "activation fee" into the man's bank account, hoping the money would appear in her student account, but it never did.

    After discovering they had been cheated, the family immediately reported the incident to the police, but Xu was said to be frustrated. On their way home, she suddenly fainted and despite doctors' best efforts to rescue her, she passed away.

    The death of Xu yuyu immediately caused an outcry over the society, and once again, it fired a public anger towards those who commit heartless fraud(欺诈).

    So how was Xu's private information leaked out?

    Reporters have discovered that there are many people who openly sell the examinee's information online. The information includes the examinee's name, school, phone number, and address. The personal information of examinee has become the target of the online fraud industry.

【写作内容】

1). 用约30个单词写出上文概要；

2). 用约120个词就“Personal information leakage”谈谈你的看法和感受，内容包括：（1）简述个人信息泄露的危害及保护个人信息的重要性；（2）就如何保护个人信息提几点建议（至少两点）。

【写作要求】

1). 阐述观点或提供论据时，不能直接引用原文语句；

2). 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称等。

【评分标准】

内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。

    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.)

    [1]Stamp collectors usually collect stamps only from certain countries or regions. The traditional method of stamp collecting is to organize stamp collection according to the issue dates.

     [2]Of course, there are many    .  . You can collect stamps relating to a particular theme. For example, sport lovers may choose the Olympic theme. They try their best to find Olympic stamps issued by various parts of the world every four years. Some of them may want to concentrate on even more specific sport activities like ball games, gymnasium, swimming, etc.

     [3]If you like astronomy, you may be keen on collecting stamps describing the stars, planets, spacecraft, spacemen, etc. once you have fixed the topic, you no longer need to bother about stamps other than the theme you selected. Then, you can put all your effort to collect the stamps around it.

     [4]China issues zodiac animal stamps (十二生肖邮票) every year to celebrate the Lunar New Year. They are extremely popular and a lot of collectors wait patiently for 12 years to collect a full set of them. Hong Kong's Lunar New Year special stamp series began in 2000 with the Year of Dragon and the twelfth and final set was issued in 2011, the Year of Rabbit. Recently some Western countries have issued zodiac animal stamps, which attract a lot of attention as well.

     [5]You may choose any theme you like. However, you should bear in mind an essential point. The topic you choose should not be too narrow. Otherwise, it is very difficult to accumulate stamps around the topic. You will be depressed and even lose your interest in collecting stamps.

      [6]Collecting stamps with themes is especially popular among teenagers because there is a wide range of choices for them. The main challenge is how you organize and expand your collection around your theme.