Taking good notes is a time-saving skill that will help you to become a better student in several ways. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Second, your notes are excellent materials to refer to when you are studying for a test. Third, note-taking offers variety to your study time and helps you to hold your interest.

    You will want to take notes during classroom discussions and while reading a textbook or doing research for a report. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Whenever or however you take notes, keep in mind that note-taking is a selective process. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

The following methods may work best for you.

●Read the text quickly to find the main facts and ideas in it.

●Carefully read the text and watch for words that can show main points and supporting facts.

●Write your notes in your own words.

●{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

●Note any questions or ideas you may have about what was said or written.

    As you take notes, you may want to use your own shorthand(速记). When you do, be sure that you understand your symbols and that you use them all the time. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

Music is a Universal Language

    “Music is the universal language of mankind.” – Henry Longfellow

    Everyone has the inborn ability to understand and enjoy music. There are many theories as to why this is, but it has become a part of human beings. Since the beginning, humans have expressed themselves through music. Simple tribal rhythms evolved into many types of more complex music, including classical, rock, jazz, and R&B. While the styles between these many types of music may vary, everyone is able to understand and relate to them.

    What are the essential parts of a language? Every language uses vocabulary, or a set of words, to create sentences that convey messages. The tone and style of the sentences convey different feelings or emotions. Music is exactly the same way. Twelve tones, or notes, are combined to create phrases that also convey emotion. Music can even be written, like most other languages. Conversations even take place in music. Two saxophonists can play melodies back and forth, expressing different styles and feelings, building off of each other, responding to each other. Music changes over the years like other languages. Most people who speak fluent English cannot read one of Shakespeare's plays because the language has changed so much. Music is also affected by time, and over a long period, many new types of music and instruments have emerged to create different sounds and convey different messages. There are so many similarities between vocal language and music that they must be same.

    I recently had a chance to experience conversation through music. In 2008, I traveled to Manila, Philippines to participate in a high school jazz exchange where many students from all over Asia came together to share their talents. Everyone was mixed into different small groups to prepare for a concert at the end of week. Few people spoke fluent English so vocal communication was very tough. However, it wasn't needed. Everyone seemed to understand each other simply through the music and there were few times where direct translation was needed. At the performance, every group played for a live audience. They all sounded phenomenal and it felt like they were in perfect time and harmony. During my group's performance, I was able to improvise with a Korean boy who spoke very little English. But we managed to have a conversation through our instruments, building off each other's riffs until we were creating our own melody on the fly. It was a great experience.

    Because of the many similarities that music shares with other languages, it is a very effective way to communicate with others. Music brings us together, connects us with other people, and allows us to express ourselves in ways that are different from speech and writing. It has the ability to convey emotions and messages to the core of people, which is why Henry Longfellow is absolutely correct when he states that “music is the universal language of mankind.”

    Music is a Universal Language

Your friends have one, maybe even two or three. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Does it seem that everyone has one but you? No, it is not the latest video game, but something much more fun—a family pet.

    Dogs and hamsters(仓鼠) are both fun to hold and pet, but they relate to people in different ways. For example, dogs enjoy human contact. They love to play with their owners. They also like to show affection(喜爱) and love licking(舔) their owners' faces. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} They need fresh food and water every day, and they need exercise. They also need someone to take care of them when their owners go out of town.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Having contact with people is not important to them. They like to sleep when people want to play. Unlike dogs, hamsters do not like being petted. Many will hide when their owners want to pick them up. Hamsters are also very independent. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Hamsters may be low on affection, but they need less daily care than dogs do. An owner usually fills up the food and water dishes only once a week. Hamsters need exercise too, but they get their exercise by running on wheels in their “houses”. If their owners go out of town, hamsters can be left alone.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} The choice is yours.

A. Dogs like to be petted.

B. Your neighbors have one.

C. Hamsters are very different from dogs.

D. They like to spend their time exploring.

E. They need food and water just as dogs do.

F. However, dogs need a lot of daily care, too.

G. Dogs and hamsters both make good family pets.

    Most of us probably dreamed about becoming an astronaut when we were little. But how many of us actually became one, or are at least working toward it?

    The advice “Always follow your dreams” is something that is typically easier said than done.

    But still, this is the one piece of advice that Alyssa Carson wants to share with her peers. This 17-year-old girl from the US has become one of the candidates for NASA's 2033 project to go to Mars. If everything goes well, Carson will be one of the first human beings to ever set foot on the red planet.

    Carson has dreamed of going to Mars since she was only three years old. Watching an astronaut-themed cartoon and learning that humans have only been to the moon but not Mars, Carson decided that she wanted to be the first one to do so.

    Since then, she has worked hard toward this goal. At the age of 12, Carson became the first person to attend all three NASA space camps, and she sat with real astronauts in a NASA panel(座谈会) to discuss the future of Mars missions.

    Now 17, Carson is continuing with her space training while still taking on her high school work like a “normal” teenager, except that she studies all her subjects in four languages – English, French, Spanish and Chinese.

    “I don't think there's anything specific that makes it easier for me or makes it something that others can't do,” Carson said in an interview with Uproxx News. “I've just really focused myself on what I want to accomplish.”

    And Carson is willing to make sacrifices for her dream. She's fully aware of the danger of the mission and the possibility that she might never be able to come back. She also accepts the fact that she can't get married and start a family because any loved ones left on Earth may be a distraction for her and for the mission. But Carson believes that it's all worth it, summarizing her view with this ancient Greek proverb she once quoted, “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they'll never sit in.”

    So after all the hard work that Carson has done and all the sacrifices she's made, everything still boils down to the simple phrase, “follow your dreams”. And while some people's dreams may sound out of this world, in Carson's case, they literally(毫不夸张地) are.

    Robert F. Kennedy once said that a country's GDP measures "everything except that which makes life worthwhile. "With Britain voting to leave the European Union, and GDP already predicted to slow as a result, it is now a timely moment to assess what he was referring to.

    The question of GDP and its usefulness has annoyed policymakers for over half a century. Many argue that it is a flawed(有缺陷的) concept. It measures things that do not matter and misses things that do. By most recent measures, the UK's GDP has been the envy of the Western world, with record low unemployment and high growth figures. If everything was going so well, then why did over 17 million people vote for Brexit, despite the warnings about what it could do to their country's economic prospects.

    A recent annual study of countries and their ability to convert growth into well-being sheds some light on that question. Across the 163 countries measured, the UK is one of the poorest performers in ensuring that economic growth is translated into meaningful improvements for its citizens. Rather than just focusing on GDP, over 40 different sets of criteria from health, education and civil society engagement have been measured to get a more rounded assessment of how countries are performing.

    While all of these countries face their own challenges, there are a number of consistent themes. Yes, there has been a budding economic recovery since the 2008 global crash, but in key indicators in areas such as health and education, major economies have continued to decline. Yet this isn't the case with all countries. Some relatively poor European countries have seen huge improvements across measures including civil society, income equality and the environment.

    This is a lesson that rich countries can learn: When GDP is no longer regarded as the sole measure of a country's success, the world looks very different.

    So, what Kennedy was referring to was that while GDP has been the most common method for measuring the economic activity of nations, as a measure, it is no longer enough. It does not include important factors such as environmental quality or education outcomes all things that contribute to a person's sense of well-being.

    The sharp hit to growth predicted around the world and in the UK could lead to a decline in the everyday services we depend on for our well-being and for growth. But policymakers who refocus efforts on improving well-being instead of simply worrying about GDP figures could avoid the forecasted doom and may even see progress.

    My dad is a kind, gentle man, and a man of few words. Throughout my life, he offered advice rarely. But the words were always appropriate to the situation I was facing.

    As a teen when I struggled with making sense of the world around me, he said, “All things are relative.” He taught me the right view of the world. When I was offered the opportunity to be a manager of an organization as an undergraduate student, I asked him for advice because he was a senior manager of a large company. His advice was simple, “Only when you become the manager can you have a vision for how you can make the organization better; management isn't about power and it's about leadership.” I learned what I needed was not only to be responsible for my team but also to have leading ability. When I was feeling down, he explained, “Think that you make the wrong choices in life, sometimes.”

    My dad is 86 now, living on his own and enjoying life while struggling with the challenges that aging brings. He keeps a positive attitude despite long pain and the losses that come in life. Although we live quite far away from each other, we talk daily on the phone, and he shares the joys of my young family. As I tell him how we're heading off cycling or on a trip or out to play tennis, now his typical response is, “Do it while you can.” This is very important. We can't be sure of the future. My father's advice is like the ancient dictum（格言）of “ carpe diem”— seize the day and enjoy it to the fullest.

    My dad rarely “lectured me”. He trusted me, and helped me when I needed help. His patience and wisdom have been true gifts in my life. As I doubt my ability and my motivation, I recall his most recent gift of wisdom, “Do it while you can”. It's enough to “just get me started”.