Oxford English Language Center

Information for New Students

    CLASS TIME：8:30a. m. —10:00a. m.，10:30a. m. —12:00a. m.，1:30p. m. —3:00p. m..

    The Language Center is open Monday to Friday. Each class has one afternoon free per week. On the first day, go to the lecture hall to check your timetable.

    SELF—ACCESS：The language laboratory（Room 1110）is open Monday to Friday from 3:15p. m. to 5:00p. m. for all full-time students.

    You can learn how to use computers for language games or word-processing. There are tapes for students to borrow to practice their English. Go in and ask the teacher to show you. If you plan to take public examinations, there are dictation and listening comprehension tapes for you to practice with. There are cloze exercises on the computers. Ask your class teacher for a list of past exam essays. Students can borrow tapes to take home but they must be returned after two days.

    ATTENDANCE: All students are expected to attend classes as it is required. Students who do not attend classes will be reported to OSS. Eighty percent attendance is required for students to receive their certificates when they finish their courses. It is also required by OSS for an extension to your visa.

    BOOKS: If students are given course books, the books are their responsibility. If a book is lost, the student will be expected to pay for it. If students wish to buy books, there is a bookshop in the college specializing in English books（Room 3520.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    Here's an idea whose time has come: A flu shot that doesn't require an actual shot.

    For the first time, researchers have tested a flu vaccine patch(疫苗贴) in a human clinical trial and found that it delivered as much protection as a traditional injection(注射) with a needle. Doctors and public health experts have high hopes that it will increase the number of people who get immunized(免疫的) against the flu.

    Seasonal flu is responsible for up to half a million deaths around the world each year according to the World Health Organization. A team led by Georgia Tech engineer Mark Prausnitz has come up with an alternative method that uses "microneedles". These tiny needles are so small that 100 of them, arranged in order on a patch, can fit under your finger. Yet they're big enough to hold vaccine for three types of flu.

    None of the study volunteers had serious side effects. The groups that got patches had mild skin reactions that were not seen in the regular needle group, while the volunteers in the regular needle group were more likely to experience pain. Overall, 70 percent of the volunteers who got vaccine patches said they'd rather use them again than get a traditional flu shot. The study authors declared it a success on all fronts.

    The biggest beneficiaries could be people in low and middle-income countries, where flu vaccines are hard to come by. Reducing pain is nice, but other benefits—the patch costs less, is easier to transport, doesn't require refrigeration, can be self-administered and doesn't cause waste of needles—are even better.

    "Microneedle Patches have the potential to become ideal candidates for vaccination programs," wrote Katja Hoschler and Maria Zambon of Public Health England.

    Of all the things we eat and drink, water is the most important. Not all people realize this, but it is quite true. The human body can live without food for a long time, but two or three days without water usually result in death.

    Many people do not understand how much water the human body needs, but many people do not drink enough, especially in the hot weather. Most people drink when they are thirsty but often need more water after exercises.

    65 to 70 percent of the human body is water. Water is important in several different ways. Most people need five to seven litres of water every day, but we need not drink this amount because a lot comes from the food we have. If we don't have enough water, however, we will feel tired and many become ill. Do you know what the best drink is? Yes, you are right. Cold water!

    Many people go to school for an education. They learn languages, history, geography, physics, chemistry and mathematics. Others go to school to learn a skill so that they can make a living. School education is very important and useful. Yet no one can learn everything from school. A teacher, no matter how much he knows, cannot teach his students everything they want to know. The teacher's job is to show his students how to learn. He teaches them how to read and how to think. So, much more is to be learned outside school by the students themselves.

    It is always more important to know how to study by oneself than to memorize some facts or a formula （公式）. It is usually quite easy to learn a certain fact in history or a formula in mathematics. But it is very difficult to use a formula in working out a maths problem. Great scientists, such as Einstein, Newton and Galileo didn't get everything from school. But they were all so successful. They invented so many things for mankind.

Above all, they knew how to use their brains.

When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at hospital.

On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned toast in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was to reach for his toast, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him spread butter and jelly on that toast and eat every bite!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember bearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the toast. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burnt toast."

Later that night, I went to kiss daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his toast burnt. He took me in his arms and said, "Your momma put in a hard day at work today and she's really tired. And besides, a little burnt toast never hurt anyone!"

You know, life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people. What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship. This good quality is the base of any relationship—husband­wife or parent­child or friendship! As far as I'm concerned, I'm not the best engineer as expected. However, I have made my efforts. That's enough.

So learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life. Burnt toast isn't a deal­breaker! Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket but into your own. You will appreciate the value of every soul including yourself.

On that hot August day in 2023, as ash rained down and flames closed in, Jim Rhodes didn't want to be anywhere but Coulterville. "My kid called from Alabama. We first heard ·about the fire from him," Rhodes recalls. "He said, ‘Evacuate（撤离）!'I said, ‘Evacuate? To where?'"

Coulterville is a tiny town located among dry hills where local people raise cattle and other livestock. It has a main street, a park and a museum. It's got a cafe, a grocery shop and a post. And with summer temperatures routinely topping 100 degrees, it has fires—sometimes big fires.

Eventually, this big fire got a name: the Moc Fire, for the tiny town of Moccasin-where it began as a brush fire.

It burnt for 10 days, consuming almost 3,000 acres.

Rhodes woke to find his truck covered in ashand the news was broadcasting evacuation orders. Ranchers（牧场主） across the region were fighting to protect their animals, loading them into the truck or just setting them loose to find safety. Volunteers were readying fairgrounds nearby to shelter animals. Already they were filling up with dogs, cats, chickens, horses, cattle, goats, sheep and rabbits.

As residents and animals were brought out, firefighters poured in. "With them came the biggest bulldozer（挖土机）I've ever seen," says Rhodes. "And they were sent to cut the firebreak that could save the town. We knew that if it made the cut, we'd all have to get out of here."

The situation was clear. The danger was growing. But slowly Rhodes realized that he hadn't come to Coulterville just to leave when the town needed him. He stayed, joining the handful of residents who gathered around the main street where fire officials posted updates. He knew he could help somebody, somehow.

Around midmorning, a farmer he'd never met came by asking for help with animal evacuation. Rhodes's phone was still ringing, but he knew what to do. "I hung up my phone, got in the truck and headed down to his farm," he says.