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For years, studies have found that first-generation college students—those who do not have a parent with a college degree-lag other students on a range of education achievement factors. Their grades are lower and their dropout rates are higher. But since such students are most likely to advance economically if they succeed in higher education, colleges and universities have pushed for decades to recruit more of them. This has created “a paradox” in that recruiting first-generation students, but then watching many of them fail, means that higher education has “continued to reproduce and widen, rather than close” an achievement gap based on social class, according to the depressing beginning of a paper forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science.But the article is actually quite optimistic, as it outlines a potential solution to this problem, suggesting that an approach (which involves a one-hour, next-to-no-cost program) can close 63 percent of the achievement gap (measured by such factors as grades) between first-generation and other students.The authors of the paper are from different universities, and their findings are based on a study involving 147 students (who completed the project) at an unnamed private university. First generation was defined as not having a parent with a four-year college degree. Most of the first-generation students (59.1 percent) were recipients of Pell Grants, a federal grant for undergraduates with financial need, while this was true only for 8.6 percent of the students with at least one parent with a four-year degree.Their thesis—that a relatively modest intervention could have a big impact—was based on the view that first-generation students may be most lacking not in potential but in practical knowledge about how to deal with the issues that face most college students. They cite past research by several authors to show that this is the gap that must be narrowed to close the achievement gap.Many first-generation students “struggle to navigate the middle-class culture of higher education, learn the ‘rules of the game,’ and take advantage of college resources,” they write. And this becomes more of a problem when collages don’t talk about the class advantage and disadvantages of different groups of students. Because US colleges and universities seldom acknowledge how social class can affect students’ educational experience, many first-generation students lack sight about why they are struggling and do not understand how students like them can improve.1.Recruiting more first-generation students has ( ).2.The authors of the research article are optimistic because ( ). 3.The study suggests that most first-generation students ( ). 4.The author of the paper believe that first-generation students ( ). 5.We may infer from the last paragraph that( ).

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Biologists estimate that as many as 2 million lesser prairie chickens---a kind of bird living on stretching grasslands—once lent red to the often gray landscape of the Midwestern and southwestern United States. But just some 22,000 birds remain today, occupying about 16% of the species’ historic range.The crash was a major reason the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) decided to formally list the bird as threatened. “The lesser prairie chicken is in a desperate situation,” said USFWS Director Daniel Ashe. Some environmentalists, however, were disappointed. They had pushed the agency to designate the bird as “endangered,” a status that gives federal officials greater regulatory power to crack down on threats. But Ashe and others argued that the “threatened” tag gave the federal government flexibility to try out new, potentially less confrontational conservations approaches. In particular, they called for forging closer collaborations with western state governments, which are often uneasy with federal action and with the private landowners who control an estimated 95% of the prairie chicken’s habitat.Under the plan, for example, the agency said it would not prosecute landowner or businesses that unintentionally kill, harm, or disturb the bird, as long as they had signed a range—wide management plan to restore prairie chicken habitat. Negotiated by USFWS and the states, the plan requires individuals and businesses that damage habitat as part of their operations to pay into a fund to replace every acre destroyed with 2 new acres of suitable habitat. The fund will also be used to compensate landowners who set aside habitat, USFWS also set an interim goal of restoring prairie chicken populations to an annual average of 67,000 birds over the next 10 years. And it gives the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA), a coalition of state agencies, the job of monitoring progress. Overall, the idea is to let “states” remain in the driver’s seat for managing the species,” Ashe said.Not everyone buys the win-win rhetoric Some Congress members are trying to block the plan, and at least a dozen industry groups, four states, and three environmental groups are challenging it in federal court Not surprisingly, doesn’t go far enough “The federal government is giving responsibility for managing the bird to the same industries that are pushing it to extinction,” says biologist Jay Lininger.1.The major reason for listing the lesser prairie as threatened is(  ).2.The “threatened” tag disappointed some environmentalists in that it (  ).  3.It can be learned from Paragraph3 that unintentional harm-doers will not be prosecuted if they (  ).  4.According to Ashe, the leading role in managing the species is (  ).  5.Jay Lininger would most likely support(  ).

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To combat the trap of putting a premium on being busy, Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, recommends building a habit of “deep work” - the ability to focus without distraction.There are a number of approaches to mastering the art of deep work - be it lengthy retreats dedicated to a specific task; developing a daily ritual; or taking a “journalistic” approach to seizing moments of deep work when you can throughout the day. Whichever approach, the key is to determine your length of focus time and stick to it.Newport also recommends “deep scheduling” to combat constant interruptions and get more done in less time. “At any given point, I should have deep work scheduled for roughly the next month. Once on the calendar, I protect this time like I would a doctor's appointment or important meeting,” he writes.Another approach to getting more done in less time is to rethink how you priorities your day-in particular how we craft our to-do lists. Tim Harford, author of Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives, points to a study in the early 1980s that divided undergraduates into two groups: some were advised to set out monthly goals and study activities; others were told to plan activities and goals in much more detail, day by day.While the researchers assumed that the well-structured daily plans would be most effective when it come to the execution of tasks, they were wrong: the detailed daily plans demotivated students. Harford argues that inevitable distractions often render the daily to-do list ineffective, while leaving room for improvisation in such a list can reap the best results.In order to make the most of our focus and energy, we also need to embrace downtime, or as Newport suggests, “be lazy.”“Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body...[idleness] is ,paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done,” he argues.Srini Pillay, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, believes this counterintuitive link between downtime and productivity may be due to the way our brains operate. When our brains switch between being focused and unfocused on a task, they tend to be more efficient.“What people don't realise is that in order to complete these tasks they need to use both the focus and unfocus circuits in their brain.” says Pillay.1.The key to mastering the art of deep work is to(  ).2.The study in the early 1980s cited by Harford shows that (  ).  3.According to Newport, idleness is (  ).  4.Pillay believes that our brain's shift between being focused and unfocused  (  ).  5.This text is mainly about (  ).

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When the government talks about infrastructure contributing to the economy the focus is usually on roads, railways, broadband and energy. Housing is seldom mentioned.Why is that? To some extent the housing sector must shoulder the blame. We have not been good at commu-nicating the real value that housing can contribute to economic growth. Then there is the scale of the typical housing project It is hard to shove for attention among multibillion-pound infrastructure projects, so it is inevitable that the attention is focused elsewhere. But perhaps the most significant reason is that the issue has always been so politically charged.Nevertheless, the affordable housing situation is desperate. Waiting lists increase all the time and we are simply not building enough new homes.The comprehensive spending review offers an opportunity for the government to help rectify this. It needs to put historical prejudices to one side and take some steps to address our urgent housing need.There are some indications that it is preparing to do just that. The communities minister, Don Foster, has hinted that George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, may introduce more flexibility to the current cap on the amount that local authorities can borrow against their housing stock debt. Evidence shows that 60, 000 extra new homes could be built over the next five years if the cap were lifted, increasing GDP by 0.6%.Ministers should also look at creating greater certainty in the rental environment, which would have a significant impact on the ability of registered providers to fund new developments from revenues.But it is not just down to the government. While these measures would be welcome in the short term, we must face up to the fact that the existing £4.5 bn programme of grants to fund new affordable housing, set to expire in 2015, is unlikely to be extended beyond then. The Labour party has recently announced that it will retain a large part of the coalition’s spending plans if it returns to power. The housing sector needs to accept that we are very unlikely to ever return to the era of large-scale public grants. We need to adjust to this changing climate.While the government’s commitment to long-term funding may have changed, the very pressing need for more affordable housing is real and is not going away.1.The author believes that the housing sector(  ) .2.It can be learned that affordable housing has (  ) .  3.According to Paragraph 5, George Osborne may  (  ) .  4.It can be inferred that a stable rental environment would (  ) .  5.The author believes that after 2015, the government may(  ) .

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Navigating beyond the organised pavements and parks of our urban spaces, desire paths are the unofficial footprints of a community, revealing the unspoken preferences, shared shortcuts and collective choices of humans. Often appearing as trodden dirt tracks through otherwise neat green spaces, these routes of collective disobedience cut corners, bisect lawns and traverse hills, representing the natural capability of people (and animals) to go from point A to point B most effectively.Urban planners interpret desire paths as more than just convenient shortcuts; they offer valuable insights into the dynamics between planning and behaviour. Ohio State University allowed its students to navigate the Oval, a lawn in the centre of campus, freely, then proceeded to pave the desire paths, creating a web of effective routes students had established.Yet, reluctance persists among other planners to integrate desire paths into formal plans, citing concerns about safety, environmental impact, or primarily, aesthetics. AReddit webpagedevoted to the phenomenon, boasting nearly 50,000 members, showcases images of local desire paths adorned with signs instructing pedestrians to adhere to designated walkways, underscoring the rebellious nature inherent in these human-made tracks. This clash highlights an ongoing struggle between the organic, user-driven evolution of public spaces and the desire for a visually curated and controlled urban environment.The Wickquasgeck Trail is an example of a historical desire path, created by Native Americans to traverse the forests of Manhattan and move between settlements quickly. This trail, when Dutch colonists arrived, was widened and made into one of the main trade roads across the island, known at the time as de Heere Straat, or Gentlemen’s Street. Following the British assumption of control in New York, the street was renamed Broadway. Notably, Broadway stands out as one of the few areas in NYC that defies the grid-based system applied to the rest of the city, cutting a diagonal across parts of the city.In online spaces, desire paths have sparked a fascination that can approach obsession, with the Reddit page serving as a hub. Contributors offer a wide array of stories, from little-known new shortcuts to long-established alternate routes.Animal desire paths, such as ducks forging trails through frozen ponds or dogs carving direct routes in gardens, highlight the adaptability of these trails in both human and animal experiences. As desire paths criss-cross through both physical and virtual landscapes, they stand as a testament to the collective insistence on forging unconventional routes and embracing the spirit of communal choice.36.According to Paragraph 1, desire paths are a result of___.37. It can be inferred that Ohio State University___.38.The images on the Reddit webpage reflect___.39.The example of the Wickquasgeck Trail illustrates____.40. It can be learned from the last paragraph that desire paths___.

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There are many understandable reasons why you might find it difficult to ask for help when you need it. Psychologists have been interested in this 1 for decades, not least because people's widespread 2 to ask for help has led to some high-profile failures.Asking for help takes 3 . It involves communicating a need on your part-there's something you can't do. 4 , you're broadcasting your own weaknesses which can be 5 . You might worry about coming across as incompetent. You might have 6 about losing control of whatever it is you're asking for help with. 7 someone starts to help, perhaps they'll take over, or get credit for your earlier efforts. Yet another 8 that might be worried about is being a nuisance or 9 the person you go to for help. If you struggle with low self-esteem, you might find it especiallydifficult to 10 for help because you have the added worry of the other person 11 your request. You might see such refusals as implying something 12 about the status of your relationship with them. To 13 these difficulties, try to remind yourself that everyone needs help sometimes. Nobody knows everything and can do everything all by themselves. And while you might 14 coming across as incompetent, there's actually research that shows that advice-seekers are 15 as more competent, not less. Perhaps most encouraging of all is a paper from 2022 by researchers at Stanford University that involved a mix of contrived help-seeking interactions and asking people to 16 times they'd sought help in the past. The findings showed that help-seeker generally underestimate how 17 other people will be to help and how good it'll make the help-giver feel (for most people, having the chance to help someone is highly 18 ). So, bear all this in mind the next time you need to ask for help 19 , take care over who you ask and when you ask them. And if someone can't help right now, avoid talking it personally. They might just be too 20 , or they might not feel confident about their ability to help.

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Everyone wants to be that person--the one who looks at the same information as everyone else, but who sees a fresh, innovative solution. However, it takes more than simply having a good idea. How you share it is as important as the suggestion itself. Why? Because writing a new script--literally or figuratively-means that other team members will have to adapt to something new. So whether you're suggesting a (seemingly) benign change like streamlining outdated protocol, or a bigger change like adding anhour to each workday so people can leave early on Fridays, you're asking others to reimagine their workflow or schedule. Not to mention, if the process your scrapping is one someone else suggested, there's the possibility ofhurt feelings.To gain buy-in on an innovative, new idea, follow these five steps:41._______Great ideas don't stand alone. In other words, you can't mention your suggestion once andexpect it to be adopted. To see a change, you'll needto champion your plan and sell its merits. In addition, you need to be willing to stand up to scrutiny and criticism and be prepared to explain your innovation in different ways for various audiences.42.________Sometimes it makes sense to go to your boss first. But other times, it's useful to build a coalition among your co-workers or other stakeholders. When it works, it works greatbecause you're ready for your stubbom supervisor's pushback with answers like, “Actually, I cormected with a few people in our tech department to discuss how much time these kinds of website updates would take, andthey suggested they have the bandwidth."43._________One of the biggest baniers to gaining buy-in occurs when the owner of anidea is viewed asargumentative, defensive, or close-minded. Because, let's behonest: No one likes a know-it-all. So, if people disagree with you, don't be indignant. Instead, listen to their concems fully, try to understand their perspective, andinclude their concems (and possible remedies) in future discussions.So. instead of saving.“Martha. our current slogan is confusing and should be updated," you could try, “Martha raises a great point that our current slogan has a long history for our stakeholders, but I wonder if we might able to brainstomm a tagline that could build onthat-and be clearer for new customers."44._________New ideas are the grandchildren of old ones. In other words, don't throw old solutions under the bus to make your improvement stand out. Remember that in light of whatever the problem the old system solved--or, maybe, has failed to solve in recent memory--it was a great idea at the time. Appreciating the older contributions as you suggest future innovations helps bolster the credibility of your idea.45.__________When pitching a new idea, it 's important use the language of abundance instead ofthe language of deficit. Instead of saying what is wrong, broken, or suboptimal, talk about what is right, fixable, or ideal. For example, try, “I can see lots of applications for this new approach" rather than, “This innovation is the only way.” Be optimistic but realistic, andyou will stand out.

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Customers historically tipped people they assumed were earning most of their income via tips, such as restaurant servers earning less than the minimum wage. In the early 2010s, a wide range of businesses started processing purchase with ipads and other digital payment systems. These systems often prompted customers to tip for services that were not previously tipped.Today’s tip request are not connected to the salary and service norms that used to determine when and how people tip. Customers in the past nearly always paid tips after receiving a service, such as at the conclusion of a restaurant meal, after getting a haircut once your pizza was delivered. That timing could reward high-quality service and give workers an incentive to provide it. It’s becoming more common for tips to be requested beforehand. And new tipping technology may even automatically add tips.The prevalence of digital payment device has made it easier to ask customers for a tip. That helps explain why tip request are creeping into new kinds of services. Customers now mountain see menus of suggested default options often well above 20% of what they owe. The amounts have risen from 10 or less in 1980 to is around the up or 2000 to 20 or higher today. This insurance is sometimes called application--the expection of ever-higher tip amounts.Tipping has always been a certain source of income for worker in history tipped services, like restaurants, where the tipped minimum wage can be as low as 2.03. Tip creep and tipflation are now further supplmenting the income of many low-wage services workers.Notably, tipping primarily benefits some of these workers, such as waiters, but not others, such as cooks and dishwashers. To ensure that all employees were paid fair wages, some restaurants banned tipping and increased prices, but this movement toward no-tipping services has largely fizzled out.So, to increase employee wages without raising prices, more employers are succumbing to the temptations of tip creep and tipflation. However, many customers are frustrated because they feel they are being asked for too high of a tip, too often. And, as our research emphasizes, tipping now seems to be more coercive, less generous and often completely dissociated from service quality.21.According to Paragraph 1, the practice of tipping _____.22.Compared with tips in the past, today’s tips _____.23.Tip request are creeping into new services as a result of _____.24.The movement toward no-tipping service intend to _____.25.It can be learned from the last paragraph that tipping _____.

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When it was established, the National Health Service was visionary: offering high-quality, timely care to meet the dominant needs of the population it served. Nearly 75 years on, with the country facing very different health challenges, it is clear that model is out of date.From life expectancy to cancer and infant mortality rates, we are lagging behind many of our peers. With more than 6.8 million on waitlists, healthcare is becoming increasingly inaccessible for those who cannot opt to pay for private treatment; and the cost of providing healthcare is increasingly squeezing out investment in other public services. The OBR now describes healthcare spending as the “largest – and most likely – source of long-term risk to fiscal sustainability”.As demand for healthcare continues to grow, pressures on the workforce – which is already near breaking point – will only become more acute.Many of the answers to the crisis in health and care are well rehearsed. We need to be much better at reducing and diverting demand on health services, rather than simply managing it. Much more needs to be invested in communities and primary care to reduce our reliance on hospitals. And capacity in social care needs to be greater, to support the growing number of people living with long-term conditions.Yet despite two decades of strategies and a number of major health reforms, we have failed to make meaningful progress on any of these aims.That is why Reform is launching a new programme of work entitled "Reimagining health", supported by ten former health ministers from across the three main political parties. Together, we are calling for a much more open and honest conversation about the future of health in the UK, and an “urgent rethink” of the hospital-centric model we retain.This must begin with the question of how we maximise the health of the nation, rather than “fix” the NHS. It is estimated, for example, that healthcare accounts for only about 20% of health outcomes. Much more important are the places we live, work and socialise – yet there is no clear cross-government strategy for improving these social determinants of health. Worse, when policies like the national obesity strategy are scrapped, taxpayers are left with the hefty price tag of treating the illnesses, like diabetes, that result.Reform wants to ask how power and resources should be distributed in our health system. What health functions should remain at the centre, and what should be devolved to local leaders, often responsible for services that create health, and with a much better understanding of the needs of their populations?26.According to the first two paragraphs, the NHS  _____.27.One answer to the crisis in health and care is to _____.28."Reimagining health" is aimed to _____.29.To maximise the nations health,the author suggests _____.30.It can be inferred that local leaders should _____.

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These heat action plans, or HAPs, have been proliferating in India in the past few years. In general, an HAP spells out when and how officials should issue heat warnings and alert hospitals and other institutions. Nagpur’s plan, for instance, calls for hospitals to set aside “cold wards” in the summer for treating heatstroke patients, and advises builders to give construction laborers a break from work on very hot days.But implementation of existing HAPs has been uneven, according to a March report from the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a prominent Indian think tank. It reviewed 37 plans adopted by cities, states, or administrative districts.Many lack adequate funding, it found. And their triggering thresholds often are not customized to the local climate, says Dileep Mavalankar, director of the Indian Institute of Public Health, who has been closely involved in Ahmedabad’s HAP. In some areas, high daytime temperatures alone might serve as an adequate trigger for alerts. Ahmedabad, for example, set its threshold for initial alerts at 41°C based on data showing that heat-related deaths began to climb at that point. But in other places, nighttime temperatures or humidity might be as important a gauge of risk as daytime highs.Mumbai’s April heat stroke deaths highlighted the need for more nuanced and localized warnings, researchers say. That day’s high temperature of roughly 36°C was 1°C shy of the heat wave alert threshold for coastal cities set by national meteorological authorities. But the effects of the heat were amplified by humidity—an often neglected factor in heat alert systems—and the lack of shade at the late-morning outdoor ceremony. Ironically, the state of Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, had adopted its own HAP just 2 months before the tragedy. It advised shifting outdoor events to early mornings on hot days.To help improve HAPs, Kotharkar’s team is working on a model plan that outlines best practices and could be adapted to local conditions. Among other things, she says, all cities should create a vulnerability map to help focus responses on the populations most at risk. (The CPR study found that only two of the 37 HAPs it examined identified the most vulnerable populations.)Such mapping doesn’t need to be complex, Kotharkar says. “A useful map can be created by looking at even a few key parameters.” For example, neighborhoods with a large elderly population or informal dwellings that cope poorly with heat could get special warnings or be bolstered with cooling centers. The Nagpur project has already created a risk and vulnerability map, which enabled Kotharkar to tell officials which neighborhoods to focus on in the event of a heat wave this summer.HAPs shouldn’t just include short-term emergency responses, researchers say, but also recommend medium- to long-term measures that could make communities cooler. In Nagpur, for example, Kotharkar’s team has been able to advise city officials about where to plant trees to provide shade. HAPs could also guide efforts to retrofit homes or tweak building regulations. “Reducing deaths [in an emergency] is good target to have, but it’s the lowest [target],” Singh says.31.According to Paragraph 1,Nagpur's plan proposes measures to _____.32. One problem with existing HAPs is that they _____.33. Mumbai's case shows that India's heat alert systems need to _____.34.Kotharkar holds that a vulnerability map can help _____.35.According to the last paragraph, researchers believe that HAPs should _____.

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