The steady increase in women having babies later in life is undeniable. First-time mothers are more likely to be 35 or older than their counterparts (对应者) from two decades ago, according to the Pew Research Center. While the number of first-time moms between ages 20 and 24 falls, the number of births to women in their 30s and 40s keeps growing. In addition, recent wide-ranging studies have found significant long-term benefits in waiting to have babies. These benefits counterbalance (抵消) some worries about being an older mother and the effects it may have on children.

Longevity for women who wait

A study in the journal Menopause examined older mothers’ life expectancy (寿命) and found that women who had their last child after the age of 33 are more likely to live to 95. In fact, researchers reported that these women had twice the chance of living to 95 or older than those who had their last child before their 30th birthday. The news for women having babies after 40 is equally promising.

Boosted brainpower for older mothers

It’s also possible that later pregnancies (怀孕) protect against cognitive decline. Researchers at the University of Southern California found that women have better brainpower if they have their last baby after age 35. The researchers looked at the pregnancy history of a group of 830 women ages 41 to 92. Their research provides strong support of a positive association between later age at last pregnancy and late-life cognition.

Increased income over time

There’s a measurable link between the age you have your first child and income gains and losses. Women who start their families when they are older are likely to increase their earning potential.

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Older parents who are less stressed about income or job security tend to be more patient and can spend more time with their children. Parents who have more secondary education can also offer more specific stimulation to their children, which can be helpful for development. An investigation of 8- to 12-year-olds explored how specific parenting beliefs and behaviors—such as reading, constructive play with children. The research published in the Journal of Family Psychology found that parent education and income positively affect child achievement.

Having babies later in life

Speedy eaters are three times more likely to be too fat, a problem which is made even worse by the popularity of fast food and the decrease of regular dining habits, some Japanese researchers said on Wednesday.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, pay special attention to how eating styles, and not just what or how much is eaten, can affect an obesity epidemic(肥胖流行病) that is becoming more and more severe because of the speed of the Western-style diet in many parts of the world.

The World Health Organization considers around 400 million people in the world as too fat, 20 million of whom are under the age of five. The researchers are concerned that the condition raises the risk of diseases like type 2 diabetes(糖尿病) and heart problems.

For their study, Hiroyasu Iso and the team at Osaka University asked more than 3000 Japanese volunteers who are 30 to 69 years old about their eating. About half of the men and a little more than half of the women said they ate until full. About 45 percent of the men and 36 percent of the women said they ate quickly.

Those who said they ate until full and ate quickly were three times more likely to be fat than people in the “not eating until full and not eating quickly” group, the researchers found.

They believe that the main causes are both the popularity of eating cheap fast food and bad habits such as watching television while eating.

To fight against the bad effect of eating quickly and being too full that can lead to obesity, parents should encourage children to eat slowly and in calm environments, the study suggested.

There are many things that we wish to achieve in life．For some, we set goals and objectives, and for some we don’t．Try to remember the last time you set a goal to achieve a certain task．Were you able to complete the task in an effective manner? The tasks which are done by setting and meeting daily goals will definitely be useful and rewarding experiences．A step-by-step approach towards achieving smaller goals is the key to achieving larger ones．

When it comes to the workplace, each and every employee is expected to meet daily responsibilities and expectations．With organizations becoming more and more competitive, the importance of goal-setting for employees is increasing．It helps the employee to perform better and increases his or her efficiency(效率) and time management．It’s also important for every student to set high academic goals so as to be able to build a good career．

Setting goals for completing the daily schedule helps an employee to finish the assigned tasks in a timely manner．If an employee is performing the way he or she is expected to, then this will of course increase the performance, output and productivity of both the employee and the organization. This helps you complete your assignments within the set time, thus putting less pressure on you during exams and increasing your chances of performing well．

How many times you have to be at work on a weekend just to complete your work? How many times you have had to stay up all night to complete your homework or study for your exams? Had you followed your set goals right from the beginning, you would have spent the time relaxing rather than being busy working or studying! Setting up goals and objectives helps you organize your time and efforts in an efficient manner．

In performing your work hard, you are likely to keep a steady pace when it comes to fulfilling(实现) your set goals．Because you are already on track, there will be no unnecessary workload and time limits over your head．Therefore, another benefit of effective goal-setting is lack of stress and a more calm and relaxed mind．Only a stress-free and calm mind can house progressive and productive thoughts．A calm mind causes positivity (积极性), which goes a long way towards increasing your ability to achieve the personal goals you have set for yourself．

Each and every human being aims to achieve two things: to fulfill desires and to enjoy life．This is possible only through proper discipline and time management．Goal-setting leads to not only professional growth but also personal growth and development．You are expected to know that every step counts and that setting up goals is easy, but following them on a consistent（一致的）basis is difficult．Therefore, if you want to be successful and also harvest the fruits of your hard work, you need to stick to your set goals and be focused towards achieving them．Realize the significant role that goal-setting plays in your life, make sure that you do all you can to achieve what you want. Set your goals, work towards achieving them and celebrate your success!

阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。

Lester liked to collect things. He was always hoping that something interesting would present itself at his feet. Lester had found many things this way. Whenever he found an object that interested him, he added it to the collection on his dresser.

One day, Lester was walking home from school. As usual, he had his eyes glued to the pavement, hoping for something to add to his collection. Just as he turned the corner to his street, he saw something on the ground. When he bent down to pick it up, he was amazed! It was small, but it was very shiny and sparkled in the sun. “It’s a diamond!” he thought. He could not be sure, though. He had never really seen any diamonds except for the one in his mother’s ring.

Lester picked the stone up and carefully put it into his pocket. When he reached his house, he ran to his bedrooms. He began to examine his find using a magnifying glass(放大镜). It looked like a diamond. He had heard that diamonds can cut glass, so he took the stone into the tiny cut on the mirror’s surface. It was a real diamond.

“It must have fallen out of someone’s ring,” Lester thought. “That means somebody lost it.” He thought about what his mom had said about finding something valuable. “You should always give it to the police, so they can try to find the owner,” she had told him.

When Lester’s mom came home from work, he showed her the stone and asked what he should do with it. “We can go down to the police station tomorrow,” she replied. “You did theright thing by showing me this. I know that if I had lost the diamond out of my ring, I would be very upset.”

注意：

1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；

2. 应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；

3. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；

4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

Paragraph 1:

The next day, Lester and his mom carried the tiny stone to the police station._____________                  

Paragraph 2:

Lester walked out of the police station with a big smile on his face.                                         

“The gaokao, China's national college entrance exam, is winning more recognition as a way for universities overseas to evaluate Chinese students,” recruiting officers said.

Stanley Nel, vice-president of international relations at theUniversityofSan Franciscoin theUnited States, who is responsible for the university's admissions fromChina, said he had had several inquiries from US universities about how to recruit Chinese students on the basis of their gaokao scores.

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) have long been two musts for students from other counties, includingChina, to apply to study in the US.  

USF, a private university in California, started a pilot program to accept Chinese students based on their gaokao scores in 2015.The idea came from USF President Paul Fitzgerald's belief that standardized tests like the SAT are not very good predictors of how well students will do at the university." We are aware of the many criticisms that have been made of the gaokao, but it has the advantage of being what educational experts call a 'criterion-referenced' exam: It tests whether students are able to master a given body of knowledge," he said.

Currently, at least four higher education institutions in the US are recruiting Chinese students based on their gaokao performances. The Illinois Institute of Technology, a private institution inChicago, started the practice first,in 2009.Outside theUS, countries includingSpain,Italy,Singapore,Franceand Australia also recognize gaokao scores.

More than 200 students from China requested an interview with USF last year.74 of them were selected for a follow-up interview,44 received offers and 20 accepted the invitation and joined USF for the 2015 fall semester. Students admitted in this way have done "exceptionally well" in the past academic year,Nel added." The average GPA for all gaokao students is about 3.5 out of 4.For all other students—American and non-gaokao international students—American and non-gaokao international students—the average GPA is 3.2,"he said.

Zhu Zihao gained admission in computer sciences at USF in 2015 through the program and performed well in his first academic year. He said that students who had experienced China's gaokao usually had comprehensive basic knowledge, which helps them excel in studies.

Nel said," students admitted through China's gaokao are not only smart but extremely conscientious（认真的）and hardworking."

"This year we hope to recruit about 50 students in this way, and even more in years to come," he said.

Of the hundreds of self-change techniques that have been suggested over the centuries, perhaps only a dozen are totally different. Researchers have tried to see which ones work best.

Three techniques deserve special mention: they’re powerful, simple and easy to learn. What’s more, individuals who have made successful changes in their lives—changes in eating habits, career paths, coping strategies, and so on—often rely on one or more of the three techniques.

To get yourself started in a new direction, try the Three M’s:

Modify(改变) your environment

The power of modifying one’s space has been well displayed in studies since it was reported in the 1960s for the first time. Psychologist Richard Stuart showed in the 1960s that overweight women could lose pounds by modifying both their eating behavior and “stimulus environment”—for example, eating from smaller plates and confining all food to the kitchen.

People who have never tried this are astonished by the enormous effect it often has. I’ve known several people who have overcome nail-biting simply by buying 50 nail files and distributing them everywhere: in their pockets, their desks and their bedrooms. With a nail file always within reach, they tended to groom rather than bite. To change yourself, change your world.

Monitor your behavior

I’ve been reading research studies on self-monitoring for 20 years, and I’ve conducted some myself. The fact is, if you monitor what you do, you’ll probably do better.

Weigh yourself regularly and you may well start to lose weight. Keep a record of what you eat and you’ll probably start eating more wisely.

A study by Canadian researchers showed that teenagers arrived more promptly at a swim practice when they were given an attendance sheet to record their arrival times. Sonya Carr and Rebecca Punzo reported that self-monitoring improves academic performance of emotionally disturbed children in reading, mathematics and spelling. Dozens of studies have similar results, all inspired by heightening our awareness of our behavior.Make commitments

When you commit yourself to another person, you establish a possibility of reinforcement(后效强化); you’ve automatically arranged for a reward if you stick to it and a punishment if you don’t. It puts some pressure on you, and that’s often just what you need.

For instance, if you want to exercise more, arrange to do it with a friend. If you don’t show up, your friend will get angry, and that may be just the ticket to keeping you punctual(准时的). In 1994 Dana Putnam and other researchers showed that patients who made written commitments were far more likely to take prescribed medicine than patients who hadn’t.

There’s good news here for all of us. We can meet many of the demands and overcome many of the challenges of life with simple skills that anyone can master and that don’t require willpower—in other words, with skill, not will.

Change Your Bad Habits to Good

D. R. Gaul Middle School is in Union, Maine, a blueberry-farming town where the summer fair finds kids competing in pig scrambles and pie-eating contests.

Gaul, with about 170 seventh- and eighth-graders, has its own history of lower level academic achievement. One likely reason: Education beyond the basic requirements hasnˈt always been a top priority for families whoˈve worked the same land for generations. Here, few adults have college degrees, and outsiders (teachers included) are often kept at a respectful distance.

Since 2002, Gaulˈs students have been divided into four classes, each of them taught almost every subject by two teachers. The goal: To find common threads across disciplines to help students create a big picture that gives fresh meaning and context to their classwork -- and sparks motivation for learning.

Working within state guidelines, each team makes its individual schedules and lesson plans, incorporating non-textbook literature, hands-on lab work and field trips. If students are covering the Civil War in social studies, theyˈre reading The Red Badge of Courage or some other period literature in English class. In science, they study the viruses and bacteria that caused many deaths in the war.

Team teaching isnˈt unusual. About 77 percent of middle schools now employ some form of it, says John Lounsbury, consulting editor for the National Middle School Association. But most schools use four- or five-person teams, which Gaul tried before considering two-person teams more effective. Gaul supports the team concept by "looping" classes (跟班) so that the same two teachers stick with the same teens through seventh and eighth grades. Combining teams and looping creates an extremely strong bond between teacher and student. It also, says teacher Beth Ahlholm, "allows us to build an excellent relationship with parents."

Ahlholm and teammate Madelon Kelly are fully aware how many glazed looks they see in the classroom, but they know 72 percent of their eighth-graders met Maineˈs reading standard last year -- double the statewide average. Only 31 percent met the math standard, still better than the state average (21 percent). Their students also beat the state average in writing and science. And in2006, Gaul was one of 47 schools in the state to see testing gains of at least 20 percent in four of the previous five years, coinciding roughly with team teachingˈs arrival.

To make our digestive (消化的) system work well, we should avoid doing some things after having a meal, for example, drinking water. It is true that a person should drink 8 glasses of water every day to stay healthy. However, drinking water right after eating or even during a meal may disrupt (扰乱) digestion. It might affect the natural levels of acid and bile (酸和胆汁) that are necessary for proper digestion. What’s more, drinking cold water after eating might slow down （减慢）digestion. So try to avoid drinking water at least an hour after a meal, and avoid drinking it while eating.

Though walking after eating is healthy, doing it immediately after a meal is not. Doing so will make it difficult for the digestive system to take in nutrients (营养) from the food. Besides, the blood will flow towards other parts of the body, like legs, hands, etc, which will make the digestive tract not have enough amount of blood flow that is needed for proper digestion. So we should wait for at least 2 hours after eating, and then begin exercising.

Sleeping should also be avoided right after eating. This is because going to bed right after a meal will lead to improper digestion. What’s more, such a habit will also make you put on a lot of weight. Therefore, wait for an hour or two, and then go to sleep.

Many of us have the habit of drinking tea just after lunch or dinner, which is really unhealthy. The tea leaves are rich in （富含）acid which prevents the protein in the food from digesting. The best time to drink tea is at least one hour after eating.

Eating fruits right after a meal may fill the stomach with air and cause discomfort. They will also take time to reach the digestive tract, disturbing the entire process of digestion. To protect your stomach from digestive problems, eat fruits before or after 1-2 hours of a meal.

In a word, if you avoid doing all the above things after eating, you will surely make your digestion easy, and you will be less likely to have digestive problems.

Most people think that making a film is exciting. In fact, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. Earlier this year, I worked in a new film. It was about a bomb threat on a big British ship. Two hundred people were needed to act as the passengers in the film. I was one of them.

  Before we left, we were wanted to bring some warm clothes. These were necessary because the ship was going to spend the whole 16 days sailing in bad weather.

  Then the day came and we sailed out of Dover. The boat had on board the film crew, the director, the actors and actresses including Brinksley Meers, who acted the leading role, and us-200 amateur (业余的) extras.

  People came for different purposes. Some wanted to meet Brinksley Meers in person. Others were curious to see how a film was made. A housewife with her three children came for free holiday and a bit of adventure.

  During the voyage, a lot of people were very seasick. And although the work was very interesting, it was also very hard. We often worked all day on one scene, performing it again and again under the hot lights. In the evenings, there were drinks in the bar, but most people were so tired that they went to bed early. The next day often began at 6: 30 in the morning, sometimes with breakfast being filmed.

  When the ship finally returned to port, most people had enjoyed the trip, but were also so tired that they at least needed a week’s holiday.

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