Educating girls quite possibly yields a higher rate of return than any other investment available in the developing world. Women’s education may be unusual territory for economists, but enhancing women’s contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social issue. And economics, with its emphasis on incentives (激励), provides guideposts that point to an explanation for why so many girls are deprived of an education.
    Parents in low-income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else’s family and bear children. Girls a re thus seen as less valuable than boys and art kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school-the prophecy (预言) becomes self-fulfilling, trapping women in a vicious circle (恶性循环) of neglect.
    An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy. The vicious circle is thus transformed into a virtuous circle.
    Few will dispute that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant impact on health practices, including family planning.

    Psychiatrists (精神病专家) who work with older parents say that maturity can be an asset in child rearing-older parents are more thoughtful, use less physical discipline and spend more time with their children. But raising kids takes money and energy. Many older parents find themselves balancing their limited financial resources, declining energy and failing health against the growing demands of an active child. Dying and leaving young children is probably the older parents’ biggest, and often unspoken, fear. Having late-life children, says an economics professor, often means parents, particularly fathers, “end up retiring much later.” For many, retirement becomes an unobtainable dream.
    Henry Metcalf, a 54-year-old journalist, knows it takes money to raise kids. But he’s also worried that his energy will give out first. Sure, he can still ride bikes with his athletic fifth grader, but he’s learned that young at heart doesn’t mean young. Lately he’s been taking afternoon naps (午睡) to keep up his energy. “My body is aging,” says Metcalf. “You can’t get away from that.”
    Often, older parents hear the ticking of another kind of biological clock. Therapists who work with middle-aged and older parents say fears about aging are nothing to laugh at. “They worry they’ll be mistaken for grandparents, or that they’ll need help getting up out of those little chairs in nursery school,” says Joann Galst, a New York psychologist. But at the core of those little fears there is often a much bigger one: “that they won’t be alive long enough to support and protect their child,” she says.
    Many late-life parents, though, say their children came at just the right time. After marrying late and undergoing years of fertility (受孕) treatment, Marilyn Nolen and her husband. Randy, had twins. “We both wanted children,” says Marilyn, who was 55 when she gave birth. The twins have given the couple what they desired for years, “a sense of family.” Kids of older dads are often smarter, happier and more sociable because their fathers are more involved in their lives. “The dads are older, more mature,” says Dr. Silber, “and more ready to focus on parenting.

    Interest in pursuing international careers has soared in recent years, enhanced by chronic (长久的) personnel shortages that are causing companies to search beyond their home borders for talent.
    Professionals seek career experience outside of their home countries for a variety of reasons. They may feel the need to recharge their batteries with a new challenge. They may want a position with more responsibility that encourages creativity and initiative. Or they may wish to expose their children to another culture, and the opportunity to learn a second language.
    When applying for a job, one usually has to submit a resume or curriculum vitae (CV). The two terms generally mean the same thing: a one-or two-page document describing one’s educational qualifications and professional experience. However, guidelines for preparing a resume are constantly changing. The best advice is to find out what is appropriate regarding the corporate (公司) culture, the country culture, and the culture of the person making the hiring decision. The challenge will be to embrace two or more cultures in one document. The following list is a good place to start.
    ● “Educational requirements differ from country to country. In almost every case of ‘cross-border’ job hunting, just stating the title of your degree will not bean adequate description. Provide the reader with details about your studies and any related experience.”
    ● Pay attention to the resume format you use-chronological or reverse-chronological order. Chronological order means listing your ‘oldest’ work experience first. Reverse-chronological order means listing your current or most recent experience first. Most countries have preferences about which format is most acceptable. If you find no specific guidelines, the general preference is for the reverse-chronological format.”
    ● If you are submitting your resume in English, find out if the recipient (收件人) uses British English or American English because there are variations between the two versions. For example, university education is often referred to as ‘tertiary education’ in the United Kingdom, but this term is almost never used in the United States. A reader who is unfamiliar with these variations may assume that your resume contains errors.

    Speeding off in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in for an unwelcome surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobiliser (锁止器), and a radio signal from a control centre miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again.
    The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car contains a mini-cellphone, a micro-processor and memory, and a GPS (全球定位系统) satellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the control centre to block the vehicle’s engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted.
    In the UK, a set of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. ‘The pattern of vehicle crime has changed,’ says Martyn Randall, a security expert. He says it would only take him a few minutes to teach a person how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old.
    Modern cars are far tougher to steal, as their engine management computer won’t allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition (点火) key. In the UK, technologies like this have helped achieve a 31% drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997.
    But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars, often by getting bold of the owner’s keys. And key theft is responsible for 40% of the thefts of vehicles fitted with a tracking system.
    If the car travels 100 metres without the driver confirming their ID, the system will send a signal to an operations centre that it has been stolen. The hundred metres minimum avoids false alarms due to inaccuracies in the GPS signal.
    Staff at the centre will then contact the owner to confirm that the car really is missing, and keep police informed of the vehicle’s movements via the car’s GPS unit.

    The part of the environmental movement that draws my firm’s attention is the design of cities’ buildings and products. When we designed America’s first so-called “green” office building in New York two decades (1) ________, we felt very alone. But today, thousands of people come to green building conferences, and the (2) ________ that buildings can be good for people and the environment will be increasingly influential in years to (3) ________.
    Back in 1984 we discovered that most manufactured products for decoration weren’t designed for (4) ________ use. The “energy-efficient” sealed commercial buildings constructed after the 1970s energy crisis (5) ________ indoor air quality problems caused by materials such as paint, wall covering and carpet. So far 20 years, we’ve been focusing on these materials (6) ________ to the molecules, looking for ways to make them (7) ________ for people and the planet.
    Home builders can now use materials-such as paints that release significantly (8) ________ amounts of organic compounds-that don’t (9) ________ the quality of the air, water, or soil. Ultimately, (10) ________,our basic design strategy is focused not simply on being “less bad” but on creating (11) ________ healthful materials that can be either safely returned to the soil (12) ________ reused by industry again and again. As a matter of (13) ________,the world’s largest carpet manufacturer has already (14) ________ a carpet that is fully and safely recyclable (可循环用的).
    Look at it this way: No one (15) ________ out to create a building that destroys the planet. But our current industrial systems are (16) ________ causing these conditions, whether we like it or not. So (17) ________ of simply trying to reduce the damage, we are (18) ________ a positive approach. We’re giving people high-quality, healthful products and an opportunity to make choices that have a (19) ________ effect on the world. It’s not just the building industry, either. (20) ________ cities are taking these environmentally positive approaches to design, planning and building. Portland, Seattle and Boston have said they want to be green cities. Chicago wants to be the greenest city in the world.

Directions: For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a poster recruiting volunteers. You should write at Least 120 words following the outline given below:
(1) 校学生会将组织一次暑假志愿者活动，现招募志愿者
(2) 本次志愿者活动的目的、活动安排等
(3) 报名条件及联系方式