Unit 1 - Secrets of A Students（优秀学生的秘密）
Secrets of A Students
Edwin Kiester, Sally Valentine Kiester
Alex, now a first-year student in natural sciences at Cambridge, played football for his school in Manchester and directed the school production of a play — but he left school with five A's. Amanda, studying English at Bristol University, acted in plays at her school and played tennis regularly. Yet she still managed to get four A's.
How do A students like these do it? Brains aren't the only answer. The most gifted students do not necessarily perform best in exams. Knowing how to make the most of one's abilities counts for much more.
Hard work isn't the whole story either. Some of these high-achieving students actually put in fewer hours than their lower-scoring classmates. The students at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can easily learn. Here, according to education experts and students themselves, are the secrets of A students.
1. Concentrate! Top students allow no interruptions of their study time. Once the books are open, phone calls go unanswered, TV unwatched and newspapers unread. "This doesn't mean ignoring important things in your life," Amanda explains. "It means planning your study time so that you can concentrate. If I'm worried about a sick friend, I call her before I start my homework. Then when I sit down to study, I can really focus."
2. Study anywhere — or everywhere. A university professor in Arizona assigned to tutor underachieving college athletes, recalls a runner who exercised daily. He persuaded him to use the time to memorise biology terms. Another student stuck a vocabulary list on his bathroom wall and learned a new word every day while brushing his teeth.
3. Organize your materials. At school, Tom played basketball. "I was too busy to waste time looking for a pencil or a missing notebook. I kept everything just where I could get my hands on it," he says. Paul, a student in New Mexico, keeps two folders for each subject — one for the day's assignments, the other for homework completed and ready to hand in. A drawer keeps essentials together and cuts down on time-wasting searches.
4. Organize your time. When a teacher set a long essay, Alex would spend a couple of days reading round the subject and making notes, then he'd do a rough draft and write up the essay. He would aim to finish a couple of days before the assignment was due so that if it took longer than expected, he'd still meet the deadline. Amanda stuck to a study schedule that included breaks every two hours. "Trying to study when you're overtired isn't smart," she advises. "Even a short break to stretch or get some fresh air can work wonders."
5. Learn how to read. "I used to spend hours going through irrelevant material," Amanda remembers. "But then I got used to reading quickly; if the first sentence of a paragraph wasn't relevant, I'd move on to the next paragraph." "The best course I ever took," says an Oklahoma student, "was speed-reading. I not only increased my words per minute but also learned to look at a book's table of contents and pictures first. Then, when I began to read, I had a sense of the material and I retained a lot more." To such students, the secret of good reading is to be an active reader — one who keeps asking questions that lead to a full understanding of the material being read.
6. Take good notes. "Before writing anything, I divide my page into two parts," says Amanda, "the left part is about a third of the page wide; the right, two-thirds. I write my notes in the wider part, and put down the main ideas on the left. During revision, this is very useful because you can see immediately why the material is relevant, rather than being worried by a great mass of information." Just before the end of lesson bell rings, most students close their books, put away papers, talk to friends and get ready to leave. But a smart student uses those few minutes to write two or three sentences about the lesson's main points, which he scans before the next class.
7. Ask questions. "If you ask questions, you know at once whether you have got the point or not," says Alex. Class participation is a matter of showing intellectual curiosity. In a lecture on economics, for example, curious students would ask how the Chinese economy could be both socialist and market-driven, thus interesting themselves not only in whats, but also in whys and hows.
8. Study together. The value of working together was shown in an experiment at the University of California at Berkeley. A graduate student there who observed a first-year calculus course found that Asian-American students discussed homework, tried different approaches and explained their solutions to one another while the others studied alone, spent most of their time reading and rereading the text, and tried the same approach time after time even if it was unsuccessful.
After all, the secrets of A students are not so secret. You can learn and master them and become an A student, too.
New Words
perform
vt. 执行, 完成; 演出, 表演
vi. 演出, 表演; 工作, 表现; 执行, 完成
high-achieving
a. 得高分的
lower-scoring
a. 得分较低的
concentrate
vi. direct all one's attention, etc. towards sth. 全神贯注；集中思想；专注；专心
interruption
n. 打扰； 干扰； 中止； 阻碍
ignore
vt. take no notice of; refuse to pay attention to!! 不理；忽视
focus
v. direct attention, etc. on sth. 集中注意力于某事情
assign
vt. appoint to a job or duty 委派； 指派
underachieving
a. doing less well than was expected, esp. in school work 未能充分发挥学习潜力的；学习成绩不良的
athlete
n. a person who is good at or who often does spors 运动员
recall
vt. bring back to the mind; remember 回想（起）；记得
memorise, -rize
vt. learn and remember 记住；熟记
missing
a. 缺失的， 找不到的；失踪的，下落不明的
notebook
n. small book for writing notes in 笔记本；记事本
folder
n. 文件夹
assignment
n. a duty or piece of work that is given to someone （指定的）作业；（分派的）任务
drawer
n. 抽屉
essential
n. (usu. pl.) sth. that is necessary or very important [常用复数] 必需品
a. (to, for) necessary; central 绝对必要的；非常重要的
essay
n. a short piece of writing giving sb. 's ideas about politics, society, etc. 论说文； 散文
draft
n. the first rough written form of anything or a rough plan 草稿；草案
vt. make a draft of 起草；草拟
due
a. expected or supposed (to happen, arrive, etc.) 到期的；预定应到的
deadline
n. a date or time before which sth. mush be done or completed 最后期限
schedule
n. a timetable for things to be done 时间表；日程安排表
overtired
a. 过度疲劳的
stretch
vi. 舒展身体，伸懒腰
irrelevant
a. (to) not having any real connection with or relation to sth. else 不相关的；不相干的
relevant
a. directly connected with the subject or problem being discussed or considered 相关的； 相干的
speed-reading
n. 快速阅读
per
prep.for each 每；每一
content
n. 1.(pl.) a list in a book saying what the book contains [复数] 目录
2.the subject matter, esp. the ideas, of a book, speech, etc. 内容
retain
vt. keep (possession of); avoid losing 保持；保留
revision
n. 复习；修改
scan
vt. look at quickly without careful reading 浏览，扫视
participation
n. 参与；参加
participate
vi. (in) to take part or have a share in an activity or event 参与；参加
intellectual
a. of intellect 知识的；智力的
n. 知识分子
curiosity
n. the desire to know or learn 好奇（心）；求知欲
economics
n. the scientific study of the way in which wealth is produced and used 经济学
economy
n. the system by which a country's wealth is produced and used 经济（制度）
market-driven
a. 市场驱动的
graduate
a. 研究生的
vi. 毕业
n. 有学位者，大学毕业生
graduate student
研究生
calculus
n. 微积分
approach
n. a manner or method of doing sth. or dealing with a problem 方式；方法
v. come near or nearer to sb. or sth. 靠近；接近
solution
n. an act or way of finding an answer to a difficulty or problem 解决（办法）
Phrases and Expressions
make the most of
get the best use or greatest gain from 充分利用
count for much/little
be of much/little worth or importance 很有/没有多少价值或重要性
not the whole story/only part of the story
不是全部情况 / 只是部分情况
put in
spend (time or money) 花费（时间或金钱）
get (or lay) one's hands on
find; obtain 把 … 弄到手
hand in
give (sth.) to sb. in charge by hand; send in 交上；提交
keep ... together
cause to remain together 把 … 聚在一起
cut down on
reduce 减少
stick to
keep to; not abandon or change 坚持；不放弃，不改变
work wonders
do things that people did not think possible 创奇迹；产生奇妙作用
go through
read from beginning to end; examine 从头至尾看；遍查
lead to
have as a result; cause 导致；引起
a couple of
two; a few 两（个）；两三（个）
write up
write in a complete form 写出，写成
put down
write down 写下
put away
put (sth.) in its proper place 把（某物）收藏在合适的地方
time after time
again and again; repeatedly 一再；屡次
Proper Names
Edwin Kiester
埃德温·基斯特
Sally Valentine Kiester
莎莉·瓦伦丁·基斯特
Alex
阿历克斯（男子名）
Cambridge
剑桥(英格兰东南部城市, 剑桥大学所在地); 剑桥大学 (=Cambridge University)
Manchester
曼彻斯特（英格兰西北部港市）
Amanda
阿曼达（女子名）
Bristol
布里斯托尔（英格兰西南部港市）
Arizona
亚利桑那州（美国州名）
New Mexico
新墨西哥州（美国州名）
Oklahoma
俄克拉荷马州（美国州名）
California
加利福尼亚州（美国州名）
Berkeley
伯克利（美国加利福尼亚州西部城市）
参考资料：
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