Not everyone goes to university after high school graduation. Some work, others join the army and an increasing number worldwide are taking a “gap year” to travel or do community service in their own countries or abroad. They are studying sharks off the Australian coast, building schools in Mexico and learning Spanish or Italian.
The concept of a gap year may not be new, but the recent surge (涌现) of interest certainly is. Some students are putting off admissions. Others, who don’t get into the college of their choice, are taking a year to explore new frontiers before reapplying.
Students are choosing to take a breather; they are thinking. They are not sure what they are going to do. They are going and exploring some of their interests. They are getting experience they can take to the school they finally go to.
It is an idea actively encouraged by colleges. Princeton University has just launched a “bridge year” program that will send 10 percent of its incoming class to do volunteer work abroad, starting in 2009. And the Harvard has spent the last 30 years urging incoming students to take a gap year.
“Many speak of their year away as a ‘life-changing’ experience or a ‘turning point’” says Harvard admissions director Marlin Lewis. “Many come to college with new opinions about their academic plans, their extracurricular interests and the career possibilities they observed in their year away.”
小题1:The reasons why some take a gap year are the following EXCEPT that ________.
A．they hate studying
B．they don’t know what to do
C．they want to get experience
D．they want to know their real interests小题2:A student won’t ________ in a gap year.
A．travel
B．join the army
C．do community service
D．learn a foreign language小题3:After a gap year, one would probably _________.
A．take another year off
B．earn a lot of money
C．be refused by his college
D．have new ideas about their future career小题4:From the passage we know that ________.
A．more and more students will take a gap year
B．fewer and fewer colleges will encourage his students to take a gap year
C．the gap year can only give one some experience about society
D．nobody will change his own interests after the gap year
