1、美国国家教育统计中心的数据表明，大约80%的美国大学生至少要换一次专业。有些学生上大学时就读父母或亲戚为他们选择的专业。在大多数情况下，这些学生难以作出决定，因为他们不知道在决定变换被规划好的职业的时候该如何面对自己的亲人。有些学生决定转专业是因为他们无法应付所学专业的基础课，而另一些学生则是因为他们实在厌恶所学的专业，必须换一个自己真正喜欢的专业。专家认为，意识到所学专业不适合自己的技能和天赋没什么错。实际上，能意识到这一点是成熟的标志。重要的是找到一个真正适合你的专业。在转专业之前，你需要见学业导师，跟教授或专业人员谈谈，做一些调查，问几个严肃的问题，看看你的选择是否正确。
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 80 percent of students in the United States end up changing their major at least once.
Some students start college with a major their parents or relatives picked for them. In most cases, these students struggle to make a decision, because they don’t know how to confront their loved ones about a change in their intended career.
Some students decide to change majors because they are struggling in basic courses for their intended major, while some others have come to so detest their major that they find it necessary to switch to another that they really love.
Experts believe that there is nothing wrong with realizing that your major doesn’t suit your skills and talents.
In fact, the ability to make such a realization is a sign of maturity. The trick is to
find a major that does suit you better.
Before making the switch, you need to meet with an academic advisor, research your choice by talking to professors or professionals, and ask yourself serious questions about whether it is the right choice for you.
2、中国有一句古话：叫“人贵有自知之明”。这个观念的最早提出者是老子。老子在《道德经》里说“知人者智，自知者明”。有“自知之明”是指人应该对自己有正确的认识，了解自身的优点和缺点，清醒地知道自己能做什么。我们把人的自知视为“贵”，可见做到“自知”是多么的不易。“自知之明”是一种人生哲学，也是一种品德。它可以帮助我们不断地修正自己，朝着更高的人生目标迈进。
As the Chinese saying goes, it is important to know oneself.
The first person to put forward this notion was Laozi, who wrote in his book Dao De Jing:”A person who knows others is intelligent, but a person who knows himself is insightful.”
To know oneself is to have a correct understanding of oneself, including one’s strengths and limitations, and to be clear-minded about what one can do.
We cherish this virtue so much precisely because it is really hard for people to know themselves.
Knowing oneself is both part of a philosophy of life and a virtue that can
facilitate self-improvement and attainment of a higher life goal.
3、美国梦是美国民族精神的体现。简而言之，其观念就是美国是一个充满机会的地方：在那里，只要肯努力奋斗，就能获得富裕、成功。这种对改善社会地位和经济状况的信仰，即美国人可以从卑微的穷人变为富人的信仰，一直被称为“国民宗教”。在经济状况和社会地位上获得巨大提升的著名案例包括本杰明·富兰克林和亨利·福特。其他从父辈到子辈就实现从美国下层社会跻身上流社会的最为人津津乐道的例子是亚伯拉罕·林肯和比尔·克林顿。他们虽然出身于工人阶级家庭，却在成年之后当上了高官。民意测验表明，现在美国人的这个信念比以往任何时候都强，比其他任何发达国家的都强。但是，近年来，几项大型的研究发现，与同类国家相比，美国的垂直代际社会流动性降低。2013年，布鲁金斯学会的一项研究发现，收入的不平等正变得更加固定，从而大大降低了社会流动性。2014年发布的一项大型学术研究的结果发现在过去的20年里，收入的流动性没有发生显著的变化。
The American Dream is the national ethos of the United States.
Put simply, it is the idea that American is a land of opportunity, where hard work will allow a person to experience prosperity and success.
Belief in social and economic mobility, that Americans rise from humble origins to riches, has been called a “civil religion”.
Famous instances of great economic and social mobility include Benjamin Franklin and Henry Ford. Additional popular examples of upward social mobility between generations in America include Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton, who were born into working-class families yet achieved high political office in adult life.
Opinion polls show that this belief is stronger than in other developed countries.
However, in recent years several large studies have found that vertical intergenerational mobility is lower in the US than in comparable countries.
A 2013 Brookings Institution study found income inequality was becoming more permanent, sharply reducing social mobility.
A large academic study released in 2014 found income mobility had not changed appreciably in the last 20 years.
4、女性是劳动力市场的重要组成部分，但是当前劳动就业中的性别歧视仍然存在，这与我国构建和谐社会的要求背道而驰。就劳动者而言，不能人尽其才，不仅造成人力资本投资的浪费，还会使她们对社会公正产生怀疑；就用人单位而言，性别歧视不仅破坏人才选拔的程序，造成人才浪费，也会不利于人们正确理解何为正常运转的市场；就社会而言，性别歧视不仅干扰人力资源的正常流动，还会破坏就业市场的公平环境。
Woman are an important part of the labour force. But gender discrimination in the job market still exists, and serves as a counterforce to the building of a harmonious society.
As far as employees are concerned, jobs that do not suit their talents will not only give rise to a waste of the investment in human capital, but also cause them to lose faith in social justice.
As for employers. Gender discrimination will not only disrupt the process of selecting talent, and thus waste talent, but will also harm the perception of a properly functioning market.
On the level of society, gender discrimination will set an obstacle to the proper distribution of human resources, and damage a fair environment in the job market.
5、1908年，安娜·贾维斯在西弗吉尼亚州的格拉夫顿市为自己的母亲举行了一个追思会，这是人们第一次庆祝母亲节这个现代美国节日。贾维斯深爱的母亲与1905年去世，从这年开始她就积极开展活动，要啊让母亲节成为美国的正式节日。经过安娜·贾维斯的努力，1914年伍德罗·威尔逊总统签署公告设立母亲节，使它成为一个向母亲致敬的全国性节日。尽管贾维斯成功地创立了母亲节，但是母亲节的商业化很快就让她感到不满。到了20世纪20年代初，很多公司开始出售母亲节贺卡，贾维斯对这种在她看来是误解和开发利用母亲节的行为感到痛心，她提出抗议甚至试图要废除母亲节。这个节日的初衷上让大家向母亲表示感谢和敬意，采取的形式应该是写亲笔信传达爱意和感激，而不是通过买礼物和贺卡这样的方式。贾维斯创立的这个节日现在已经是全球性的节日。不同的国家庆祝母亲节的日期有所不同。在很多国家，例如澳大利亚、加拿大和美国，人们庆祝母亲节的日子是五月的第二个星期天。
The modern American holiday of Mother’s Day was first celebrated in 1908, when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother in Grafton, West Virginia.
Her campaign to make “Mother’s Day” a recognized holiday in the US began in 1905, the year her beloved mother died.
Due to the efforts of Anna Jarvis, in 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed the proclamation creating Mother’s Day as a national holiday to honour mothers.
Although Jarvis was successful in founding Mother’s Day, she soon became resentful of its commercialization.
By the early 1920s, some companies had started selling Mother’s Day
Anna became so angered about it and even tried to remove it from the calender. The original intention of the holiday was to appreciate and honour mothers by writing a personal letter, by hand, expressing love and gratitude;
it wasn’t to buy gifts and cards. Jarvis’ holiday is now celebrated all over the world. Mother’s Day falls on different days depending on the countries, such as Australia, Canada and the United States.
6、春节是中国最重要的传统节日。但近年来，很多人都抱怨过年的气氛越来越淡，已经很难感受到记忆中过年的那种美好感觉了。事实上，春节在过去之所以显得重要，是因为只有到了春节人们才能享美食、穿新衣。而随着中国经济的迅速发展，人们的物质生活越来越丰富，人们庆祝春节的方式也发生了一些变化。比如说，越来越多的人选择过年时外出旅游。但无论如何，对于中国人来说，春节的重要性是不可替代的。
The Spring Festival is the most important traditional holiday in China.
But in recent years, many people have complained that the celebratory
atmosphere of lunar New Year is not as strong as it used to be, and it is hard for them to regain that wonderful felling in their memories.
In fact, in the past, it was only during the Spring Festival that people could enjoy delicious food and wear new clothes.
This explains why this holiday was so important to Chinese people.
But with the rapid development of the Chinese economy and an increasingly rich material life, the ways in which Chinese people celebrate the Spring Festival have changed.
For instance, more and more Chinese people choose to travel during the Spring Festival. Nonetheless, for Chinese people, the Spring Festival plays an irreplaceable role in their culture.
7、“希腊神话”指的是古代希腊关于神灵和英雄的各种传说的合集，这些传说描述了他们的宗教活动和世界观。希腊神话包含了大量的故事，有些故事解释了世界的起源，有些则详细描述了各种不同的男女神灵、男女英雄和神话动物的生活及冒险奇遇。虽然现在我们主要是通过书面形式的希腊文学了解这些故事，但起初它们是以口头诗歌的形式创作并传播的。希腊神话对西方文明的文化、艺术和文学都产生了广泛、深渊的影响。的确，在整个西方文学史上，希腊神话所涉及的那些主题一直具有重要的意义。虽然建立在这些神话故事之上的古希腊宗教早就湮没于历史之中，但是希腊神话依然是大量西方小说、诗歌、电影和视觉艺术的一个重要的源泉。希腊神话在现代神话、心理学和语文学研究的发展中起到了至关重要的作用，他仍将是全球文化遗产的重要组成部分。
The term “Greek mythology” refers to the collection of tales belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and their heroes, and which outline their ritual practices and view of the world.
Greek mythology includes a large collection of stories, some of which explain the origins of the world, and others of which detail the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, and various mythological creatures.
These accounts were initially fashioned and spread in an oral-poetic tradition, though they are known today primarily through Greek literature.
Greek mythology has exercised an extensive and profound influence on the culture, arts and literature of Western civilization.
Indeed, Greek mythological themes have remained continually relevant throughout Western literary history.
Though the ancient Greek religions based upon these tales have long since faded into obscurity, Greek myths remain an important source for much of Western fiction, poetry, film and visual art.
Greek mythology has played a pivotal role in the development of modern studies of mythology, psychology and philology, and it continues to be an important part of the cultural heritage of the global community.
8、古希腊神话的最大特点就是神和人形相同、习相近。古希腊人按照人的形象来创造神，神有人的感情欲望。而中国古代神话中的神大多距离人类生活较远。中国神话中正面形象的神多具有崇高的品格、伟大的志向以及为实现伟大理想而斗争的不屈不挠的精神。他们承担着维护宇宙秩序的崇高责任，是社会道德的楷模。可以说中国古代神话中的神多具有超凡脱俗的品格，神性多于人性。
The most important characteristic of ancient Greek mythology is that gods and humans are similar, both in physical appearance and personality.
Ancient Greeks created their gods in their own image, and their gods have human emotions and desires.
In Chinese mythology, however, the life of the gods is very different from that of humans.
The good gods in Chinese mythology have a noble character, express great aspirations, and show perseverance in fighting for great ideals.
They have the noble duty of maintaining the order of the universe; they are social and moral role models.
It can be said that the gods in Chinese mythology have extraordinarily noble characters, and possess more of the qualities of gods than of humans.
因篇幅问题不能全部显示，请点此查看更多更全内容