24552814cb7da541cf73b92e69a9de3e_在线真题试卷与模拟练习

In this task, you are to write an essay on the role of physical exercise in achieving success at college. You will have 30 minutes for the task. You should write at least 120 words but no more than 180 words.

Parenting brings fathers more joy than it does mothers, according to a new study. The research examined three studies __26__ more than 18,000 participants. Across all three, parenthood was __27__ with more positive well-being outcomes for dads than for mums.

So why are fathers happier than mothers? "Fathers may fare better than mothers in part due to how they spend time with their children,"said lead author Katherine Nelson-Coffey. In one study, the authors __28__ that dads were more likely to take "playing" as an __29__ activity both when caring for their kids and spending time with their kids. "Playing with their children likely offers parents opportunities to experience positive feelings and __30__ closeness with their children," they say.

Fathers also did better than men without kids, reporting greater happiness, life satisfaction, and fewer __31__ symptoms. They also reported greater connectedness and autonomy (自主). For mums, __32__ compared to women without children, the results weren't quite as positive. Mums reported greater autonomy, but also "greater trouble" and fewer positive __33__.

Mums reported happier moods while interacting with their kids, compared to other experiences, but not while engaging __34__ in childcare. "This difference suggests that how mothers and fathers spend time with their children might have important __35__ for their well-being," the authors write. They suspect that mums may be less happy than dads because they're more likely to have higher expectations about parenthood. As such, they're more likely to be "let down" by the experience.

People often grant a request just because they want to appear polite and helpful.

It's no easy job learning to say "no" to opportunities that were once considered worth grasping.

When you decline a request, you are saving your future time.

People sometimes struggle to do things that are simply a waste of time.

Doing efficiently what is not worth doing is the most useless effort.

It is especially difficult for people to decline to do what their superiors ask them to do.

People agree to do too many things they are in fact unwilling to do.

According to one famous entrepreneur, innovation means refusal to do an enormous number of things.

get so often used in comparison with each other that it feels like they carry equal weight in conversation. In reality, they're not just opposite in meaning, but of entirely different magnitudes in commitment. When you say "no", you're only saying "no" to one option. When you say "yes", you're saying "no" to every other option. I like how economist Tim Harford put it, "Every time we say 'yes' to a request, we're also saying 'no' to anything else we might accomplish with the time." Once you're committed to something, you've already decided how that future block of time will be spent. In other words, saying "no" saves you time in the future. Saying "yes" costs you time in the future. "No" is a form of time credit. You retain the ability to spend your future time however you want. "Yes" is a form of time debt. You have to pay back your commitment at some point. [F]"No" is a decision. "Yes" is a responsibility. Saying "no" is sometimes seen as a luxury that only those in power can afford. And it's true: turning down opportunities is easier when you can fall back on the safety net provided by power, money, and authority. But it's also true that saying "no" is not merely a privilege reserved for the successful. It's also a strategy that can help you become successful. Saying "no" is an important skill to develop at any stage of your career because it retains the most important asset in life: your time. As investor Pedro Sorrentino put it, "If you don't guard your time, people will steal it from you." You need to say "no" to whatever isn't leading you toward your goals. [G] Nobody embodied this idea better than Steve Jobs, who said, "People think focus means saying 'yes' to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying 'no' to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully." Jobs had another great quote about saying "no": "I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying 'no' to 1,000 things." [H] Over time, as you continue to improve and succeed, your strategy needs to change. The opportunity cost of your time increases as you become more successful. At first, you just eliminate the obvious distractions and explore the rest. As your skills improve and you learn to separate what works from what doesn't, you have to continually increase your threshold for saying "yes". You still need to say "no" to distractions, but you also need to learn to say "no" to opportunities that were previously good uses of time, so you can make space for better uses of time. It's a good problem to have, but it can be a tough skill to master. [I] What is true about health is also true about productivity: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. More effort is wasted doing things that don't matter than is wasted doing things inefficiently. And if that is the case, elimination is a more useful skill than optimization. I'm reminded of the famous Peter Drucker quote, "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."【缺少答案，请补充】