Student life in Oxford

     We offer long-stay students advice and a range of services to help them make the most of their stay in Oxford.

Accommodation

     Many Lake School students choose to live in one of our friendly homestays to help them improve their English and to learn about the English way of life. Your homestay will provide breakfast and cook dinner for you each evening and give you a packed lunch at the weekend, if you want. However, if you prefer to live in rented accommodation, it costs approximately £350 per month for a room in a shared house. To rent a serviced 1 or 2 bedroom flat, the cost is from £400 per week.

Opening a bank account

     You may like to open a bank account here. You will need to:

     ★ deposit money in the account

     ★ show your passport

     ★ prove your address in your country by showing a bank statement with your name and

address

     ★ prove your address in Oxford by showing your homestay address or your contract if you are renting accommodation

      ★ prove that you are studying at the Lake School by showing your School Letter

Registering (登记) with the police

     You may have to register with the police. You should tell them where you are living in Oxford. You will need to take:

      ★ Your passport

      ★ 2 passport-size photos

      ★ the fee of £34

Getting a job

     All students who are from an EU country and Switzerland can work without restriction in the UK. Taking a part-time job can improve your future career opportunities. Students who have a Student Visitor Visa or an Extended Student Visitor Visa are not permitted to work.

Having a holiday

     You may take holidays during your program, but requests for holidays must be made at least 1 month in advance. We do not refund fees but add the weeks that you take as holidays to the end of your course.

21. Compared with a rented house or flat, what is one advantage of a homestay?

    A. Students will save at least £400 each month.

    B. Students can get a packed lunch at the weekend.

    C. Students will have fewer difficulties to deal with.

    D. Students can learn how to make native food themselves.

22. What is necessary when students open a bank account and register with the police?

    A. Their photos.      B. Their passport.    C. The School Letter.  D. An extra fee of £34.

23. Who can get a job without restriction in the UK?

    A. Students from low-income families.

    B. Students with a Student Visitor Visa.

    C. Students from Switzerland and EU countries.

    D. Students with an Extended Student Visitor Visa.

24.What can we know about long-stay students' holidays?

    A. Students will have to ask for holidays one week in advance.

    B. Only those who have passed their exams can ask for holidays.

    C. Extra study time will be given for what students missed on holiday.

    D. Students can get some money back for not having lessons at school.

      A warm drink of milk before bed has long been the best choice for those wanting a good night's sleep. But now a study has found it really does help people nod off—if it is milked from a cow at night.

      Researchers have discovered that "night milk" contains more melatonin (褪黑激素), which has been proven to help people feel sleepy and reduce anxiety.

      The study, by researchers from Seoul, South Korea, involved mice being fed with dried milk powder made from cows milked both during the day and at night.

      Those given night milk, which contained 10 times the amount of melatonin, were less active and less anxious than those fed with the milk collected during daytime, according to the study published in The Journal of Medicinal Food.

      Night milk quickened the start of sleep and caused the mice to sleep longer.

      While the effect of cows milk harvested at different time has not been tested on humans up to now, taking melatonin drugs has been suggested to those who are struggling to fall asleep at night.

      Previous studies have also indicated that milk can be excellent for helping sleep because of the calcium content, which helps people to relax.

      Milk is also sugar-free and addictive-free with nutritionists recommending skimmed milk as the best choice before bed as it is the least fattening. The more fat you take in before bedtime, the greater burden you will put on your body at night.

25. According to the text, the mice fed with daytime milk

    A. started sleep more easily                     B. were more anxious

    C. were less active                            D. woke up later

26. Which of the following is true of melatonin according to the text?

    A. It's been tested on mice for ten times.          B. It can make people more energetic.

    C. It exists in milk in great amount.              D. It's used in sleeping drugs.

27. What can be a suitable title for the text?

    A. Night Milk and Sleep                       B. Fat, Sugar and Health

    C. An Experiment on Mice                         D. Milk Drinking and Health

28. How does the author support the theme of the text?

    A. By giving examples.                          B. By stating arguments.

    C. By explaining statistical data.                   D. By providing research results.

     If you' re considering a career in academia, or a job in a lab, previous lab experience is considered important. Most bioscience students in the UK get around 3-9 hours of lab time per week, but that' s not enough.

     There are a few places out there that offer paid internships (实习工作) in labs, but getting a work placement is tough. I'm a biochemistry student and have applied to several work placements, but in spite of my good grades, I was turned down by all of them. When I asked for personal feedback (反馈意见), I was usually told I lacked lab experience. Like many internships you need experience in order to get that experience.

     If you miss out on organized schemes, you can apply to individual labs requesting a summer work placement. But most labs don't reply. If you' re particularly lucky, a couple of academics get back to you to say either that they do not accept undergraduates (大学本科生), or that their lab has no more available spaces.

     Louis Freeland-Haynes, a Cambridge University biology student, who was able to find a summer work placement at a molecular biology (分子生物学)  lab  at  Edinburgh  University,  says,  "The experience gave me motivation and enthusiasm for the subject as most teaching labs restrict the amount of equipment you work with."

     But most of us are not as lucky. Things need to change. Science internships need to be accessible to a wide range of students, including those that do not have experience and do not have perfect grades. We need to give more people a chance to succeed in science—not just for the benefit of those students, but to progress scientific work and the benefits science brings to us all. Science students should be encouraged to experiment and learn through experiments. This can only be done if researchers and the scientific community can make lab internships more accessible.

29. Why did the author fail to get a paid internship in a lab?

    A. No labs paid undergraduates.

    B. He had no personal feedback.

    C. He hardly had lab experience.

    D. His grades were not good enough.

30. What can be inferred from Paragraph 3?

    A. Some individual labs accept undergraduates.

    B. Getting a summer work placement is difficult.

    C. Most individual labs will reply to the applicant.

    D. Undergraduates should adopt organized schemes.

31. What does Louis Freeland-Haynes want to express in Paragraph 4?

    A. Some labs do offer paid internships.

    B. Getting a lab internship requires enthusiasm.

    C. Having a summer work placement in a lab is important.

    D. Teaching labs can greatly help students learn biology.

32. Why has the author written the text?

    A. To tell students how to find paid internships.

    B. To encourage students to perform better at college.

    C. To  show undergraduates need more lab internships.

D. To explain why undergraduates lack lab experience.

     Social media is a place where people gather to share their personal life and opinions online. It is a place where people can be hypercritical (吹毛求疵). At times it's where people make their first impression, so I can understand why they struggle to make themselves look perfect in every picture they post and write "profound" thoughts in an attempt to look smarter and more thoughtful. People say that social media can help us express ourselves more fully. However, my thoughts are quite different.

     Since social media really opens you up to the public, there' s a lot of pressure to look great. "How will these people see me?", "How will people react to this picture?" and "Do I look fat in this?" are only a few questions that come to people' s minds before posting something online. Therefore, the way people present themselves on social media is not true. but how they want others to see them.

     Amanda Hess. a writer, editor, and co-founder of TOMORROW Magazine, once said, "We present ourselves differently on Twitter and Tumblr and Slack depending on the norms built into each space. On Facebook, I'm posed by a professional photographer, waist contorted (扭曲) into a slimmed line, eyes looking out of the window of a skyscraper." In her "What Do Our Online Avatars Reveal About Us?" article, she explains that she is photoshopped and looks extremely good in her picture. Clearly, social media is just a place where we have to pretend that we' re perfect and do all things with reasons.

     To conclude, people think of social media as a different world and rather than truly expressing themselves, they explore a new person that they want to become. It isn't necessarily bad to be different online and truthfully, I don' t think it can ever be an honest place. The only thing we can do is to hope that who we are in social media does not take over who we are in the real world.

33. What does the author mean by saying "my thoughts are quite different" in Paragraph 1 ?

    A. Social media helps us express ourselves.

    B. Social media makes people hypercritical.

    C. Social media prevents us from being ourselves.

    D. Social media makes our thoughts very different.

34. What do Amanda Hess' s words show?

    A. Pictures online cannot be trusted.

    B. She didn't like hiding her true self.

    C. It' s important to take good pictures.

    D. She liked how she looked in real life.

35. Which of the following statements would the author agree with?

    A. Social media will be an honest place.

    B. Being different online is unacceptable.

    C. We shouldn't lose sight of our true selves.

    D. We should never pretend to be someone else.

Love your kitchen

      1. Keep your kitchen clean. Families tend to get together in the kitchen, bringing with them newspapers, mail, toys, and a thousand other little things. Don' t allow it. Set a new policy: The kitchen is for cooking and eating only. Why?   36   The opposite also holds true: A clean, bright, inviting kitchen can be a wonderful place after a day of craziness.

      2.   37   Is there music playing? Do you have a glass of wine poured? Is the evening sun shining through the window? Are the knives sharp, the produce fresh, and the pots of good quality? All of these contribute to your desire to make good food. If you can't honestly say you enjoy being in your kitchen, do what you need to do to change that.

      3. Enjoy the cooking process. Sure. not everyone loves cooking.   38   If the thought of cooking brings dread, you need an attitude adjustment. Cooking is a pleasure, far easier than many non-cooks realize. For your health, your pleasure, and your purse, you should learn—or relearn—the pleasures of cooking. Make it a project. Spend time with your friends and family while they cook so that you can absorb the methods and routines. Consider taking a class, or buy an introductory cookbook.   39   It is actually harder to be a bad cook than a good cook, particularly if you use good ingredients.

      4. Plan a week' s worth of dinners. Fewer than 30 percent of Americans know what they' re having for dinner. Yet planning ahead takes just a few minutes. Here' s how. Every Friday night or Saturday morning, sit down with a piece of paper and your favorite cookbooks or cooking magazines. Think about what your family likes to eat.  40  Now post the list of menus on the kitchen refrigerator so it' s the first thing you see when you get home. No more thinking ahead. Just follow your own instructions.

A. Most of all, lose your fear.

B. But there' s no reason not to like doing it.

C. Then plan out the week' s worth of menus.

D. Make your kitchen a place you like to be.

E. That is why dinner has become such a pleasant time.

F. It's hard to get motivated about cooking if you have to clean up a mess first.

G. Here are simple, realistic tips to get you eating healthily at dinner, mostly with your own cooking.