高考状元香港求学的自白：忙碌、新鲜而充满希望_高考英语
the 18-year-old was shandong province's top scorer in this year's college entrance examination. after graduating from tai'an no 1 high school, she chose the chinese university of hong kong (香港中文大学), although both peking and tsinghua university promised her a place.
"i want to experience a more international school and social life in hong kong. i'm majoring in (专业是) journalism, so hong kong will surely help widen my horizons (开阔视野)," liu said.
it is two months since liu first set foot on hong kong. she missed home a lot at the beginning, because of the food and language problems.
"the canteen offers mostly western or guangdong food, but it's convenient (方便的) to cook for ourselves in our dorm if we like. people speak cantonese and almost all classes are in english," liu explained.
her english and cantonese are now both improving, but she still needs more time to adapt to the new environment.
"i'm happy that i made the right decision to study here. with a mix of the eastern and western cultures, there is so much to discover and learn," she said.
liu has 18 credit hours (学分) of classes every week and 23 non-credit hours every other week. she has signed up for four associations including the chinese languange debating team and the drama club. essays, book reports and presentations (课堂发言) also take plenty of time to prepare. and, of course, there are various parties to attend.
"i wasn't a party animal before, but that may be the interesting part of college. i sense myself changing," liu said.
scholarships and expenses
four years of study in hong kong is not cheap, costing at least 400,000 yuan, but many top students receive scholarships.
liu is among the lucky ones. the chinese university of hong kong granted (正式给予) liu a full scholarship - hk$500,000.
not all students are so fortunate. some poorer students are forced to give up dreams of a hong kong education if they don't win a scholarship.
autumn guo got admission letters from both nanjing university and hong kong polytechnic university (香港理工大学) this fall. however, the hong kong university didn't offer the 19-year-old chongqing girl a scholarship.
"i hesitated a lot as 400,000 yuan is a huge amount of money for my family. but hong kong won my parents and me over with their english courses and chances to visit foreign universities on educational exchange programmes. i believe it will be easier for me to find jobs or further my studies abroad than it will be for students on the mainland," she said.