单项选择题

Everyone knows about straight-A students. They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull and diligent students, their noses always stuck in a book. How, then, do we account for Paul Melendres Melendres, now a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He joined the soccer and basketball teams of his school, exhibited at the science fair, was chosen for the National Honor Society and he achieved straight A’s in all his classes.
How do super-achievers like Melendres do it Brains aren’t the only answer. "Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students," declares Herbert Walberg, professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies of super-achieving students. "Knowing how to make the most of your innate abilities counts for more. Infinitely more."
Hard work isn’t the whole story, either. "It’s not how long you sit there with the books open," said one of the many a students we interviewed. "It’s what you do while you’re sitting." Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates.
The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.
Set priorities. Top students brook no intrusions on study time. Once the books are open or the computer is booted up, phone calls go unanswered, TV shows unwatched, snacks ignored. Study is business; business comes before recreation.
Study anywhere—or everywhere. A cross-country runner who worked out every day used the time to memorize biology terms. Another student posted a vocabulary list by the medicine cabinet and learned a new word every day while brushing his teeth.
Get organized. In high school, McCray ran track, played rugby and was in the band and orchestra. "I was so busy. I couldn’t waste time looking for a pencil or missing paper. I kept everything right where I could put my hands on it," he says.
Among the students we interviewed, study times were strictly a matter of personal preference. Some worked late at night when the house was quiet. Others awoke early. Still others studied as soon as they came home from school when the work was fresh in their minds. All agreed, however, on the need for consistency. What is the topic of the passage