《六级邪修速成教程》


 第1章 咸鱼矫正系统绑定完毕

    【你相信努力就有收获吗？】


    岑越崎眨了眨眼，拿着手机翻来覆去检查，心说这是什么玩意儿，难道又被病毒入侵了？


    垃圾手机oppoA5，马上就把你换掉。岑越崎磨刀霍霍向手机，对着它露出一个残忍的笑。


    然而无论怎么操作，手机都毫无反应，死死停留在这个界面，只有两个醒目的选项。


    【相信】


    【不相信】


    难道非要等他选完才能恢复正常吗？岑越崎盯着屏幕，陷入思考。


    选什么呢……手指在两个选项间逡巡，最终缓缓移到【相信】那端。


    下一秒选了【不相信】。


    屏幕骤然一黑，陷入死寂。


    解决掉这个屏幕bug，岑越崎耐心等待手机重启，毫不在意刚才的小插曲。


    相信努力？开什么玩笑，那不是资本家PUA廉价工人的说辞吗。


    这样的鸡汤他随手拈来好不——一个人最好的状态好就是坚持不懈的努力，用行动积蓄向上的力量……唯有持之以恒、久久为功，方能抵达梦想的彼岸。


    可是，凌晨3点在菜市场穿梭进货的摊主不努力？凌晨4点灯火阑珊的早餐店员工不努力？还是凌晨5点在瑟瑟寒风中打扫街道的环卫工人不努力？凌晨6点在操场大声晨读的高中生不努力？他们的意义在哪里，仅仅为了感动世人片刻吗？


    再或者，以他自己举例，每日废寝忘食学习英语，他得到了什么？


    秃掉的头发，空洞的眼神，颓丧的精神，还是屡战屡败的成绩单？


    他还是回去继承家产吧，脑力劳动并不适合他。


    就在这时，手机震动起来，屏幕再次亮起，仍是一行字：


    【你相信超现实力量的存在吗？ 】


    岑越崎不耐烦地想你到底有完没完啊，装神弄鬼地究竟想干什么。倔脾气腾的一下上来，指尖重重戳向【不相信】。


    他要和这个垃圾广告死磕到底。


    【咸鱼矫正系统绑定成功】


    这踏马什么系统，岑越崎简直不敢相信自己的眼睛。


    咸鱼？是在说他吗。他摆烂躺平影响谁了，到底是谁红眼病犯了才故意和自己过不去跑来为难自己的。岑越崎百思不思其解。


    或许是猜出了岑越崎的想法，手机再次缓缓浮现一行字：


    【地球就是因为你们这样毫不努力毫无建树的人太多才导致崩坏的，你难道不反思一下自己的问题吗？】


    哦，好，千错万错都是他的错。岑越崎懒得辩驳，在界面的检索栏输入问题：


    那你们打算怎么改造我？


    【将根据宿主的日常行为模式生成专属改造方案……检测到宿主尚处于学生阶段，将开启学习改造模式，在学习中体验努力的意义。】


    【任务1发布：请宿主完成六级真题模拟测试，倒计时6h】


    试卷下一秒就出现在岑越崎的手中。


    他摩挲着纸质，暗暗感叹，和真实试卷别无他异，系统竟然没有开玩笑。


    他已经好久没有学过英语了，自上次突击六级失败后，连备考资料都不记得堆在哪个角落了。


    心里想着要不检测一下自己的实力，他掏出支笔开始做了起来。

 第2章 24年12月阅读真题（上 ）

    Are otten crops the future of food?


    {A} On a small fruit farm near the Straits of Malacca（马六甲海峡）, Lim Kok Ann is down to just one tree growing kedondong, a crunchy, sour berry that Malaysians mostly use in pickles and salads."It''s not very well-known," says the 45-year-old, who is instead focusing on longan berries and pineapples（凤梨）, which have bigger markets."We have to grow what is profitable," he says.


    {B} But less than an hour away in the Malaysian countryside, inside three giant, silver domes, scientists are trying to change the future of food.They''re pushing the boundaries （界限）of what humans eat by growing and processing so-called ''alternative'' crops 一 such as kedondong.At the headquarters of global research centre Crops For the Future (CFF) this particular under-used fruit has been turned into a sugar-free juice, high in vitamin C and getting top marks in sensory evaluations（感官评估）."Anything you see here is a otten crop," says Sayed Azam-Ali of the abundant plants weaving through the gardens of CFF outside Malaysia''s capital Kuala Lumpur.


    {C} Prof Azam-Ali explains that just four crops -wheat, maize（玉米）, rice and soybean（大豆） -provide two-thirds of the world''s food supply."We''re dependent on these four," he says."But actually there''s 7,000 crops we''ve been farming for thousands of years. We ignore all of those."Researchers are trying to unlock the potential of these ignored crops -plants they describe as otten, under-used or ''alternative'' as they are displaced by increasingly uniform diets fuelled by processed ingredients from the major crops.


    {D} It''s a timely quest.The food sector （部门）is already responsible for nearly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions.By 2050 it estimates the world must produce 50% more food to feed the projected global population of 10 billion. Meeting this demand without contributing to climate change calls for urgent solutions.


    {E}otten crops hold key answers.By investing in neglected local plants, countries can reduce their reliance on imported crops and their carbon-heavy supply chains.


    Bringing back the variety of crops humans once ate also boosts food security at a time warming climates threaten existing crops.On top of that otten crops are among the most climate-resilient（气候区） and nutritious, argues Azam-Ali. His summary is plain: "Dietary diversification（多样化） is critical to the future of humanity."


    {F} Food security experts （食品安全专家）agree."There is no food insecurity in the world, there is food ignorance," says Cecilia Tortajada, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Water Policy at the National University of Singapore."Whenever we have native crops we tend to disregard them as if they were not valuable but they are," she adds.


    {G} Azam-Ali knows that scepticism （怀疑）firsthand.（直接的）He came across alternative crops in the 1980s through the work of women farmers he met in Niger.The then-PhD student remembers marvelling （惊奇于）at the crops they grew in their backyards, without the benefits of technology, to feed their families when the big crops failed.He saw a tremendous opportunity to build alternative food systems.But "the resistance （阻力）was enormous" , he recalls.


    {H} Undeterred, he ploughed on（继续前进）.Project after project helped prove these crops were viable in different environments as alternatives to the staple （主要作物）ones.But the question of whether these crops would be marketable remained."That''s the critical thing," he says.In one of the centre''s domes, food technologist Tan Xinlin uses powdered moringa leaves in place of some wheat flour to bake a cake lower in gluten and higher in nutrients.Tan''s job is to create recipes（食谱） with these still-unfamiliar ingredients that will appeal to both local and international tastes.In recent years she has used some of the otten crops grown at CFF, such as moringa and bambara groundnut, to make everything from instant（速溶） soup to Indian snacks."I try to modernise （现代化）otten crops instead of using old recipes" , says Tan, who is also a trained chef.It''s a strategy to appeal to the world''s growing middle class who are increasingly turning to the fast and processed food industries.It''s also a way to help counter perceptions（观念） of local crops as "old or poor people''s food" or as inferior "women''s crops", adds Tan.


    {I} The roots of these connotations about local foods can run deep.The bambara groundnut, a protein-rich native crop of sub-Saharan Africa that is also grown in parts of southeast Asia, can trace its marginalisation（边缘化） to colonial（殖民化） rule（统治）."African women who grew bambara groundnut were actually punished for growing it" , says Azam-Ali."Colonial powers said you can''t grow it because there''s no oil. We can''t get a market for it" .But today the bambara murukku is one of CFF''s best-reviewed foods and they are aiming to get it into grocery stores, pointing to the success of crops like quinoa（藜麦） to potential investors.Some 30 years ago, quinoa was virtually unheard of outside its native mountains in Bolivia and Peru.Today the nutritious grain is found on the menus of lavish（豪华） restaurants across the world.


    {J} Measuring crops by nutrition instead of yield is at the heart of the otten foods enterprise（企业）.Ever since the "green revolution" of the 1960s, high-yielding crops have dominated modern agriculture.That was in part a crucial response to devastating （毁灭性的）famines（饥荒） at a time when the world needed to increase its food supply.Today "nutrition is bing a time bomb" , says Azam-Ali, as growing carbon dioxide levels strip crops of their minerals（矿物质）.Instead of bio-fortifying（生物强化） major crops we should be investing in those otten crops that are already more nutritious, he asserts.


    {K} In the bowels of CFF''s third dome, lab manager Gomathy Sethuraman opens a window into the centre''s "crown jewels" , revealing vines （葡萄藤）of winged beans growing under a bright yellow light.It''s one of three chambers where scientists are studying the impact of higher temperatures and carbon dioxide levels on the nutritional make-up of alternative crops.


    This research is "the game changer" , says Azam-Ali, ensuring that "future foods" are also the healthiest ones in warmer climates.


    {L} There is a growing global momentum （动力）around otten foods, says Danielle Nierenberg, president of Food Tank, a US-based think tank.Other than CFF, which bills itself as the world''s first research centre dedicated solely to under-utilised crops, there are other key groups championing agricultural diversity including Crop Trust, Slow Food, Icrisat and Bioversity International.Add to that more middle-ie consumers searching for nutritious foods and others eager to try the unprocesse- d foods their grandparents once ate, she says.


    {M} But the rising interest in otten foods in some quarters is overtaken （压到）by the global spread of Western-style diets heavy in sugar, fat and processed foods in others.


    {N} A key obstacle（障碍） to promoting fading local crops in Malaysia, for example, is "the obsession （困扰）with imported products" , says Jenifer Kuan, co-founder of a restaurant that champions （冠军）locally-sourced food in an affluent suburb of Kuala Lumpur.Customers at Sitka, regarded as the pioneer（先驱） in the country''s small farm-to-table dining scene, still seek foreign ingredients as a "status symbol" , she says.


    {0} The argument for otten foods feels intuitive（直观的）. Some analysts say it is in fact inevitable."Climate change is going to mean almost certainly tastes are going to be forced to change," says Tim Lang, profess- or of food policy at City University of London.


    We "have to get used to eating other crops" as yields of staple crops fall, he says.


    36.According to a senior researcher, we will have secure food supply if we rid ourselves of ignorance about native crops.


    37.Most of the world''s food supplyes from a tiny number out of thousands of crops that have been grown for centuries.


    38.To provide their family with food when the staple（主食） crops failed, some African women farmers grew local crops in their backyards.


    39.High-yielding crops have occupied a dominant position in modern agriculture since the green revolution in the last century.


    40.Growing alternative crops proved feasible in a variety of environments, but the critical question was whether they would be marketable.


    41.According to a professor, when the yields of staple crops fall, we will have to adapt to eating foods from alternativ- e crops.


    42.Urgent measures have to be taken to provide food for the projected world population without aggravating the climate.


    43.Colonial rule marginalised local crops by punishing Africans who grew them.44.


    As existing crops are endangered by global warming, we can increase food security by bringing back the many otten food crops.


    45.Researchers are trying to find out how higher temperatures and co2 levels affect the nutritionalposition of alternative crops.


    Key:1-5 FCGJH 6-10 ODREK


    The Free-Trade Paradox（悖论）


    {A} Trade is one of the policy areas where the hostility（敌意） that exists between populists （平民主义的）and classical（古典自由主义） liberals is most visible（明显的）.Free-traders point to the undeniable good that tariff-free （免税）trade has done for consumers across the world and to the observable （显著的）alleviation （缓和）of poverty in corners of the world where previously closed markets have been opened up.Protectionists（保护主义者） point to the domestic producers who''ve paid the price for this globalized economy in the form of lost livelihoods and hollowed-out （掏空munities.


    {B} The ongoing conservative（保守派） civil war often degenerates（恶化） into content-free tribal warfare（部落）, but trade is a rare excption.There are substantial（大量的）, thought-out policy proposals（建议） on both sides of the argument.


    {C}Consequently, trade as a topic of discussion provides an opportunity for liberals and populists to have a real meeting of minds.Fruitful debates might actually take place in this area, as opposed to the familiar ritual （仪式）we''ve be accustomed to of condemnation（谴责） met with counter-condemnation.（相反）


    {D} Strange as it might sound, the problem with trade in the modern world isn''t a matter of dollars and cents.It''s a matter of false consciousness.This observation is bound to set Marxist（马克思主义者） alarm bells ringing in the minds of some readers, but it was first made by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1840.


    {E} Tracking the economic development of mankind from primitive to modern societies, Tocqueville observed a paradox （悖论）unfolding over the centuries as economic realities and human experience of those realities strayed（迷路） further and further from each other.In primitive societies, he notes, the division of labor was as yet undeveloped for the most part, requiring each person, family, or tribe to be relatively independent when it came to meeting their own basic material needs. Men built their own dwellings（住处）, farmed their own land, tended to their own livestock.This is not to deny that basic forms of trade took place, but, for the most part, our primitive ancestors lived fairly self-reliant（自力更生）, if crushingly poor, lives.


    {F} However, the exclusively local and face-to-face nature of economic and politicalanization in the ancient and prehistoric（史前的） worlds constantly impressed upon these primitive peoples the uncontrollable reality of others and their needs.As Tocqueville notes, "as soon as a man begins to deal withmon affairs （公共事务）in public, he begins to perceive that he is not so independent of his fellow men as he had first imagined, and that in order to obtain their support he must often lend them his cooperation."


    {G}At the advent of the modern world, the division of labor spread further and further throughout society. Each person became more and more dependent on others for their basic needs.And yet, robbed （剥夺）of the engagement with our neighbors and with our localmunities that our ancestors were forced into by circumstance, we feel ourselves to be more and more independent of one another.As we be more and more dependent on others, we be less and less conscious of our dependence on others.This is the paradox of trade in the modern world.


    {H} The false consciousness that this paradox generates causes havoc （浩劫）on the debates we have about free trade.There is scarcely a singlemodity in any American household that isn''t dependent for its manufacture and sale, through one supply chain or another, on scores of different people spread out across the entire globe. But as Tocqueville already foresaw in 1840, we do not feel dependent on these strangers for our way of life. No sense of the dependence of our own material welfare on their work ever strikes our national consciousness. We rarely contemplate（沉思） the globalized avenues （途径）of free trade with gratitude.


    {I}There are two reasons for this.The first, to put it bluntly（说白了）, is money.Money allows us to purchase the work of others without giving any thought to them as human beings.Unlike our ancestors in their primitive townships, we rarely have to meet face-to-face the people who''ve invented, built, shipped, or supplied our goods.No relationship has to be built before an exchange can take place.Simply agree on a price, and you can have any goods you wish without taking a second thought for the human being involved on the other side of the transaction（交易）.In this way, money makes us feel more independent than we actually are. Each of us senses the hold that it has over our fellows.We know that if we bid（出价） highly enough we can buy ourselves out of the time-consuming labor of building relationships.Money is kind of like magic in that way.


    It gives us a set of rituals（规定程序） to perform （执行）and promises that if we do so we''ll be able to wield power over others.The illusion（错觉） is created that having enough money to buy something is the equivalent （等价物）of knowing how to make it yourself.Gratitude for the anonymous men and women who make up the supply chain rarely makes its way into our consciousness.


    {J} Anonymity（匿名性）, in fact, is the second root cause of the free-trade paradox.


    Modernity has emancipated （解放）everyone from the limits of location andmunity.


    By and large, when we trade, we trade with strangers; when we vote, we vote for strangers; when we watch, read, or listen to stories, the tellers of the tales are strangers.As opposed to the ancestors Tocquevillepares （比较）us to, we do not know the people with whom we have to do, in either the economic or the political sphere.This is simply the shadow side of the miracle of markets, which, for the frst time in history, have allowed strangers to look after each other.


    They''ve also allowed each of us to live more and more of our lives exclusively（唯一的） as strangers to other people. This is how Tocqueville——rather pessimistically（悲观地）——describes us: Each, standing apart, is like a stranger to the destiny（命运） of others; his children and personal friends forming for him the entire human race.As for the remainder of his fellow citizens, he is beside them, but he does not see them.He touches them, but he does not feel them.He exists only in and for himself.


    {K} The last sentence but one is as apt （恰当的）a summary as one could hope toe by of how each of us functions in the modern economy: "He touches them, but he does not feel them."


    {L} This is the greatest challenge facing defenders of free trade.It''s exceedingly（极其） difficult for human beings to feel gratitude toward strangers, and the global marketplace that has made us so rich has also made us strangers to one another.Our brains are hardwired（天生） for tribal （部落）life, and tribes do not take kindly to strangers.


    Impressing a sense of dependence upon and gratitude toward foreign strangers is therefore an uphill task.


    {M} If free-traders（自由贸易者） are going to win policy arguments in the future, they''ll have to find a way of ing bonds of affection （喜爱）between American consumers and foreign producers.Only by de-anonymizing（除去） the men and women who supply us with the goods and services we enjoy from overseas and by creating a sense of solidarity and relationship across borders（超越国界） that transcends economic interest can free trade win the day.Otherwise, the inborn biological upper hand that protectionists （贸易保护主义者）have in the form of nationalist （民族）solidarity（团结） is bound to win the day at the ballot box.


    1. People became more and more reliant （依赖）on others for basic needs as they entered the modern world even though they might feel less so.


    2.On the topic of trade, productive debates might be possible, in contrast to the familiar mutual （共同的）condemnation（谴责） in discussing other issues.


    3. We feel greater independence than we actually possess because money allows us to buy things without building any relationships.


    4.The trouble with today''s trade stems（起源于） from misconceptions（误解） rather than money.


    5.For their arguments to prevail（盛行）, advocates of free trade must try to e bonds of affection between consumers at home and producers overseas.


    6.According to Tocqueville, unlike our ancestors, we and the people we do trade with are strangers to each other.


    7.In primitive societies, people had to rely mostly on themselves to meet their personal needs.


    8.Fewmodities（商品） in American homes are not reliant on people abroad in the process of manufacture and sale.


    9.Protectionists argue against free trade by referring to the losses suffered by domestic producers andmunities.


    10.It is extremely hard to make people feel dependent on and grateful to strangers overseas.


    Key:1-5 GCIDM 6-10 JEHAL


    It is irrefutable（无可辩驳的） that employees know the difference between right and wrong.


    So why don''t more employees intervene （干涉）when they see someone exhibiting at-risk behavior in the workplace?


    There are a number of factors that influence whether people intervene.


    First, they need to be able to see a risky situation beginning to unfold. Second, thepany''s culture needs to make them feel safe to speak up.


    And third, they need to have themunication（交流） skills to say something effectively. This is not strictly a workplace problem; it''s a growing problem off the job too. Every day people witness things on the street and choose to stand idly（袖手旁观） by.


    This is known as the bystander effect（旁观者效应） -the more people who witness an event, the less likely anyone in that group is to help the victim.


    The psychology behind this is called diffusion （责任分散）of responsibility.


    Basically, the larger the crowd, the more people assume that someone else will take care of it - meaning no one effectively intervenes or acts in a moment of need.


    This crowd mentality（心态） is strong enough for people to evade（逃避） their known responsibilities.But it''s not only frontline（前线） workers who don''t make safety interventions in the workplace.


    There are also instances where supervisors do not intervene either.


    When a group of employees sees unsafe behavior not being addressed at a leadership level it creates the precedent（先例）hat this is how these situations should be addressed, thus defining the safety culture for everyone.


    Despite the fact that workers are encouraged to intervene when they observe unsafe operations, this happens less than half of the time.


    Fear is the ultimate factor in not intervening.


    There is a fear of penalty（罚金）, a fear that they''ll have to do more work if they intervene.


    Unsuccessful attempts in the past are another strong contributing factor to why people don''t intervene —— they tend to prefer to defer（推迟） that action to someone else for all future situations.


    On many worksites（工地）,petent workers must be appointed.


    Part of their job is to intervene when workers perform a task without the proper equipment or if the conditions are unsafe.


    &nbsppetent （有能力的）workers are also required to stop work from continuing when there''s a danger. Supervisors also play a critical role.


    Even if apetent person isn''t required, supervisors need a broad set of skills to not only identify and alleviate workplace hazards（减轻） but also build a safety climate within their team that supports intervening and openmunication among them.


    Beyondpetent （胜任的）workers and supervisors, it''s important to educate everyone within theanization that they are obliged （必须）to intervene if they witness a possible unsafe act, whether you''re a designatedpetent person, a supervisor or a frontline worker.


    1.


    What is one of the factors contributing to failure of intervention in face of risky behavior in the workplace?


    A) Slack supervision style.


    B) Unfavorable workplace culture.


    C) Unforeseeable risk.


    D) Blockedmunication.


    2.


    What does the author mean by "diffusion of responsibility" (Line 4, Para. 3)?


    A)The more people are around, the more they need to worry about their personal safety.


    B)The more people who witness an event, the less likely anyone will venture to participate.


    C)The more people idling around on the street, the more likely they need taking care of.


    D) The more people are around, the less chance someone will step forward to intervene.


    3.


    What happens when unsafe behavior at the workplace is not addressed by the leaders?


    A)No one will intervene when they see similar behaviors.


    B) Everyone will see it as the easiest way to deal with crisis.


    C) Workers have to take extra caution executing their duties.


    D) Workers are left to take care of the emergency themselves.


    4.


    What is the ultimate reason workers won''t act when they see unsafe operations?


    A) Preference（倾向） of deferring the action to others.


    B) Anticipation of leadership intervention.


    C) Fear of being isolated by coworkers.


    D) Fear of having to do more work.


    5.


    What is critical to ensuring workplace safety?


    A) Workers be trained to operate their equipment properly.


    B) Workers exhibiting at-risk behavior be strictly disciplined.


    C) Supervisors create a safety environment for timely intervention.


    D) Supervisors conduct effectivemunication with frontline workers.


    Key: B-D-A-D-C


    【正确率结算中……本次正答率为55%，即将进入惩罚机制……】


    【倒计时：10,9, 8……】


    岑越崎心道不好，然而还未等他反应过来，便感到一阵彻骨的疼痛自心口传来。


    他瞬间脸色惨白，豆大的汗珠自额前滑下，手掌攥住胸口的衣料，仿佛试图缓解这钻心之痛。


    然而无济于事。仿佛有一千根钢针订入，又好似有双无形的手肆意撕扯，几乎无法呼吸，也没办法发出任何音节。


    不知过了多久，岑越崎只觉得仿佛过了一个世纪。疼痛撤去，他如获重生般瘫在椅子靠背，大口大口喘气着。


    缓了足足半个小时，岑越崎终于找回一丝清明，然而指尖仍不止地颤抖着。


    太痛了。岑越崎发誓他这辈子都不要再经历那种惩罚。


    哆哆嗦嗦地拿起笔，岑越崎捧着书，第一次主动开始背起了单词。

 第3章 24年12月阅读真题（下）

    “晓来谁染霜林醉？总是学子泪。”


    岑越崎轻声叹气，举目看向图书馆窗外挺拔的白桦，金黄地落叶随风簌簌飘落，落在地上，为大地铺了层新毯。


    秋意甚浓，但岑越崎无暇他顾。


    系统又再一次发布了任务，学海无涯，他好想跳。


    【任务2:请宿主在6h内完成本次阅读真题，并保证正答率高于60%。】


    抬头瞄了眼时钟，岑越崎惊恐的发现不知何时已悄然过去两个小时，咬牙翻开试卷，强迫自己专注眼前密密麻麻的单词。


    Imagine you''re an alien sent to Earth to document（记录） the behaviour of the mammals inhabiting the pl. You stumble （踌躇）into a movie theatre that''s showing the latest Hollywood horror film. Several dozen humans are gathered together in a dark, undecorated （未装饰的）room.


    They''re all staring at a rectangular（矩形的） area on which patterns of light change rapidly. They are clearly in a state of high arousal（兴奋）.


    Their heart rate is elevated（加快）, they occasionally glance around nervously, and they sometimes jump collectively（全体的） in their seats, and emit（发出） high-pitched （尖锐的）warning calls.


    Eventually, the lightse up and the rectangular screen（矩形屏幕） goes black.


    The humans stand up and leave the room, chatting and laughing, and showing signs of pleasure.


    Why do these humans voluntarily（自动的） expose themselves to what appears to be a deeply unpleasant experience? And why do they react（反应） so strongly to those patterns of light on a screen?


    I am fascinated by the paradox（悖论） of horror - the strange fact that many people seek out scary entertainment. I think the answer to the puzzle lies in human nature.


    My research suggests that we humans evolved to find pleasure in situations that allow us to experience negative emotions in a safe context.


    You can see these elements of horror in children''s games.


    Take hide-and-seek for example, which is a simulation of a predator-prey interaction.


    The kid hides and the □□ pretends to be a predator, searching for the child while howling like a dangerous beast.


    This simulation（模拟） gives the child crucial （重要的）information about how to avoid bing prey, and children tend to find that kind of activity deeply satisfying, presumably because it gives them a safe experience of a potentially catastrophic （大灾难）scenario（场景）.


    They find it pleasurable（快乐的）, and pleasure is evolution''s（演进） way of motivating us toward adaptive behaviour.


    Horror is pleasurable to many people because it lets us play with negative emotions and develop coping strategies. We learn what it feels like to be truly afraid, and we learn how to handle negative emotion. How, then, does horror work?


    My research suggests that horror works by exploiting （利用）an ancient set of biological defense （防卫）mechanisms - an evolved fear system, which we share with other animals.


    But humans are uniquely imaginative, and we use our evolved imagination to travel into virtual worlds that are full of danger.


    There are good reasons for watching a horror film, even if you''re not a loyal horror fan.


    If you make it through the film in one piece, you''ll probably experience a strong sense of mastery（掌握）, a sense that you are able to make it through an appalling （可怕的）experience.


    Anyway, watching a horror film makes you better at handling your own fear, and who knows when that will be critically relevant?


    46.


    The alien finds the audience in the movie theatre clearly in a state of__________


    A) total mindfulness


    B) extreme excitement


    C) spiritual elevation


    D) intense curiosity


    47.


    Why do many people seek out scary entertainment, according to the author''s research?


    A)They gain experience in oveing horror in real life.


    B)They find joy in going through simulated horrible experiences.


    C)They have learned from hide-and-seek as kids the thrill involved.


    D)They have evolved to gain pleasure in escaping life-threatening situations.


    48.


    What do children learn from hide-and-seek?


    A)How to avoid falling prey to an attacker.


    B) How to simulate a predator-prey interaction.


    C) How to keep themselves from catastrophic errors.


    D) How to turn a dangerous scenario into a safe one.


    49.


    Why is horror gratifying （取悦）to many people?


    A)It reminds them of an ancient set of biological defence mechanisms.


    B)It triggers their imagination to travel into dangerous virtual worlds.


    C)It allows them to learn what fear feels like and how to tackle it.


    D)It activates their evolved fear system and their unique fantasy.


    50.


    What will one experience if they watch a horror film through without being hurt?


    A)strong sense of clear relevance.


    B)A profound sense of good fortune.


    C) A profound sense of intense relief.


    D)A strong sense of being in control.


    Key: BBACD


    An awakening has been taking place in the physical world against the beauty model that has been dictated to us for years.


    But in the digital arena, social media determines what is considered beautiful. The two opposing struggles are taking place in parallel.（同线进行着）


    In the physical world, the struggle goes against the underlying pressure exerted （外露的）on women to conform to an unrealistic（不切实际的） beauty ideal.


    As part of the struggle, various media outlets have presented women whose bodies don''t correspond to the so-called（所谓的） ideal.


    All those women who had previously been excluded （排除的）from the covers of magazines, television series and the public agenda, have be "legitimate."（合法）


    At the same time, a group of influencers have begun to upload to social media photos of themselves without make- up, and even photos in which they highlight supposed flaws（缺点）.


    Technology has reshaped our beauty ideal and is doing a great jobmunicating that message to the masses.


    One of the bizarre（奇异的） legacies（遗产） of the past decade is the popularity of the "cy look," （半机械人）which illustrates （描绘）what Americans will look like in 2050.


    The cy look spread rapidly.


    Today, however, the Instagram face has be the new beauty ideal.


    The internalization（内在化的） of accepted beauty norms is much more effective when there is active involvement in the learning process.


    The active involvement of users is reflected in the gamified （游戏化）interaction offered by the social media platforms- the ability to like, write ament,pare, share.


    Once the desired （期望的）beauty ideal has been internalized（内化）， users are given tools or features to change their appearance to suit the accepted beauty ideal such as editing the image, choosing the ideal filter（滤镜）, the right background. A survey conducted in the United States revealed that more than 50% filter the images before posting（公布） them.


    And you will not be surprised to hear that the majority of them are women.


    One of the significant consequences of obsessive（强迫的） filtering is the emerging tendency to treat oneself as an object （物化）to be observed and valued, in the same way another person observes and judges from the side. The effect of the filters is already far beyond amiable amusement.


    The filters and the entire game played on theworks affect the mental health of the users.


    According to a study, apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and FaceTune allow users to achieve a level of perfection that was previously only observed in beauty magazines.


    Even though humanity has always cherished beauty, in the last decade our obsession with looks has reached an unprecedented （空前的）peak（高峰）.


    The time spent on social media creates an urge to achieve an impossible beauty ideal so powerful that the only thing that can fix it is not cosmetic（美容的） intervention, but mental health care.


    1.


    What do we learn about beauty in the digital arena（舞台）?


    A)It dictates（决定） the taste of digital media.


    B)It has been in the making for years.


    C)It has ushered （带来）in a new awakening.


    D)It is defined by social media.


    2.


    What does the passage say about beauty in the physical world?


    A)Women are under constant pressure to keep up with beauty models


    B)Women are encouraged to pursue a beauty ideal that has never existed.


    C)A fight is going on to remove pressure on women to conform（符合） to an absurd beauty ideal.


    D) Media outlets have begun to present as beauty models trendy women without any makeup.


    3.


    What do we learn from the passage about the Instagram face?


    A)It is now regarded as the new beauty ideal.


    B)It is what most women will go after in 2050.


    C)It is being much talked about on social media.


    D)It is a perfect illustration of the ultimate beauty.


    4.


    What has obsessive filtering resulted in?


    A)A good many women striving to reach an impossible level of perfection.


    B)An urge to turn the entire game played on thework to one''s advantage.


    C)A tendency to regard one''s body as an object of observation and judgment.


    D)An increasing number of women filtering their images before uploading them.


    5.


    What does the author want to emphasize at the end of the passage regarding Americans'' obsession with looks?


    A) Cosmetic （美容）surgery should be made more accessible to the masses.


    B)Psychological intervention should be introduced to alleviate it.


    C)Their time spent on social media should be strictly controlled.


    D)Its root cause should be meticulously examined and analyzed.


    Key: DCACB


    One hundred thirty-five students, four teachers, one giant classroom: This is what 9th grade looks like at Westwood High School, in Mesa, Arizona''s largest school system.


    There, an innovative teaching model has taken hold, and is spreading to other schools in the district （区域）and beyond.


    Five years ago, faced with high teacher turnover（流动） and declining （下降）student enrollment（登记）, Westwood''s leaders decided to try something different.


    Working with professors at Arizona State University''s teachers college, they piloted（指导） a classroom model known as team teaching, which allows teachers to dissolve（消除） the walls that separate their classes across physical or grade divides.


    The teachers share large groups of students ——sometimes 100 or more —— and rotate （轮换）between group instruction, one-on-one interventions, small study groups, or whatever the teachers as a team agree is a priority that day.


    What looks at times like chaos is in fact a carefully orchestrated（精心安排） plan: Each morning, the Westwood teams meet to hammer out a personalized program for every student the team will focus on that day.


    By giving teachers more opportunity to collaborate, Mesa''s administrators （管理者）hoped to fill staffing gaps and boost teacher morale （士气）and retention.（保留）


    Initial research suggests the gamble （赌博）could pay off.


    "Teachers are doing fantastic things, but it''s very rare a teacher walks into another room to see what''s happening,-" said Andi Fourlis, superintendent （负责人）of Mesa Public Schools.


    "Our profession is so slow to advance （发展）because we are working in isolation."


    Of course, overhauling teaching approaches can''t fix all the frustrations（挫折） teachers have, such as low pay, but early results from Mesa show team teaching may be helping to reverse （逆转）low morale.


    In a survey of hundreds of the district''s teachers, researchers found those who worked on teams reported greater job satisfaction, more frequent collaborations with colleagues, and more positive interactions with students. Another benefit of teams, teachers say, is that they can help each other improve their instruction.


    During one planning session, English teacher Jeff Hall shared a performance （绩效）appraisal （评估）with a science teacher: Her recent lecture on something she called "the central dogma （教条）of biology" had bewildered （使困惑）him and their other teammates.


    "If the science is too confusing for me, can you imagine the frustration you feel as kids?" Hall said.


    But the science teacher, he said, wouldn''t have known about the confusion on her own.


    The model is not for everyone.


    Some teachers approached （主动提出）about volunteering for a team have said they prefer to work alone.


    Team teaching can also be a scheduling nightmare（噩梦）, especially at schools like Westwood where only some staff work in teams.


    There are also thorny（棘手的） questions like how to evaluate four teachers on the performance of 135 students.


    But for the time being（就目前而言）, it seems to be working（有效的）.


    1.


    What do we learn about team teaching from the passage?


    A)It is generally conducted in classrooms without walls.


    B)It allows students to choose teachers they favor most.


    C)It prioritizes peer work over classroom instruction.


    D)It is closely coordinated despite seeming confusion.


    2.


    What does initial research suggest regarding Westwood''s innovative teaching model?


    A)It could help raise teachers'' pay.


    B)It could turn out to be a success.


    C)It could cut down overall costs.


    D)It could end up like a gamble.


    3.


    What did superintendent Andi Fourlis say about the teaching profession?


    A) Morale cannot be boosted until teaching models are overhauled（彻底改革）.


    B)Teachers are simply too busy to visit classes of their colleagues.


    C) Progress is slow due to lack of collaboration among teachers.


    D) Teachers often do fantastic things without being noticed.


    4.


    What does the author want to show by citing English teacher Jeff Hall''s experience?


    A) English teachers and science teachers areplementary in performing their tasks.


    B)A teacher of arts and letters ispletely puzzled by what a science teacher teaches.


    C)The new teaching model helps inform the teacher how their instruction is received（被吸收）.


    D) Science teachers will hardly know the confusion they create without a performance appraisal.


    5.


    What does the author think is one of the difficult problems in implementing the new teaching model?


    A)What to do with teachers working alone.


    B)What to include in teaching schedules.


    C) How to recruit（招募） volunteers for a team.


    D) How to assess（评估） each teacher''s performance.


    Key: DBCCD


    What is a super blood wolf moon?


    A) Blue moons, rose moons, supermoons. what is “Catch This Weekend''s AMAZING SUPERMOON,” one headline will announce. “ The Supermoon Isn''t Actually A Big Deal And You''re All Ruining Astronomy," another willplain（抱怨）.


    B) The latest example is the super blood wolf moon eclipse （月食）which sounds like the name of an emotional song（情歌） I would have performed a modern dance routine to in 9th grade, but is, in fact, an astronomical event set to occur on January 20. As we''ll explain below, there is nothing truly mysterious or otherwise special about this moon, and it will not look like a bloody wolf head in the sky or anything wild like that. We get these super lunar events by smashing（粉碎） together all the qualifiers（限定词） we''ve historically used to keep track of full moons throughout the year, and in the age of the inte we can get a little too enthusiastic.


    C)Consider this your go-to resource for all moon-gazing news. Here''s what you need to know about


    the latest lunar event.


    D) Look, it''s okay if you don''t know. There are probably loads of folks who walk around pretending（假装）they totally know why that thing in the sky seems to get bigger and smaller at regular intervals but who totally do not.


    E) The moon orbits Earth, and it''s tidally locked--that means it always shows us the same face,


    instead of spinning （旋转）around like our pl does. That''s why you can always see the man on the moon (or the moon rabbit, depending on your cultural preferences（文化偏好）) even as it spins（旋转） around us. But while the moon is big and bright in the sky when it''s full, that''s only because it''s reflecting light from the sun. But the moon is always moving, so it''s getting hit with sunlight at different angles. It''s invisible to us during the new moon, because our satellite（卫星，即月球） is parked（停留） right between us and the sun; the so-called dark side of the moon is lit up like Las Vegas, but the side we can see is in shadow. A full moon happens when the earth is right between the sun and the moon, so sunlight hits the part we can see. And all the other phases are just the transition from one of those extremes to the other,


    F) The moon isn''t always exactly the same distance from Earth, because its orbit isn''t perfectly


    Circular（圆形的）. We call the closest point perigee (近地点), and the most distant point is apogee (远地点).2018''s closest perigee and most distant apogee both happened in January, and the difference was about 30,000 miles.


    G) The reason you care about this ordinary change in distance is that it tums a moon super. When a full moon happens close to perigee, it''s going to look a bit bigger. Honestly, the difference is not that profound, but if you''re in a position to photograph the supermoon next to something that shows the slight increase in scale, it can look pretty cool. January''s super blood wolf moon eclipse is super because the date lines up with the closest the moon will get to us during January, but the moon won''t actually be at its closest for the year until February’s supermoon, which you can expect plenty of undue excitement over,


    H) Blood moons only occur during total lunar eclipses (which can happen a few times a year in any


    given location). When the moon slips （滑动）through our shadow, we give it a reddish （微红的）coloring. The moon can also look orange whenever it''s rising or setting, or if it hangs low in the horizon all night-the light bouncing off（反弹） of it has to travel through a thicker atmosphere there, which scatters （散射）more blue light away. But you''ll probably only see that deep, sinister red during an eclipse.


    I) A lot of headlines about moons are just ridiculous (you do not need to be particularly excited


    about a blue moon, it just looks like a regular full moon), but you should definitely（肯定） roll out （滚下）of bed to look at a blood moon if one is going to be visible in your region, even though they''re just lunar eclipses and not evidence of bloody battles between the sky gods.


    J)In March of 2018, we had our second “blue moon” of the year, to much acclaim（赞誉）. And while that''s not necessarily special in an oh-gosh-get-out-and-look-at-it way, it''s certainly special: a blue moon is a nickname for when two full moons fall in the same calendar month, and we hadn''t previously had two in one year since 1999. We won''t have it happen again until 2037. Astronomer David Chapman explained that this is merely a peculiarity of our calendar; once we stopped doing things based on the moon and started trying to follow the sun and the seasons, we stopped having one reliable full moon per month. The moon cycle is 29.53 days long on average, so in most months we still end up with a single new moon and a single full one. But every once in a while, one month steals （偷）a full moon from another. In 2018 (and in 1999, and again in 2037) both January and March stacked full moons on the first and last nights of the month, leaving February in the dark.


    K) Getting two blue moons a year is rare, but we have individual（个别的） blue moons every few years. Also, fun fact: not actually blue. A moon can indeed take on a moody（忧郁的） blue color, but this only happens when particles（粒子） of just the right size disperse （分散的）through the sky-and it has nothing to do with the moon''s status as " blue.” Big clouds of ash from volcanic eruptions or fires can do the trick, but it doesn''t happen often, and the stars would certainly have to align（排成一行） for two such rare instances to occur at once.


    L) You may have heard that the super special second blue moon of 2018 was also a Paschal（复活节） moon.


    This is true! That just means it was the first full moon of spring, which is often used to determine


    the date of Easter Sunday. All of this is just calendar nonsense and we refuse to go into it further.


    M) Sometimes you''ll see a headline that promises a moon with so many qualifiers it makes your


    head spin（头晕）. A super blue blood worm moon, perhaps? Or a super blood wolf moon? Lots of websites will tell you that “wolf moon” is the traditional name of the first full moon of the year in “Native American”cultures, which is kind of a weird（奇怪的） thing to claim given that there are 573 registered（注册的） Tribal Nations in the U.S. alone today, not to mention historically. The idea that hungry, howling wolves were such a universal constant in January that all of North America with its different cultures, geographies, and languages spontaneously （自发的）came up with the same nickname （绰号）is illogical.


    N) Many cultures have traditional names for the full moon in a given month or season, so there''s


    quite a list to draw from if you''re trying to really juice up （写）a story on a slightly-bigger-than- （稍微）average view of the moon. But these are all based on human calendars and activities and folklore（民间传说）; you will not go outside and see a pink moon in April, though I wish it were so.


    36. We cannot see the moon at times when it is positioned right between the carth and the sun.


    37.Volcanic eruptions may cause the moon to assume a moody blue color.


    38. The moon will be closest to the earth when the supermoon occurs in February.


    39. There is nothing unusual about the super blood wolf moon, which will bear no resemblance to a


    bloody wolf head.


    40. The moon will appear orange when the light reflecting from it travels through an atmosphere


    thicker than usual.


    41. It is contrary to logic to claim the name of wolf moon originates from the cultures of American


    Indians.


    42. As the moon''s orbit is not a hundred-percent circle, its distance from the earth changes.


    43. A full moon in a given month or season gets a specific name in different cultures.


    44. There are likely lots of people who know absolutely nothing about why the moon appears to


    change its size regularly but act like they know.


    45. When a full moon appears twice in the same month, it is nicknamed a blue moon.


    With population increases and global urbanisation （城市化）ever accelerating, much attention is focused on the sustainability（持续性） of our cities and scarce （缺乏的）attention is paid to the countryside.


    Rural life is associated with closely-knitmunities, sense of belonging, and a simple, tranquil （安静）life. Yet whilst some or all of these elements exist in the countryside, so do conservatism （保守主义者）and a lack of employment opportunities. And it is mostly due to the latter that ruralmunities are suffering, Attracted by the improved economics of urban areas, country-dwellers （乡村居民）across the world are moving out, contributing to the excessive crowdedness （拥挤的）of densely populated cities, and leaving the countryside in desolation.（荒芜）


    So how can the countryside ensure its survival among these changes, or should it at all? Due to both the distance between residences （住宅）and facilities and often intermittent public transport, those living in the countryside are heavier automobile users. Rural dwellers also use more energy maintaining their mostly detached（分离） buildings. We may be piled up （堆积）like boxes in the city, but this brings energy efficiency that the countryside cannot match. Rural energy requirements result in higher carbon emissions per person than in the city, so it is actually irresponsible to endorse（认可） such a lifestyle choice.


    Protecting the countryside is a hot topic. Those who have made their fortunes in the city often buy second homes in the countryside, visiting intermittently（间歇性的） for a sample of a supposedly（可能） simple life. The side-effect of this is that house prices are pushed up due to increased demand, leaving them unaffordable for local people. A solution has yet to be found for this challenge, for market forces are further forcing residents out of the countryside. For those who believe in rural preservation, this is deplorable（悲惨的）.


    Whilst an idealised view of the countryside ismon, the reality is that rural life has continuously （持续）evolved（进化）. Industrialisation（工业化） brought an increase in divisions of labour, changing social links between rural people. The inte has introduced once foreign cultures into the countryside. Improved travel connections and affordability have made the world more accessible, creating a‘global village''. Considering these changes, surely an evolving countryside is inevitable.


    Perhaps the countryside should also prepare itself for massive（巨大的） population increases in the future. With cities across the world growing rapidly, how will the current urban generation respond to the inevitable social changes of mass urbanisation? Will the longing for a simpler life be stronger, fueling a rural renaissance（复兴）?


    As the world continues to urbanise（城市化）, the voices calling for rural preservation （保护）may well grow louder. But change is inevitable. We know that the world is going to see new cities emerging from the dust and current cities growing into megacities（大城市）, but the future of the countryside is less clear.


    46. What has be of the rural areas nowadays?


    A) They are bing somewhat deserted（荒芜）


    B) They are being increasingly urbanised.


    C) They are closely-knitmunities.


    D) They are haunted (困扰）by conservatism.


    47. What does the author think of the rural lifestyle?


    A) It is unlikely to survive given the on-going changes.


    B) It is less energy-efficientpared to that in cities.


    C) It is highly dependent upon heavy automobiles.


    D) It is a choice more affluent people will endorse.


    48. What does the author think of rich urban residents buying a second home in the countryside?


    A) It is bound to mar the traditional rural life.


    B) It adversely（不利） impacts rural social stability.


    C) It hinders rural economies’ revitalisation.


    D) It is detrimental to rural preservation.


    49. What do we learn about the countryside with industrialisation and technological advances?


    A) It is destined （注定）to change gradually.


    B) It will present an idealised way of life.


    C) It is likely to embrace（接受） foreign cultures.


    D) It will be increasingly diversified.


    50.What does the author think of the future of the countrysidepared with cities?


    A) It is going to be harder for the locals.


    B) It is going to resemble that of cities.


    C) It is less likely to stay static.


    D) It is less easy to envisage（想象）.


    答案：ABDAD


    Statements, like “ beauty is in the eye of the beholder (观看者),”are rarely questioned. They''ve be so embedded（植入） in our consciousness that people think it''s absurd to think otherwise. It might be useful, however, to at least push back （推翻）on this assumption（假设） because people evaluate environment,situations, and people aesthetically（审美）. We may find that we still believe it is correct, but we may also find that there is a lot more to the situation than you suppose.


    A recent study exploring acsthetic taste was published in Cognition. The results from this study show that people agree very much in their aesthetic evaluation of natural objects, but they disagree （不一致）more about artifacts, or human-made objects.


    The study found that shared taste（共同品味） was mostmon for faces and natural landscapes, but leastmon among works of architecture （建筑）and art. The hypothesis （假设）is themonly pleasing features, like proportion （均衡）or symmetry（对称性）, are at work.


    Preferences for natural scenes might be learned through life experiences. Factors like habitability宜居性）, safety, and openness might be preferred as people develop. Some of the details of landscapes change, but the basics are moremon, e.g., water, open spaces, and signs of care.


    Art and architecture, unlike natural spaces, do not have the same level of exposure. So, people do not have the same level of shared taste.


    It''s possible that the lower amount of agreement in the shared taste of artifacts has to do more with elements of style, rather than‘ behavioral consequences.''


    All of the consequences seem reasonable (or at least possible), but I think there might be an interesting philosophical （哲学的）conclusion that they did not draw. It seems that there is an objective ground to our aesthetic preferences or evaluations. I am not saying this would mean beauty ispletely objective, just that there could possibly be general objective principles at work, i.e., beauty is not simply in the eye of the beholder（旁观者）.


    Nature exhibits some of the universal aesthetic features, such as radiance, in amon way throughout the world. It''s not exactly the same everywhere, but it ismon. For example, a sunset is similar enough in different places to warrant almost universal appeal.


    Possible universal principles of beauty-such as proportion（比例）, fittingness（合身）, radiance（光彩）, and others- are general categories, which allow for a wide array（大批） of embodiments. When people get involved in making artifacts in architecture or art, they apply these very general concepts in unique ways. But the way they applied the principle may not have universal appeal.


    This is why it''s important to experience diverse cultures and their artifacts because it opens us up to different ways of approaching or constructing（构建） beauty. And it is always good to question our assumptions（假定）.


    51. What does the passage say about the statement “beauty is in the eye of the bcholder"?


    A) It has hardly ever been disputed. （争议）


    B) It can be interpreted aesthetically.


    C) Many people have found it absurd.


    D) People have long been misled by it.


    52. What does a recent study exploring acsthetic taste show?


    A) Aesthetic tastes tend to differ from person to person.


    B) Natural beauty is rarely surpassed （超越）by artificial beauty.


    C) There is less consensus （一致）on objects shaped by human craft.


    D) There is general agreement on what is pleasing to the eye.


    53. Why do people differ in their aesthetic appraisal of artifacts?


    A) Theye out in a great varicty of designs.


    B) They lead to varying behavioral consequences,


    C) They take up much less natural space than landscapes.


    D) Theye into people''s view less often than natural spaces.


    54. What does the example of sunset tell about nature?


    A) It creates a powerful appeal through its brilliant radiance.


    B) It displays acsthetic traits in a similar way the world over.


    C) It embodies beauty with a wide array of aesthetic features.


    D) It establishes the principles of beauty in a number of ways.


    55.Why do artifacts not always hold universal appeal?


    A) The appreciation （欣赏）of their beauty is not subject to objective standards.


    B) The universal principle of beauty prevents a wide array of embodiments.


    C) The way their creators apply the principle of beauty may not be pleasing to everybody.


    D) Their creators interpret the universal principle of beauty each in their preferred way.


    答案：ACDBC


    他做完这套题，抬头望向窗外。微弱的光透过窗帘，落入他深邃的双眸。


    天亮了。

 第4章 24年6月阅读真题（上）

    【正答率结算中，本次正答率为61%，积分 200】


    几乎是赶在倒计时结束前的几分钟，岑越崎终于检查完毕提交了答案。


    直到听到系统的播报，岑越崎高度紧绷的神经终于放松片刻。


    全天的高强度学习带来的疲惫终于涌现，他伸了伸懒腰，倒在椅子上，又想起积分可以兑换奖励，立即打开了积分商城。


    只有第一栏是可兑换的，岑越崎眯着眼睛仔细浏览着。


    瞬时记忆10min，100积分。可迅速记住所见内容，过目不忘。


    毫不犹豫半响，岑越崎兑换了瞬时记忆，他太需要了。


    为了测试效果，他拿出单词书，随便翻开一页，扫一排陌生词汇，便闭上眼睛回忆起来。


    方才的单词清晰如刻，逐一在脑海中浮现，岑越崎甚至能记住他们排列的顺序、以及音标、词义。


    他猛地睁开眼，心跳加速，竟然真的有这样的能力存在。


    倒计时还剩9分21秒，岑越崎立即翻到下一页，猛猛背起了单词。


    终于，赶在结束之前背了40页单词。


    倒计时归零的瞬间，他闭上眼睛，刚刚背诵过的单词仍历历在目。岑越崎激动的搓着手，以此速度，背完六级所有词汇两个小时就够了。


    前所未有的满足感涌上心头，岑越崎燃气学习的熊熊之火。


    六级，这次他势在必得！


    The Curious Case of the Tree That Owns Itself


    A)In the city of Athens, Gia, there exists a rather curious local landmark a large white oak that is almost universally（普遍的） stated to own itself.


    Because of this, it is considered one of the most famous trees in the world. So how did this treee to own itself and the land around it?


    B) Sometime in the 19th century a Gian called Colonel William Jackson reportedly took a liking to the said tree and endeavored（努力） to protect it from any danger.


    As to why he loved it so, the earliest （最早的）documented（具有证明文件的） account of this story is an anonymously written front page article in the Athens Weekly Banner published on August 12, 1890.


    It states, "Col. Jackson had watched the tree grow from his childhood, and grew to love it almost as he would a human.Its luxuriant （繁茂的）leaves and sturdy limbs （粗壮的枝干）had often protected him from the heavy rains, and out of its highest branches he had many a time gotten the eggs of the feathered singers.He watched its growth, and when reaching a ripe （成熟）old age he saw the tree standing in its magnificent （宏伟的）proportions, he was pained to think that after his death it would fall into the hands of those who might destroy it."


    C)Towards this end, Jackson transferred by means of a deed （契约）ownership of the tree and a little land around it to the tree itself.


    The deed read, "W. H.Jackson for and in consideration of the great affection which he bears the said tree, and his great desire（强烈愿望） to see it protected has conveyed unto the said oak tree entire possession of itself and of all land withi- n eight feet of it on all sides."


    D)In time, the tree came to be something of a tourist attraction, known as The Tree That Owns Itself.


    However, in the early 20th century, the tree started showing signs of its slow death, with little that could be done about it.


    Father time（时间老人）es for us all eventually, even our often long lived, tall and leafy fellow custodians（守护者） of Earth.


    Finally, on October 9, 1942, the over 30 meter tall and 200-400 year old tree fell, rumor（谣言） has it, as a result of a severe windstorm and/or via having previously died and its roots rotted.


    E) About four years later, members of the Junior Ladies Garden Club (who''d tended to the tree before its unfortunate death tracked down a small tree grown from a nut taken from the original tree.


    And so it was that on October 9, 1946, under the direction of Professor Roy Bowden of the College of Agriculture at the University of Gia, this little tree was transplanted to the location of its ancestor（祖先）.A couple of months later, an official ceremony was held featuring none other than the Mayor of Athens,Robert L McWhorter, tomemorate（纪念） the occasion.


    F)This new tree became known as The Son of the Tree That Owns Itself and it was assumed that, as the original tree''s heir, it naturally inherited （继承）the land it stood on.Of course, there are many dozens of other trees known to exist descending（下降） from the original, as people taking a nut from it to grow elsewhere was a certainty.That said, to date, none of the original tree''s other children have petitioned （请愿）the courts for their share of the land, so it seems all good.In any event, The Son of the Tree That Owns Itself still stands today, though often referred to simply as The Tree That Owns Itself.


    G)This all brings us around to whether Jackson ever actually gave legal ownership of the tree to itself in the first place and whether such a deed is legally binding（法律约束力）.


    H)Well, to begin with, it turns out Jackson only spent about three years of his life in Athens, starting at the age of 43 from 1829 to 1832, sort of dismissing（解散） the idea that he loved the tree from spending time under it as a child and watching it grow, and then worrying about what would happen to it after he died.Further, an extensive （广泛的）search of land ownership records in Athens does not seem to indicate Jackson ever owned the land the tree sits on.He did live on a lot of land directly next to it for those three years, but whether he owned that land or not isn''t clear.Whatever the case（不论怎样）, in 1832 a four acre parcel（英亩）, which included the land the tree was on and the neighboring land Jackson lived on, among others, was sold to University professor Malthus A Ward.In the transaction,Ward was required to pay Jackson a sum of $1,200 (about $31,000 today), either for the property itself or simply inpensation for （补偿）improvements Jackson had made on the lot（份额）.In the end, whether he ever owned the neighboring lot or was simply allowed to use it while he allegedly （据说）worked at the University, he definitely never owned the lot the tree grew on, which is the most important bit for the topic at hand.


    J)After Professor Ward purchased the land, Jackson and his family purchased a 655 acre parcel a few miles away and moved there.


    Ten years later, in 1844, Jackson seems to havee into financial difficulties and had his little plantation （种植园）seized by the Clarke County Sheriff''s office and auctioned （拍卖）off to settle the mortgage（抵押）.Thus, had he owned some land in Athens itself, including the land the tree sat on, presumably he would have sold it to raise funds or otherwise had it taken as well.


    K)And whatever the case there, Jackson would have known property taxes needed to be paid on the deeded land for the tree to be truly secure in its future.


    Yet no account or record indicates any trust or the like was set up to facilitate （促进）this.


    L)On top of all this, there is no hard evidence such a deed ever existed, despite the fact that deed records in Athens go back many decades before Jackson''s death in 1876 and that it was supposed to have existed in 1890 in the archives according to the original anonymous news reporter who claims to have seen it.


    M) As you might imagine from all of this, few give credit （相信）to this side of the story. So how did all of thise about then?


    N)It is speculated （据推测）to have been invented by the imagination of the said anonymous author at the Athens Weekly Banner in the aforementioned 1890 front page article titled "Deeded to Itself", which by the way contained several elements that are much more easily proved to be false.


    As to why the author would do this, it''s speculated perhaps it was a 19th century version of a click-bait thought exercise on whether it would be legal for someone to deed such a non-conscious living thing to itself or not.


    0)Whatever the case, the next known instance（实例） of the Tree That Owned Itself being mentioned wasn''t until 1901 in the Centennial Edition of that same paper, the Athens Weekly Banner.


    This featured another account very clearly just copying the original article published about a decade before, only slightly reworded（改写）.


    The next account（描述） was in 1906, again in the Athens Weekly Banner, again very clearly copying the original account, only slightly reworded, the 19th century equivalent （相同的）of re-posts when the audience has otten about the original.


    1.Jackson was said to have transferred his ownership of the oak tree to itself in order to protect it from being destr- oyed.


    2.No proof has been found from an extensive search that Jackson had ever owned the land where the oak tree grew.


    3.When it was raining heavily, Jackson often took shelter under a big tree that is said to own itself.


    4.There is no evidence that Jackson had made arrangements to pay property taxes for the land on which the oak tree sat.


    5.Professor Ward paid Jackson over one thousand dollars when purchasing a piece of land from him.


    6.It is said the tree that owned itself fell in a heavy windstorm.


    7.The story of the oak tree is suspected to have been invented as a thought exercise.


    8.Jackson''s little plantation was auctioned off to settle his debt in the mid-19th century.


    9.An official ceremony was held to celebrate the transplanting of a small tree to where its ancestor had stood.


    10.The story of the Tree That Owns Itself appeared in the local paper several times, with slight alterations in wording.


    Key: C-H-B-K-I-D-N-J-E-O


    There are hundreds of personality quizzes （性格测试）online that assert they can ascertain （查明）whether the right or left half of your brain is dominant.


    Left-brained people are supposedly logical and excel at language and math while right-brained people are more imaginative, emotionally intelligent and skilled with spatial （空间）reasoning.（推理） There''s just one problem: That''s not how brains work.


    Popular science enthusiasts （科普爱好者）sort of took this idea and ran with it（发扬光大）, and it''s be woven（融入） in popular culture now, and it''s not going away.


    Despite this enduring belief, there''s no such thing as being "right-brained" or "left-brained."


    Whether you''re someone who tends more towards creativity or logic has nothing to do with one hemisphere of your brain being dominant over the other.


    But the actual science of how the two halves of our brains work together is sometimes stranger than fiction.


    The human brain is divided into two hemispheres, the left and right.


    In all vertebrate（脊椎动物） animals, the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body and vice versa（反之亦然）.


    And scientists have long known, thanks to the behaviors of patients who suffered brain injuries, that different areas of the brain do different things.


    But many scientists struggled （感到困惑）with this idea, because the very suggestion that the left and right halves of the brain operate differently disrupted（破坏） the idea that nature tends toward perfect symmetry.（对称）


    Work by neuroscientists （神经系统科学家）has revealed the importance of different hemispheres of the brain for different activities. However, their research quickly saw some misinterpretations（误解） in the general public: Some presumed creative people must be right-brained and logical people left-brained.


    It is proven that not only is personality unrelated to the different halves （两等分的部分）of the brain, but people aren''t really right-or left-brained to begin with.


    The idea that we have left-dominant people and right-dominant people, and that this is related to personality, is categorically （绝对）false.


    That''s never been supported in the neurosciencemunity.


    Neuroscientists don''t believe that and never have.


    What scientists learned is that there are really important differences between the left hemisphere（半脑） and the right hemisphere.


    It''s just that they have nothing to do with （无关）personality or whether cognitive strategy is more logical or free spirited or creative.


    While researchers have shown the limitations（局限性） of how the hemispheres of our brains influence our lives, it''s not difficult to understand the appeal of（吸引力） such ideas.


    People are endlessly （无穷尽的）fascinated by themselves and their friends, and the subtle （微妙的）differences in how people think about the world are really meaningful to them.


    When youe up with an online quiz that tells us something about ourselves, we''re drawn to that.（被吸引）


    It''s irresistible.（不可抗拒的）


    But you have to take it with an enormou（巨大的）s grain of salt（持怀疑态度）.


    46.


    What do numerous personality quizzes online claim they are able to do?


    A) Distinguish between the two hemispheres of one''s brain.


    B) Determine whether one is left-brained or right-brained.


    C) Tell if one is more of a linguist or of a mathematician.


    D)Ascertain how one''s brain performs different tasks.


    47.


    What does the author say is sometimes stranger than fiction（虚构）?


    A)How one hemisphere of the brain impacts creativity.


    B)How the two halves of our brains work alternately（交替）.


    C)How the two hemispheres of our brains cooperate.


    D)How one half of the brain dominates the other.


    48.


    Why did many scientists have difficulty endorsing（承认） the idea that different areas of the brain do different things?


    A)It contradicts the assumption that the two hemispheres of the brain are symmetrical.


    B)It dismisses（驳斥） the view that the universe has been evolving in a consistent（一致的） manner.


    C)It is in conflict with the suggestion that the left and right halves of the brain work together.


    D)It disrupts （打破）the idea that the right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body.


    49.


    What belief have neuroscientists long rejected according to the passage?


    A)There are left-dominant people and right-dominant people with different personalities.


    B)There are noticeable differences between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.


    C)One''s personality is hardly related to the different halves of the brain.


    D) Different areas of the brain are responsible for different activities.


    50.


    What are we advised to do with an online quiz that tells us something about ourselves?


    A) Challenge its authority.


    B)Scrutinize（检查） its originality.


    C) Evaluate its popularity.


    D) Question its reliability.


    Key: BCAAD


    The term "environmentalist" can mean different things.


    It used to refer to people trying to protect wildlife and natural ecosystems.


    In the 21st century, the term has evolved to capture the need tobat （反对）human-made climate change.


    The distinction between these two strands of environmentalism is the cause of a split （分离）within the scientificmunity about nuclear energy.


    On one side are purists （纯粹主义者）who believe nuclear power isn''t worth the risk and the exclusive（唯一的） solution to the climate crisis is renewable energy（可再生资源）.


    The opposing side agrees that renewables are crucial, but says society needs an amount of power available to meet consumers'' basic demands when the sun isn''t shining and the wind isn''t blowing.


    Nuclear energy, being far cleaner than oil, gas and coal, is a natural option, especially where hydroelectric （水力发电的）capacity is limited.


    Leon Clarke, who helped author reports for the （联合国）Intergovernmental （国际间的）Panel （座谈）on Climate Change, isn''t an uncritical （不加批判的）supporter of nuclear energy, but says it''s a valuable option to have if we''re serious about reaching carbon neutrality.


    "Core to all of this is the degree to which you think we can actually meet climate goals with 100% renewables," he said.


    "If you don''t believe we can do it, and you care about the climate, you are forced to think about something like nuclear."


    The achievability （实现）of universal（普遍的） 100% renewability is similarly contentious.


    （有争议的）


    Cities such as Burlington, Vermont, have been "100% renewable" for years.


    But these cities often have small populations, occasionally still rely on fossil fuel energy and have significant renewable resources at their immediate disposal（支配）.


    Meanwhile, countries that manage to run off （摆脱）renewables typically do so thanks to extraordinary （非凡的）hydroelectric capabilities.


    Germany stands as the best case study for a large, industrialized（工业化的） country pushing into green energy.


    Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011 announced Energiewende, an energy transition that would phase out nuclear and coal while phasing（逐步） in renewables.


    Wind and solar power generation has increased over 400% since 2010, and renewables provided 46% of the country''s electricity in 2019.


    But progress has halted（停滞） in recent years.


    The instability（不稳定） of renewables doesn''t just mean energy is often not produced at night, but also that solar and wind can overwhelm the grid during the day, forcing utilities（公共事业） to pay customers to use their electricity.


    Lagging （落后的）grid （格子）infrastructure（基础设施） struggles to transport this overabundance（过多的） of green energy from Germany''s north to its industrial south, meaning many factories still run on coal and gas.


    The political limit has also been reached in some places, with citizens meeting the construction（建设） of new wind turbines（涡轮） with loud protests.


    The result is that Germany''s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by around 11.5% Since 2010——slower than the EU average of 13.5%.


    1.


    What accounts for the divide within the scientificmunity about nuclear energy？


    A) Attention tobating human-made climate change.


    B) Emphasis on protecting wildlife and natural ecosystems.


    C) Evolution of the term ''green energy'' over the last century.


    D) Adherence（坚持） to different interpretations （解释）of environmentalism.


    2.


    What is the solution to energy shortage proposed by purists'' opponents?


    A)Relying on renewables firmly and exclusively. （完全的）


    B)Using fossil fuel and green energy alternately.（交替）


    C) Opting for nuclear energy when necessary.


    D)Limiting people''s non-basic consumption.


    3.


    What point does the author want to make with cities like Burlington as an example?


    A)It is controversial whether the goal of the whole world''s exclusive（完全） dependence on renewables is attainable.


    B)It is contentious （有争议的）whether cities with large populations have renewable resources at their immediate （直接）disposal（使用）.


    C)It is arguable whether cities that manage to run off renewables have sustainable hydroelectric capabilities.


    D) It is debatable whether traditional fossil fuel energy can be done away with entirely throughout the world.


    4.


    What do we learn about Germany regarding renewable energy?


    A) It has increased its wind and solar power generation four times over the last two decades.


    B)It represents a good example of a major industrialized country promoting green energy.


    C)It relies on renewable energy to generate more than half of its electricity.


    D) It has succeeded in reaching the goal of energy transition set by Merkel.


    5.


    What may be one of the reasons for Germany''s progress having halted （停滞）in recent years?


    A)Its grid infrastructure''s （基础设施）capacity has fallen behind its development of green energy.


    B)Its overabundance of green energy has forced power plants to suspend（延缓） operation during daytime.


    C)Its industrial south is used to running factories on conventional energy supplies.


    D)Its renewable energy supplies are unstable both at night and during the day.


    Key: D-C-A-B-A


    Blame（归咎于） your worthless workdays on meeting recovery syndrome（综合征）


    A) Phyllis Hartman knows what it''s like to make one''s way through the depths （深渊）of office meeting hell.Managers at one of her former human resources jobs arranged so many meetings that attendees would fall asleep at the table or intentionally（故意的 ） arrive late.With hours of her day blocked up （占据）with unnecessary meetings, she was often forced to make up her work during overtime."I was actually working more hours than I probably would have needed to get the work done," says Hartman, who is founder and president（主席 ） of PGHR Consulting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


    B)She isn''t alone in her frustration（沮丧）.Between 11 million and 55 million meetings are held each day in the United States, costing mostanisations between 7% and 15% of their personnel budgets.Every week, employees spend about six hours in meetings, while the average manager meets for a staggering （惊人的 ）23 hours.


    C)And though experts agree that traditional meetings are essential for making certain decisions and developing strategy, some employees view them as one of the most unnecessary parts of the workday.The result is not only hundreds of billions of wasted dollars, but an annoyance （烦恼 ）of whatanisational psychologists call "meeting recovery syndrome (MRS)" : time spent cooling off （冷静 ）and regaining focus after a useless meeting. If you run to the office kitchen to get some relief with colleagues after a frustrating meeting, you''re likely experiencing meeting recovery syndrome.


    D) Meeting recovery syndrome is a concept that should be familiar to almost anyone who has held a formal job.It isn''t ground-breaking （独创的 ）to say workers feel fatigued（疲惫） after a meeting, but only in recent decades have scientists deemed the condition worthy of further investigation.With its links toanisational efficiency and employee wellbeing, MRS has attracted the attention of psychologists aware of the need to understand its precise（精确的） causes and cures.


    E) Today, in so far as researchers can hypothesise（假设）, MRS is most easily understood as a slow renewal （更新 ）of finite （有限的）mental and physical resources.When an employee sits through an ineffective meeting their brain power is essentially being drained（耗尽） awayetings drain vitality（活力） if they last too long, fail to engage employees or turn into one-sided（片面的） lectures.The conservation of resources theory, originally proposed in 1989 by Dr Stevan Hobfoll, states（指出 ） that psychological stress occurs when a person''s resources are threatened or lost.When resources are low, a person will shift into defence to conserve（保护） their remaining supply.In the case of office meetings, where some of employees'' most valuable resources are their focus, alertness（警觉性 ） and motivation, this can mean an abrupt （突然 ）halt （中止）in productivity as they take time to recover.


    F)As humans, when we transition from one task to another on the job - say from sitting in a meeting to doing normal work --it takes an effortful（努力的） cognitive switch.We must detach （分离 ）ourselves from the previous task and expend significant mental energy to move on.If we are already drained to dangerous levels, then making the mental switch to the next thing is extra tough.It''smon to see people cyber-loafing（网上闲逛 ） after a frustrating meeting, going and getting coffee, interrupting a colleague and telling them about the meeting, and so on.


    G) Each person''s ability to recover from horrible meetings is different.Some can bounce back （恢复 ）quickly, while others carry their fatigue until the end of the workday.Yet while no formal MRS studies are currently underway, one can loosely （粗略的）speculate （预测）on the length of an average employee''s lag time.Switching tasks in a non-MRS condition takes about 10 to 15 minutes.With MRS, it may take as long as 45 minutes on average.It''s even worse when a worker has several meetings that are separated （分隔的）by 30 minutes."Not enough time to transition in a non-MRS situation to get anything done, and in an MRS situation, not quite enough time to recover for the next meeting," says researcher Joseph Allen."Then, add thepounding （组合）of back-to-back（紧接的） bad meetings and we may have an epidemic（传染病） on our hands."


    H)In an effort tobat the side effects of MRS, Allen, along with researcher Joseph Mroz and colleagues at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, published a study detailing（详细陈述 ）the best ways to avoidmon traps（方法）, including a concise（简洁的 ） checklist（清单） of do''s and don''ts applicable （适合的）to any workplace.Drawing from around 200 papers topile （编制）theirprehensive（综合的） list, Mroz and his team may now hold a remedy（补救 ） to the largely undefined problem of MRS.


    I) Mroz says a good place to start is asking ourselves if our meetings are even necessary in the first place.If all that''s on the agenda is a quick catch-up, or some non-urgent information sharing, it may better suit the grou- p to send around an email instead."The second thing I would always rmend is keep the meeting as small as possible," says Mroz."If they don''t actually have some kind of immediate input（投入 ）, then they can follow up later.They don''t need to be sitting in this hour-long meeting."Less time in meetings would ultimately lead to more employee engagement in the meetings they do attend, which experts agree is a proven remedy（治疗方法） for MRS.


    J) Employees also feel taxed（负担 ） when they are invited together to meetings that don''t inspire participation, says Cliff Scott, professor ofanisational science.It takes precious time for them to vent their emotions,plain and try to regain focus after a pointless(无意义的） meeting 一 one of the main traps of MRS.Over time as employees find themselves tied up in more and more unnecessary meetings - and thus dealing with increasing lag times from MRS the waste of workday hours can feel insulting.（侮辱 ）


    K)Despite the relative scarcity（不足 ） of research behind the subject, Hartman has taught herself many of the same tricks suggested in Mroz''s study, and hase a long way since her days of being stuck with unnecessary meetings.The people she invites to meetings today include not just the essential employees, but also representatives from every department that might have a stake（利益冲突） in the issue at hand.Managers like her, who seek input even from non-experts to shape their decisions, can find greater support and cooperation from their workforce, she says.


    L)If ananisation were to apply all 22 suggestions from Mroz and Allen''s findings, the most noticeable difference would be a stark （完全的）decrease in the total number of meetings on the schedule, Mroz says.Less time in meetings would ultimately lead to increased productivity, which is the ultimate objective of convening a meeting.While none of the counter-MRS ideas have been tested empirically（经验主义的） yet, Allen says one trick with promise is for employees to identify things that quickly change their mood from negative to positive.As simple as it sounds, finding a personal happy place, going there and thening straight back to work might be key to facilitating（促进） recovery.


    M) Leaders should see also themselves as "stewards（管家） of everyone else''s valuable time", adds Steven Rogelberg, author of The Surprising Science of Meetings.Having the skills to foresee potential traps and treat employees'' endurance （忍耐力）with care allows leaders to provide effective short-term deterrents to MRS.


    N)Most important, however, is foranisations to awaken to the concept of meetings being flexible, says Allen. By reshaping the way they prioritise （按优先顺序处理 ）employees'' time,panies can eliminate （消除）the very sources （根源 ）of MRS in their tracks.


    1.Although employees are said to be fatigued by meetings, the condition has not been considered worthy of further research until recently.


    2.Mroz and his teampiled a list of what to do and what not to do to remedy the problem of MRS.


    3panies can get rid of the root cause of MRS if they give priority to workers'' time.


    4.If workers are exhausted to a dangerous degree, it is extremely hard for them to transition to the next task.


    5.Employees in America spend a lot of time attending meetings while the number of hours managers meet is sever- al times more.


    6.Phyllis Hartman has learned by herself many of the ways Mroz suggested in his study and made remarkable succ- ess in freeing herself from unnecessary meetings.


    7.When meetings continue too long or don''t engage employees, they deplete vitality.（活力 ）


    8.When the time of meetings is reduced, employees will be more engaged in the meetings they do participate in.


    9.Some employees consider meetings one of the most dispensable （非必要的）parts of the workday.


    10.According to Mroz, if all his suggestions were applied, a very obvious change would be a steep decrease in the number of meetings scheduled.


    Key: D-H-N-F-B-K-E-I-C-L

 第5章 24年6月阅读真题（下）

    【任务3：请宿主在6h内完成本次阅读真题，并保证正答率高于60%。任务奖励：200积分。】


    终于盼来了新任务！


    岑越崎想起积分商店那些令人心醉的的商品栏，除了记忆强化，还有专注力强化、认知强化，甚至包括解绑，便忍不住畅想未来的美好前途。


    终于要摆脱智障这个标签了。


    These are the habits to avoid if you want to make a behavior change


    A) According to recent research, behavioral change involves physical changes in the brain. In the past


    decade, researchers have shown that when ites to the duration（持续） of making a new behavior a deep-rooted habit there is not a simple answer. Even for the most productive and disciplined among us, undoing something that has be an automatic part of who we are takes more than an overnight effort（一蹴而就）. Once we''ve successfully made that change, we then have to make other adjustments to our lives to ensure that we continue to maintain it, which is often a whole other challenge in itself.


    B) At its core, success in changing and maintaining a behavior rarely occurs without the introduction


    of some sort of system. When there isn''t the right framework in place, we face a greater likelihood of derailing（出轨） our hard-earned（来之不易的） progress. To ensure success in changing and maintaining a behavior, we should stay away from some detrimental habits.


    C) The first one to avoid is relying on willpower. Think about the last time you vowed to （发誓）resist a temptation. Perhaps you didn''t want to check your phone every 15 minutes, or you were determined not to reach for a chocolate bar at 3 p.m. Think about how difficult it must have been not to glance at your phone when it was within reach, or not to walk to the vending machine when your afternoon slump （衰落）hit.


    D) The research on whether we have finite（有限的） or infinite willpower is inconclusive, but experts do generally agree that you can''t change and sustain a habit if you rely on your willpower alone. The old military （军队）saying “You never rise to the occasion（关键时机）, you only sink to the level of training”also applies to （适用）behavior change. The idea is simple-you repeat something so many times that it bes automatic.


    E) Think about what else you can change about your surrounding that makes it easier for you to perform this change on a daily basis. This is called your “cue.” Basically, it''s a trigger to perform that particular habit. If you don''t want to reach for a sugary treat at 3 p.m., have a box of herbal tea ready at your desk. When 3 p.m.es around, that''s your cue to pour yourself a cup of hot water and drink that tea, instead of walking to the vending（售卖机） machine.


    F) The second one to avoid is focusing on negative goals. Sometimes, it''s not your process that lets you down, but the habit that you want to change in the first place. For starters, not eating chocolate to beat your afternoon slump is a harder goal than swapping chocolate for herbal tea when you reach the designated time. Your brain wants to find routines that have succeeded in the past and allow you to repeat those actions again in the future without having to think about them explicitly（清楚的）. However, this habit-learning system isn''t so effective when ites to learning not to do something. That''s why rather than giving up something, think about introducing something in its place. Focus on actions you are going to take that will ultimately conflict with the behaviors you want to stop. When your attention is on doing something new, you give your habit system a chance to operate.


    G) The third one to avoid is using the same strategies（策略） in different circumstances（情况）. Because we are creatures of habit, it''s natural to assume（设想） that when we do manage to adopt and sustain a desirable behavior, that same strategy will work （奏效）when we want to make another behavior change. But that''s not always the case. Sometimes, the system that got you to change one behavior might not work for another.


    H) Sometimes we be accustomed to relying on our guts（内脏，直觉） when ites to decision-making. This serves us well in certain situations, but can hinder（阻碍） us in others especially when we need to consider metrics （度量）and data, rather than letting our instinct （本能）override（推翻） everything. For example, if you want to stop checking your email first thing in the morning, you might decide to substitute another activity in its place. But if you want to stop indulging （沉迷）in video games, simply deciding you will go for a run might not be as effective. You might need to introduce another reinforcement, such as meeting a friend and booking an exercise class together,


    I) The fourth one to avoid is not iving ourselves for slipping up（失误）. Of course, even the best-laid plans fail sometimes. You might have stuck to your screen-free nighttime routine for five days, and then a big project landed on your desk and you found yourself in bed with your laptop （笔记本电脑）before you went to sleep. Or you prepared meals on Sunday and stuck to eating healthy dinners at home, but by Friday you found yourself so exhausted （疲惫的）and opted to order greasy （油腻的）takeout. Life happens and even if your behavior change is small, every single day can prove pretty inflexible, and at some point your luck may run out（耗尽）, even if just for a day. The perfectionist （完美主义者）in you might be screaming（尖叫） to abandon your goals altogether, but try to see it in the bigger picture. Just because you might have temporarily strayed off course doesn''t mean you can''t start afresh the next day.


    J) The final one to avoid is discounting （忽略）small progress. There''s a habit that many perfectionists tend to fall into when they try to establish a behavior change. They focus too much on the big goal and don''t take the time to celebrate the small progress they make in the process. Your brain responds to rewards. The basal ganglia（神经元）, the brain region linked to our performance of habits, is most active at the beginning of a behavior, when the habit is cued, and at the end, when it''s rewarded. Say your goal is to run five miles three times a week, and this week you ran one mile on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Rather than focusing on how far you''ve gone toward your goal, think about how you can reward yourself for the progress you''ve made. It doesn''t have to be big or expensive; it can be something as simple as making your favorite fruit juice after your run. Whatever your reward, it has to be more than just the activity itself to get you going.


    K) Initiating （开始）a new behavior usually seems like the hardest part of the process of change. However, people often fail to adequately（充分） prepare for maintaining it. One of the reasons for this is because we mistakenly believe the strategies we used to initiate the change will be equally effective in helping us continue the change. But they won''t. Where changing a strongly deep-rooted habit requires changing our belief about that habit that prates（植根） deeply into our lives, continually manifesting （显现）that wisdom requires that we maintain a positive outlook. If our mood is low, the wisdom to behave differently seems to disappear and we go back to eating more and exercising less. The key, then, to maintaining new behaviors is to be happy! Which is why it''s so hard to maintain new behaviors.


    L) Remember, oveing the behavioral inertia（惰性) that prevents us from implementing（实行） new changes, like eating a healthy diet or exercising, can benefit us in the long run and can improve our physical and mental health. No one was born with habits. They were all learned, and can all, therefore, be unlearned. The question is: how badly do you really want to change?


    36. There is general consensus among experts that willpower alone cannot guarantee one''s success in


    changing and maintaining a habit.


    37. One need not abandon their goalspletely just because they missed their target temporarily;


    they can start anew,


    38. Research shows it is quite another challenge to maintain a behavioral change after you have


    initiated it.


    39. It is wrong to assume the strategies we use to start a change of behavior will work equally well in


    helping maintain it,


    40. Sometimes, it may not be successful to simply substitute one activity with another to effect a


    change of habit; you may need extra reinforcement.


    41.One should introduce something new to replace an old habit instead of simply kicking it.（忽略）


    42. Perfectionists focus too much on their big target and neglect celebrating the small gains they make


    in the process.43. It is of great benefit to us in the long term to conquer the inertia that stops us from making behavioral changes.


    44. The strategy that successfully changed one of your behaviors may not work for some other


    behavior of yours.


    45. Without a happy mood, it seems that our wisdom to adopt a different behavior vanishes.


    答案：DIAKHFJLGK


    The “American Dream” promises（承诺） that in the Land of Opportunity, any individual can climb the economic □□（阶梯） and prosper （繁荣）through hard work and ambition alone. And yet, young Americans today are struggling to earn more than their parents did at the same age, and upward mobility（向上流动性） in the US actuallypares unfavourably（不利的） to that of other industrialised （工业化）nations.


    So why does the idea of the American Dream persist? A new study in the American Journal of Political Science identifics one factor that has been overlooked（忽略）: the influence of reality TV.


    Reality shows havee to dominate（主导） US television over the past 20 years, notes Eunji Kim from Vanderbilt University. And the overwhelming majority of these have a " rags-to-riches " （白手起家 ）storyline: they feature ordinary Americans who work hard to achieve great economic success. And while these programmes are regularly among the most-watched shows, news broadcasts-which paint a more realistic view of the economic hardship faced by millions of Americans--get a much smaller proportion （占比）of the viewership.


    Rags-to-riches stories are ubiquitous (无处不在的) on TV-but does watching these programmes actually convince people that economic mobility is easily attainable? To find out, Kim''s team had participants（参与者） watch a 5-minute clip（视频切片） from a reality show with a rags-to-riches storyline. Control participants watched a clip from a reality show that didn''t have a rags-to-riches story. After watching the shows, participants rated（评分） how much they agreed with four statements （陈述）relating to the American Dream.


    The results showed that those who''d watched a rags-to-riches clip did indeed have a significantly greater belief in the American Dream, Interestingly, when participants were separated（分离的） by party affiliation（联盟）, this effect was significant among Republicans （共和党）but not Democrats（民主党）, suggesting that the kind of messages implicit in these TV shows may play into people''s existing socioeconomic （社会经济学）belicfs.


    Kim also conducted a survey of 3,000 US residents. They also rated the extent to which they believed success in life is related to various internal factors (such as ambition) and external factors (such as family wealth). Finally, they read a list of TV programmes and indicated（指出） which they regularly watched.


    Participants who were heavy viewers of rags-to-riches programmes or frequent viewers had a stronger belicf in the American Dream than those who never watched such shows.


    Kim concludes that “ rags-to-riches entertainment media are an important cultural force that promotes and perpetuates（延续） belicfs in upward mobility". And here''s the problem: if people mistakenly believe that hard work is all that is needed for individuals to make a better life for themselves, they may be less supportive of policies that could actuallybat（斗争） inequality.


    "In this era （时代）of choice, entertainment media is what captures （俘获）hearts and minds,” Kim writes. " Its political consequences are anything but trivial（细微的）".


    46. What do we learn from the passage about young Americans of today?


    A) They have greater ambitions than their parents.


    B) They find it difficult to achieve upward mobility.


    C) They have overtaken（赶上） their parents in terms of earnings.


    D) They envy （嫉妒）the opportunities in other industrialised nations.


    47.What does Kim''s team find about reality TV shows in America?


    A) They reinterpret （重新解释）the essence of the popular rags-to-riches culture.


    B) They urge people to achieve economic success through hard work.


    C) They help strengthen people''s conviction（信念） in the American Dream.


    D) They feature ordinary Americans striving for social recognition,


    48. What does the author say about news broadcasts in America?


    A) They attract far fewer viewers than reality TV.


    B) They are bent on reporting the dark side of life.


    C) They stand in striking （显著的）contrast with reality TV.


    D) They focus on Americans''economic hardships,


    49. What can we infer from the passage about Republicans in general?


    A) They believe strongly in the American Dream.


    B) They strive to climb the socio-economic □□.


    C) They have a very strong affiliation with their party.


    D) They tend to watch more rags-to-riches TV shows.


    50. What is stated about people who believe in upward mobility?


    A) They are likely to blame the government for their plight.（困境）


    B) They regard political consequences as anything but trivial.


    C) They respect individuals striving to climb the social □□.


    D) They are less likely to approve of policies to fight inequality.


    答案：BCAAD


    Sarcasm（讽刺） and jazz have something surprisingly inmon: You know them when you hear them.


    Sarcasm is mostly understood through tone of voice, which is used to portray （描绘）the opposite of the literal words（字面意思）. For example, when someone says, "Well, that''s exactly what I need right now," their tone can tell you it''s not what they need at all.


    Most frequently, sarcasm highlights an irritation（恼怒） or is, quite simply, mean（刻薄）. If you want to be happier and improve your relationships, cut out sarcasm. Why?


    Because sarcasm is actually hostility（敌意） disguised （伪装）as humor.


    Despite smiling outwardly（表面的）, many people who receive sarcastic（讽刺）ments feel put down and often think the sarcastic person is rude, or contemptible（卑鄙的）.


    Indeed, it''s not surprising that the origin of the word sarcasm derives from the Greek word "sarkazein" which literally means "to tear （撕裂）or strip （剥夺）the flesh （肉）off."


    Hence, it''s no wonder that sarcasm is often preceded by the word "cutting" and that it hurts.


    What''s more, since actions strongly determine thoughts and feelings, when a person consistently acts sarcastically it may only serve to heighten （加剧）their underlying hostility（敌意） and insecurity（不安全感）.


    After all, when youe right down to it, sarcasm can be used as a subtle（敏感的） form of bullying and most bullies are angry, insecure, or cowardly（懦弱的）.


    Alternatively（另外）, when a person stops voicing negativements, especially sarcastic ones, they may soon start to feel happier and more self-confident.


    Also, other people in their life benefit even more because they no longer have to hear the emotionally hurtful language of sarcasm.


    Now, I''m not saying all sarcasm is bad.


    It may just be better used sparingly（保守的） - like a potent spice（香料） in cooking. Too much of the spice, and the dish will be overwhelmed by it.


    Similarly, an occasional （偶尔的）dash（冒犯） of sarcastic wit can spice up a chat and add an element of humor to it.


    But a big or steady serving of sarcasm will overwhelm the emotional flavor of any conversation and can taste very bitter to its recipient.


    So, tone down the sarcasm and work on clever wit instead, which is usually without any hostility and thus more appreciated by those you''remunicating with.


    In essence（本质上）, sarcasm is easy while true, harmless wit takes talent.


    Thus, the main difference between wit and sarcasm is that, as already stated, sarcasm is often hostility disguised as humor.


    It can be intended to hurt and is often bitter and biting.


    Witty statements are usually in response to someone''s unhelpful remarks or behaviors, and the intent is to untangle（理清） and clarify the issue by emphasizing its absurdities.（荒谬）


    Sarcastic statements are expressed in a cutting（极端的） manner（方法）; witty remarks are delivered with undisguised and harmless humor.


    1.Why does the author say sarcasm and jazz have something surprisingly inmon?


    A) Both are recognized when heard.


    B) Both have exactly the same tone.


    C)Both mean the opposite of what they appear to.


    D) Both have hidden in them an evident irritation.（愤怒）


    2.How do many people feel when they hear sarcasticments?


    A)They feel hostile towards the sarcastic person.


    B)They feel belittled and disrespected.


    C)They feel a strong urge to retaliate（报复）.


    D) They feel incapable of disguising （掩饰）their irritation.


    3.What happens when a person consistently acts sarcastically?


    A)They feel their dignity（自尊） greatly heightened.


    B)They feel increasingly insecure and hostile.


    C) They endure hostility under the disguise of humor.


    D) They taste bitterness even in pleasant interactions.


    4.What does the author say about people quitting sarcasticments?


    A) It makes others happier and more self-confident.


    B)It restrains （阻止 ）them from being irritating and bullying.


    C)It benefits not only themselves but also those around them.


    D) It shields them from negativements and outright（直接的） hostility（敌意）.


    5.What is the chief （主要的）difference between a speaker''s wit and sarcasm?


    A) Their clarity.


    B)Their appreciation.


    C)Their emphasis.


    D) Their intention.


    Key: A-B-B-C-D


    When someone asks us ''what do you do?'' we nearly always reply with our occupation. Work, for many of us, is much more than a job.


    It is the defining aspect of our identity.


    For many of us it is through our job that we can define ourselves.


    "Without my job I don''t know who I am," is a sentence that has been uttered （说）on more than a handful of （多次）occasions from my office chair.


    Indeed, it can be one of the most challenging aspects I work on with clients who have lost or been forced into changing their jobs.


    This loss provokes（激发） an identity crisis much greater than the loss of the job itself.


    One of the things I havee to understand, however, is that our identity is much moreplex than we recognise at first glance（乍一看）.


    If we take the time to reflect we might recognise that as well as our work we can also identify as a friend, a spouse（配偶）a son or daughter, a parent, a member of a sports team or religious （宗教munity.


    We may recognise that we feel and act differently in these roles and relationships than we do at work.


    The passive （被动的）daughter bes an assertive （自信的）leader at work.


    Furthermore, our identities at work are not static（静态的）.


    They change over time.


    I myself have been a shop assistant, a waitress, a student, a graduate, and a clinical （临床）psychologist. At each stage my ability to adapt to and develop my career identity has been crucial to my wellbeing.（幸福）


    Whilst （同时 ）we like to eliminate（消除） uncertainty in our lives at some level we have to manage uncertainty, especially in today''s volatile（不稳定的） and ever-shifting job market.


    How we see ourselves is central to the issue of our identity.


    When we tell ourselves "I''m good at starting projects but not so great at seeing them through（完成）" it can be part of our belief system.


    But if you have the unfortunate experience of an enforced job change you will need to examine those beliefs to see how grounded in reality they are.


    You will be required to ask yourself how helpful these beliefs are and consider personal change.


    We can change our beliefs, behaviours and emotional experience at any time through experimentation（试验） practice and conscious self-discipline.


    In an age where career progression（发展） may lead us into new sectors（领域 ） it is ever more important to challenge our sense of self and explore whether you can create a new experience of your identity by changing the beliefs you hold about yourself in order to expand your career options.


    Ultimately it is you who define who you are.


    You are only your job if you let it be so.


    1.


    What do we learn from the passage about one''s loss of a job?


    A) Itpels them to visit a clinical psychologist.


    B)It offers them a chance to play different roles.


    C)It renders(（提出） them puzzled about who they are.


    D) It forces them to redefine their life''s goals.


    2What has the authore to understand about our identity?


    A)It is crucial（重要的） to our emotional wellbeing.


    B)It plays a big role in many facets of life.


    C)It reflects our changing status in society.


    D) It is moreplicated（复杂） than it appears.


    3.What does the passage say about our identities at work?


    A) They are essential to our self-esteem.


    B)They evolve（发展 ） with the passage of time.


    C)They overrule （凌驾于）all other self-perceptions.


    D) They are key to understanding ourselves.


    4.What do we have to do in today''s ever-changing job market?


    A) Strive to develop our social identity.


    B) Prepare for different career paths.


    C) Try to be assertive（自信 ） at all times.


    D) Learn to manage uncertainty.


    5.What should we do to expand our career options?


    A) Alter （改变）our perceptions of ourselves.


    B)pare various job opportunities.


    C) Look into newly emerging（新兴） sectors（行业）.


    D) Exercise self-discipline consciously.


    Key: C-D-B-D-A


    Variability is crucially important for learning new skills. Consider learning how to serve in tennis.


    Should you always practise serving（发球）from the exactly same location on the court, aiming at the same spot?


    Although practising in more variable conditions will be slower at first, it will likely make you a better tennis player in the end.


    This is because variability （可变性）leads to better generalisation （普遍）of what is learned.


    This principle （原则）is found in many domains（领域 ）, including speech（感知 ） and learning categories.


    For instance, infants will struggle to learn the category "dog" if they are only exposed to Chihuahuas（吉娃娃 ）, instead of many different kinds of dogs.


    "There are over ten different names for this basic principle," says Limor Raviv, the senior investigator of a recent study.


    "Learning from less variable input is often fast, but may fail to generalise （概括）to new stimuli.（刺激物）"


    To identify key patterns and understand the underlying principles of variability effects, Raviv and her colleagues reviewed over 150 studies on variability and generalisation across fields, includingputer science, linguistics, categorisation, visual perception and formal education.


    The researchers discovered that, across studies, the term variability can refer to at least four different kinds of variability, such as set size and scheduling.


    "These four kinds of variability have never been directlypared - which means that we currently don''t know which is most effective for learning," says Raviv.


    The impact of variability depends on whether it is relevant to the task or not.


    But according to the ''Mr. Miyagi principle'', practising seemingly unrelated skills may actually benefit learning of other skills.


    But why does variability impact learning and generalisation?


    One theory is that more variable input can highlight which aspects of a task are relevant and which are not. Another theory is that greater variability leads to broader generalisations.


    This is because variability will represent the real world better, including atypical examples.


    A third reason has to do with the way memory works: when training is variable, learners are forced to actively（主动） reconstruct （重组）their memories.


    "Understanding the impact of variability is important for literally every aspect of our daily life.


    Beyond affecting the way we learn language, motor skills, and categories, it even has an impact on our social lives-," explains Raviv.


    "For example, face recognition is affected by whether people grew up in a smallmunity or in a largermunity.


    Exposure to fewer faces during childhood is associated with diminished（减退 ） face memory."


    "We hope this work will spark people''s curiosity and generate more work on the topic," concludes Raviv."Our paper raises a lot of open questions.Can we find similar effects of variability beyond the brain, for instance, in the immune system?"


    1.What does the passage say about infants learning the category "dog" if they are exposed to Chihuahuas only?


    A) They will encounter some degree of difficulty.


    B)They will try to categorise other objects first.


    C) They will prefer Chihuahuas to other dog species.


    D) They will imagine Chihuahuas in various conditions.


    2.What does Raviv say about the four different kinds of variability?


    A) Which of them is most relevant to the task at hand is to be confirmed.


    B)Why they have an impact on learning is far from being understood.


    C)Why they have never been directlypared remains a mystery.


    D) Which of them is most conducive（有利于） to learning is yet to be identified.


    3.How does one of the theories explain the importance of variability for learning new skills?


    A) Learners regard variable training as typical of what happens in the real world.


    B) Learners receiving variable training arepelled （迫使）to ranise（改组） their memories.


    C) Learners pay attention to the relevant aspects of a task and ignore those irrelevant.


    D) Learners focus on related skills instead of wasting time and effort on unrelated ones.


    4.What does the passage say about face recognition?


    A) People growing up in a smallmunity may find it easy to remember familiar faces.


    B) Face recognition has a significant impact on literally every aspect of our social lives.


    C) People growing up in a largemunity can readily recognise any individual faces.


    D)The size of themunity people grow up in impacts their face recognition ability.


    5.What does Raviv hope to do with their research work?


    A) Highlight which aspects of a task are relevant and which are not to learning a skill.


    B) Use the principle of variability in teaching seemingly unrelated skills in education.


    C) Arouse people''s interest in variability and stimulate more research on the topic.


    D) Apply the principle of variability to such fields of study as the immune（免疫） system.


    Key: A-D-B-D-C

 第6章 23年12月阅读真题（上）

    【正答率结算中，本次正答率为65%，积分 200】


    岑越崎轻车熟路打开了商城，兑换了三次瞬时记忆。


    大脑瞬时变得清明起来，深吸一口气，岑越崎拿着单词书背了起来。


    他基础不好，单词向来是他最大的短板，没想到有了系统的加持，这个难题瞬间就被攻克了。


    指尖快速捻动书页，巨量的单词如潮水般从书本流进他的脑海，渐渐地，岑越崎掌握了背诵的最佳节奏，一口气背了200多页。


    再次扫了眼方才的试题，只觉就被打通任督二脉，原本晦涩难懂的单词一下变得清晰易懂。


    岑越崎心情大好，决定趁热打铁再做一套阅读题巩固记忆。


    Treasure Fever


    A)Most visitorse to Cape Canaveral, on the northeast coast （海岸）of Florida, for the tourist attractions. It''s home to the second-busiest（第二的） cruise ship port（邮轮港口） in the world and is a gateway to the cosmos.（宇宙 ）Nearly 1.5 million visitors flock here every year to watch rockets, spacecraft, and satellites blast off into the solar system from Kennedy Space Center Visitorplex.Nearly 64 kilometers of undeveloped beach and 648 square kilometers of protected refuge（保护区） fan out from the cape''s sandy shores（沙滩 ）.


    B)Yet some of Cape Canaveral''s most legendary（传说） attractions lie unseen, wedged under the sea''s surface in mud and sand, for this part of the world has a reputation as a deadly ship trap.Over the centuries, dozens of majestic Old World sailing ships smashed（破碎的） and sank on this irregular stretch （延伸）of windy Florida coast.They were vessels （船舶）built for war andmerce, crossing the globe carrying everything from coins to cannons（大炮）, boxes of silver and gold, chests of jewels（珠宝） and porcelain（瓷器）, and pearls（珍珠） from the Caribbean.


    C)Cape Canaveral contains one of the greatest concentrations （集中）of colonial（殖民地的） shipwrecks in the world.In recent years, advances in radar, diving（潜水 ）, detection equipment,puters, and GPS have transformed the hunt. The naked eye might see a pile of rocks, but technology can reveal the precious artifacts（古董) that lie hidden on the ocean floor.


    D) As technology renders the seabed（海底） more accessible, the hunt（打捞） for treasure-filled ships has drawn a fresh tide of salvors and their investors - as well as marine archaeologists （考古学家）wanting to bring to light the lost（迷失的） relics（遗迹）. But of late, when salvors（救援人员） have found vessels（船舶）, their rights have been challenged in court.（法院）The big question: who should have control of these treasures?


    E) High-stakes （高风险）fights over shipwrecks pit archaeologists against treasure hunters in a vicious cycle（恶循环） of accusations. Archaeologists regard themselves as protectors of history, and they see salvors as careless destroyers.Salvors feel they do the hard work of searching for ships, only to have them stolen from under them when discovered.This kind of clash （冲突）inevitably takes place on a grand scale.Aside from the salvors, their investors, and the maritime archaeologists who serve as expert witnesses, the battles sweep（席卷） in local and international governments andanizations like UNEScO that work to protect under-water heritage.


    The court cases that ensue stretch（持续） on for years.Are finders keepers, or do the ships belong to the countries that made them and sent them sailing （航行）centuries ago? Where once salvors and archaeologists worked side by side（并肩）, now they belong to opposing（对立）, and equally contemptuous（轻蔑的）, tribes.


    F)Nearly three million vessels lie wrecked on the Earth''s ocean floor - from old canoes to the Titanic - and likely less than one percent have been explored.Some -- like an ancient Roman ship found off Antikythera, Greece, dated between 70 and 60 BC and carrying astonishingly （惊人的）sophisticated（精密的） gears（齿轮） and dials for navigating（航行 ） by the sun - are critical to a new understanding of our past.No wonder there is an eternal （永恒的）stirring（激发） among everybody from salvors to scholars（学者） to find them.


    G)In May 2016, a salvor named Bobby Pritchett, president of Global Marine Exploration (GME) in Tampa, Florida, announced that he had discovered scattered（分散的） remains of a ship buried a kilometer off Cape Canaveral.Over the prior three years, he and his crew（团队） had obtained 14 state permits to survey a nearly 260-square-kilometer area off the cape; they worked 250 days a year, backed by investor funds of, he claims, US $4 million.It was hard work.Crew members were up at dawn（黎明）, dragging sensors （传感器）from their expedition vessels （探险船）back and forth, day in and day out, year after year, to detect metal of any kind.


    Usingputer technology, Pritchett and his crew created intricate（复杂的）, color-coded maps marked with the GPS coordinates（坐标） of thousands of finds, all invisible under a meter of sand.


    H) One day in 2015, the maometer（磁力计） picked up metal that turned out to be an iron cannon（大炮 ）; when the divers blew the sand away, they also discovered a more precious bronze （青铜）cannon with markings indicating French royalty（皇室） and, not far off, a famous marble（大理石 ） column（石柱） carved with the coat of arms of France, known from historical paintings.The discovery was cause for celebration.The artifacts indicated （表明）the divers had likely found the wreck of La Trinité, a 16th-century French vessel（船舶） that had been at the center of a bloody battle between France and Spain that changed the fate（命运 ） of the United States of America.


    I)And then the legal storm began, with GME and Pritchett pitted against Florida and France.


    The Sunken Military Craft Act of 2004, a US federal act, protects any vessel that was on a military （军事）mission, allowing the originating country to claim their ship even centuries later.


    In 2018, two long years after Pritchett''s discovery, the federal district （地方）court ruled（裁决 ） in favor of France.For Pritchett, the decision was devastating.（毁灭性的）Millions of dollars of investor funding and years of labor were lost.


    J)But this is far from the first time a salvor has lost all rights to a discovery.In 2012, for instance, Spain won a five-year legal battle against Odyssey Marine Exploration, which had hauled （打捞）594,000 gold and silver coins from a Spanish wreck off the coast of Portugal across the Atlantic to the United States."Treasure hunters can be naive（天真）," says attorney（律师） David Concannon, who has had several maritime archaeologists as clients and represented two sides in the battles over the Titanic for 20 years."Many treasure hunters don''t understand they are going to have to fight for their rights against a government that has an endless supply of money for legal battles that treasure hunters are likely to lose."


    K) Putting an inflated （抬高 ）price on artifacts rather than viewing them as cultural and historical treasures that transcend （超过）any price is what irritates（使恼怒） many archaeologists.For the archaeologist, everything in a wreck matters - hair, fabric, a fragment of a newspaper, rat bones - all things speak volumes.Archaeologists don''t want artifacts ending up in a private collection instead of taking humanity on a journey of understanding.


    L) Ge Bass is one of the pioneers of under-water archaeology, and a researcher at Texas A&M University. He has testified（作证） in court against treasure hunters, but says archaeology is not without its own serious problems.He believes archaeologists need to do a better job themselves instead of routinely （常规的）criticizing treasure hunters."Archaeology has a terrible reputation（名誉） for not publishing enough on its excavations and finds," he says.Gathering data, unearthing and meticulously preserving and examining finds, verifying（验证） identity and origin, piecing（修补） together the larger story, and writing and publishing aprehensive paper or book can take decades.A bit cynically（冷笑的）, Bass describes colleagues who never published because they waited so long they became ill or died. Who is more at fault, Bass asks, the professional archaeologist who carefully excavates （发掘）a site and never publishes on it or the treasure hunter who locates a submerged wreck, salvages （打捞）part, conserves part, and publishes a book on the operation?


    M) Pritchett concedes （承认 ）that his find deserves careful excavation（挖掘） and preservation."I think what I found should go in a museum," he says."But I also think I should get paid for what I found."Indeed, it''s a bit of a mystery（令人费解） why governments, archaeologists, and treasure hunters can''t work together - and why salvors aren''t at least given a substantial finder''s fee before the original owner takes possession of the vessel and its artifacts.


    1.Exploration of shipwrecks on the sea floor is crucial in updating our understanding of humanity''s past.


    2.Quite a number of majestic（宏伟的） ships sailing from Europe to America were wrecked off the Florida coast over the cent- uries.


    3.Pritchett suffered a heavy loss when a US district court ruled against him.


    4.Recently, people who found treasures in shipwrecks have been sued （被起诉）over their rights to own them.


    5.Pritchett claims he got support of millions of dollars from investors for his shipwreck exploration.


    6.One pioneer marine scientist thinks archaeologists should make greater efforts to publish their findings.


    7.With technological advancement in recent years, salvors now can detect the invaluable man-made objects lying buried under the sea.


    8.According to a lawyer, many treasure hunters are susceptible（易受影响的） to loss because they are unaware they face a financially stronger opponent in court.


    9.Salvors of treasures in sunken ships and marine archaeologists are now hostile（敌对） to each other.


    10.Archaeologists want to see artifacts help humans understand their past instead of being sold to private collectors at an outrageous （令人吃惊的）price.


    Key: F-B-I-D-G-L-C-J-E-K


    Can Learning a Foreign Language Prevent Dementia?


    A) You may have heard that learning another language is one method for preventing or at least postponing the onset of dementia（痴呆症）.Dementia refers to the loss of cognitive abilities, and one of its mostmon forms is Alzheimer''s（阿尔茨海默症） disease.At this time, the causes of the disease are not well understood, and consequently, there are no proven steps that people can take to prevent it.Nheless（尽管如此）, some researchers have suggested that learning a foreign language might help delay the onset （发作）of dementia.


    B) To explore this possibility more deeply, let''s look at some of themon misconceptions （误解）about dementia and the aging brain.First of all, dementia is not an inevitable part of the normal aging process.Most older adults do not develop Alzheimer''s disease or other forms of dementia.It is also important to remember that dementia（痴呆） is not the same thing as normal etfulness.At any age, we might experience difficulty finding the exact word we want or have trouble remembering the name of the person we just met.People with dementia have more serious problems, like feeling confused or getting lost in a familiar place.Think of it this way: If you et where you parked your car at the mall（商场）, that''s normal; if you et how to drive a car, that may be a signal that something more serious is going on.


    C)The idea that dementia can be prevented is based on theparison of the brain to a muscle.


    When people talk about the brain, they sometimes say things like "It is important to exercise your brain" or "To stay mentally fit（健康）, you have to give your brain a workout.（锻炼）"Although these are colorful analogies（类比）, in reality the brain is not a muscle.Unlike muscles, the brain is always active and works even during periods of rest and sleep.In addition, although some muscle cells have a lifespan（寿命） of only a few days, brain cells last a lifetime. Not only that, but it has been shown that new brain cells are being created throughout one''s lifespan.


    D) While it makes for a colorful analogy,paring the brain to a muscle is inaccurate （不准确）and misleading. So, if the brain is not a muscle, can it still be exercised? Once again, researchers don''t know for sure.There are now manyputer, online, and mobile device applications that claim to be able to "train your brain," and they typically tap into a variety of cognitive abilities.


    However, research suggests that although this type of training may improve one''s abilities at the tasks themselves, they don''t seem to improve other abilities.In other words, practicing a letter-detection task will, over time, improve your letter-detection skills, but it will not necessarily enhance your other perceptual （感知的）abilities.


    E) However, there is some reason to believe that learning languages might be different.The best evidence that foreign language learning confers cognitive benefitses from research with those who are already bilingual（双语言者）.Bilingualism mostmonly occurs when children are exposed to two languages, either in the home (mom speaks Dutch（荷兰语）, dad speaks Spanish) or more formally in early schooling.But bilingualism certainly  occurs in adulthood as well.


    F) Bilingualism and multilingualism（多语言的） are actually moremon than you might think.In fact, it has been estimated that there are fewer monolingual speakers in the world than bilinguals and multilinguals.Although in many countries most inhabitants（居民） share just one language, other countries have several official langu- ages.Switzerland, for example, has four official languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh.Throughout large parts of Africa, Arabic, Swahili, French, and English are often known and used by individuals who speak a different, native language in their home than they do in the marketplace（市场）. So bilingualism and multilingualism are to be found throughout the world.And with regard to cognitive abilities, the research on those who speak more than one language paints an encouraging picture.（前景）


    G) For one thing, bilinguals are better at multitasking.（多任务执行）One explanation of this superiority is that speakers of two languages are continually inhibiting （抑制）one of their languages, and this process of inhibition confers general cognitive benefits to other activities.In fact, bilingual individuals outperform their monolingual counterparts on a variety of cognitive tasks, such as followingplex instructions, and switching to new instructions.For the sake ofpleteness, it should be noted that the advantages of being bilingual are not universal（普遍） across all cognitive domains.Bilingual individuals have been shown to have smaller vocabularies and to take longer in retrieving（检索） words from memory whenpared to monolinguals（单语言）.In the long run, however, the cognitive and linguistic advantages of being bilingual far outweigh （更有价值）these two drawbacks. （缺点


    H)If the benefits of being bilingual spill over to other aspects of cognition, then we would expect to see a lower incidence of Alzheimer''s disease in bilinguals than in monolinguals, or at least a later onset of Alzheimer''s for bilinguals.In fact, there is evidence to support this claim.The psychologist Ellen Bialystok and her colleagues obtained the histories of 184 individuals who had made use of a memory clinic in Toronto.For those who showed signs of dementia, the monolinguals in the sample had an average age of 71.4 years at the time of onset.The bilinguals, in contrast, received their diagnosis at 75.5 years, on average.In a study of this sort（类）, a difference of four years is highly significant, and could not be explained by other systematic differences between the two groups.For example, the monolinguals reported, on average, a year and a half more schooling than their bilingual counte- rparts, so the effect was clearly not due to formal education.


    I) A separate study, conducted in India, found strikingly similar results: bilingual patients developed symptoms of dementia 4.5 years later than monolinguals, even after other potential factors, such as gender and occupation, were controlled for.In addition, researchers have reported other positive effects of bilingualism for cognitive abilities in later life,even when the person acquired the language in adulthood.Crucially, Bialystok suggested that the positive benefits of being bilingual were only found in those who used both languages all the time.


    J)But encouraging as these kinds of studies are, they still have not established exactly how or why differences between bilinguals and monolinguals exist.Because these studies looked back at the histories of people who were already bilingual, the results can only say that a difference between the two groups was found, but not why that difference occurred.Further research is needed to determine what caused the differences in age of onset between the two groups.


    K) Other studies of successful aging suggest that being connected to one''smunity and having plenty of social interaction is also important in delaying or even preventing the onset （发作）of dementia.Once again, however, the results are far less clear than the popular media might lead you to believe.Older individuals who lead active social lives are, almost by definition, healthier than their counterparts who rarely leave their homes or interact with others.So we can''t really say whether being socially active prevents the onset of dementia, or if people who don''t have dementia are more likely to be socially active.


    L)


    But even if studying a foreign language is not a magical cure-all（万能药）, there is one thing it will do: It will make you a better speaker of a foreign language.Doing that confers a whole host of advantages we do know about.


    1.Research indicates that brain training is likely to boost one''s ability at specific tasks, but not one''s other cognitive abilities.


    2.According to estimates, the number of people who speak two languages or more is greater than those who speak one language only.


    3.For the time being, we do not know what causes people to lose their cognitive abilities, or what we can do to prev- ent it.


    4.It is hard to determine whether people who are free from dementia tend to have more social activities, or more social activities keep people away from dementia.


    5.There is evidence that learning foreign languages might be beneficial to boosting one''s cognitive abilities.


    6.It was suggested that only those who always spoke two languages could benefit from bilingualism.


    7.The brain is different from muscles in that it keeps working even when the body is at rest.


    8.People who speak two languages do better at a number of cognitive tasks than those who speak only one language.


    9.Dementia is different from being merely etful and entails more serious trouble.


    10.It is claimed that more monolinguals suffer from Alzheimer''s disease than bilinguals.


    Key: D-F-A-K-E-I-C-G-B-H


    African countries must get smarter with their agriculture


    A)On the hills of central Kenya, almost lime-green（嫩绿色） with the sparkle （闪耀）of tea bushes in the sunlight, farmers know all about climate change."The rainy season is no longer predictable,（可预测）" says one."When it is supposed to rain it doesn''t, then it alles at once." Climate change is an issue that will affect everyone on the pl.For Africans its consequences will be particularly bitter: whereas other regions were able to grow rich by burning coal and oil, Africa will pay much of the human price（人力资源） without having enjoyed the benefits."Africa only represents 2% of global greenhouse-gas emissions but it is the continent （大陆）that is expected to suffer the most from climate impacts," says Mafalda Duarte, who runs the World Bank''s $8bn Climate Investment Funds.


    B)Although there are huge uncertainties as to the precise impacts of climate change, enough is known to say that global warming represents one of the main threats to Africa''s prosperity.（繁荣）Parts of the continent are already warming much more quickly than the average: temperatures in southern Africa have increased by about twice the global rate over the past 50 years.Even if the world were to cut emissions enough to keep global warming below 1.5C, heat-waves would intensify（加剧） in Africa and diseases would spread to areas not currently affected. Farming would also be hit hard.About 40% of the land now used to grow maize （玉米）would no longer be suitable for it. Overall（总体而言）, it is estimated that maize yields would fall by 18-22%.


    C) Africa is particularly vulnerable（脆弱的）, in part because it is already struggling to feed itself and it will have to vastly （极大的）increase yields and productivity if it is to put food on the plates of a fast-growing population, even without climate change.The UN''s Food and Agricultureanisation reckons that by 2050 global food production would have to rise by about 70% over its level of 2009 to meet demand from a population that is growing in numbers and appetite.Much of this new demand will be in Africa.Yet the continent already imports about $50bn-worth of food a year and that figure is expected to more than double over the next five years.Self-sufficiency is not Africa''s goal, but the fact that it spends more money importing food than it does buying capital goods suggests it has room for improvement.


    D) Finding out why is not hard.Most farms are tiny, ploughed （耕地）by hand and reliant on rain.More than half of Africa''s people make their living from farming.Although its total harvest has climbed over the past few decades, this is mainly because there are more people farming more land.But in many places there is no spare land to farm.Plots（小块土地） in Rwanda are so small that you could fit 250 of them onto the average American farm.And although output per worker has improved by more than half over the past 30 years in Africa, that is still far behind the 2.5 times improvement in Asia.Yields of maize （玉米）are generally less than two tonnes per hectare, a fifth the level in America.


    E) The low productivity of African farmers is reflected in national economic statistics -despite absorbing so much labour, farming generates just 15% of GDP."They can''t even feed their families," says Jennifer Blanke, a vice-president of the African Development Bank in charge of agriculture."Farm productivity hasn''t improved in many parts of Africa for 100 years."


    F) One reason is that in the first few decades of independence, many African governments neglected（忽略） farming as they focused on industrialising their economies.Others damaged it by pushing down the prices that state monopolies（垄断） paid for their crops in order to subsidise （补贴）workers in cities with cheap food.Ghana taxed cocoa exports（出口） so heavily that production collapsed by half between the 1960s and 1980s, despite a jump in the global price of cocoa.Yet over the past two decades or so governments and donors have begun to look again at farming as a way of providing jobs for the 13 million young people entering the workforce （劳动力）each year.Much of the focus has been on getting small farmers to use fertiliser（肥料） and, more important, better seeds. The results can be impressive.Improved varieties of hum,（高粱） for instance, can produce a crop that is 40% larger than the usual variety.Infrastructure（基础设施） is important.A World Bank irrigation （灌溉）project in Ethiopia helped farmers increase their potato harvest from about 8 tonnes per hectare（公顷） to 35 tonnes.


    G) Better techniques help, too.Small coffee farmers in Kenya are able to increase their ies by 40% by following a few simple guideline（指导方针）s on caring for their bushes（茎）, such as trimming （整理）all but three of their stems.Many of their neighbours do not follow the advice, because it seems counter-intuitive（反直觉的）. More stems ought to （应该)lead to more coffee beans, they say.Yet after seeing those following the advice get bigger harvests for a season or two, many others start doing the same.


    H) One way of spreading knowledge is to link farms to big buyers of their harvests.When Diageo, a British drinks giant, built a brewery（啤酒厂） in western Kenya, it wanted to use local crops to make a beer cheap enough topete with illicit home brew.Itanised farmers into groups, improved supply chains for them to get seeds and fertiliser （肥料）and then agreed to buy their grain.It now provides a market to about 17,000 farmers.Across the region it has doubled its use of local raw material to about 80% over five years. John O''Keeffe, who runs its Africa business.


    I)An even more important change is the move from traditional farming to building businesses that can profitably （有利的）bring technology and investment to small farms.Taita Ngetich, a young Kenyan, was studying engineering when he wanted to earn a little money on the side. He scraped （募集）together 20,000 Kenyan shillings (about $200) to plant tomatoes.Everything went wrong.The crop was attacked by pests."Then there was a massive flood that swallowed（吞噬） all our capital（资金）," he says.Mr Ngetich persevered （坚持）by looking into buying a greenhouse to protect his plants from bugs and rain.The cheapest ones cost more than $2,500 each, so he designed his own for half the price.Soon neighbouring farmers started placing orders with him, and now his firm, Illuminum Greenhouses, has sold more than 1,400 greenhouses that provide livelihoods to about 6,000 people.The business does not stop there; he also supplies fertiliser, high-quality seedlings and smart sensors that increase yields.


    J) Illuminum''s success shows how technology can help even small farms be more productive.Because such a large share of Africa''s population earns a living from agriculture, even small improvements in productivity can lift the ies of millions of people.But over the longer run small-scale farming can go only so far, especially in the face of climate change and popula- tion pressure.


    K)"If we really want to lift people out of poverty （贫困）we have to finance projects that will get them an ie of at least$100 a month so that they can pay for health care and education," says Mr Ngetich."Projects that give them an extra $2 a month from growing beans or maize （玉米）aren''t going to get them there." Getting those big jumps will need better jobs in factories and cities.


    1.It is said that agricultural productivity in many African countries has remained low for a century.


    2.Building connections between farms and major purchasers of their produce can promote African farmers'' use of advanced farming techniques.


    3.Parts of Africa are getting warmer much faster than the average, with southern Africa witnessing roughly twice the global warming rate over the last half century.


    4.Improved farming practices have enabled Kenyan farmers to increase farm produce remarkably.


    5.Africa is especially susceptible to the effects of global warming partly because it has difficulty feeding its increasi- ng population even without climate change.


    6.The use of fertiliser and improved seeds can help Africa''s small farmers impressively increase crop yields.


    7.It has proved even more important to shift from traditional farming to setting up businesses that can bring techn-ology and investment to small farmers in Africa.


    8.Everyone in the world will have to bear the consequences of climate change, especially Africans.


    9.Improvement in farm output per worker in Africa falls far short of that in Asia.


    10.In the long term, the potential for small farms in Africa to increase productivity is quite limited, especially owing to the warming climate and a growing population.


    Key: E-H-B-G-C-F-I-A-D-J

 第7章 23年12月阅读真题 （下）

    “岑越崎，最近在忙什么呢？整天早出晚归看不到你人。”舍友魏呈问道。


    “忙着备考啊，还是六级。”他答道，缓缓收拾书包，计划等会上完课再去图书馆学习一会。


    魏呈啧了一声，没表态，大概不大相信岑越崎的实力。


    再怎么备考也抵不住基础差啊，就他那个四级都能挂四次将将擦线过的成绩还想过六级？


    被某膨胀券炸懵了吧。


    岑越崎只是笑了笑，没再解释。


    但是！


    他！


    已经！


    不是！


    原来的那个他了！


    单词书都背了大半，还有什么能阻挡他过六级？


    心里暗暗憋了口气，他拿出练习册再次投身于学习之中。


    Could you get by without using the inte for four and a half years?


    That''s exactly what singer and actress Selena Gomez has done in a bid to improve her mental health.


    She has spoken extensively（广泛的） about the relationship between her social media usage and her mental wellbeing（健康）, recalling feeling like "an addict" when she became Instagram''s most followed user in 2016.


    "Taking a break from social media was the best decision that I''ve ever made for my mental health" , says she."The unnecessary hate andparisons went away once I put my phone down." Ditching（丢掉） the web at large, however, is a far more subtle（微妙的） andplicated prospect（前景）.


    The increasing digitisation （数字化）of our society means that everything from paying a gas bill to plotting a route to a frie- nd''s house and even making a phone call is at the mercy of your inte connection.Actively opting out of using the inte bes a matter of privilege.（特权）


    Ms Gomez''s multi-millionaire （百万富翁）status has allowed her to take the "social" out of social media, so she can continue to leverage （利用）her enormous fame while keeping the trolls at bay.（网络喷子）


    The fact that she''s still the second most-followed woman on Instagram suggests it''s entirely possible to maintain a significant web profile（网络形象、人设） to promote various projects - by way of a dedicated （专门）team - without being exposed to the cruelments, hate mail and □□ or death threats.


    It goes without saying that this is fundamentally （根本的）different from how the rest of us without beauty deals and films to publicise use the likes of Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, but even the concept of a digital detox requires having a device and connectivity to choose to disconnect from.


    The UK''s digital divide has worsened over the past two years, leaving poorer families without broadband connections in their homes.


    Digital exclusion（排斥） is a major threat to wider societal equality in the UK, so witnessingpanies like Facebook championing the metaverse（虚拟世界） as the next great frontier （边界）when school children are struggling toplete their homework feels particularly irritating.


    Consequently（因此）, it''s worth bearing（忍受） in mind that while deleting（删除） all social media accounts will undoubtedly make some feel infinitely （极其）better, many other people benefit from the strong sense ofmunity that sharing platforms can breed.


    Inte access will continue to grow in importance as we edge further towards web 3.0, and greater resources and initiatives （积极性）are needed to provide the underprivileged （贫穷）with the connectivity（联通性） they desperately （极度）need to learn, work and live.


    It''s crucial that people who feel that social media is having a detrimental （不利的）effect on their mental health are allowed to switch off（关闭） - and for those living in digital exclusion to be able to switch on（打开） in the first place.


    1.What do we learn about singer and actress Selena Gomez in the past four and a half years?


    A)She has had worsening mental problems.


    B)She has won Instagram''s most followers.


    C)She has refrained（克制） from using social media.


    D) She has succeeded in a bid（出价） on the inte.


    2.Why does actively opting out of using the inte be a matter of privilege?


    A)Most people find it subtle （微妙的）andplicated to give up using the inte.


    B)Most people can hardly ditch the web while avoiding hate andparisons.


    C)Most people can hardly get by without the inte due to growing digitisation.


    D) Most people have been seriously addicted to the web without being aware of it.


    3.Why does the author say "witnessingpanies...feels particularly irritating" (Lines 3-4, Para. 6)?


    A)The UK digital divide （数字鸿沟）would further worsen due to the metaverse.


    B)The concept of the metaverse is believed to be still quite illusory.（虚幻的）


    C) School children would be drawn farther away（拉离） from the real world.


    D) Most families in the UK do not have stable broadband（宽带） connections.


    4.What is worth bearing in mind （牢记）concerning social media platforms?


    A) They are conducive （有益）to promoting societal equality.


    B)They help many people feel connected with others.


    C) They provide a necessary device for a digital detox. （戒瘾所）


    D) They create a virtualmunity on the inte.


    5.What does the author think is really important for those living in digital exclusion?


    A)Having access to the inte.


    B)Edging further towards web 3.0.


    C)Getting more educational resources.


    D) Opening more social media accounts.


    Key: C-C-A-B-A


    Research is meant to benefit society by raising public awareness and creating products and innovations that enhance development.


    For research to serve its full purpose, the results must leave the confines（界限） of research laboratories and academic journals（期刊）.


    Findings effectivelymunicated can go a long way to serve the interests of the public. They can help address（解决） social injustices（不公平） or improve treatments offered to patients.


    Many researchers seem to be content with （满意）sharing the results of their studies in academic journals or at conferences.（会议）


    But few journals allow everybody to read the findings.


    Even articles freely available are usually written in academic language iprehensible （无法理解）to the average reader. For researchers in the tenure-track（终身教职） system, their main goal is winning tenure（教职）, which in part can be achieved by getting a number of papers （论文）published in prominent journals.


    Pressures like this meanmunity-level outreach （拓展）is not prioritised.


    Many researchers lack the writing skills to describe their results to a general audience.


    They may also worry about whether the public will understand their findings, or about findings being used to influence controversial（有争议的） policies.


    These concerns cause some researchers to shy away frommunicating their findings outside the academicmunity.


    Propagating （传播）research findings beyond academic publications is particularly crucial for addressing certain social discrepancies.（差异）


    It can help families,munities, healthcare providers, policymakers, government agencies and other stakeholders （利益相关者）to understand and respond to crises that plague（危机） society. The benefits of sharing findings flow both ways.


    Engaging with other researchers and the public can lead to unexpected new connections and new ideas that could suggest fruitful （富有成效的）new directions for research.


    To benefit both researchers and themunities, the need to find innovative, accessible （可理解的）ways to share the work cannot be overstated.（强调）


    Institutions and fundinganisations should support more researchers to publish in open access journals so that the public doesn''t have to pay to read them.


    Institutions and researchers should invest in partnerships that expand capacity for sharing results more broadly. Furthermore, ethics （伦理mittees should make it mandatory （强制的）for researchers to share their results with the public. Every research participant should opt in or out of receiving results, as part of the process of giving informed consent（同意）.


    There could be misunderstanding of the findings presented by the researcher because of technical terms.But this can be resolved by researchers engaging（雇佣） the services of professional writers ormunication officers to help with translating their study into more accessible language and share it widely with media outlets and the public.


    Sharing results with the people who are most affected by them makes us better researchers and ensures that our work can be used to improve people''s lives.Institutions and collaborators （合作者）must recognise the value of doing so.


    1.How can research serve its full purpose according to the author?


    A)With researchers being aware of public interests.（公共利益）


    B)With its findings published in prominent journals.


    C)With researchers creating products that enhance social development.


    D) With its findings properlymunicated beyond the academic circle.


    2.Why do ordinary readers find it difficult to access the results of researchers'' studies?


    A) They cannot understand the academic language used for reporting these results.


    B)They feel intimidated（害怕的） by the jargon（行话） researchers use to describe their findings.


    C) They do not attend conferences where these results are freely available.


    D) They have few chances to locate the journals that publish these findings.


    3.What is one of the reasons some researchers won''t prioritisemunicating their findings to the public?


    A) They can thrive on the papers published.


    B)Their top consideration is to win tenure.


    C)Their main goal is gaining recognition in their field.


    D) They have to struggle to reach out to themunity.


    4.How can sharing findings benefit researchers themselves?


    A)By helping them to identify new research directions.


    B)By enabling them to understand crises plaguing（危机） society.


    C)By enabling them to effectively address social discrepancies. （差异）


    D)By helping them to e ties with government agencies.


    5.Why are researchers advised to engage the services of professional writers ormunication officers?


    A) To satisfy ethicsmittees'' mandatory requirements of researchers.


    B) To translate their study into languages accessible to readers overseas.


    C) To make their publications correctly understood by the public.


    D) To render their findings acceptable by prominent journals.


    Key: D-A-B-A-C


    One of the great successes of the Republican Party （共和党）in recent decades is the relentless （不间断的）propagation （宣传）of a simple formula（公式） for economic growth: tax cuts.


    The formula doesn''t work, but that has not affected its popularity.


    And while the cult of tax cuts has attracted many critics, it lacks for obvious rivals（竞争）.


    Democratic politicians（民主党政客） have tended to campaign（竞选） on helping people left behind by economic growth. When Democrats do talk about encouraging economic growth, they often sound like Republicans. This is not just a political problem for Democrats; it is an economic problem for the United States.


    The nation needs a better story about the drivers of economic growth.


    The painful lessons of recent decades point to a promising candidate: higher wages.


    Raising the wages of American workers ought to （应该）be the priority of economic policymakers.


    We''d all be better off paying less attention to quarterly（季度） updates on the growth of the nation''s gross domestic product (GDP) and focusing instead on the growth of workers'' paychecks.（薪酬）


    Set aside, for the moment, the familiar argument for higher wages: fairness.


    The argument here is that higher wages can fuel （刺激）the engine of economic growth.


    Perhaps the most famous illustration（例证） of the benefits is the story of Henry Ford''s decision in 1914 to pay $5 a day to workers on his Model T assembly lines.


    He did it to increase production - he was paying a premium to maintain a reliable workforce. The unexpected benefit was that Ford''s factory workers became Ford customers, too.


    The same logic still holds: Consumption（消费） drives the American economy, and workers who are paid more can spend more.


    Mainstream（主流） economists insisted that it is impossible to order（命令） up a sustainable increase in wages becausepensation （报酬）levels reflect the unerring judgment of market forces.


    The conventional wisdom held that productivity growth was the only route to higher wages. Through that lens（角度）, efforts to negotiate （谈判）higher wages were counterproductive.


    Minimum-wage laws would raise unemployment because there was only so much money in the wage pool, and if some people got more, others would get none.


    It was in the context （背景）of this worldview that it became popular to argue that tax cuts would drive prosperity. Rich people would invest, productivity would increase, wages would rise. In the real world, things are moreplicated.


    Wages are influenced by a tug of war between employers and workers, and employers have been winning. One clear piece of evidence is the widening gap between productivity growth and wage growth since roughly1970.


    Productivity has more than doubled; wages have lagged（远远落后） far behind.


    A focus on wage growth would provide an antidote（解药） to the attractive simplicity（简单） of the belief in the magical power of tax cuts.


    1.Why does the formula of tax cuts remain popular though ineffective?


    A)Its critics'' voice has not been heard throughout the country.


    B) There seem to be no other options available to replace it.


    C)The cult of tax cuts has been relentlessly propagated by all policymakers.


    D) There appears to be a misunderstanding of the formula among the public.


    2.What does the author think is a more effective measure for driving economic growth in the U.S.?


    A) Aiding people left behind by economic growth.


    B)Prioritizing the growth of the nation''s GDP.


    C) Increasing thepensation （报酬）for labor.


    D) Introducing even more extensive tax cuts.


    3.What is the logic underlying the author''s viewpoint?


    A)The growth of workers'' paychecks （工资）ultimately boosts the nation''s economy.


    B)Paying a premium（溢价） to maintain a reliable workforce attracts more customers.


    C) Consumption stimulates the desire for higher wages.


    D) Familiar arguments for higher wages are outdated.


    4.What is the basis for higher wages according to the conventional wisdom?


    A) Fairness in distribution.


    B) Increase in productivity.


    C)The priority of economic policymakers.


    D)The unerring （正确的）judgment of market forces.


    5.What do we learn about things in the real world in America for the past 50 years or so?


    A) People have failed to see a corresponding increase in wages and in productivity.


    B) People have been disheartened by the widening（扩大） gap between the haves and have-nots.


    C) People have witnessed a tug（拖拽） of war between Republicans and Democrats over tax cuts.


    D) People have seen the link disappearing between productivity and workers'' well-being.（福利）


    Key: B-C-A-B-A


    Psychologists have long been in disagreement as to whetherpetition is a learned or a gicponent（组成） of human behavior.


    Whatever it is, you cannot but recognize the effectpetition is exerting in academics and many other areas of contemporary life.


    Psychologically speaking,petition has been seen as an inevitable consequence of human drives.


    According to Sigmund Freud（弗洛伊德 ）, humans are born screaming for attention and full ofanic drives （有机动力）for fulfillment in various areas.


    Initially, wepete for the attention of our parents.


    Thereafter, we are at the mercy（宽容） of a battle between our base impulses for self-fulfillment and social and cultural norms（规范） which prohibit （禁止）pure indulgence.（放纵）


    Current work in anthropology（人类学） has suggested, however, that this view of the role ofpetition  in human behavior may be incorrect.


    Thomas Hobbes, one of the great philosophers of the seventeenth century, is perhaps best remembered for his characterization（描述） of the "natural world," that is, the world before the imposition（强加） of the will of humanity, as being"nasty（肮脏 ）, brutish（野蛮）, and short."


    This image of the pre-rational（前理性） world is still widely held（接受）, reinforced by Charles Darwin''s highly influential work, The Origin of Species, which established the doctrine （主义）of natural selection.


    This doctrine, which takes for granted that those species best able to adapt to and master the natural environment in which they live will survive, has suggested that the struggle for survival is an inherent（固有的） human trait which determines a person''s success.


    Darwin''s theory has even been summarized as "survival of the fittest（适者生存）" - a phrase Darwin himself never used - further highlightingpetition''s role in success.


    As it has often been pointed out, however, there is nothing in the concept of natural selection that suggests thatpetition is the most successful strategy for "survival of the fittest."


    Darwin asserted （宣称）in The Origin of Species that the struggles he was describing should be viewed as metaphors（隐喻） and could easily include dependence and cooperation.


    Many studies have been conducted to test the importance placed onpetition as opposed to other values, such as cooperation - by various cultures, and generally conclude that Americans uniquely praisepetition as natural, inevitable, and desirable.


    In 1937, the world-renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead published Cooperation andpetition among Primitive（原始的） Peoples, based on her studies of several societies that did not prize（崇尚）petition, and, in fact, seemed at times to place a negative value on it.


    One such society was the Zuni Indians of Arizona, and they, Mead found, valued cooperation far more thanpetition.


    After studying dozens of such cultures, Mead''s final conclusion was thatpetitiveness is a culturally created aspect of human behavior, and that its prevalence（流行） in a particular society is relative to how that society values it.


    1.What does the author think is easy to see in many areas of contemporary life?


    A)The disagreement on the inevitability ofpetition.


    B)The consequence of psychological investigation.


    C)The effect of human drives.


    D)The impact ofpetition.


    2.According to psychology, what do people strive to do following the initial stage of the life?


    A) Fulfill individual needs without incurring（招致）adverse effects of human drives.


    B) Indulge（满足） in cultural pursuits while keeping their base impulses at bay.


    C) Gain extensive（广泛） recognition without exposing pure indulgence.


    D) Satisfy their own desires while observing social conventions.


    3.What do we learn about the "natural world" characterized by Thomas Hobbes?


    A)It gets misrepresented by philosophers and anthropologists.


    B)It gets distorted（歪曲） in Darwin''s The Origin of Species.


    C)It is free from the rational intervention（干预） of humans.


    D) It is the pre-rational world rarely（很少） appreciated nowadays.


    4.What can we conclude from Darwin''s assertion in The Origin of Species?


    A) All species inherently（天生的） depend on others for survival.


    B) Struggles for survival do not exclude （不排斥）mutual support.


    C)petition weighs as much as cooperation as a survival strategy.


    D)The strongest species proves to be the fittest in natural selection.


    5.What conclusion did Margaret Mead reach after studying dozens of different cultures?


    A)It is characteristic of humans to bepetitive.


    B) Americans are uniquely opposed to cooperation.


    C)petition is relatively more prevalent （流行的）in Western societies.


    D) People''s attitude towardspetition is actually culture-bound.


    Key: D-D-C-B-D


    Spiders make their presence felt in late August and through early autumn.


    This is the mating （□□）season of some of the mostmon varieties, when male house spiderse out of hidden corners to look for females, and garden spiders reach □□ size and spin their most dazzling webs.


    Yet while the spider is a familiar fixture of nursery poems（童谣） or songs and Halloween decorations, its relationship with humans isplicated.


    Fear of spiders ismon and has serious impacts on the lives of sufferers. Its prevalence（流行） appears unrelated to any rational assessment of risk. Spiders in the UK are almost all harmless.


    Farmland species perform valuable ecosystem services, by preying （捕获）on insects that are ourpetitors for crops. But they are a constant source of human anxieties - with a cultural association with witches （女巫）and wickedness（邪恶） dating back to the middle ages.


    Does this perhaps explain, in part, the lack of data about how spiders are faring in our age of ecological crisis? British butterflies are the most studied group of insects in the world, due to the long tradition of collecting and observing them.


    But spider conservationists point out that it was only in the 1980s that the classification of house spiders was properly sorted out.


    And while information about insect populations is gathered by experiments that measure the numbers hitting windscreens or traps, there have been few attempts to count spiders.


    The huge reductions in the numbers of flying insects can only mean a reduction in spiders'' food supply.


    A recent landmark（里程碑） study identified a 75% fall in insect populations between 1989 and 2016, with pesticide （杀虫剂）use thought to be to blame along with the destruction of wild areas for development. This means the overall picture for spiders is worrying, as it is for most creatures.


    But conservationists are most concerned about those varieties that are threatened due to habitat loss and fragmentation, which makes it impossible for them to migrate.（迁移）


    Of around 650 spider species regularly recorded in the UK, the majority thrive（繁荣） in marshes （沼泽）and wasteland.


    Conservation efforts, often led by determined individuals, have helped some species to recover by reintroducing（再引进） them to new areas.


    With rewilding（再野生化） now firmly on the environmental policy agenda, the hope is that in future, spiders will be enabled to migrate by themselves, adapting to climate change by moving along wildlife corridors.（走廊）


    It seems unlikely that spiders will ever attract the same level of human enthusiasm as bees, birds or butterflies, in spite of their unique status as nature''s spinners.（纺织者）


    But as they reveal themselves in all their splendour（显赫） this autumn, it would be a good thing if more animal lovers recognised the ways in which spiders are simply terrific.（极好的）


    1.What do we learn about spiders in the UK since the middle ages?


    A) They have been generally misconceived.


    B) They have adversely impacted crop growth.


    C) They have been a constant reminder of bad luck.


    D) They have made their presence felt when spinning webs.


    52. What have spiders been associated with in the UK for centuries?


    A) Harm.


    B) Evil.


    C) Suffering.


    D) Aggression.


    53. What partly accounts for the reduction in spiders'' food supply?


    A) The long tradition of collecting insects.


    B) Fast reproduction of theirpetitors.


    C) Chemicals used for killing insects


    D) The extinction of alot of wildlife.


    54. What does the passage say is conservationists'' biggest worry?


    A) A variety of spiders are threatened due to pollution of marshes and wasteland.


    B) Certain species of spiders are endangered due to loss of their natural homes.


    C) An increasing number of spiders are being killed by deadly pesticides.


    D) More and more spider species are found losing their ability to migrate.（移居）


    55. What wish does the author express close to the end of the passage?


    A) More people would recognise spiders'' unique status in the ecosystem.


    B) People would show greater enthusiasm for spiders than for butterflies.


    C) There would be sufficient corridors for spiders to move along.


    D)There would be more people appreciating spiders'' splendour.（光彩）


    Key：ABCBD


    Journal editors decide what gets published and what doesn''t, affecting the careers of other academics and influencing the direction that a field takes.


    You''d hope, then, that journals would do everything they can to establish a diverse editorial board, reflecting a variety of voices, experiences, and identities.


    Unfortunately, a new study in Nature Neuroscience （神经科学）makes for disheartening（使人沮丧的） reading.


    The team finds that the majority of editors in top psychology and neuroscience journals are male and based in the United States: a situation that may be amplifying （放大的）existing gender inequalities in the field and influencing the kind of research that gets published.


    Men were found to account for 60% of the editors of psychology journals.


    There were significantly（显著的） more male than female editors at each level of seniority, and men made up the majority of editors in over three quarters of the journals.


    Crucially, the proportion（占比） of female editors was significantly lower than the overall proportion of women psychology researchers.


    The differences were even starker （更明显）in the neuroscience journals: 70% of editors were male, and men held the majority of editorial positions in 88% of journals.


    In this case, the proportion of female editors was not significantly lower than the proportion of female researchers working in neuroscience - a finding that reveals enduring gender disparities （不同）in the field more broadly.


    Based on their results, the team concludes that "the ideas, values, and decision-making biases of men are overrepresented in the editorial positions of the most recognized academic journals in psychology and neuroscience."


    Gender inequality in science is often attributed to（归因于） the fact that senior academics are more likely to be male because historically science was male-dominated: it''s argued that as time goes on and more women rise to senior roles, the field will be more equal.


    Yet this study showed that even the junior roles in psychology journals tended to be held disproportionately by men, despite the fact that there are actually more female than male junior psychology faculty.（全体□□）This implies （意味着）that a lack of female academics is not the problem.


    Instead, there are structural reasons（结构性问题） that women are disadvantaged in science.


    Women receive lower salaries and face greater childcare demands, for instance, which can result in fewer publications and grants（资助） - the kinds of things that journals look for when deciding who to appoint.


    Rather than simply blaming the inequality of editorial boards on tradition, we should be actively breaking down these existing barriers.


    A lack of diversity among journal editors also likely contributes to psychology''s WEIRD（奇怪的） problem.


    If journal editors are largely men from the United States, then they will probably place higher value on papers that are relevant to Western, male populations, whether consciously or not.


    1.What would we expect an editorial board of an academic journal to exhibit in view of its important responsibilities?


    A) Insight. （洞察力）


    B) Expertise.（专业性）


    C) Integrity. （完整性）


    D) Diversity.


    2.What do we learn from the findings of a new study in Nature Neuroscience?


    A)The majority of top psychology and neuroscience journals reflect a variety of voices, experiences and identities.


    B)The editorial boards of most psychology and neuroscience journals do influence the direction their field takes.


    C)The editorial boards of the most important journals in psychology and neuroscience are male-dominated.


    D)The majority of editors in top psychology and neuroscience journals have relevant backgrounds.


    3.What fact does the author highlight concerning the gender differences in editors of psychology journals?


    A)There were quite a few female editors who also distinguished（卓越的） themselves as influential psychology researchers.


    B)The number of female editors was simply disproportionate to that of women engaged in psychology research.


    C)The proportion of female editors was increasingly lower at senior levels.


    D) There were few female editors who could move up（升到） to senior positions.


    4.What can we infer from the conclusion drawn by the team of the new study on the basis of their findings?


    A) Women''s views are underrepresented in the editorial boards of top psychology and neuroscience journals.


    B) Male editors of top psychology and neuroscience journals tend to be biased against their female colleagues.


    C) Male researchers have enough representation in the editorial boards to ensure their publications.


    D) Female editors have to struggle to get women''s research articles published in academic journals.


    5.What does the author suggest we do instead of simply blaming the inequality of editorial boards on tradition?


    A) Strike a balance between male and female editors.


    B)Increase women''s employment in senior positions.


    C) Enlarge the body of female academics.


    D) Implement overall structural reforms.


    Key: D-C-B-A-D

 第8章 23年6月阅读真题（上）

    【任务4：请宿主在6h内完成本次阅读真题，并保证正答率高于60%。任务奖励：200积分。】


    来了，新的任务又来了。


    岑越崎摩拳擦掌，经过近几日的高强度学习，他的英语终于佳境，这一次的任务来得正是时候。


    迫不及待翻开试卷，岑越崎凝神阅读起来。


    The lifesaving power of gratitude


    A) Gratitude may be more beneficial than wemonly suppose.


    One recent study asked participants to write a note of thanks to someone and then estimate （估计）how surprised and happy the recipient would feel an impact that they consistently underestimated. Another study assessed the health benefits of writing thank-you notes.The researchers found that writing as few as three weekly thank-you notes over the course of three weeks improved life satisfaction, increased happy feelings and reduced symptoms（症状） of depression.


    B)While this research into gratitude is relatively new, the principles involved are anything but.Students of mine in a political philosophy course at Indiana University are reading Daniel Defoe''s 300-year-old Robinson Crusoe, often regarded as the first novel published in English.


    Left alone on an unknown island with no apparent prospect of rescue or escape, Crusoe has much to lament（哀叹）. But instead of giving in to despair, he makes a list of things for which he is grateful, including the fact that he is the sole survivor from the shipwreck and has been able to salvage many useful items from the wreckage.


    C) Defoe''s masterpiece（杰作）, which is often ranked as one of the world''s greatest novels, provides a portrait of gratitude in action that is as timely and relevant today as it has ever been.It is also one with which contemporary（当代） psychology and medicine are just beginning to catch up.Simply put, for most of us, it is far more helpful to focus on the things in life for which we can express gratitude than those that incline us toward resentment（愤恨） and lamentation.（哀叹）


    D) When we focus on the things we regret, such as failed relationships, family disputes, and setbacks in career and finance, we tend to be more regretful.Conversely, when we focus on the things we are grateful for, a greater sense of happiness tends to spread through our lives.And while no one would argue for cultivating a false sense of blessedness,（祝福） there is mounting evidence that counting our blessings is one of the best habits we can develop to promote mental and physical health.


    E) Gratitude has long enjoyed a privileged position in many of the world''s cultural traditions.For example, some ancient Western philosophers counsel （忠告）gratitude that is both enduring andplete, and some Eastern thinkers portray （描绘）it as not merely an attitude but a virtue to be put into practice.


    F) Recent scientific studies support these ancient teachings.Individuals who regularly engage in gratitude exercises, such as counting their blessings or expressing gratitude to others, exhibit（显示） increased satisfaction with relationships and fewer symptoms of physical illness. And the benefits are not only psychological and physical.They may also be moral-those who practice gratitude also view their lives less materialistically（物质上的） and suffer from less envy.


    G) There are multiple explanations for such benefits of gratefulness.One is the fact that expressing gratitude encourages others to continue being generous, thus promoting a virtuous（善良的） cycle of goodness in relationships.Similarly, grateful people may be more likely to reciprocate （报答）with acts of kindness of their own.Broadly speaking, amunity in which people feel grateful to one another is likely to be a more pleasant place to live than one characterized by mutual （共同的）suspicion （怀疑）and resentment.The beneficial effects of gratitude may extend even further.For example, when many people feel good about what someone else has done for them, they experience a sense of being lifted up, with a corresponding（相应的） enhancement （增大 ）of their regard for humanity.Some are inspired to attempt to be better people themselves, doing more to help bring out the best in others and bringing more goodness into the world around them.


    H) Gratitude also tends to strengthen a sense of connection with others.


    When people want to do good things that inspire gratitude, the level of dedication（奉献） in relationships tends to grow and relationships seem to last longer.And when people feel more connected, they are more likely to choose to spend their time with one another and demonstrate （展示）their feelings of affection in daily acts.


    I) Of course, acts of kindness can also foster difort.For example, if people feel they are not worthy of kindness or suspect that some ulterior（将来的） motive lies behind it, the benefits of gratitude will not be realized.Likewise, receiving a kindness can give rise to a sense of indebtedness（债务）, leaving beneficiaries feeling that they must now pay back whatever good they have received.Gratitude can flourish（蓬勃发展） only if people are secure enough in themselves and sufficiently trusting to allow it to do so. Another obstacle（障碍） to gratitude is often called a sense of entitlement（权利）.Instead of experiencing a benefaction as a good turn, people sometimes regard it as a mere payment of what they are owed, for which no one deserves any moral credit（道德称赞）.


    J) There are a number of practical steps anyone can take to promote a sense of gratitude.One is simply spending time on a regular basis thinking about someone who has made a difference, or perhaps writing a thank-you note or expressing such gratitude in person.Others are found in ancient religious disciplines, such as reflecting on benefactions received from another person or actually praying for the health and happiness of a benefactor（恩人）.In addition to benefactions received, it is also possible to focus on opportunities to do good oneself, whether those acted on in the past or hoped for in the future.Some people are most grateful not for what others have done for them but for chances they enjoyed to help othes.In regularly reflecting on the things in his life he is grateful for, Defoe''s Cruse believes that he bes a far better person than he would have been had he remained in the society from which he originally set out on his voyage（启程）.


    K)Reflecting on generosity and gratitude, the great basketball coach John Wooden once offered two counsels to his players and students.First, he said, "It is impossible to have a perfect day unless you have done something for someone who will never be able to repay （回报）you."


    In saying this, Wooden sought to promote purely generous acts, as opposed to those performed with an expectation of reward.


    Second, he said, "Give thanks for your blessings every day."


    L)Some faith traditions incorporate （融入）such practices into the rhythm of daily life.For example, adherents（信徒） of some religions offer prayers of thanksgiving every morning before rising and every night before lying down to sleep.Others offer thanks throughout the day, such as before meals.Other less frequent special events, such as births, deaths and marriages, may also be heralded （宣示）by such prayers.


    M) When Defoe depicted 描述）Robinson Cruse making thanksgiving a daily part of his island life, he was anticipating findings in social science and medicine that would not appear for hundreds of years.Yet he was also reflecting the wisdom of religious and philosophical traditions that extend back thousands of years.Gratitude is one of the healthiest and most nourishing（有营养的） of all states of mind, and those who adopt it as a habit are enriching not only their own lives but also the lives of those around them.


    1.It does us far more good to focus on things we can be grateful for than what makes us sad and resentful.


    2.The beneficial impacts of gratitude can extend from individuals to theirmunity and to the wider society.


    3.The participants in a recent study repeatedly underestimated the positive effect on those who received thank-you notes.


    4.Good deeds can sometimes make people feel ufortable.


    5.People who regularly express gratitude can benefit in moral terms.


    6.A basketball coach advocated performing generous acts without expecting anything in return.


    7.More and more evidence shows it makes us mentally and physically healthier to routinely count our blessings.


    8.Of all states of mind, feeling grateful is considered one of the most healthy and beneficial.


    9.The principles underlying the research into gratitude are nothing new at all.


    10.Gratitude is likely to enhance one''s sense of being connected with other people.


    Key: C-G-A-I-F-K-D-M-B-H


    The problem with being perfect


    A) When psychologist Jessica Pryor lived near an internationally renowned university, she once saw a student walking into a library holding a sleeping bag and a coffee maker.She has heard of graduate students spending 12 to 18 hours at a time in the lab.Their schedules are meant to be literally punishing: If they are scientists-in-training, they won''t allow themselves to watch Netflix until their experiments start generating results."Relationships be estranged- people stop inviting them to social gatherings or dinner parties, which leads them to spend even more time in the lab," Pryor told me.


    B)Along with other therapists, Pryor, who is now with the Family Institute at Northwestern University, is trying to sound the alarm （警告）about a tendency among young adults and college students to strive for perfection in their work sometimes at any cost.Though it is often portrayed（描绘） as a positive trait, Pryor and others say extreme perfectionism can lead to depression, anxiety, and even suicide.


    C)What''s more, perfectionism（完美主义） seems to be on the rise.In a study of thousands of American, Canadian, and British college students published earlier this year, Thomas Curran of the University of Bath and Andrew Hill of York St. John University found that today''s college students report higher levels of perfectionism than college students did during the 1990s or early 2000s.They measured three types of perfectionism: self-oriented,（自我导向性） or a desire to be perfect; socially prescribed, or a desireto live up to others'' expectations; and other-oriented, or holding others to unrealistic standards.From 1989 to 2016, they found, self-oriented perfectionism scores increased by 10 percent, socially prescribed scor- es rose by 33 percent, and other-oriented perfectionism increased by 16 percent.


    D) A person living with an other-oriented perfectionist might feel criticized by the perfectionist spouse for not doing household chores exactly the "right" way."One of the mostmon things couples argue about is the proper way of loading the dishwasher（洗碗机）" says Amy Bach, a psychologist（心理学家） in Providence, Rhode Island.


    E) Curran describes socially prescribed perfectionism as "My self-esteem is contingent on what other people think-"His study didn''t examine（考察） the causal reasons for its rise, but he assumes（认为） that the rise of both standardized testing and social media might play a role.These days, LinkedIn （商业化关系网）alerts us when our rival gets a new job, and Instagram can let us know how well "liked" our lives arepared with a friend''s.In an opinion piece earlier this year, Curran and Hill argue that society has also be more dog-eat-dog."Over the last 50 years, public interest （利益）and civic responsibility have been progressively（逐渐） eroded（侵蚀）," they write, "replaced by a focus on self-interest andpetition in a supposedly （可能）free and open marketplace." We strive for perfection, it seems, because we feel we must in order to get ahead.Michael Brustein, a clinical psychologist in Manhattan, says when he first began practicing in 2007, he was surpri- sed by how prevalent （流行的）perfectionism was among his clients, despite how little his graduate training had focused on the phenomenon.He sees perfectionism in, among others, clients who are entrepreneurs（企业家）, artists, and tech employees."You''re in New York because you''re ambitious, you have this need to strive," he says."But then your whole identity gets wrapped into a goal."


    F) Perfectionism can, of course, be a positive force.Think of professional athletes（运动员）, who train aggressively for ever-higher levels ofpetition.In well-adjusted perfectionism, someone who doesn''t get the gold is able to et the setback and move on.In maladaptive perfectionism, meanwhile, people make an archive of all their failures.They revisit these archives constantly, thinking, as Pryor puts it, "I need to make myself feel terrible so I don''t do this again."Then they double down, "raising the expectation bar even higher, which increases the likelihood of defeat, which makes you self-critical, so you raise the bar higher, work even harder," she says.Nextes failure, shame, and pushing yourself even harder toward even higher and more impossible goals. Meeting them bes an "all or nothing"（全有或全无) premise.Pryor offered this example: "Even if I''m an incredible （出色的）attorney（律师）, if I don''t make partner in the same pacing as one of my colleagues, clearly that means I''m a failure."


    G) Brustein says his perfectionist clients tend to devalue （贬低）their aplishments, so that every time a goal is achieved, the high lasts only a short time, like "a gas tank with a hole in it." If the boss says you did a great job, it''s because he doesn''t know anything.If the audience likes your work, that''s because it''s too stupid to know what good art actually is. But, therapists say, there are also different ways perfectionism manifests（表现方式）. Some perfectionists are always pushing themselves forward.But others actually fall behind on work, unable toplete assignments unless they are, well, perfect. Or they might handicap（阻碍） their performance ahead of time.They''re the ones partying until 2 a.m. the night before the final, so that when the grade C rolls in, there''s a ready excuse.


    H)While educators and parents have successfully convinced students of the need to be high performing and diligent, the experts told me, they haven''t adequately prepared them for the inevitability of failure.Instead of praises like "You''re so smart," parents and educators should say things like "You really stuck with it," Pryor says, to emphasize the value of perseverance over intrinsic（本质的） talent.Pryor notes that many of her clients are wary she''ll "turn them into some degenerate（退化） couch potato （堕落的人）and teach them to be okay with it."Instead, she tries to help them think through the parts of their perfectionism they''d like to keep, and to lose the parts that are ruining their lives.


    I) Bach, who sees many students from Brown University, says some of them don''t even go out on weekends, let alone weekdays.She tells them, "Aim high, but getfortable with good enough."When they don''t get some award, she encourages them to remember that "one oue is not a basis for a broad conclusion about the person''s intelligence, qualifications, or potential for the future."


    J) The treatment for perfectionism might be as simple as having patients keep logs（记录） of things they can be proud of, or having them behave imperfectly in small ways, just to see how it feels."We might have them hang the towels crooked（歪的） or wear some clothing inside out," says Martin Antony, a professor in the department of psychology at Ryerson University in Toronto.


    K) Brustein likes to get his perfectionist clients to create values that are important to them, then try to shift their focus to living according to those values rather than achieving specific goals. It''s a play on the "You really stuck with it" message for kids.In other words, it isn''t about doing a headstand （倒立）in yoga class; it''s about going to yoga class in the first place, because you like to be the kind of person who takes care of herself.But he warns that some people go into therapy expecting too much - an instant transformation of themselves from a pathological （病态的）perfectionist to a (still high-achieving) non-perfectionist. They try to be perfect, in other words, at no longer being perfect.


    1.Socially prescribed perfectionism is described as one''s self-esteem depending on other people''s opinion.


    2.Jessica Pryor has learned that some graduate students work such long hours in the lab that they have little time for entertainment （娱乐）or socializing.


    3.The author believes perfectionism may sometimes be constructive.


    4.It is found that perfectionism is getting more and more prevalent among college students.


    5.Some experts suggest parents and educators should prepare students for failures.


    6.Some therapists warn that young adults tend to pursue perfection in their work.


    7.Psychologist Amy Bach encourages her students to aim high but be content with something less than perfect.


    8.A clinical psychologist finds perfectionism is widespread among his clients.


    9.In trying to ovee perfectionism, some people are still pursuing perfection.


    10.In pursuing perfection, some perfectionists fail toplete their tasks on time.


    Key: E-A-F-C-H-B-I-E-K-G


    Why we need tiny colleges


    A)We''re experiencing the rebirth（重生） of smallness.Farmers markets, tiny homes, and brew pubs（啤酒酒吧） all exemplify（例证） our love of smallness. So do charter schools, coffee shops, and local bookstores.Small is often (but not always) more affordable, healthier, and sustainable, but its finest characteristic, the one that turns charm into love, is that going small allows us to be more fully who we are.


    B)In higher education the trend is mostly in the opposite direction: Universities with 20,000 or 30,000 students are considered "mid-sized".


    The nation''s largest university, Arizona State University, has 80,000 students on campus and aims to enroll （使加入）another100,000 students online.At the other end of the spectrum is a handful of colleges that have fewer than a hundred students on campus and no online courses: colleges such as Sterling College,Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, and Deep Springs College.These colleges are so small that they can only be called "tiny."


    C) Tiny colleges focus not just on a young person''s intellect, but on the young person as a whole.Equally important, tiny colleges ask, "How can education contribute to human flourishing and the well-being（福祉） of the world?"And they shape a college experience to address that question.


    They replace concerns about institutional growth with attention to the growth of students as fully developed participants in theirmunities.


    D) I''ve had the privilege of （有幸）teaching at three different institutions of higher learning during my career - a small liberal arts college and two mid-sized public universities.I''ve also been profoundly disappointed in each of these institutions, and in many of my colleagues, especially when ites to helping students and preparing them for the many responsibilities of adulthood.Administrators（管理人员） focus on the business of running a university, and most faculty （全体□□）focus on their scholarship （学术研究）and teaching their discipline.Little deliberate（刻意的） attention is given to how students mature as individuals and social beings.


    E) Having just retired from teaching at a public university, I''m now returning to my hometown of Flagstaff, Arizona, to establish a tiny college Flagstaff College.I''m convinced there''s a need for another type of education, one devoted to helping studentse into their own and into this beautiful and troubled world.Young people need an education that will provide them with meaning, hope, courage, and passion, as well as information and skills.Large institutions, I believe, are particularly ill-suited（不合适的） to this type of education.


    F)There''s no "best of" list when ites to tiny colleges, at least not yet.


    But around the country people are creating new colleges that provide an alternative to small liberal arts colleges, large public universities, and online education.


    G) With only 26 students, Deep Springs is the smallest college in the country and, quite likely, the most atypical（**型的）. Located on a working cattle ranch on the California-Nevada border, Deep Springs is a private, residential, two-year college for men,mitted to （致力于）educating students for "a life of service to humanity."Founded by the electricity tycoon L. L. Nunn in 1917, Deep Springs'' "curriculum" （课程）revolves around academics, labor, and self-governance.（自治）In addition to their courses, students are charged with running the 155-acre ranch（牧场） and overseeing （监督）the functioning of the college.Students chair both the admissions （招生委员会）and the curriculummittees.


    H) "Living in closemunity with one''s teachers and fellow students, and being forced to take on □□ responsi- bilities, makes for one''s growth as a person," says William Hunt, who graduated last year.


    "To exist for very long in amunity like that, you have to get over the question of whether you''re sufficiently talented or principled and get started worrying about how you can stretch yourself and your peers, how much you can manage to learn with them."


    I)Sterling College,in Craftsburymon, Vermont, is also very small - fewer than 100 students.Unlike Deep Springs, Sterling focuses its curriculum on environmental and social justice issues, but like Deep Spri- ngs it places a high value on personal responsibility and manual labor.


    According to its catalog, a college education at Sterlingbines "rigorous（严谨的） academics, roll-up-your-sleeves（撸起袖子） challenges, and good old  hard work."


    J)The average tuition at a small liberal-arts college is $30,000 to $40,000 a year, not including the cost of living on campus, aspared to $8,000 to $10,000 a year for tuition alone at a public university.Of the tiny colleges, only Deep Springs doesn''t charge tuition or room and board（膳食）; students pay only for books and the cost of traveling to and from college.If tiny schools are to be a player on the higher education scene, they will need to find a way to be truly affordable.


    K) Doing so may not be that difficult so long as they do not pattern themselves too closely on existing norms. We''vee to believe that a good college should have many academic programs and excellent facilities, posh（豪华） dorms, an array of （一系列）athletic programs, and a world-class student activity center. Imagine a good college without a climbing wall!We also have accepted the idea that college presidents, and their many vice-presidents, should be paid like their counterparts （相对应的）in the business world and that higher education requires an elaborate, up-to-date technology infrastructure（基础设施）.All of this drives up the cost of education.


    L)The "trick" to making tiny colleges affordable, if that''s the right word, is simplicity. At its core, education is a human-to-human interaction.


    Reflecting on his own college education, President Garfield oncemented that an ideal college would consist of nothing more than the legendary teacher Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other. The economics of a tiny college, in other words, might be similar to that of a tiny house.Because it is small, a tiny house costs less to build and less to furnish（装备）, insure（保险）, and maintain. But the economic benefits of a small house don''t end there.Tiny homes discourage homeowners from buying stuff that they really don''t need, because there''s no place to put it.


    M) I''m a late convert to the idea of tiny colleges, and I fully understand the need for many diverse types of educati- onal institutions.Academic research and job training are important, but tiny colleges aren''t suited for either.The educational needs of aplex society are themselvesplex, and no single model can meet all of these needs.But I''m now convinced there''s an educational need that''s now going almostpletely unmet（未满足的）: namely（也就是）, the need to help young people transition into adulthood.Tiny colleges can do this better than any other type of educational institution.


    N)The ultimate justification for a tiny college is the conviction that each of uses into our full humanity by close interaction with those who know and care for us, and that one of the basic purposes of higher education is social. Although we give lip （嘴上说）service to the idea that a college education will make us better people, when all''s said and done, we think of higher education primarily in economic terms.We''vee to think of higher education as a means to make a living rather than make a life. We''ve alsoe to see higher education as a private good rather than a public one.Tiny colleges are not the answer to all of our educational requirements, but they''re an answer to one of our most basic educational necessities: the need to produce thoughtful, engaged（敬业的）, andpassionate human beings.


    1.One tiny American college situated on a cattle farm is devoted to educating students to serve mankind throughout their lives.


    2.Much to the author''s disappointment, the three institutions of higher learning where she taught largely ignore students'' growth as social beings.


    3.Tiny colleges must be made affordable in order to play a role in higher education.


    4.According to a recent graduate from a tiny college, living together with faculty and fellow students is conducive（有益的） to a student''s growth as a person.


    5.Rather than going small, most American universities are trying to go big.


    6.In a certain tiny college, rigorous academic work and traditional manual labor are integrated.（融合）


    7.Tiny colleges focus on educating students to be well-rounded citizens instead of seeking their own expansion.（扩张)


    8.The essence （本质）of education lies in the interaction between people.


    9.After her retirement, the author has decided to set up a tiny college in her hometown.


    10.Tiny colleges are justified as it is believed that our growth into full humanityes through interaction with people near and dear （亲近的）to us.


    Key: G-D-J-H-B-I-C-L-E-N

 第9章 23年6月阅读真题（下）

    【正答率结算中，本次正答率为70%，积分 200】


    岑越崎大喜过望，这是他第一次正答率达到70%，只要保持这个正答率他就可以顺利通过六级考试了。


    他合上试卷，指尖因为兴奋微微发颤，打开商城，他意外发现商城竟然升级了。


    多了一行可兑换道具。


    记忆增强，永久增幅 1，价格：200积分


    岑越崎想了想，决定尽早兑换。


    记忆力这东西似乎越早提升越吃香，攒着又不能升值。


    眼前一闪，系统界面清零，岑越崎只觉脑海中一片澄明，他拿出试题决定检测下效果。


    Technology is never a neutral （中立）tool for achieving human ends.


    Technological innovations reshape people as they use these innovations to control their environment. Artificial intelligence, for example, is altering humanity.


    While the term AI conjures up anxieties about killer robots or catastrophic（灾难级别的） levels of unemployment, there are other, deeper implications（暗示）.


    As AI increasingly shapes the human experience, how does this change what it means to be human?


    Central to the problem is a person''s capacity to make choices, particularly judgments that have moral implications.


    Aristotle（亚里士多德） argued that the capacity for making practical judgments depends on regularly making them - on habit and practice.


    We see the emergence （出现）of machines as substitute （替代）judges in a variety of everyday contexts as a potential threat to people learning how to effectively exercise judgment themselves.


    In the workplace, managers routinely make decisions about who to hire or fire and which loan to approve, to name a few.


    These are areas where algorithmic（算法） prescription （指示）is replacing human judgment, and so people who might have had the chance to develop practical judgment in these areas no longer will.


    Rmendation engines, which are increasingly prevalent （流行的）intermediaries （中介机构）in people''s consumption of culture, may serve to constrain choice and minimize luck.


    By presenting consumers with algorithmically selected choices of what to watch, read, stream and visit next,panies are replacing human taste with machine taste.


    In one sense, this is helpful.


    After all, machines can survey a wider range of choices than any individual is likely to have the time or energy to do on their own.


    At the same time, though, this selection is optimizing （优化）for what people are likely to prefer based on what they''ve preferred in the past.


    We think there is some risk that people''s options will be constrained（强迫） by their past in a new and unanticipated way. As machine learning algorithms improve and as they train on more extensive data sets, larger parts of everyday life are likely to be utterly （完全的）predictable.（可预测的）


    The predictions are going to get better and better, and they will ultimately makemon experiences more efficient and pleasant.


    Algorithms could soon -if they don''t already have a better idea about which show you''d like to watch next and which job candidate you should hire than you do.


    One day, humans may even find a way for machines to make these decisions without some of the biases that humans typically display.


    But to the extent that unpredictability is part of how people understand themselves and part of what people like about themselves, humanity is in the process of losing something significant.


    As they be more and more predictable, the creatures inhabiting the increasingly AI-mediated world will be less and less like us.


    1.What do we learn about the deeper implications of AI?


    A) It is causing catastrophic levels of unemployment.


    B)It is doing physical harm to human operators.


    C)It is altering moral （道德）judgments.


    D) It is reshaping humanity.


    2.What is the consequence of algorithmic prescription replacing human judgment?


    A) People lose the chance to cultivate the ability to make practical judgments.


    B) People are prevented from participating in making major decisions in the workplace.


    C) Managers no longer have the chance to decide which loan to approve.


    D) Managers do not need to take the trouble to determine who to hire or fire.


    3.What may result from increasing application of rmendation engines in our consumption of culture?


    A) Consumers will have much limited choice.


    B)Consumers will actually enjoy better luck.


    C) It will be easier to decide on what to enjoy.


    D) Humans will develop tastes similar to machines''.


    4.What is likely to happen to larger parts of our daily life as machine learning algorithms improve? A) They will turn out to be more pleasant.


    B)They will repeat our past experience.


    C)They can bepletely anticipated.


    D) They may be better and better.


    5.Why does the author say the creatures living in the more and more AI-mediated world will be increasingly unlike us?


    A) They will have lost the most significant human element of being intelligent.


    B)They will no longer possess the human characteristic of being unpredictable.


    C) They will not be able to understand themselves as we can do today.


    D) They will be deprived of what their predecessors were proud of about themselves.


    Key: D-A-A-C-B


    How on earth（究竟） did wee to this?


    We protect our children obsessively（过分的） from every harm; we scrutinize（仔细检查） every carer, teacher or doctor with whom theye into contact.


    Yet despite all this, one group, which in no way has their best interests at heart, has almost unconstrained（不受约束的） access. We seem to take it for granted that advertisers and marketers are allowed to condition even the youngest childre-.


    Before children have even developed a proper sense of their own identity, or learned to handle money, they''re encouraged to associate status and self-worth with stuff, and to look to external things such as fame and wealth for validation.（确认）


    We''re turning out little consumers rather than young citizens who will value themselves for what they contribute to the society in which they live.


    We''ve reached this point so gradually that many of us have never questioned it.


    It''s crept up on us in the 60 years since advertisers started to target the young and found that they could recruit them to amercial assault on their parents.


    We''vee to know it as "pester （纠缠）power" or the ability of children to pressure parents to make certain purchases. Many psychologists, child development experts and educators point to research suggesting that this emerging cradle-to-grave （从摇篮到坟墓）consumerism is contributing to growing rates of low self-esteem, depression and other forms of mental illness.


    Not all psychologists agree.


    There''re plenty working hand in glove with a ?12bn-a-year industry that has turned the manipulation（操纵） of □□ emotions and desires into an art form - often literally.


    It''s also one that''s forever developing new ways to persuade our children to desire material possessions, and because of advertisements'' viral effect they only need to infect a few to reach the many.


    Advertising and marketing can serve a useful purpose for children.


    Marketing may help socialize children as consumers, inform them about products, and help them carve out unique identities as they reach adulthood.


    Then, should we ban all advertising aimed at young children?


    I say yes.


    Of course there''ll be plenty of objections （反对）to an outright （全部的）ban on advertising to the under-11s.


    There''ll be those who argue that would be a breach of freedom of speech and infringe （侵犯）the rights of corporations（公司） to brainwash （洗脑）little children into demanding their products.


    Most parents hate what advertising does to their children, but we do have the power to end it and let our children grow up free from many of the pressures of consumerism until they''re old enough to make their own decisions. And though advertising is only part of an all-pervasive（无孔不入的） marketing culture we need to make a start somewhere. Let''s ban all advertising targeting children of primary school age and younger now.


    1.Which group of people does the author say has almost unrestricted access to children?


    A) Advertisers.


    B) Carers.


    C) Teachers.


    D) Doctors.


    2.What kind of people should we enable children to be according to the author?


    A)Those who look to fame and wealth for external and ultimate validation


    B)Those who value themselves because of their contribution to society.


    C)Those who associate self-worth with the ability to handle money.


    D) Those who have developed a proper sense of their own identity.


    3.Many child development experts and educators call attention to research that suggests:


    A) life-long consumerism is causing more and more cases of psychological problems.


    B) increasingmercialization of education is eroding many children''s self-esteem.


    C) the growing desire for wealth is contributing to a rising rate of depression.


    D) the craving for purchasing material things is nurtured throughout one''s life.


    4.What does the author imply about the impact of advertising?


    A)It is actually infectious to many rather than a few.


    B)It is rooted in our desire for material possessions.


    C)It isparable to that of virus.


    D) It is literally limited to children.


    5.What is the opponents'' argument against aplete ban on advertising to young children?


    A) It would deprive（剥夺） them of the chance to learn about products.


    B)It would render（致使） them unable to carve out unique identities.


    C)It would breach （违背）their freedom as would-be consumers.


    D) It would violate the rights endowed （赋予）upon advertisers.


    Key: A-B-A-A-D


    If you''re someone who has turned to snacking （吃零食）on junk food more in the pandemic, you''re not alone.


    Investigative reporter Michael Moss says processed food is engineered （设计）to hook（吸引） you, not unlike alcohol, cigarettes, or other harmful substances.


    His 2013 book, Salt Sugar Fat, explored foodpanies'' aggressive marketing of those products and their impact on our health.


    In his new book, Hooked, Moss updates the food giants'' efforts to keep us eating what they serve, and how they''re responding toplaints from consumers and health advocates.


    Processed food is inexpensive, it''s legal, and it''s everywhere.


    &nbsppanies'' advertising is cueing （提示）us to remember those products and we want those products constantly.


    So the food environment is one of those key things that makes food even more problematic for so many people. Memory, nostalgia（念旧） in particular, plays a big role in the foods we crave.


    Sodapanies discovered that if they put a soda in the hands of a child when they''re at a ball game with their parents, that soda will forever be associated with that joyous moment.


    Later in life, when that child wants to experience a joyous moment, they''re going to think of soda. Many people seekfort in the snacks they remember from childhood.


    Moss examines （研究）the waypanies capitalize（利用） on our memories, cravings and brain chemistry to keep us snacking. One of the reasons I came to think that some of these food products are even more powerful, more troublesome than drugs can be is memory.


    What we eat is all about memory.


    And we begin forming memories for food at a really early age. And we keep those memories for a lifetime.


    Knowing this, the food industry spends lots of time trying to shape the memories that we have for their products.


    One of the features of addiction that scientists studying drug addiction discovered back in the 1990s was that the faster a substance hits the brain, the more apt we are as a result to act impulsively(冲动的）. There''s nothing faster than food in its ability to hit the brain.


    For Moss, this puts the notion of "fast food" in an entirely new light as this isn''t limited to fast food chains almost90% of food products in grocery stores are processed foods.


    Everything in the industry is about speed, from manufacturing to packaging.


    Overall, Moss outlines the industry''s dependence on making their products inexpensive, super delicious, and incredibly（非常的） convenient for consumers.


    Now that more and more people care about what they put in their bodies and are wanting to eat healthier, thesepanies are finding it really difficult to meet that new demand because of their own addiction（沉迷于） to making these convenience foods.


    1.In what way does Michael Moss think processed food isparable to alcohol and cigarettes?


    A)They are all addictive.


    B)They are all necessary evils.


    C)They are all engineered to be enjoyed.


    D) They are all in increasingly great demand.


    2.What does the author say plays a key role in the foods we crave?


    A)The food environment.


    B) Aggressive marketing.


    C) Convenience.


    D) Memory.


    3.What do foodpanies do to capitalize on consumers'' association with their food products?


    A) They strive to influence how consumers remember their products.


    B)They attempt to use consumers'' long-term memories to promote addiction.


    C) They try to exploit（利用) consumers'' memories for their products as early as possible.


    D) They endeavor to find what consumers remember about their products.


    4.How does the food industry operate from manufacturing to packaging, according to Moss?


    A)Placing the idea of fast food in an entirely new light.


    B)Setting no limit to the number of fast food chains.


    C)Focusing on how quickly the work is done.


    D) Prioritizing（优先） the quality of their products.


    5.Why arepanies finding it difficult to satisfy consumers'' demand for healthier food products?


    A)They think speed of production outweighs consumers'' health.


    B)They believe their industry would perish （消亡）without fast foods.


    C) They have to strike a balance between taste and nutrition.


    D) They are hooked on（沉迷于） manufacturing convenience foods.


    Key: A-D-A-C-D


    Phonics,（声学） which involves sounding out words syllable by syllable（音节）, is the best way to teach children to read.


    But in many classrooms, this can be a dirty word.


    So much so that some teachers have had to sneak （偷偷的做）phonics teaching materials into the classroom.


    Most American children are taught to read in a way that study after study has found to be wrong. The consequences of this are striking.


    Less than half of all American adults were proficient（精通） readers in 2017.


    American fourth graders rank 15th on the Progress in International Literacy Study, an international exam.


    America is stuck in a（陷入） debate about teaching children to read that has been going on for decades.


    Some advocate teaching symbol-sound relationships (the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck, or ch), known as phonics.


    Others support an immersive（沉浸式） approach (using pictures of a cat to learn the word cat), known as "whole language". Most teachers today, almost three out of four according to a survey by the EdWeek Research Centre in 2019, use a mix called "balanced literacy."


    Thisbination of methods is ineffective.


    "You can''t sprinkle in a little phonics," says Tte Smith, executive director of elementary education and reading at Mississippi''s education department.


    "It has to be systematic（系统） and explicitly（明确的） taught."


    Mississippi, often behind in social policy, has set an example here.


    In a state once notorious（声名狼藉的） for its low reading scores, the Mississippi state legislature （立法机关 ）passed new literacy standards in 2013.


    Since then Mississippi has seen remarkable gains.


    Its fourth graders have moved from 49th (out of 50 states) to 29th on the National Assessment of Educational Prog- ress, a nationwide exam.


    In 2019 it was the only state to improve its scores.


    For the first time since measurement began, Mississippi''s pupils（学生 ） are now average readers, a remarkable achievement in such a poor state.


    Mississippi''s success is attributed to implementing reading methods supported by a body of research known as the science of reading.


    In 1997 Congress requested the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Department of Education to convene（召集） a National Reading Panel（小组） to end the "reading wars" and synthesize （合成）the evidence.


    The panel found that phonics, along with explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, fluency andprehension, worked best.


    Yet over two decades on, "balanced literacy" is still being taught in classrooms.


    But advances in statistics（统计学） and brain imaging have disproved the whole-language method.


    To the teacher who is a proficient reader, literacy seems like a natural process that requires educated guessing, rather than the deliberate（刻意） process emphasized by phonics.


    Teachers can imagine that they learned to read through osmosis when they were children. Without proper training, they bring this to classrooms.


    1.What do we learn about phonics in many American classrooms?


    A)It is ill reputed.


    B)It is mostly misapplied（误用的）.


    C)It is arbitrarily（武断的） excluded.


    D) It is misrepresented.（歪曲的）


    2.What has America been witnessing for decades?


    A) An obsession （痴迷）with innovating teaching methodologies of reading.


    B)An enduring debate over the approach to teaching children to read.


    C)An increasing concern with many children''s inadequacy in literacy.


    D) An ever-forceful（一直） advocacy（拥护） of abined method for teaching reading.


    3.Why does Tte Smith think abination of teaching methods is ineffective?


    A) Elementary school children （小学生）will be frustrated when taught with several methodsbined.


    B) Phonics has to be systematically applied and clearly taught to achieve the desired effect.


    C) Sprinkling in a little phonics deters（打消） the progress of even adequately motivated children.


    D) Balanced literacy fails to sustain children''s interest in developing a good reading habit.


    4.What does the author say Mississippi''s success is attributed to?


    A) Convening a National Reading Panel to synthesize（综合） research evidence.


    B)Placing sufficient emphasis upon both fluency andprehension.


    C) Adopting scientifically grounded approaches to teaching reading.


    D)Obtaining support from Congress to upgrade teaching methods.


    5.What have advances in statistics and brain imaging proved ineffective?


    A)The teaching of symbol-sound relationships.


    B) Explicit instruction in phonemic awareness.


    C) Efforts to end the reading wars.


    D)The immersive approach.


    Key: A-B-B-C-D


    Many oppose workplace surveillance（监督）, because of the inherent （固有的）dehumanizing （非人性的）effect it has and the relentless pressure it brings.


    But it''s on the rise around the world as firms look to be more efficient by squeezing（压榨） more productivity from their workers.


    More than half ofpanies with over $750m in annual revenue （税收）used "non-traditional" monitoring techniques on staff last year.


    Monitoring employee performance gives firms （公司）the ability to assess how their staff are performing and interacting, which can be good for both the firm and employees themselves. A growing number of analyticspanies offer this service.


    They gather "data exhaust（废气）" left by employees'' email and instant messaging apps, and use name badges equipped with radio-frequency identification devices and microphones.


    These can check how much time you spend talking, your volume and tone of voice, even if you do not dominate conversations.


    While this may sound intrusive, exponents（倡导者） argue that it can also protect employees against bullying and sexual harassment.（骚扰）


    Some of this data analysis can produce unexpected results.


    For example, it was found that people who sat at 12-person lunch tables tended to interact, share ideas more and outperform（胜过） those who regularly sat at four-person tables, a fact that would probably have gone undetected without such data analysis.


    Over the last few years a Stockholm co-working space called Epicenter has gone much further and holds popular"chipping parties", where people can have microchips（微芯片） implanted in their hands.


    They can use the implants to access electronically-controlled doors, or monitor how typing speed correlates with heart rate.


    Implanted chips may seem extreme, but it is a relatively small step from ID cards and biometrics （生物统计学）to such devices.


    As long as such schemes are voluntary, there will probably be a growing number of convenience-oriented uses so that a substantial （大量）number of workers would opt to have a chip inserted.（植入）


    But if implanted chips are used to reduce slack（休息） time or rest breaks, that could prove to be detrimental.（有害的）


    And if surveillance （监督）tools take away autonomy, that''s when they prove most unpopular.


    A lot depends on how such monitoring initiatives （积极性）aremunicated and this could prevent possible revolts （叛乱）being staged.


    If bosses don''tmunicate effectively, employees assume the worst.


    But if they''re open about the information they''re collecting and what they''re doing with it, research suggests 46% of employees are generally okay with it.


    Although many such monitoring schemes use anonymised（匿名的） data and participation（参与） is voluntary, many staffers remain sceptical （怀疑）and fear an erosion （侵蚀）of their civil liberties.（公民自由）


    So workplace surveillance could be empowering for staff and useful forpanies looking to be more efficient and profitable.


    But implemented in the wrong way, it could also be an unpopular tool of oppression（压抑） that proves counterproductive.（适得其反）


    1.Why are many people opposed to monitoring employee performance?


    A) It puts workers under constant pressure.


    B)It is universally deemed anti-human by nature.


    C)It does both mental and physical harm to employees monitored.


    D) It enables firms to squeeze maximal productivity from employees.


    2.What is the supporters'' argument for workplace surveillance（监督）?


    A) It enables employees to refrain（避免） from dominating conversations.


    B) It enhances employees'' identification with firms they work in.


    C)It can alert （提醒）employees to intrusion （入侵）into their privacy.


    D) It can protect employees against aggressive behavior.


    3.What does the author want to show by the example of different numbers of people interacting at lunch tables?


    A) Data analysis is key to the successful implementation（实施） of workplace surveillance.


    B)Analyzing data gathered from workers can yield something unexpected.


    C) More workmates sitting at a lunch table tend to facilitate interaction and idea sharing.


    D) It is hard to decide on how many people to sit at a lunch table without data analysis.


    4.What does much of the positive effect of monitoring initiatives depend on?


    A) How frequently employees are to be monitored.


    B)What specific personal information is being excluded.


    C)What steps are taken to minimize their detrimental impact.


    D) How well bosses make known（公开） their purpose of monitoring.


    5.What concern do monitoring initiatives cause among many staffers?


    A) They may empower employers excessively.


    B)They may erode the workplace environment.


    C) They may infringe（侵犯） upon staffers'' entitled freedom.


    D) They may be counterproductive in the long run.


    Chimpanzees, human beings'' closest animal relatives, share up to 98% of our genes. Yet humans and chimpanzees lead very different lives.


    Fewer than 300,000 wild chimpanzees live in a few forested corners of Africa today, while humans have colonized（殖民） every corner of the globe.


    At more than 7 billion, human population dwarfs that of nearly all other mammals - despite our physical weaknesses.


    What could account for our species'' incredible evolutionary successes?


    One obvious answer is our big brains.


    It could be that our raw intelligence gave us an unprecedented ability to think outside the box, innovating solutions to thorny （痛苦的）problems as people migrated （迁徙）across the globe.


    But a growing number of cognitive scientists and anthropologists are rejecting that explanation.


    They think that, rather than making our living as innovators, we survive and thrive precisely because we don''t think for ourselves.


    Instead, people cope with challenging climates and ecological contexts by carefully（生态） copying others.


    In a famous study, psychologists Victoria Horner and Andrew Whiten showed two groups of test subjects - children and chimpanzees - a mechanical box with a treat（款待，食物） inside.


    In one condition, the box was opaque（不透明的）, while in the other it was transparent.


    The experimenters demonstrated how to open the box to retrieve the treat, but they also included the irrelevant（不相关的） step of tapping on the box with a stick.


    Oddly, the children carefully copied all the steps to open the box, even when they could see that the stick had no practical effect.


    That is, they copied irrationally（非理性的）: Instead of doing only what was necessary to get their reward, children slavishly （盲目的）imitated every action they''d witnessed.


    Of course, that study only included three- and four-year-olds.


    But additional research has shown that older children and adults are even more likely to mindlessly copy others'' actions, and infants （婴儿）are less likely to over-imitate -that is, to precisely copy even impractical actions. By contrast, chimpanzees in the study only over-imitated in the opaque condition.


    In the transparent condition - where they saw that the stick was mechanically useless they ignored that step entirely.


    Other research has since supported these findings.


    When ites to copying, chimpanzees are more rational than human children or adults. Where does the seemingly irrational human preference for over-imitatione from?


    Anthropologist（人类学家） Joseph Henrich points out that people around the world rely on technologies that are often soplex that no one can learn them rationally.


    Instead, people must learn them step by step, trusting in the wisdom of more experienced elders and peers.


    So the next time you hear someone arguing passionately that everyone should embrace nonconformity（墨守成规） and avoid imitating others, you might laugh a little bit. We''re not chimpanzees, after all.


    1.What might explain humans'' having the largest population of almost all mammals?


    A) They are equipped with raw strength for solving the most challenging problems.


    B)They cope with the outside world more effectively than their animal relatives.


    C) They possess the most outstanding ability to think.


    D) They know how to survive everywhere on earth.


    2.What accounts for humans'' evolutionary successes according to a growing number of cognitive scientists and anthropologists?


    A) They are better at innovating solutions.


    B)They thrive through creative strategies.


    C)They are naturally adaptive to ecological contexts.


    D) They meet challenges by imitating others carefully.


    3.What does the author think is odd about the findings of the study by Victoria Horner and Andrew Whiten?


    A) Children irrationally imitated every action of the experimenters.


    B) Chimpanzees could tell the transparent box from the opaque one.


    C) Chimpanzees could retrieve the treat more quickly than children did.


    D) Children omitted （遗漏）the step of tapping on the box with a stick to open it.


    4.What is anthropologist Joseph Henrich''s explanation for the human preference for copying?


    A)It originates in the rationality of people around the world.


    B) It stems （起源于）from the way people learnplex technologies.


    C)It results from people distrusting their own wisdom.


    D) It derives from the desire to acquire knowledge step by step.


    5.What point does the author want to emphasize when he says "We''re not chimpanzees"?


    A)It is arguable whether everyone should avoid imitation.


    B)It is characteristic of human beings to copy others.


    C)It is desirable to trust in more knowledgeable peers.


    D) It is naive to laugh at someone embracing nonconformity.


    Key: C-D-A-B-B

 第10章 23年3月阅读真题

    【任务9：请宿主在6h内完成本次阅读真题，并保证正答率高于60%。任务奖励：200积分。】


    经过这些天的努力，他已经摸清了阅读理解的套路，只是部分单词尚未掌握，扫了眼试卷，岑越崎从容许多。


    San Francisco Has Be One Huge Metaphor for Economic Inequality in America


    A)The fog（薄雾） still chills the morning air and the cable cars（缆车） still climb halfway to the stars.Yet on the ground, the Bay Area has changed greatly since singer Tony Be left his heart here.Silicon Valley （硅谷）and the tech industry have led the region into a period of unprecedented wealth and innovation. But existing political and land limits have caused an alarming housing crisis and astronomical（极大的） rise in social and economic difference.


    B)While the residents of most cities display pride and support for their home industries, drastic （激烈的）market distortions（畸变） in the San Francisco Bay Area have created boiling resentment（怨恨） in the region towards the tech industry.A vocal minority is even calling on officials to punish those who are benefitting from the economic and housing boom.If this boom and its consequences are not resolved, a drastic increase in social and economic difference may have a profound impact on the region for generations.A history and analysis of this transformation may hold invaluable insights about the opportunities.Perils （风险）of tech cities are currently being cultivated across the US, and indeed around the world.


    C)According to a recent study, San Francisco ranks first in California for economic difference.The average ie of the top 1% of households in the city averages $3.6 million. This is 44 times （倍）the average ie of those at the bottom, which stands at $ 81,094.The top 1% of the San Francisco peninsula''s share of total ie now extends to 30.8% of the region''s ie.This was a dramatic jump from 1989, where it stood at 15.8%.


    D) The region''s economy has been fundamentally transformed by the technology industry springing from Silicon Valley.Policies pushed by Mayor Ed Lee provided tax breaks for techpanies to set up shop along the city''s long-neglected Mid-Market area.The city is now home to Twitter, Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, Dropbox and others.In short, the Bay Area has be a global ma（磁铁） for those with specialized skills, which has in turn helped fuel economic enthusiasm, and this economic growth has reduced unemployment to 3.4%, an admirable feat.


    E)In spite of all that, the strength of the recent job growth,bined with policies that have traditionally limited housing development in the city and throughout the peninsula,（半岛） did not help ease the affordability crisis. In 2015 alone, the Bay Area added 64,000 in jobs. In the same year, only 5,000 new homes were built.


    F)With the average house in the city costing over $1.25 million and average flat prices over $1.11


    million, the minimum qualifying ie to purchase a house has increased to $254,000.Considering that the average household ie in the city currently stands at around $ 80,000, it is not an exaggeration to say（毫不夸张的说） that the dream of home ownership is now beyond the grasp of the vast majority of （绝大多数）today''s people who rent.


    G) For generations, the stability and prosperity of the American middle class has been anchored （维系）by homeownership.Studies have consistently shown that the value of land has overtaken （超过）overall ie growth, thus providing a huge advantage to property owners as a vehicle of wealth building.When home prices soar（飙升） above the reach of most households, the gap between the rich and the poor dramatically increases.


    H)If contributing factors leading to housing bing less than affordable are not resolved over multiple generations（几代人）, a small elite（精英） will control a vast share of the country''s total wealth. The result?A society where the threat of class warfare （战争）would loom large.A society''s level of happiness is tied less to measures of quantitative wealth and more to measures of qualitative wealth.This means that how a person judges their security inparison to their neighbors'' has more of an impact on their happiness than their objective standard of living.At the same time, when a system no longer provides opportunities for the majority to participate in wealth building, it not only robs those who are excluded from opportunities, but also deprives them of their dignity.（尊严）


    I) San Francisco and the Bay Area have long beenmitted to values which embrace inclusion and rejection（拒绝） of mainstream culture（主流文化）.To see these valuesing apart so publicly adds insult （侮辱）to injury（雪上加霜） for a region once defined by its progressive （进步性的）social fabric.In the face of resentment, it is human to want revenge.（报复）But deteriorating （恶化）policies such as heavily taxing technologypanies or real estate developers are not likely to shift the balance.


    J) The housing crisis is caused by two primary factors: the growing desirability （向往）of the Bay Area as a place to live due to its excellent economy, and our limited housing stock（存量）.Although the city is experiencing an unprecedented boom in new housing, more units are sorely （非常）needed.Protection policies were originally designed to suppress bad development and boost historic preservation in our urban areas.Now, too many developers are experiencing excessive（过度的） delaysanwhile, there are the land limitations of the Bay Area to consider. The region is surrounded by water and mountains.Local governments need to aid development as well.This means increasing housing density throughout the region and building upwards while streamlining（流水线型的） the approval process.


    K) Real estate alone will not solve the problem, of course.Transportation, too, needs to be updated and infrastructure extended to link distant regions to Silicon Valley and the city.We need to build an effective high-speedmuting system linking the high-priced and crowded Bay Area with the low-priced and low-density Central Valley. This would dramatically reduce travel times.And based on the operating speeds of hovering（悬停列车） trains used in countries such as Japan or Spain, high-speed rail could shorten the time to travel between San Francisco and California''s capital, Sacramento, or from Stockton to San Jose, to under 30 minutes.This system would bring once distant regions within reasonablemute to heavy job centers.The city also needs to update existing transportation routesbined with smart home-building policies that dramatically increase housing density in areas surrounding high-speed rail stations.


    By doing so, we will be able to build affordable housing within acceptablemuting distances for a significant bulk of（大量的） the workforce. （劳动力）


    L)Our threatening housing crisis forces the difficult question of what type of society we would like to be.Will it be one where the elite （精英mand（掌控） the vast bulk of wealth and regional culture is defined by an aggressive business world?We were recently treated to a taste of the latter, when local tech employee Justin Keller wrote an open letter to the cityplaining about having to see homeless people on his way to work.


    M) It doesn''t have to be this way.But solutions need to be implemented（实施） now, before angry crowds grow from a nuisance to serious concern. It may take less than you might think.And in fact, the solutions to our housing crisis are already fairly clear. We need to increase the density of housing units.We need to use existing technology to shorten travel times and break the land limits.There is a way to solveplex social and economic problems without abandoning social responsibility. This is the Bay Area''s opportunity to prove that it can innovate more than just technology.


    1.The higher rate of employment,bined with limited housing supply, did not make it any easier to buy a house.


    2.One way to deal with the housing crisis is for the government to simplify approval procedures （程序）for housing project- s.


    3.Residents of the San Francisco Bay Area strongly resent the tech industry because of the economic inequality it has contributed to.


    4.The fast rise in the prices of land and houses increases the economic inequality among people.


    5.San Francisco city government offered tax benefits to attract techpanies to establish operations in a less deve- loped area.


    6.Innovative solutions to social and economic problems should be introduced before it is too late.


    7.When peoplepare their own living standard with others'', it has a greater impact on their sense of contentment.


    8.San Francisco has been found to have the biggest ie gap in California between the rich and the poor.


    9.Improved transportworks connecting the city to distant outlying areas will also help solve the housing crisis


    10.Average ies in the Bay Area make it virtually（几乎） impossible for most tenant （居住者）families to buy a home.


    Key: E-J-B-G-D-M-H-C-K-F


    The ability to make inferences（推理） from same and different, once thought to be unique to humans, is viewed as a cornerstone（基础） of abstract intelligent thought.


    A new study, however, has shown that what psychologists call same-different discrimination is present in creatures generally seen as unintelligent: newborn ducklings.


    The study, published Thursday in Science, challenges our idea of what it means to have a birdbrain, said Edward Wasserman, an experimental psychologist at the University of Iowa who wrote an independent review（评论） of the study"In fact, birds are extremely intelligent and our problem pretty much lies in （在于）figuring out how to get them to ''talk'' to us, or tell us how smart they really are," he said.


    Antone Martinho and Alex Kacelnik, co-authors of the new paper, devised （设计）a clever experiment to bettertest bird intelligence.


    First, they took 1-day-old ducklings and exposed them to a pair of moving objects. The two objects were either the same or different in shape or color.


    Then they exposed each duckling to two entirely new pairs of moving objects.


    The researchers found that about 70% of the ducklings preferred to move toward the pair of objects that had the same shape or color relationship as the first objects they saw.


    A duckling that was first shown two green spheres, in other words, was more likely to move toward a pair of blue spheres（球体） than a mismatched （不匹配的）pair of orange and purple spheres.


    Ducklings go through a rapid learning process called imprinting （铭记）shortly after birth - it''s what allows them to identify and follow their mothers.


    These findings suggest that ducklings use abstract relationships between sensory inputs like color, shape, sounds and odor to recognize their mothers, said Dr. Kacelnik.


    By studying imprinting, the authors of this study have shown for the first time that an animal can learn relationships between concepts without training, said Jeffrey Katz, an experimental psychologist at Auburn University who was not involved in the study.


    Previous studies have suggested that other animals, including pigeons（鸽子）, dolphins, honeybees and some primates（灵长类）, can discern（识别） same from different, but only after extensive training.


    Adding ducklings to the list -particularly untrained newborn ducklings - suggests that the ability topare abstract concepts "is far more necessary to a wider variety of animals'' survival than we previously thought," Dr. Martinho said.


    He believes the ability is so crucial because it helps animals consider context when identifying objects in their environment.


    It''s clear from this study and others like it that "animals process and appreciate far more of the intricacies（复杂性） in their world than we''ve ever understood," Dr. Wasserman said.


    "We are in a revolutionary phase in terms of our ability to understand the minds of other animals."


    1.In what way were humans thought to be unique?


    A) Being a major source of animal intelligence.


    B) Being the cornerstone of the creative world.


    C) Being capable of same-different discrimination. （辨别）


    D) Being able to distinguish abstract （抽象）from concrete.（具体）


    2.What do we learn from the study published in Science?


    A)Our understanding of the bird world was biased. （偏差）


    B)Our conception of（概念） birds'' intelligence was wrong.


    C)Ourmunication with birds was far from adequate.


    D)Our knowledge about bird psychology needs updating.


    3.What did the researchers discover about most ducklings from their experiment?


    A) They could associate shape with color.


    B)They reacted quickly to moving objects.


    C)They preferred colored objects to colorless（无色的) ones.


    D) They could tell whether the objects were the same.


    4.What was novel（新奇） about the experiment in the study reported in Science?


    A)The animals used received no training.


    B)It used a number of colors and shapes.


    C)It was conducted by experimental psychologists.


    D)The ducklings werepared with other animals.


    5.What do we learn from Dr. Wasserman''sment on the study of animal minds at the end of the passage?


    A)It is getting more and more intricate. （复杂）


    B) Research methods are being updated.


    C)It is attracting more public attention.


    D) Remarkable progress is being made.


    Key: C-B-D-A-D


    The suggestion that people should aim for dietary（饮食） diversity by trying to eat a variety of foods has been a basic public health rmendation for decades in the United States and elsewhere.


    Now, however, experts are warning that aiming for a diverse diet may actually lead to just eating more calories, and, thus, to obesity.（肥胖）


    One issue is that people may not interpret "variety" the way nutritionists intend.


    This problem is highlighted by new research conducted by the American Heart Association.


    Researchers reviewed all the evidence published related to dietary diversity and saw a correlation between dietary diversity and a greater intake of both healthy and unhealthy foods.


    This had implications（暗示） for obesity, as researchers found a greater prevalence （流行）of obesity amongst people with a greater dietary diversity.


    One author of the new study explained that their findings contradict （矛盾）standard dietary advice, as most dietary guidelines around the world include a statement of eating a variety of foods.


    But this advice does not seem to be supported by science, possibly because there is little agreement about the meaning of "dietary diversity," which is not clearly and consistently defined.


    Some experts measure dietary diversity by counting the number of food groups eaten, while others look at the distribution of calories across individual foods, and still others measure how different the foods eaten are from each other.


    Although the findings of this new study contradict standard dietary advice, they do note as a surprise to all of the researchers involved.


    Dr. Rao, one of the study authors, noted that, after 20 years of experience in the field of obesity, he has observed that people who have a regimented（（受管制的） lifestyle and diet tend to be thinner and healthier than people with a wide variety of consumption.


    This anecdotal evidence matches the conclusions of the study, which found no evidence that dietary diversity promotes healthy body weight or optimal（最佳的） eating patterns, and limited evidence shows that eating a variety of foods is actually associated with consuming more calories, poor eating patterns and weight gain.


    Further, there is some evidence that a greater variety of food options in a single meal may delay people''s feeling of fullness（饱腹感） and actually increase how much they eat.


    Based on their findings, the researchers endorse（赞同） a diet consisting of a limited number of healthy foods such as vegetables, fruits, grains, and poultry.


    They also rmend that people simultaneously （同时）endeavor（努力） to restrict consumption of sweets, sugar and red meat. The researchers stress（强调）, however, that their dietary rmendations do not imply dietary diversity is never positive, and that, in the past, diversity in diets of whole, unprocessed food may have actually been very beneficial.


    1.What has been a standard piece of dietary advice for decades?


    A) People should cultivate a healthy eating habit.


    B) People should have a well-balanced diet.


    C) People should diversify what they eat.


    D) People should limit calorie intake to avoid obesity.


    2What did the new research by the American Heart Association find?


    A) People seeking dietary diversity tend to eat more.


    B) Big eaters are more likely to be overweight.


    C) Dietary diversity is positively related to good health.


    D) Unhealthy food makes people gain weight more easily.


    3.What could help to explain the contradiction between the new findings and themon public health rmendation?


    A) Most dietary guidelines around the world contradict one another.


    B) Conventional wisdom about diet is seldom supported by science.


    C)The methods researchers use to measure nutrition vary greatly.


    D) There is little consensus （一致）on the definition of dietary diversity.


    4.What did Dr. Rao find after 20 years of research on obesity?


    A) Dietary diversity promotes healthy body weight.


    B)Eating patterns and weight gain go hand in hand.


    C) Diversified food intake may not contribute to health.


    D) There is no clear definition of optimal（最佳的） eating patterns.


    5.What does the passage say about people who eat a great variety of food?


    A) They tend to consume more sweets, sugar and red meat.


    B)They don''t feel they have had enough until they overeat.


    C) They don''t have any problems getting sufficient nutrition.


    D) They are more likely to eat foods beneficial to their health.


    Key: C-A-D-C-B

 第11章 22年12月阅读真题（上）

    【任务10：请宿主在6h内完成本次阅读真题，并保证正答率高于60%。任务奖励：200积分。】


    This man is running 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days


    A) Michael Wardian pushed forward into the prating （渗透的）arctic (北极的) wind, fighting the urge to speed up. Too much effort and he''d begin to sweat, which, he was told, would only increase the risk of hypothermia(体温过低).


    B)At the 2014 North Pole Marathon, the temperature dipped to minus-22 degrees F, with a


    wind chill that made it feel even colder. Along the route, armed guards wandered the


    large sheets of floating ice to minimize the risk of polar bear attacks.


    C) “I like to do stuff that scares me,”Wardian said. With ice frozen to his beard, Wardian


    crossed the finish line that April afternoon in a winning time of 4 hours 7 minutes and40seconds, almost two hours slower than his personal best over 26.2 miles. The race for Wardian, however, was less about the result than oveing his aversion （厌恶）to the cold.


    D) In a few days, Wardian will once againpete in an unfamiliar territory and


    below-freezing temperatures. He will line up Monday in Antarctica(南极) for the first leg of the World Marathon Challenge-joining 32 other adventure seekers on an unusual journey where participants travel through different time zones and climates to run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.


    E) An elite ultra-runner, Wardian has his sights on breaking the event’s record average


    marathon time of 3:32:25 set last January by U.S.Marine Corps captain Daniel Cartica Wardian, a 42-year-old Arlington resident, is a record-breaking racer, known in the ultra-runningmunity for seeking tough courses and setting world records. Last year, he ran 1,254.65 miles in 47 races. The World Marathon Challenge, like most of Wardian’s running goals, will be about pushing his limits. “I love diverse and unique challenges," he said. “I''m definitely interested in seeing what I can handle and what my body can accept. That drives me.”


    F) Something about the wayRichard Donovan carried himself appealed to Wardian.Perhaps it was the sense of adventure Donovan displayed when they first met at the2010 50K Championships in Galway, Ireland, where Donovan was the race director. The two hit it off, and soon Wardian was participating in Donovan''s events. It was at the North Pole Marathon, a race that Donovananizes, that Wardian first heard about the Irishman’s plan for the World Marathon Challenge--a challengethat Donovan himselfpleted in2009 and 2012. “I knew that many people had a goal of running seven marathons on seven continents during any time period,” Donovan, 50, said. “I felt the natural extension （延伸）to this idea would be to try to achieve it within a seven-day period."


    G) Wardian started saving for the trip in 2014, connecting with sponsors and getting


    approval from his wife, Jennifer, beforemitting.Registration for the event costs36,000 euros, which covers international charter flights（包机） to each of the seven marathon locations: Union Glacier(Antarctica),Punta Arenas,Chile(South America),Miami(North America), Madrid (Europe),Marrakesh,Morocco (Africa), Dubai (Asia) and Sydney (Australia). The challenge is a test of both physical strength and mental fitness. Sleeping on a crammed plane, adjusting to different time zones and finding food to eat(Wardian is a vegetarian) would make it an exhausting trip over a month, let alone a week. “The key to a race like this is gettingfortable being ufortable," said Becca Pizzi, last year’s women''s champion. “The highs of the race are incredibly high, and the lows incredibly low."


    H) Since turning it into ananized event in 2015, Donovan has attracted a variety of runners. This year''s challenge will feature a far more elite field, which includes Ryan Hall, America''s fastest marathon runner. Despite his proven track record, Hall said he has no time goals and that he still suffers from the same fatigue issues that forced him to leave the professional ranks in 2015.Hall plans to run with his friend, Pastor Matthew Bat of The Dream Center in Los Angeles-one of the six American men who will bepeting. “I don''t expect to run a step with Mike, but I will be excited to see how he does," said the 34-year-old Hall, who began weight-lifting after retiring. “If I finish within an hour of him in each marathon, I''d be surprised."


    I) Instead, 43-year-old Petr Vabrousek, an elite Czech Ironman champion, is expected to be Wardian''s closest challenger. To others on the trip, simply finishing will be its own reward. Sinead Kane of Ireland is aiming to be the first blind person toplete the challenge. And Beth Ann Telford, a 47-year-old federal government worker from Fairfax and the only American female in this year''s mix, is using the event as a platform to raise money for cancer research. It''s a cause with a personal connection to Telford, who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2004.“Doing something like this is definitely the hardest challenge that I''ve ever done except for the chemotherapy（化学疗法） and brain surgery," she said.“It''s going to raise awareness ... I just wanted to do something that is epic and this certainly is right up there."Wardian, too, hopes his involvement （包含）will give him a platform to promote a cause. He recently became an ambassador for the United Nations Women''s HeForShe initiative to fight inequalities faced by women and girls worldwide.


    J) On a chilly December afternoon,Wardian wove through Washington''s crowded


    sidewalks on the way home from his full-time job as an international ship broker（经纪人）. His elastic, 6-foot frame bounced gently and efficiently off the ground with each step of the hilly six-mile trip back to Arlington. This is a daily routine during the week for Wardian, who started racing professionally in 2003 and runs seven days a week, often multiple times a day. When he travels, he prefers to explore new places on his feet.


    K) But in some ways, Wardian still has trouble thinking of himself as a runner. For the


    majority of his childhood, Wardian devoted his energy to bing a Division I lacrosse (长曲棍球) player-a dream he realized when he was recruited （录取）to play at Michigan State University. “Once he decides to do something, he just works at it until he does it,” Michael''s younger sister, Mariele, said. “Once he decides to do it, it''s usually something that''s going to happen. He''s always been like that. He''s a very motivated individual.”


    L) It was only a year or so ago that Wardian realized that he had been a runner longer than


    a lacrosse player. It was not until he ran in the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials--the first of three for Wardian--that he felt that he was a legitimate （合格的）runner. Now more than10 years and numerous ultra-marathon national titles and world records later, he embraces that identity. Wardian wants to see how far his legs can take him, one epic challenge at a time. “I want to always keep doing things that are exciting, adventurous, different and most importantly, probably things I''m not the best at,”Wardian said,“because if you''re not seeking things out that are challenging and difficult for you, then you''re not growing... So I hope maybe people see what I do, and say, ‘Okay, I want to do something different or try something new... I''m going to do something that scares me.’ That''s what I’m hoping people will take from it."


    36. Wardian regards the various extraordinary challenges as a test of his physical endurance.


    37. Wardian hopes his participation in the seven-day marathon series will contribute to a worthy cause.


    38. Wardian is going to join over thirty other runners in a week-long marathon series.


    39. Over-exertion （过度劳累）in extreme cold can lower one''s body temperature to a dangerous point.


    40. Wardian was very much impressed by a race director ’s sense of adventure.


    41. Once Wardian sets his mind on something, he is determined to make it happen.


    42.One top American marathoner quit his running career because of his physical condition.43. To many of the week-long marathon participants,pleting the race will be a success


    in itself.


    44.For Wardian, the marathon in the Arctic was more about how to triumph over the


    extreme cold.


    45. To participate in the seven-day marathon series, Wardian had to raise a lot of money and have his wife''s support.


    Many people associate their self-worth with their work. The more successful their career, the better they feel about themselves. Work-related self-esteem is therefore a worthy ideal to pursue with vigor, right? Well, not always. According to recent research, in which psychologists interviewed 370 full-time workers over a period of three weeks, the reality is a little moreplicated. And it involves negative as well as positive consequences.


    It''s natural to be drawn towards pleasure and to step away from pain. In the workplace, if that pleasurees from a triumph（胜利） which swells our self-respect, people will try to repeat the aplishment. But repeating that aplishment is often not realistic, which can lead to severe negative emotional consequences when it doesn''t reoccur（重新发生）. This form of motivation is widely regarded as a negative type of motivation. It can hinder other more positive motivation types, such aspleting a task purely because it''s fulfilling or enjoyable.


    What consumes the employee instead is a pressing need to feel mighty and sure of themselves. They then take on only tasks and objectives which serve that ego-driven（自我内驱力） need. As a result, to avoid feelings of shame and worthlessness associated with failure, they extend themselves to such a degree that there''s a subsequent adverse effect on their well-being. This internal pressure to succeed at all costs demands a lot of effort. It depletes their energy, culminating in disproportionate levels of damaging sentiment.


    Those negative emotions mount into heightened anxiety, impacting their ability to make the most of their personal life. Their desire to avoid feeling inferior ends up making them feel inferior when ites to their diminished capacity for friendship and leisure. They end up dissatisfied both at work and outside of it.


    But thankfully, for those peoplepelled （迫使） almost entirely by this specific form of motivation, the news isn''t all bad, or bad at all. The study also discovered several positive oues that can actually outweigh the harmful ones. Though these types of employees are motivated by the desire to avoid negative consequences, they are also motivated by the excitement of pursuing emotional rewards. This excitement makes pursuing goals enjoyable and stimulates pleasure and pride that would result from success. An effect of the positive motivation is that it neutralizes the existence of negative motivation.


    Sure, it affects people''s personal lives to what could be deemed an unhealthy extent, because leisure activities are often seen as a part of life that must be sacrificed to manage work and family demands. However, the way people feel about their work has less to do with whether they''re motivated by the preservation of self-esteem but more with the fact that they ''re simply motivated.


    46. What does the author say about the pursuit of work-related self-esteem?


    A) It may result in negative motivation.


    B) It contributes to one''s aplishments.


    C) It can increase one’s vigor as one keeps trying.


    D) It costs too much emotionally and psychologically.


    47. What do employees tend to do in pursuing work-related self-esteem?


    A) Take on tasks well beyond their actual capabilities.


    B) Strive to succeed at the expense of their well-being.


    C) Resort（凭借） to all means regardless of the consequences.


    D) Exaggerate their sense of shame and worthlessness.


    48. What do we learn about people over-concerned with work-related self-esteem?


    A) They may often feel inferior（差的 ） to their colleagues.


    B) They cannot enjoy their personal life to the full.


    C) They are never satisfied with their achievements.


    D) They have their own view of friendship and leisure.


    49.What is the good news we learn from the recent research?


    A) The pursuit of goals may turn out to be enjoyable and pleasant.


    B) The emotional rewards from goal pursuit are worth the pains taken.


    C) The negative consequences of goal pursuit can mostly be avoided.


    D) The goal of swelling self-esteem can be achieved if one keeps trying.


    50.What can we infer from the last paragraph?


    A) Workers have to make sacrifices to preserve self-esteem.


    B) Self-esteem swells（膨胀） when workers are strongly motivated.


    C) Pursuit of goals affects people''s personal lives to an unhealthy extent.


    D) People feel positive about their work as long as they are motivated.


    ABBAD


    Degradation（退化） of the world''s natural resources by humans is rapidly outpacing （超过）the pl''s ability to absorb the damage, a recent UN environmental study has found. The study concludes that without radical（根本的） action the level of prosperity （兴旺）that millions of people in the developed world（发达国家） count on will be impossible to maintain or extend to poorer countries.


    Water scarcity（短缺） is the curse of some of the poorest regions on Earth, leaving developing countries increasingly unable to feed themselves, and causing hardship for millions of people. There appears little prospect of this desperate （危急的 ）situation being remedied without radical action being taken. Water resources are under increasing threat from population growth, climate change, rapid urbanization, rising levels of consumption, and the degradation of lands that previously provided a natural replenishment (补充) of water resources.


    The rate of damage to the natural environment was found to increase globally, despite concerted efforts to persuade government to take measures to improve the condition.“If current trends continue, and the world fails to improve patterns of production and consumption, then the state of the world’s environment will continue to decline," warned UN executive director Achim Steiner.


    He said the tools for improving the environment for millions of people existed in developed countries, but were in danger of not being used.


    The study found that basic measures to tackle some of the key causes of environmental damage were still not being taken. These included measures to reduce air pollution; to control the damage to marine eco-systems, which can have a huge effect on fish stocks on which hundreds of millions of people depend; and to curb the degradation of land where modem agricultural methods were pursued without regard to the longer-term consequences.


    Despite the recent global agreement on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, global carbon output continues to rise. This will put a long-term strain on the ability of developing economies to feed their own people. Climate change is aggravated（恶化 ）by the emissions of greenhouse gases from chemical and natural fertilisers used in agriculture which increased by more than a quarter between 2000 and 2010. Other problem areas identified in the report included glaciers, which provide vital water resources for millions of people, but which are shrinking as the climate warms.


    In rich countries, these problems have built up over decades and centuries while economic growth was pursued at the expense of the environment. Subsequent efforts to remedy （补救 ）the environment have met with partial success. But in developing countries, the path of future development has more potential to change, which has encouraged international institutions to devise more sustainable growth pathways（途径） that are supposed both to alleviate poverty and preserve the environment.


    51. What is the major finding of the UN environmental study?


    A) Human activity has rendered Mother Earth almost uninhabitable.（不宜居住的 ）


    B) Humans are doing more damage to the earth than it can cope with.


    C) Environmental problems have considerably weakened human prosperity.


    D) Environmental damage is more serious in developed countries these days.


    52. What is said about water scarcity（缺乏） in some of the poorest regions?


    A) It is getting so serious that there is little hope of solution.


    B) It largely accounts for their slow economic development.


    C) It can hardly be relieved if no drastic measures are taken.


    D) It is primarily caused by the acceleration of climate change.


    53. What does Achim Steiner say about the environmental condition?


    A) It will deteriorate worldwide.


    B) It is attracting global attention.


    C) It is being slowly remedied globally.


    D) It will shrink the world''s population.


    54.What is the dilemma（困境） developing countries face?


    A) They cannot modernise farming without causing land degradation.


    B) They cannot promote industrialisation without polluting waterways.


    C) They cannot boost crop yields without causing greenhouse gas emissions.


    D) They cannot catch up with rich countries without sacrificing the environment.


    55. What should developing countries do in their future development according to the passage?


    A) They turn to developed countries for the assistance they need.


    B) They remedy environmental damage by slowing economic growth.


    C) They avoid damaging interference（干涉） from international institutions.


    D) They improve people''s livelihood without harming the environment.


    BCACD


    Fear of Nature: An Emerging Threat to Conservation


    A) What do we lose when natural spaces and species disappear? Increasingly, research has shown that as species and ecosystems vanish, it also chips away at our ability to preserve what remains-because we no longer understand what we''re losing.


    B)You probably see it all the time. The neighbor who puts pesticides （杀虫剂）on his lawn rather than deal with annoying bees. The politician who votes against wildlife protection because she''s never seen a wolf in the wild. The corporation that wants to bulldoze (用推土机推平) the habitat of a rare frog.


    C) At best this can be termed （称作）“the extinction （灭绝 ）of experience,” where our cultural and natural histories fade from our memories and therefore our reality. At its worst it bes something even more concerning: “biophobia,（生物恐惧症 ）”the fear of living things and aplete aversion （厌恶）to nature.


    D) This isn''t the fiction（虚构的） of living in a cold, empty dystopia(绝望的世界). Sadly, it''s


    bing a way of life for too many people especially children. A recent study in Japan paints a striking（引人注目的） portrait（画像） of this problem. A survey of more than 5,300 school children in the Tochigi Prefecture examined their perception of 14 local insect species and one spider. The results? A collective “ew!” Most of the students saw the species as things to dislike or fear, or even as sources of danger. The less experience the students had with nature, the more negative their feelings.


    E) The results were published earlier this year in the journal Biological Conservation Lead researcher Masashi Soga with the University of Tokyo says the study stemmed（起源于） from observations about today''s nature-deficient children. “Humans inherently （内在的）avoid dangerousanisms such as bees, but children these days avoid even harmless insects such as butterflies and dragonflies (蜻蜓),” he says. “I have long wondered why so many of today''s children react like this.”


    F) Although the children''s reactions were somewhat expected, the new study did contain an unexpected finding: Many of the surveyed children revealed that their parents（父母亲的） also expressed fear or disgust （厌恶 ）of the same animals. In fact these parental emotions were strong enough to overwhelm any positive experiences the children might have gained from direct experiences in nature. As Soga and his coauthors（合著者） wrote in their paper,“Our results suggest that there is likely a feedback（反馈) loop（循环） in which an increase in people whc have negative attitudes towards nature in one generation will lead to a further increase in people with similar attitudes in the next generation."


    G) And that’s possibly the greater threat posed by extinction of experience. Soga suggests the generational loss（代际丧失）--a condition previously dubbed environmental generational amnesia (遗忘)-could chip away at our societal ability to preserve what we''re losing“I believe that increased biophobia is a major, but invisible（无形的）, threat to global biodiversity," Soga says. “As the number of children who have biophobia increases, public interest and support for biodiversity conservation will gradually decline Although many conservation biologists still consider that preventing the loss of wildlife habitat is the most important way to conserve biodiversity, I think preventing increased biophobia is also important for conservation."


    H) What''s to be done about this? The paper makes several rmendations, the most


    obvious of which is that children should experience nature more often. The authors also suggest establishing policies to guide these natural experiences and increasing educational programs about the natural world.Helping parents to see species around them in a new light would make a difference, too. And, of course, maintaining support for preserving the wild spaces where these “scary’ creatures live is the most important thing of all. That''s a point reinforced（强化） by another recent study, which found that wild spaces located within urban areas-and the plants and animals that thrive in them-are particularly important for human health and well-being


    J) Published in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, the study examined attitudes toward Discovery Park, the heavily forested 534-acre public park in Seattle, Washington. It found that the public had the most appreciation for--and gained the most value from-the wildest parts of the park. “I have seen whales, seals, fish, eagles, shorebirds and many other sea creatures in their natural habitat," one survey participant wrote. ing here with people has allowed me to connect and talk with them about conversation that simply does not happen in everyday life,” wrote another


    K) The participants reported that their most valuable experiences in the park included encountering wildlife, walking through open spaces, exploring the beach and finding beautiful views. “We saw that a large majority of participants’interactions, especially their most meaningful interactions, depended on Discovery Park’s relative wildness," says lead author Elizabeth Lev, a master''s student in the University of Washington''s Human Interaction with Nature Lab. This is only possible because the park is relatively wild. After all, you can''t enjoy watching birds if there are no birds to follow; gaze at the sunset if it''s obscured by skyscrapers（摩天大楼）; or stop and smell the flowers if they don''t have room to grow.


    L)And yet even this long-protected space could someday be less hospitable to nature Over the past few years a lot of people andanizations have suggested developing parts of Discovery Park or the neighboring area. Most recently a plan proposed building34 acres of much-needed affordable housing and parking spaces adjacent to the park bringing with them noise, traffic and pollution


    M) If anything like that happened, both the park and the people of Seattle could lose something vital. And that would continue the trend of chipping away at Seattle''s--and the world''s--natural spaces, leaving just tiny pocket parks and green-but-empty spaces that offer little real value to wildlife, plants or people.


    N)“It is true that any interaction with nature is better than none, but I don''t want people to be satisfied with any small bit of grass and trees," Lev says. “We have been in this cycle of environmental generational amnesia for a long time, where the baseline keeps shifting and we don''t even realize what we''re losing until it''s gone. If we can get people to understand how much meaning and value cane from having more experiences with more wild forms of nature, then maybe we can stop this cycle and move toward conserving and restoring what we have left."


    O) Building this understanding in an ever-more fearful and disconnected （脱节的）world may be the biggest challenge. Peter Kahn, the senior author of Lev''s paper and the director of the Human Interaction with Nature lab, made several suggestions for bridging this gap（弥合差距） in this 2011 book, Technological Nature. They echo the rmendation about getting children into nature, but also include telling stories of how things used to be, imagining what things might be like in the future, and developing amon language about nature, “a way of speaking about wild and domesticinteraction patterns, and the meaningful, deep and often joyful feelings that they generate.”


    P)No matter what techniques we use, this growing field of research illustrates（说明） that saving nature requires encouraging people to experience it more often and more deeply. That calls for additional research-Lev and her coauthors have published a toolkit （工具包）that other municipalities（市民） can follow to study the value of their own wild spaces--and clearmunication of the results. “If we can continue to show people the benefits of these wild spaces," Lev says, “maybe people will begin to see more value in keeping these areas undeveloped--for the sake（利益） of our mutual benefit."


    36. A new study found parents'' aversion（厌恶）  to certain animals would pass on to their children.


    37. The disappearance of species and ecological systems erodes our ability to keep what is left.


    38. A study showed that the wildest areas of Discovery Park appealed most to the public.


    39. The fear of livinganisms is bing more worrisome.（令人烦恼的）


    40.Preventing the increase in children''s fear of living creatures is also important for


    conserving biodiversity.


    41. Research shows that more and deeper experience people have with nature will help save it.


    42. Though humans naturally tend to avoid dangerous animals, today''s children try to stay away from even harmless ones.


    43. Development in and around Discovery Park could cause heavy losses to the park and the local residents.


    44.A large survey of school children found that their negative feelings grew as their


    experience with nature diminished.


    45. Elizabeth Lev believes increased contact with more wildlife helps conserve （保护）biodiversity.

 第12章 22年12月阅读真题（下）

    【任务11：请宿主在6h内完成本次阅读真题并保证正答率高于60%。任务奖励：200积分。】


    Some people in the US have asserted that（声称） iving student loan debt is one way to stimulate the economy and give assistance to those in need. One government proposition （提议）is to eliminate（免除） $10,000 of debt for ‘economically distressed’students. Some in US Congress have gone so far as to suggest iving up to $50,000 in debt per student borrower, but does iving student debt necessarily correlate to helping the economically disadvantaged?


    The answer is no. This policy is just giving money away to universities and the most affluent（富裕的） students in attendance. Federal Reserve data reveals that the highest-ie 40 percent of households owe approximately 60 percent of outstanding student debt, while the lowest 40 percent owe just under 20percent. This could be due to abination of factors students from high-ie households are more likely to go to expensive colleges, less likely to receive financial aid, and more likely to have high ies post-graduation. Plus, the majority of student debt is held by graduate degree （研究生学位）earners, who earn approximately 25 percent more than their undergraduate counterparts. Clearly, giving free reign（支配） to banks to ive student debt is a step in the wrong direction.


    Other proposals for broader, long-term student loan plans have some fundamental problems. One idea is to cancel student debt only for undergraduate degrees and for students making less than $125,000.


    This attempts to address the fact that Congress’previously mentioned student loan iveness plan largely helps out the wealthy, but is an adverse incentive（刺激） for universities to keep raising tuition and for students to choose to major in low-earning degree programs Colleges have no reason to make their programs more affordable if they believe students will just take out more debt. And, students will feel morefortable making the irresponsible decision to go tens of thousands of dollars in debt to major in impractical or idealistic subjects if they know their loans will be iven.


    This is especially concerning given the pandemic (大流行病) has rendered a college education practically worthless. Students are paying tens of thousands of dollars per year to live at home and be lectured on the Inte. Do we really want to tell colleges that they can get away with providing below-average service for an outrageous（粗暴的） cost?


    In the case of any of these student debt plans, working-class Americans who chose not to or could not afford to go to college will be subsidizing （补贴）the education of the professional class. Plumbers and retail workers will be paying for the degrees of doctors and lawyers


    The US government''s effort to help those in debt ismendable but is this really the solution that will help the poor financially recover?


    46. Why do some people advocate iving student loan debt?


    A) They assert it will narrow the gap between the wealthy and the poor.


    B) They believe it will benefit both the economy and the underprivileged. （弱势群体）


    C) They claim it will eliminate economic distress among college students.


    D) They think the cost of education is the responsibility of the government


    47. What do we learn from the Federal Reserve data?


    A) Approximately 60% of student debt remains unpaid.


    B) Cancelling student debt benefits wealthy families most.


    C) iving student debt provides little benefit to universities.


    D) Low-ie families owe the biggest amount of student debt


    48.What does the author say students are likely to do if they know they needn''t repay their


    loans?


    A) They will choose to study subjects without considering their job prospects


    B) They will be free to pursue their goals without being burdened financially


    C) They will over-borrow and live beyond their means.


    D) They will be able to enroll in expensive universities.


    49.What does the author imply about colleges offering online education?


    A) They cannot get away with the serious consequences.


    B) They have suffered greatly from the current pandemic.


    C) The tuition they charge is not justified by the quality of their service.


    D) The tuition they charge has surged outrageously during the pandemic.


    50. What will happen if any of the proposed student debt plans is implemented?


    A) Plumbers and retail workers will have a chance of bing professionals.


    B) Working-class students will have increasing access to subsidized education


    C) Blue-collar workers will have to bear the cost of educating would-be high-earners


    D) A growing number of students will be able to earn degrees in medicine and law.


    BBACC


    If there''s one rule that most parents cling to in the confusing, fast-changing world of kids and media, it’s “No screens before age 2.”


    As of today, that rule has been thrown out the window.


    The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which first issued that rmendation back in 1999, has extensively updated and revised its guidelines for children and adolescents to reflect new research and new habits.


    The new guidelines, especially for very young children, shift the focus from WHAT is on the screen to WHO else is in the room. And in doing so, they raise some intriguing points about the future of learning from media.


    For babies younger than 18 months, AAP still says no screens at all are the best idea--with one notable exception: Live video chat. Surveys indicate that families already popularly believe that “Face time doesn''t count", or at least that the benefit of virtual visits with grandparents or other relatives outweighs the potential cost of exposing babies to the laptop or smartphone.


    The AAP doesn''t cite positive evidence that infants actually get something out of this kind of “conversation", the way that they clearly do from live social interaction. But there''s some observational research that infants as young as six months old are emotionally engaged by playing live peekaboo (躲猫猫) with Grandma online.


    For infants and toddlers (学步儿童), ages 15 months to 2 years old, there''s limited evidence from a couple of very small studies that they can learn new words from educational media, if and only if  parents are watching alongside them, repeating what the video says and/or drawing attention to what is on the screen. In other words, treating a video or an app like a picture book is the best bet.


    The flip side of this is that many studies have actually shown poorer language skills correlated with earlier solo viewing of “educational”videos. There’s also research that shows language delays in children who watch more TV and start watching earlier. In both cases, the problem seems to be media replacing interaction with people. For this reason, the new AAP guideline has changed from “avoid all screens under age 2” to “avoid solo media use in this age group.”


    For preschoolers ages 2 to 5, there''s more evidence that they have the ability to transfer knowledge from screens to the real world, including early literacy and math. For this age group, AAPrmends no more than an hour a day of screen use. And, just as with younger children, they want care-givers to take part in screen time:“Co-view with your children, help children understand what they are seeing, and help them apply what they learn to the world around them."


    51. What do we learn about the “No screens under 2”rule?


    A) It has met more and more resistance from parents.


    B) It has proved helpful to children''s healthy growth.


    C) It confuses parents with regard to kids'' education.


    D) It has been discarded in line with recent research.


    52.What do the new AAP guidelines advocate?


    A)Young children should be apanied by parents during screen time.


    B) Parents should be emotionally involved in their children''s upbringing.


    C) Young children should watch videos carefully selected by parents.


    D) Parents should protect their children from too much media exposure.


    53.What do families think of live video chat according to surveys?


    A) It should not be regarded as screen time.


    B) It helps babies to develop their verbal skills.


    C) It is not as harmful as playing games on laptops.


    D) It is a good substitute for video viewing.


    54. What do researches find about kids solo viewing educational videos?


    A) It arouses their interest in language learning.


    B) It works no better than reading picture books.


    C) It hampers（妨碍） their development of language skills.


    D) It helps them acquire independent learning skills.


    55. What does the author say about preschoolers ages 2 to 5?


    A) They can understand pretty well what they see on the screen.


    B) They can learn on their own without much parental guidance.


    C) They can make use of educational videos to develop digital literacy.


    D) They can relate what they learn on the screen to real life situations


    DAACD


    Classical music aims to evolve（发展）, build audiences without alienating（疏远） old guard


    A) In 1913, classical music sparked （引发）a riot（暴乱） in Paris. Igor Stravinsky was introducing his revolutionary“Rite（仪式） of Spring”ballet to the world, with its discordant （不和谐的）melodies and unorthodox （非正统的）choreography(编舞),and the purists in the crowd expressed their disapproval loud and clear. It might have been classical music’s version of the time Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. “The noise, fighting, and shouting in the audience got so loud,”NPR''s music reporter Miles Hoffman said of the Stravinsky debut, “that the choreographer had to shout out the numbers to the dancers so that they knew what they were supposed to do."


    B) It''s difficult to imagine a similar disturbance occurring today within America''s sacred


    symphony halls（交响乐大厅）. In fact, it''s hard to picture any kind of disruptive activity at all (unless someone''s cell phone happens to go off, and then you''d better watch your back). A mannerly （客气的）aura (氛围) hangs over most classical proceedings, and many of the genre''s biggest supporters would have it no other way


    C) Today, Western audiences for classical music and opera and ballet are almost always


    well dressed, older, respectful, achingly （极其）silent and often very wealthy (one has to be able to afford most tickets). But as many of America''s most storied （著名的）“highbrow”(高雅的) institutions struggle financially-the Philadelphia Orchestra''s much-publicized rebound from bankruptcy is just one recent example-classical music fans and theorists are wondering how the medium can weave （融入）itself into the 21st century''s cultural fabric without sacrificing its integrity.


    D) For example, should we feel OK “clapping” during classical music events, even if nobody else is? Why shouldn''t we cheer for something great, like we do at a rock concert? The Huffington Post recently ran a Great Debate on this issue and manymenters came out on the side of silence. “There is no more rewarding experience in life than being part of an audience where everybody is leaning forward in silence, thoroughly carried away by a great performance of a masterpiece," onementer wrote. “Why is it so difficult for folks to develop an appreciation and understanding for the mannerisms（特殊习惯） and traditions of classical music?” asked another.


    E) The truth is that classical music audiences weren''t always so polite. Robert Greenberg,


    an award-winningposer（作曲家）, said that when Beethoven first performed his 7th Symphony, audiences forced the orchestra to perform encores(重演)of certain movements immediately, applauding wildly. And in the last few decades, he said, many audiences at opera （歌剧）performances have abandoned pretenses, yelling “Bravo” （好）when they feel like it.


    F) “I don''t think there''s anything wrong with an audience showing their enthusiasm for a


    proper moment by applauding, showing their joy,”Greenberg said, noting that the stuffiness （沉闷）in concert halls is “one aspect of contemporary concert etiquette" he doesn''t understand. “Instead of waiting half an hour to show enthusiasm, why not show it every eight or nine minutes?"


    G) Until the rules about behavior and clothing change, it''s hard to imagine multitudes of


    young people filling concert halls on their own accord. They''re probably more likely to head to Central Park to watch a free performance with a bottle of wine and their friends.“I think anyone should be able toe into a performance dressed any way they like, and befortable any way they like, sitting in that seat ready to enjoy themselves," Greenberg said. “Because it''s enjoyable."


    H) Greenberg stressed that he doesn''t want people to start respecting the music less, and


    he''s not suggesting that we “dumb down”（简化） the experience. Rather, it’s about opening up“access.”When operas first instituted（设置） subtitles (字幕) during shows, he said, many purists didn''t like the idea, believing that the audience should instead study the works before attending. But now it''smonplace（常见的） to find titles on the seatback in front of you--choose a language, sit back, and understand what''s going on.


    I) Allison Vulgamore, president of the Philadelphia Orchestra, is certainly looking to the


    future. She says certain“classics concerts”dedicated to the old masters will always exist, but not every program has to feature Beethoven and Brahms-or even a stage and seats. “We''re trying to introduce different kinds of concerts in different ways,” she said.“We are an interactive society now, where people like to learn.”


    J) As the Philadelphia Orchestra rebounds from its financial straits, it is also aiming to


    experiment, without alienating the loyalists（拥护者）. Vulgamore pointed to Cirque de la Symphonie, a recent offering in which jugglers (玩杂耍的人) and acrobats (杂技演员) interacted with musicians. An uing（即将来临的） collaboration with New York City''s Ridge Theatre, meanwhile, will feature a “suspended dance installation”and other theatrical elements occurring in conjunction（结合） with an orchestral piece.（管弦乐）


    K)The orchestra （乐团）also continues to offer $25 annual memberships to Philadelphia students, who can buy rush tickets to every concert on the schedule. “Students line up for the concerts they want, and we get roughly 300 or 350 kids a nighting to these. They take any of the open seats available, 5 minutes before the concert starts,”Vulgamore said. “It''s like the running of the bulls, that energy when the doors open.”


    L) Greenberg thinks that youthful energy needs to be harvested（收割）. Conductors don''t have to be arrogant （傲慢的）and untouchable--they can be accessible. Perhaps there could even be a “bit of humor”about them, he suggested, and an abandoning of pretension （借口）within the high-art institutions themselves. “On one hand, theseanizations are all saying the same thing: we want more general audiences, to break down cultural barriers," he said. “But then theye up with some very snooty (目中无人的) thing that makes you crazy.


    M) John Terauds, a critic who has covered （报道）Toronto’s classical music scene extensively（广阔的）, also wants to do away with the stuffiness. He suggested that the warmer an audience is, the better the musicians themselves will respond. “But the producer oranizer has to let everyone know it’s OK,” he said. “It’s OK to enjoy yourself."At the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, for example, conductor Peter Oundjian often stops between pieces, taking a moment to talk about theposer or the music in a very amiable（和蔼可亲的） way. And some nights, Terauds said, “at least a third”of the audience consists of students who have purchased cheaper tickets. On these nights, the energy of the room drastically shifts. It bes a less intimidating （吓人的）place.


    N) Back in February, Terauds wrote on his blog about how going to classical


    performances can be intimidating. Certain people “think they have to dress up," he wrote. “They think they have to know something about the music before they go. And, I''m sure, sitting in a seat, trembling in fear that this might be the wrong time to applaud, is also one of the factors."


    O) Everyone in the classical world agrees on the need for increased“accessibility,” but


    achieving it is often easier said than done. Nowadays, there are unknown, unorthodox opera singers wowing (博得…….的喝彩)viewers on TV programs like“America''s Got Talent”and “The Voice”. What can higher institutions（高等艺术机构） do with any of that? And if they appeal （迎合）to these outlets（出路）, do they riskpromising the integrity or the intelligence of the music?


    P)Vulgamore seems to understand this. She thinks ananization can have it both ways,


    claiming the new while keeping the old. And as she ranizes the Philadelphia Orchestra, she will attempt to do just that. “The world’s most respected musicians brought together as an orchestra will always exist,” she said. “But it''s essential that we be willing to experiment and fail."


    36. It was not a rare occurrence that audiences behaved wildly while listening to classical music.


    37. Some high-art institutions don''t actually mean it when they say they want more general audiences.


    38. The theatre was in chaos when an unconventional （非常规的 ）ballet was first put on stage in the capital of France.


    39. According to one critic, the audience''s warm response would encourage the musicians to do a better job.


    40. Manymenters argued for the audience enjoying classical music quietly.


    41. What appears on the seatback screen makes it unnecessary for the audience to study the works beforehand.


    42. It is generally accepted that there should be no disturbance from the audience during


    classical music performance.


    43.Higher institutions will be concerned aboutpromising（危害）the integrity（完整性） of classical music if they have to resort to the television medium.


    44. Heavily discounted rush tickets help attract many young students to attend classical concerts.


    45. The formalities（礼节） of high-art theatres can intimidate some people attending a performance.


    How can one person enjoy good health, while another person looks old before her time? Humans have been asking this question for thousands of years, and recently, it’s bing clearer and clearer to scientists that the differences between people''s rates of aging lie in theplex interactions among genes, social relationships, environments and lifestyles. Even though you were born with a particular set of genes, the way you live can influence how they express themselves. Some lifestyle factors may even turn genes on or shut them off.


    Deep within the gic heart of all our cells are telomeres（染色体终端）, or repeating segments of noncoding DNA that live at the ends of the chromosomes (染色体).They form caps at the ends of the chromosomes and keep the gic material together. Shortening with each cell division, they help determine how fast a cell ages. When they be too short, the cell stops dividing altogether. This isn''t the only reason a cell can age--there are other stresses on cells we don''t yet understand very well--but short telomeres are one of the major reasons human cells grow old. We’ve devoted most of our careers to studying telomeres, and one extraordinary discovery from our labs is that telomeres can actually lengthen.


    Scientists have learned that several thought patterns appear to be unhealthy for telomeres, and one of them is cynical（愤世嫉俗的） hostility.（敌意） Cynical hostility is defined by high anger and frequent thoughts that other people cannot be trusted. Someone with hostility doesn''t just think, “I hate to stand in long lines"; they think, “Others deliberately sped up and beat me to my rightful position in the line!”--and then get violently（极端的） agitated.（激动的） People who score high on measures of cynical hostility tend to get more heart disease, metabolic （新陈代谢）disease and often die at younger ages. They also have shorter telomeres. In a study of British civil servants, men who scored high on measures of cynical hostility had shorter telomeres than men whose hostility scores were low. The most hostile men were 30% more likely to have short telomeres.


    What this means: aging is a dynamic process that could possibly be accelerated or slowed--and, in some aspects, even reversed. To an extent, it has surprised us and the rest of the scientificmunity（科学界） that telomeres do not simply carry out themands issued by your gic code. Your telomeres are listening to you. The foods you eat, your response to challenges, the amount of exercise you get, and many other factors appear to influence your telomeres and can prevent premature（过早的） aging at the cellular level. One of the keys to enjoying good health is simply doing your part to foster healthy cell renewal（恢复）.


    46. What have scientistse to know better today?


    A) Why people age at different rates.


    B) How genes influence the aging process.


    C) How various genes express themselves in aging.


    D) Why people have long been concerned about aging.


    47. Why are some lifestyle factors considered extremely important?


    A) They may shorten the process of cell division.


    B) They may determine how genes function.


    C) They may affect the lifespan of telomeres.


    D) They may account for the stresses on cells


    48. What have the author and his colleagues discovered about telomeres?


    A) Their number affects the growth of cells.


    B) Their length determines the quality of life.


    C) Their shortening process can be reversed （逆转的）


    D) Their health impacts the division of cells


    49.What have scientists learned about cynical hostility?


    A) It may lead to confrontational（对抗的） thought patterns.


    B) It may produce an adverse effect on telomeres.


    C) It may cause people to lose their temper frequently.


    D) It may stir up agitation among those in long lines.


    50. What do we learn from the last paragraph about the process of aging?


    A) It may vary from individual to individual.


    B) It challenges scientists to explore further.


    C) It depends on one’s gic code.


    D) It may be controlled to a degree.


    ABCBD


    Scientists have created by accident an enzyme (酶) that breaks down plastic drinks bottles. The breakthrough could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis by enabling for the first time the full recycling of bottles


    The new research was spurred by the discovery in 2016 of the first bacterium that had naturally evolved to eat plastic at a waste dump in Japan. Scientists have now revealed the detailed structure of the crucial enzyme produced by the bug.


    An international team then adjusted the enzyme to see how it had evolved, but tests showed they had accidentally made the molecule（分子） even better at breaking down the plastic used for drinks bottles. “What actually turned out was we improved the enzyme, which was a bit of a shock,” said head researcher Prof. McGeehan, at the University of Portsmouth UK


    Currently, the enzyme takes a few days to start breaking down the plastic, far faster than the centuries it takes in the oceans, but the researchers are optimistic this can be speeded up even further and be a viable large-scale process.


    “What we are hoping to do is use this enzyme to turn this plastic back into its originalponents, so we can literally recycle it back to plastic,” said McGeehan. “It means we won''t need to dig up any more oil and, fundamentally, it should reduce the amount of plastic in the environment.”


    About 1 million plastic bottles are sold each minute around the globe and, with just14% recycled, many end up in the oceans where they have polluted even the remotest parts, harming marine life and potentially people who eat sea food. “Plastic is incredibly resistant to degradation（抗降解）,” said McGeehan. “It is one of these wonder materials that has been made a little bit too well.”


    Currently those bottles that are recycled can only be turned into opaque fibres for clothing or carpets, while the new enzyme indicates a way to recycle old clear plastic bottles back into new clear plastic bottle.


    “You are always up against the fact oil is cheap, so plastic is cheap," said McGeehan“It is so easy for manufacturers to generate more of that stuff, rather than even try to recycle, but I believe there is a public interest here: perception is changing so much thatpanies are starting to look at how they can properly recycle these bottles.”


    Prof. Adisa Azapagic, at the University of Manchester in the UK, agreed the enzyme could be useful but added: “A full life-cycle assessment would be needed to ensure that the technology does not solve one environmental problem--waste--at the expense of others, including additional greenhouse gas emissions."


    51. What do we learn from the passage about an enzyme scientists have created?


    A) It was identified during a lab experiment accident.


    B) It may make full recycling of plastic bottles a reality


    C) It was a breakthrough made with persistent efforts


    D) It may initiate a radical reform in plastic industry.


    52. What does the passage say about the bug that produces the important enzyme?


    A) It has a natural ability to consume plastics.


    B) It is a bacterium that reproduces（繁殖率） at a high rate.


    C) It is essential to the recycling of plastic bottles


    D) It has a chemical structure unknown to scientists.


    53. By adjusting the enzyme produced by the bug, the scientists


    A) made it more effective by chance


    B) discovered an extraordinary chemical


    C) altered its basic molecularposition


    D) found its evolutionary process sped up


    54.What does Prof. McGeehan say about the recycling of plastic bottles?


    A) Manufacturers are implementing （实施）it on an increasingly larger scale.


    B) It generates huge business opportunities for plastic manufacturers.


    C) It has aroused persistent interest among the general public


    D) Manufacturers are beginning to explore ways of doing it.


    55.What is Prof. Adisa Azapagic''s advice concerning the application of the enzyme?


    A) Developing technologies to address greenhouse gas emissions


    B) Considering the extra cost involved in producing the enzyme.


    C) Assessing its possible negative impact on the environment.


    D) Studying the full life cycle of the enzyme as the first step.


    BAADC

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    Isputer coding a foreign language?


    A) Asputer coding has be an increasingly sought-after （受欢迎的）skill, more K-12 schools are working it into their curriculums. Some states have considered allowing students to o (放弃) foreign language for coding classes, despite opposition from educators.


    B) There''s a debate over whether it''s appropriate to teach coding in elementary schools,


    with fierce opinions on each side. When ites to allowing coding to fill foreign language requirements, though, most educators agree: Coding should be added to curriculums, but not at the expense（牺牲） of foreign language classes.


    C) The idea is thatputer programming is a language, allowing people tomunicate with machines and programs. It''s the language of the 21st century and more valuable than a natural language, some advocates argue. Theputer science field is growing faster than schools can keep up because of budget constraints （限制）and a lack of skills training for teachers.


    D) According to the 2016 U.S. News/Raytheon STEM Index,puter science jobs have helped boost wages in the U.S., andputer-related jobs hold the top seven positions in STEM fields for highest number of workers. Foreign language interest, on the other hand, is declining for the first time since 1995. The number of higher education language enrollments declined between 2009 and 2013 by more than 111,000 spots, according to the Modern Language Association of America,


    E)“I think the opportunity to give people a choice is important,” says Florida state Senator Jeremy Ring, who introduced a bill （法案）last year that would allow Florida students to choose between foreign language and coding classes for the purpose of university admissions requirements, “I think if you''re going to give two years of language in high school, you might as well doputer coding."


    F) The Florida bill died this year after passing 35:5 in the state Senate when the full


    Legislature failed to take action. It would have been the first state to try this initiative Ring says that although he will be out of office, an identical bill will be reintroduced within the next year by others on his behalf. “In the speech I gave on the Senate（参议院） floor, I said, ‘We can be the first state to do this, or we can be the 50th state to do it. It''s our choice. It''s going to happen,''"Ring says.


    G)A Kentucky b44ill similar to the one in Florida was met withplaints from educators,


    and was then amended （改进）to promoteputer science educationinitiatives with no mention of foreign language requirements. Instead, the state will provide support for higher quality certified teachers for programming classes（编程课）. Under the Washington bill, public universities would accept two years ofputer science classes in place of two years of foreign language for admission purposes. A report detailing the opinions of state university officials is due to the Legislature by November 2017


    H) Texas（德克萨斯州） passed a bill in 2013 that allows students to substituteputer coding only after they have attempted and performed poorly in a foreign language class.Srini Mandyam, CTO and co-founder of kid-friendly instructional codingpany Tynker, believes allowing students to o foreign language because they struggle with it is unproductive because every subject, whether art, math or language, is a significant contribution to a well-rounded existence. “Many students don''t fare well with algebra（代数） but we never discuss eliminating it or... say chemistry is now counted as an algebra class,” he said via email. “We teach algebra because it''s important and we should teach foreign language and coding for the same reason. Exposure to a wide breadth （宽度）of subjects and material results in well-rounded students who are able to make informed decisions... about what they want to pursue.’


    I)puter science courses already fulfill a math or science high school graduation


    requirement in 28 states and the District of Columbia, up from only 12 states in 2013. And while advocates of the bills say they should count as foreign language instead, opponents stress the importance of balancingputer and foreign language skills


    J)Studies show that bilingualism (双语)correlates（相关） with cognitive development, intelligence, memory and problem solving abilities, according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. A 2007 study showed that foreign language students outperformed their non-foreign language peers on standardized tests after only two to three years of study. And while a 2014 report from German and American universities suggests that programmers are using language ( but not mathematical) regions of the brain when understanding code, critics remain wary. They say that regardless of cognitive functions, being monolingual（单语的） is a disadvantage in the increasingly international economy, even if English has be the de facto (事实上的) language of business.


    K)“Our world is shrinking but its problems are really growing,” saysACTFL National Language Teacher of the Year Ted Zarrow, who teaches high school Latin in Westwood, Massachusetts, and has also studied Spanish, French, German, Itlian and Greek. “We need to find a way to put ourselves at the global table and to treat each other with mutual （彼此）respect. And learning languages allows us to do that because language is not part of culture, language is culture."


    L) Even with the benefits and skill sets languages provide, recruiters（招聘人员） and employers valueputer skills more. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers’2016 report, study abroad and foreign language fluency were not very influential in the employee hiring processes, but 55 percent of employers looked forputer skills on applicants’resumes（简历）. However, although 2016puter science graduates can expect to make the second highest starting salarypared with other jobs this year, the Bureau of Labor predicts the demand forputer programmers will decrease 8 percent or by 26,500 jobs by 2024.


    M) Ring says foreign language skills are important, but expresses doubt that school districts could work both coding and language into their curriculum in a significant way because they lack the time in the school day. “Nothing against language," he says. “I just think it''s something you have to start early and not just have something that you do for a couple of years in high school," he says.


    N) Zarrow agrees that foreign language education should begin earlier, but says it is


    possible to work bothputer programming and foreign language learning into schools evenly. He suggests an immersive, dual language program where students spend half the day in English and half the day in another language, as several schools around the country have successfully implemented. “The study of language fosters a respect for diversity, a respect for ethnicity（种族划分） and really a respect for language,"Zarrow says.


    O) Though the benefits ofputer programming skills are vast, foreign language and


    coding experts agree thatputer science should be negotiated into curriculums rather than replacing foreign language outright（直接的）. Mandyam says the two skill sets are essential but unrelated. “Coding is an incredibly important 21st century skill for our kids to learn, and that''s why we spend so much time trying to teach it,” Mandyam says via email.“But I believe it is the same as or even reallyparable to learning a foreign language. It would be a shame to lose something so important for the sake of adding something else, even something as important as coding. Clearly, education leaders must figure out a way to teach both."


    36. Employers attach more importance to applicantsputer skills than their languagepetence.


    37.One U.S.state senator（参议员） proposed that high school students be allowed to study either foreign language orputer coding.


    38. Learning languages broadens students’international perspective and nurtures mutual respect among peoples, according to a high school language teacher.


    39. One U.S. state will see to it that programming classes are taught by quality teachers.


    40. Statistics show whileputer-related jobs have been on the rise, foreign languages have be less appealing to American students since mid-1990s.


    41. All school subjects are said to be essential to students’ well-rounded development.


    42. There is consensus （一致）among most educators that coding should be taught in schools but should not replace foreign language.


    43.One study showed that foreign language learning improved students’ academic


    performance.


    44.Being short of funding and qualified teachers, schools lag behind the fast developingputer science field.


    45.A distinguished （著名的）high school language teacher also believes it is advisable（明智的） to start learning a foreign language at an earlier age.


    The U.S.and China don''t agree on much these days. Germany and France share a border and a currency but are frequently at odds（争执）. The U.K. and India like to march to their own drum（各行其是）. But there''s one issue on which all these countries see eye to eye: Technologypanies are too big, too powerful, and too profitable. And that power is only likely to intensify, leaving governments with no choice but to confront（面对） it head-on（直接的） by taking thepanies to court, passing newpetition laws, and perhaps even breaking up the tech giants.


    China is the latest to implement an anti-trust（反垄断） crackdown（制裁）, unveiling（公开） anti-monopoly （反垄断）rules last month. The draft rules followed the surprise suspension of a $ 37 billion stock offering by billionaire Jack Ma''s Ant Group Co., making clear that nopany can evade the government''s regulation. The moves in China coincide with accelerating efforts in the U. S. and Europe to rein in Amazon., Apple, Facebook, and Google. “The big get bigger and bigger but without being better,” says Andreas Schwab, a German member of the Europea