The interview had been going on for about 20 minutes and everything seems to be going well. Then, suddenly, the interviewer asks an unexpected question, “Which is more important, law or Dove?”
Job applicants in the West increasingly find themselves asked strange questions like this. And the signs are that this is beginning to happen in China.
Employers want people skilled, enthusiastic and devoted. So these are the qualities that any reasonably intelligent job applicants will try to show no matter what his or her actual feelings are. In response, employers are increasingly using questions which try and show the applicant’s true personality.
The question in the first paragraph comes from a test called the Keirsey Personality Sorter. It is an attempt to discover how people solve problems, rather than what they know. This is often called an aptitude test (能力倾向测验).
According to Mark Baldwin many job applicants in China are finding this type of questions difficult. When a Chinese person fills out an aptitude test he or she will think there is a right answer and they may fail because they try to guess what the examiner wants to see.
This is sometimes called the prisoner’s dilemma. Applicants are trying to act cleverly in their own interest. But they fail because they don’t understand what the interviewer is looking for. Remember that in an aptitude test, the correct answer is always the honest answer.
1. The writer wrote the passage to________.| A．give you a piece of advice on a job interview | B．tell you how to meet a job interviewer |
| C．describe the aptitude test | D．advice you how to find a job |
| A．They want to discover what the interviewees know. |
| B．They are curious about the answers. |
| C．They try to discover the ability of the interviewees solving problems. |
| D．They just ask questions without thinking much. |
| A．not tell the truth | B．learn to tell what they really think |
| C．be more enthusiastic | D．try to find out what the examiner really want to know |
| A．job applicants are always asked such questions |
| B．more Chinese applicants fail to find a job |
| C．applicants should not act as reasonably as a prisoner |
| D．the aptitude test is becoming popular worldwide |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Social media is taking over our lives: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and now, TikTok. These social media platforms have transformed from a way to stay connected to an industry where even kids can make money off their posts. While this may seem like another opportunistic innovation, it’s really full of hidden false realities.
The median income recorded in the United States of America was about $63,000 in 2018. Tik Tokers can make anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 for a Tik Tok brand partnership, and Tik Tokers with over a million followers can make up to $30,000 a month — $360,000 a year. They are making more than the average person trying to feed their family and keep a roof over their heads, simply by posting a 15-second video.
This is mad in more ways than one. Not only is it an overpaid “job”, but it promotes undeserved admiration from viewers and a false sense of reality. Many of these famous Tik Tokers are still teens, and the effects of fame at such an early stage in life might cause issues later in life, such as mental illness. Teens can be easily influenced by what they are watching. They can put a false sense of self-value into who they look up to and what they represent: money, fame and being considered conventionally attractive.
While TikTok has become a great tool for marketing, it’s important to understand how this content affects young viewers. If we’ re constantly consuming content that shows us all we need to do to be successful is be conventionally attractive and post a 15-second video featuring a new dance, it will challenge our knowledge of what really makes someone successful and will in turn affect our individual work ethics. What about the people who miss birthdays and family holidays due to their jobs and aren’t getting paid nearly as much as these Tik Tokers?
Richard Colyer, president and creator of Metaphor, Inc., had his own view on this issue. “It sounds great that kids can make money for doing the latest dance moves in a 15-second video, but we should feed the minds of kids and not just their __________. TikTok can be great if used properly. Money alone is not good, technology alone is not good and connectedness can be bad if it’s only online.”
Again, as a fellow consumer of TikTok, I do enjoy when I have some time to kill and need a good laugh. I’m not against someone making a living on entertainment, but what does getting famous of a 15-second video teach young people?
1. According to the passage, the underlined phrase “hidden false realities” in paragraph 1 refers to all the following statements EXCEPT that_________.| A．the incomes of the Tik Tokers are disproportionately higher |
| B．teens may regard overnight fame as something easily achieved |
| C．the short-video platform could misguide people’s understanding of success |
| D．TikTokers pride themselves in doing the latest dance moves |
| A．academic performance | B．bank accounts |
| C．social media followers | D．technological skills |
| A．Those who are conventionally attractive will make a fortune by being a Tik Toker. |
| B．If dealt with improperly, TikTok will exert a negative influence on people’s work ethics. |
| C．TikTok is more than a platform where people entertain themselves. |
| D．Sharing videos online shouldn’t be the only way for people to stay connected. |
| A．Young TikTokers should be banned from making money on social media. |
| B．Brand partners are to blame for teens’ getting famous online. |
| C．Teaching youngsters how to set up right values on success should be included on TikTok. |
| D．TikTok has its value if teens employ it smartly. |
【推荐2】The number of devices you can talk to is multiplying—first it was your phone, then your car, and now you can boss around your appliances. Children are likely to grow up thinking everything is sentient, or at least interactive: One app developer told The Washington Post that after interacting with Amazon’s Alexa, his kid started talking to coasters. But even without chatty gadgets, research suggests that under certain circumstances, people anthropomorphize everyday products.
We personify things because we’re lonely. In one experiment, people who reported feeling isolated were more likely than others to give free will and consciousness to various devices. In turn, feeling attached to objects can reduce loneliness. When college students were reminded of a time they’d been excluded socially, they made up by lying about their number of friends on social networks—unless they were first given tasks that caused them to interact with their phone as if it had human qualities. The phone apparently stood in for real friends.
When we personify products, they become harder to cast off. After being asked to evaluate their car's personality, people were less likely to say they intended to replace it soon. And anthropomorphizing objects is associated with a tendency to accumulate.
So how do people assign characteristics to an object? In part, we rely on looks. On humans, wide faces are associated with dominance. Similarly, people rated cars, clocks, and watches with wide faces as more dominant-looking than narrow-faced ones, and preferred them—especially in competitive situations. An analysis of car sales in Germany found that cars with grilles(格栅) that were upturned like smiles and headlights that were slanted（倾斜的）like narrowed eyes sold best. The purchasers saw these features as increasing a car’s friendliness and aggressiveness, respectively. It’s little wonder so many companies use mascots（吉祥物）to bring brands to life. An analysis of 1,151 brand characters found symbols that were human or humanlike to be common.
Personifying products and brands can backfire, however. When a coffee maker was anthropomorphized in an ad (“I am Aroma” versus just “Aroma”)，consumers felt betrayed by increases in its price. Now that speech-enabled coffee makers are on the market, maybe the machines can sweet-talk their way back into consumers, hearts.
1. The word “anthropomorphize”（in paragraph 1) most probably means_________.| A．think highly of something | B．find a better way to rate something |
| C．see something as humans | D．use something as often as possible |
| A．they were not lonely |
| B．the phone had human qualities |
| C．they needed real friends |
| D．the phone was not always necessary |
| A．show that friendliness is better received than aggressiveness |
| B．highlight that a symbol looking like a smile appeals more to people |
| C．explain why so many companies use mascots to promote their brands |
| D．illustrate that people will judge something according to its appearance |
| A．Consumers should know more about a product before it is on the market. |
| B．Products with a mascot are more likely to win consumers' hearts. |
| C．Increases in a produces price may be accepted with a good ad. |
| D．The personification of a product may not always work. |
【推荐3】The words “protect animals” appear everywhere in books and on screens because some animals are in danger of dying out. But sometimes the reality can be a little different from what people read or watch.
Florida, US, has held its first bear hunt since 1994. The local government gave people nearly 4,000 permits to kill black bears. And more than 200 were killed on Oct 24.
Animal protection groups protested this decision. But local officials explained that the black bear population had grown to 3,500 and become a menace to local people. In the past two years, bears have hurt at least four people in Florida.
This brings an old question back into the spotlight – which is more important, protecting animals or protecting people’s interests?
This question is asked in other countries too. In Switzerland, a wolf was sentenced to death by the Swiss government months ago. This is because the wolf killed 38 sheep and local people lost a lot of money. Days ago in China, three old men were arrested for killing a serow(鬣羚), a protected species. But they insisted they didn’t know about this and killed the animal because it ruined their crops.
However, these stories don’t always mean that animal protection stops due to human interests, especially involving economic development. A man named Zhou Weisen set up a wild animal base in Guilin, Guangxi. He saved over 170 tigers and 300 bears. But his base also offered jobs to local people.
“There may never be a standard answer to the question of whether we should give more attention to the environment or human development,” said Robert May, a British biologist at Oxford University. “But we shouldn’t push either one to the side, as the future is hanging in the balance.
1. What does the underlined word “ menace” in the third paragraph mean?| A．danger | B．chance | C．relief | D．treasure |
| A．Protecting animals needs hard work. |
| B．Zhou was good at feeding wild animals. |
| C．Zhou had a good relationship with local people. |
| D．Protecting animals can bring economic development. |
| A．Human development should be considered first. |
| B．We should pay more attention to animal protection. |
| C．We should consider both the environment and human interests. |
| D．It's difficult to find proper ways to solve environmental problems. |
| A．animals always do no harm to people |
| B．last bear hunt in Florida took place more than twenty years ago. |
| C．protecting animals is more important than protecting people's interest. |
| D．the three old men arrested in China days ago knew that the serow is a protected species. |
【推荐1】Minutes can make a difference when a life is on the line. The American Red Cross has begun offering free training and certification (合格证书) so high school students can act fast in medical emergencies.
Traumatic injuries (创伤性损伤) are the leading cause of death in Americans younger than 45. “What we are trying to do is take lessons that we learned from the battlefield — people with life-threatening injuries might have a much better chance of surviving if they can have immediate treatment,” said Craig Goolsby, a professor of Military Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University. “If people can stop bleeding, particularly bleeding from arms and legs, we have a lot better chance of saving the lives of those people once they reach the hospital,” he said.
First Aid for Severe Trauma (FAST) training is available to teach high school students how to talk to each other effectively during an emergency, how to make sure that the scene is safe so additional people don’t get hurt and how to stop bleeding with a tourniquet (止血带) or direct pressure. “Just some of those really basic things that can be lifesaving before an ambulance arrives,” Goolsby said.
“My team has done a series of research studies over the past several years looking at the public’s ability to apply tourniquets or apply direct pressure. We’ve found that even very brief education, like 15 minutes of education, can have a great effect on how people will react,” Goolsby added. “They start out at a lower level of likelihood of response, get the training, and then all of a sudden, they’re more likely to respond.”
Goolsby noted that in many emergencies, average people on the street jumped in to help people who were injured. “Giving the public these tools and the courage to say ‘I can do this.’ is really important. The FAST program does that. And so we’re excited to be able to empower this next generation of Americans to take those steps,” he said.
1. What did Craig Goolsby learn from the battlefield?| A．The difficulty of surviving. | B．The types of traumatic injuries. |
| C．The importance of immediate treatment. | D．The lifesaving measures taken by medical staff. |
| A．How to move the injured to a safe place. | B．How to help the injured deal with pressure. |
| C．How to communicate effectively in emergencies. | D．How to make tourniquets using materials on hand. |
| A．Most people have little first aid experience. |
| B．Educated people are more likely to offer help. |
| C．Most people find it difficult to apply direct pressure. |
| D．People tend to help others willingly after the training. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. | C．Worried. | D．Critical. |
【推荐2】The specific cultural values of a country may determine whether concern about environmental issues actually leads individuals to engage in environmentally friendly behaviors, according to research published in Psychological Science.
Kimin Eom, a psychological scientist of the University of California, Santa Barbara, was inspired to investigate the links between culture, environmental concern, and environmental action after noticing that both public discussion and academic research on environmental behavior typically focus on people from Western countries. It is worth noticing because Western countries tend to have cultural values that prioritize individuals’ own attitudes and beliefs and encourage expression of them.
“The theory seemed to be that once individuals are led to believe in the urgency of environmental issues and have stronger concerns about sustainability (持续性), they will change and act to address the issues,” explains Eom. But this relationship might not hold for individuals living in more collectivistic (集体主义的) societies, which place more emphasis on social harmony and uniformity than on self-expression, Eom and his team assumed.
To examine what drives environmental action in individualistic and collectivistic cultures, the researchers conducted a study with participants from the United States (an individualistic culture) and Japan (a collectivistic culture). They found environmental concern was closely connected with environmental behavior — in this case, choosing environmentally friendly products — but only among American participants. On the other hand, believing that a large percentage of people engage in environmentally friendly behaviors was associated with making eco-friendly choices among Japanese participants, but not American participants.
The findings suggest that personal concerns are more likely to motivate people to take environmental action if they live in individualistic countries, while social norms (准则) are more likely to drive people to engage in environmentally friendly behavior if they live in collectivistic countries.
“Getting citizens actively engaged is critical to addressing urgent social challenges, such as climate change,” says Eom. “Our research suggests that scientists, policymakers, and activists need to understand how culture shapes the psychological factors of action to develop policies, campaigns, and interventions (干预) that address important social issues.”
1. What does Eom find about previous research on environmental behavior?| A．Its study participants are too limited. |
| B．Its results need a while to be achieved. |
| C．It prioritizes individuals’ attitudes and beliefs. |
| D．It draws much evidence from public discussion. |
| A．If he sees many others do so. |
| B．If he is affected by collectivistic values. |
| C．If he moves to an individualistic country. |
| D．If he worries about the environment personally. |
| A．It fails to take participants’ psychological factors into account. |
| B．It encourages scientists and policymakers to make joint efforts. |
| C．It has a further study direction towards urgent social challenges. |
| D．It provides insights into promoting public engagement in social issues. |
| A．Social Norms Play a Part in Addressing Pollution |
| B．Environmental Issues Originate from National Cultures |
| C．Motivating Eco-Friendly Behaviors Depends on Cultural Values |
| D．More Environmental Concerns Usually Mean More Green Action |
【推荐3】Have you ever had such an experience? When chatting on WeChat, you sent someone a voice message where you thought your voice was clear and moving, but when you heard your own recorded voice, you couldn’t help wondering: Is this really my voice? Why is it so ugly?
It's not your fault. The sound from an audio (声音的) recording is transmitted differently to your brain than the sound created when you speak.
When listening to a recording of your voice, the sound travel through the air and into ears—what’s referred to as “air conduction (传导)”. The sound energy vibrates (使颤动) the ear drum and small ear bones. These bones then transmit the sound vibrations to the cochlea (耳蜗), which encourages nerve axons (神经轴突) that send the auditory signal to the brain.
However, when you speak, the sound from your voice reaches the inner ear in a different way. While some of the sound is transmitted through air conduction, much of the sound is internally (内部) conducted directly through your skull bones. When you hear your own voice when you speak, it’s due to a mixture of both external and internal conduction, and internal bone conduction appears to increase the lower frequencies.
For this reason, people generally notice their voice as deeper and richer when they speak. The recorded voice, in comparison, can sound thinner and higher-pitched (声调高的), which many find embarrassing. Dr. Silke Paulmann, a psychologist at the University of Essex, says, “The fact that we sound more high-pitched than what we think we should leads us to embarrassment as it doesn’t meet our internal expectations: our voice plays a vital role in forming our identity and I guess no one likes to realize that you’re not really who you think you are.”
1. How do people usually feel when hearing their own recorded voice?| A．Unclear | B．Touching |
| C．Wonderful | D．Unpleasant |
| A．The way it spreads | B．The air it travels through |
| C．The pitch it produces | D．The frequency it vibrates |
| A．Air conduction helps to transmit the sound. |
| B．The auditory signal is sent more directly to the brains. |
| C．Internal conduction lowers the frequencies of vibration. |
| D．Both external and internal conduction strengthen the effect. |
| A．Voice can be different in different situations. |
| B．Voice can make a difference in shaping a person’s identity. |
| C．It isn’t embarrassing when one’s voice is thin and high-pitched. |
| D．It isn’t important whether one’s voice meets his internal expectations. |
