American cities are similar to other cities around the world: In every country, cities reflect the values of the culture. American cities are changing, just as American society is changing.
After World War Ⅱ, the population of most large American cities decreased; however, the population in many Sun Belt cities increased. Los Angeles and Houston are cities where population shifts(转移) to and from the city reflect the changing values of American society. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, city residents(居民) became richer. They had more children so they needed more space. They moved out of their apartments in the city to buy their own homes. They bought houses in the suburbs(郊区).
Now things are changing. The children of the people who left the cities in the 1950s are now adults. Many, unlike their parents, want to live in the cities. They continue to move to Sun Belt cities and older ones of the Northeast and Midwest. Many young professionals(专业人士，专门人才) are moving back into the city. They prefer the city to the suburbs because their jobs are there; or they just enjoy the excitement and possibilities that the city offers.
This population shift is bringing problems as well as benefits. A large number of poor people must leave their apartments in the city because the owners want to sell the buildings or make apartments for sale instead of for rent. In the 1950s, many poor people did not have enough money to move to the suburbs; now many of these same people do not have enough money to stay in the cities.
Only a few years ago, people thought that the older American cities were dying. Some city residents now see a bright, new future. Others see only problems and conflicts. One thing is sure: many dying cities are alive again.
1. What does the author think of cities all over the world?| A．They are alive. | B．They are hopeless. |
| C．They are similar. | D．They are different. |
| A．Because older American cities were dying. |
| B．Because they were richer and needed more space. |
| C．Because cities had the worst parts of society. |
| D．Because they could hardly afford a life in the city. |
| A．are faced with housing problems |
| B．are forced to move to the suburbs |
| C．want to sell their buildings |
| D．need more money for daily expenses |
| A．American cities are changing for the worse |
| B．people have different views on American cities |
| C．many people are now moving from American cities |
| D．the population is decreasing in older American cities |
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【推荐1】Since the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic, online sales have soared from 16% to 19% in 2020.
In 2022 it has become clear that online shopping will continue to quickly develop
| A．While offline shopping became difficult due to pandemic restrictions and health measures. |
| B．Global consumers could not stop purchasing through their favorite marketplaces. |
| C．This significant increase was set off by worldwide lockdowns and restrictions |
| D．As a result, e-commerce SMEs（中小型企业）started launching their pages on social media sites |
| E．even if retail businesses come back to traditional pre-pandemic models of leading business |
| F．though the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted business countries around the globe differently |
| G．Another big impact on e-commerce caused the quickly growing popularity of online shopping in emerging economies |
An inferiority complex（自卑情结） as the name suggests is a complex in which an individual has strong feelings of inferiority. While we all have weak points, the person with an inferiority complex will focus on these weaknesses and use them to evaluate their overall worth. As a result, they see themselves generally less important or successful than others.
In some cases inferiority complex can lead to overcompensation. Here the individual does everything in his power to overcome his inferiority and this can mean that they end up in highly successful jobs, gaining great wealth and succeeding in powerful relationships. However while such a person might be a high achiever, a sense of inferiority will mean that they will always be less happy than they could be and it may have other negative impacts on their life.
Another possible outcome of an inferiority complex is that the individual ends up backing down from difficult situations and acting without any sense of worth or entitlemen（t 权利）. Here the person’s low self belief changes the way he behaves, and that in turn changes the way he is treated by others which in turn results in him actually becoming inferior in some ways.
There are many factors that may lead to inferiority, but they tend to be the result of conditioned beliefs that come from continuous failure or criticism. Often parental attitudes can result in an inferiority complex if the child did not receive the right encouragement or unconditional love when growing up. In some cases an inferiority complex could also arise as a result of some kind of defect（缺陷） either physical or mental.
If you are suffering from an inferiority complex, it's time that you did something about it.
One of the very best ways to improve your self esteem is to find a loving partner. This is a great way to make you more confident as he or she will love you for who you are and always be there to support you and increase your confidence. Another is to take up a hobby. Find one thing that you are good at and then get your confidence from that. For instance, you might choose to take up a sport or woodwork, and then you can practice getting better at that and gain more confidence. Moreover, you can turn to self-help book. If you find the right books and follow the advice carefully, then it is possible to transform the way you view yourself and the way you present yourself.
| Concept of an inferiority complex | An inferiority complex refers to a |
Outcomes of an inferiority complex | ● People with an inferiority complex may misjudge their value and consider other people ● People with an inferiority complex are likely to spare no ● An inferiority complex can lead people to |
| ● People who often lose out or are blamed continuously are more ● Children having no ● Physical or mental disabilities can increase the chances of an inferiority complex. | |
Suggestions on overcoming an inferiority complex | ● Find a loving partner who will always love you and be around to ● Choose something you are ● Find the most suitable self-help books and do as they advise, and you can change |
【推荐3】Workers are quitting their jobs. A lot of them. In fact, there are so many people that it seems that we’re still in the middle of the so-called Great Resignation (辞职). In the US, the Labor Department reported that 4.3 million Americans left their jobs in August 2021, making up about 2.9% of the national workforce — the highest number on record. In the UK, the number of open jobs was more than 1 million for the first time ever in August. There are several reasons why workers are walking away — poor working conditions, fears of getting infected with COVID-19 and a better understanding of life during COVID-19.
You may have heard the story that in the golden age of American labor, 20th-century workers stayed in one job for 40 years and retired with a gold watch. But that’s a total myth. The truth is that people in the 1960s and 1970s quit their jobs more often than they have in the past 20 years, and the economy was better off for it. Since the 1980s Americans have quit less, and many held on to valueless jobs for fear that the safety net wouldn’t support them while they looked for a new one. But Americans seem to have put an end to their persistence (坚持). And they’re being rewarded for their lack of patience: Wages for low-income workers are rising at their fastest rate since the Great Recession (大萧条). In fact, the number of the Great Resignation is really great.
Nearly 7 percent of employees in the “accommodations and food services” area left their jobs in August. That means one in 14 hotel clerks, restaurant servers, and barbacks said goodbye in a single month. Thanks to several pandemic-relief checks, a rent moratorium (缓交), and student-loan forgiveness, everybody, particularly if they are young and have a low income, has more freedom to quit the jobs they hate and hope for something else.
1. Which is one of the reasons why lots of workers are quitting their jobs in the US?| A．They find their life meaningless. |
| B．They want to get more freedom. |
| C．They are afraid of picking up COVID-19. |
| D．Their living conditions are very terrible. |
| A．Workers quit their jobs more frequently in the 1980s than in the 1960s. |
| B．Workers working for 40 years were awarded a gold watch in the 19th century. |
| C．All the workers’ wages are rising sharply since the Great Recession in the US. |
| D．Workers’ quitting their jobs more often contributed to the economic growth in the 1970s. |
| A．Legend. | B．Fact. | C．Secret. | D．Experiment. |
| A．The golden age of American labor has gone. |
| B．Americans are leaving their jobs in groups. |
| C．Young workers are fighting for freedom. |
| D．America’s economy is getting worse due to COVID-19. |
【推荐1】Mukbangs—eating shows—are becoming increasingly popular, in which people eat huge amounts of food throughout their shows. Some people believe that the point of mukbang is to get paid, which isn’t wrong, but it’s not the main point. The key point of mukbang is that people love watching other people enjoy their food, which is why mukbang has become so popular.
If you are creating mukbang videos, it can be very inviting to just keep eating and eating,which can result in weight gain. Mukbangers do gain weight, but only if they eat all the time.Many mukbangers are not big eaters, so they don’t have trouble losing weight, But if you are someone who likes to eat, then you might find that you shouldn’t create mukbang videos.
If you find yourself gaining weight every time you create a mukbang video, you should consider eating one meal a day and reduce or avoid eating more than one meal a day. It might be very hard to switch from three meals a day to only one big meal a day,but the results might be worth it, If you are a mukbang lover and don’t want to quit eating all those delicious, fatty foods, we recommend you start working out and make sure to eat healthy.
Some other mukbangers never gain weight because they can control their eating. So it would be hard for them to gain weight.Make sure to track your calorie intake(卡路里摄入量),which is related to overweight.
There are many people who like watching mukbang videos. Many of them do this all the time because it’s so satisfying to watch other people enjoy food. If you’re watching food videos while dieting, there’s not much to worry about as long as you don’t overeat from your own plate.Personally,watching mukbang videos won’t break your fast(禁食期).So you can watch as many videos as you like.
1. What is the main point of mukbang?| A．To earn money. | B．To enjoy food. |
| C．To teach cooking. | D．To please the viewers. |
| A．Do exercise. | B．Eat less healthy food. |
| C．Have no meals per day. | D．Have weight-loss medicine. |
| A．Body weight. | B．Diet plan. |
| C．Life style. | D．Food choice. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Negative. | D．Uninterested. |
【推荐2】The Amazon Echo, a voice-driven cylindrical computer that sits on a table top and answers to the name Alexa, can call up music tracks and radio stations, tell jokes, answer trivia questions and control smart appliances; even before Christmas it was already resident in about 4% of American households. Voice assistants are proliferating in smartphones, too: Apple’s Siri handles over 2bn commands a week, and 20% of Google searches on Android-powered handsets in America are input by voice. Dictating e-mails and text messages now works reliably enough to be useful. Why type when you can talk?
Simple though it may seem, voice has the power to transform computing, by providing a natural means of interaction. Windows, icons and menus, and then touchscreens, were welcomed as more intuitive ways to deal with computers than entering complex keyboard commands. But being able to talk to computers abolishes the need for the abstraction of a “user interface” at all. Just as mobile phones were more than existing phones without wires, and cars were more than carriages without horses, so computers without screens and keyboards have the potential to be more useful, powerful and ubiquitous than people can imagine today.
Voice will not wholly replace other forms of input and output. Sometimes it will remain more convenient to converse with a machine by typing rather than talking (Amazon is said to be working on an Echo device with a built-in screen). But voice is destined to account for a growing share of people’s interactions with the technology around them, from washing machines that tell you how much of the cycle they have left to virtual assistants in corporate call-centres. However, to reach its full potential, the technology requires further breakthroughs—and a resolution of the tricky questions it raises around the trade-off between convenience and privacy.
Computer-dictation systems have been around for years. But they were unreliable and required lengthy training to learn a specific user’s voice. Computers’ new ability to recognise almost anyone’s speech dependably without training is the latest manifestation of the power of “deep learning”, an artificial-intelligence technique in which a software system is trained using millions of examples, usually culled from the internet. Thanks to deep learning, machines now nearly equal humans in transcription accuracy, computerised translation systems are improving rapidly and text-to-speech systems are becoming less robotic and more natural-sounding. Computers are, in short, getting much better at handling natural language in all its forms
Although deep learning means that machines can recognise speech more reliably and talk in a less stilted manner, they still don’t understand the meaning of language. That is the most difficult aspect of the problem and, if voice-driven computing is truly to flourish, one that must be overcome. Computers must be able to understand context in order to maintain a coherent conversation about something, rather than just responding to simple, one-off voice commands, as they mostly do today (“Hey, Siri, set a timer for ten minutes”). Researchers in universities and at companies large and small are working on this very problem, building “bots” that can hold more elaborate conversations about more complex tasks, from retrieving information to advising on mortgages to making travel arrangements.
Many voice-driven devices are always listening, waiting to be activated. Some people are already concerned about the implications of internet-connected microphones listening in every room and from every smartphone. Not all audio is sent to the cloud—devices wait for a trigger phrase (“Alexa”, “OK, Google”, “Hey, Cortana”, or “Hey, Siri”) before they start relaying the user’s voice to the servers that actually handle the requests—but when it comes to storing audio, it is unclear who keeps what and when.
1. According to Paragraph I the American Echo ___| A．has been sold out before Christmas |
| B．has been used by most American families |
| C．came out the market later than Apple’s Siri |
| D．is more useful than smart phones in fictating e-mails |
| A．It is more effective and convenient than typing |
| B．It needs to be improved in some important aspects |
| C．It increases a person’s chances of communicating with others |
| D．It will replace other forms of input and output in the near future |
| A．The devices will be in charge of theit life |
| B．The devices need to be activeated before working |
| C．They are in the dark about their data’s ownership |
| D．Their voices can be recognized by every smart technology? |
| A．Worried | B．Doubtful |
| C．Supportive | D．Objective |
【推荐3】It was winter of 1973 and Singaporean L. Shanmugam waited at the guardhouse of a building in the small town of Hermannsburg, Germany. The Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) instructor hoped for the once-in-a-lifetime chance to call on Kurt Hahn, the father of experiential education and founder of Outward Bound.
When a staff member told him that the elderly Hahn was a sick and weak man who did not entertain guests, Shanmugam still waited. He said he had hitchhiked(搭便车) his way from Wales to Germany, crossing the Alps just to show his great admiration for Hahn’s extraordinary achievements — if that was not the spirit of adventure, what was? The next moment, he was invited in. It was a dreamlike experience to finally meet Hahn, he recalled.
Over lunch, Shanmugam told the educator that he had come from a faraway country called Singapore. He talked about how the small flat tropical(热带的) island had little experience with mountaineering, polar exploration or extreme landscapes. Despite the limitations, this did not stop young Singaporeans from continuing to follow in Hahn’s rich legacy(遗产) of outdoor learning.
Hahn was among the earliest pioneers who believed that the outdoors could shape the personal development of young people. In 1934, as the founder and headmaster of Gordonstoun School in Moray, Scotland, he asked his students to make regular sailing expeditions(定期航海探险) and hill-walking.
During the Second World War, Hahn started a new kind of school in Aberdovey in Wales to train youths: a one-month course involving expeditions across three mountain ranges, rescue training and volunteer work in the local community. In 1941, Outward Bound, a charitable educational organization that provides adventure programs, was born.
Eighty years on, Outward Bound has become a national policy in Singapore. In following Hahn’s footsteps, the country has discovered that the act of communicating with the outdoors brings a certain kind of magic.
“We want all our young people to be strong, adaptable and creative. Outdoor adventure learning is especially useful in giving these lessons, which are very hard to teach in the classroom,” said Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
1. Why did Shanmugam come to visit Hermannsburg?| A．To show his spirit of adventure. |
| B．To treat the old Hahn’s disease. |
| C．To express his admiration for Hahn. |
| D．To discuss the idea of experiential education. |
| A．Having few experienced instructors. |
| B．Not having different landforms. |
| C．Not receiving strong government support. |
| D．Knowing little about experiential education. |
| A．Both taught students adventure. |
| B．Both trained youths to be sailors. |
| C．Both instructed research skills outdoors. |
| D．Both encouraged student-centered learning. |
| A．Educators should teach many different skills. |
| B．Students should learn about nature in many ways. |
| C．Young people should spend more time learning in the wild. |
| D．The government should provide a better environment for kids. |
【推荐1】One billion people in the world are short of water. How can this problem be solved. Some suggestions have been to desalinate ocean water or to build enormous water pipelines from areas where water is abundant. (Suggestions such as these prove extremely expensive when they are actually used.) One possibility that scientists are considering is pulling icebergs from either the North Pole or the South Pole to parts of the world with a water shortage. Although many questions must be answered before such a project could be tried, moving icebergs seems a reasonable possibility in the future.
Engineers, mathematicians, and glaciologists from a dozen countries have been considering the iceberg as a future source of water. Saudi Arabia is particularly interested in this project because it has a great water shortage. Scientists estimate that it would take 128 days to transport a large iceberg (about 1/2 square mile) to Saudi Arabia. Yet the iceberg would be completely melted by the 104th day. Therefore, insulation would be essential, but how to insulate the iceberg remains an unsolved problem.
The problems in transporting an iceberg are numerous. The first problem is choosing the iceberg to pull. The icebergs that form in the North Pole are quite difficult to handle because of their shape. Only a small portion extends above the water — most of the iceberg is below the surface, which would make it difficult to pull. South Pole icebergs, on the other hand, are flat and float like table tops. Thus they would be much easier to move.
How can a 200-million-ton iceberg be moved. No ship is strong enough to pull such enormous weight through the water. Perhaps several ships could be used. Attaching ropes to an iceberg this size is also an enormous problem. Engineers think that large nails or long metal rods could be driven into the ice. What would happen if the iceberg splits into several pieces during the pulling. Even if an iceberg with very few cracks were chosen, how could it be pulled through stormy waters. Furthermore, once the iceberg reached its destination, very few ports would be deep enough to store it.
All of these problems must be solved before icebergs can become a reasonable source of water. Yet scientists estimate that it will be possible to transport them in the near future. Each year, enough icebergs form to supply the whole world with fresh water for a full year. In addition, icebergs are free and nonpolluting. As a solution to the world’s water problems, icebergs may be a workable possibility.
1. What is a problem in transporting iceberg?| A．The size of the iceberg. |
| B．The colour of the iceberg. |
| C．The salt in the iceberg. |
| D．The movement of air and water. |
| A．Pessimistic. | B．Objective. |
| C．Optimistic. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．It is hard to use iceberg. | B．Iceberg are a good choice. |
| C．There are problems with iceberg. | D．Man finds no other ways to solve water shortage. |
| A．Shortage of water. | B．Icebergs for water. |
| C．Scientists and icebergs. | D．Iceberg—scientists headache. |
【推荐2】One morning soon, you’ll get on your bike and ride from one end of America to the other, because the Great American Rail Trail is 53% complete, making a cross-country bike ride closer to a reality.
The idea of a bike trail(小路) made up of scenic paths, trails and former rail lines from Washington DC to Washington State has been 30 years in the making. Now, with more than 50% of the trail up and running, the project, run by the Rails to Trails in cooperation with local authorities, is building up, with hundreds of miles of trails in development now. Though not entirely complete, the rail trail has drawn people of all types.
Last August, Ryan Gardill and a colleague biked 350 miles from Pittsburgh to Washington DC. Their travels took them through some beautiful and historical parts of the American East. “The trail connected me to our revolutionary and industrial history. Most of the towns on the trail were once important to America.”
The major goal of the trail is to provide the American public with the opportunity to explore their beautiful country, without getting in their car. A secondary objective is to bring prosperity(繁荣) back to the small towns and cities that once prospered along the country’s now diminished rail system, according to National Geographic.
One of these is Muncie, Indiana, a city located on a former rail system and a part of the Rail Trail. The city is already seeing the economic benefits of the trail. “A large majority of our customers are local, but the Rail Trail could help grow tourism,” said Jason Allardt, owner of the historic Kirk’s Bike Shop.
This is the hope for many once-prosperous towns and cities all throughout America, though it may take nearly 20 years to get the entire trail up and running.
1. What has made the trail attractive to people?| A．It’s a bike trail with good scenery. | B．It’s a rail line across the country. |
| C．It offers good adventurous paths. | D．Its construction lasted 30 years. |
| A．They were the basic part of the U.S. railways. |
| B．They are mostly located in the mountains. |
| C．They enjoy great popularity as destinations. |
| D．They’re no longer important towns in America. |
| A．Enlarged. | B．Protected. | C．Decreased. | D．Destroyed. |
| A．The Trail will link its scenery to the outside. | B．The Trail will help its economic recovery. |
| C．It has bike paths designed for local citizens. | D．The railway has brought about its prosperity. |
【推荐3】 Five years ago, David Smith wore an expensive suit to work every day. “I was a clothes addict.” he jokes. “I used to carry a fresh suit to work with me so I could change if my clothes got wrinkled.” Today David wears casual clothes—khaki pants and a sports shirt—to the office. He hardly ever wears a necktie. “I am working harder than ever.” David says, “and I need to feel comfortable.”
More and more companies are allowing their office workers to wear casual clothes to work. In the United States, the change from formal to casual office wear has been gradual. In the early 1990s, many companies allowed their employees to wear casual clothes on Friday (but only on Friday). This became known as “dress-down Friday” or “casual Friday”. “What started out as an extra one-day-a-week benefit for employees has really become an everyday thing.” said business consultant Maisly Jones.
Why have so many companies started allowing their employees to wear casual clothes? One reason is that it’s easier for a company to attract new employees if it has a casual dress code.” “A lot of young people don’t want to dress up for work,” says the owner of a software company, “so it’s hard to hire people if you have a conservative(保守的)dress code.” Another reason is that people seem happier and more productive when they are wearing comfortable clothes. In a study conducted by Levi Strauss and Company, 85 percent of employers said that they believe that casual dress improves employee morale(心境，士气). Only 4 percent of employers said that casual dress has a negative influence on productivity. Supporters of casual office wear also argue that a casual dress code helps them save money. “Suits are expensive, if you have to wear one every day,” one person said. “For the same amount of money, you can buy a lot more casual clothes.”
1. David Smith refers to himself as having been “a clothes addict,” because .| A．he often wore khaki pants and a sports shirt |
| B．he couldn’t stand a clean appearance |
| C．he wanted his clothes to look neat all the time |
| D．he didn’t want to spend much money on clothes |
| A．they make him feel at ease when working |
| B．he cannot afford to buy expensive clothes |
| C．he looks handsome in casual clothes |
| D．he no longer works for any company |
| A．Many employees don’t like a conservative dress code. |
| B．Comfortable clothes make employees more productive. |
| C．A casual clothes code is welcomed by young employees. |
| D．All the employers in the U. S. are for casual office wear. |
| A．Company workers started to dress down about fifty years ago. |
| B．Dress-down has become an everyday phenomenon since the early 90s. |
| C．“Dress-down Friday” was first given as a favor from employers. |
| D．Many workers want to wear casual clothes to impress people. |
| A．saving employees’ money |
| B．making employees more attractive |
| C．improving employees’ motivation |
| D．making employees happier |
