While the increase in the number of unemployed Americans has been a focus of economists throughout the pandemic, another problem has been mostly overlooked: The people that do have jobs are calling out sick in record numbers.
Unlike the jobless rate, which has declined noticeably, the rate of absenteeism (旷工) has remained stubbornly high. More than 1.9 million people missed work in December, according to Labor Department data. Michael Gapen, chief US economist, says although vaccinations could start driving down absenteeism, the missed work is causing supply chain problems. “Absenteeism could lead to shortages; it could lead to higher prices and more limited output,” he says.
The problem is so acute that companies are lobbying local authorities to get their workers near the front of the line for vaccinations. “There are instances of having to shut down lines at various points in time in order to manage the absenteeism,” says Geoff Freeman, a chief executive officer.
According to the Institute for Supply Management, factory activities increased in December, with the employment returning to a level that indicates growth. However, one complaint is that suppliers are still struggling with their own employee shortages, which is causing supply problems. “The quantity of infections and the quantity of people who are sick or having to self-quarantine (自我隔离) are just so overwhelming that everybody has to be affected by it,” Timothy Fiore, said on a Jan. 5 call with reporters.
For office workers, 90% of professionals said before the pandemic they'd sometimes go to work sick. COVID-19, however, contributes to the fact that more employees are staying home to protect themselves and others.
“We know when the absenteeism will end, and that's when we get the vaccine in people's arms,” says a manager. But a lack of federal leadership means “this is the Wild West right now, and we see the results of that.”
1. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about absenteeism?| A．Its root causes. | B．Its major consequences. |
| C．Its future development. | D．Its economic values. |
| A．Persuading. | B．Cheating. |
| C．Informing. | D．Predicting. |
| A．They complain about their working conditions. |
| B．They call out sick because of their mental pressure. |
| C．They struggle with the supply shortages. |
| D．They are largely impacted by the pandemic. |
| A．There are more jobless workers than the absent ones. |
| B．Supply chain problems are causing absenteeism. |
| C．All people aren’t satisfied with the federal government. |
| D．Workers won’t return to work even if they are vaccinated. |
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【推荐1】That artificial food dyes (染料) are unhealthy is not news. Some are known to cause hyperactivity (多动症) in some children, affecting their ability to learn. But regulatory agencies (监管机构) around the world don’t necessarily agree on which food dyes are a problem, or why. That may soon change. A 2021 peer-reviewed report by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment concluded that artificial food dyes “cause or worsen neurobehavioral (神经行为的) problems in some children” and that the current levels that are regarded safe for consumption by the federal government are too high.
California is now considering requiring warning labels on food products and dietary supplements containing the seven most commonly used artificial dyes. The warning label requirement would put California on par with the European Union, which since 2010 has required food products containing certain artificial food dyes to carry warning labels about their negative effect on activity and attention in children.
Artificial dyes are used in foods for one reason: to make products look prettier. Bright colors make candies appealing, especially to kids. But dyes are also in chocolate cake mixes, salad dressings and other products that don’t seem to cry out for a color boost.
In Europe, it was the 2010 label lawmaking that triggered (引发) companies’ decisions to reformulate. “If you’re a company, you do not want to put a warning label on your product.” says Lefferts, an environmental health consultant. Warning labels are why European Starburst Fruit Chews are now colored with natural products, not the artificial dyes that brighten their North American counterparts (同类商品).
Given that artificial food dyes are used far more than needed, we need to be more cautious. After all, we don’t dye fresh fruits and vegetables, but we do dye candy and sprinkles, points out Joe Schwarcz, a chemistry professor at McGill University in Montreal. “The foods in which you find food dyes are foods that are poor in nutrition,” he says. “If you limit foods that contain food dyes, you automatically make your diet better.”
1. What can we learn about artificial food dyes from paragraph 1?| A．A 2021 report confirmed their negative effects. |
| B．The fact that they are harmful is newly revealed. |
| C．Regulatory agencies consider them a serious problem. |
| D．The Federal government thinks their current standard too high. |
| A．In opposition to. | B．In line with. | C．Ahead of. | D．Behind. |
| A．Food companies will stop coloring their products. |
| B．More fresh fruits and vegetables will appear in the market. |
| C．Food companies may replace artificial dyes with natural products. |
| D．It will be hard to find packaged foods without warning labels of dyes. |
| A．Approving. | B．Neutral. | C．Tolerant. | D．Concerned. |
【推荐2】Many people wrongly think that cities don't have farms and that fruits and vegetables are only grown in the country. Believe it or not, more and more urban farms are popping up in cities all over the world.
Alexandra Sullivan, a food system researcher in New York City, studies urban agriculture. Urban agriculture is another name for farming and gardening in a city environment. Ms. Sullivan studies everything from tiny gardens in empty lots between buildings to bigger fields that have been planted and grown. According to Ms. Sullivan, "Urban agriculture has existed since cities have, across the world."
The number of humans living in urban areas, or cities, is increasing. The amount of people who want to garden in urban areas is also rising. Ms. Sullivan says, "In small gardens, on rooftops and indoors, they grow fruits, vegetables, grains, and herbs, and raise animals to produce milk, eggs, honey, and meat. They use these foods as supplements to food produced by rural agriculture." Even though some people who live in urban areas grow crops, urban residents still need to rely on food grown in rural areas. This is because a city doesn't have enough space to grow enough food for everyone living in it.
In New York City, urban farmers have come up with many different ways to grow their own produce, even though there isn't a lot of room. For example, Brooklyn Grange is a farming operation that has two rooftop vegetable farms in New York City. All together, the farms are made up of 2.5 acres of rooftop space. This makes Brooklyn Grange one of the largest rooftop farming operations in the world.
Brooklyn Grange grows all kinds of things. The farming company sells its vegetables to local residents and restaurants. And because the farms are on rooftops, they are specially adapted to their urban location. They use available space that is not needed for anything else. As more urban farmers find ways to grow food in cities, urban residents will be better able to get fresher materials for their meals.
1. What does the author mean by "urban farms are popping up" in Paragraph 1?| A．Urban farms disappear gradually. | B．Urban farms are declining. |
| C．Urban farms appear or occur suddenly. | D．Urban farms move suddenly. |
| A．Urban agriculture has a history as long as cities. |
| B．Urban residents still rely on food grown in rural areas completely. |
| C．The number of people living in cities is increasing slowly. |
| D．Urban agriculture can provide huge income. |
| A．It has large fanning areas. | B．It can only grow single products. |
| C．It produces enough food for citizens. | D．It makes use of rooftop space to grow vegetables. |
| A．Farms in Cities | B．Future Food System |
| C．Food Grown in Cities | D．Agriculture of New York City |
【推荐3】Stewart, a California vet at an animal shelter, makes calls to pet owners who have no place to call home again. He has his own practice in town, yet he still finds time for street pets. He’s helped roughly 400 animals since 2011, mostly dogs but also a few cats.
It all started in 2011, and the Great Recession (大萧条) had spilled a lot of unfortunate people onto the streets. A small dog sat in a homeless man’s lap. Stewart noticed its signs of an allergic reaction to fleas. He approached the man and offered to bring flea medication for the dog’s skin. The man said after the treatment, his dog was soon restored to health.
Since then, Stewart has often been found wandering dark alleyways (小巷) and underpass, anywhere he thinks the homeless might be camped out. Stewart pays for almost all of the expenses out of his own pocket.
As for the question whether the homeless should even have pets, Stewart determines that more than anybody, they need a pet and deserve a pet and the owner is the pet’s home. There’s one more pressing reason for the homeless to have their pets. “I can’t tell you how many times people told me their animals are their reason for getting up in the morning,” Stewart says.
One of those people is Joe, a white-haired middle-aged man who has landed on rough times. He says that his black-and-white mixed breed is his life. “When I first hit the streets, I was almost to the point where I had given up,” he says. “It is so lucky to have somebody like Dr. Stewart come out here to take care of my dog, which matters a lot”.
“When you give back, there is something you get in return that feels much larger. I knew I wanted to keep doing it,” Stewart says.
1. What’s Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The unexpected financial crisis in 2011. |
| B．The medical treatment to homeless pets. |
| C．The motivation for Stewart’s being a street vet. |
| D．Steward’s encounter with his first street pet patient. |
| A．Some homeless people are in need of pets’ company. |
| B．The homeless are incapable of attending to their pets. |
| C．Steward is devoted to practicing medicine in the street. |
| D．People have a negative attitude to the homeless having pets. |
| A．To show sympathy to the homeless. |
| B．To argue for the significance of pets. |
| C．To give credit to what Stewart did. |
| D．To call on people to care for the homeless. |
| A．It’s never too late to mend. |
| B．Street pets serve as life savers. |
| C．Small deeds make a big difference. |
| D．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
【推荐1】There is plenty of research showing that integration (融入) is decisive for a successful student life, both socially and academically, for the individual and for the university. Students who take part in activities and feel connected to their fellow students can get higher grades and are more likely to continue studying. But getting there is a challenge — especially when it comes to the international students. If they are allowed to choose freely, they tend to cooperate with people from the same national group as themselves. The interaction between the students is therefore borderline and reduces the feeling of participation and belonging. So as universities internationalize, the issue becomes increasingly pressing.
But what happens if the students are not allowed to decide for themselves, but instead the teacher provides circumstances for those who will cooperate? Well, then you see very positive effects. It became very clear that academic and social differences were bridged when the teacher decided the pairs, because the students were forced to deal with challenges together in a completely different way than when they chose their own partners or worked in larger groups. Working in pairs reduced the stress that the task brought in. They shared the tasks fairly and the way of working gave rise to new personal communication and in some cases even friendships.
A surprise was the result about communication. Unlike previous studies showing that communication in intercultural groups is a barrier, it was quite the opposite here. One of the factors that the students valued most was good communication. One explanation could be that previous studies were done in English-speaking countries, while in our study almost no one had English as their mother tongue. This means that everyone was used to speaking and understanding a second language.
Integration does not happen by itself, and we cannot put the responsibility on individual students. We need teacher guidance and structured action at all levels so that every single student can experience participation and belonging and can reach their full potential.
1. Which of the following is especially difficult for the international students?| A．Deciding whether to go on with their study. |
| B．Obtaining the qualification to study abroad. |
| C．Integrating with their fellow students completely. |
| D．Cooperating with people from the same country. |
| A．By getting them to cooperate with certain classmates. |
| B．By giving them more academic questions to discuss. |
| C．Through new education system to preferentially treat them. |
| D．By means of forming special groups with the same nationality. |
| A．Communication in intercultural groups is the biggest barrier. |
| B．Forced communication is not good for students’ integration. |
| C．English plays a decisive role in cross-cultural communication. |
| D．Communication between different languages becomes active. |
| A．International students are facing many challenges. |
| B．Pairing students supports integration at universities. |
| C．Students lack participation and a sense of belonging. |
| D．University internationalization becomes increasingly pressing. |
【推荐2】Toddlers (学步的儿童) going to nursery at Apples and Honey Nightingale don’t just spend their days interacting with other young children, they also build relationships with the building’s elderly residents.
Intergenerational nurseries, ones which share spaces with a care home have been shown to reduce loneliness in older people and boost their mental and physical health. But parents whose children attend Apples and Honey Nightingale in Clapham, London, have been pleased to see the benefits go both ways. Bridging the gap between generations has introduced their toddlers to a new range of life skills.
Leanne Rhodes two-year-old son Andy has been in the nursery for two months. “His language skills have improved and I’ve noticed some new phrases, such as him saying you’re welcome when someone says thank you to him. Also, I’ve noticed he has more confidence around older people and will say hello to them when we are out, though he has previously ignored them, said the 33-year-old from Solibull.
Stephen Burke, director of United For All Ages, an organisation that works to bring people together across generations, says contact with care home residents can help develop children’s understanding of ageing and issues affecting older people, especially if they don’t have older relatives living close by. The 2016 British Integration Survey found that those aged under 18 are taking up just 24% of opportunities to mix socially with those from a different generation to themselves. Those aged 65 and older take up 59% of such opportunities, but this has fallen from 63% in 2014. “Building care homes by nurseries and schools could help change that,” says Burke.
90-year-old Fay Garcia is a resident of Nightingale House Care Home and has no children of her own. “Spending time with the children is one of my biggest pleasures in the home,” she told Huff Post UK. “Getting to know the children is an absolute joy and now I feel as though they are part of my family I love it when we have cookery sessions and I feel great teaching the kids how to decorate the cakes.”
1. What is special about Apples and Honey Nightingale?| A．it is run in the grounds of a care home. |
| B．It hires elderly people as nursery teachers. |
| C．It exposes children to people from all walks of life. |
| D．It aims to bridge the gap between kids and parents. |
| A．It has eased his loneliness. | B．He has improved a lot socially. |
| C．He has become more talkative. | D．It has developed his strong personality. |
| A．The ageing of the population. |
| B．Fewer social opportunities for the elderly. |
| C．Children living far away from their old relatives. |
| D．People having little contact with other generations. |
| A．It lifts her spirits. | B．It teaches her new skills. |
| C．It inspires her interest in cooking. | D．It reminds her of her own children. |
【推荐3】The Walt Disney Company wasn’t about to let COVID-19 stop the company from developing. In the past year, some Disney theme park innovations (革新) have been designed.
For example, Disney had always encouraged face-to-face interactions (互动) between cast members and customers. It made perfect sense since Disney spends so much time training its workers in providing good customer service. In fact, Disney is known for pleasing its guests, which explains why it scores so high in customer satisfaction surveys. Well, COVID-19 turned personal interactions into problematic exchanges, as they increased the risk of spreading COVID-19. So, quickly, Disney added cast member virtual (虚拟的) chat to its app My Disney Experience. Now, you can rely on a cast member’s knowledge whenever you have a question about Disney visit. It’s like having a tour guide on your phone!
There is also the Walk-Up Waitlist. Before 2020, Disney had made strict rules for its Table Service restaurants. Once something sold out, would-be diners had no means of booking a table. COVID-19 has affected park guests, though. Some of them booked tables but then decided not to eat there. This cost Disney money, and it prevented you from dining at your favorite places. So, restaurant managers felt unhappy about the poor business practice, and Disney’s IT department reached a solution. The Walk-Up Waitlist in My Disney Experience allows you to add your name at a restaurant. A previously booked restaurant will find a table for you to dine there. My Disney Experience shows the waiting time. You’ll know whether the wait will fit with your tour. For Disney, the Walk-Up Waitlist improves services and can make it earn more money while increasing customer satisfaction.
In the face of COVID-19, Disney somehow made its parks better and more modern. The company is really worth praising for such great innovations.
1. What were cast members supposed to do before COVID-19?| A．Make customers happy by phone. |
| B．Do surveys of customers’ attitudes. |
| C．Communicate with customers directly. |
| D．Take customers on tours around the park. |
| A．Check whether there’s a meal left. |
| B．Know when to dine in the booked restaurant. |
| C．Dine at any restaurant at any time. |
| D．Book as many tables as they can. |
| A．It benefits both Disney and its customers. |
| B．It is supposed to be used at a restaurant only. |
| C．It is aimed at more customers during COVID-19. |
| D．It allows Disney to have the most guests at a time. |
| A．How Disney Keeps Its Park Popular |
| B．How Disney Controls the Flow of Traffic |
| C．Ways to Tour Around Disney During COVID-19 |
| D．Disney’s Innovations Responding to COVID-19 |
