Charity is simple in theory: A heart warms, a hand reaches out. In practice, though, charity can become a troubled mix of motives (动机) and consequences. Giving can be driven by guilt (负罪感), duty, praise, or perhaps the hope that giving will somehow make up for past cruelty (残酷) or ignorance. Too little charity is far less than valuable. Too much can cause dependence, which makes the receiver continuously ask for more.
Giving from the heart is good. But critics (批评家) have long worried about misdirected charity that does more harm than good. In his 2012 book, Harmful Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Solve the Problem), Robert Lupton, an experienced social worker of 40 years of community work in inner-city Atlanta, argues that charity must not do for the poor what they can do for themselves.
Due to emergencies such as natural disasters, the afterward financial aid is greatly welcome. Mr. Lupton advocates (提倡) it should focus on the development of self-supporting. The task can be carried out via, for instance, offering microloans (小微贷款), hiring local builders and suppliers, and trying to found self-supported, locally owned and operated factories. What seldom works, he argues, are untargeted handouts from far-off providers and the sudden arrival of inexperienced volunteer-tourists hoping to earn personal reputation by digging wells or mending roofs that locals are perfectly able to take care of themselves.
Getting charity right isn’t easy. But from money raising to the rising in volunteering among Millennials (千禧一代), from the increasing worldwide willingness to give to the efforts by charity organizations to become more effective and fruitful, there is strong evidence that human beings’ ability of taking care of others is growing along with their ability to help without harming.
Charity can be as simple as holding the door for a stranger and as complex as a global campaign to get rid of malaria (疟疾). Charity works best when it returns the weak to strength, and helps a small town shaken by an earthquake get back on its feet. A successful charity is one that eventually is no longer needed.
1. What have critics worried about?| A．There is much less charity than needed. | B．Charity can be driven by guilt and praise. |
| C．Some charity providers are inexperienced. | D．Misdirected charity may cause dependence. |
| A．Hiring local workers. | B．Founding factories. | C．Building houses for victims. | D．Giving untargeted handouts. |
| A．It’s easy to give charity without harming. | B．Millennials enjoy earning personal reputation. |
| C．People’s ability of giving charity is improving. | D．Charity organizations are spreading all over the world. |
| A．To appeal for more charity. | B．To advocate getting charity right. |
| C．To introduce Robert Lupton’s book. | D．To criticize unjust motives for charity. |
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【推荐1】Hardly a day goes by without a company telling us in its beautifully crafted advertising how much it contributes to the environment on our behalf. Flowers grow out of power-station chimneys; SUVs are presented in natural habitats; oil companies use sunny, friendly logos and promise cleaner technologies- although, in fact, they fail to make enough investment in renewable or alternative energy sources. Statistics are made up, and the tiniest ecological improvements are overstated in multi-million-dollar advertising campaigns, while in the meantime the greedy side of the business continues.
This is known as greenwashing, which means “making things that are not green look green”. The phenomenon has long existed since the first Earth Day in 1970, when companies spent $300 million advertising themselves as green companies—many times more than the money they actually spent on research into pollution reduction itself. And the trend continued over the following decades when some of the planet’s worst polluters tried to pass themselves off as eco-friendly. As the public’s environmental awareness grew, so too did the experience of corporate public relations strategies, and advertisers found ever- more-creative ways to use a green curtain to hide dark motives.
Of course, some businesses are genuinely committed to making the world a better, greener place. But when a company spends more time and money claiming to be “green” than actually adopting business practices that minimize environmental impact, it is clear that, for them, environmentalism is little more than a convenient slogan(口号). Their message is “buy our products and you will end global warming, improve air quality and save the oceans”. At best, such greenwashing pushes the fact to its limits; at worst, it helps conceal deception.
And what about today s consumers? Few of them are truly well-equipped to make informed decisions about what is true. Greenwashing is only possible because consumers often believe what they are being told-why else would companies do it? More information and greater awareness are essential. Analysing the tricks used by advertisers should be part of every school curriculum. Non- governmental organisations can spread the word. Consumer groups can punish the greenwashing companies. But it is not enough. Legally enforceable systems must be put in place.
So what is already being done about planned attempts to pull the wool over consumers’ eyes? In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission is taking action against misleading advertising claims. France has published Green Claims Guidance, stressing that “an advertisement must avoid conveying a message contrary to the accepted principles of sustainable development”. All of these surely are the heart of the matter: the true impact of advertising is the promotion of unsustainable lifestyles. And therein lies the real danger to our planet, a danger which cannot be ignored any longer.
1. What can we learn about greenwashing?| A．It is an ecological concept. |
| B．It is a marketing technique. |
| C．It is an awareness campaign. |
| D．It is an advertising innovation. |
| A．Hide the truth. | B．Raise the risk. |
| C．Expose the weakness. | D．Break the limit. |
| A．They are lacking in legal knowledge. |
| B．They have encouraged greenwashing. |
| C．They may question consumer groups. |
| D．They tend to make sensible decisions. |
| A．Actions to fight false advertising. |
| B．Ways to protect customers’ interest. |
| C．Attempts to solve environmental problems. |
| D．Proposals to ensure sustainable development. |
【推荐2】Nowadays high schools are faced with a very controversial issue whether or not community service hours are needed to graduate. High schools are arguing that 40 hours of community service are needed to graduate, but many upset students are voicing protests to this demand.
Supporters of the community service project argue that while high school students are participating in community service, they will become better aware of what the real world is like. Students will learn valuable life lesson by doing community service.
Another idea that the protestors give about this community service issue is time restriction. When a student goes to school full time, he is involved in after-class activities and also works. The time that is needed to participate in a community service project may place quite a burden on the student.
In my opinion, community service is a wonderful thing that everyone should be required to do at some point in their life, but are high school students mature and responsible enough to take on community service projects at this stage in their life?
| A．Protestors have struck back with a very solid argument. |
| B．A final controversial issue that appears is transportation. |
| C．Students will feel good about themselves for helping others in need. |
| D．Unless the school offers a means of transportation for the students there really is no solution to this problem. |
| E．Both sides have solid arguments about why community service should or should not be forced upon students. |
| F．Students will in the future look back at the community service projects that they were forced to do throughout high school. |
| G．Supporters argue back that high school students only need to fulfill 40 hours of community service throughout 4 years. |
【推荐3】A year of lockdown has brought about some questionable fashion trends. In US suburbs, bathrobes and slippers are now socially-acceptable clothing for a trip to the grocery store.
Ugly shoes are also having moment. Crocs the maker of plastic clogs(木屐) now with market worth of $5. 3 billion, had a record 2020. The distinctive shoes, with their punch(打孔机) hole design, have long been popular with hospital staff. During the COVID-19 outbreak, they have become a sought-after item for those looking for something easy to wear and clean.
The company sold more than 69 million pairs of shoes in 2020 and pulled in nearly $1. 4 billion, a 13% jump from 2019. The share price, up 650 percent from its pandemic low, has set repeated new highs this year.
Birkenstock is another brand riding high on the shift to a more casual lifestyle. The German group recently sold itself to a LVMH-backed group in a 4 billion deal.
The two brands' popularity shows no sign of fading. Poshmark, the second-hand clothing app, said Crocs and Birkenstock remained top trending brands on its site in March. Sales are up sharply for both compared with the year-ago period. Cooperation with celebrities (Justin Bieber for Crocs, women's brand Proenza Schouler for Birkenstock) should help maintain the trend.
The same cannot be said for dress shoes, which were already falling out of fashion. Office closures and fewer special occasions such as weddings and graduations have accelerated the trend. Sales for the category plummeted last year, according to market researchers The NPD Group. These accounted for only 8% of total fashion footwear dollar sales in 2020, compared with 17% in 2017.
People will soon reach again for going-out clothes, more formal than pyjamas. But the market for dress shoes will never recover entirely. The ugly shoe movement is here to stay.
1. What does the underlined word "plummeted" in paragraph 5 probably mean?| A．Increased sharply. | B．Increased slightly. |
| C．Decreased sharply. | D．Decreased slightly. |
| A．Uncertain | B．Pessimistic. | C．Cautious. | D．Confident. |
| A．Crocs give dress shoes a kicking. | B．Casual clothes are making a comeback. |
| C．Punch hole design becomes a trend. | D．Dress shoes are falling out of fashion. |
| A．To recommend new shoes. | B．To present a new tendency. |
| C．To change people’s lifestyle. | D．To question a fashion trend |
【推荐1】Between the last application season and the current one, Swarthmore College, a school nationally well-known for its academic strictness, changed the requirements for students for admission into its next freshman class. It made filling out the proper forms easier.
Swarthmore is hardly alone in its desire to eliminate(清除) obstacles for a bounty of applicants. Over the last decade, many elite colleges have adjusted their applications in ways that remove disincentives(抑制因素) and maximize the likelihood that the number of students contesting to get in remains robust-or, even better, grows larger.
In one sense, that’s a commendably egalitarian(平等主义的) approach and a sensible attempt to be sure that no qualified candidate is missed. But there’s often a less pure motive in play. In our increasingly status-oriented society, a school’s reputation is improved by a low acceptance rate, which can even influence how U.S. News & World Report ranks it. And unless a school is shrinking the size of its student body, the only way to bring its acceptance rate down is to get its number of applicants up. So, many colleges methodically generate interest only to frustrate it. They woo applicants for the purpose of turning them down.
And there can be other justifications for what looks like a loosening of application demands. Smith College and several other similarly prominent colleges no longer require the SAT or ACT, and Kathleen McCarney, the president of Smith College, said that that’s not a bid for more applicants. It’s a recognition that top scores on those tests correlate with high family income and may say more about an applicant’s economic advantages—including, say, private SAT tutoring—than about their academic potential.
Jim Bock, Swarthmore’s dean of admissions, said that by lightening the essay load for its current applicants, the college was less concerned about increasing its overall number of applicants than about making sure candidates of great merit didn’t miss out on Swarthmore and vice versa. He mentioned the hypothetical(假定的) example of a high school student from a low-income family who works 10 or more hours a week and doesn’t have sufficient time to do different essays for different schools.
But will Swarthmore’s applicants this year give quite as much thought regarding whether it is suitable and the right home for them? I’m betting not.
When it’s very easy for a student to apply to yet one more college and each school is simply another desirable box of cereal(谷物) on top shelf that he or she is determined to reach, there’s inadequate thought to a tailored(合身的) fit, which is what the admissions process should strive for. It’s what the measure of success should be.
1. What changes has Swarthmore College made in the application process?| A．It simplified its application procedure. | B．It lowered its requirements for admission. |
| C．It expanded the size of its next freshman class. | D．It eliminated obstacles for minority applicants. |
| A．respect | B．cheat | C．invite | D．force |
| A．are closely related to test-takers’ family income levels |
| B．reflect test-takers’ academic potential to a large extent |
| C．should play an essential role in the admissions process |
| D．hide the uneven distribution of educational resources |
| A．improving the school’s reputation nationwide |
| B．recruiting as many genuine students as possible |
| C．increasing the overall number of applicants for the school |
| D．making suitable matches between applicants and the school |
【推荐2】There’s something so wonderfully easy about reading this column in a physical newspaper. You turned the page, and here it is, with few annoyances or distractions, in an ultra-high-definition(超高清的)typeface which was custom-designed with pleasurable reading in mind. Or—wait—are you reading this on a phone? Did you follow a link from Twitter, or Facebook? Or maybe you’re on a train, or a plane, or you’re trying to use your laptop on your cousin’s bad Wi-Fi connection out in the countryside somewhere. In the case, there’s a pretty good chance that even getting this far is some kind of minor miracle.
When talking about the economics of online publishing, the first thing to remember is that job No.1 isn’t to get the news to you. Rather, it is to monetize you, by selling you off, in real time, to the highest bidder. This happens every time you click on a link, before the page has even started to load on your phone. An almost unthinkably enormous ecosystem of scripts, cookies and often astonishingly personal information is used to show you a set of brand messages and sales pitches which are tailored almost uniquely to you.
That ecosystem raises important questions about privacy and just general creepiness(毛骨悚然)—the way that the minute you look at a pair of shoes online, for instance, they then start following you around every other website you visit for weeks. But whether or not you value your privacy, you are damaged, daily, by the sheer weight of all that technology.
Online ads have never got less annoying over time, and you can be sure that mobile ads are going to get more annoying as well, once Silicon Valley has worked out how to better identify who you are. The move to greater privacy protection might help slow the pace at which such technologies are adopted. But there’s no realistic hope that websites will actually improve from here. If you want to avoid the terrible experience of the mobile web, you’ll only have one choice—which is to start reading your articles natively, in the Facebook or Apple News app. But it won’t be Facebook and Apple who killed the news brands. It’ll be ad tech.
1. What is the main purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To introduce various reading styles. |
| B．To lead to the topic to be talked about. |
| C．To show the advantages of physical newspapers. |
| D．To compare physical newspapers with electronic reading. |
| A．The reader’s demand is satisfied. |
| B．The reader’s interest is motivated. |
| C．The reader is cheated by the design. |
| D．The reader is taken advantage of. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Critical. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Online ads have become less troublesome. |
| B．Silicon Valley is as famous as Facebook. |
| C．Ad tech is a good solution to privacy protection. |
| D．It is tough to keep away from the annoyances brought about by ads. |
【推荐3】The most prevalent use of intelligence test scores is to predict degree of academic success. Such scores are used in some communities as bases for admitting able children to schools at ages younger than normal, and they are very generally used to determine admissions to schools beyond public secondary school. Another use common in elementary schools involves comparing such scores with performances in various subjects to identify children who are working below capacity.
The greatest problem in using intelligence tests for the purpose of prediction is that no dependable criterion(标准) of their accuracy exists. The ideal criteria would be objective and reliable achievement tests following instruction in each subject, but there are few such tests, especially at the college level. Studies have shown that correlations(相关度) between intelligence tests and achievement tests in various subjects through secondary school range roughly from 0.5 to 0.8. Such correlations are fairly high, but they do not suggest anywhere near complete agreement.
At the college level there are two major tests used as criteria of admission. By far the more important is the College Entrance Examination, constructed by the Educational Testing Service authorized by the College Entrance Examination Board. These tests are returned to the Educational Testing Service for scoring, and the results are then made available to the various colleges authorized by the students to receive them. The second test of this type is the American College Test, which operates in essentially the same fashion.
Both tests constitute measures of certain skills, abilities, and knowledge that have been found to be related to success in college. Their correlations with academic success are limited for three outstanding reasons. First, measures of achievement in college are themselves perhaps no more reliable than those in elementary and secondary schools. Second, intellectual factors do not alone determine academic success, especially at the college level. Many students drop out of schools because they are inadequately motivated or because they dislike the instructional program. Third, correlations are lowered because the use of such tests for denying admission to some students means that the range of scores for those admitted is restricted, and such restrictions tend to reduce correlation.
1. The intelligence scores can be used in the following way EXCEPT ______.| A．telling in advance the degree of academic success |
| B．admitting intelligent children to school at the age younger than ordinary |
| C．finding out children working below capacity in primary schools |
| D．selecting pupils by public secondary schools |
| A．The standards for the evaluation of college students’ academic achievements need to be improved. |
| B．The correlations between intelligence and achievement tests in middle schools are not as high as predicted. |
| C．Intelligence test scores can help predict accurately the degree of students’ academic success. |
| D．The high correlations can prove that the results of academic tests exactly agree with intelligence test scores. |
| A．The papers of the College Entrance Examination are set by the College Entrance Examination Board. |
| B．The American College Test is of the same importance as the College Entrance Examination. |
| C．The results of the two examinations will be sent to colleges with the students’ permission. |
| D．The College Entrance Examination is as fashionable as the American College Test. |
| A．Measures of students’ achievements in college |
| B．Students’ motivations for and interest in their study |
| C．Some students’ being refused the admission to the college |
| D．The popular use of the intelligence test |
