Julia Whelan climbed into the recording room in her home office. In preparation, she had avoided alcohol the night before, had avoided milk since waking at 6 a.m. and had run through the warm-up voice exercises.
Whelan, 38, is the calm, confident female voice behind more than 400 other audiobooks, as well as the narrated versions(叙事版本) of many articles. Once she has taken on a project, she reads through the book once or twice, deciding on themes to highlight when she gets into the recording room by using different tones and accents, and emphasizing certain words. “Narrating a book really is a performance,” she said, “and it can be harder to do than acting, because I can’t use my eyes or facial expressions to convey something to the audience.”
As she spent time subsuming herself in the writing of others, she began to think more about her own creative ambitions. Just before the pandemic, she began “Thank You for Listening,” combining her writing with the experiences she has collected as a narrator.
Writers say that Whelan has helped them understand their own work. “When I listen to Julia read my stories, it sounds like she is calling you over to tell you a great story,” said Nuzzi, whose work has been narrated by Whelan. “When I write now, I try to think like that, that I am calling a reader over to tell him a great story. It has completely changed my approach.” Whelan said that she also learns about her writing when she experiences it as a narrator. “There is something about it that changes when you’re performing it,” she said. “I read the book out loud during every stage of its revisions but it’s different when you sit down and have the microphone in front of you, when I finally am in all the characters and the story comes to life.”
1. Before recording a book, Whelan __________.| A．acts out its narrated version |
| B．builds up strength through exercise |
| C．determines the focus of its subject |
| D．varies its emphasized words |
| A．dismissing | B．involving | C．maintaining | D．presenting |
| A．It enables her to think in readers’ view. |
| B．It inspires her to be absorbed in the story. |
| C．It provides her with diverse life experiences. |
| D．It reminds her to pursue her creative ambition. |
| A．Excellent narration is based on convincing stories. |
| B．Narrating is a more rewarding ambition than writing. |
| C．An influential writer is definitely a wonderful narrator. |
| D．Experiences as a narrator can change the writing approach. |
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【推荐1】Criticism of Big Tech is intensifying. At Congressional hearings last week, politicians from across the aisle gave a rough ride to executives of some of the world's most valuable companies. Amid the hubbub(喧哗), the resignation of Google's Meredith Whittaker was less noticed, but significant. Ms Whittaker, a Google artificial intelligence researcher, was a leader of protests insider the company last year. In an internal note to fellow employees, she warned that developers have a “short window in which to act" to stop increasingly dangerous uses of artificial intelligence.
Ms Whittaker' s resignation reflects a growing tendency for tech companies' own staff to try to serve as the moral compass and conscience of their businesses. In companies whose value relies so much on human and intellectual capital ---and in being able to attract the sharpest minds ---employees have considerable potential impact, especially collectively.
The Google Walkouts of which Ms Whittaker was a leader began in response to the search group's treatment of sexual harassment complaints. They snowballed to include broader issues around the company’s technologies. Ms Whittaker’s decision now to resign suggests many Big Tech companies are still not doing enough to attend to employees' concerns over corporate culture. Yet responding to internal calls to action should be an obvious choice. Threats of strikes or resignations by the talented staff who build systems risk undermining technology companies' competitiveness. Employee action can act to strengthen measures by regulators who are increasingly proactive in dealing with the excesses of Big Tech.
The rise of collective action for social good is encouraging. Traditional labour focuses ----such as workers' rights around pay and hours ----- remain important in a sector which still also makes heavy uses of cheap and poorly-skilled workers. Attempts to pressure companies into behaving ethically have more often been driven by single employees. Avenues are needed to ensure that workers can discuss potentially unethical practices without risking revenge.
Ms Whittaker’s proposal for unionisation is part of a broader chorus demanding greater employee oversight. Alphabet, Google’s parent, has already faced calls from union-sponsored pension funds to add a non-executive employee representative to its board. While not successful this year, the move showed that stakeholders such as investors are pressing for culture change within Big Tech companies.
Workers outside the tech sector, too, are forcing companies to try to solve international problems. A global climate strike is planned for September，encouraging workers to join the thousands of school students who have protested over the past year. In the advertising industry, workers at over 20 agencies refused to work on fossil fuel briefs in solidarity, inspired by the Extinction Rebellion protests. Big Tech, facing ever more open criticism should see the message is clear. To regain trust, it will have to engage not just with regulators, but with its own employees and stakeholders.
1. We can learn from the first paragraph that Ms Whittaker _________| A．drew much criticism from politicians. |
| B．opposed Google's risky uses of AL. |
| C．disagreed with her colleagues on the future of AI. |
| D．resigned because her talent in AI was not recognized. |
| A．can serve as the moral models for traditional labour. |
| B．should keep sharpening their minds. |
| C．can pressure companies into behaving ethically. |
| D．should improve internal collaboration. |
| A．damage a company's reputation. |
| B．threaten a company's competitiveness. |
| C．impair a company' s corporate culture. |
| D．strengthen a company 's management system. |
| A．Employees Can Help to Make Big Tech Moral |
| B．Big Tech Staff Are Different from Traditional Labour |
| C．The Tech Sector Is Facing Ever More Criticism |
| D．The Tech Sector Is in a Wave of Resignations |
【推荐2】The interview process is a part of nearly all hiring decisions.
Many people try to get interviews after seeing only a short advertisement or posting that gives only the general title and basic requirements of the job.
During the interview process, the employer may ask a variety of questions about the applicant’s motives, ambitions, experience, education, and personality.
| A．This information is generally kept private. |
| B．It’s not always quick and easy to get hired. |
| C．So it may take longer time than a phone interview. |
| D．The questions you ask can make or break an interview. |
| E．Employers may conduct an interview process in different ways. |
| F．The interview may be about whether the candidate is right for the job. |
| G．It is considered by many experts to be the most important hiring practice. |
【推荐3】The pandemic has given a big push to all forms of digital communication. A workplace dominated by time on screens may seem bound to favor newer, faster and more visual ways of transmitting information. But an old form of communication — writing — is also flourishing (蓬勃).
The value of writing is highly valued in management thinking. “The discipline of writing something down is the first step towards making it happen, ” said Lee Iacocca, a giant of the American car industry. Jeff Bezos banned slides from meetings of senior Amazon executives (主管) back in 2004, in favor of well-structured memos (备忘录).
The move to remote working has strengthened the value of writing. When tasks are being handed off to colleagues in other locations, comprehensive documentation is crucial. When new employees start work on something, they want the back story. When old hands depart an organization, they should leave knowledge behind.
Software developers have already worked out the value of the written words. A research programme from Google into the ingredients of successful technology projects found that teams with high quality documentation deliver software faster and more reliably. Gitlab, a code hosting platform whose workforce is wholly remote, describes its secret of success as “textual communication”.
The deep thought and the discipline required by writing are helpful in other contexts, too. “Brain writing“ is a brain storming technique, used by Slack among others, in which participants are given time to put down their ideas before discussion begins.
Writing is not always the best way to communicate in the workplace. Video is more memorable; a phone call is quicker; even PowerPoint has its place. But for the structured thought it demands, and the ease with which it can be shared and edited, the written words are made for remote work and will flourish in the post-pandemic workplace.
1. Why are Lee Iacocca and Jeff Bezos mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To support an idea. |
| B．To introduce a topic. |
| C．To draw a conclusion. |
| D．To make a comment. |
| A．The tasks are handed over quickly by telephone. |
| B．An expert colleague gives an experience-sharing lecture. |
| C．The new comer broadens his company knowledge through the Internet. |
| D．A code hosting platform succeeds mainly by textual communication. |
| A．Doubtful. |
| B．Objective. |
| C．Grateful. |
| D．Humorous. |
| A．A phone call or a letter? Think twice |
| B．Video conference will fade away in new situations |
| C．Writing will flourish in the post-pandemic workplace |
| D．Digital information or written messages? It depends |
【推荐1】Growing Up in the Library
I grew up in libraries, or at least it feels that way. I was raised in the suburbs of Cleveland, just a few blocks from the brick-faced Bertram Woods branch of the Shaker Heights Public Library system. I went there several times a week with my mother. She and I would walk in together, but as soon as we passed through the door, we each headed towards our favorite sections. The library might have been the first place I was ever given autonomy.
Even when I was maybe four or five years old, I was allowed to head off on my own. Then, after a while, my mother and I would reunite at the checkout counter with our finds. Together we'd wait as the librarian pulled out the date card and stamped it with the checkout machine — that giant fist thumping the card with a loud chunk-chunk, printing a crooked due date underneath a score of previous crooked due dates that belonged to other people, other times.
Those visits were dreamy, frictionless (没有摩擦的) periods that held the promise of leaving me richer than I'd arrived. It wasn't like going to a store with my mom, which guaranteed a tug-of-war between what I wanted and what my mother was willing to buy me; in the library, I could have anything I wanted.
After we had finished checking out the books, I loved being in the car and having all the books we'd gotten stacked on my lap, pressing me under their solid, warm weight, their Mylar covers sticking a bit to my thighs. It was such a thrill leaving a place with things you hadn't paid for; such a thrill expecting the new books we would read. On the ride home, my mother and I talked about the order in which we were going to read our books, a serious conversation in which we planned how to pace ourselves through this charmed period of grace until the books were due.
When I was older, I usually walked to the library by myself, lugging back as many books as I could carry. Occasionally, I did go with my mother, and the trip would be as engaging as it had been when I was small. Even when I was in my last year of high school and could drive myself to the library, my mother and I still went together every now and then, and the trip unfolded exactly as it had when I was a child, with all the same beats and pauses and comments and daydreaming, the same perfect rhythm we'd followed so many times before. After my mother passed away two years ago, I plunged into a deep shadow of grief for a long time. When I miss my mother these days, I like to picture us in the car together, going for one more magnificent trip to Bertram Woods, during which we talked, laughed — as if she were still in my company, giving me inexhaustible strength.
1. In this passage, the word “autonomy” (paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to “________”.| A．vitality | B．freedom | C．inspiration | D．entitlement |
| A．they would plan to read their newly-borrowed books with feverish enthusiasm |
| B．they would have a serious conversation about which book attracted them the most |
| C．they would be anxious to recommend to each other the books they had borrowed |
| D．they would agree on buying the books they had just borrowed if they enjoyed them |
| A．Grieved. | B．Shocked. | C．Miserable. | D．Comforted. |
| A．One specific memory of a childhood trip to the library. |
| B．The fond childhood memories of her mother taking good care of her. |
| C．How her affection for going to the library has endured into her own motherhood. |
| D．Why her own child made up their mind to become a librarian after finishing college. |
【推荐2】If you struggle with reading, then watching TV can certainly seem a lot easier.
Reading improves your concentration.
Unlike blog posts and news articles, sitting down with a book takes long periods of focus and concentration, which at first is hard to do. Being fully engaged in a book includes closing off the outside world and burying yourself into the text.
Readers enjoy the arts and improve the world.
A study done by the NEA explains that people who read for pleasure are many times more likely (than those who don’t) to visit museums and attend concerts.
Reading improves your imagination.
Books offer an outstanding wealth of learning and at a much cheaper price than taking a course. Reading gives you a chance to consume huge amounts of research in a relatively short amount of time. Heavy readers tend to display greater knowledge of how things work and who or what people were, which, in turn, leads to a quick mind.
| A．Reading makes you smarter. |
| B．You are only limited by what you can imagine. |
| C．Over time, it will strengthen your concentration. |
| D．Subjects only need to read silently to reduce stress. |
| E．It certainly requires little effort from us but to relax. |
| F．Reading is not only fun, but it has all the added benefits. |
| G．Readers are active participants in the world around them. |
【推荐3】Sleeper trains occupy a romantic corner of any traveler’s soul. One of Hercule Poirot’s most fascinating adventures takes place on the Simplon Orient Express, which used to run from Paris to Istanbul. A famous scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” features a night train entering a tunnel. James Bond, meanwhile, detects a spy on a sleeper train after noticing him behave suspiciously in the dining car.
In some parts of the world, the nostalgia（怀旧）lives on. The Caledonian Sleeper, complete with smartly dressed waiters, neeps and tatties（白萝卜泥和土豆泥）and a selection of whiskies, is the best way to travel between London and Scotland. Elsewhere, however, sleepers are on their last legs . Flights across Europe have become so cheap that fewer and fewer travelers bother with sleeper trains. Sensing that the end is approaching. Andrew Martin, a British writer, has written a book about the sleeper.
“Night Trains” is a brief history of the mode, combined with accounts of journeys Mr.Martin has taken on sleeper routes across Europe. The reader joins him on a train Munich,where he eats a tuna sandwich on board. Travelling from Paris to Venice, he thinks he has been robbed of $105. The service to Nice is cancelled, yet such is his love for sleeping aboard that he spends the night on the train as it sits on the platform.
These stories make clear that the golden age of the sleeper train is long past. How different things were in the 19th century, when a passenger on the Orient Express could dine on delicacies and good wines. The only modern-day sleeper train which comes up to the Mr. Martin’s exacting standards is the Nordland, which travels towards northern Norway.
Those who have no experience of the sleeper trains often ask sleeper enthusiasts: ”Do you sleep?” After a read of Mr. Martin’s book, the answer would seem to be a definite “no”: the noise of the train wake him up time and again. Still, it is hard not to be won over by his enthusiasm. Catch the sleeper train, before it’s too late.
1. What can we learn from the underlined sentence in paragraph two?| A．Sleeper trains are the last means of transportation for travelers. |
| B．Travelers tend to fall asleep toward the end of their trip. |
| C．Travelers are too exhausted to walk any longer. |
| D．Sleeper trains are becoming out of fashion. |
| A．may enjoy the scenery on their journey from London to Scotland. |
| B．can have the opportunity to travel on the best train in Europe. |
| C．may have a basic understanding of the history of sleeper trains. |
| D．cannot find a similar train living up to the standards of Mr. Martin. |
| A．The noise of the train makes it impossible for travelers to sleep well. |
| B．Readers may be discouraged from riding on sleeper trains. |
| C．The writer of the passages suggests not spending nights aboard. |
| D．For enthusiasts, the love for sleepers outweighs the inconvenience caused. |
| A．introduce readers to a new book about sleeper trains |
| B．compare the advantages of sleeper trains in different periods |
| C．inform the readers of the rise and fall of sleeper trains |
| D．recall readers’ memory of an old-fashioned means of transportation |
【推荐1】In 1971, UN scholar Paolo Lugari started an eco-social experiment in Gaviotas, Colombia. Located in one of the most extreme climates, Gaviotas was described as a sustainable, self-sufficient village in an area that Lugari called 'just a big, wet desert'.
'They always put social experiments in the easiest places,' Lugari said.' We wanted the hardest place. We figured if we could do it here, we could do it anywhere.'
'Lugari just thought that someday the world would become so crowded that humans would have to learn to live in the planet's least desirable areas,' wrote Alan Weisman, author of Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World.
Today, Gaviotas is an eco-village with about 200 people. They farm organically. They use wind and solar power. Since 2004, Gaviotas has been 100% fossil fuel independent. The residents also enjoy free housing, schooling, and community meals. Shockingly, there are no weapons, no police, no jail and no mayor. But though these elements would make any social experiment a success, perhaps the most remarkable accomplishment is the planting of 1.5 million pine trees and palm trees. The various results of this new tree growth have been incredible. The shade of the trees has inspired the return of many rainforest species that were once native to the region. Additionally, the residents of Gaviotas enjoy a sustainable source of income from the resin( 松 香 ) harvested from the trees.
The United Nations named Gaviotas a model of sustainable development. The Colombia novelist and Noble Prize winner Grabriel Marquez called Lugari the 'inventor of the world'.
A new study by a team of researchers has found that 'nature's capacity to store carbon is steadily falling as the world's farmers expand croplands at the cost of the native ecosystem such as forests'.
Considering this disturbing fact—and as the world population increases towards an estimated 9 billion by the year 2050 and global warming continues to increase the planet's surface temperature—Gaviotas stands as one shining example of how things could be different.
1. Before the year 1971 ______.| A．Lugari often visited Gaviotas |
| B．there was never any rain in Gaviotas |
| C．scientists did many social experiments in Gaviotas |
| D．Gaviotas was one of the hardest places to live on the planet |
| A．people's organic farming |
| B．Lugari's great contribution |
| C．the government's great support |
| D．the United Nations' research |
| A．the income of people in Gaviotas |
| B．the public security situation of Gaviotas |
| C．the rainforest species in Gaviotas |
| D．the living conditions of people in Gaviotas |
| A．A person who planted many trees. |
| B．A village that reinvented the world. |
| C．The importance of protecting the environment. |
| D．How a small village turned into a business center. |
【推荐2】Zhang Lin, 25, is from a village in the mountainous province of Yunnan, southwest China. She escaped from her first marriage, which she was forced into by her parents. Later on, she got married once again, this time for love. However, she had to leave this marriage too because her second husband could not accept her son from her first marriage. The only thing Zhang has never given up on is the attitude of being independent.
“I want to provide a good life for people I love,” Zhang said. “Women must be financially (经济上) independent. I will buy a car and an apartment by myself. I won’t depend on any-one. ”Standing tall — at under 1.6 meters, Zhang makes her living as a truck driver. She usually starts driving at night from Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, and drives for 8.5 hours all the way to Quanzhou, about 500 km to the south. Before she got the job, people doubted whether such a tiny woman could drive such a big truck. However, this job for Zhang is her best option to shake off poverty.
“It’s quite unusual. She is an inspiring young woman. She’s not going to take no for an answer,” Oscar-winning director Malcolm Clarke said. As a filmmaker, he wants to find people who are engaging, charming, interesting and entertaining. “Many Chinese women are quite reticent to talk about themselves. But she was not shy; she was very active; very open about her difficulties...She is really special and quite typical of many Chinese women who are very driven (发愤图强的),” Clarke said.
For Clarke, Zhang stands for many of those rural (农村的) Chinese who leave behind their hometowns and look for a better life. The documentary (纪录片) also explores several more persons who hold different views on what is a “good life”.
1. Why does Zhang take the job as a truck driver seriously?| A．She doesn’t mind a boring job. |
| B．It makes her live independently. |
| C．It can help her shake off her marriage. |
| D．She wants to buy a car for her husband. |
| A．Quiet. | B．Warm-hearted. | C．Outgoing. | D．Helpless. |
| A．They can take over males’ field. |
| B．They can control the society. |
| C．They are respectable. |
| D．They are always shy. |
| A．How one tiny woman stands tall. |
| B．How women achieved a good life. |
| C．An easy-going woman. |
| D．An unfortunate Chinese rural female. |
【推荐3】With 48 impressionism works exhibited in his solo show in Yangon recently, Bhone Myat San, a 13-year-old boy, has stepped into a professional career in Myanmar.
When his mother was transferred to Dawei in 2020, he accompanied her and later joined a portrait painting class taught by senior artists at the campus of Dawei University. Bhone Myat San says he has been studying painting through online courses while staying at home during the pandemic. He also joined a five-month online class about oil painting conducted by an artist in Myanmar last year.
“I envy impressionists like Monet,” says Bhone Myat San, a seventh grader, while putting finishing touches on an oil painting titled Bagan’s Tharabar Gate.
When his works were checked for exhibition, Khey Mar Shin, the owner of the Artist Gallery Cafe who’s an artist herself, noticed that he is talented. “He is the youngest artist to have hosted a solo show in my gallery. The event was successful,” the 42-year-old artist says, adding that she also saw that the 13-year-old boy’s passion for arts was higher than his peers and even stronger than some senior artists.
Ma Pale, 38, says she brought her two children to the art show so that her children can get inspiration from him.
Aung Hein Tun, 25, an art enthusiast who visited the event, says the young artist’s paintings are lively, and his painting skill as a 13-year-old is admirable. “I had no intention to collect paintings, but I bought one after enjoying his arts,” Aung Hein Tun says.
“Consistency is the key to success,” the young artist says. “I want to attend a foreign language university in Myanmar because I have a dream of studying arts abroad,” he adds.
1. How did Bhone Myat San learn to paint?| A．Through teaching himself. |
| B．By learning from artists. |
| C．With the help of his mom. |
| D．Under the guidance of Monet. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Critical. | C．Favorable. | D．Uncaring. |
| A．He is the youngest artist to have hosted a solo show in Myanmar. |
| B．He believes talent is the most important thing for achieving success. |
| C．His works of art were much admired and displayed by Aung Hein Tun. |
| D．His paintings may be a source of inspiration to Ma Pale’s two children. |
| A．A Young Inspiring Artist |
| B．A Road to Success |
| C．A Boy’s Passion for Art |
| D．A Successful Exhibition |
