Utah is the second most wasteful states in the US. Everyone always complains about how much construction there is all the time— on campus you can’t walk ten steps without running into another pit— but no one seems to be doing anything about it. Every year the city has a surplus of money and they spent it on unneeded road construction. Instead, this money should be spent on developing Utah’s solar energy capabilities (能力).
People may think that solar power technology isn’t advanced enough to sustain (维持) an entire state year-round. However, Utah is one of the six states in the country getting more than enough sunlight to run completely on solar power every year according to Solar Nation. For reference, one might look at places similar to the Hotel at Oberlin in Ohio, a hotel remodeled in the summer of 2016 to run completely on solar power. Anywhere west of Ohio has no excuse for not using solar energy.
Many think it would be bad for the economy to switch to solar power because electrical workers would lose their jobs. But this isn’t necessarily true. They could transfer to solar companies. Considering how many panels (电池板，面板) would need to be built and installed (安装) and maintained, there’s plenty of work for electrical workers. Solar panel installation may be expensive at first, but as it stands currently, solar panels are expected to pay for themselves within 11 years of installation, saving solar panel owners up to $700 in electric bills per house in the first year.
Moreover, we, the humans of planet Earth, would never run out of solar energy. The sun will exist long after humanity goes. And while solar panels may be expensive, they cost the Earth much less than using coal and natural gas.
It’s bad enough that Utah is the most wasteful when it comes to the use of water. And the city is killing its citizens with air pollution. But when we have the physical capability of making changes that will ultimately save the environment and deepen our pocketbooks (财力、钱袋子), and we don’t make those changes, we’re actually lazy rather than being cautious.
1. Which of the following statements would the author agree with?| A．Roads in Utah should be repaired. |
| B．Money should be better used in Utah. |
| C．Construction is very important to Utah. |
| D．Schools in Utah are really in poor condition. |
| A．To explain how solar power is used in Ohio. |
| B．To show it is possible to use solar power in summertime. |
| C．To show solar power can be relied on year-round in Utah. |
| D．To prove many hotels are taking advantage of solar power. |
| A．benefit the environment | B．prevent waste in Utah |
| C．improve work efficient | D．lead to many changes in Utah |
| A．To call on people to reduce energy waste. |
| B．To show us the importance of using solar energy. |
| C．To ask government to pay attention to air pollution. |
| D．To appeal to Utah officials to develop solar energy. |
| A．①②-③④-⑤ | B．①-②③-④⑤ |
| C．①-②③④-⑤ | D．①②③-④⑤ |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】It shouldn’t come as news to anyone that the planet is moving quickly towards a climate emergency. And fast fashion certainly plays its part in this.
Fast fashion brands, which release hundreds of new styles every week, have caused trends cycles to speed up rapidly, leading to overproduction and overconsumption. British shoppers are buying twice as much as we did a decade ago and both brands and consumers are throwing away “unfashionable” clothing more often—over £300,000 of it ends up in landfill every year. How do we solve this issue?
One answer lies in the new generation of made-to-order brands making their way into the mainstream. These brands make clothes only as and when they’re ordered, and because there’s no overproduction, less unwanted stock ends up in landfills. They also promote a slower fashion model, with pieces taking between three weeks and three months to arrive once purchased. The focus is on creating special, well-made pieces for consumers to treasure for years to come.
Made-to-order fashion is nothing new. Until the mid-20th century, it was the norm. However, the 1960s brought about the dawn of fast fashion and a shift in our relationship with our clothes. The value once placed on craftsmanship and quality was replaced by the desire for low cost and volume, resulting in cut-cost production and the attitude that clothing should be cheap and disposable.
Of course, made-to-order fashion has continued to exist alongside this, though research clearly shows that fast fashion prevails (盛行). Cue a made-to-order brand bringing bespoke (定制) back to the mainstream. Spanish brand Alas features a slow business model. It takes orders each week which are then handmade and delivered in about three weeks. It also revolves around an on-demand production process that rewards consumers for “pre-planned responsible shopping.” Every week, they launch a new drop, available to pre-order for a discounted rate for a limited time. From pre-order, Alas determines how popular each new item is and calculates how many units should be produced to fulfill both pre-orders and future full-price orders, therefore reducing the overproduction of stock.
With made-to-order brands growing in popularity, it begs the question—could this be the dawn of a new, environmentally responsible era? The answer is self-evident.
1. What do the first two paragraphs mainly show?| A．Our strong desire for fashion. |
| B．The fast development of fashion industry. |
| C．The urgent need for a different fashion model. |
| D．The advantages and disadvantages of fast fashion. |
| A．The shadow of fast fashion. |
| B．The value placed on quality. |
| C．The shift towards a green lifestyle. |
| D．The criticism for cheapness and quantity. |
| A．The reward mechanism is a must in slow fashion. |
| B．It takes patience and thought to buy made-to-order items. |
| C．The pre-order model reduces the cost of purchasing brands. |
| D．Consumers have a say about how their orders are produced. |
| A．anxious | B．confident |
| C．puzzled | D．curious |
【推荐2】A situation in which the student is troubled by his parents pressuring him to go into a job area that makes good money but he doesn’t want to go into that career area, is bad. The question is whether he should go into this job or not.
To start out, you need to go for what is best for YOU even if there would be some negative consequences. You can't be happy unless you make decisions that are right for you. If you do not make your own decisions and make decisions that will benefit you, your life would be a big lie to yourself.
Living a lie would not be a very good life. The truth is much better than living a lie or some fantasy world. If your whole life is a lie, then it is not a very beautiful life at all. In the song Lyin’Eyes, the woman is living a lie by pretending she loves this old man, when in reality" she is just in it for the money. As a result, her life is miserable and a big lie.
And finally, money can not buy happiness. A good example of this is from the song Lyin’ Eyes. The only reason the woman married the old man is for the money and gifts she would receive. This results in her life being not at all happy. This just goes to show that no matter how much money you have your life still might not be happy. It takes a lot more than a bunch of green paper to make your life a good one
In conclusion, doing what you want is best. If you don’t do what you want to, you won’t be happy with your life and your career.
1. What is the passage mainly about?| A．There is something more important than money in life |
| B．Young people should make their own career decisions |
| C．Parents should not pressure their children to live a lie |
| D．Young people are happy to make their own decisions |
| A．to do what they are interested in | B．to be a responsible citizen |
| C．to live a simple life | D．to face negative consequences |
| A．She lived a happy life | B．She had a happy marriage |
| C．She married a rich man | D．She often lied to others |
| A．You should make your own decisions. | B．Living a lie would not be good. |
| C．Wealth doesn’t mean happiness. | D．It’s wise to do what you want. |
【推荐3】There is a time when many Americans question whether a college degree is worth its cost. However, a recent study found Americans who completed college or university are more likely to have friends and are less lonely than those who only finished high school.
Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life, said that in general Americans are experiencing a “friend recession”, meaning a decline in their number of friends. Cox noted “Americans have fewer close friends today than we did in the early 90s. But men and those without a college degree were particularly affected because they seem to have experienced a much more dramatic decline over that period.”
The Center questioned 5,054 people this past summer. It found Americans with a college degree feel more socially connected and are more active in their communities than people who didn’t go to college. As a result, those who completed college report feeling less lonely.
Previous research showed that Americans who didn’t go to college are less likely to marry. A 2012 study found that college-educated women were much more likely to get married than women who dropped out of high school. A 2013 study of people born between 1957 and 1964 found that both men and women who didn’t finish high school were less likely to marry than those with more education.
Today, 65 percent of college-educated Americans over age 25 are married. About 50 percent of people with a high school diploma, or who dropped out of high school, are married. Those numbers were different in 1990, when marriage rates among the college educated were at 69 percent, compared with 63 percent for those who did not go to college, says a Pew research report.
The American Community Life Survey found around 1 in 10 college graduates say they have no close social connections. That number rises among Americans without a degree, where almost 1 in 4 say they have no close friends.
1. According to the text, the study was carried out when ______.| A．psychological problems arose sharply | B．the number of college graduates declined |
| C．Americans experienced a friend recession | D．concerns about college costs appeared |
| A．To provide evidence for the research. | B．To analyze the reasons for loneliness. |
| C．To show the importance of marriage. | D．To compare differences in generations. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Education. | C．Technology. | D．Health. |
| A．Social problems in the American society. | B．Reasons for Americans’ low marriage rates. |
| C．Links between education and social interaction. | D．Discussions about whether to get a college degree. |
【推荐1】Many college students complain about dormitory (宿舍) life: a sweltering room without air-conditioning in summer and a dormitory gate which is closed at 11 pm. But they may miss their dormitories after graduation, when they have to spend as much as a third of their income renting a shabby room.
The rising prices of daily necessities, including food, water, gas and electricity, are also making graduates save every penny to make ends meet. Faced with the high cost of living, college graduates need to make every penny work when they budget（预算） their income.
When it comes to renting, try to spend no more than one third of your income on it．Better still, only spend a quarter, according to Hao Qian, a career consultant. Hao also reminds graduates to set aside about one fifth of their income for social activities. “People have spent more on their social lives because of changes in forms of entertainment,” said Hao, “For example, new friends may want to meet you at a quiet club instead of at a noisy house.”
In spite of the high cost of living, many college graduates still, try to stay in big cities. They usually work in industries such as finance, public relations and IT, which depend on a booming（繁荣的） city economy and technology．
Hao advises such graduates to reduce their expenditure on shopping as much as possible. “If you are not in jobs such as PR and sales which require you to dress well, you don't need to spend much on clothes and accessories（服装配饰）, said Hao, “Spend less than one eighth of your monthly income on shopping.”
1. Which item takes up the most income of the graduates according to Hao Qian？| A．Travel | B．Shopping | C．Social activities | D．Renting |
| A．By making comparisons | B．By making analysis |
| C．By using an example | D．By describing processes |
| A．the money spent on social activities is mainly to broaden business cooperation |
| B．it's unwise to meet your new friend in your dormitory with loud roommates |
| C．more and more graduates choose to work in small towns or medium cities |
| D．if you take up a PR job in a firm, you can wear casual clothes |
【推荐2】ON TUESDAY, the Shenzhen team of Blue Sky Rescue, a domestic nonprofit civil rescue team, confirmed that two of its members had died trying to rescue 24 tourists who had got into difficulties.
According to the official news, it was on Monday that the rescue team received a telephone call from 24 travelers, who were trapped in a river valley, with a storm on the way and one of the female travelers being badly injured.
The team responded immediately. However, when they helped the travelers, two team members got trapped by the rising river water. The next day, they were confirmed dead.
The two heroes who gave their own lives to save others are being mourned by all.
Who can rescue the rescuers? The question aroused a heated discussion among people. Most of them think we would rather such “heroic deeds” were not required. However, that depends on people being more sensible. we would rather such “heroic deeds” were not required. In the past several years, there have been many cases in which travelers, ignoring the signs saying certain areas are dangerous and off-limits, still have kept on “exploring” unpaved and unmarked regions and ended up needing to be rescued. By so doing, they put not only their own lives at risk but also the lives of those who go to their aid.
In this case, although the travelers may have been in an authorized area, they ignored the warnings of an approaching typhoon. It was extremely reckless (鲁莽的) of them to travel into the wild on such a day, as the local weather forecast had warned people against the impending typhoon. Two rescuers have lost their lives because of the thoughtlessness of others.
Although the majority of travelers behave properly, some attempt challenging tasks that are obviously beyond their abilities.
The law has already made it clear that if a traveler or group gets into difficulties when entering unauthorized regions, they must bear the costs of the rescue operations. The regulations need strengthening to deter travelers from putting their own lives and the lives of others at risk.
1. What happened to a woman traveler?| A．She lost her way. | B．She was trapped on the mountain. |
| C．She died in the storm. | D．She was seriously hurt. |
| A．Critical. | B．Sympathetic. |
| C．Understanding. | D．Admiring. |
| A．protect | B．keep |
| C．excuse | D．separate |
| A．The Blue Sky Rescue. | B．Who can rescue the rescuers? |
| C．Who should bear the costs? | D．A deadly typhoon |
【推荐3】If you ask something of ChatGPT, an artificial-intelligence (AI) tool that is going viral, the responses you get back are almost instantaneous, utterly certain and often wrong. It is a bit like talking to an economist. The questions raised by technologies like ChatGPT yield much more indecisive answers. But they are ones that managers ought to start asking.
One issue is how to deal with employees’ concerns about job security. Worries are natural. An AI that makes it easier to process your expenses is one thing; an AI that people would prefer to sit next to at a dinner party quite another. Being clear about how workers would redirect time and energy that is freed up by an AI helps foster acceptance. So does creating a sense of agency: research conducted by a team in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that an ability to override (凌驾于) an AI makes employees more likely to use it.
Employees at Tapestry, a set of luxury brands, were given access to a forecasting model that told them how to assign stock to stores. Some used a model whose logic could be interpreted; others used a model that was more of a black box. Workers turned out to be likelier to overturn models they could understand because they were, mistakenly, sure of their own intuitions (直觉). Workers were willing to accept the decisions of a model they could not explain, however, because of their confidence in the expertise of people who had built it. The qualifications of those behind an AI matter.
The different ways that customers respond to humans and to algorithms (算法) is a booming area of research. In a recent paper Gizem Yalcin of the University of Texas at Austin and her coauthors looked at whether customers responded differently to decisions — to approve someone for a loan, for example, or a country club membership — when they were made by a machine or a person. They found that people reacted the same when they were being rejected. But they felt less positive about an organisation when they were approved by an algorithm rather than a human. The reason? People are good at explaining away unfavourable decisions, whoever makes them. However, it is harder for them to attribute a successful application to their own charming, delightful selves when assessed by a machine. People want to feel special, not reduced to a data point.
The picture that emerges from such research is messy. It is also dynamic: just as technologies evolve, so will attitudes. But it is crystal clear on one thing. The impact of ChatGPT and other AIs will depend not just on what they can do, but also on how they make people feel.
1. It can be inferred from the first paragraph that the author thinks economists are likely to ________.| A．be unconfident about their own standpoints |
| B．provide unreliable suggestions to the public |
| C．be frequent users of such AIs as ChatGPT |
| D．serve as qualified consultants for managers |
| A．AI would be more accepted if it joins in social events like dinner parties. |
| B．Directors should find ways to remind employees of their false intuitions. |
| C．The finding of MIT research conflicts with the implication of Tapestry case. |
| D．Workers tend to accept a model hard to understand due to a sense of agency. |
| A．tend to forecast negative judgements whoever the maker |
| B．react the same when receiving favorable assessments |
| C．refuse to be rated by a machine employed by a company |
| D．value their distinctive features in a particular situation |
| A．employees’ and customers’ attitudes to AI |
| B．questions managers should ask AI tools |
| C．the research and development of AI techs |
| D．different ways of assessing AI applications |
