Back in 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that with technological change and improvements in productivity, we’d be working only 15 hours a week in the near future. But while working hours have declined by 26%, most of us still work 42.5 hours a week on average, according to Eurostat figures.
One of the things Keynes underestimated is our desire to compete with our peers — a drive that makes us work more than we need to. “We don’t measure productivity by how many acres we’ve harvested, so the amount of working time becomes an indicator.” says Alex Soojung-Kim Pang.
Due to computerization and globalization in the 1980s, managers could demand more of employees under the threat that jobs could be given to someone else, so the pressure increased. And we took it, overwhelmed with the pressure while shouldering the burden all the same at the cost of our health. Psychologist Barbara Killinger writes such a phenomenon in Workaholics: The Respectable Addicts.
But far from delivering productivity, value, or personal fulfillment, overwork has been proven to lead to burnout, stress, poor health, etc. Nevertheless, we persisted — until the fourth Industrial Revolution came along.
The fourth Industrial Revolution has accelerated the move towards automation and AI, especially for jobs with high physical proximity (接近). Economist Dr. Carl Frey predicts that at least 40% of current jobs will be lost to automation by 2050.
There are exceptions. Jobs that involve complex social interactions are beyond current robot skills, such as teaching, cleaning jobs, and jobs that rely on creativity, according to Frey and Osborne.
According to McKinsey, those whose work falls outside the caring, cleaning and creative fields will still work in the future, just differently. In about 60% of occupations, it’s estimated that a third of the tasks can be automated, meaning substantial changes to the way we work. A large-scale study carried out by accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted that over the next 20 years, although 7 million jobs will be lost to AI, 7.2 million new ones will be created as a result. So we will work in the future: we just don’t know what we’ll be doing yet.
1. What do the figures in Paragraph 1 mainly indicate?| A．Our working time failed to decrease as much as predicted. |
| B．Technology keeps changing with the development of society. |
| C．Keynes’ prediction mainly focused on productivity improvement. |
| D．Overwork will result in fierce competition between employees. |
| A．People’s false sense of time. |
| B．People’s awareness of peer competition. |
| C．People’s ignoring the quality of their jobs. |
| D．People’s pressure to increase productivity. |
| A．They argued for fairness. |
| B．They devoted more to their work. |
| C．They tried to escape shouldering the burden. |
| D．They emphasized the importance of their health. |
| A．Counseling service will be paid less attention to. |
| B．More and more cleaners become unemployed in cities. |
| C．A majority of teachers will be replaced by robots. |
| D．The types of jobs with high physical proximity will be transformed. |
| A．Worried. | B．Hopeful. | C．Objective. | D．Indifferent. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Many studies have been conducted to discover the benefits of volunteering. Volunteer work means to carry out a duty or a job without expecting repayment or reward. The concept is very popular in advanced or rich countries. But in some countries, many people look at volunteering as a waste of time and effort.
One person is immediately seen as selfless and helpful when one volunteers to help out someone such as a friend, teacher or parent.
Besides, volunteering with an organization such as orphanages, community centers and other non-profit organizations allows you to interact with society at large. In addition to helping these organizations carry out their duties, you not only gain experience but can learn a variety of skills.
Thus, with so many benefits, students, in particular, should be allowed to participate volunteer activities.
| A．You will feel you are proud |
| B．Your will feel you are respected |
| C．This is especially beneficial to students |
| D．One should actively be involved in volunteering |
| E．However, one can get many benefits from volunteering |
| F．They can learn some useful interpersonal and organizational skills |
| G．Volunteering also exposes one to many interesting ideas and issues |
In-betweeners don’t get the glory, but without them cartoons would hop from one emotional peak to another, missing connective grace. Burny Mattinson (1935-2023) started his career at the Walt Disney Company in the mail room, and, even though he had no formal training in animation, he was given a swing at in-betweening just six months later.
His first big assignment was to in-between the wagging of a dog’s tail. Disney animation was famous for its silky elegance, owing in no small part to the skill of its in-betweeners, and, thanks to Mattinson, the tail practically glided from side to side.
Mattinson had wanted to be an animator ever since his mother had taken him to see” Pinocchio” at a theatre when he was six. In a bold move, Mattinson showed up at the Disney Studios gate with his portfolio (作品) as soon as he finished high school. The magical part of this story is that, instead of shooing him away, the security guard liked his drawings and called the head of personnel to take a look.
Thus, Mattinson became a messenger at Disney, beginning a career that would eventually make him the employee with the longest service at the company. He had joined the company at a golden moment. Listing the films that he worked on is a little like listing the entire output of the Walt Disney Company over the past six decades: Sleeping Beauty, “The Lion King,” and on and on.
Mattinson was, perhaps, one of the last of an almost extinct genotype - the happy company man, the lifer. He never had an employer besides Disney. When asked what Mattinson enjoyed doing outside of his life at Disney, his son said, “He just loved his work.”
1. What role do in-betweeners play in animation production?
| A．Design the storyline. | B．Draw the background. |
| C．Invent extreme actions. | D．Generate smooth motion. |
| A．Unconventional. | B．Typical. | C．Illegal. | D．Accidental. |
| A．His lifelong dedication to Disney. | B．His detailed work as an in-betweener. |
| C．His passion for animation beyond work. | D．His pioneering role in Disney animation. |
| A．A lifer in the Disney | B．In-betweeners’ role in animation |
| C．A bold move to Disney | D．A glorious career |
【推荐3】As a first lady, every workday is desirably different. However, there is one expectation that follows me, and others like me, wherever I go: that I play the role of a sidekick(助手)
This past summer, for instance, European Council President Donald Tusk shared a video online from the G7 meeting. The video was of spouses of U. S. President Donald Trump, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Mr. Tusk and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan. The title: “The Light Side of the Force.”
The video made me feel uncomfortable. It is regrettable to see intelligent women reduced to props(道具)who exist to support their husbands’ political agendas - to see them celebrated first and foremost for their gentle demeanors(风度). In 2019, can we not do better than assume the spouses of our leaders have nothing more worthwhile to do than wander after their other halves to watch traditional performances and take in the view while their made counterparts take care of “serious business”?
It also made me think: On the occasions when I travel with my husband, am I contributing to the myth that female spouses are the “light” side of their powerful husbands?
Since becoming first lady of Iceland in 2016, I have had the chance to wrestle with the contradictions that come with this under-fined role. On the one hand, to serve my country in this way is an honor for which I am very grateful. It is also an opportunity: When choosing activities in which I wish to take part, I am guided by the assumptions of my role as spouse and how I wish to modernize them. On state visits, for example, one of my aims is to destroy the often-gendered expectations of what “the wife” should do - I participate in discussions about sustainable tourism, entre-preneurship and innovation, and yes, gender equality.
Yet I still hate the occasions when my presence is assumed rather than requested. I am not my husband’s handbag, to be seized as he runs out the door and displayed silently by his side during public appearances. It’s uncomfortable to be told I look much nicer with my hair longer or that I should not wear green again because it’s not my color. On almost every solo trip I make as first lady, I am asked who is looking after our four young children as if their father had no parental obligations. If I am ever asked about my professional background, it is always in the past tense, although I still continue much of my paid work. (Why should I get a new job because my husband was elected to one?)
When I share these opinion of being able to help shape debate surrounding gender equality because of something my husband has achieved. I am proud of my husband and his achievements - but no one wants to be judged as her partner’s decoration.
The author, Elisa Jean Reid, is the first lady of Iceland
1. What probably led the author to write this article?| A．Her husband’s expectation of her to play the role of a sidekick. |
| B．A video posted online by Europeans Council President Donald Tusk. |
| C．The universal expectations of what first ladies should do. |
| D．The contradictions that had bothered her since she became first lady. |
① travelling with her husband
② taking care of political issues.
③ participating in discussions about gender equality
④ exchanging opinions with first ladies of other nations
| A．only ① | B．① and ② | C．only ④ | D．① and ④ |
| A．the author is not on friendly terms with Donald Tusk |
| B．being first lady of Iceland is not the author’s formal job |
| C．the author is unsatisfied with her current position - first lady of Iceland |
| D．the author has found that she can hardly modernize people’s expectation of first ladies |
| A．encourage other first ladies to voice their complains |
| B．complain that her husband rarely looks after their four young children |
| C．argue against the general assumption of first ladies |
| D．express her gratitude for being given the opportunity to shape debate surrounding gender equality. |
【推荐1】“Look how stupid he is!" a 7-year-old said to her dad Daniel Funke, pointing to a picture of a famous person on the Internet. The photo showed the man writing his name with his pen turned upside down.
Of course, the photo was not the original one. It had been changed to look like him using the pen the wrong way. Funke quickly pointed out the mistake, and his daughter got an on-the-spot education in fake news. By then, however, many people had already shared it on social media.
“The pitfalls of sharing misinformation and fake news can be very serious," says Laeeq Khan, who heads the Social Media Analytics Lab at Ohio University in Athens. Sharing something that’s not true can cost people their lives, he says. Last year, people in India used a messaging app, WhatsApp, to spread fake stories about a kidnapping ring. The lies caused violent attacks in which people died.
Fake news stories hurt people in other ways, too. For example, fake reports lead some parents to refuse vaccines (疫苗) for their children. Yet without vaccines, children can get serious diseases or even die.
“About seven in 10 Americans were telling us that fake news has a big influence on the confidence in our government,” says Jeffrey Gottfried. He’s a journalism and media-research expert at Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. Researchers there did a survey in the United States about the influence of made-up news. About half the people in the survey said they had shared misinformation online. Most of them said they didn’t realize it at the time.
Besides causing serious results, sharing a fake story makes it harder for people to tell what's real. And when people find out a story is not real, they may not trust other information from a person who spread it. Therefore, it's important to do fact-checking before sharing news stories.
1. What is the purpose of the first two paragraphs?| A．To bring up the topic of the text. | B．To tell an interesting news story. |
| C．To provide the main idea of the text. | D．To list people's popular online behavior. |
| A．Mistakes. | B．Problems. | C．Advantages. | D．Possibilities. |
| A．About 30% of online news wasn't real. |
| B．Made-up news spread faster than expected. |
| C．Made-up news had a bad influence on children. |
| D．Many Americans shared fake news without knowing it. |
| A．Positive | B．Unclear | C．Worried | D．Supporting |
As we grow up, we gradually develop a set of our own values or beliefs. These are influenced by society, our family, the education we receive and so on. Once this value system is set up, it’s not easy to change later in life.
Financial experts say that everyone also has their own belief of how to manage their finances. This is part of our value system and it has a great impact on the way we look after our money.
According to our different values, experts put us in three categories. They are: the ant, the cricket and the snail.
The ant—works first
Just like ants who work heart and soul in summer in order to store food for winter, these people don’t care about enjoying the moment. They work very hard and save money they earn so that they can enjoy life when they get old and retire. The ant loves to save but they could make more out of their money if they were willing to invest in some funds and stocks with low risk.
The cricket—fun first
The cricket wants to enjoy everything now and doesn’t think too much about the future. They even borrow money when they really want something. Many young people now belong to this group. These people have little savings. When they get old, they might have problems. They should learn to save and buy insurance.
The snail—lives under pressure
The snail refers to people who make life difficult for themselves. They take big long-term loans from the bank in order to buy things such as luxury houses. They are happy to take big loans even though they are not sure whether they can afford it. This can cause problems in the future. They should plan more carefully.
1. People with the character of the snail would like to __________.
| A．enjoy life at the moment without thinking much about the future |
| B．put work before everything else |
| C．live a luxury life at all costs |
| D．take the risk of investing a large sum of money |
| A．society | B．our family |
| C．money | D．education |
| A．the relation between man and insects |
| B．the spending nature of people |
| C．the insects in nature |
| D．the problems with dealing with money |
| A．The cricket. | B．The ant |
| C．The snail. | D．None of the above. |
【推荐3】Caleb Arnold loves birds, especially hummingbirds. The 7-year-old boy knows a lot about his favorite animal. “They pollinate(授粉) plants, and they’re pretty and small,” he says. But there’s one thing Caleb didn’t know: hummingbirds see a wider range of colors than we do.
It makes sense that Caleb didn’t know this. Few people did for sure, until June 15, 2020, when researchers published a report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It confirmed the fact that scientists have long suspected. Birds are experiencing a more colorful world that is above our own. A team of scientists conducted a three-year experiment to find out if hummingbirds are able to tell apart colors that look the same to humans.
To understand the experiment, it’s important to know how color vision works. There are three types of tiny color-sensitive cones(锥细胞) in the human eye. Birds, and some other animals, have a fourth. This means they can also see ultraviolet(紫外线) colors. The ultraviolet cone type allows birds to see combination colors that humans can’t, like ultraviolet green and ultraviolet red. Biologists studying birds have supposed that birds can see these, but it’s been challenging to test this idea.
That’s exactly what the team did. They put two bird feeders in the wild. One contained ordinary water. The other contained sugar water. Both feeders held a specially designed LED light stick — sort of a bird-vision light tube that changed colors. If we are shown the ultraviolet green tube and the green tube, they’d both just look green to us. But the hummingbirds saw the difference. They could even tell apart two shades of ultraviolet red. The scientists observed that the birds were able to use the colors of the lights to find the sweet water.
Caleb is glad scientists want to better understand birds. “Good” he said, after hearing the news. “They’re part of nature.”
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To introduce hummingbirds. | B．To explain a natural law. |
| C．To lead in the topic of the text. | D．To describe a boy who loves birds. |
| A．They look very beautiful. | B．They are of a small size. |
| C．They are helpful to plants. | D．They see more colors than humans. |
| A．The reason for birds’ better color vision. |
| B．The challenges biologists face. |
| C．Combination colors unseen by humans. |
| D．The experiment to test ultraviolet colors. |
| A．By tasting the water in the two containers. |
| B．By recognizing the light colors on the feeders. |
| C．By smelling the water in different tubes. |
| D．By telling apart the depth of water in different feeders. |
【推荐1】Recently, there have been huge advances in AI (人工智能) programs that create art. The programs, which create artworks based on short descriptions, have amazed many people. They have also raised difficult questions.
In April, NewsForKids. net reported on Dall-E 2, a tool from Open AI. Dall-E2 uses AI to create incredible paintings, photos, and other artwork in many different styles based on simple descriptions. Since then, Open AI has changed its rules to allow anyone to sign up and use the tool. But it’s still putting strong controls on the art that can be created.
But now there are several other AI tools that work in similar ways. These new tools are either free or cheap, and don’t have some of Dall E2’s limits. Mid journey is a website that allows users to create images from short descriptions. Stable Diffusion is similar, but users can also run the program on their own computers.
The new tools are entertaining and powerful. They allow people to quickly see almost any idea they can imagine, even if they aren’t artists. For some creative workers, like those at companies that create ads or images, the tools allow them to quickly explore new ideas.
These AI programs can also make strange mistakes. But with the right description, the tools are able to create images of just about anything in just about any style.
Many artists are upset that they’re now competing against computers for attention, prizes and jobs. It’s hard for a single artist to compete against all the art and photography that has ever appeared on the internet. In August, an artwork created with Midjourney won first prize at the Colorado State Fair. That upset many people.
The images and the descriptions used to train these AI programs were taken from the internet. Because of this, the tools can produce images that aren’t appropriate. Perhaps more importantly, the training images were used without permission. That has raised questions about whether what these tools are doing is fair or legal.
1. What is mainly talked about in paragraph 3?| A．The advantages of AI. | B．Several AI art tools. |
| C．The limits of Dall-E 2. | D．Some similar websites. |
| A．They can get more advanced training. |
| B．They can explore more free websites. |
| C．They can download images much faster. |
| D．They can tryout their new ideas more quickly. |
| A．A sharp brain. | B．Drawing skills. |
| C．Correct descriptions. | D．Professional skills. |
| A．AI Is Learning to Create Art |
| B．AI Technology Is Making Progress |
| C．Dall-E2 Is Taking the Place of Open AI |
| D．AI Art Programs Amaze and Upset People |
It might be less frightening if computers were truly intelligent, but even the most powerful networks are less human than monstrous Martians (火星人). Their power will be used to make money for the firms that finance their development, and then for others quick and clever enough to take advantage of the new world. It is far more likely that they will increase inequality and still further remove the middle classes as we move towards an hourglass (以金钱来衡量的) society in which everyone is either very rich or very poor and likely indebted.
One of the ill effects of the spread of more intelligent computer networks is, at the same time, the spread of what might be called artificial stupidity. If AI is employed largely to replace unskilled labour, it is most productive when labour is kept unskilled or redefined that way. So much of the work in service industries is now simplified until it might be automated (自动化). And robots will never need pensions(养老金). AI is slowly reducing skilled work, like some forms of medical diagnosis (诊断), at the same time, as older doctors complain that the traditional human skills of diagnosis are falling out of medical training. The belief that everything worthwhile can be measured and then managed is far more damaging to humanity than the threat of artificial intelligence on its own.
But no victory in complicated Go games can bring us closer to truly human-like computers.
1. By mentioning the defeat of Lee Sedol, the author intends to tell us that ______.
| A．computers can completely replace humans in everything |
| B．humans are of no practical economic values to the society |
| C．the power of computers is growing at a frightening rate |
| D．AI programs can not compare with humans economically |
| A．improve the quality of human life |
| B．widen the gap between the rich and the poor |
| C．make contributions to human development |
| D．promote equality at work places |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Supportive. |
| C．Cautious. | D．doubtful. |
【推荐3】We have long imagined a world where we interact with computers and robots as if they were normal human beings. Science movies show computers and robots that think and feel just like humans. While these scenes exist only in the movies for now, we may be getting close to making technology emotionally intelligent.
The first step toward this is understanding what emotions are, Scientists are often unable to describe emotions in exact terms, even though we generally understand what people mean when they say they’re sad or happy.
Back in the 1950s, few scientists studied emotion. But American scientist Paul Ekman saw a lot of potential in this field. He began analyzing facial expressions, and gathered a list of over 5,000 muscle movements. These muscle movements combine to form our different expressions. His discovery of micro-expression—facial expressions that last only less than a second—allows us to read the emotions that people try to hide.
There are many possible uses of emotion-sensing technology. Dr. Chieko Asakawa, a researcher at IBM, has been blind since the age of 14. She has been developing a smartphone app that might be able to help people with disabilities. It recognizes people’s faces and facial expressions as they approach.
Another use of emotion-sensing technology can be shown through human-shaped robots like Pepper. It can comfort someone when it senses the person is sad, or tell a joke when the person is feeling playful. In Japan, Pepper is already serving customers in stores.
But as we walk on the streets, intelligent devices(设备)could record our facial expressions without our knowledge. This could allow many people to monitor(监视)or view our feelings without our permission. It may leave us with no control over who we share our feelings with. However, if we can deal with these challenges successfully, there could be many benefits for all of us if our devices become a little more human.
1. How did Ekman carry out the study?| A．By doing medical examinations. | B．By analyzing various robots. |
| C．By building new software. | D．By studying facial muscles. |
| A．To present how IBM benefits from technology. | B．To describe the limitation of a new technology. |
| C．To show the value of Ekman’s work. | D．To praise what she has done. |
| A．They may create some problems. | B．They can take the place of humans. |
| C．They are of great benefit to humans. | D．They are useless in solving real problems. |
| A．Understanding other people’s emotions | B．New devices for the disabled |
| C．Robots that think like humans | D．Emotions in technology |
