In China, there are more and more people leaving the countryside to hunt for jobs in the cities, because the countryside is much poorer than the city, and often there isn’t much work there. Services such as hospital and transport are usually much better in the city than in the countryside. They hope that their lives will improve when they move to the city.
But in the big cities of Europe like London or Paris, people are moving out of the city. These rich families want to live a quieter life. They are tired of the noise and the dirt of the city, and they are tired of the crowded streets, crowded trains and buses. They don’t want to live in the cities any more. They want a house with a garden in the countryside, and breathe the fresh air there. So they move out of the cities. Some don’t go very far, just a little way out of the city, to the towns near the cities. Other people move to the real countryside with sheep, cows and green fields. There they start new lives and try to make new friends.
Not all those who move from the city to the countryside are happy. After two or three years, many people who have done this feel that it is a big mistake. They don’t make so much money and there isn’t much work to do. People in the countryside are different and aren’t always very friendly. As a result, quite a lot of people who have moved to the countryside move back to the city. “It’s wonderful to see crowds in the streets and cinema lights.” they say.
1. Which is NOT the reason for people moving to the cities in China?| A．The countryside is much poorer than the city. |
| B．People in the countryside have nothing to eat. |
| C．People in the countryside don’t have much work to do there. |
| D．Services in cities are usually much better than those in the countryside. |
| A．Because they will find good jobs. |
| B．Because they like feeding sheep and cows in the green fields. |
| C．Because they can make more money there. |
| D．Because they are tired of living in the city. |
| A．Moving Out or Moving back |
| B．Living in the City |
| C．Living in the Countryside |
| D．Living a Happy Life |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】For almost all of human history, the Earth's population has tended to be younger. But since the last World Population Day on July 11, a major shift occurred: There are now more people aged 65 and older than there are under age five.
World Population Day was established by the United Nations Development Program in 1989 to bring attention to population issues. Having more people on the planet is not the only concern, though, since a population's age structure matters too.
Increased lifetime is a remarkable human success story, but having more elderly people also creates a number of socioeconomic concerns. The global population will continue to age as these two groups grow in opposite directions. By 2100, the percentage of the population aged 65 and older will rise to nearly 25 percent — about five times that of children under five.
“Most developed countries have been aging for a century, giving them time to prepare for the changes. But developing countries will become old before they become rich,” says researcher Toshiko Kaneda. Many countries in Latin America and Asia are aging much faster and have less time and resources to prepare health-care systems.
What are the consequences of an older global population? Supporting elderly people is more expensive than caring for young ones. Pressing issues arise like how to provide long-term care, and maintain a labor force. In developed regions like Europe, where 10 percent of the population over age 50 is childless, elderly care is a major worry.
“Not a single country has been able to change declining trends in fertility (生育) despite government requests for people to reproduce as has been done across Europe and in Japan,” Kaneda says. “The aging trend is continuous. ”
But declining fertility rates can have positive effects too, says Kaneda. When fertility rates decline but the population hasn't aged yet, governments can spend more on secondary and higher education, and benefit the economy. Both Thailand and South Korea have seized the opportunity during this ideal period.
1. What do we know about the global population?| A．It tended to be younger until now. |
| B．People are living longer and having fewer kids. |
| C．Age structure matters more than population size. |
| D．Developed countries are facing tougher challenges. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Critical. | B．Objective. | C．Optimistic. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．The declining trend in the fertility rates. |
| B．The consequences of the aging population. |
| C．The establishment of World Population Day. |
| D．The present situation of the global population. |
【推荐2】Population：Is 8 billion people too many?
The world’s population has reached 8 billion people.
For now, we can both acknowledge the downsides of the 8 billionth human and believe this is an occasion worth celebrating.
| A．We’ve reached this milestone |
| B．Actually, some population alarmism is appropriate |
| C．The end of population expansion is now foreseeable |
| D．The truth is that the population in developed nations has remained stable |
| E．With any luck, the massive challenge of global aging will spur innovation |
| F．The increasing global population will put more pressure on resources and produce far more emissions |
| G．In contrast, various experts have been put forward “nightmare consequences” about overpopulation since 1960s |
【推荐3】A decreasing birthrate depends to a large extent on the availability and use of birth control and on high living levels that make the production of additional children to provide necessary and inexpensive labor unnecessary. Family planning is a national policy in many industrial countries, such as Japan and most of European countries. As a result, in most cases the birthrate has decreased. Many developing countries have followed the lead of India (which has since 1952 conducted an extensive, but not totally successful，birth control program) in trying to promote family planning as a national policy. These countries include China, Kenya, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Chile.
In the United States, facts of the population question, such as birth control and abortion,_are among the most bitterly debated subjects. The United States has disagreed strongly at times with the use of foreign aid appropriations (拨款) for family planning overseas and doing that is thought against human rights; family planning in the country is mainly run by private groups such as Planned Parenthood.
A number of nongovernmental organizations concerned with population growth have also appeared. Zero Population Growth, an educational group founded in 1970, aims to stop population growth, first in the United States and then in other countries. On the international level, besides the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the United Nations Economic and Social Council provides birth control aid to underdeveloped nations.
1. All the following countries try to take family planning as a national policy EXCEPT ________.| A．Kenya | B．Pakistan |
| C．Chile | D．Russia |
| A．they take measures in family planning |
| B．they don't want to provide necessary and cheap labor |
| C．they want to live a life of high living standards |
| D．they don't want to bear more additional children |
| A．Food supplies. |
| B．An operation to end a pregnancy. |
| C．Foreign aid. |
| D．High growth of population birthrate. |
| A．Americans think there is no need to keep birth control |
| B．the government would rather not copy ways of other countries |
| C．Americans think that is against human rights |
| D．the government is rich enough to keep more children |
| A．prevent birthrate from growing |
| B．provide birth control aid |
| C．advise people to notice the population question |
| D．call on the UN to give help to undeveloped countries |
【推荐1】Until recently, several lines of evidence — from fossils genetics, and archaeology — suggested that humans first moved from Africa into Eurasia (the land of Europe and Asia) about 60,000 years ago, quickly replacing other early human species, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, that they may have met along the way.
However, a series of recent discoveries, including 100,000-year-old human teeth found in a cave in China, have clouded this straightforward statement. And the latest find, a prehistoric jawbone at the Misliya Cave in Israel dating back to nearly 200,000 years ago, which is almost twice as old as any Homo sapiens (智人) remains discovered outside Africa, where our species was thought to have originated from, has added new and unexpected twist.
The find suggests that there were multiple waves of migration across Europe and Asia and could also mean that modern humans in the Middle East were interacting, and possibly mating, with other human species for tens of thousands of years. “Misliya breaks the mould (模式) of existing assumptions of the timing of the first known Homo sapiens in these regions,” said Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London. “It’s important in removing long-lasting-constraint (限制) on our thinking.”
Prof. Hershkovitz, who led the work at Tel Aviv University said, “What Misliya tells us is that modern humans left Africa not 100,000 years ago, but 200,000 years ago. This is revolution in the way we understand the evolution of our own species.” He also added that the record now indicates that humans probably travelled beyond the African continent whenever the climate allowed it. “I don’t believe there was one big departure from Africa,” he said. “I think that throughout hundreds of thousands of years humans were coming in and out of Africa all the time.”
The discovery means that modern humans were potentially meeting and interacting during a longer period with other ancient human groups, providing more opportunity for cultural and biological exchanges. It also raises interesting questions about the fate of the earliest modern human pioneers. Genetic data from modern-day populations around the world strongly suggest that everyone outside Africa can trace their ancestors back to a group that left around 60,000 years ago. So, the inhabitants of the Misliya Cave are probably not the ancestors of anyone alive today, and scientists can only guess why their branch of the family tree came to an end.
1. What does the underlined word “they” refer to in Paragraph 1?| A．Early human species living in Europe. |
| B．Neanderthals and Denisovans. |
| C．People first moving from Africa into Eurasia. |
| D．Ancient people living in Africa all the time. |
| A．Our ancestors were powerful and kind of aggressive. |
| B．Our ancestors left Africa much earlier than thought. |
| C．The origins of modern humans are from Europe. |
| D．Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans once lived together. |
| A．Climate was a big factor in human migration from Africa. |
| B．There was a large-scale human migration from Africa. |
| C．Human migration was occasional in Africa 200,000 years ago. |
| D．The Misliya find is against our understanding of human evolution. |
| A．They were ancestors of people living in China. |
| B．They left evidence for their mysterious disappearance in history. |
| C．They probably contributed little to present-day people genetically. |
| D．They could be traced by their remains left on their travelling route. |
【推荐2】George Gershwin, born in 1898, was one of America's greatest composers. He published his first song when he was eighteen years old. During the next twenty years he wrote more than five hundred songs.
Many of Gershwin's songs were first written for musical plays performed in theatres in New York City. These plays were a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of his songs have remained popular as ever. Over the years they have been sung and played in every possible way — from jazz to country.
In the 1920s there was a debate in the United States about jazz music. Could jazz, some people asked, be considered serious music? In 1924 jazz musician and orchestra leader Paul Whiteman decided to organize a special concert to show that jazz was serious music. Gershwin agreed to compose something for the concert before he realized he had just a few weeks to do it. And in that short time, he composed a piece for piano and orchestra which he called Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin himself played the piano at the concert. The audience were thrilled when they heard his music. It made him worldfamous and showed that jazz music could be both serious and popular.
In 1928, Gershwin went to Paris. He applied to study composition (作曲)with the wellknown musician Nadia Boulanger, but she rejected him. She was afraid that classical study would ruin his jazzinfluenced style. While there, Gershwin wrote An American in Paris. When it was first performed, critics (评论家)were divided over the music. Some called it happy and full of life, to others it was silly and boring. But it quickly became popular in Europe and the United States. It still remains one of his most famous works.
George Gershwin died in 1937, just days after doctors learned he had brain cancer. He was only thirtynine years old. Newspapers all over the world reported his death on their front pages. People mourned the loss of the man and all the music he might have still written.
1. Many of Gershwin's musical works were ________．| A．written about New Yorkers | B．composed for Paul Whiteman |
| C．performed in various ways | D．played mainly in the countryside |
| A．It proved jazz could be serious music. |
| B．It attracted more people to theatres. |
| C．It made Gershwin leader of the orchestra. |
| D．It caused a debate among jazz musicians. |
| A．He studied with Nadia Boulanger. | B．He created one of his best works. |
| C．He argued with French critics. | D．He changed his music style. |
| A．The death of Gershwin was widely reported. |
| B．Many of Gershwin's works were lost. |
| C．A concert was held in memory of Gershwin. |
| D．Brain cancer research started after Gershwin's death. |
| A．Serious and boring. | B．Talented and productive. |
| C．Popular and unhappy. | D．Friendly and honest. |
【推荐3】24 hours in western Sydney: what to do, where to go
On a recent weekend, my boyfriend and I decided to explore the area for the first time.
Friday
6 p.m. — Check in at Atura Blacktown hotel
After an easy 40-minute train trip from Central Station to Blacktown (about $5 one way with the Opal smartcard), we catch a taxi (about $20) to western Sydney’s newest hotel, the Atura Blacktown. It’s a sleek but welcoming hotel with an open-plan lobby that incorporates an inhouse restaurant and a comfortable lounge area. Upstairs, we quickly warm to our modern guestroom, which features reliable, free WiFi, free movies on a large wall-mounted TV, and in the bathroom Malin+Goetz toiletries(洗漱用品). It’s good value at about $160 for a king room.
8 p.m. — Dinner and a drive-in movie
The hotel’s Roadhouse Bar and Grill has an upscale menu (mains $25 — $40 per person) but a casual atmosphere, with an open kitchen and families seated at several tables. We’ve been told not to fill up on dinner so we reluctantly leave our tender scotch fillet(鱼片) and expertly pan-fried barramundi unfinished. At the reception, we pick up keys to the hotel’s white Cadillac, which is parked out front, and drive around the corner to the Skyline Drive-In ($20 for one car with two passengers).
Saturday
9 a.m. — Feasting in Bonnyrigg
Everywhere we go, there is food. At the temple, we watch a famous Laotion chef prepare pawpaw salad, while at the mosque(清真寺) we are offered feather-light fairy floss. Later, in a low-ceilinged Asian grocer, we are fed sublime rice-paper rolls by a proprietor who speaks five languages. Those who dismiss ordinary Australians as conservative and intolerant have clearly not visited Bonnyrigg.
6 p.m. — People-watching at The Emporium
In Parramatta, the venue(场所) of the moment is The Emporium, a 150-seat exposed-brick space with a mod-Oz menu which leans Mediterranean. Unlike many of the more casual places we visit over the weekend, The Emporium has a decidedly grown-up atmosphere, full of well-dressed couples and smart wait staff. Dishes like a delicate stew of Moreton Bay bugs ($36) and truffle-stuffed chicken breast (also $36) are delicious. Don’t expect to get a table on Saturday night unless you book ahead.
1. How much did the author and her boyfriend have to pay at least on Friday?
| A．$216. | B．$226. | C．$332. | D．$260. |
| A．get warm in modern guestrooms | B．overeat delicious dinner |
| C．hire a car to see movies | D．feel unfriendliness from ordinary Australians |
【推荐1】Chinese Ministry of Education (教育部) is changing its traditional policy of encouraging schools to give special admission (入学) opportunities to those students with special talents in sports, music and art, even though their grades didn’t reach the standard.
The policy was flawed because some parents expose their not-so-talented child to plenty of expensive and demanding training courses in order to improve their child’s slim chances of approaching a good school. And then there was the problem of corruption (贪污腐败), which means some local officials selling the talent certificates (证书) and medals to those ambitious parents. According to a press conference held by the Ministry of Education in March, 2018, the “special talent” policy is expected to be completely called off by 2020.
Although the policy is ending, it should not imply that students should give up developing their talents and interests. These extracurricular (课外的) activities may not have a direct effect on academic performance, but they are ways for students to begin building a “talent stack” that will help them in their future careers.
The idea of a “talent stack” comes from the American cartoonist Scott Adams. According to Adams, people shouldn’t focus on the goal of becoming the best at something because very few people are actually the best. There are not many Michael Jordans or Albert Einsteins. Instead, people should cultivate a variety of skills that work well together.
Jack Ma (马云) is a typical example of what Adams is talking about. Ma liked English and became an English teacher. He learned some business skills by operating an English language training school. He also had an interest in computers. On a visit to the United States, he discovered the internet and the way it was being used to buy and sell things. Although Ma wasn’t the best English speaker or a computer expert, he was able to “stack” them —to put them together—to learn about internet trading and then start Alibaba, the world’s largest online trading website.
Although you may not realize it, you have already begun building your talent stack by learning English. If you have other interests like art and sports, you should continue to develop them. They will add to your talent stack and give you an advantage in the job market. Your unique set of skills, even if you may not be the best at any of them, may also lead you into new careers you may not have previously considered. Having a talent may no longer give students a shortcut in getting into a good school, but developing that talent will have long-term benefits as part of your “talent stack.”
1. What does the word “flawed” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．perfect. | B．complicated. | C．imperfect. | D．pointless. |
| A．It was carried out by an American cartoonist. |
| B．Michael Jordan and Albert Einstein has one of the best talent stacks in the world. |
| C．Studying a foreign language is an effective way to build one’s “talent stack”. |
| D．The power of talent stacks may be beyond your imagination. |
| A．To prove that Jack Ma is good at running a business. |
| B．To show that one’s “talent stack” has nothing to do with his academic performance. |
| C．To tell the readers that mastering English is the most efficient means to build one’s “talent stack”. |
| D．To point out that “talent stack” can helps a person take advantage of benefits from different professional fields. |
| A．Students with special talents will have fewer opportunities to study in good schools in two years. |
| B．Having talents and interests doesn’t help a student’s academic performance at all. |
| C．Developing a talent in sports, music or art is certain to cost a lot of money. |
| D．The author holds a negative attitude towards the newly-launched policy. |
【推荐2】What would it be like to live on Mars? Volunteers are spending eight months in an area that looks much like the surface of Mars. They are isolated(孤立)high on top of Mauna Loa, a volcanic mountain on the Big Island of Hawaii, living on a simulated(模仿的) or make-believe, Mars Base.
The project called HI-SEAS is in the charge of Kim Binsted. She says this wild environment is as close to Mars as you can find on Earth. Because it is so high, the land is not warm or rich with plants, like the rest of Hawaii.
“You will see there is really no visible plant life or animal life. And you have got this wonderful volcanic material.”
Mauna Loa, 2,500 meters above sea level, is geologically very similar to Olympus Mons on Mars and almost as tall as the Martian mountain. When measured from its base, deep in the ocean, Mauna Loa is the second largest mountain in our solar system, after the one on Mars.
The six member HI-SEAS crew is mostly self-sufficient. Food and supplies are brought to them. But the individuals bringing those supplies cannot communicate with volunteers inside the habitat, or base.
Kim Binsted says this experiment looks at how the astronauts get along with each other. “We study how well they work together, how we can keep them happy and supported, and not wanting to kill each other over these long durations (期间).”
Crew members communicate with the outside world through e-mail and blogs. They also produce video on the YouTube website, like this one from mission commander Martha Lenio. “I am really enjoying this opportunity to live here and pretend that I’m on Mars and get to learn all sorts of new skills.” One of them said. “Whoever gets there first, the trip will not be easy”, says Kim Binsted, “It is going to be challenging.”
1. What do we know about Olympus Mons?| A．It is 2,500 meters above sea level. |
| B．It is geologically similar to Mauna, Loa. |
| C．It is the second largest mountain on the earth. |
| D．It is a mountain on the Big Island of Hawaii. |
| A．To set up a space station. |
| B．To explore new settlement for human. |
| C．To prove human can live in whatever conditions. |
| D．To study how the astronauts treat each other. |
| A．Volunteers First Explore Mars |
| B．Volunteers Experience Life in Hawaii |
| C．Volunteers Get Taste of Mars in Hawaii |
| D．Volunteers Study the Environment on Mars |
【推荐3】When we think about people who are leaders, we often get a mental picture of someone who is older, smarter, and wiser than ourselves. Studies of leadership, though, have usually found that there is almost no relationship between skill as a leader and traditional measures of intelligence.
Some recent research by psychologist Red Fiedle and his colleagues suggests that both intelligence and experience may be important—but just now how important depends upon how stressful the work situation is and what kind of task is to be accomplished. The researchers obtained measures of intelligence, experience, performance, and stress.
Overall, these variables did not relate to one another. Men with high and low intelligence were equally likely to give good performance, as were men with more and less experience, or more and less stress with their bosses. When you look separately at those men who have high stress with their bosses, however, the picture changes.
In high stress situations, there was no connection between intelligence and performance, but there was between experience and performance. In other words, in difficult situations, it was helpful to “know the ropes”. In low stress situations, the findings were just the opposite. Experience was not related to good performance, but intelligence was. That is, when things are going well, intelligence is very useful in leadership.
A study of fire fighters’ performance under high and low stress conditions also found the experienced officers performed best under situations of stress. None of this is really very surprising. If you have ever had a supervisory job, you probably found that at least as much energy went into dealing with people as went into managing the job itself. Tests of intelligence—at least the ones we have now—do not predict success in dealing with people.
1. What kind of people can do the best job in stress situation?| A．intelligent people | B．experienced people |
| C．calm people | D．skilled people |
| A．to understand the situation | B．to control the situation |
| C．to get rid of the situation | D．to make sure what to do about the situation |
| A．a management job | B．an advisory job |
| C．a teaching job | D．an organizing job |
| A．In stress situations, there are no association between experience and performance. |
| B．Some recent research suggests that most leaders are lack of intelligence. |
| C．In low stress situations, intelligence plays an important role in leadership. |
| D．Generally speaking leaders are likely to be cleverer than ordinary people. |
