Communication technologies are far from equal when it comes to conveying the truth. The first study to compare honesty across a range of communication media has found that people are twice as likely to tell lies in phone conversations as they are in emails. The fact that emails are automatically recorded — and can come back to haunt (困扰) you — appears to be the key to the finding.
Jeff Hancock of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, asked 80 students to keep a communication diary for a week. In it they noted the number of conversations or email exchanges they had lasting more than 10 minutes, and confessed to how many lies they told. Hancock then worked out the number of lies per conversation for each medium. He found that lies made up 14 per cent of emails, 21 per cent of instant messages, 27 per cent of face-to-face interactions and an astonishing 37 per cent: of phone calls.
His results to be presented at the conference on human-computer interaction in Vienna, Austria, in April, have surprised psychologists. Some expected emailers to be the biggest liars, reasoning that because deception makes people uncomfortable, the detachment (非直接接触) of emailing would make it easier to lie. Others expected people to lie more in face-to-face exchanges because we are most practiced at that form of communication.
But Hancock says it is also crucial whether a conversation is being recorded and could be reread, and whether it occurs in real time. People appear to be afraid to lie when they know the communication could later be used to hold them to account, he says. This is why fewer lies appear in email than on the phone.
People are also more likely to lie in real time—in an instant message or phone call, say— than if they have time to think of a response, says Hancock. He found many lies are spontaneous (脱口而出的) responses to an unexpected demand, such as: “Do you like my dress?”
Hancock hopes his research will help companies work out the best ways for their employees to communicate. For instance, the phone might be the best medium for sales where employees are encouraged to stretch the truth. But, given his result, work assessment where honesty is a priority, might be best done using email.
1. What does the phrase “to stretch the truth” in the last paragraph mean?| A．to tell the truth | B．to understate something |
| C．to overestimate something | D．to deceive people |
| A．Because it takes more time to think than to speak. |
| B．Because lies in emails may do harm to their credit. |
| C．Because of the detachment of emailing. |
| D．Because they are practiced to be more honest in emailing. |
| A．Emails contain more lies than other communication media. |
| B．Face-to-face communication contains more lies. |
| C．Face-to-face communication contains more lies because it is not recorded. |
| D．Deception makes people uncomfortable, which reduces mistakes in phone calls. |
| A．Honesty is always the best policy. |
| B．Employees should choose suitable media for different communication purposes. |
| C．If honesty is important, employees should choose face-to-face talk. |
| D．Employees should be honest with their clients, their bosses and their rivals. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating(评价)？ Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions alongside fellow psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in these interactions(互动). In her new book, “Presence”, Cuddy says people quickly answer two questions when they first meet you: Can I trust this person? Can I respect this person?
Psychologists refer to these factors as warmth and competence(胜任) respectively, and ideally you want to be considered as having both. Interestingly, Cuddy says that most people, especially in a professional environment, believe that competence is the foremost factor. After all, they want to prove that they are smart and talented enough to qualify your business.
But in fact warmth, or trustworthiness, is the most important factor in how people evaluate you. “From an evolutionary view,” Cuddy says, “it is more important to our survival to know whether a person deserves our trust.” It makes sense when you consider that in cavemen days it was more important to figure out if your fellow man was going to kill you and steal all your possessions than if he was competent enough to build a good fire.
Cuddy’s new book explores how to feel more confident. While competence is highly valued, Cuddy says it is evaluated only after trust is established. And focusing too much on displaying your strength can backfire(产生事与愿违的不良后 果). Cuddy says MBA interns(实习生) are often so concerned about coming across as smart and competent that it can lead them to skip social events, not ask for help, and generally come off as unapproachable.
These overachievers are in for a rude awakening when they don’t get the job offer because nobody got to know and trust them as people. “If someone you’re trying to influence doesn’t trust you, you’re not going to get very far; in fact, you might even cause doubt because you come across as manipulative(会 摆布人的),” Cuddy says. “A warm, trustworthy person who is also competent gains admiration, but only after you’ve established trust does your strength become a gift rather than a threat.”
1. What does the passage mainly tell about?| A．People judge you on your look and mind at first sight. |
| B．People judge you on your presence at first sight. |
| C．People judge you on your interaction at first sight. |
| D．People judge you on your warmth and competence initially. |
| A．very valuable | B．changing |
| C．extremely important | D．accessible |
| A．To stress the importance of survival. |
| B．To show the hardship of ancient times. |
| C．To stress the importance of trust. |
| D．To tell us the importance of ability. |
| A．thinks highly of confidence |
| B．lays trust on the basic position |
| C．has a negative attitude to overachievers |
| D．says people who want to influence others are approachable |
【推荐2】One of the features of a successful business is its ability to employ creativity to constantly push into new territory. Without growth and innovation, businesses eventually fade away. Those with staying power, however, have mastered an often-overlooked factor that allows them to focus on the future clearly: empathy (共情). While that may surprise many, I am certain that the ability to connect with and relate to others—empathy in its purest form—is the force that moves businesses forward.
Though the concept of empathy might go against the modern concept of a traditional workplace competitive, the reality is that for business leaders to experience success, they need to not just see or hear the activity around them, but also relate to the people they serve.
Some may think they want the results from doggedly (顽强地) pursuing their goals without much thought for other people. This attitude works for some, but at some point often sooner rather than later everyone needs to rely on their relationships and established personal and professional connections. These relationships are the product of taking an honest and dedicated interest in others and their businesses. Successful people do not operate alone; each of us needs the support of others to achieve positive results that push us toward our goals. True empathy combines understanding both the emotional and the logical rationale(根据) that goes into every decision.
Effectively understanding empathy involves viewing it as each person’s connection to the people and marketplace that surround them. A biological principle known as co-evolution explains that the adaptation of an organism is caused by the change of a related object. Similarly, businesses and their leaders participate in co-evolution-type relationships. Business success depends on empathetic leaders who are able to adapt, build on the strengths around them, and relate to their environment. When businesses fail, it is often because leaders have stopped focusing on understanding their environment and instead stay separated in their own operations. Successful business leaders are receptive to disturbance and aware of what is going on in their organizations both internally and externally.
To develop an effective workforce, we must be willing to give in and meet people where they are. This can be frustrating and uncomfortable, particularly when you feel like your position makes more sense or offers a better solution. A critical part of developing empathy, however, is learning to understand, respect and implement another individual’s point of view rather than forcing your own.
1. In the author’s opinion, if a company wants to achieve success, it must ________.| A．frequently develop in new areas | B．always stay pure and powerful |
| C．concentrate on its future development | D．value much thought for others |
| A．empathy generally depends on logical reasons |
| B．supports from others help to achieve ambitions |
| C．competition rarely exists in traditional workplaces |
| D．striving for goals on one’s own is the key to success |
| A．The boss is too occupied to realize that his employees’ income is below the average. |
| B．The head of the news agency offers little bonus to the journalists who work extra hours. |
| C．The principal promises flexible working hours after the school moves to the countryside. |
| D．The factory director insists on increasing the output despite the declining market demand. |
| A．Empathy and Business Success | B．The Formation of Empathy |
| C．Empathy and Aggressiveness | D．The Importance of Empathy |
【推荐3】Not too many decades ago it seemed “obvious” both to the general public and to sociologists that modern society has changed people’s natural relations, loosened their responsibilities to kin (亲戚) and neighbors, and substituted in their place superficial relationships with passing acquaintances. However, in recent years a growing body of research has revealed that the “obvious” is not true. It seems that if you are a city resident, you typically know a smaller proportion of your neighbors than you do if you are a resident of a smaller community. But, for the most part, this fact has few significant consequences. It does not necessarily follow that if you know few of your neighbors you will know no one else.
Even in very large cities, people maintain close social ties within small, private social worlds. Indeed, the number and quality of meaningful relationships do not differ between more and less urban people. Small-town residents are more involved with kin than are big-city residents. Yet city dwellers compensate by developing friendships with people who share similar interests and activities. Urbanism many produce a different style of life, but the quality of life does not differ between town and city. Nor are residents of large communities any likelier to display psychological symptoms of stress or alienation, a feeling of not belonging, than are residents of smaller communities. However, city dwellers do worry more about crime, and this leads them to a distrust of strangers.
These findings do not imply that urbanism makes little or no difference. If neighbors are strangers to one another, they are less likely to sweep the sidewalk of an elderly couple living next door or keep an eye out for young trouble makers. Moreover, as Wirth suggested, there may be a link between a community’s population size and its social heterogeneity (多样性). For instance, sociologists have found much evidence that the size of a community is associated with bad behavior including gambling, drugs, etc. Large-city urbanities are also more likely than their small-town counterparts to have a cosmopolitan(见多识广)outlook, to display less responsibility to traditional kinship roles, to vote for leftist political candidates, and to be tolerant of nontraditional religious groups, unpopular political groups, and so—called undesirables. Everything considered, heterogeneity and unusual behavior seem to be outcomes of large population size.
1. Which of the following statements best describes the organization of the first paragraph?| A．An argument is examined and possible solutions given. |
| B．Two contrasting views are presented. |
| C．Research results concerning the quality of urban life are presented in order of time. |
| D．A detail description of the difference between urban and small-town life is given. |
| A．could not develop long-standing relationships. |
| B．did not have the same interests as their neighbors. |
| C．tended to be associated with bad behavior. |
| D．usually had more friends. |
| A．disrupt people’s natural relations. |
| B．make them worry about crime. |
| C．cause them no to show concern for one another. |
| D．cause them to be suspicious of each other. |
| A．the better its quality of life |
| B．the more tolerant and open-minded it is. |
| C．the likelier it is to display psychological symptoms of stress. |
| D．the more similar its interests |
What may well be the oldest metal coins in the world have been identified at an ancient abandoned city known as Guanzhuang in China. Like many Bronze Age (青铜时代) coins from the region, they were cast in the shape of spades with finely carved handles. These ancient coins existed during an in-between period between barter (以物易物) and money, when coins were a novel concept, but everybody knew that agricultural tools were valuable.
Reading about this incredible discovery, I kept thinking about the way modern people represent computer networks by describing machines as having “addresses”, like a house. We also talk about one computer using a “port” to send information to another computer, as if the data were a floating boat with destination. It’s as if we are in the Bronze Age of information technology, grasping desperately for real-world reference to transform our civilization.
Now consider what happened to spade coins. Over centuries, metalworkers made these coins into more abstract shapes. Some became almost human figures. Others’ handles were reduced to small half-circles. As spade coins grew more abstract, people carved them with number values and the locations where they were made. They became more like modern coins, flat and covered in writing. Looking at one of these later pieces, you would have no idea that they were once intended to look like a spade.
This makes me wonder if we will develop an entirely new set of symbols that allow us to interact with our digital information more smoothly.
Taking spade coins as our guide, we can guess that far-future computer networks will no longer contain any recognizable references to houses. But they still might bring some of the ideas we associate with home to our mind. In fact, computer networks — if they still exist at all — are likely to be almost the indispensable part of our houses and cities, their sensors inset with walls and roads. Our network addresses might actually be the same as our street addresses. If climate change leads to floods, our mobile devices might look more like boats than phones, assisting us to land.
My point is that the metaphors of the information age aren’t random. Mobile devices do offer us comfort after a long day at work. In some sense, our desire to settle on the shores of data lakes could change the way we understand home, as well as how we build computers. So as we cast our minds forward, we have to think about what new abstractions will go along with our information technology. Perhaps the one thing we count on is that humans will still appreciate the comforts of home.
1. Many Bronze Age coins were made into the shape of a spade because ___________.| A．a lot of emphasis was put on agriculture |
| B．this stylish design made the coins valuable |
| C．these coins also served as agricultural tools |
| D．the handles made the coins easily exchanged |
| A．To show they both used to be new concepts when first invented. |
| B．To explain abstract digital worlds are different from concrete coins. |
| C．To suggest computers will experience dramatic changes as coins did. |
| D．To highlight their same importance in our civilizational transformation. |
| A．Flexible. | B．Essential. | C．Wasteful. | D．Alternative. |
| A．What Coins and Computers Bring Us |
| B．How Agriculture Loses to Digital Industry |
| C．How Bronze Age Develops to Information Age |
| D．What Ancient Money Tells Us About the Future |
【推荐2】AlphaZero--an Updated Model of AI
Soon after Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion, lost his rematch against IBM’s Deep Blue in 1997, the short window of human-machine chess competition slammed shut forever. Unlike humans, machines keep getting faster, and today a smartphone chess app can be stronger than Deep Blue. However, as people see with the new AlphaZero system, machine dominance has not ended the historical role of chess as a laboratory of cognition.
Much as airplanes don’t flap their wings like birds, machines don’t produce chess moves like humans do. Based on a generic algorithm (算法), AlphaZero incorporates deep learning and other AI techniques like Monte Carlo tree search to play against itself to develop its own chess knowledge. Unlike the traditional program Stockfish, which employs many preset evaluation functions as well as opening and endgame moves, AlphaZero starts out knowing only the rules of chess, with no preset human strategies. In a few hours, it plays more games against itself than have been recorded in human chess history. It teaches itself the best way to play, reevaluating the relative values of the pieces. It quickly becomes strong enough to win 28, draw 72, and lose none in a victory over Stockfish. Since AlphaZero can program itself, this superior understanding allows it to outclass the world’s top traditional program despite calculating far fewer positions per second. It’s the typical example of the cliché, “work smarter, not harder”.
AlphaZero shows that machines can be the experts, not merely expert tools. Explainability is still an issue—it’s not going to put chess coaches out of business just yet. But the knowledge it produces is information humans can learn from. AlphaZero is surpassing humans in a profound and useful way, and researchers are working on transferring the knowledge acquired from AlphaZero to other fields.
Machine learning systems aren’t perfect. Even though great progresses have been achieved, AI algorithms are still struggling on open problems such as computer vision, natural language understanding... There will be cases where an AI will fail to detect exceptions to its rules. Therefore, as Kasparov writes, “We must work together to combine our strengths. I know better than most people what it’s like to compete against a machine. Instead of raging against them, it’s better if we’re all on the same side.”
Questions 1-5: Judge if the following statements agree with the information given in the passage.
Choose A for TRUE if the statements agree with it; choose B for FALSE if the statements don’t agree with it; choose C for NOT GIVEN if the information the statements carry is not mentioned anywhere in the passage.根据文章内容判断下列表述。如果表述与文章内容一致，选 A 项；表述与文章内容不一致，选 B 项；文章中未提及的信息，则选 C 项。
Questions 6-9: Choose the correct headings for Paragraphs 1-4 from the box. Note that there are two choices more than you need.请为文章的四段匹配小标题，从A—F中选择。（提示：6个选项中有2项是多余的）
A. The proper attitude to AI
B. The history of AlphaZero
C. The limitations of machines
D. The influences of AlphaZero
E. The working theory of AlphaZero
F. The fast development of machines
1. Machine dominance plays an important role in cognition study.
2. AlphaZero knows opening and endgame moves before playing.
3. AlphaZero develops chess strategies by playing against itself.
4. Chess coaches have already been laid off throughout the world.
5. Sometimes artificial intelligence may not discover exceptions to its rules.
6. Paragraph 1
7. Paragraph 2
8. Paragraph 3
9. Paragraph 4
10. The author uses the underlined sentence in the last paragraph to ______.
| A．argue for the advantages of AI over humans |
| B．inform readers of machine dominance in chess |
| C．advise people to work together to fight against AI |
| D．call on people to combine strengths with the machines |
【推荐3】Technological change is everywhere and affects every aspect of life, mostly for the better. However, social changes brought about by new technology are often mistaken for a change in attitudes.
An example at hand is the involvement of parents in the lives of their children who are attending college. Surveys (调查) on this topic suggests that parents today continue to be “very” or “somewhat” overly-protective even after their children move into college dormitories. The same surveys also indicate that the rate of parental involvement is greater today than it was a generation ago. This is usually interpreted as a sign that today’s parents are trying to manage their children’s lives past the point where this behavior is appropriate.
However, greater parental involvement does not necessarily indicate that parents are failing to let go of their “adult” children.
In the context (背景) of this discussion, it seems valuable to first find out the cause of change in the case of parents’ involvement with their grown children. If parents of earlier generations had wanted to be in touch with their college-age children frequently, would this have been possible? Probably not. On the other hand, does the possibility of frequent communication today mean that the urge to do so wasn’t present a generation ago? Many studies show that older parents - today’s grandparents - would have called their children more often if the means and cost of doing so had not been a barrier.
Furthermore, studies show that finances are the most frequent subject of communication between parents and their college children. The fact that college students are financially dependent on their parents is nothing new; nor are requests for more money to be sent from home. This phenomenon is neither good nor bad; it is a fact of college life, today and in the past.
Thanks to the advanced technology, we live in an age of bettered communication. This has many implications well beyond the role that parents seem to play in the lives of their children who have left for college. But it is useful to bear in mind that all such changes come from the technology and not some imagined desire by parents to keep their children under their wings.
1. The surveys inform us of ______.| A．the development of technology |
| B．the changes of adult children’s behavior |
| C．the parents’ over-protection of their college children |
| D．the means and expenses of students’ communication |
| A．parents today are more protective than those in the past |
| B．the disadvantages of new technology outweigh its advantages |
| C．technology explains greater parental involvement with their children |
| D．parents’ changed attitudes lead to college children’s delayed Independence |
| A．negative | B．supportive |
| C．understandable | D．sceptical |
| A．Technology or Attitude |
| B．Dependence or Independence |
| C．Family Influence or Social Changes |
| D．College Management or Communication Advancement |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
【推荐1】In creating A.J. Fikry’s ordinary-yet-extraordinary life, the author Gabielle Zevin has thrown every clichés(老生常谈) into the mix. The hero, A.J. Fikry, lost his beloved wife Nic in a road accident. The sales of his bookstore have been decreasing. The enthusiastic new sales representative Amelia won’t stop annoying him with new books. His rare and very valuable first edition has gone missing. But the unexpected arrival of Maya left in his care brings about a series of events with love and hope to his life.
There are few real surprises in the plot and attentive readers will be able to tell where the story is headed. But that is not the point; the clichés and the predictable plot take nothing away from Zevin’s work The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry because it’s how she tells the story that first charms the readers, then holds their attention, making them read the whole book in a single sitting and finally give the book a long hug when they are finished. This book is a love letter to the joys of reading.
Each chapter begins with the title of a short story or a book and a note from A.J. Fikry describing what he likes about it, essentially introducing each character by what they read. The characters are so realistic that it’s hard not to fall in love with all of them: Maya, “the fantastic book-worm,” Amelia, “the giantess” with questionable taste in fashion, Lambiase, the adorable police chief, and A.J. Fikry, the reluctant hero who hates electronic reading devices that will “send centuries of a lively culture into what will surely be a rapid decline.”
The passage of time, race issues, and the bureaucratic argument of children’s services are all put aside in the telling of this story, not because there’s anything to hide or because reality is not allowed to interfere, but because the author chooses to focus on the important stuff. For example, it focuses on Lambiase who organizes a reading club for policemen at the book store. His original intention is to help promote business, but over the years he becomes a genuine book-lover, one who tends to always have simple advice for his cynical(愤世嫉俗的) friend, A.J. Fikry. “Bad timing,” Lambiase claims, “I’ve been a police officer for twenty years now and I’ll tell you pretty much every bad thing in life is a result of bad timing, and every good thing is the result of good timing.”
More than anything else, this novel is not only about the selling of them or the reading of them, but how books and stories become part of our lives, how we find ourselves within what we read and how we carry books with us. It is also about the power of unexpected happiness and always believing that something wonderful is just around the corner. The Late Bloomer is the book within a book which brings together A.J. Fikry and Amelia. It reminds them that life doesn’t follow a set script, things happen when they are meant to happen, and there is no such thing as “too late” for anything. Life is the big picture. Always look at the big picture. Enjoy it. Don’t get too concentrated on the details, because it will all be over before you know it. In the long run nobody, not even you, will remember the ordinary details because they are, in the end, quite irrelevant.
A.J. Fikry’s final words of wisdom to teen-aged Maya convey the same feelings in literary terms: “We are not quite novels. We are not quite short stories. In the end, we are collected works. We have read enough to know there are no collections where each story is perfect. Some of us hit. Some miss.”
1. The author’s attitude towards Zevin’s book is _________.| A．supportive | B．critical |
| C．objective | D．indifferent |
| A．Four. | B．Five. |
| C．Six. | D．Seven. |
| A．there is really nothing to hide | B．reality is not allowed to interfere |
| C．important stuff has been focused on | D．everything is a result of timing |
| A．The novel underlines happiness will always be around. |
| B．The novel mainly talks about the marketing of the book. |
| C．It is The Late Bloomer that brings A.J and Amelia together. |
| D．It is important to do things on the basis of overall situation. |
| A．our life is full of ups and downs | B．we should collect works all our life |
| C．our life is closely connected with books | D．we should read books all our life |
| A．the extraordinary life of A.J. Fikry | B．the moral lesson of no “too late” in life |
| C．a comment on The Later Bloomer | D．a review of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry |
【推荐2】Wild animals are equipped with a variety of techniques to avoid becoming lunch for a bigger animal, also known as a predator (捕食者) in nature. The most well-known methods include the classic fight and flight as well as freeze.
A team of researchers wondered whether closeness to people might impact those survival strategies. “We often see that animals are more tolerant around us in urban areas, but we don’t really know why.” says evolutionary biologist Dan Blumstein. “Is it individual plasticity, meaning individuals change their fear of us and that leads to tolerance? Or can there be an evolutionary factor involved?”
To find out, Blumstein and his colleagues combined information from 173 studies of over 100 species, including mammals, birds, fish and even mollusks. It turns out that regardless of evolutionary ancestry, the animals react in a similar way to life among humans: they lose their anti-predator characteristics. That pattern is especially pronounced for plant-eating animals and for social species. This behavioral change is perhaps unsurprising when it’s intentional, the result of domestication or controlled breeding. But it turns out that urbanization alone results in a similar change, though around three times more slowly.
The main point is: we’re essentially domesticating animals by urbanization. We’re selecting for the same sorts of characteristics that we would if we were actually trying to domesticate them. If the urbanization process helps animals better co-exist with people, it could be to their benefit. But if it makes them more defenseless to their nonhuman predators, it could be a real problem. Either way, these results mean that city living has enough of an influence on wild animals that evolutionary processes kick in. Those reductions in anti-predator characteristics become encoded in their genes. We’re changing the population genetics one way or another.
What the researchers now wonder is whether the mere presence of tourists in less urbanized areas can cause similar changes in wild animals. If so, serious questions exist for the idea of ethical, welfare-oriented eco-tourism. If we wish to help animals keep their anti-predator defenses, the researchers say, we might have to intentionally expose animals to predators. It’s just yet one other way that we’re changing the world around us.
1. The research led by Blumstein is aimed at ________.| A．determining how animals’ survival is impacted by individual plasticity |
| B．studying how living among humans affects animals’ survival strategies |
| C．comparing the effectiveness of different survival techniques |
| D．finding out which evolutionary factor impacts animals’ survival methods |
| A．Controlled breeding of animals. | B．Banning the operation of eco-tourism. |
| C．Planned selection of favorable genes. | D．Eliminating domestication. |
| A．Urbanization has made wild animals more alert. |
| B．Urbanization has brought concrete benefits to animals. |
| C．City living has led to animals’ genetic variations. |
| D．City living has helped to preserve animal species. |
| A．expose the fox to the urban environment repeatedly |
| B．train the fox to co-exist with the less aggressive predators |
| C．intentionally get the fox accustomed to the presence of humans |
| D．purposefully adapt the fox to predator related environment |
【推荐3】Feeling achy and feverish? Your misery has plenty of company. By the end of December, the tally (计数器) of flu-like illnesses in the state exceeded the peaks in the two previous seasons, when the biggest number of cases occurred in February and March. This time, the flu virus seems to be hitting even harder.
Flu is unique among human diseases. It circulates constantly in cool and dry areas. Because it spreads from person to person and can be picked up easily, nearly everyone is exposed. While it’s unclear whether the annual flu epidemic (流行病) will worsen this year, or just arrived earlier, fears have been increased by the severity of flu in Australia during its most recent season and the fact that the vaccine may protect against the predominant (盛行的) kind of the flu only 30 percent of the time.
Despite the worries, doctors and public health officials say there is no evidence that people are getting sicker than usual. Flu cases in Massachusetts started rising around Thanksgiving and increased steadily, with an especially steep climb in the last week of the year. “This is a bad flu season but not a horrible one,” said Dr. Andrew G. Villanueva, a lung specialist and chief quality officer at the Lahey Hospital & Medieal Centre in Burlington.
The flu season, while clearly in full swing, doesn’t “feel different” from previous years, Villanueva said. “We’re not seeing a lot of people being hospitalized because of flu,” he said. “Most people with the flu recover on their own without medical care.”
1. What’s the function of the first paragraph?| A．A lead-in. | B．A comment. | C．A summary. | D．A background. |
| A．The outbreak of the flu is terrible. |
| B．The flu has arrived earlier than before. |
| C．The vaccine against the nu is highly effective. |
| D．Everyone feels horrible at the mention of the flu. |
| A．Crowded | B．Changeable | C．Permanent | D．Active |
| A．To explain what flu is. |
| B．To rid people of flu panic. |
| C．To warn readers of how serious the flu is. |
| D．To inform readers how to prevent the flu. |
【推荐1】When a company takes on the task of providing financial services to people overlooked by large banks, that would seem to be a good thing: Such customers need bank accounts, debit cards, and credit just like everyone else. In 2016, nearly 10 million American households didn't have any interaction with a bank, and nearly 25 million households had bank accounts but used alternative financing options (such as prepaid debit cards, alternative credit cards, or payday loans) to make ends meet.
One would hope that financial offers geared toward the under-banked—who often have low credit scores, histories of financial instability, and limited education—would include modest interest rates, easily decipherable (简单易懂的) language, and enough oversight (监管) to ensure that already-struggling families don't get taken advantage of. But that is often not the case. For examples, payday lenders frequently charge astronomically high interest rates for those who are unable to quickly pay off their debts, and prepaid-card companies often include additional fees that owners of standard debit cards don't have to deal with, such as charges for simply loading money onto their cards.
These practices can leave people, who are already struggling to get their finances in order, in even worse shape than they were when they signed up for a new product. The problem isn't that companies targeting the under-banked exist at all, but that many exploit a lack of financial knowledge and alternative options to extract excess money from their customers.
Credit-card issuers that target those with poor credit scores are another group with questionable practices, according to a recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In its research, the CFPB found that the costs of cards issued by these companies are significantly higher than the costs of cards issued by more traditional competitors. These specialized lenders are much more likely to approve not just subprime individuals (次级贷款人), but the deepest subprime individuals-those with credit scores that fall below 600.
Why isn't a higher approval rate for those with very bad credit a good thing? Isn't that more inclusive? Not always. Some credit-card companies' business models depend on charging their customers high fees — people who are unlikely to be able to afford them. These increased fees are for things that are inescapable, such as monthly account maintenance. (Major credit-card companies, on the other hand, are making most of their money from collecting late payments and interest, not recurring fees.) Customers of these subprime companies don't need to do anything unusual to rack up fees-that's just a part of signing up.
But perhaps worse than the high costs of the cards is the way that these companies recruit customers. They target them by mailing pre-approved offers that contain intentionally opaque, high-level financial language and agreements that are, on average 70 percent longer than card agreements from other lenders, according to the CFPB.
“Despite offering longer and more complex credit-card terms than mass market issuers, they send those mailings disproportionately to consumers with lower levels of formal education,” the CFPB report found. “Specifically, agreements for credit-card products marketed primarily by subprime specialist issuers are particularly difficult to read.” According to the report, making sense of these statements would typically require at least two years of college or post-high-school education. Less than half of the people targeted by these lenders have any college education, and the number of such households sent direct mail by these lenders doubled between 2016 and 2018.
1. The examples cited in paragraph 2 are intended to show that ______________.| A．payday loans are no better product than prepaid debit cards |
| B．American large banks often ignore the already-struggling families |
| C．financial company should provide high-quality service to poor families |
| D．poor American households are exploited by the financial companies |
| A．a lack of update for economic information |
| B．a greater personal financial loss |
| C．the sign-up of a new financial product |
| D．the exploitation of alternative choices |
| A．useful for its professional content |
| B．convincing for its pre-approved format |
| C．misleading for its vague instruction |
| D．objective for its high-level financial language |
| A．Poorly educated consumers are welcomed by the financial company. |
| B．Complex credit-card terms are needed for the lender’s safety. |
| C．Credit card could be issued only to people with college education. |
| D．There might be a boom for financial company between 2012 and 2014. |
【推荐2】In spring, chickens start laying again, bringing a welcome source of protein at winter’s end. So it’s no surprise that cultures around the world celebrate spring by honoring the egg.
Some traditions are simple, like the red eggs that get baked into Greek Easter breads. Others elevate the egg into a fancy art, like the heavily jewel-covered “eggs” that were favored by the Russians starting in the 19th century.
One ancient form of egg art comes to us from Ukraine. For centuries, Ukrainians have been drawing complicated patterns on eggs. Contemporary artists have followed this tradition to create eggs that speak to the anxieties of our age: Life is precious, and delicate. Eggs are, too.
“There’s something about their delicate nature that appeals to me,” says New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast. Several years ago, she became interested in eggs and learned the traditional Ukrainian technique to draw her very modern characters. “I’ve broken eggs at every stage of the process — from the very beginning to the very, very end.”
But there’s an appeal in that vulnerability(易损性). “There’s part of this sickening horror of knowing you’re walking on the edge with this, that I kind of like, knowing that it could all fall apart at any second.” Chast’s designs, such as a worried man alone in a tiny rowboat, reflect that delicateness.
Traditional Ukrainian decorated eggs also spoke to those fears. The elaborate patterns were believed to offer protection against evil.
“There’s an ancient legend that as long as these eggs are made, evil will not exist in the world.” says Joan Brander, a Canadian egg-painter who has been painting eggs for over 60 years, having learned the art from her Ukrainian relatives.
1. People in many cultures honor the egg because _______________.| A．it is their major source of protein in winter |
| B．it is a welcome sign of the approach of spring |
| C．it can bring wealth and honor to them |
| D．it can easily be made into a work of art |
| A．carve | B．promote | C．place | D．lower |
| A．She is never sure what the final design will look like until the end. |
| B．She always achieves great pleasure from designing something new. |
| C．She never knows if the egg will break before the design is completed. |
| D．She believes there won’t be evil in the world once the egg is made. |
| A．the decorated “eggs” are favored as a form of fancy art in Russia |
| B．contemporary artists draw on eggs to reflect anxieties of people today |
| C．the delicate nature of eggs appeals to Roz Chast |
| D．eggs provide a hard and unique surface to paint on |
【推荐3】Abraham Lincoln turns 200 this year, and he’s beginning to show his age. When his birthday arrives, on February 12, Congress will hold a special joint session in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall, a wreath (花环) will be laid at the great memorial in Washington, and a webcast will link school classrooms for a "teach-in" honoring his memory.
Admirable as they are, though, the events will strike many of us Lincoln fans as inadequate, even halfhearted — and another sign that our appreciation for the 16th president and his towering achievements is slipping away. And you don’t have to be a Lincoln enthusiast to believe that this is something we can’t afford to lose.
Compare this year’s celebration with the Lincoln centennial, in 1909. That year, Lincoln’s likeness made its debut on the penny, thanks to approval from the U. S. Secretary of the Treasury. Communities. and civic associations in every comer of the country erupted in parades, concerts, balls, lectures, and military displays. We still feel the effects today: The momentum unloosed in 1909 led to the Lincoln Memorial, opened in 1922, and the Lincoln Highway, the first paved transcontinental thoroughfare (大道) .
The celebrants in 1909 had a few inspirations we lack today. Lincoln’s presidency was still a living memory for countless Americans. In 2009 we are farther in time from the end of the Second World War than they were from the Civil War; families still felt the loss of loved ones from that awful national trauma (创伤) .
But Americans in 1909 had something more: an unembarrassed appreciation for heroes and an acute sense of the way that even long-dead historical figures press in on the present and make us who we are.
One story will illustrate what I’m talking about.
In 2003 a group of local citizens arranged to place a statue of Lincoln in Richmond, Virginia, former capital of the Confederacy (南方联邦). The idea touched off a firestorm of controversy. The Sons of Confederate Veterans held a public conference of carefully selected scholars to “reassess” the legacy of Lincoln. The verdict — no surprise — was negative: Lincoln was labeled everything from a racist totalitarian to a teller of dirty jokes.
I covered the conference as a reporter, but what really unnerved me was a counter-conference of scholars to refute the earlier one. These scholars drew a picture of Lincoln that only our touchy-feely age could recall. The man who oversaw the most savage war in our history was described — by his admirers, remember — as “nonjudgmental,” “unmoralistic,” “comfortable with ambiguity (模棱两可) .”
I felt the way a friend of mine felt as we later watched the unveiling of the Richmond statue in a subdued (征服) ceremony: “But he’s so small!”
The statue in Richmond was indeed small; like nearly every Lincoln statue put up in the past half century, it was life-size and was placed at ground level, a conscious rejection of the heroic — approachable and human, yes, but not something to look up to.
The Richmond episode taught me that Americans have lost the language to explain Lincoln’s greatness even to ourselves. Earlier generations said they wanted their children to be like Lincoln: principled, kind, compassionate, resolute. Today we want Lincoln to be like us.
“This helps to explain the long string of recent books in which writers have presented a Lincoln made after their own image. We’ve had Lincoln as humorist and Lincoln as manic-depressive, Lincoln the business sage, the conservative Lincoln and the liberal Lincoln, the emancipator and the racist, the stoic philosopher, the Christian, the atheist (无神论者) — Lincoln over easy (两面煎的) and Lincoln scrambled (把…搅乱) .
What’s often missing, though, is the timeless Lincoln, the Lincoln whom all generations, our own no less than that of 1909, can lay claim to. Lucky for us, those memorializers from a century ago — and, through them, Lincoln himself — have left us a hint of where to find him. The Lincoln Memorial is the most visited of our presidential monuments. Here is where we find the Lincoln who endures: in the words he left us, defining the country we’ve inherited. Here is the Lincoln who can be endlessly renewed and who, 200 years after his birth, retains the power to renew us.
1. The author thinks that this year’s celebration inadequate and even halfhearted because ________.| A．no Lincoln statue will be unveiled. |
| B．no memorial coins will be issued. |
| C．no similar appreciation of Lincoln will be seen. |
| D．no activities can be compared to those in 1909. |
| A．approved of the judgment by those carefully selected scholars. |
| B．offered a brand new reassessment perspective. |
| C．came up with somewhat favourable conclusions. |
| D．resulted in similar critical remarks on Lincoln. |
| A．conforms to traditional images. |
| B．reflects the present-day tendency of worship. |
| C．shows the present-day desire to match Lincoln. |
| D．reveals the variety of current opinions on heroes. |
| A．Lincoln’s greatness remains despite the passage of time. |
| B．The memorial is symbolic of the great man’s achievements. |
| C．Each generation has its own interpretation of Lincoln. |
| D．People get to know Lincoln through memorializers. |
