Your address was forwarded to us by Why Bother Magazine. All of us here think The International Institute Not Doing Much is the best organization in the world. You know how to avoid unnecessary activities! We closely followed the advice in your article. First, we replaced all our telephones with carrier pigeons. Simply removing the jingle of telephones and replacing them with the pleasant sounds of birds has had a remarkable effect on everyone. Besides, birds are cheaper than telephone service. After all, we are a business. We have to think of the bottom line. As a side benefit, the birds also fertilize the lawn outside the new employee sauna.
Next, we sold the computers of, to Stab, Grab, Grit, and Nasty, a firm of lawyers nearby. Our electricity bill went way down. Big savings! The boss is impressed. We have completely embraced paper technology. Now that we all use pencils, doodling is on the increase, and the quality of pencil woman ship is impressive, as you can tell from my handwriting in this letter. By the way, if you can, please send this letter back to us. We can erase and reuse it. Just tie it to Maggie’s leg and she’ll know where to take it.
Now it’s very calm and quiet here. You can notice the difference. No more loud chatter on the telephones! All we hear is the scratching of pencil on paper, the sound of pigeons, and the delivery of inter-office correspondence by paper airplane.
Wonderful! I’ve always wanted to work for an insurance company ever since I was a little girl. Now it’s perfect.
Sincerely yours,
Eleanor Lightly
Spokeswoman and ComPany Hair Stylist
ABC Activity Insurance: Insure against overdoing it
1. Which of the following best describes the life the author is leading?| A．simple, slow-paced life. |
| B．A life of hard work and security. |
| C．A religious, peasant-like life. |
| D．A life away from paper and pencils. |
| A．Why Bother Magazines |
| B．ABC Activity Insurance Company |
| C．Stab, Grab, Grit, and Nasty Law Firm |
| D．The International Institute of Not Doing Much |
| A．She works as a manager in the author’s company. |
| B．She sometimes helps fertilize the lawn outside the sauna. |
| C．She often helps with inter-office correspondence using e-mail. |
| D．Her handwriting has improved a lot after entering the company. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Four Habits to Help You Succeed Everyone hopes to be successful, whether it’s in losing weight or learning the piano. For those who have tried and failed, success seems hard to understand.
Identify your key values.
Finding your key values is in line with (符合) creating inner intention. Sit and think about what you value most. Pick some things and actually write them down.
Pick a goal and concentrate on it.
Choose one goal to start something large enough that will give you a sense of achievement, while adjusting well to your core values.
Set a date for success. Identify when you hope to achieve your goal. Keep it realistic, while not giving you too much time. By setting a time limit, you are making the process more real.
Stick to your goal.
Failure can’t be avoided when you take risks. By its very definition (定义), the desire to succeed means you are risking failure. Many people tend to give up far too early. Don’t fail into this trap! Remember your goal earlier. Know it will happen. A failure is only you working out the details, and learning what works and what doesn’t. Use failure.
| A．Focus is key here. |
| B．Make the right decision. |
| C．Set a deadline for success. |
| D．Treat it as a good thing, and move on! |
| E．Remind yourself of your values every day. |
| F．Push yourself to be courageous, and take that next step. |
| G．Why does one person succeed while another person fails? |
【推荐2】Advertisements are designed to persuade us, but which techniques are effective in talking us in to buy things?
Appealing to our emotions is another strategy advertisers use.
Advertisements often show perfect-looking people because marketers believe that we will desire to be like them and buy the products they support.
So, it seems that the best technique advertisers can use to persuade people is to fully understand the people they are selling to.
| A．Some of them use fear to persuade us. |
| B．One way is simply to describe something as normal. |
| C．Superstars are gradually losing their commercial value. |
| D．We become defensive if we know that someone is trying to sell us something. |
| E．However, a researcher in marketing points out this may not be the best strategy. |
| F．A common technique to make an emotional impact is to create a memorable slogan. |
| G．And endorsements (代言) from characters who admit their mistakes can be more believable. |
【推荐3】If you want to save money on groceries following ways will help you cut $100 out of your monthly grocery bill without too much effort.
Know what to buy in bulk (大批). Shopping at warehouse stores can be a great way to save money, but not every item is worth buying in bulk.
Skip the meat .The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average cost of beef is $ 4.13 per pound this March.
Know what to buy in season. Fruits and vegetables are a great addition to your daily diet, but they can add a significant amount to your grocery bill, especially when you buy items out of season.
| A．Store pre-made items. |
| B．Skip the prepared items. |
| C．Shopping for groceries can be an expensive attempt. |
| D．Beef has seen a significant increase in price over the past few years. |
| E．The cost can add up quickly if you’re eating beef three or four times per week. |
| F．As produce items go out of season, the become more expensive as the supply decreases. |
| G．Certain items make sense to buy in large quantities as they typically have a longer shelf life. |
【推荐1】The Red Cross is known for carrying out some of the most heroic acts in the world. There are Red Cross societies in 190 countries all over the world. Their task is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of sudden serious situations by organizing volunteers and the people who want to donate(捐献).
In 1860, Swiss businessman and social activist, Jean Henri Dunant, saw the effects of war, and countries not prepared or able to deal with the suffering of those who had been injured in the Battle of Solferino during the second War of Italian Independence. Dunant organized a group of volunteers to help bring water and food to the injured, to help with medical treatment, or to write letters to the families of those who were dying. After that moment, he knew that more had to be done, and he wrote the book, A Memory of Solferino, which encouraged the public to create an organization which would help the wounded. His writing encouraged more people to support him in creating the International Federation of the Red Cross. And in 1863, International Committee of the Red Cross was founded.
The modern-day Red Cross does more than nursing soldiers during wartime. The group began to devote itself largely to disaster relief (灾难救援) and epidemic (流行病) treatment. It has achieved even greater service in humanitarian (人道主义的) programs that serve continuously in both peace and war.
One of the easiest ways you can help the Red Cross is to make sure you are able to donate blood and make an appointment at the Red Cross website. But, donating blood isn’t the only way you can help out —the Red Cross also encourages you to donate your time if you can, along with other things the modern-day Red Cross wants you to know.
1. What does the underlined word “alleviate” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Reduce. | B．Report. |
| C．Express. | D．Find. |
| A．To make more people know the Red Cross. |
| B．To ask more people to help the wounded. |
| C．To let people see the cruelty of wars. |
| D．To call on people to stop wars. |
| A．To introduce the Red Cross website. |
| B．To explain the Red Cross’s future work. |
| C．To show how the Red Cross helps needy people. |
| D．To encourage people to offer help to the Red Cross. |
【推荐2】When the Zimbabwean editor Irene Staunton and her husband Murray McCartney set up their publishing business in 1998, it seemed natural to call it Weaver Press. Their modest headquarters in the back garden of their home looked out on the landscape that was peppered with many complex nests of the weaver birds (织布鸟).
For more than 25 years, the company’s location has not changed and the number of the team member has rarely been more than two. But in the words of one distinguished Zimbabwean scholar, Weaver Press has “quietly shaped post-independence Zimbabwean literature”. “Publishing in Zimbabwe has always mainly focused on textbooks, with very few exceptions,” McCartney says. “Weaver was one of those exceptions. We focused on literary fiction and academic nonfiction and in doing so, we tried to put Zimbabwe on the map — not because we’ve published hundreds of books, but because we presented a complex and sweeping picture of Zimbabwe that may otherwise not have existed to the outside world.”
One of the first books Weaver published was The Stone Virgins, a novel by Yvonne Vera that won the Macmillan Prize for African Adult Fiction in 2002. “Fiction is an important form of truth-telling, because a good writer will look at a situation from many different points of view — you don’t want the social history of a country to come out of a single description,” Staunton says.
Among the most successful writers Weaver has worked with is No Violet Bulawayo, author of Glory, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022. Bulawayo stresses Staunton’s editing skill. “Her sharp eye, intelligence and honesty helped me define my own ethics (道德标准) around reading and editing mine and the work of others, which I especially needed when I was a young writer,”she says. Despite the praise, Staunton says she doesn’t want to be center stage. “Editors are backroom people, like stagehands, doing everything they can to push the author to be front and center.”
1. Where did the inspiration for the name of Weaver Press come from?| A．A kind of bird. | B．A natural nest site. |
| C．The complex landscape. | D．The modest back garden. |
| A．To expand its publishing business. | B．To establish its reputation as a publisher. |
| C．To extend Zimbabwe’s international influence. | D．To get the world fully informed of Zimbabwe. |
| A．Familiar with the country’s history. | B．Able to see things multidimensionally. |
| C．Experienced in single-event descriptions. | D．Expert at uncovering and telling the truth. |
| A．She has an inborn gift for editing. | B．She deserves praise for all her efforts. |
| C．She assists writers in the background. | D．She trained many successful writers. |
【推荐3】Contributing to climate change efforts and biodiversity conservation have been the priority of the ongoing work for global beverage leader the Coca-Cola Co. in China, as it has operated more than 50 water stewardship programs in the country.
Since 2007, Coca-Cola has been working with the WWF, UNDP and other partners to protect the freshwater resources of the Yangtze River, in which rare species such as pandas, snow leopards, white cranes, porpoises and Chinese dragonflies were bred. Coca-Cola’s actions over a decade have effectively contributed to the protection of more than 200, 000 hectares of high-ecological value areas, as part of the efforts to conserve the biodiversity and communities of 2 million hectares of wetland ecosystems in the basin.
Coca-Cola China has also been working on responsible agriculture. Since 2012, together with the UNDP, Coca-Cola China has helped double the production of sugar cane in Chongzuo, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, by establishing an irrigation system for the first time, which uses wastewater byproducts to irrigate the fields.
“The water coming from the sugar processing facility needed to be treated, but once it’s treated it can be used,” Goltzman said. “You don’t have to withdraw from the ecosystem to water those crops.”
The Coca-Cola Company used a smart “golden triangle” model in all sustainability proposals. The innovative (创新的)model gives full play to the advantages and expertise of governments, businesses, nongovernmental organizations and all sectors of society, to meet the increasingly serious environmental challenges, and protect water and biological diversity.
Zhang said, “We act in ways to create a more sustainable and better shared future. Sustainability remains core to what we do.”
1. Which of the following can best describe the Coca-Cola Co.?| A．Peace -conscious. | B．Earth-friendly. |
| C．Fully-equipped. | D．Recently-built. |
| A．The ecosystem has been improved. | B．The sugar processing facility is set up. |
| C．The irrigation system has been changed. | D．Treated wastewater byproducts are used. |
| A．It consists of new conservation proposals. |
| B．It is created by nongovernmental organizations. |
| C．It makes the most of social resources to help nature. |
| D．It is employed to solve the problem of water shortage. |
| A．In an essay. | B．In a newspaper. |
| C．In a fashion magazine. | D．In a biology book. |
【推荐1】Mobility Aids — Customers Service — Galashiels
Description
This is a role providing much-needed support for people who are accessing our service. Based at one of our mobility aids locations, the main duty of the role is serving the public who require a wheelchair or other mobility aids equipment. This is a role for someone who enjoys meeting people, can show compassion ( 同情), and enjoys being in an office.
Opportunity start date: 17th November 2021
Opportunity end date: 7th February 2022
Minimum (最小的) age: 18
Frequency and commitment (频率和义务) details
A few hours a week on a regular basis with a six-month commitment.
Service time
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
| Morning | √ | √ | √ | ||||
| Afternoon | √ | √ | √ | √ | |||
| Evening | √ | √ |
Typical tasks include
Supplying and receiving wheelchairs (or other mobility aids equipment)
Showing how to use and look after our wheelchairs (and other equipment)
Dealing with questions from people wanting to borrow a wheelchair by telephone and face to face
Receiving payments / donations
Actively promoting the Retail Mobility Aids offer / website
Experience required
Physically able to safely lift or move wheelchairs and other mobility equipment
Some customer service experience
Enjoying meeting people and having good communication skills
Good IT skills and ability to complete online training
1. What do we know about the volunteer opportunity?| A．It can be applied for after February 2022. |
| B．It requires people to volunteer for a year. |
| C．It is intended for those who are 18 and above. |
| D．It may attract people who enjoy the outdoors. |
| A．Monday evening |
| B．Tuesday afternoon |
| C．Thursday morning |
| D．Friday afternoon |
| A．Great IT skills. |
| B．Ability to fix wheelchairs. |
| C．Previous volunteer experience. |
| D．Strategies to sell the equipment. |
【推荐2】Abandoned Amusement Parks Around the World
There are some abandoned amusement parks worldwide. Join us for a look at some of our interests!
Joyland
This amusement park was once the largest theme park in central Kansas. It featured a wooden roller coaster (过山车). It operated for 55 years but closed in 2004 due to financial troubles. Temporarily reopened in 2006, but it only lasted one season. Since then, it’s been destroyed and the roller coaster got stolen.
Okpo Land
Located on the Geoje Island of ROK, this park has all the makings of a horror movie. One of the park’s main attractions was a duck-themed roller coaster. It’s known to have caused at least one serious accident in the late 1990s. After that, It was closed. In 2011, the park was completely pulled down and a hotel is to be built there.
Jungle Habitat
This animal park opened in 1972. Tourists could slowly drive their vehicles along the special roadways as wild animals freely wandered about. It was closed in 1976 due to several problems. Dangerous animals reportedly escaped or injured visitors, and locals hated the traffics. Plus, competition from other parks, combined with poor management, may also have contributed to the ending. It’s been for public land use such as hiking and biking trails, so there isn’t much left of the old park.
Six Flags New Orleans
The Six Flags company bought the park in 2002. A water park was in the works, but then Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005 and the park has been closed since then. It is currently owned by New Orleans. There is a talk of transforming it into a shopping mall later.
1. What did Joyland and Okpo Land have in common?| A．They reopened later. | B．They had a roller coaster. |
| C．They were replaced by hotels. | D．They were closed for lack of money. |
| A．Public land use. | B．Visitors’ attacking animals. |
| C．Traffic jam caused by animals. | D．The competition from other parks. |
| A．In 2002. | B．In 2005. | C．In 2006. | D．In 2011. |
【推荐3】The 2024 “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreigners across the Globe — Calligraphy and Painting Challenge has been officially announced (宣布), which will start on April 1, 2024.
This competition invites painting, calligraphy, and Chinese language lovers from all around the world to take part in this exciting event.
Here we are calling on those who have interest to turn in their creative topics for the competition, with the topic selection process being decided by the public.
If you’re interested, feel free to turn in the topic that you believe fits the requirements of the competition.
Here are what you should follow:
Who can take part
The call for creative topics for the Calligraphy and Painting Challenge is open to any Chinese language lovers worldwide, with no limitations on age or nationality.
When to turn in
If you’d like to take part, you’d better hand in between Jan. 15, 2024 and Mar. 30, 2024 (Beijing Time).
Announcement date
The selected topic for the Calligraphy and Painting Challenge will be announced on Mar. 31, 2024, which also marks the official start for handing in calligraphy and painting works under the selected topic next day.
Methods to hand in
Participants (参与者) can send their topics and related information to Chinesebridge@chineseplus.net. “Chinese Bridge” also accepts direct messages on its official account on Facebook, Instagram, We Chat, and Weibo.
1. Which of the following statements is correct?| A．Participants must be more than 18 years old. |
| B．The nationality of the participants must be Chinese. |
| C．Participants can turn in the topic online or to the office. |
| D．Participants can hand in whatever topic suitable for the competition. |
| A．June 20, 2024. | B．February 12, 2024. |
| C．March 25, 2024. | D．January 28, 2024. |
| A．To set up a competition organization. |
| B．To announce the opening of a competition. |
| C．To collect creative topics for a competition. |
| D．To provide some information about a competition. |
【推荐1】British triathletes (铁人三项运动员) Jess Learmont, and Georgia Taylor-Brown were disqualified from an Olympics qualification race in Tokyo on August 9,2019, because they crossed the finish line while holding hands.
The pair had a huge lead on the rest of their competitors in the event, and after surviving extreme temperatures during the race in the 2020 Olympics host city, they held hands as they finished. At first, Learmonth was considered the champion and Taylor-Brown the second place, but they technically broke competition rules and were punished for it.
As the BBC explained, International Triathlon Union (ITU) competition rule 2.11 states that “athletes who finish in an abnormal tie situation, where no effort to separate their finish times has been made, will be disqualified”.
Looking at the video, they don’t appear to be purposefully attempting to tie, and since Learmonth was the original winner, what does it matter? It looks like they’re both simply trying to support each other after finishing a race during which the temperature was pretty high that the running section was cut from 10 kilometers to five. Safety during a heat wave has been a serious concern, as 57 people in Japan have died since late July, according to Reuters, because of the extreme temperatures.
An appeal against the result was refused, the BBC reported, so Bermuda’s Flora Duffy was declared the champion with Italy’s Alice Betto promoted to second and Britain’s Vicky Holland to third.
1. Why did the two triathletes hold hands as they finished?| A．To fight against the extreme heat. |
| B．To be both winners in the race. |
| C．To carry out their plan made before the race. |
| D．To probably show support to each other. |
| A．Hot weather. | B．Long running section. |
| C．New competition rules. | D．Powerful competitors. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Disapproving. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Worried. |
| A．Jess Learmonth dropped to four. |
| B．ITU didn’t change the final decision. |
| C．The two triathletes agreed to the result. |
| D．The two triathletes will race in the Olympics. |
【推荐2】In effect, many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment and self-improvement.
Ask a bachelor (单身汉) why he resists marriage even though he finds dating less and less satisfying. If he is honest he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure and excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night's sleep or a three-day vacation. I don't know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children. But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.
1. According to the author, a bachelor resists marriage chiefly because _______ .| A．he is unwilling to take family responsibilities |
| B．he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single |
| C．he finds more fun in dating than in marriage |
| D．he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement |
| A．a moral duty | B．a thankless job |
| C．a rewarding task | D．a source of inevitable pain |
| A．have as much fun as possible during one's lifetime |
| B．make every effort to liberate oneself from pain |
| C．put up with pain under all circumstances |
| D．be able to distinguish happiness from fun |
| A．Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain. |
| B．One must know how to make money. |
| C．It is not important to make commitments. |
| D．It’s pain that leads to happiness. |
【推荐3】Students returning to Excelsior Springs High School Thursday will be met with biometric scanners. The school says the fingerprints are needed because of new education style that' lets students plot on their own schedules on a daily basis.
“The world has changed what our graduates need,” Excelsior Springs High School Principal John Newell said.
Excelsior Springs leaders started visiting schools in Iowa and Missouri the past year to figure out how they could better prepare students for tomorrow 's workforce.
They settled on flexible modular scheduling. High school students will still take core classes, but will be given a lot more time throughout the day to visit resource rooms staffed by teams of teachers to help them with homework or projects.
Over the summer construction crews knocked down walls to create new larger collaborative learning spaces. They hope to knock down barriers to learning.
“We’re not expecting to hear a quiet room with a lot of kids silently completing worksheets; we are looking for collaboration; we are looking for innovation; we are looking for projects, ”Principal Newell said.
But increased student autonomy created the need for accountability.
A student will come in here; their index finger will go on the pad, Newell demonstrated at the new biometric finger scanners being placed in each resource room .
School leaders settled on the biometric scanners fearing student ID cards could easily be handed to other students looking to skip class.
Each time a student decides to head to a different subject's resource room they'll have to scan their fingers.
“We can’t access the fingerprints; we can’t see them, Principal Newell said, addressing parents initial privacy concerns at an open house on Tuesday night.
“It's just one of those new-age things. It's going to come sooner or later; I'd rather it be later, but what can we do?” parent Mitchell Wilson said.
As for the new learning style, parents seem to be mostly in support of students setting their own goals and finding their own paths.
“It's going to show them responsibility, which they need to learn before they get out of high school,” parent Branan Allen said.
1. What changes are taking place in Excelsior Springs High School?| A．The students will get more career training. |
| B．The students will be given more freedom concerning learning. |
| C．There will be more core classes. |
| D．More teachers will help with students homework. |
| A．More cooperation and creation. | B．More homework and projects. |
| C．More involvement of parents. | D．More lectures. |
| A．To knock down barriers between students. | B．To access more resources. |
| C．To ensure students attendance. | D．To protect students privacy. |
| A．Understanding and supportive. | B．Angry and critical. |
| C．Skeptical and scared. | D．Indifferent. |
