English is full of funny expressions that don’t always make sense. What do they mean? How do we use them? And where did they come from? Idioms are phrases and sentences that do not mean exactly what they say. Even if you know the meaning of each word you see or hear, you may not understand the idiom because you don’t understand the culture behind it. Here are some English idioms based on animals.
When children jump around and act silly, for example, their parents may tell them to stop “monkeying around”. To “monkey around” means to do things that are not useful or serious, or to simply waste time.
But spending time playing with their family pets wouldn’t count as “monkeying around”. Many American families have a pet dog, which keeps the children company and makes them happy. Bu for some reason, which American language experts do not know, Americans use “dog” in a phrase that means to feel unwell. If you are “as sick as a dog”, you’re really, really sick and will have to stay home and rest or even go and see a doctor.
Apart from dogs, cats are also beloved in U.S. households. Sometimes you may hear them mentioned in Americans’ conversations, “I told you to keep that secret, but you have just ‘let the cat out of the bag’!” You probably guessed it — that idiom means to reveal a secret or tell facts that were previously unknown.
Dogs and cats don’t always get along, but they appear side by side in a commonly used idiom. When it rains heavily, people might say it’s “raining cats and dogs” outside.
Bad weather often ruins people’s plans for outdoor activities. But on a lovely day, they can go on an outing or have a picnic in the park. If a swarm of tiny bugs decide they love your picnic food and start to hover (盘旋) around you and your friends, then it would be really annoying, wouldn’t it? That experience perfectly explains why people often tell someone who keeps bothering them to “stop bugging me”.
Idioms are very common in both spoken and written English, so learning them is very important. If you need to understand English, or if you want to speak or write natural-sounding English, you have to learn idioms.
1. According to Paragraph 1, idioms are_____.| A．phrases and sentences based on animals |
| B．expressions with rich cultural background |
| C．funny expressions that always make sense |
| D．the total sum of the meanings of the words |
| A．jumping around and wasting time |
| B．doing something useful and serious |
| C．playing with monkeys with their parents |
| D．spending time playing with their family pets |
| A．Dogs and cats are friends by nature. |
| B．Bugs can be used to show your annoyance. |
| C．Americans believe cats can give away secrets. |
| D．Americans know the origin of the idiom “as sick as a dog”. |
| A．By sharing experiences. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By providing examples. | D．By quoting experts' words. |
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【推荐1】Jonathan Agnew recently described “unofficial interviews” as those where you agree that it’s “between you and I”. And a Times journalist wrote about someone who had “made Jenny and I feel so welcome”. They are both intelligent people with the ability to express ideas fluently and logically. And yet they wrote “I” where they meant “me”.
It’s happening more and more. We are scared of the mistake like “Terry and me went to the pub”. We’ve all been taught that it should be “Terry and I went to the pub”. Plus we’ve heard the Queen say “my husband and I” a lot. So we begin to use “and I” even when it should be “and me”.
But my point here is not to support the correct usage. It’s the opposite: I want to reject the idea that there’s such a thing as “correct” English at all. Language isn’t like maths, where you can show that two plus two is four. Language has no fundamental rights and wrongs, only conventions. You cannot definitively prove that any are “right” and others “wrong”.
Sometimes correct language sounds absurd. Look at Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) who came up with a new rule. Primary school children now have to be taught that “inverted commas” is right, while “speech marks” is wrong. You and I know that those terms are interchangeable. And the child who looks at those marks on the page can see that both make perfect sense. That’s because a primary school child is more intelligent than the Ofsted turkey who came up with this rule.
As the teacher who told me about the ludicrous rule pointed out, there is no doubt that in a few years’ time, the “incorrect” term will become the “correct” one. But the truly horrible thing about an education system like this is that it destroys children’s love of language. It tells them they have to worry about rules, instead of encouraging them to read and write for its own sake. Let them read for fun and they’ll absorb the rules — or conventions — anyway. Have them shaking in fear about English tests, and you’ll increase their insecurity about getting language “right”.
Then one day that insecurity will have them saying “and I” even though they mean “and me”.
1. Why do people use “and I” when it should be “and me” according to the text?| A．The Ofsted sets a rule. |
| B．“and I” is the correct English. |
| C．The Queen makes a similar mistake. |
| D．People feel insecure about using “and me”. |
| A．Rules benefit children’s language learning. |
| B．Language learning is more complicated than maths. |
| C．Language is based on commonly accepted rules. |
| D．A primary school child is smarter than the Ofsted. |
| A．Influential. | B．Particular. |
| C．Conventional. | D．Ridiculous. |
| A．Critical. | B．Objective. |
| C．Favourable. | D．Indifferent. |
【推荐2】Endangered languages are languages that wouldn’t exist any longer, much like endangered species of plants or animals. Languages are considered to be endangered when parents are no longer teaching the language to their children and are not using it actively in everyday life. A language is considered to nearly disappear when it is spoken by only a few elderly native speakers.
The world faces enormous challenges in order to protect different kinds of languages. Of the more than 6,912 languages, half may be in danger of disappearing in the next several decades.
It is caused by many reasons: small numbers of speakers, the regular use of other languages, attitudes towards their languages, moving of the younger population, government policies, and languages used in education and so on. A language may lack important things such as a body of literature, and people who read and write it. A language may also lack prestige (声望) and support of its speakers.
The survival of a language is also threatened when speakers move to other areas where different languages are spoken, or when government policies improve the use of a specific language in school, official business and the media. These situations encourage people to learn the wider-known language and may cause them, especially the young, to stop using their mother tongue. Often those speaking lesser-known languages will choose to learn a more prestigious language with the hope of greater economic opportunities. Most of the world’s parents are teaching their children English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Russian or some other main languages instead of their own languages for social and economic reasons.
1. What’s the main idea of this passage?| A．Languages in the world. |
| B．Reasons why languages become endangered. |
| C．What an endangered language is. |
| D．Languages spoken by few speakers. |
| A．more than 6,912 | B．more than 3,456 | C．6,912 | D．less than 3,456 |
①=Paragraph1 ②=Paragraph2 ③=Paragraph3 ④=Paragraph4
A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．forbid the speakers to move about |
| B．pass laws to protect the language |
| C．raise the salaries of the people who speak the language |
| D．teach the language to young children and encourage people to speak it often |
| A．many languages will be probably endangered in this century |
| B．government policies have a big effect on languages |
| C．the endangered language is a language that is spoken by a few people |
| D．languages are related to their speakers’ social and economic position |
【推荐3】As a rule, people want to belong to a popular group. A “sense of belong” is a basic social need, and one may feel more pride and security by being part of the popular group.
| A．The term originated in America more than a hundred years ago. |
| B．The bandwagon effect occurs when people believe in something. |
| C．The crowd would prefer to join the wagon loaded with more people. |
| D．People sometimes copy the way others behave in order to enjoy such feelings. |
| E．Today, the bandwagon effect is most commonly seen in the advertising industry. |
| F．It happened that many people would actually “jump” onto their favorite candidate’s bandwagon. |
| G．The increasing popularity of a group encourage more people to “get on the bandwagon” too. |
【推荐1】According to traditional thinking, procrastinators (拖延者) have a time management problem. By this view, with better scheduling, so the logic goes, they will stop procrastinating and get on with their work.
Increasingly, however, psychologists are realizing this is wrong. Experts like Tim Pychyl at Carleton University in Canada and Fuschia Sirois at the University of Sheffield in the UK have proposed that procrastination is an issue with managing our emotions, not our time. The task we’re putting off is making us feel bad — perhaps it’s boring, too difficult or we’re worried about failing — and to make ourselves feel better in the moment, we start doing something else.
On a positive note, if procrastination is an emotional regulation issue, this offers important clues for how to address it most effectively. An approach based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or “ACT”, seems especially useful. ACT teaches the benefits of “psychological flexibility” — that is, being able to tolerate uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, staying in the present moment in spite of them, and prioritizing choices and actions that help you get closer to what you most value in life.
Relevant here is new research that’s shown students who procrastinate more tend to score higher on psychological inflexibility. That is, they’re dominated by their psychological reactions, like frustration and worry, at the expense of their life values. Those who procrastinate more also score lower on “committed action”, which describes how much a person persists with actions and behaviours in pursuit of their goals.
The next time you’re tempted to procrastinate, “make your focus as simple as ‘What’s the next action — a simple next step — I would take on this task if I were to get started on it now?’”. Doing this, Tim Pychyl says, takes your mind off your feelings and onto easily achievable action. “Our research and lived experience show very clearly that once we get started, we’re typically able to keep going. Getting started is everything.”
1. What does the underlined word “this” in the first paragraph refer to?| A．Beating procrastinating is very easy. |
| B．Beating procrastinating is very hard. |
| C．Procrastination leads to poor time management. |
| D．Procrastination results from poor time management. |
| A．We tend to procrastinate when in good mood. |
| B．A good schedule helps us to stop procrastinating. |
| C．Procrastination enables us to get a sense of satisfaction. |
| D．Controlling feelings is the key to beating procrastination. |
| A．To change our lifestyles. | B．To control our thoughts. |
| C．To conquer negative feelings. | D．To ignore potential difficulties. |
| A．If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. | B．Nothing is impossible to a willing heart. |
| C．A thousand-mile journey begins with the first step. | D．All things are difficult before they are easy. |
【推荐2】The last time you heard about cloning, you were probably in science class. Some scientists are starting to take this process from the research lab to the marketplace.
“When people ask me what I do, I smile and say ‘Well, you’re not going to believe this,’” Melain Rodriguez, a client (客户) service manager for ViaGen Pets, said. ViaGen Pets clones cats, dogs and horses, turning man’s best friend into a best friend forever.
At first, ViaGen just cloned livestock (家畜) for business purposes. They expanded to ViaGen Pets after the farmers started asking if they could get copies of their family pets too.
“Unfortunately our pets’ lives are so short compared to ours, and I think that’s a big reason why people want to do this. They want to extend (延长) that bond with their pets.”
Cloned pets may sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, but you might have passed one on the street without knowing it. Rodriguez says the best way to understand the relationship between an animal and its clone is to look at them as identical(相同的) twins. “We’re finding that the pets have very similar personalities and look very much like the original. The markings can be slightly different, so it’s kind of like human twins that have freckles (雀斑) and their freckles are never going to be in the same place.”
The company clones dozens of pets each year, and Rodriguez believes the industry will continue growing. “Pets are more and more part of the family. I would do anything for my pets and most people feel the same way.”
If you want a copy of your favorite four-legged friend, you’ll have to pay some serious cash. Cloning a horse costs $85,000, or you can clone a dog for $50,000 and a cat for $35,000.
1. What can be learned about Rodriguez?| A．She works for ViaGen Pets. | B．She is a science teacher. |
| C．She is fed up with her job. | D．She seldom tells others about her job. |
| A．Keeping a pet. | B．Doing animal research. |
| C．Having their pets cloned. | D．Cloning livestock for business purposes. |
| A．To suggest that human twins are alike. |
| B．To state that twins may have different personalities. |
| C．To explain why cloned animals can hardly be recognized. |
| D．To show that an animal and its clone are not completely identical. |
| A．It is promising. | B．It should be improved. |
| C．It should cut its costs. | D．It has received many doubts. |
【推荐3】The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings. To a large extent (程度), the physical form and the habits of the earth’s vegetation and its animal life have been shaped by the environment. Considering the whole span of earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its surroundings, has been relatively slight (轻微的). Only in the present century has one species—man got significant power to change the nature of his world.
During the past quarter century this power has not only become increasingly great but it has changed in character. The most alarming of all man’s assaults (侵犯) upon the environment is the contamination (污染) of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even deadly materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the wicked partners of radiation (辐射) in changing the very nature of the world, the very nature of its life.
It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now lives on the earth. Given time not in years but in millennia (千年), life adjusted and a balance has been reached. But in the modern world there is no time.
I don’t mean that chemical insecticides (杀虫剂) must never be used. However, we have to admit that we have put poisonous and biologically harmful chemicals indiscriminately (恣意地) into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their possible harm. We have forced enormous numbers of people to contact these poisons, without their permission and often without their knowledge. We admit, furthermore, that we have allowed these chemicals to be used with little or no advance investigation of their effect on soil, water, wildlife, and man himself. Future generations are unlikely to forgive our lack of concern for the integrity (完好无损) of the natural world that supports all life.
1. What does the underlined word “modified” in the first paragraph mean?| A．destroy | B．change | C．explore | D．maintain |
| A．chemicals | B．radiation | C．insecticides | D．vegetation |
| A．Chemicals must not be used for the sake of the environment. |
| B．The environment is greatly affected by vegetation and animals. |
| C．The future generations are likely to lack concern for the environment. |
| D．The pollution of the environment is largely due to irresponsible humans. |
| A．What humans should do with chemicals for future generations. |
| B．How the environment affects the living things on the earth. |
| C．What kind of chemicals are less harmful to the environment. |
| D．How we humans make the best of chemicals to save the earth. |
So，why would I want to tune my piano？There are many reasons for tuning your own piano.
·It is a very pleasant thing to do.
·You can make up to $80 each time tuning other people's pianos.
·There are millions of pianos in the world and thousands of new ones are being sold every day.There are not enough piano tuners available to tune them all.
·You can provide a valuable service for friends，family and others.
·You can teach yourself very cheaply and then develop it into a parttime or fulltime business.
You may have thought that only a trained expert could do this，someone who had devoted years of study and developed a sense of perfect pitch(音高)．In the past，tuning a piano was as much an art form as it was a technology exercise，but now the balance is swaying(摇动) more towards the technology and the final result is as good or even better than tuning by ear.
A few simple tools and a laptop computer with tuning software are all that are required.The real secret is the tuning software，which makes the whole process extremely easy.It means you do not have to train your ears but just look at the laptop screen to know when the piano string is in tune.
I have put together an ebook in my website with all the information you need to get started tuning your own piano, where to get the free software and where to buy the tools.
I hope I have inspired you to think about piano tuning and actually give it a go.You will find it a very rewarding and pleasant activity even if it remains just a hobby.
1. The writer asks two questions in the first paragraph to ________.
| A．show his doubt on the topic |
| B．ask readers to answer the questions clearly |
| C．encourage readers to make comments on the topic |
| D．attract readers to more information on this topic |
2. According to the passage，why should you learn to tune pianos?
| A．To offer help to piano tuners. |
| B．To save money and earn money as well. |
| C．Because it can help you make a piano yourself. |
| D．Because it can help you learn how to play the piano. |
3. What makes piano tuning easier now?
| A．Advanced technology. |
| B．More effective training. |
| C．More chances of practicing. |
| D．Traditional tuning methods. |
4. If you want to get the tuning software and tools，you can ________.
| A．get them for free from the piano sellers |
| B．buy them from the writer's online shops |
| C．make them yourself according to the passage |
| D．surf the writer's website for the information |
5. In the last paragraph，the writer mainly wants to show that ________.
| A．one must be active to play the piano |
| B．piano tuning will be popular in the future |
| C．it's valuable to take piano tuning as a hobby |
| D．it's difficult to tune pianos without professional training |
【推荐2】NASA is studying ways to build human habitations on the Red Planet. In 2016, SpaceX publicly announced a plan to begin building settlements Mars. This mission (任务)could put people on Mars by 2026. This is why astrobiology students at Villanova began their Mars Gardens project, investigating which plants and vegetables can grow in iron oxide-rich Martian soil simulant (模拟物).
A few billion years ago, Mars had a better environment, complete with oceans, a mild climate and quite possibly —life. It has since lost most of its atmosphere and water and there's currently no water on its surface. Water (or ice) is present beneath the surface, however, as well as in the planet's icy polar areas. The tough conditions on Mars make it necessary for all plants to be grown in heated, pressurized greenhouses with significant compensations (补充)made for atmosphere, wetness and water.
In their greenhouse experiments, the Villanova students took measures to create an environment that's both plant-friendly and similar to what would be found in greenhouses on Mars. They made sure, for example that plants received roughly the same amount of sunlight as they would on Mars. The students found that their success rates improve by using multiwavelength LEDs and adding potting soil or earthworm feces.
The students were able to get certain vegetables from consideration. For example, the low light on Mars does not lend itself well to growing plants that require full sun, which include favorites like tomatoes, beans, corn or many root plants. Carrots also don't make the cut. Potatoes largely don't thrive in the simulant soil and low light conditions, but sweet potatoes do a little better.
The students found that dandelions (蒲公英)would grow well on Mars and have significant benefits: they grow quickly, every part of the plant is eatable, and they have high nutritional value. Other thriving plants include microgreens, lettuce, peas and so on.
1. What do the students at Villanova intend to do with their project?| A．Design space crafts for the Mars mission. |
| B．Choose possible plants to be grown on Mars. |
| C．Study reasons for environmental changes on Mars. |
| D．Test models of human settlements to be set up on Mars. |
| A．The air pressure is low. | B．The temperature is high. |
| C．The soil is plant-friendly, | D．The sunlight is abundant. |
| A．Have high nutrition. | B．Require full sun. |
| C．Grow well. | D．Adjust to the conditions. |
| A．Tomatoes. | B．Carrots. | C．Potatoes. | D．Dandelions. |
【推荐3】Chef Bruno Abate owns one of the best pizzerias in Chicago. His restaurant makes thin pizzas, heated in an oven with a wood-burning fire. They come with fillings like mushrooms, onions, olives, tomatoes and Italian meats. Each pizza sells for between $12 and $18 at Abate’s restaurant, Tocco. But do you know you can get a similar pizza for half the price at the Cook County Jail (监狱) in Chicago?
Abate leads a cooking school at the jail. He shows prisoners how to make pizza, pasta, and Italian ice cream, called gelato. The cooking school is called “Recipe for Change.” There, behind the jail’s barbed wires and security barriers, a number of students, including Shaquille Slater, are making pizzas. “I like everything I do,” he says.
Slater makes pizza dough (面团), and then adds fillings to the dough. He makes sure the pizza and its fillings look just right before they come out of the oven. He says working with food makes him forget about being in jail. “It brings up memories of days when you were free and when you were having a good time,” he says.
Workers at the cooking school make about 200 pizzas every week. The pizzas are sold to other prisoners in the jail for about $7 each.
Abate says he is teaching cooking skills to the prisoners, and how to use good, fresh in-gredients (佐料). When they finish the class, the Students have skills they can use to find jobs when they are released from prison.
Abate says his program teaches more than how to make food. He helps the students learn that they need to have a plan for their future so they do not return to prison once they leave the prison. “Through food, I try to teach, you know, how to change in life,” Abate says.
1. What would Slater think of when making pizzas?| A．More chances to find a job in the future. |
| B．His free time before going to prison. |
| C．His bright life after being set free. |
| D．Pride in his wonderful pizzas. |
| A．They are on sale in the prison. |
| B．They are sold in big supermarkets. |
| C．They are donated to other prisoners. |
| D．They are eaten by the students themselves. |
| A．To help prisoners forget their past. |
| B．To deliver his skill of making food. |
| C．To advertise the food in his restaurant. |
| D．To prepare the prisoners for a new life. |
| A．Where Can You Buy Cheap Pizza? |
| B．Prisoners Can Eat Pizza for Half Price |
| C．Prisoners Learn to Make Pizza in Chicago |
| D．How about Running Pizza Restaurant in Prison? |
【推荐1】Have you ever had a burger without meat? You might think that a vegetable burger will take away the real meaning of a burger as it will not have the juicy taste of meat. Despite these concerns, the company, Beyond Meat, has managed to successfully make plant-based meat.
On May 2, the company became the first vegan company to become public. Beyond Meat’s initial share price was expected to range from $19 to $21. Impressively, just hours later, Beyond Meat’s stocks rose to $73!
Instead of killing animals, Beyond Meat obtains these components from different plants and combines them to make vegan meat. It contains pea protein that gives the chewy, meaty texture along with canola oil, coconut fat and other binding agents. In addition, the company uses beet juice to simulate the bloody look of beef! The plant proteins are subjected to intense heating, cooling and pressure so that their structure becomes fibrous and copies that of animal meat.
For people who have changed their diet but miss the taste of meat, Beyond Meat satisfies their taste buds. It also has all the nutrients and elements that meat has, but does not come from an animal.
Plant-based meat is also beneficial as fewer animals are killed. As our world’s population continues to grow beyond 7 billion, so does the demand for meat. Livestock farming is not sustainable as it requires more land, consumes more energy and is one of the largest producers of greenhouse gases. Beyond Meat uses 99 percent less water and 93 percent less land. It also has 90 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and it uses 46 percent less energy.
However, there are some people who do not like the smell of a Beyond Meat patty. Others question that processed foods are unhealthy and it is safer to choose whole vegetables instead. Regardless, with another company, Impossible Burger, looking to go public soon, as well as companies such as Tyson Foods and Nestle looking to enter the market, plant-based meat is here to stay. These companies hope to convince many people to switch from meat to plant-based alternatives.
1. Why did Beyond Meat’s stocks rise sharply?| A．People found it convenient to buy plant-based meat. |
| B．People believed the bright future of the company. |
| C．People preferred to spend more money buying meat. |
| D．People are becoming vegans in life. |
| A．What is made up of meat. |
| B．Why plants can be made into meat. |
| C．How plant-based meat is made. |
| D．Whether plant-based meat is allergenic. |
| A．It makes farming sustainable. |
| B．It contains all the nutrients people need. |
| C．It doesn’t have the taste of meat. |
| D．It is environmentally friendly. |
| A．Plant-based meat will become a new trend. |
| B．All people prefer plant-based meat. |
| C．Vegan companies produce unhealthy food. |
| D．The smell of plant-based meat is disgusting. |
【推荐2】There is a lot of losing in sports. Only one team can win at a time, and only one champion escapes the season without tears. But that doesn’t stop Americans from spending nearly $56 billion a year on sporting events. Is fandom(运动迷) worth it?
At first glance, the evidence isn’t encouraging. Following a loss, fans are more likely than usual to eat unhealthy food, be unproductive at work, and –in the case of the Super Bowl-die from heart disease. What about fans of the winning team? Well, they are more likely than other fans to suffer a postgame traffic fatality(死亡) if the score is close.
Rival(竞争的) fans’treatment of one another is hardly more encouraging. A recent study found that fans experienced greater pleasure when watching a rival team fail. Fans in another study reported schadenfreude, a feeling of satisfaction, when reading about the injury of a rival team’s player, and gluckschmerz or unhappiness when later reading about the player’s unexpectedly speedy recovery.
Yet a great deal of research shows that being a fan can also have positive effects. It can prevent depression and build a sense of belonging and self-worth---in case that the object of one’s devotion is a local team. Much of this is due to social bonds among fans, but not all--- sports worship also provides fans with a number of skills at dealing with life’s emotional challenges. A landmark 1976 study found that after a win,fans were more likely than usual to wear clothes connected with the winning teams, and to claim credit for the team’s success by describing the team as “we” instead of “they” in conversation.
Along with schadenfreude and gluckschmerz, being a fan seems more than anything else to be a matter of managing responses to things that cannot control. Sports fans tend to respond to reminders of death with optimism, and to remember victories much more clearly than defeats.
1. Which of the following statement is especially true as for the winning side’s fans?| A．They might die from heart disease. |
| B．They tend to live an unhealthy life. |
| C．They can have good work efficiency. |
| D．They might have a traffic accident. |
| A．Rival fans usually hold bad or even extreme attitude to each other. |
| B．Rival fans often fight with each other. |
| C．Fans can face their rival team bravely. |
| D．Fans never lose heart when facing their rival team. |
| A．Being a fan could show great devotion to study. |
| B．Being a fan could create a sense of belonging. |
| C．Being a fan could develop a spirit of optimism. |
| D．Being a fan could test social bonds. |
| A．How to be a fan |
| B．What it’s like to be fan |
| C．Being a fan can be good for you |
| D．A fan’s emotional challenges |
【推荐3】Istman Simon’s factory in western Hungary produces more than one million plastic parts every day. But on a busy morning in one of its large production areas, there is only the sound of machines.Workers have all but disappeared.
“We can see human workers being replaced with AI machines. It has already led to job losses,” said Zoltan Laszlo, a Hungarian workers’ leader.
Hungary’s economy grew nearly 5 percent last year. Yet the industry lost nearly 23,000 jobs, ending six straight years of employment growth. In the Czech Republic, employment numbers showed a year-on-year loss of almost a thousand jobs between July and September of last year. This suggests employment could have decreased for the first time since 2013 over the full year in Eastern Europe.
“Workers are becoming more expensive. This is the necessary way to get returns,” said Peter Simon, a manager of Simon Plastics, which is hoping to expand production. But pressured (挤压) by increasing human costs and falling product prices, the plastic industry spent over $3 billion on AI machines last year, he added.
“Employment numbers are one sign that Eastern Europe’s industry may be at a turning point,” said David Marek, an economist with Deloitte. “The average (平均的) yearly increase in human costs in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary is around 10 percent. That is far higher than in many western countries. Factory owners find themselves with little choice but to buy machinery if they want to remain competitive.”
Josef Stredula is the head of the Czech-Moravian Trade Unions. He notes that up to 10 percent of jobs could disappear in the next five years.
“Big changes are awaiting us,” Stredula said. He added that although AI machines might free people from heavy or boring physical work, it was important to ease the change, for example, by retraining affected workers. “We have to do everything to make the future easier for everyone,” he said.
1. What are the first three paragraphs mainly about?| A．The problems with Hungary’s economy. |
| B．A factory with advanced AI technology. |
| C．The worries of a Hungarian workers’ leader. |
| D．The increasing job losses in Eastern Europe. |
| A．He is worried about the falling product prices. |
| B．Simon Plastics’ products are very competitive. |
| C．The workers are too expensive in western Hungary. |
| D．The plastic industry has to use more AI machines. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uncaring. | C．Concerned. | D．Unsupportive. |
| A．AI Machines Are Pushing Workers Out of Their Jobs in Eastern Europe |
| B．Rising Workers’ Payments Lead to Big Job Losses in Eastern Europe |
| C．Eastern European Factories Have Found Ways to Cut Production Costs |
| D．Eastern European Workers Are Freed From Heavy and Boring Works |
