1 . In the future, we will be competing against medically-enhanced workers who can work longer and harder than us. Artificial intelligence will make it easier to monitor our every move in the office. This may sound like science fiction, but it’s a likely _______, according to a new report by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.     

The report, which _______ a team of science researchers and a survey of more than 10,000 workers based in China, Germany, India, the U.K., and the U.S., predicts that rapid advances in technology, resource _______, and population demographics are among the key forces that would radically _______ the future of work by 2030.

According to PwC, these forces will result in four potential futures: one where “humans come first,” one where “innovation _______,” one where “companies care,” and one where “corporate is king.”

In the future world where corporations reign, PwC states that “human effort is _______ through sophisticated use of physical and medical enhancement techniques and equipment, and workers’ performance and _______ are measured, monitored and analysed at every step. A new breed of elite super-workers emerges.”

This is a world where performance is everything, and workers will need to create every _______ to stay ahead. This may sound like a stressful objective, but the majority of people surveyed _______ the challenge.

Seventy percent of the workers surveyed said that they would undergo ________ to improve their body and mind if it would improve their chances of employment. This could be because we believe it’s up to us to improve our careers — even if that means pill-popping performance-enhancing drugs. Of those surveyed, 74% said it was their individual ________ “to update their skills rather than relying on any employer.”

To visualize this ________ future, PwC created a mock news article reporting from 2030 that detailed the first large-scale use of brain-enhancing drugs in the workplace.

But you don’t need a fake news report to see this future; real news reports about augmented bodies in the office have existed for some time. Companies in the U.S. and Europe are already offering microchip implants to workers, so they can enter company buildings and get their chips from the vending machine with the ________ of a hand.

PwC predicts that the idea of a cyborg workforce will go from science fiction novelty to mainstream in the next few decades.

“So implants at work are already possible and happening and people will use it ________ to pay for things and to get on to buses and public transport. Why would they not 10 years later go, sure, put one in my brain to make me think harder or for ________ ?” Jon Williams, PwC’s people and organizations division leader told The Australian about its survey. “It’s just natural progression.”

1.

A．dimension

B．vision

C．integrity

D．reality

2.

A．drew upon

B．counted on

C．signed in

D．made up

3.

A．availability

B．scarcity

C．rivalry

D．privatization

4.

A．demolish

B．induce

C．alter

D．shape

5.

A．exceeds

B．offsets

C．rules

D．withdraws

6.

A．dwarfed

B．maximized

C．converted

D．marginalized

7.

A．wellbeing

B．priority

C．emotions

D．ideology

8.

A．fantasy

B．interference

C．advantage

D．expertise

9.

A．resented

B．welcomed

C．ventured

D．overcame

10.

A．reassurance

B．violation

C．reformation

D．treatments

11.

A．dream

B．expectation

C．responsibility

D．perspective

12.

A．corporate-dominated

B．career-oriented

C．human-centered

D．cognitive-enhanced

13.

A．wave

B．pulse

C．check

D．strike

14.

A．urgently

B．socially

C．privately

D．solely

15.

A．farther

B．closer

C．longer

D．shorter

2 . Many high achievers credit music with opening up the pathways to creative thinking. And their _______ suggest that music training sharpens other qualities, such as collaboration, the ability to listen, and a way of thinking that weaves together _______.

Will your school music program turn your kid into a Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft (guitar)? Or a Woody Allen (clarinet)? _______. These are singular achievers. But the way these and other visionaries process music is _______. As is the way many of them _______ music’s lessons of focus and discipline to new ways of thinking and communicating—even problem solving.

Look carefully and you’ll find musicians at the top of almost any _______. Woody Allen performs weekly with a jazz band. The television broadcaster Paula Zahn (cello) and the NBC chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd (French horn) attended college on music scholarships. Microsoft’s Mr. Allen has a rock band. Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, played saxophone in high school. Steven Spielberg is a clarinetist and son of a pianist. The former World Bank president James D. Wolfensohn has played cello at Carnegie Hall.

“It’s not a(n) _______,” says Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Mr. Greenspan was a professional clarinet and saxophone player. “I can tell you as a statistician, the probability that that is mere chance is _______.” The cautious former Fed chief adds, “That’s all that you can judge about the facts. The crucial question is: why does that _______ exist?”

Paul Allen offers an answer. He says music “reinforces your confidence in the ability to ________.” Mr. Allen began playing the violin at age seven and switched to the guitar as a teenager. Even in the early days of Microsoft, he would pick up his guitar at the end of marathon days of programming. The music was the emotional analog to his ________, with each channeling a different type of creative impulse. ________, there is “something pushing you to ________ what currently exists and express yourself in a new way,” he says.

The veteran advertising executive Steve Hayden ________ his background as a cellist for his most famous work, the Apple “1984” commercial depicting rebellion against a dictator. He adds that his cello performance background helps him work ________: “Ensemble playing trains you, quite literally, to play well with others, to know when to solo and when to follow.”

1.

A．rules

B．reports

C．commitments

D．experiences

2.

A．people

B．ideas

C．enemies

D．arguments

3.

A．Probably not

B．You bet

C．It depends

D．Very likely

4.

A．odd

B．threatening

C．intriguing

D．shocking

5.

A．reduce

B．apply

C．switch

D．leave

6.

A．branch

B．culture

C．industry

D．country

7.

A．problem

B．evidence

C．coincidence

D．clue

8.

A．extremely low

B．unusually high

C．incredibly mysterious

D．highly relevant

9.

A．example

B．connection

C．solution

D．demand

10.

A．listen

B．create

C．program

D．dominate

11.

A．project

B．pastime

C．addiction

D．day job

12.

A．In both

B．On the other hand

C．By contrast

D．For example

13.

A．go over

B．look beyond

C．stick with

D．give in to

14.

A．credits

B．describes

C．criticizes

D．regards

15.

A．independently

B．intuitively

C．collaboratively

D．skillfully

3 . Green fingers

It never occurred to me when I was little that gardens were anything less than glamorous places. Granddad’s garden was on the bank of a river and sloped gently down towards the water. You couldn’t reach the river but you could hear the sound of the water and the birds that sang in the trees above. I imagined that all gardens were like this—a place of escape, peace and solitude. Granddad’s plot was nothing out of the ordinary when it came to features. He had nothing as grand as a greenhouse, unlike some of his neighbors. Not that they had proper “bought” greenhouses. Theirs were made from old window frames. Patches of plastic would be tacked in place where a carelessly wielded spade had smashed a pane of glass.

At home, his son, my father, could be quiet and withdrawn. I wouldn’t want to make him sound humorless. He wasn’t. Silly things would amuse him. He had phrases that he liked to use, “It’s immaterial to me” being one of them. “I don’t mind” would have done just as well but he liked the word “immaterial.” I realize that, deep down, he was probably disappointed that he hadn’t made more of his life. He left school without qualifications and became apprenticed to a plumber. Plumbing was not something he was passionate about. It was just what he did. He was never particularly ambitious, though there was a moment when he and Mum thought of emigrating to Canada, but it came to nothing. Where he came into his own was around the house. He had an “eye for the job.” Be it bookshelves or a cupboard—what he could achieve was astonishing.

My parents moved house only once in their entire married life. But my mother made up for this lack of daring when it came to furniture. You would just get used to the shape of one chair when another appeared, but the most dramatic change of all was the arrival of a piano. I always wanted to like it but it did its best to intimate me. The only thing I did like about it were the two brass candlesticks that jutted out from the front. “They’re too posh,” my mother said and they disappeared one day while I was at school. There was never any mention of my being allowed to play it. Instead lessons were booked for my sister. When I asked my mother in later life why I wasn’t given the opportunity, her reply was brief: “You’d never have practiced.”

Of the three options, moors, woods or river—the river was the one that usually got my vote. On a stretch of the river I was allowed to disappear with my imagination into another world. With a fishing net over my shoulder I could set off in sandals that were last year’s model, with the fronts cut out to accommodate toes that were now right to the end. I’d walk along the river bank looking for a suitable spot where I could take off the painful sandals and leave them with my picnic while I ventured out, tentatively, peering through the water for any fish that I could scoop up with the net and take home. After the first disastrous attempts to keep them alive in the back yard, they were tipped back into the water.

I wanted to leave school as soon as possible but that seemed an unlikely prospect until one day my father announced, “They’ve got a vacancy for an apprentice gardener in the Parks Department. I thought you might be interested.” In one brief moment Dad had gone against his better judgment. He might still have preferred it if I became a carpenter. But I like to feel that somewhere inside him was a feeling that things might just turn out for the best. Maybe I’m deceiving myself, but I prefer to believe that in his heart, although he hated gardening himself, he’d watched me doing it for long enough and noticed my unfailing passion for all things that grew and flowered and fruited.

1. When the writer describes his granddad’s garden, he is _______________.

A．proud that his granddad was such a good gardener

B．embarrassed that the garden was not as good as others nearby

C．indignant that items in the garden were often damaged

D．positive about the time he spent in the garden

2. What is the writer’s attitude to his father in the second paragraph?

A．He was regretful that his father had not achieved more.

B．He was irritated that his father used words he didn’t understand.

C．He was sympathetic to the reasons why his father behaved as he did.

D．He was grateful that his father had not taken the family to Canada.

3. What does the writer mean by the underlined phrase “came into his own”?

A．was able to do something by himself

B．was able to show how talented he was

C．was able to continue his day job

D．was able to forget his failure

4. What was the writer’s first reaction to the piano?

A．He was surprised when it suddenly appeared.

B．He was pleased at seeing it in the living room.

C．He was angry that only his sister would have piano lessons.

D．He was proud that his mother had listened to his advice.

5. The writer’s description of his fishing trips illustrates ____________.

A．how much free time he was given

B．how beautiful the river was

C．how good a fisherman he was

D．how carefree his childhood was

6. What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A．His father did not want his son to be a gardener.

B．His father was tired of disagreeing with his son.

C．His father had been impressed by his son’s love of gardening.

D．His father had been trying to find a job his son would enjoy.

4 . Population and climate

The human population on Earth has grown to the point that it is having an effect on Earth’s atmosphere and ecosystems. Burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, urbanization, and cultivation of rice and cattle are increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and dust in the atmosphere. About 70 percent of the Sun’s energy passes through the atmosphere and strikes Earth’s surface. This radiation heats the surface of the land and ocean, and these surfaces then reradiate infrared radiation back into space. This allows Earth to avoid heating up too much. However, not all of the infrared radiation makes it into space; some is absorbed by gases in the atmosphere and is reradiated back to Earth’s surface. A greenhouse gas is one that absorbs infrared radiation and then reradiates some of this radiation back to Earth. Carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides are greenhouse gases. In fact, without greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, scientists calculate that Earth would be about 33℃ cooler than it currently is.

The current concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is about 360 parts per million. Human activities are having a major influence on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, which are rising so fast that current predictions made by scientists are that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide will double in the next 50 to 100 years.

Some scientists predict that a doubling of carbon dioxide concentration will raise global temperatures anywhere between 1.4℃ and 4.5℃. The increase in temperature will not be uniform, with the smallest changes at the equator and changes two or three times as great at the poles. The local effects of these global changes are difficult to predict, but it is generally agreed that they may include alterations in ocean currents, increased winter flooding in some areas of the Northern Hemisphere, a higher incidence of summer drought in some areas, and rising sea levels, which may flood low-lying countries.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that one positive aspect of greenhouse gases is that they _______.

A．remove pollutants from Earth’s atmosphere and ecosystems

B．absorb 70 percent of the Sun’s energy

C．help keep Earth warm

D．double atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide

2. Which of the sentences below BEST summarizes the highlighted sentence?

A．The rapid rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations is mostly caused by human activities.

B．Human activities will no longer have an influence on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in the next 50 to 100 years.

C．Some scientists predict that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations will not increase in the next 50 to 100 years.

D．Some scientists recently predict that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations that are largely influenced by human activities will double in the next 50 to 100 years.

3. The word “uniform” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _______.

A．different

B．identical

C．comparable

D．changeable

4. What are the local effects of global changes?

A．Sea levels will fall.

B．The effects will not occur in some regions of the world.

C．The local plants and forests will be permanently damaged.

D．It is hard to know exactly what form the local effects will take.

5. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A．Raising livestock and growing rice are the actions of humans.

B．The surface of the land and ocean can help decrease the temperature of Earth.

C．Although carbon dioxide concentration may double in the future, temperatures at the North Pole and South Pole may not change.

D．Nitrogen oxides absorb infrared radiation that can increase the temperature of Earth.

5 . Detailed guidance on analytical feature

The definition of an analytical feature

Hard news is the kind of fast-paced news that usually appears on newspapers, magazines and some other mediums. Because each story is only relevant for a short time, writing must be concise and without excessive detail. Like a hard news story, an analytical feature also appeares on newspapers, magazines or on the web. However, an analytical feature covers a topic in some depth. It examines important issues or events in detail, provides more interpretation and background information for readers than hard news. Writing an analytical feature means looking for patterns, motives and outcomes that explain the event, issue or problem.

An analytical feature should be based on an investigation of documents in the public domain (archives, libraries, scholarships, local offices) and interview with people with knowledge related to the topic.

Step by step guide to feature writing

Select a topic.

Make a list of preliminary questions to establish what needs to be known about the topic. Here are some of the basic questions that a feature addresses:

What is the problem?

What institutions and people are involved?

What is the standing point?

What causes the problem?

What are the possible consequences?

List your sources—people, institutions, documents, books, articles that are likely to have information and answers to your questions.

Refine your questions: decide what you are going to look at in the written documents and what you are going to ask your potential sources.

Arrange your appointments/interviews/archival search in a logical sequence, following the plan for your basic questions.

Conduct interviews—know precisely what information you are trying to get from each source.

Write an outline that sets up the structure of the feature.

Go back to your notes, organize information, compare and contrast data, analyze material, identify missing information, expand the list of sources, conduct new interviews.

Write the feature.

Analytical feature structure

THE INTRO: The most important function of the introduction is to make the readers want to read on.

THE BODY OF THE FEATURE: The content of the feature will vary depending on the subject matter, style of publication, perceived interests of the readers and intentions of the journals. The following points are what you should include in the body of your feature:

Facts—include them at appropriate points throughout the text rather than in chunks.

Quotes—can bring writing to life; inject authority and powerful expression into the piece. Think carefully which bits of your research to quote and which bits to translate into your own words, as the simple facts of a story do not normally need to be told through direct quotes.

Description—let the readers see what you are seeing, show rather than tell.

Analysis—can be provided by experts who have conducted relevant research but it may be also provided by ordinary people with direct knowledge and involvement. Your own analysis of the topic should be based on extensive research and supported by evidence.

THE ENDING: Aim to provide a rounded ending of the text either in a form of summary, twist, quote or a return to the scene of the introduction.

1. The guidance on analytical feature is most probably taken from _______.

A．a book for news writing

B．a movie script

C．a school admission brochure

D．a book for interview preparation

2. Unlike a hard news story, an analytical feature _______.

A．is only published in in-depth magazines, instead of in newspapers or websites

B．investigates issues or events behind the news

C．interprets issues or events clearly and concisely without excessive detail

D．covers a couple of topics

3. Before you write an analytical feature, you should do all the following EXCEPT _____________.

A．preparing the questions for your interviews

B．writing a sketchy summary of the main points of the feature

C．sorting out and analyze the information and data you collect

D．filming and recording the issue or event you want to investigate

4. When you write the body of an analytical feature, you should _______.

A．summarize the main idea of the feature

B．be in concert with the opening paragraph

C．introduce the topic of the feature

D．analyze the topic based on your research

5. Which section tells you the basic organization of an analytical feature?

A．The definition of an analytical feature.

B．Analytical feature structure.

C．Step by step guide to feature writing.

D．A good analytical feature.