1 . We may weep for the dodo, but could and should we bring this lovely bird back from the dead? De-extinction is the science of restoring lost species and it has been in the news for decades.
The story in modern times began in 1990 when Michael Crichton published his science fiction novel Jurassic Park, in which he imagined a world where scientists were able to bring dinosaurs back to life. Crichton imagined that polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology could be a way to amplify (放大) tiny quantities of dinosaur DNA and thus build a living embryo.
Sadly, biologists soon realized that DNA in fact breaks down super-fast; even after 100 years, DNA from museum skins of dodos was decayed (腐烂) beyond repair. They could be sequenced (测定序列) using massive computational power, but then only with considerable uncertainty. And even if you capture a DNA sequence, there’s still the problem of how you get living cells to read that sequence and express proteins that make the dinosaur or the dodo.
But why would anyone want to see mammoths, or something like them, roaming (漫游) present-day Siberia? Well, they were undoubtedly amazing beasts. As well as hunting them, our distant ancestors painted their likenesses in caves across Europe. Fascinating as they may be, there's some ecological justification for the project too.
It was this diversity of land surface, broken up by heavy limbs and randomly fertilised by faeces (排泄物), that supported so much flora (植物群). Without the mammoths, that diversity disappeared. Return them and landscapes would once again be with a variety of species, including flowers and bushes.
True, it’s not de-extinction in the sense of bringing a long-dead species back to life. Instead it’s more like making a “dodo” by engineering a modern pigeon, its closest relative, to become huge and flightless. The result would be a big, fatty pigeon that, whether it looked like a dodo or not, would probably fulfil some of its ecological roles.
As a palaeontologist, I would of course love to see living dinosaurs, mammoths and dodos. In some ways, though, I am relieved that the optimistic claims for cloning and genetic technologies have not been borne out. The slowdown gives us time to consider the outcomes—and hopefully avoid some of Michael Crichton’s more fevered imaginings.
1. What is paragraph 2 of the text mainly about?| A．A science fiction review. | B．The development of DNA. |
| C．An inspired guess of de-extinction. | D．The application of PCR technology. |
| A．DNA is hard to keep for long. | B．Computational power is limited. |
| C．Biologists are opposed to it. | D．Living cells cant be sequenced. |
| A．They expect to seek hunt fun. | B．They lack sources of modern art. |
| C．They need them for research. | D．They want to see biodiversity. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Unclear. | C．Dismissive. | D．Approving. |
2 . A comment from Zadie Smith caught my attention this week. Asked whether she had ever considered recording an album, the novelist responded, “I have a dream of having a Café Carlyle residency in New York in my 80s.” Here she is at the height of her success dreaming of a career Plan B just like the rest of us!
Weird Plan Bs fascinate me because for years I had one of my own. Despite being perfectly happy in my chosen profession, I had long harboured the fantasy of becoming a photographer and I took a lockdown leap and applied to art school to acquire some actual skills.
Has it brought me fame and riches? Not as yet. Like many people who dream of having a go at something different, I was focusing on creative fulfilment rather than my future finances. By the time I graduated in 2022, my dream of running a portrait photography business was looking a lot less practicable—in part thanks to AI head-shot generators.
If only I had had a little more Fobo, also known as the fear of becoming out-of-date. This workplace trend is an updated version of Fomo—the fear of missing out, which now feels like a poignant (辛酸的) throwback to more optimistic times. 22% of workers are worried that technology will put them out of a job. And who can blame them?
There is another reason that nurturing an alterative career might be risky. Research indicates that having a back-up plan can work against you. Having a Plan B as a safety net can cause people to make less effort at their day job and — unhelpfully — run a greater risk of losing it.
So, do I regret pursuing my Plan B? Not at all — hopefully I’ve got a few years before robot photographers take over the world, and I currently spend a day a week on photography. My only sorrow is something unexpected. For so many years. I had the fantasy of trying something new. My “someday” ambition sustained me through dull and boring days. But now I’m actually spending some of my week doing it, which has caused empty space in my life. It made me realize that having an alternative career to dream about is in itself sustaining and comforting. You might never do it, and that might not even matter. So, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and start working on my Plan C...
1. Why did Zadie Smith want to have a Cafe Carlyle residency?| A．She was not satisfied with her writing career. |
| B．She was eager to take up a second career. |
| C．She was depressed by recording an album. |
| D．She was unable to reach the height of success. |
| A．She was a skilled photographer who graduated from an art school. |
| B．She gave up her chosen occupation because of lockdown. |
| C．She gained a sense of creative satisfaction instead of income. |
| D．She ran a photography business with the assistance of AI. |
| A．To explain why workers are eager to do plan |
| B．To introduce one of the disadvantages to do plan B. |
| C．To advocate the society’s acceptance of plan B. |
| D．To display the future of trend of the workforce. |
| A．She will be replaced by robot photographer in the future. |
| B．She can’t spare time to do photography professionally. |
| C．She hates the dull and boring days in doing photography. |
| D．She lost something new to excite some enthusiasm for life. |
3 . Marilu Arce loves her job, but for a time she considered leaving. The traffic-plagued commute from her home to her office, nearly two hours each way, meant her daughters couldn’t enroll in after school activities because she couldn’t get home in time to take them.
Then her employer adopted a policy permitting her to work from home two days a week, and “I feel like it changed my life,” she said. Her stress level has dropped. Her daughters are thrilled. She likes her job more. That’s the type of reaction Arce’s boss likes to hear as the company measures the success of the work-from-home policy which was instituted three years ago in hopes of improving employee retention. So far, it seems to be working: turnover was less than five percent last year—its lowest ever.
Flexible work policies top employee wish lists when they look for a job, and employers increasingly have been offering them. Studies have shown working remotely increases employee engagement, but in moderation because there is still value in the relationships nurtured when colleagues are face to face. The key, advocates of flexible work policies say, is to match the environment with the type of work that needs to be done.
The flexibility hasn’t hurt productivity, which is up 50 percent. There is “something lost” when colleagues don’t gather at the water cooler, but it’s outweighed by the retention and happiness gains, he said. As jobs that require physical work decline, thanks to technological advances, life superficially appears to get better. Consumers benefit in the form of cheaper prices. Labor-saving appliances all make things easier and suggest that even more and better benefits are on the horizon. But is something lost?
Talk long enough to the most accomplished academics, they will brag about a long-ago college summer job waiting tables or repairing hiking trails. They might praise the installer who redid their kitchen. There seems to be a human instinct to want to do physical work. The proliferation of hard-work reality-television programming reflects this apparent need. Indeed, the more we have become immobile and urbanized, the more we tune in to watch reality television’s truckers, loggers, farmers, drillers and rail engineers. In a society that supposedly despises menial jobs, the television ratings for such programmes suggest that lots of Americans enjoy watching people of action, who work with their hands.
Physical work, in its eleventh hour within a rapidly changing Western culture, still intrigues us in part because it remains the foundation for 21st century complexity. Before any of us can teach, write or speculate, we must first have food, shelter and safety. And for a bit longer, that will require some people to cut grapes and nail two-by-sixes. No apps or 3D printers exist to produce brown rice. Physical labour also promotes human versatility: Those who do not do it, or who do not know how to do it, become divorced from—and, at the same time, dependent on—labourers. Lawyers, accountants and journalists living in houses with yards and driving cars to work thus count on a supporting infrastructure of electricians, landscapers and mechanics. In that context, physical labour can provide independence, at least in a limited sense of not being entirely reliant on a host of hired workers.
1. The author mentions the example of Arce to show that________.| A．she dislikes the present job for the long commuting time |
| B．she is having trouble balancing work and school life |
| C．people usually don’t work hard outside office |
| D．employers are facing the problem of staff drain |
| A．it helps to increase job satisfaction for the employees |
| B．it improves harmonious relationship among colleagues |
| C．the decline in physical work gives employees more mobility |
| D．employees are entitled to request it according to their work |
| A．They entertain those employees burned out with overwork. |
| B．People can learn some basic labour skills from these programmes. |
| C．There’s an ongoing need for physical labour skills that technology doesn’t possess. |
| D．They offer instructive information for both employers and employees. |
| A．The Emergence of Alternative Work Arrangements |
| B．The Rise of Automation, the Decline in Need for Labour |
| C．Time to Rethink in the Face of the Evolution of Work |
| D．New Challenges for Today’s Employers and Academics |
4 . Nowadays, with the popularization of science and technology, people seem to have a painless, cost-effective new way to become pretty-photo retouching, currently a universal way to beautify photos through digital devices.
Even those who believe themselves to be unattractive can become easy on the eye with the push of a button. Some may say that retouching allows people to see a better side of themselves sand can help people build their confidence. However, it is more likely to deepen people’s anxieties regarding their appearance.
After you have taken a selfie and used a retouching program such as Photoshop or Meitu to glamorize yourself, you may finally see the more perfect self you’ve always desired to be. As a result, you may be boastful about yourself for a while, but when you turn your head and look at your real, imperfect self in the mirror, you will soon suffer from a strong sense of loss. Even though retouching can bring you short-term happiness and self-confidence, it can never change your actual appearance in real life. Eventually, the fantasy you had created for yourself by retouching your images will only come to make you feel more depressed after you are once again faced with the reality of how you actually appear.
Photo retouching may also lead to personal anxiety and low self-dignity. Before retouching technologies were invented, only a few celebrities and bloggers looked appealing on social media. Most people posted pictures of themselves on the internet that were very close to how their real, ordinary, everyday selves would appear in reality. They didn’t have to worry about whether their nose was delicate enough or whether they had any acne (痤疮) on their face because most of the others didn’t look flawless in pictures, either.
However, with the continuous emergence of retouching technologies, you may one day suddenly discover that all of the selfies of the people around you have become stunningly gorgeous. The delicate body curve, the doll-like enormous eyes and the supermodel-sized long legs are no longer exclusive to beauty-pageant (选美比赛) winners or movie stars.
Imagine yourself lying on the sofa while idly checking your WeChat Moments. You can’t take your eyes off these charming photos that have been posted by your colleagues, friends and classmates. Then you may have a glance at your own chubby belly and dark skin. Shame, anxiety and self-doubt begin growing in your heart. You plunge into deep fear and self-blame since you cannot figure out why everyone else looks so beautiful, while you are not. But actually, deep down in your heart, you know why, but you just can’t shake off this envy that’s going to drown you.
1. What does the underlined word “glamorize” in Paragraph 3 mean?| A．make somebody appear attractive | B．beautify oneself with more make-up |
| C．publicize the image that one is good-looking | D．present somebody’s image in a reasonable way |
| A．Becoming beautiful was an exclusive right for celebrities and bloggers. |
| B．There is no tolerance of one’s imperfection in contemporary society. |
| C．People posting selfies online used to enjoy the life without trouble. |
| D．Retouching causes an unhealthy mentality in one’s appearance. |
① a sense of seeming happiness and temporary confidence
② ever-worsening depression, anxiety and fear
③ inability to change one’s actual situation
④ bad influence on social relationships and information distribution
| A．①② | B．①②③ | C．②③ | D．②③④ |
| A．Ways to Decode the Retouching | B．Retouching: Causes and Treatment |
| C．Navigating Life without Retouching | D．Retouching: A Lift or a Lie? |
5 . It is a common question to ask yourself: What do you want to be when you grow up?
In the past it has generally been accepted that a person will follow one career path, but an emerging group of people have changed this idea. By pursuing jobs across several walks, this group has come to be known as “slashers (斜杠青年)”.
There are many reasons why this has become popular, particularly among those under the age of 30. In modern competitive society, having multiple income streams (多种收入来源) is one of the best ways to create financial security.
Zhao Sichen is one follower of the slasher movement. The 34-year-old is an English teacher at Tsinghua University High School. Outside the classroom, Zhao also works as project manager in charge of education programs at the Internet tech company NetEase.
In addition to providing a sense of job security, becoming a slasher reduces boredom and prevents becoming burned out on (不再热衷) focusing on a single path.
According to the Guardian, “Entrepreneurs (创业者) are a typical example of a group that expects to spread their careers across multiple areas.” Erin Albert is a typical slasher in the UK. Apart from having written books, Albert is an assistant professor, an entrepreneur and a law student. Albert often asks his students to think about, “why they can’t both take an immediate job offer they are not sure about as well as work toward their ‘dream’ job”.
Technology has also promoted this choice. Online tools and platforms have allowed people to pursue different interests and career paths as they have promoted the ability to work remotely. Never has it been easier for those who have interests in a variety of careers to pursue them at the same time. It seems that right now the sky is the limit for those who are considering what they want to do in the future.
1. What do we know about slashers?| A．They are mostly 30 years old. | B．They follow one career path. |
| C．They change jobs frequently. | D．They tend to work several jobs. |
| A．It gives people more free time to relax. |
| B．It helps people gain financial security. |
| C．It gets people to pursue their dream. |
| D．It makes people feel less bored in a single job. |
| A．Technology allows people to work remotely. |
| B．Doing more than one job might be encouraged. |
| C．Most people will work several jobs at the same time. |
| D．It has become more common for people to pursue multiple jobs. |
| A．Pursuing Your Dreams. | B．Slashers in China. |
| C．Slashing through Jobs. | D．Choosing Multiple Jobs. |
6 . Google made waves recently by announcing its new program, “Google Career Certificates,” a collection of courses designed to help participants get qualifications in high-paying, high-growth job fields without attending university. The courses take about six months to complete and will cost much less, compared to a traditional college education.
The response was huge. The article has been shared thousands of times and has caused thousands of comments. Most of the feedback has been extremely positive. Those who commented included professionals, employers and especially students who were happy to see an alternative to what many consider a broken educational system — one leaving many burdened with student debt for years while unprepared for the real world. With less time, the program can better equip graduates for the jobs they are seeking with practical and necessary skills.
What Google is offering isn’t exactly new. In some ways, the alternative resembles other traditional types of training like professional education or apprenticeship (学徒制) programs. The difference since Google is a household name, its certificate can be easily recognized and accepted across companies and industries - much like a degree from a major university.
Not all the feedback I received was in praise of Google’s initiative. Many readers expressed concern that not enough employers would value Google’s certificate program. One even described it as money racket (敲诈). So to ensure other companies to follow its lead, Google has established an association for employers to tap into the program and is currently inviting more to join. But still some readers leveled the criticism that there are certain lessons taught in higher education that you simply can’t get in other places.
In the end, I don’t think Google’s program will completely replace college education. But I do think it’s a step in the right direction — a separate path for students who are looking for something different than traditional higher education.
1. Who is the new Google program intended for?| A．Career trainers. | B．Job seekers. |
| C．Business managers. | D．College professors. |
| A．Well-equipped and risk-free. | B．Time-consuming and well-rounded. |
| C．Cost-effective and widely-recognized. | D．Time-honored and highly-valued. |
| A．Praises on Google’s purpose. | B．Arguments against the Google program. |
| C．Solutions to Google’s problems. | D．Advantages of Google training courses. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Intolerant. | C．Skeptical. | D．Ambiguous. |
7 . I have frequently taught Research Methods and Design to college students at several institutions. I love teaching this course. One reason, of course, is that I enjoy thinking about research methodology (方法学) and sharing it with others. The other reason, however, is the obvious impact that it has on students. Every term, one (if not more) student tells me how taking this course has affected him/her: “I used to just read articles and believe what they said, but now I find myself asking ‘Is this true? How do they know? Is this a well designed study?” That is what I want the students to achieve in this course.
This brings to mind something written by Dorothy L. Sayers in 1948. One of her books, The Lost Tools of Learning speaks to Sayers’ thoughts on education. “By teaching our young men and women to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed words. By the invention of the film and the radio,we have made certain that no dislike for reading shall protect them from the constant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean: they are victims to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intelligence.”
We are well past the 1940s, but her observation is still relevant. Sayers’ point is well taken. In the world of 24-hour news and social media that often resembles (类似) the Wild West, the ability to carry out evaluations has never been more important. In order to resist the distortions with which we are constantly bombed in the media, as well as be able to present a persuasive argument, we must be able to reason well, and think and give a judgement carefully.
When my students begin the Research Methods and Design course, they are generally not content to read all those research article I give. However, by the end of the course, they are excited about their newly obtained abilities.
1. What is the author’s course goal for her students?| A．Thinking critically. | B．Reading deeply. |
| C．Designing studies well. | D．Questioning themselves. |
| A．It was boring. | B．It was worrying. |
| C．It was conventional. | D．It was useless. |
| A．Popular news. | B．Various evaluations. |
| C．Persuasive arguments. | D．Misleading information. |
| A．To review a book. | B．To introduce a writer. |
| C．To suggest a practical skill. | D．To criticize social media. |
8 . More and more men are taking up occupations traditionally dominated by females. Searching for more meaningful work or simply desperate for a check in a sluggish economy, they are applying in increasing numbers for jobs or training in nursing, child care and housekeeping. The jobs are often crying out for more applicants and offer solid pay. There’s downside, though, including nicknames like “murses” for male nurses and “mannies” for nannies. The pop-culture stereotyping is hard to shake.
There may be strength in the shifting numbers. Men account for 5.4% of registered nurses, up from 2.7% in 1980—still a small number, but they represent 9% of nursing school students, and schools say applications have been allowed. In public schools, just 26% of teachers are men. But males account for about a third of students in training courses for teachers in New York City and Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, 43% of applicants for those courses are men. In Washington, a rush of men is hitting employment agencies like Help Unlimited, which says males account for half its placements in secretarial and administrative temporary jobs. Maria Raimo of Elite Nannies in New York City says, “Male applications are way up in the past year. I have people who used to work at IBM and other companies registering as housemen, companions for the elderly”.
For women, the trend is a mixed blessing. Some advocates have long argued that pay in fields like childcare and teaching would not rise much until men moved into them. But in today’s high unemployment, some women are worried that men are muscling into the last reliable sources of jobs for females. With men around, for women “it’s like being an apprentice who never becomes a skilled worker,” says Tina Abbott, secretary-treasurer in Michigan. Certainly the job market remains inactive. Overall unemployment rose again in April and half of all job seekers have switched industries over the past year. Given that the industries with the most openings include nursing and teaching, notes CEO John Challenger, “artificial barriers like gender begin to break down when people have to make ends meet”.
1. The underlined word “sluggish” most probably means ________.| A．modern | B．old | C．weak | D．growing |
| A．easy | B．highly paid | C．steady paying | D．comfortable |
| A．Women will lose their traditional jobs. |
| B．Men will not be skillful in women’s jobs. |
| C．Men will find it hard to do women’s jobs. |
| D．Women will have less advantage in their jobs. |
| A．Women’s Worries | B．Male-to-Female-Job Trend |
| C．Men Posing Threat to Women | D．Fast-growing Job Market |
9 . America has long been opposing adequate poverty policies because of its strong worry of thinking that the poor are responsible for their own situations, but a child poverty is too harmful and punishing to ignore. I, and a growing number of scholars, believe there is a solution: the government should give monthly cash allowances(津贴), without conditions, to every family with kids. (Higher-income families would have much of the money taxed away.)
A mountain of evidence now shows that poverty can lead to cognitive(认知的) and emotional damage in children. Despite policies that have expanded access to insurance, poor kids are still less healthy than the rest of the young population. They also drop out of school at higher rates, earn less money over time and are incarcerated(监禁) far more often than their better-off peers. That should be enough for us to recognize the moral tragedy that is child poverty, but we should note the broad effect too: reliable analyses show that the nation’s GDP is up to $1 trillion lower because of child poverty.
Poor children have many needs, but research shows that money may matter most. For example, a 2013 review of dozens of studies by London School of Economics researchers found that “Poorer children have worse cognitive, social-behavioral and health outcomes in part because they are poorer, and not just because poverty is related to other household and parental characteristics”.
It can also help reduce family stress and help parents provide a psychologically raising environment in which learning and social development can breed.
The historian Michael Katz correctly notes, “One of the odd aspects of the history of writing about poverty is the avoidance of the simple view that people are poor because they lack money,” yet both the left and the right defamed(诽谤) direct cash aid as a waste and a cause of laziness and abuse. It is good that Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang has stressed the benefits of a universal basic income, quoting studies that show such cash allowances do not cause the avoidance of work, but his plan could cost $2.8 trillion a year and the poor would have to return welfare assistance like food stamps to receive the money. For far less money—about $100 billion—the number of children living in official poverty could be cut in half. Such a policy would be a humane(人道的), practical, efficient victory for a nation too willing to neglect its poor.
1. According to the author, what is the best approach to declare war on poverty?| A．Big tax reduction. | B．Unconditional cash aid. |
| C．Reemployment project. | D．Shifting attitude among people. |
| A．There is a causal impact of childhood poverty on a country’s GDP performance. |
| B．It forces a burden on the family and prevents a positive family environment. |
| C．Children brought up in poverty are likely to suffer from disorders in brain. |
| D．Most poor children achieve less and exhibit more problem behaviors later. |
| A．Andrew Yang is highly thought of for the $2.8 billion plan for the poor. |
| B．Much importance has been placed on child poverty across the America. |
| C．Politicians are afraid that government relief will decrease labor motivation. |
| D．The traditional wisdom holds people have themselves to blame for poverty. |
| A．The historical suffering of the poor. |
| B．Push for the poor to save themselves. |
| C．An appeal for child poverty approach. |
| D．A positive new deal to help poor children. |
10 . It may be the holiday season, but the spirit of peace and good will has not infected the streets of Los Angeles. More drivers seem to be rolling through stop signs and running red lights than ever before. Everyone seems to be in a terrible hurry.
Why is everyone in such a hurry? Where are they rushing to?
I think perhaps the answer lies in answering this question: What does that round of parties and meeting and mad rushing from place to place allow all of us to avoid confronting? T think the answer is clear- ourselves.
There is an experiment where subjects had to choose between being alone with themselves and their thoughts for approximately 15 minutes and receiving electric shocks. The majority chose the shocks-a reflection of how painful, frightening,threatening,confusing,boring(!),you name it... we find being alone with just ourselves and our thoughts.
Our desire not to be with our innermost thoughts is so great that we create and find distractions. In the car, we can make phone calls or listen to music. We live in a world of endless opportunities for distraction.
I understand the desire. Life is hard. Growing is a painfully slow process. To keep moving requires determination and strength - and giving up seems so much easier (as do those electric shocks!) We may win some battles, but the war is never over. Sometimes we are just too tired to fight and just need that music or that book to relax. I just instinctively(本能地）tun on the radio when I get in the car; I don't even give the quiet a moment to sink in.
But it's time for a reality check; otherwise we slip into an avoidance mode. It's challenging. But let's make a change. Instead of rushing from house to car to meeting to groceries to... let's take a moment to stop and think before each activity. What do I want to achieve now? And what is the best way to do that? Maybe I could think of ways to grow.
1. Why does the author mention drivers on the streets of Los Angeles?| A．To describe a strong holiday atmosphere. |
| B．To present a unique social situation in America. |
| C．To raise his question on why people are in a rush. |
| D．To show that it's time to improve road safety in America. |
| A．They found the innermost thoughts great. |
| B．They enjoyed being alone with themselves. |
| C．They refused painful and threatening distractions. |
| D．They wanted to find opportunities for distraction. |
| A．They should be more courageous. |
| B．Their attitude to life was unexpected. |
| C．Their behavior was understandable. |
| D．They should refuse to take part in the experiment |
| A．Fighting distractions. |
| B．Being with ourselves. |
| C．Reviewing our mistakes. |
| D．Rushing from place to place |
