1 . Last year, 138,000 San Francisco residents used Airbnb, a popular app designed to connect home renters and travelers. It’s a striking number for a city with a population of about 850,000, and it was enough for Airbnb to win a major victory in local elections, as San Francisco voters struck down a debatable rule that would have placed time restrictions and other regulations on short-term rental services.
The company fiercely opposed the measure, Proposition F, with a nearly $10 million advertising campaign. It also contacted its San Franciscan users with messages urging them to vote against Proposition F.
Most people think of Airbnb as a kind of couch-surfing app. The service works for one-night stays on road trips and longer stays in cities, and it often has more competitive pricing than hotels. It’s a textbook example of the “sharing economy”, but not everyone is a fan.
The app has had unintended consequences in San Francisco. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported last year, a significant amount of renting on Airbnb is not in line with the company’s image: middle-class families putting up a spare room to help make ends meet. Some users have taken advantage of the service, using it to turn their multiple properties into vacation rentals or even full-time rentals. Backers of Proposition F argued that this trend takes spaces off the conventional, better-regulated housing market and contributes to rising costs.
“The fact is, widespread abuse of short-term rentals is taking much needed housing off the market and harming our neighborhoods,” said ShareBetter SF, a group that supported Proposition F. Hotel unions have protested the company’s practices in San Francisco and other cities, saying that it creates an illegal hotel system.
San Francisco is in the middle of a long-term, deeply rooted housing crisis that has seen the cost of living explode. Actually, explode is a generous term. The average monthly rent for an apartment is around $4, 000. Located on a narrow outcropping of land overlooking the bay, San Francisco simply doesn’t have enough space to accommodate the massive inflow of young, high-salaried tech employees flocking to Silicon Valley.
As the Los Angeles Times reported, some San Francisco residents supported the measure simply because it seemed like a way to check a big corporation. Opponents of Proposition F countered that the housing crisis runs much deeper, and that passing the rule would have discouraged a popular service while doing little to solve the city’s existing problems.
1. The intention of Proposition F is to ________.| A．place time limits in local election. | B．set limits on short-term rental. |
| C．strike down a controversial rule. | D．urge users to vote against Airbnb. |
| A．It shrinks the living space of middle-class families. |
| B．Users are taken advantage of by the service financially. |
| C．It makes the house market more competitive. |
| D．It indirectly leads to high house rental price. |
| A．explosion of the living cost | B．its geographic characteristics |
| C．generosity of local enterprises | D．inflow of migrant population |
| A．objective | B．supportive |
| C．negative | D．indifferent |
2 . Masks that helped save lives during the coronavirus pandemic(流行病) are proving a deadly danger for wildlife, with birds and marine creatures trapped in the incredible number of abandoned facial coverings littering on animal habitats.
Single-use surgical masks have been found thrown around pavements, waterways and beaches worldwide since countries began demanding their use in public places to slow the pandemic's spread. Macaques(猕猴) have been spotted chewing the straps(带子) off old and deserted masks in Malaysia a potential choking danger for the little monkeys. And in an incident that captured headlines in Britain, a gull(海鸥) was rescued in the city of Chelmsford after its legs became tangled（缠结）in the straps of a disposable mask for up to a week. The animal welfare charity was alerted after the bird was spotted motionless but still alive, and they took it to a wildlife hospital for treatment before its release.
The biggest impact may be in the water.More than l. 5 billion masks made their way into the world's oceans last year. accounting for around 6,200 extra tons of marine plastic pollution, according to environmental group OceansAsia. ? Already there are signs that masks are worsening threats to marine life. Conservationists in Brazil found one inside the stomach of a penguin after its body was washed up on a beach, while a dead pufferfish(河豚) was discovered caught inside another off the coast of Miami.
Masks and gloves are "particularly problematic" for sea creatures，says George Leonard, chief scientist from U. S. -based NGO Ocean Conservancy. "When it takes those plastics hundreds of years to break down in the environment, they form smaller and smaller particles," he added, "those particles then enter the food chain and impact entire ecosystems."
Fortunately, there has been a shift towards greater use of reusable cloth masks as the pandemic has worn on，but many are still choosing the lighter single- use varieties.Campaigners have urged people to throw away them properly and remove the straps to reduce the risk of animals becoming trapped. Oceans Asia has also called on governments to increase fines for littering and encourage the use of washable masks.
1. What role do masks play during the coronavirus pandemic?| A．They keep people free of the pandemic |
| B．They make people look more mysterious. |
| C．They help reduce the speed of the pandemic's spread. |
| D．They are of great helpful to wildlife. |
| A．The animals lack enough food |
| B．T hey enjoy playing with the straps |
| C．The deserted masks put them in danger |
| D．It's time for people to protect the animals |
| A．Marine creatures are in trouble. |
| B．Masks and gloves will finally threaten the whole ecosystems. |
| C．The plastics are easy to break down. |
| D．The particles masks and gloves form are smaller and smaller. |
| A．Animal protection |
| B．Marine plastic pollution |
| C．How to reduce the risk of abandoned masks |
| D．The deserted masks endangering wildlife |
3 . Apple revealed new ways to discover and organize apps, confirmed a significant change and announced a new feature that will let users unlock their cars with their smartphones.
The updates, announced at Apple (AAPL)’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, highlight the company’s continued effort to involve itself into seemingly every corner of our lives, from our cars and living rooms to our personal health, while also facing the potential for app tiredness more than a decade after the App Store launched.
The company kicked off the event by focusing on iOS 14, the upcoming operating system for the iPhone. As part of its presentation, Apple unveiled a new feature called App Library, which automatically organizes the apps on your homescreen so you don’t have to scroll (滚屏) through several pages.
Apple also developed a more perfect way to discover and access new apps. The feature, called App Clips, offers a small part of an app for use at the moment it’s needed, whether it’s for ordering a scooter on demand or food from a restaurant. These apps are small in size and connect with Apple Pay. Users can then decide to download the full version of the app from the App Store.
At the same time, Apple attempted to demonstrate the still undeveloped potential of the iPhone, which remains its chief moneymaker. Having already turned the iPhone into a digital credit card, Apple now has plans to make it a digital car key. A new feature, called Carkey, will initially be available with the new 2021 BMW 5 series.
1. How many new features are mentioned in the text?| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．Produced. | B．Developed. | C．Issued. | D．Downloaded. |
| A．App Library. | B．App Clips. | C．Carkey. | D．Apple Watch. |
| A．Users can start their cars with Carkey. |
| B．Apples has already used iOS 14 for the iPhone. |
| C．Users still need to scroll the screen with an App Library. |
| D．Apple makes profit mainly from its undeveloped potential of the iPhone. |
4 . Visitors with limited mobility are encouraged to use the covered drop-off lane (车道) at the Main Street entrance to the Beck Building. From the Beck Building, most public areas of the Museum, including the galleries, Brown Auditorium Theater, Visitor Center, café, and shop are wheelchair-accessible. The Cullen Sculpture Garden is also accessible.
The MFAH has wheelchairs that visitors may check out free of charge with a valid photo ID. The wheelchairs are available from the bag-and-coat check desks in the lobbies of the Beck Building, Law Building, and Visitor Center on a “first come, first served” basis.
Parking Information
A new underground parking garage, located at 5101 Montrose Boulevard, is open, joining the existing parking garage at 1144 Binz. The outdoor lot across from 1001 Bissonnet is closed permanently.
We recommend that guests with limited mobility use the covered drop-off lane at the Main Street entrance to the Beck Building. Both the Montrose and the Binz parking garages feature wheelchair-accessible parking, but please note that the garage at 1144 Binz is closer to a Museum entrance.
As you head toward the Museum from the Montrose garage, enjoy the art and nature in the Cullen Sculpture Garden, created by sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
Parking Garage Hours
6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Parking Fees
*Parking payments may be made only with a major credit card.
| Time | MFAH members | Visitors |
| 0-30 minutes | FREE | FREE |
| 31 minutes - 4 hours | $6 | $10 |
| 4 - 12 hours | $10 | $18 |
| 12 - 24 hours | $35 | $35 |
*Parking is free in both garages for MFAH visitors who enter the Museum between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Thursdays. General admission to the Museum is free on Thursdays.
1. Where can free wheelchairs be found?| A．Brown Auditorium Theater. | B．5101 Montrose Boulevard. |
| C．The Cullen Sculpture Garden | D．Law Building. |
| A．Having a chance of enjoying arts. | B．Having a good parking place. |
| C．Walking the shortest distance. | D．Getting a wheelchair for free. |
| A．$6. | B．$10. |
| C．$18. | D．$35. |
5 . In a new blog post for the International Monetary Fund, four researchers presented their findings from a working paper that examines the current relationship between finance and tech as well as its potential future.
Gazing into their crystal ball, the researchers see the possibility of using the data from your browsing, search, and purchase history to create a more accurate mechanism for determining the credit rating of an individual or business. They believe that this approach could result in greater lending to borrowers who would potentially be denied by traditional financial institutions.
At its heart, the paper is trying to wrestle with the dawning notion that the institutional banking system is facing a serious threat from tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple. The researchers identify two key areas in which this is true: Tech companies have greater access to soft-information, and messaging platforms can take the place of the physical locations that banks rely on for meeting with customers.
The concept of using your web history to inform credit ratings is framed around the notion that lenders rely on hard-data that might hide the worthiness of a borrower or paint an unnecessarily bad picture during hard times. Citing soft-data points like "the type of browser and hardware used to access the internet, the history of online searches and purchases" that could be included in evaluating a borrower, the researchers believe that when a lender has a closer relationship with the potential client's history, they might be more willing to cut them some slack.
"Banks tend to cushion credit terms for their long-term customers during downturns," the paper's authors write. This is because they have a history and relationship with the customer.
The researchers acknowledge that there will be privacy and policy concerns related to including this kind of soft-data in credit analysis. Getting the soft-data points would probably require companies like Facebook and Apple to loosen up their standards on linking unencrypted information with individual accounts. How they might share information with other institutions would be its own can of worms.
1. What is the approach put forward by the researchers?| A．Replacing banks with soft information. | B．Lending money by predicting the future. |
| C．Determining credit ratings by web history. | D．Facing the threat posed by high-tech companies. |
| A．Traditional finance refuse to lend money. |
| B．The new approach helps reduce burden on banks. |
| C．The type of hardware misleads the lender’s judgement. |
| D．Soft information better reflects the truth than hard data. |
| A．Be less strict. | B．Share interests. | C．Forgive others’ fault. | D．Cut a piece of bread. |
| A．Banks will break up with customers. |
| B．High tech companies will be in a mess. |
| C．Sharing information may cause problems of privacy. |
| D．Competition between tech companies will be more fierce. |
6 . NOT that long ago, the world wondered whether clean energy could survive without government support. Now the question is how far it can spread. The number of electric vehicles, which was about 1 million in 2015, last year reached 2 million. In electricity generation, too, trend is with the greens. In the first half of this year wind, solar and hydro generated a record 35% of Germany's power.
Greater success is breeding greater ambition. California is proposing to reach 60% renewable energy by 2030. 176 countries have clean-energy goals. Hawaii, America's most oil-dependent state, has promised to be 100% renewable by the middle of the century and so have 48 poor countries vulnerable to climate change. This week the number of multinationals making a commitment to running their operations on 100% renewable energy rose to 100.
But not every target is helpful. To see why, consider that goal of 100% renewable energy. It makes solving climate change seem easy. In fact, though wind and solar can generate the whole country's electricity some day, renewables still account for less than 8% of the world's total power output. Moreover, cleaning up electricity is only part of the battle. Even though gas-fired heating and cooking can be at least as big a source of greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable heating gets little attention. Transport policy is unpredictable, too. Carmakers may hit their goal of annual sales of 10 million electric vehicles in a decade, but battery-powered road transport, shipping and aviation are dreams. A much-quoted claim that America could rely on wind, solar and hydro alone for its electricity has recently been bitterly criticized by a group of respected academics.
Most importantly, a 100% renewables target confuses means with ends. The priority for the planet is to stop net emissions（净排放量）of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. Putting too much emphasis on wind, solar and other renewables may block off better carbon-reduction paths. New technologies, such as "direct air capture" systems designed to separate carbon dioxide from the air, may in time prove vital. Likewise, greater energy efficiency could reduce emissions by even more than using renewables would.
1. Why is Germany mentioned in Paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the topic. |
| B．To compare with the USA. |
| C．To prove the possibility of the 100% renewables target. |
| D．To provide a successful example of producing clean energy. |
| A．A tough fight against climate change. |
| B．A promising future of clean energy. |
| C．A huge market of electric vehicles. |
| D．A fierce competition between countries. |
| A．Car makers cannot produce enough batteries. |
| B．Use of traditional energies causes air pollution. |
| C．Wind and solar energy will never meet the needs of a country. |
| D．New energy doesn't receive its due attention in every aspect of society. |
| A．New energy plays a minor role in reality. |
| B．Energy efficiency is prior to using renewables. |
| C．Mxiing up means with purposes matters most. |
| D．The target of 100 renewables is too high to reach. |
7 . The annual award scheme run by the James Dyson Foundation announced the UK national winners of 2020 edition on Thursday. The Tyre Collective will receive £2,000 in prize money to develop a tool that cuts down on pollution by capturing tyres’ particles(微粒).
Every time a vehicle moves, micro-plastic from tyres is released—small enough to account for up to 50% of PM2.5 pollution from road transport and 10% of all PM2.5 by 2030. The device invented by the team is fitted to the wheel and uses electrostatics(静电学) to collect up to 60% of all particles, which, once captured, can be recycled for new tyres or used for other applications like 3D printing and soundproofing.
A recent research from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research shows that, over 200,000 tons of micro-plastic from tyres end up in oceans and other remote areas of the world each year. “Roads are a very significant source of micro-plastic to remote areas, including the oceans.” lead researcher Andreas Stohl told The Guardian. According to DEFRA, tyre-wear accounts for nearly 50 percent of global road transport particulate emissions(排放物) and it is the second largest micro-plastic pollutant in oceans (after single-use plastic).
The team is made up of students from the Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art. “We are passionate about the environment and trying to make a meaningful impact on society.” they said. And Siobhan Anderson, leader of the Tyre Collective, added, “We’re excited about having the backing of such a prestigious award and we’re looking forward to continuing this journey and developing our innovation further.”
1. What do we know about the collected particles?| A．They are polluted. |
| B．They are soundproofing. |
| C．They can be used again. |
| D．They can produce electricity. |
| A．Plastic from tyres. |
| B．Factories in remote areas. |
| C．Poor road conditions. |
| D．Industrial emissions. |
| A．The members are from the same school. |
| B．The team will keep working on the invention. |
| C．The team won the most prestigious award. |
| D．The leader will take back the award. |
| A．Tyre Production Responsible for Air Pollution |
| B．Less Tyres’ Particles, Better World |
| C．Best Invention to Reduce Ocean Pollution |
| D．Award-Winning Device Reduces Pollution From Tyres |
8 . Schools are under constant pressure to make budget cuts, and music programs are often first on the chopping block. However, a recent study from the University of British Columbia in Canada has shown that students who took music lessons in high school performed better in subjects such as English, science, and math.
The researchers collected data from over 100,000 students at public high schools across the province of British Columbia. Some of them took music lessons during high school while others never attended them. Checking the test scores of students who took music classes with those of their peers, the study found that the musicians got higher grades in a range of different school subjects.
Research like this has been done before, but as for the number of respondents, this study is much larger, and it took into account other factors that may have affected the results. For example, perhaps students who took music classes were encouraged to do so because they already had good grades. This UBC study rules out a number of other factors that could explain why music students performed better academically, and the researchers still find a clear effect of music lessons on academic performance.
Not only did music students perform better than non-musicians, but students who played an instrument did even better than those who sang. “Learning to play a musical instrument and playing in an ensemble(乐团) is very rewarding,” says Martin Guhn, one of the researchers, “A student can learn to read music notes, achieve eye-hand-mind coordination, develop keen listening skills and establish interpersonal relationships.”
What this study doesn't tell us, though, is why music makes these students perform better academically, but the research paper mentions a few possible explanations. Music practice is linked with neurological(神经系统的) changes that improves certain brain functions, affecting memory and planning skills. Besides, there is a possible motivational factor. Students who take music lessons see a tangible result from practice—they get better—and they might apply that to their other work. And the non-competitive team aspect of making music together could strengthen students' social development, which would also help them in other alias.
1. How did the researchers find the result of the research?| A．By conducting tests. | B．By analyzing causes. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By building models. |
| A．It covered more school subjects. |
| B．It allowed for students who sang. |
| C．It was carried out nationwide. |
| D．It produced a more convincing result. |
| A．To speak highly of music students. |
| B．To explain why music helps students perform better. |
| C．To present the benefits of playing instruments. |
| D．To encourage students to join an ensemble. |
| A．Music practice can make an overall improvement in students’ brain. |
| B．Progress made in music may motivate students to work harder in math. |
| C．Singing can't make any difference in improving students' memory. |
| D．Playing in an orchestra could make students less competitive in other fields. |
9 . We’ve all had cases where we’ve waited just a bit too long to pay an electric bill or speeding ticket. But one man, from California by reasonable assumption，who goes by “Dave”，recently took procrastination (拖延) one step further, by paying a parking ticket almost a half-century after it was given.
In December 2018, the Minersville Police Department in Pennsylvania received a letter in the mail. Whoever wrote the letter decided it was best to keep his name somewhat unknown，so he put the return address as “Wayward Road，Anytown California” under the name “Feeling guilty”.
When the officers opened the envelope，they found a brief letter, along with a $5 bill, and a parking ticket dating all the way back to 1974. The note read，“Dear PD，I've been carrying this ticket around for 40 plus years always intending to pay. Forgive me if I don't give you my info. With respect，Dave.”
Even though the initial parking ticket was only for $2, “Dave” must have felt awfully guilty because he left 150 percent，or $3, in interest.
Michael Combs, the Police Chief of the Minersville Police Department, stated in an interview that the same ticket would cost about $20 if it were given today. Combs went on to share that the original ticket from 1974 was given to a vehicle that had an Ohio license plate.
Because there was no system for tracking tickets given to out-of-state cars back then，“Dave” could have gotten away with never paying the $2 fine. But apparently，guilt got the best of him，and he decided to finally cough up the money more than 40 years past its due date.
1. How much do we know about “Dave”？| A．He lives in Wayward Road，Anytown California. |
| B．His car probably came from Ohio at that time. |
| C．The police are trying to find out more about him. |
| D．“Dave” is of course the man’s real name indeed. |
| A．He completely forgot about it in the past 44 years. |
| B．He didn’t find it until almost half a century later. |
| C．He didn’t pay for it just because of procrastination. |
| D．He failed to find out who he should pay the money to. |
| A．A strong sense of guilt. |
| B．Fear of being tracked by the police. |
| C．Worry about being fined more. |
| D．Sudden change of his financial situation. |
| A．Police Chief of the Minersville Police Department Shares a Story |
| B．Parking Ticket Carried Around for Almost Half a Century from Ohio |
| C．Unusual Letter Comes from Wayward Road, Anytown California |
| D．Mysterious Procrastinator Finally Pays 44-Year-Old Parking Ticket |
10 . Psychologists who study moral judgments have found that when people are faced with moral dilemmas, they tend to respond differently when considering them in a foreign language than when using their native tongue.
In a 2014 paper led by Albert Costa, volunteers were presented with a moral dilemma known as the “trolley problem”: imagine that a runaway trolley bus is rushing toward a group of five people standing on the tracks, unable to move. You are next to a switch that can change the trolley to a different set of tracks, therefore saving the five people, but resulting in the death of one who is standing on the side tracks. Do you pull the switch?
Most people agree that they would. But what if the only way to stop the trolley is by pushing a large stranger off a footbridge into its path? People hesitate to say they would do this, even though in both situations, one person is sacrificed to save five. But Costa and his colleagues found that setting the dilemma in a language that volunteers had learned as a foreign tongue dramatically increased their stated willingness to push the sacrificial person off the footbridge, from fewer than 20% of respondents working in their native language to about 50% of those using the foreign one.
Why does it matter whether we judge morality in our native language or a foreign one? According to one explanation, such judgments involve two separate and competing modes of thinking: one of these, a quick “feeling” and the other, careful consideration about the greatest good for the greatest number. When we use a foreign language, we unconsciously sink into the more careful mode simply because the effort of operating in our non-native language reminds our brain to prepare for painstaking activity.
An alternative explanation is that differences arise between native and foreign tongues because our childhood languages are associated with greater emotion than those learned in more academic environment. As a result, moral judgments made in a foreign language are less filled with the emotional reactions that appear when we use a language learned in childhood.
What is a multilingual(多语言的) person’s “true” moral self? Is it my moral memories that taught me what it means to be “good”? Or is it the reasoning I’m able to apply when free of such unconscious restrictions? Or perhaps, this research simply indicates what is true for all of us: regardless of how many languages we speak, our moral compass is a combination of the earliest forces that have shaped us and the ways in which we escape them.
1. In the famous “trolley problem” experiment volunteers are asked to.| A．change the trolley to a different set of tracks |
| B．push a large stranger off a footbridge |
| C．sacrifice one person’s life to save another five people |
| D．get involved in making a moral judgment |
| A．Emotional feelings. |
| B．Careful consideration. |
| C．Academic environment. |
| D．The mode of thinking. |
| A．Moral memories. | B．Reasoning. |
| C．Unconscious restrictions. | D．A combination of more than one factor. |
| A．Native Spanish speakers with English as their foreign language are sure to push that person off the footbridge. |
| B．An Italian student may find the story of a morally bad person less wrong when it is told in English. |
| C．Faced with the same maths problem, one must make more mistakes in a foreign language than in his native one. |
| D．Representatives at the UN are supposed to base their decisions more on emotion than on reasoning. |
