1 . The sudden death of the 23-year-old female emplovee of Pinduoduo has sparked a heated debate, with many criticizing the overwork culture. Three experis share their views. Excerpis (节选) follow:
Labor laws compatible (兼容的) with digital era needed
This case should inspire society to reflect on how to better protect employees’ rights in the digital era. The relevant clauses in the Labor Law cannot be specifically applied to charge internet companies suspected of violating laborers' rights and interests.
The blurring (模糊) of the line between social and economic activities in the digital era makes it difficult to define fixed working hours.
Lawmakers should find out the new factors affecting labor relations due to the rapid development of internet and communications technology. This can pave the way for law-making on working hours in the digital era. “996” working schedule is against labor laws.
More than one year ago, it was shocking to hear e-commerce tycoons (巨头) Liu Qiangdong and Jack Ma publicly support the "996" working schedule to push their employees to work harder. A growing number of companies have been using different methods to exercise ever-increasing control over their employees.
To correct the situation, it is vital that the country bring in specific law on internet enterprises, especially in terms of labor contracts and work schedules, and make it clear that the “996” working schedule is illegal.
Death due to overwork needs legally definition
Work pressure and long working hours can seriously affect workers' physical and mental health, making. them more easily hurt by occupational and stress-related diseases.
But it is difficult to prove that a person dies of overwork. Only a person who dies at the workplace or of a sudden illness within 48 hours of getting off work is considered a victim of work.
China should issue guidelines explaining in detail what leads to death due to overwork.
1. What do the three experts agree on?| A．The Labor Law in China is non-effective. |
| B．It is difficult to define fixed working hours. |
| C．Supervision on companies should be tightened. |
| D．Improvement should be made to the current laws. |
| A．To highlight the models of e-commerce. |
| B．To introduce tycoons' attitudes to overwork. |
| C．To confirm their efforts to protect employees. |
| D．To express disagreement on “996” working schedule. |
| A．To make somebody anxious. | B．To do sports or other physical activities. |
| C．To use your power to achieve something. | D．To test or make experimental use of something. |
| A．Someone dies on his way to office. | B．Someone dies of a heart attack in his office. |
| C．Someone dies three days after work. | D．Someone dies after work without symptoms. |
2 . Twice every month, Miranda Sam, a 66-year-old Ghanaian, visited the China Traditional Herbal Hospital, a private herbal facility at Pokuase, a suburb of the Ghanaian capital, for treatment.
“I was squeezing lemons, and when I finished, I could not get up or even move my legs, so I went to the hospital and did an X-ray examination, but they saw nothing. Meanwhile, I could not walk and was in a wheelchair,” the retired worker said. Hence Miranda decided to visit the herbal facility. “On two occasions, I had to do acupuncture(针灸), and I have found great relief. Now I walk unaided, so I keep coming for treatment,” she said.
As Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is gaining popularity in Ghana, many acupuncture clinics run by Chinese doctors pop up in the country. However, the China Traditional Herbal Hospital was established by 52-year-old Ghanaian business owner Bediako, after his fruitful encounter with the effects of TCM in 2012. With the help of a Chinese lady, Bediako set up a small clinic specializing in TCM. Years on, the facility has subsequently grown into a bigger herbal hospital. The hospital treats patients with a combination of local and Chinese herbal formulas. It supports this with the application of traditional Chinese medical methods.
Strokes(中风) account for 1.3 percent of all hospital admissions in Ghana, and 6.3 percent of all hospital deaths. But Bediako is confident that as more people with these conditions turn to the natural methods of healing, the pain and death rates would subside. “A gentleman was brought here three weeks ago, who could not sit, stand, or walk. He was first taken through acupuncture. I observed him on camera 30 minutes later, squatting(蹲), standing, and walking. You come here with your pain but will leave with a smile. That is our feature,” he said.
The hospital has started a second facility in Ashaiman near the capital, with plans to open other branches across the country to meet the growing demand.
1. What can we learn from Miranda’s words in Paragraph 2?| A．Her illness is not a bit severe. | B．Squeezing lemons is a risky job. |
| C．She is feeling better now. | D．She is unsure about what to do next. |
| A．It is located in the downtown area. |
| B．It was originally a specialized clinic. |
| C．It was established by a Chinese doctor. |
| D．It uses nothing but Chinese herbs. |
| A．Decline. | B．Remain. |
| C．Climb. | D．Change. |
| A．Negative. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Uncertain. | D．Concerned. |
3 . We all know it is important for students to get a good night’s sleep every night. They aren’t able to do their best unless they sleep well. Most experts agree that the proper number of hours is eight, and this has been accepted as common sense for as long as I can remember. However, I was young once and I know that most of you get much less sleep than that-and sometimes this affects your schoolwork.
I read an article in a teachers’ magazine recently. They did a study of 848 students in a senior school. Worryingly, the results suggested that teenagers are facing a new problem. They may go to bed and get up at proper times but a growing number wake up in the middle of the night, not to use the bathroom or have a snack but because of FOMO-the fear of missing out!
According to the article, schoolchildren suffer because of an increasing trend to wake up during the night to check social media. Afraid of missing a message or chance to take part in a discussion, teens wake up at all times of the night to go online and join up with social groups. All this happens when they should be sound asleep.
The report gives some worrying numbers. 23% of 12-to 15-year-olds wake up nearly every night to use social media. Another 15% wake up at night once a week for the same reason. As a result, one in three students are constantly exhausted and unable to do well at school.
So, I’d like to ask you to be responsible when it comes to social media. Be brave and turn off your phones and computers at night. The world won’t end and your social media will be waiting to greet you in the morning. I give you my word that you won’t have missed anything important.
1. What is the new trend among teenagers?| A．They get up too early in the morning. |
| B．They wake up at midnight to go online. |
| C．They wake up at night to get something to eat. |
| D．They have difficulty in falling asleep again at night. |
| A．A fear of going online. |
| B．A need to go out all the time. |
| C．A fear of losing touch on social media. |
| D．A need to use the latest technology. |
| A．disappointed | B．surprised | C．confused | D．tired |
| A．Uninterested | B．Supportive | C．Concerned | D．Doubtful |
4 . There is more that comes with older age than greying hair and wrinkled skin When humans reach their later years, they favour more established friends and their social circle is reduced.
Now, for what appears to be the first time, scientists have seen the same behaviour in another species. Twenty years of observations of chimpanzees (猩猩) reveal that older males choose to hang out with their long-term friends at the expense of other relationships.
The researchers studied 78, 000 hours of observations made between 1996 and 2016 that followed the social interactions of 21 male chimpanzees between the ages of 15 and 58 years old. They classified the chimps’ relationships depending on the amount of time they sat with others and groomed (梳毛) them. They then rated the various pairings as mutual (相互的) friendships, where both chimps seemed to enjoy the relationship; one-sided friendships, where one chimp was more keen to be friends than the other; and non-friendships, where neither chimp showed interest in the other.
When the scientists looked at the patterns of friendships, they found that the older chimps had more mutual friendships and fewer one-sided friendships than younger chimps. Another feature seen in older humans was also spotted in the chimps. As the males got older, their levels of aggression (挑衅) tailed off, meaning they started fewer fights and tended to intimidate others in their group less often.
The observations have left the researchers puzzled. According to an idea in psychology known as socioemotional selectivity theory, or SST, older humans prefer more positive relationships because they are aware time is running out. But many animal experts argue that chimpanzees lack the human sense of mortality (死亡), suggesting something else is driving the behaviour.
Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford, said in humans, the decline in social circles with age is due to declining social motivation to get out and meet people combined by lack of opportunity. In chimpanzees, as older males compete less for mates, they may focus on close, reciprocal (互惠的) relationships with trusted partners, she said.
1. What do older male chimpanzees favour?| A．Old friendships. | B．New bonds. |
| C．Greying hair. | D．Wrinkled skin. |
| A．By turning to other scientists. |
| B．By introducing a new concept. |
| C．By forming relationships with them. |
| D．By analyzing two decades’ observations. |
| A．Threaten. | B．Motivate. | C．Defend. | D．Accompany. |
| A．Awareness of time. | B．Less competition for mates. |
| C．Low motivation for socialization. | D．Lack of the human sense of mortality. |
5 . Posing for a picture and flashing the V sign may expose your fingerprints, giving criminals an opportunity to steal your important information.
Researchers with the National Institute of Informatics in Japan successfully got fingerprint information from a picture during an experiment, even though the subject was photographed from three meters away, according to the newspaper.
“Once you share them on social media then they’re gone. Unlike a password you can’t change your fingers.”
Biometric（生物统计的） security is reaching the mainstream with more than 50 percent of mobile phones set to include fingerprint recognition for the first time in 2017. The technology is also used in immigration control and for access to high-security controlled areas.
Photos that include both people's faces and fingers run a higher risk of revealing personal information, and the risk for celebrities is even higher.
Chinese experts in fingerprint identification confirmed the possibility. "Technically, we can use high-definition video cameras to obtain people's fingerprints," said Dr. Yin Desen of the First Institute of the Ministry of Public Security. He also said that people's external features are easily recorded. However, compared to video, it is more difficult to obtain fingerprints through just one photo.
According to experts, criminals are able to use counterfeit fingerprints to commit crimes, such as stealing fingerprint passwords and signing agreements. Yin warned that people should pay more attention when they leave fingerprints or use them as passwords.
1. What is the difference between passwords and fingerprints?| A．Passwords can be changed. |
| B．It is simple to recognize fingerprints. |
| C．Fingerprints have a higher security level. |
| D．Passwords depend on users’ experience. |
| A．Fingerprint recognition. |
| B．Immigration control. |
| C．Vehicle identification. |
| D．High-security controlled area. |
| A．Reliable. | B．False. |
| C．Genuine. | D．Unique. |
| A．People should use passwords. |
| B．All the photos run a high risk of exposing personal information. |
| C．Passwords can be more easily stolen than fingerprints. |
| D．It’s easier to give away information of fingerprints through video. |
6 . Guests arriving at the Aloft Hotel in Manhattan or one in Silicon Valley will soon be able to do something hotels have dreamed about offering for years: walk past the check-in desk and enter their rooms by using a smartphone as a room key. The boutique hotel brand from Starwood to Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. plans to offer this feature at two hotels before the end of the quarter.
Starwood officials are hoping this will be one of the biggest technological changes in the industry since free Wi-Fi. “We believe this will become the new standard for how people will want to enter a hotel.” says Frits van Passchen, Starwood’s CEO.
Not everyone is so sure. Past attempts to use technology to streamline the check-in process have had mixed results. Robert Habeeb, president of the First Hospitality Group, says he pulled out check-in desks at two of his Holiday Inn hotels after finding that most guests ignored them. He found that many travelers will talk with a staff member and ensure their room has the right view or location, or to try for an upgrade. Other guests may still want to be greeted when they arrive.
Hotels have never been known for being in the forefront of technology, partly because many hotels are owned and managed by small companies. Many hotel operators, though, have been searching for ways to remove the bottlenecks (瓶颈) at a hotel’s front desk. “Everybody has to check in, but we are all doing it pretty much the same way we were 100 years ago,” says Christopher Nassetta, CEO for Hilton Worldwide holdings Inc. “It’s something we are seriously addressing.”
Yet it is still not clear that virtual keys will do better than previous attempts to beat traditional check-ins. An effort several years ago to allow guests to enter rooms with the magnetic strip (磁条) on their credit cards never became popular. Guests worried about security and were unwilling to give their kids credit cards instead of room keys.
1. According to the first two paragraphs, which of the following is NOT true?| A．The new room key may become a new standard of choosing a hotel. |
| B．Hotel officials hope the new room key will be a great change in hotel industry. |
| C．Aloft of Hotel in Manhattan will allow guests to use a smartphone as a room key. |
| D．All Starwood Hotels plan to offer the new room key before the end of the quarter. |
| A．unify | B．identify | C．simplify | D．beautify |
| A．it’s a good idea to cancel check-in |
| B．the way of check-in needs to be changed |
| C．the management of hotel needs to be improved |
| D．it depends on the hotel operators to update technology |
| A．secure | B．negative | C．bright | D．uncertain |
7 . We recognize our friends’ faces. And we’re not alone. Many social animals can identify individuals of their own species by features of their faces. That's important, because they need to be able to change their behavior depending on who they meet. And a recent research has shown that some species of monkeys, birds, and domesticated (家养的) animals can even tell different faces apart by looking at photographs alone.
Ethologist Léa Lansade of the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment did an experiment to find out how well horses can recognize individual people in photographs.
She and her team first taught the horses how to “choose” between two side-by-side pictures by touching their noses to a computer screen. The horses were then shown photos of their present keeper alongside faces of unfamiliar humans. They had never seen photos of any of the people before. The horses correctly identified their current keeper and ignored (忽视) the stranger’s face about 75%of the time. In fact, even though the horses didn't get it right every single time, they were at least as correct in picking out their earlier keeper as they were at identifying their present one.
The results suggest that not only can horses differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar human faces, they also naturally understand that photographs are two dimensional representations (二维呈现) of real life, without any other intimations such as smell or sound. And they’re even better at this than our oldest animal parter, the domestic dog.
In addition, horses seem to have a strong long-term memory for human faces, like their long lifespan and history of domestication. In future experiments, the researchers would like to test whether looking at photos of people that they have had bad experiences with in the past might cause horses to act anxious or even avoidance. So maybe think twice before doing anything that might give a horse a long face.
1. Why did researchers show the horses both the keeper’s photos and the strangers’?| A．To find out what horses would do in the experiment. |
| B．To see why horses could recognize the keeper in the pictures. |
| C．To test whether horses could recognize the strangers in pictures. |
| D．To study to what degree horses can make out different people in pictures. |
| A．Clues. | B．Differences. |
| C．Photographs. | D．Senses. |
| A．Whether horses can live longer than other animals. |
| B．Whether horses can remember human's faces for a long time. |
| C．Whether horses can show their emotions at the sight of photos. |
| D．Whether horses are better at recognizing photos than other animals. |
| A．To talk about animals’ species. |
| B．To explain animals’ facial features. |
| C．To show animals’ behaviour for adaptation. |
| D．To introduce animals’ ability to identifying faces. |
8 . Scientists are urging that deep sea metal mining should be stopped temporarily. They warn in a report that it can cause severe and damaging effects on Pacific Ocean areas.
The recently-released report examined more than 250 published studies on deep Sea mining. The research was examined by the Deep Sea Mining Campaign- a collection of not-for profit organizations. The report centers on mining activities related to small metallic particles(金属颗粒)，called nodules, found on the seabed. The material can contain different metals. Increasing demand for these metals has led to a rise in deep-sea mining operations. The metals are commonly used in battery manufacturing and other technology products.
However, the scientists warn that mining for these nodules will cause irreversible(不可逆的) damage to an ocean already under pressure. The operations will affect areas across the South Pacific, including the nations of Kiribati, the Cook Islands, Nauru, Tonga and Papua New Guinea.
The report notes that a moratorium is the only responsible way to move forward until certain conditions surrounding deep-sea mining can be met. The scientists are calling for additional study to fully understand the environmental, social and economic risks.
Andrew Chin is the report's lead researcher. He says in a statement that nodule mining will likely result in the loss of sea life and cause damage to deep seabeds for thousands of years. He adds that the operations can put people at risk who depend on the ocean and its continued health.
A company planning to be one of the first to carry out mining operations in the area is Canada's DeepGreen, which aims to begin by 2024. It seeks to mine metallic nodules to be used in power systems for electric vehicles. DeepGreen Chief Executive Officer Gerard Barron defended the company's plans in reaction to the report. He said deep-sea mining offered the best alternative to surface mining, which has & long history of pollution and destroying forests and wildlife.
1. Why are deep-sea mining operations on the rise?| A．More metals are needed. | B．Surface mining is banned, |
| C．Battery industry is falling. | D．The seabed is easy to find, |
| A．Loose measure. | B．Thorough study. | C．Permanent deal. | D．Temporary stop. |
| A．Conditions surrounding deep-sea mining are great. |
| B．The damage caused by nodule mining is reversible. |
| C．Nodule mining can cause harm in various aspects. |
| D．People sure less likely to be affected by nodule mining, |
| A．Opposed. | B．Supportive. | C．Ambiguous. | D．Unconcerned. |
9 . “A CAREER BOOK about Asians? Aren’t they doing fine…?” So begins Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling, a very large scholarly book by Jane Hyun published in 2005. Because Asian-Americans had higher incomes and education levels and committed fewer crimes than their average countrymen, they were seen as a model minority. Despite this, they rarely rose to the top of companies. A mix of individual, cultural and organizational barriers — the “bamboo ceiling” of the book’s title — seemed to prohibit them from rising.
Fifteen years later Asians are still under-represented. In the technology sectors, Asians make up over 30% of the workers but less than 15% of bosses. In 2017 Asians made up roughly 6% of the country’s population but only 3% of the bosses of S&P 500 (标准普尔 500 指数) firms.
Some prominent Asians run big companies. Arvind Krishna is IBM’s new boss. Satya Nadella runs Microsoft and Sundar Pichai leads Alphabet. But few other Asians have joined their ranks — and, revealingly, these stars all have Indian roots. There are fewer South Asians in America than East Asians, but they still made up 13 of all 16 Asian S&P 500 CEOs.
Why are there so few Asians among America’s business elite? And if a bamboo ceiling is to blame, why do South Asians break through more easily? These questions are the focus of a study by Jackson Lu of MIT Sloan School of Management and colleagues, who surveyed hundreds of senior executives and business-school students. They found that while discrimination exists, it is not destiny. South Asians endure greater racism than East Asians but still outperform even whites (if success is weighed against share of population). Their research also rules out lack of ambition: a greater share of Asians than whites endeavor for high-status jobs.
That leaves culture. The researchers conclude that South Asians tend to be more determined and confident than East Asians in how they communicate at work, which fits Western concepts of how a leader should behave. The same tendency for confident remarks featured in “The Argumentative Indian”, a book by Amartya Sen, a Nobel-prize winning economist. The researchers owe East Asians’ silence to Confucian values of modesty and respect for social ranking. Sometimes bravery and bombast are needed to break bamboo.
1. What does “bamboo ceiling” refer to?| A．The top of an American technology company. |
| B．A roof made of bamboo typical of Asian buildings. |
| C．Promotion obstacles facing Asian employees in America. |
| D．The invisible discrimination against Asians in the USA. |
| A．Lacking representatives. | B．Hard to show their talents. |
| C．Being underestimated. | D．Unable to land a job. |
| A．A small population. | B．Discrimination. | C．Lack of ambition. | D．Culture. |
| A．Western people prefer modesty to confidence in communication. |
| B．The confidence they demonstrate consists with Western leadership. |
| C．They endure greater racism and become more ambitious. |
| D．Their ambition urges them to endeavor for high-status jobs. |
10 . Growing up, we are constantly reminded that young people are heavily affected by technology. We are the “antisocial club”, those who prefer to text our friends in the same room rather than make eye contact with them. And even though never-ending studies reveal to us the extent of our social media addiction, we should at least consider that it’s not only our young people’s problem any more.
There’s the rise of the Instagram mums, who like to post an abundance of cute baby pictures, share their mom feelings along the way and show their wonderful lifestyles. They are the so-called “Facebook mum generation”, a growing group of parents that like to overshare.
While all of this might be fine, and even a little humorous, new research suggests that parents’ technology addiction is negatively affecting their children’s behavior. According to the study, 40% of mothers and 32% of fathers have admitted having some sort of phone addiction. This has led to a significant fall in verbal interactions within families and even a decline in mothers’ encouraging their children.
There is no denying that I get annoyed when receiving the words “I’ll be with you soon” from a parent, when all I want to do is ask one question. But, at the same time, every day leaving the room to wait until my father is finished with his “serious business” (Farmville), has now become the norm. Whether you want to escape your disturbing children for a bit, or want to stay up late flicking through Twitter, know that wanting to do all of these is normal. We, your children, know how addictive it can be and how difficult it is to switch off. But before telling us to put our phones away at the table or even worse, listing statistics of how damaging social media can be for us, maybe lead by example, considering how much time you spend on the phone and how this is impacting your children and your relationship with us. Maybe in this way we can work on our addiction together.
1. From Paragraph 1, we can know that teenagers nowadays ________.| A．enjoy socializing with their friends | B．send messages to their friends every day |
| C．hate to make eye contact with their friends | D．are heavily addicted to their mobile phones |
| A．Boring. | B．Selfish. | C．Funny. | D．Meaningful. |
| A．security | B．standard | C．routine | D．custom |
| A．To share the author’s own experience with the readers. |
| B．To call on parents to get rid of their own media addiction. |
| C．To reveal that parents are always addicted to mobile phones. |
| D．To show the author’s dissatisfaction with parents’ phone use. |
