1 . It’s not so long ago that contactless card payments were exciting and new, but the technology is already old-hat. The new, better way to pay for things in shops? By using your phone to make a contactless payment.

Because traditionally, when you have paid with a card tap (轻敲) or using a chip and pin machine, ultimately the shop you are buying from will be noting down all of your card details.     1     And this could be a problem — it means that if the shop is hacked (侵入) or plays fast and loose with its data, you could find your card number exposed to the world.

However, when you tap to pay with your device, it generates a unique ID number for that deal and sends that instead. So you can pay for your goods and the shop can get your money.     2     That is to say, phone payments are smarter.

    3     If a pickpocket steals your card they can immediately use up the money. But if they get your phone, when the phone goes to pay it will typically perform a biometric check-it will ask for a finger-print or use the camera to look at your face, to check that you are who you say you are.

    4     Because of this added security, the limit (限额) is typically higher than for contactless cards. In the UK, it’s around £ 100 for most retailers-though some shops including most supermarkets let you spend much more with just a tap of the phone.

Want to give it a try? To actually set things up, go to your Wallet app and follow the instructions.     5     Then it will automatically recognise the numbers and connect with your bank. Usually you receive a text message with a special code on it. And then, well, you’re done. When you pay, hold your phone over the payment machine, and pay for your goods!

A．It helps to build the client list.

B．The setup process varies with banks.

C．No one needs to share any sensitive data.

D．It’s also more effective against the threat of thefts.

E．And phone payments are increasingly convenient too.

F．Typically this starts by scanning your card with your phone.

G．Therefore, it knows which bank account to take the money from.

2 . Three months ago, I landed in Beijing International Airport after a very long flight from Vancouver, Canada. I thought that it would just be a normal summer, but little did I know that my understanding of how to pay for things was about to be completely changed. 

As an international student who had not been back to China for three years, I knew that it would take me some time to readjust to the life in China. However, I did not expect that I wouldn’t even be able to do things as simple as taking the subway. 

I still remember asking my cousin if I could borrow his metro card. He looked at me with such astonishment and then started laughing: “No one uses a metro card now. You have your phone!” He then explained to me which application I needed to download and how to connect it with WeChat pay. 

I was so dumbfounded by how convenient payment had become in China. When I had just come back, I still had the habit of carrying some cash with me when I went out. But soon, I realized that there was no place for me to use it. Even the smallest convenience stores support Alipay or WeChat pay. Online transactions (交易) and mobile payments have become the new norm.

Mobile payment is so common for people in China that they are used to it by now. But for me, it has been new and exciting. 

Back in Vancouver, there was no way of going to the mall or supermarket without carrying cash, a debit card (借记卡) or a credit card. Mobile payment in Canada is not as prevalent (流行的) as it is in China. Personally, I have never paid using my phone during my stay in Canada. I had to carry cash around everywhere. Contrary to that, I have not used cash to pay at all since I arrived back in China. 

Now I am getting used to the concept of mobile payment. Gradually, I stopped asking the vendors (小贩) if I could use WeChat pay and just showed them my payment code. Thinking back on my experience with this “new” method of paying over the past few months, I have to admit that our lives have indeed become much more convenient with the presence of mobile payment.

1. Why did the author mention her experience of taking the subway in China?

A．To compare the subways in China and Canada.

B．To explain how to use WeChat pay to take the subway.

C．To show she was unprepared for the change in lifestyle.

D．To describe how her cousin helped her when she returned.

2. What does the underlined word “dumbfounded” in paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Confused.

B．Astonished.

C．Excited.

D．Bothered.

3. What is paragraph 6 mainly about?

A．The benefits of mobile payment.

B．The concept of mobile payment.

C．Why the author preferred to pay by cash in Vancouver.

D．How people pay differently in Vancouver and China.

4. What is the author’s attitude toward mobile payment in China now?

A．Supportive.

B．Doubtful.

C．Unconcerned.

D．Annoyed.

3 . As COVID-19 continues to influence consumer behavior, the use of non-plastic payment methods is rising. But does this spell the end of the plastic credit card era?

Since the first Diners Club credit card was unveiled in 1950, much has changed. Recent technological developments and in-store consumer preferences could suggest times are changing. For some years now, various founders of financial institutions, as well as industry experts, have foreseen plastic credit cards or any other means of physical payment methods including cash will not be around much longer. They based their predictions on the light-speed growth of digital payment.

At the beginning of the global pandemic (大流行病), governments took measures to protect their citizens, leading to lockdowns of varying degrees. The fear of contracting the virus through high-traffic ATMs and the refusal of merchants to accept cash can only be seen as a great addition to an already declared war on cash. Meanwhile, the urgency to spend a minimum time period in stores in order to avoid interactions led consumers towards digital solutions.

Furthermore, options like QR codes (二维码), NFC, and PINs have been around for a while but a true market breakthrough seems to only have happened since the beginning of the pandemic. According to Worldpay, without these telecommunication innovations, the shift in people’s payment behavior is out of the question. 86% of contactless adapters built into smart devices have seen themselves proceed with contactless payment. This trend will help to wipe out cash and plastic credit cards.

From a different perspective, countries like France, Italy, and Germany had almost 150 million smartphone users in 2019 alone. And it’s been reported that 80% of the transactions (交易) will be done via Internet-backed devices by 2025. And this figure will keep rising as more and more cheap smartphones are pouring into the global market. It is expected that e-wallets are going to be the most preferred payment method by then.

So, will there be a comeback for our beloved plastic spending power? I would put away my cash and plastic cards, switch on my phone instead of inserting cards, and present QR codes at a self-checkout instead of queuing behind a mass of people. I believe that many people think the same way.

1. What are the predictions in the financial circle about?

A．The Diners Club credit card will make a comeback.

B．Consumers’ preferences will be varied around the world.

C．The era of traditional payment will come to an end soon.

D．New technologies will cause the decline of physical stores.

2. What does Paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．The worldwide efforts to fight against the pandemic.

B．The economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.

C．The impact of the health crisis on ways of payment.

D．The public’s tendency to shop online during lockdowns.

3. What set the stage for the trend in payment methods according to Worldpay?

A．The fast update rate of smart devices.

B．The existing digital payment technologies.

C．Many physical stores’ excellent online service.

D．The acceptance of digital payment among customers.

4. What can be inferred from Paragraph 5?

A．E-wallets will achieve increasing global popularity.

B．Smartphones will become cheaper and cheaper in the future.

C．Developed countries have high rates of Internet popularization.

D．The number of global smartphone users will rise by 80% by 2025.

5. What’s the author’s attitude towards the comeback of plastic credit cards?

A．Negative.

B．Favorable.

C．Unclear.

D．Hopeful.

4 . Generally speaking, convenience and safety affect how we choose to pay for things. Environmental concerns do, too.

Each time you pull out a credit, use a phone’s wallet app or hand over cash, you take part in a system. Some parts of that system make things, like coins, bills or cards. Other parts move money between buyers, sellers, banks and others. Used cash, cards and equipment will be eventually disposed of (处理), as well. Each part of this system uses materials and energy. And all parts produce waste.

Now researchers are looking more closely at how “green” these payment systems are. They’re finding buyers can help cut some of the environmental costs, no matter how they pay.

To understand the full “cost” to society of money or any other system, researchers can perform what’s called a life-cycle assessment. It looks at all the environmental impacts of a product or process. It starts with mining, growing or making the raw materials. It includes what happens while something is in use. And it considers the final disposal or reuse of things.

Even though raw materials are the first step, in fact there are raw materials added in at every single step along the journey. For money, raw materials go into each step of something that is “made”. Fuels are the raw materials for energy to make products and transport them. More energy goes into using products. Recycling or disposal also requires energy, plus water, soil or other materials.

People don’t realize most of those steps, so they can’t judge if one form of payment is dirtier or more costly. And that’s a problem, researchers say. It’s also what has got some of them to show more about the costs of how we pay for our lifestyles.

A life-cycle assessment doesn’t tell you what to do. However, it gives you an informed basis for making a decision.

1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．The ways of paying.	B．The process of payment.
C．The waste produced by payment.	D．The introduction of payment systems.

2. What does the life-cycle assessment of payment systems focus on?

A．The real value of money.	B．The history of the currency.
C．The effect on the environment.	D．The importance of raw material.

3. What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 5 refer to?

A．Steps.

B．Products.

C．Materials.

D．Fuels.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．The Payment Patterns are Changing	B．How We Choose to Pay Affects the Environment
C．New Payment Patterns Have Come into Being	D．How We Make Payment Systems “Green”

5 . WeChat, one of the world’s most popular mobile apps and social networks, brought home iF Gold Award for its smart retail innovation, Scan & Go. It is the first ever Chinese product to win4 gold in the iF Service Design category.

Established in 1953, the German-based iF Design Award has always been known for its “Independent, Rigorous(细致的) and Reliable” standards.

Scan & Go enables shoppers at retail stores to turn their mobile phone into a virtual checkout counter. When shopping, customers use their mobile phones to scan product barcodes(条形码), view product information, get discounts, complete self-checkout, and pay directly within the app via WeChat Pay. There is no queuing up at the cash register.

According to statistics, sales during peak hours in traditional supermarkets account for 60% of total turnover, and on average customers spend three to five minutes on queueing and payment during peak hours. With Scan & Go, customers no longer have to queue, and the payment time is shortened to one minute.

In order to realize queue-less purchasing, the WeChat team greatly optimizes retailers’ in-store customer handling efficiency during peak hours, and enables overall management of the consumer traffic flow. By introducing dedicated lanes for Scan & Go, supermarkets have achieved over a five-fold increase in converting(转变) digital members within two months.

In addition to improving retailers’ checkout efficiency and providing customers with a better shopping experience, Scan & Go also combines promotion and marketing modes through Mini Programs, to help increase sales. It helps retailers(零售商) to link the online and offline aspects of their business, and has become the standard tool in China for merchants to realize digital transformation. Scan & Go is now widely used by retailers in China.

1. What does the third paragraph mainly tell us?

A．The convenience of Scan & Go.

B．The use of a virtual checkout counter.

C．Ways to get discounts from retailers.

D．Methods of scanning product barcodes.

2. One of the advantages of Scan & Go is that customers

A．can buy more items

B．can save a lot of money

C．don’t have to pay for what they buy

D．spend less time to pay for what they buy

3. What can retailers do by combining promotion and marketing modes?

A．They can sell more goods.

B．They can reduce the discounts.

C．They can create more Mini Programs.

D．They can make their goods more standard.

4. What is the author’s attitude toward Scan & Go?

A．Doubtful.	B．Positive.
C．Subjective.	D．Negative.

6 . AI, 5G, cloud computing and other digital technologies are not only changing our lives but shaping the economy as well.

China’s six major commercial banks are stepping up digital wallet efforts to provide new drive for the e-CNY (数字人民币) trials in the country, as reported by Shanghai Securities News on March 23.

“The functions and properties of the-CNY are exactly the same as those of the paper currency, except that the form is digital,” said Mu Changchun, head of the People’s Bank of China’s Digital Currency Research Institute.

Many people are puzzled by e-CNY and electronic payments. “Digital currency has the characteristics of both paper money and electronic payment,” said Wu Qianhong, a professor at the School Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University. “In theory, digital currency can replace paper money, Alipay and WeChat payments.”

Compared with Alipay and WeChat payments, e-CNY features anonymity (匿名性) and security. E-commerce platforms that accept payments via e-CNY will not have access to user’s personal information. E-CNY users can open an anonymous digital wallet by registering a mobile phone number, and telecom operators cannot disclose (泄露) customer information to the central bank or any third-party institutions. Mu noted that e-CNY user’s privacy protection is at the highest level among all the existing payment tools.

Similar to Alipay and WeChat payments, using e-CNY requires an account. After obtaining the other party’s account number, users can enter the amount of digital money to transfer (转钱) and then enter the payment password to complete the transaction (交易). However, the process behind these transfers are different. For electronic payments, the transfer has to go through a third party, and the receivers will get the transferred money only when they withdraw money from banks. But e-CNY transfers only need a payer and a receiver to complete a transaction. Therefore, it guarantees risk-free payments, according to Wu.

In simple terms, e-CNY can be considered “money”, while electronic payments are like “wallets”.

1. What can we know about e-CNY?

A．It is issued by six major commercial banks.

B．It combines paper money and electronic payment.

C．It is designed to replace Alipay and WeChat payments.

D．It has exactly the same function as other payment tools.

2. How does e-CNY protect user’s privacy?

A．By limiting access to personal information.

B．By storing personal data in the central bank.

C．By opening a unique digital wallet for each user.

D．By linking telecom operators to a mobile phone number.

3. What can be concluded from Paragraph 6?

A．E-NCY transfers require to go through a third party.

B．E-NCY is more convenient than other electronic payments.

C．E-NCY can be transferred without the receiver’s information.

D．E-NCY and electronic payments ensure security in the same way.

4. What’s the main purpose of the text?

A．To promote the use of e-NCY.

B．To inform readers of digital RMB.

C．To compare different types of payments.

D．To describe the impact of digital technologies.

7 . You may have recently heard of NFT technology, which permits digital works of art to be collected and sold for millions of dollars.

But why would people pay so much money for something they cannot even touch? And what is driving the current rise in NFTs?     1    

What is an NFT?

NFT stands for non-fungible token(非同质化代币).     2     It is based on a technology called blockchain (区块链), which is also used with digital currency systems known as cryptocurrency.

What kinds of things are NFTs?

    3     They are usually bought with electronic money. The form of digital currency mainly used with NFTs is called ether. NFTs have been used to sell sports videos, pieces of land in worlds that only exist on computers and even the first-ever tweet by Twitter's founder.

What do critics say about NFTs?

Critics note that traditional art, like a painting, can be placed on a wall and looked at.     4     They point out that even though an artist can “own” a digital piece, others can easily save a copy of the same work as a file on their computer.

What are some prices for NFTs?

In February, a 10-second video showing an image of former U. S. President Donald Trump sold on an NFT marketplace for over $6 million. The first-ever published tweet from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey recently sold for nearly $3 million.

    5    

It is too early to say if NFTs are good investments. But so far, many people have items that are worth more than what they paid for them. This is no guarantee, however, that such buyers will be able to sell their digital objects for a profit.

A．But digital art is different.

B．Why do people like NFTs?

C．Are NFTs good investments?

D．It is something that only exists in the digital world.

E．NFTs can exist in the form of images, video, music and text.

F．Here are some basics to help you understand the technology.

G．An NFT can be attached to other things existing in the digital form.