1 . Pacing and Pausing
Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve’s new wife Betty, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sara felt Betty didn’t hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained to Steve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do with expectations about pacing and pausing.
Conversation is a turn-taking game. When our habits are similar, there’s no problem. But if our habits are different, you may start to talk before I’m finished or fail to take your turn when I’m finished. That’s what was happening with Betty and Sara.
It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interrupted by Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing most of the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.
The general phenomenon, then, is that the small conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to draw conclusions not about conversational style but about personality and abilities. These habitual differences are often the basis for dangerous stereotyping. And these social phenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from the southwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job in personnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she kept searching for the right time to break in—and never found it. Although back home she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed as shy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.
That’s why slight differences in conversational style—tiny little things like microseconds of pause-can have a great effect on one’s life. The result in this case was a judgment of psychological problems—even in the mind of the woman herself, who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.
1. What did Sara think of Betty when talking with her?| A．Betty was talkative. | B．Betty was an interrupter. |
| C．Betty did not take her turn. | D．Betty paid no attention to Sara. |
| A．Americans. | B．Israelis. | C．The British. | D．The Finns. |
| A．communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing |
| B．women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US |
| C．one’s inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes |
| D．one should receive training to build up one’s confidence |
| A．People in a conversation are expected to take turns in speaking. |
| B．Conversational techniques such as pacing and pausing may cause people to jump to conclusions about one’s character and capabilities. |
| C．People from Finland tend to pause shorter than those from Britain. |
| D．Different conversational habits may lead to a breakdown in communication. |
| A．being willing to speak one’s mind | B．being able to increase one’s power |
| C．being ready to make one’s own judgment | D． being quick to express one’s ideas confidently |
Video Games Foster Creativity?
Video games that foster creative freedom can increase creativity under certain conditions, according to new research from Iowa State University. The experimental study compared the effect f playing Mine-craft(《我的世界》-一款游戏), with or without instruction, to watching a TV show or playing a race video game. Those
“It’s not just that Mine-craft can help induce creativity. There seems to be something about choosing to do it that also matters,” said Douglas Gentile, a professor of psychology.
After 40 minutes of play or watching TV, the 352 participants completed several creativity tasks.
Gentile says there’s no clear explanation for this finding. In the paper published by Creativity Research Journal, he, Jorge Blanco-Herrera, lead author and former master’s student in psychology: and Jeffrey Rokkum, former Ph. D. student in psychology, outlined possible reasons why the instructed Mine-craft group scored lower. Blanco-Herrera says the instructions may have changed subjects’ motivation for play.
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Video games can have both harmful and beneficial effects. Gentile’s previous research has shown the amount, content and context and video games
Most video games encourage players to practice some level of creativity. For example, players may create a character and story for role-playing games or be rewarded for creative strategies in competitive games. The researchers say even first-person shooter games
“The research is starting to tell a more interesting, nuanced picture. Our results are similar to other gaming research
3 . Each year, backed up by a growing anti-consumerist movement, people are using the holiday season to call on us all to shop less.
Driven by concerns about resource exhaustion, over recent years environmentalists have increasingly turned their sights on our “consumer culture”. Groups such as The Story of Stuff and Buy Nothing New Day are growing as a movement that increasingly blames all our ills on our desire to shop.
We clearly have a growing resource problem. The produces we make, buy, and use are often linked to the destruction of our waterways, biodiversity, climate and the land on which millions of people live. But to blame these issues on Christmas shoppers is misguided, and puts us in the old trap of blaming individuals for what is a systematic problem.
While we complain about environmental destruction over Christmas, environmentalists often forget what the holiday season actually means for many people. For most, Christmas isn’t an add-on to an already heavy shopping year. In fact, it is likely the only time of year many have the opportunity to spend on friends and family, or even just to buy the necessities needed for modern life.
This is particularly, true for Boxing Day, often the target of the strongest derision(嘲弄) by anti-consumerists. While we may laugh at the queues in front of the shops, for many, those sales provide the one chance to buy items they’ve needed all year. As Leigh Phillips argues, “this is one of the few times of the year that people can even hope to afford such ‘luxuries’, the Christmas presents their kids are asking for, or just an appliance that works.”
Indeed, the richest 7% of people are responsible for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. This becomes particularly harmful when you take into account that those shopping on Boxing Day are only a small part of our consumption “problem” anyway. Why are environmentalists attacking these individuals, while ignoring such people as Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has his own￡1.5bn yacht with a missile defence system?
Anyway, anti-consumerism has become a movement of wealthy people talking down to the working class about their life choices, while ignoring the real cause of our environmental problems. It is no wonder one is changing their behaviours—or that environmental destruction continues without any reduction in intensity.
1. It is indicated in the 1st paragraph that during the holiday season, many consumers .| A．ignore resource problems |
| B．are fascinated with presents |
| C．are encouraged to spend less |
| D．show great interest in the movement. |
| A．has targeted the wrong persons |
| B．has achieved its intended purposes |
| C．has taken environment-friendly measures |
| D．has benefited both consumers and producers |
| A．madness about life choices |
| B．discontent with rich lifestyle |
| C．ignorance about the real cause |
| D．disrespect for holiday shoppers |
| A．anything less than a responsibility | B．nothing more than a bias |
| C．indicative of environmental awareness | D．unacceptable to ordinary people |
| A．Violence sports are the source of social instability. |
| B．Violence sports are to blame for crime and school bullying. |
| C．Violence sports serve as an escape for negative emotions. |
| D．Violence sports won’t attract many people’s interest in the long run. |
Barry Jenkins: ‘When you climb the ladder, you send it back down’
“So, you saw the film?” Barry Jenkins is eager to ask the minute we are introduced. He gives good eye contact through those stylish thick-rimmed glasses – not the big-time, Oscar-winning writer-director speaking, but a nervous artist, anxious
Adapted from James Baldwin’s 1974 novel, Beale Street tells the story in which the personal experiences of a young black couple
Baldwin has been dead for 30 years, but his depiction of the fight against a country’s powerful prejudice is a sad reminder
Beale Street
6 . Celebrity has become one of the most important representatives of popular culture. Fans used to be crazy about a specific film, but now the public tends to base its consumption on the interest of celebrity attached to any given product. Besides, fashion magazines have almost abandoned the practice of putting models on the cover because they don’t sell nearly as well as famous faces. As a result, celebrities have realized their unbelievably powerful market potential, moving from advertising for others’ products to developing their own.
Celebrity clothing lines aren’t a completely new phenomenon, but in the past they were typically aimed at the ordinary consumers, and limited to a few TV actresses. Today they’re started by first-class stars whose products enjoy equal fame with some world top brands. The most successful start-ups have been those by celebrities with specific personal style. As celebrities become more and more experienced at the market, they expand their production scale rapidly, covering almost all the products of daily life.
However, for every success story, there’s a related warning tale of a celebrity who overvalued his consumer appeal. No matter how famous the product’s origin is, if it fails to impress consumers with its own qualities it begins to resemble an exercise in self-promotional marketing. And once the initial attention dies down, consumer interest might fade, loyalty (忠诚) returning to tried-and-true labels.
Today, celebrities face even more severe embarrassment. The pop-cultural circle might be bigger than ever, but its rate of turnover has speeded up as well. Each misstep threatens to reduce a celebrity’s shelf life, and the same newspaper or magazine that once brought him fame has no problem picking him to pieces when the opportunity appears. Still, the ego’s potential for expansion is limitless. Having already achieved great wealth and public recognition, many celebrities see fashion as the next frontier to be conquered. As the saying goes, success and failure always go hand in hand. Their success as designers might last only a short time, but fashion - like celebrity - has always been temporary.
1. Fashion magazines today ________.| A．seldom put models on the cover |
| B．no longer put models on the cover |
| C．need not worry about celebrities’ market potential |
| D．judge the market potential of every celebrity correctly |
| A．ordinary consumers are more concerned with price rather than brand name |
| B．celebrity branded products can be an instant success |
| C．consumer’s enthusiasm for celebrity branded products prove to be inconstant |
| D．to consumers, quality matters more than the outside of products. |
| A．decrease the popularity of a celebrity and the sales of his products |
| B．damage the image of a celebrity in the eyes of the general public |
| C．cut short the artistic career of a celebrity in show business |
| D．influence the price of a celebrity’s products |
| A．celebrity and personal style | B．celebrity and market potential |
| C．celebrity and fashion design | D．celebrity and clothing industry |
Many procedures are available for obtaining data about a language.
Many factors must be considered when selecting informants—
Today, researchers often tape-record informants. This enables the linguist’s claims about the language
An audio tape recording does not solve all the linguist’s problems, however. Speech is often ambiguous or unclear. Where possible, therefore, the recording has to be supplemented by the observer’s
Three Hours a Week: Play Time’s over for China’s Young Video Gamers
China has forbidden under-18s from playing video games for more than three hours a week, a stringent(严苛的)social intervention that it said was needed to pull the plug on a growing addiction to
The new rules,
The restrictions, which apply to any devices including phones, are a body blow to a global gaming industry that caters to tens of millions of young players in the world’s most profitable market.
They limit under - 18s to
The rules from the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) regulator coincide with a broader clampdown(压制)by Beijing
The campaign
Gaming companies will be barred from providing services to minors in any form outside the stipulated(规定)hours and
The new rules swiftly became one of the most discussed topics on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter. Some users expressed support for the measures
“This is so fierce that I’m utterly speechless,” said one comment that received over 700 likes.
The NPPA regulator told Xinhua it
9 . China's digital economy is expected to provide a strong boost to global economic recovery, but more efforts should be made to bridge the digital divide and promote data flow, said industry experts and top company officials on Friday.
“China’s digital economy, which is indeed in the fast lane, has become a new growth driver of the country’s economic growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It has and will play an important role in driving economic recovery globally,” said Gong Ke, president of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations and executive director of the Chinese Institute for the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development strategies.
“While data is an important factor of digital economy, more effort should be made to bridge the digital divide to benefit more user groups. To be specific, we need to improve infrastructure (基础设施) construction and the sharing of computing power from leading companies to smaller ones,” Gong said.
He made the remarks at a sub-forum of the fourth Hongqiao International Economic Forum during the ongoing China International Import Expo in Shanghai.
Liu Jun, president of Bank of Communications, said that a winner-takes-all phenomenon is happening during the development of the platform-based economy because the country’s digital economy has developed at an unparalleled speed with insufficient supervision over the past decade.
“Therefore, it is necessary to break down the existing information barriers to promote the free flow of data. The value of data cannot be maximized if a certain company uses it exclusively. Data from various departments, fields and industries must be fully combined and correlated,” Liu said.
China’s digital economy reached $5.4 trillion last year in terms of market size, which grew 9.6 percent year-on-year, the fastest worldwide, said the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology a government think tank.
Such rapid development of the digital economy has attracted companies from abroad to participate. They are also expected to explore more new opportunities in the Chinese market.
To embrace the trend, Omron Healthcare said it will leverage its technological competence to develop more digital innovations for the Chinese market.
The Japanese industrial automation giant displayed a series of digitalized products, including smart healthcare management terminals and glucose (葡萄糖) meters at the ongoing expo.
“The rapid growth of Chinas trade, including digital trade, has produced a strong spillover effect for the world and it will enable China’s economy to maintain a long-term positive trend and thus make a contribution to global economic growth, said Zhao Yao, general manager of Omron Healthcare China.
The CAICT report also pointed out that China and the United States are leading global development of the digital economy. The two economies also ranked first and second in terms of the market size of digital economy last year.
1. According to what Gong Ke said we may learn that ________.| A．China’s digital economy takes full advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| B．Global economic recovery will benefit from China’s digital economy the most. |
| C．Despite covid-19 China 's digital economy pushes global economic growth ahead. |
| D．Improving infrastructure construction will benefit Chinese people more from the growth. |
| A．All tech companies should be put under stricter supervision. |
| B．It is necessary to stop the free flow of data, which is the existing information barrier. |
| C．To maximize the value of data tends to be applied exclusively. |
| D．Sharing and free flow of data should be guaranteed through efficient supervision. |
| A．discover | B．employ | C．improve | D．study |
| A．China’s digital economy is now enhancing the world’s economic growth. |
| B．Nothing can block China’s digital economy development but over strict supervision. |
| C．Breaking information barriers with supervision can further China’s digital economy healthily. |
| D．China’s fast development in digital economy attracts more international investments. |
10 . Marmoset monkeys exist on a branch of the evolutionary tree that is distinct from the one that led to humans. But they constantly
A new study further
One possibility is that an individual practices
The other explanation for charitable behavior
Scientists call this the “pay to stay” model. Importantly, for both of these models to work, acts of kindness must have a(n)
Anthropologists (人类学家) from the University of Zurich carefully documented how often, in groups and in conditions that found caregiver and baby separated from the crowd, an adult would share his or her cricket. When alone with a baby
| A．comfort | B．astonish | C．alarm | D．convince |
| A．evolving | B．communicating | C．organizing | D．parenting |
| A．extended | B．extensive | C．exclusive | D．enlarged |
| A．shines | B．damages | C．affects | D．protests |
| A．at play | B．in private | C．on schedule | D．by accident |
| A．selfish | B．reluctant | C．selfless | D．negative |
| A．generosity | B．wisdom | C．independence | D．governance |
| A．count on | B．go after | C．appeal to | D．benefit from |
| A．confirms | B．ensures | C．complains | D．assumes |
| A．Effort | B．Temptation | C．Failure | D．Promise |
| A．atmosphere | B．audience | C．feedback | D．judge |
| A．statistics | B．expectation | C．result | D．opposite |
| A．stretching | B．fighting | C．begging | D．striving |
| A．prize | B．fortune | C．award | D．reputation |
| A．motivation | B．consideration | C．invitation | D．creation |
