1 . One of the executives gathered at the Aspen Institute for a day-long leadership workshop using the works of Shakespeare was discussing the role of Brutus in the death of Julius Caesar. “Brutus was not an honorable man,” he said. “He was a traitor（叛徒）. And he murdered someone in cold blood.” The agreement was that Brutus had acted with cruelty when other options were available to him. He made a bad decision, they said—at least as it was presented by Shakespeare—to take the lead in murdering Julius Caesar. And though one of the executives acknowledged that Brutus had the good of the republic in mind, Caesar was nevertheless his superior. “You have to understand,” the executives said, “our policy is to obey the chain of command.”
During the last few years, business executives and book writers looking for a new way to advise corporate America to have been exploiting Shakespeare’s wisdom for profitable ends. None more so than husband and wife team Kenneth and Carol Adelman, well-known advisers to the White House, who started up a training company called “Movers and Shakespeares”. They are amateur Shakespeare scholars and Shakespeare lovers, and they have combined their passion and their high level contacts into a management training business. They conduct between 30 and 40 workshops annually, focusing on half a dozen different plays, mostly for corporations, but also for government agencies.
The workshops all take the same form, focusing on a single play as a kind of case study, and using individual scenes as specific lessons. In Julius Caesar, for example, Cassius’s sly provocation（狡诈的挑唆） of Brutus to take up arms against Caesar was a basis for a discussion of methods of team building and grass roots organizing.
Although neither of the Adelmans is academically trained in literature, the programs contain plenty of Shakespeare tradition and background. Their workshop on Henry V, for example, includes a helpful explanation of Henry’s winning strategy at the Battle of Agincourt. But they do come to the text with a few biases (偏向): their reading of Henry V minimizes his misuse of power. Instead, they emphasize the story of the youth who seizes opportunity and becomes a masterful leader. And at the workshop on Caesar, Mr. Adelmans had little good to say about Brutus, saying “the noblest Roman of them all” couldn’t make his mind up about things.
Many of the participants pointed to very specific elements in the play that they felt to be related. Caesar’s pride, which led to his murder, and Brutus’s mistakes in leading the traitors after the murder, they said, raise vital questions for anyone serving in a business: when and how do you resist the boss?
1. Why do the Adelmans conduct a workshop on Henry V?| A．To highlight the importance of catching opportunities. |
| B．To encourage masterful leaders to plan strategies to win. |
| C．To illustrate the harm of prejudices in management. |
| D．To warn executives against power misuse. |
| A．the Adelmans’ program proves biased as the roles of characters are maximized. |
| B．executives feel bored with too many specific elements of Shakespeare’s plays. |
| C．the Adelmans will make more profits if they are professional scholars. |
| D．Shakespeare has played an important role in the management field. |
| A．Shakespeare’s plays: Executives reconsider corporate culture. |
| B．Shakespeare’s plays: An essential key to business success. |
| C．Shakespeare’s plays: a lesson for business motivation. |
| D．Shakespeare’s plays: Dramatic training brings dramatic results. |
假设你是明启中学高三张华，在某报纸上看到一则报道，寒冬腊月，一名老人因不会使用手机扫描通信大数据行程码，被公交车司机呵斥要求其下车。互联网的发展便利人们生活的同时，却让很多老年人无所适从，就如何让银发族跨越“数字化”鸿沟的问题报社征集现广大读者的建议。请你写一封信给该报。在信中，你必须：
1. 你对老年人“数字化”鸿沟的看法；
2. 就如何帮助老年人跨越“数字化”鸿沟提出建议。
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| A. daydream B. disagreement C. factually D.ultimately E. inevitable F. perspective G. lies H. wake I. perspective J. thoughtfully K. making |
To some thinkers, it is machines and their development that drive economic and cultural change. This idea is referred to as technological determinism. Certainly there can be no doubt that machines contributed to the Protestant Reformation and the decline of the Catholic Church’s power in Europe or
But others see technology as more neutral and claim that the way people use technology is what gives it significance. This
This
4 . Aviculturists, people who raise birds for commercial sale, have not yet learned how to create similar conditions to the natural incubation (孵化) of parrot eggs in the wild. They continue to look for better ways to increase egg production and to improve chick survival rates.
When parrots incubate their eggs in the wild, the temperature and humidity (湿度) of the nest are controlled naturally. Heat is transferred from the bird’s skin to the top of the eggshell, leaving the sides and bottom of the egg at a cooler temperature. This temperature difference may be vital to successful hatching. Nest construction can contribute to this temperature difference. Nests of loosely arranged sticks, rocks, or dirt are cooler in temperature at the bottom where the egg contacts the nesting material. Such nests also act as humidity regulators by allowing rain to drain into the bottom sections of the nest so that the eggs are not in direct contact with the water. As the water that collects in the bottom of the nest changes into gas, the water vapor rises and is heated by the incubating bird, which adds significant humidity to the incubation environment.
In artificial incubation programs, aviculturists remove eggs from the nests of parrots and incubate them under laboratory conditions. Most commercial incubators heat the eggs fairly evenly from top to bottom, thus ignoring the bird’s method of natural incubation, and perhaps reducing the survivability of the hatching chicks.
When incubators are not used, aviculturists sometimes suspend wooden boxes outdoors to use as nests in which to place eggs. In areas where weather can become cold after eggs are laid, it is very important to maintain a deep foundation of nesting material to protect eggs against the cold bottom of the box. If eggs rest against the wooden bottom in extremely cold weather conditions, they can become chilled to a point where the embryo (胚胎) can no longer survive Similarly, these boxes should be protected from direct sunlight to avoid high temperatures that are also fatal to the growing embryo.
Nesting material should be added in sufficient amounts to avoid both extreme temperature situations mentioned above and assure that the eggs have a soft, secure place to rest.
1. What is the main idea of the passage?| A．Nesting material varies according to the parrots’ environment. |
| B．Humidity is an important factor in incubating parrots’ eggs. |
| C．Aviculturists have constructed the ideal nest box for parrots. |
| D．Wild parrots’ nests provide information useful for artificial incubation. |
| A．there may be a good chance for successful incubation |
| B．the incubating parent moves the egg to a new position |
| C．the embryo will not develop normally |
| D．the incubation process is slowed down |
| A．provide a beneficial source of humidity in the nest |
| B．loosen the materials at the bottom of the nest |
| C．keep the nest in a clean condition |
| D．touch the bottom of the eggs |
| A．They are expensive to operate. |
| B．They are unable to heat the eggs evenly. |
| C．They lack the natural temperature changes. |
| D．They fail to transfer heat to eggs like parent birds do. |
A Really Determined Person Will Always Succeed
Many job seekers feel limited by the choices they made at college or university. They may think that because they studied marketing, all they can ever do is work in marketing. All the evidence shows that, in fact, employers are less interested in acquired knowledge than the ability to think and learn. It is also very difficult to predict the needs of society. For example, if a person chose to study dentistry because there was a lack of dentists when they were in high school, that may not be the case when they graduate. The needs of employers and the economy can change very quickly, and often unexpectedly.
Of course, if it is a very tough time economically, it is hard to find employment straight after university, but it is by no means impossible. It might take several months longer to find a job after graduating, but there is work out there. My chosen career has always been competitive, but I never thought about the other people going for the same jobs. It may be human nature to compare your progress to your peers, but perhaps the best advice would be to try not to. Be focused on what you want and how you are going to get it. After all, it may appear that a friend who has a really well- paid job is doing well, but how do you know what their job is actually like?
A really key piece of advice is never get downhearted by rejection, because there will probably be a lot. You can achieve your dream job, whatever it is. You must never give up. Be prepared to work hard and for long hours without necessarily climbing up the career ladder. There is a lot to be said for learning your ' trade' from the bottom up. At the start, there will probably be little money, but it will be worth it in the end. The best jobs are not supposed to be easy—that is what makes them challenging. And if you like a challenge, just keep your head down and go for it.
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| A. adequate B. continentally C. dominated D. enforcement E. historically F. home G. location H. performing I. reuniting J. sought K. status |
Locally Extinct Rhino Is Back in Chad
Pigs don’t fly yet, but rhinos do.
Six black rhinoceroses were flown from South Africa to Zakouma National Park in Chad last week,
Chad is one of several African countries that have recently
Up until the mid-20th century, black rhinos
Cathy Dean, chief executive officer of Save the Rhino, an advocacy group, said six black rhinos were not significant in the context of the 5,000 or so that exist
According to the African Wildlife Foundation, 98 percent of the current black rhino population exists in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Namibia. South Africa, which is
Zakouma National Park will be responsible for protecting the rhinos from poachers and providing them with a(n)
Transporting the animals to create a new population is a plan that can prove effective, Ms. Dean said “Some subspecies are
But moving the rhinos to a place where they once were and no longer are isn’t enough. The population must be managed and protected, and law
7 . Shining just 12 light-years from Earth, the star Tau Ceti so resembles the sun that it has appeared in numerous science- fiction stories and was the first star astronomers ever searched for signs of intelligent life, half a century ago. In 2012 Tau Ceti grew still more interesting when astronomers reported five possible planets somewhat larger than Earth circling closer to the star than Mars orbits (围绕……运动) the sun—one of which is in the star’s habitable zone. Newly released images taken by the Herschel Space Observatory provide even more insight about Tau Ceti’s solar system: greater detail about its dust belt.
Dust arises when asteroids and comets (小行星和彗星) crash into one another, so its location reveals where these dust- creating objects—which are too small to be seen directly—orbit a star. In Tau Ceti’s case, “it’s quite a wide dust belt,” says Samantha Lawler of the University of Victoria in British Columbia. As her team reported in November, the belt’s inner edge is roughly two to three astronomical units (AUs) from the star, which is the position of our own sun’s asteroid belt. (An AU is the distance from Earth to the sun.) Tau Ceti’s dust belt extends out to 55 AU, which would be just beyond our system’s main Edgeworth-Kuiper belt, the zone of small bodies whose largest member is probably Pluto. Presumably full of asteroids and comets, Tau Ceti’s dust belt most likely lacks a planet as large as Jupiter, Lawler says. The gravity of such a massive planet would have driven away most small space rocks.
Within a year a new series of radio telescopes in Chile called ALMA should provide a sharper view of the disk, especially of its inner edge. The ALMA images will help astronomers confirm whether the star’s five proposed planets are indeed real. If the disk overlaps the planets’ hypothesized (假设的) orbits, then they probably do not exist; they would have kept away most asteroids near the star, removing the source of dust.
If those planets do exist, however, Lawler’s team suggests that Tau Ceti’s planetary system may resemble what our solar system would have looked like had the four giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune- never formed: small planets orbiting close to the star, and nothing but asteroids, comets and dust beyond.
1. According to astronomers, the five possible planets of Tau Ceti________.| A．resembled Earth in size |
| B．functioned like a solar system |
| C．were located in Tau Ceti’s habitable zone |
| D．were nearer to Tau Ceti than Mars to the sun |
| A．It is narrower than the asteroid belt in our system. |
| B．The bodies inside it are all smaller than Jupiter. |
| C．The gravity of Tau Ceti makes it get denser. |
| D．It is over 55 astronomical units in width. |
| A．they don’t move into the dust belt while orbiting Tau Ceti |
| B．they have kept away most asteroids and comets |
| C．they don’t crash into any asteroid or comet |
| D．they can be seen clearly by ALMA |
| A．is useful because it stops asteroids or comets crashing into the star |
| B．makes Tau Ceti different from the sun because it extends farther |
| C．is interesting because it keeps other planets away from Tau Ceti |
| D．plays a role in helping decide whether the five planets are real |
8 . Washing the dishes can help you live longer in later years
Even a small increase in light activity, such as washing dishes or a little gentle gardening, might help lower the risk of an early death among older adults, researchers say.
“It is important for elderly people, who might not be able to do much moderate intensity activity, that just moving around and doing light intensity activity will have strong effects and is beneficial,” said Ulf Ekelund, a professor and first author of the study at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. However, the study finds that there is more “bang for your buck” if you engage in intense activity compared with light activity.
Published in the BMJ, the latest research involved a review of eight studies encompassing a total of more than 36,000 people with an average age of almost 63 years. Participants were followed for five to six years; 2,149 deaths were recorded. Crucially, all of the studies involved monitoring the physical activity of individuals who had activity trackers.
For each study participants were split into four equal-sized groups, based on the total amount of time spent active, and the risk of death assessed, taking into account factors such as age, gender, body mass index, and socioeconomic status. This was then repeated for an amount of activity at different levels of intensity. The results were analysed together to give an overview.
| A．It is said that higher levels of any physical activity help keep off an early grave. |
| B．The studies did not rely on self-reporting, which, the experts noted, could be unreliable. |
| C．The latest study backs up previous research suggesting reducing time spent sitting still is beneficial. |
| D．However, the study had limitations. |
| E．A short period of intense activity is viewed as beneficial as much longer periods of lesser activity. |
| F．The team found a greater volume of activity overall was linked to a lower risk of death. |
近年来，随着我国经济和社会建设的高速发展，教育的反展也达到了一个空前的水平，但区域的教育不公平受到人们的关注。请你谈谈造成这一问题的原因及解决的措施。
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1.
| A．Either kings or queens. |
| B．Both the poor and the rich. |
| C．Those who had much money. |
| D．Boys or girls, men or women no matter young or old. |
| A．Because travelling today is easier than in the past. |
| B．Because people have become interested in traveling. |
| C．Because great changes have taken place in the world. |
| D．Because people now have got more money and time for travel. |
| A．Great changes have taken place in many places due to travelling. |
| B．Tourism won't bring any changes in people's mind. |
| C．People will have some trouble in making a journey. |
| D．Tourism causes only some changes in clothing. |
