1 . Back in April, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, took over Twitter for a cool $44 billion. That’s a lot of money, even for a billionaire. However, its appeal isn’t obvious. It has around 436 million users every month, which isn’t nothing—but is still a long way behind Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It also makes a relatively low profit. Then why would Musk make the purchase?
The answer might be what makes Titter so interesting: what it lacks in profits, size or growth potential, it makes up for in some way. It has an unmatched ability to shape the culture we live in. Twitter’s cultural power is easy to see. Click on any news article, and there’s a good chance that it’s quoting what someone said on Twitter.
What makes the platform significant is its users. Twitter is a bar full of rich people, whereas Facebook is just like the McDonald’s across the street. What Twitter is good at is acting as a global watercooler—a channel for small talk, jokes and informal connections. Because the people hanging out on Twitter are types of great importance and influence, what happens on it can actually affect the rest of the world.
However, its ability to influence the real world has strange results too. What happens on Twitter sometimes can only be known, understood, or appreciated by a relatively small number of people and bear little relation to the “real” world. Recent politics gives us a good example: during a recent debate, the BBC spent ten minutes talking about mean tweets about the candidates’ clothes instead of anything that actually matters.
But in any case, it’s a powerful example of Twitter’s cultural power. This explains why Musk might pay big money for it. Because even if it doesn’t make business sense, if you own Twitter you have a voice in the world’s most important watercooler conversation.
1. What made Musk want to buy Twitter?| A．Twitter’s business potential. | B．Twitter’s high profits. |
| C．Twitter’s numerous users. | D．Twitter’s cultural significance. |
| A．It gains a big advantage over Facebook. |
| B．It has important and influential users. |
| C．It keeps people informed of the latest news. |
| D．It responds to what happens in the world quickly. |
| A．The weaknesses of Twitter | B．The threats to Titer’s survival. |
| C．The contents on the platform. | D．The complaints against social media. |
| A．Who is in charge of Titter? | B．What is Twitter? |
| C．Why is Twitter so important? | D．How is Twitter promoted? |
2 . China’s first group of e-sports major graduates will emerge in the summer of 2021,with data showing that even though this major has been underestimated by the public, the future appears promising as there are hundreds of thousands of related jobs available.
After the Ministry of Education decided that “electronic sports and management” should be listed in colleges’ major departments in September 2016, around 30 Chinese universities kicked off their e-sports major courses in the same year, to meet the needs of the rise of e-sports related industries in the Chinese market.
“The major is designed to meet the demand,”said Zheng Duo,co-founder of Tianjin Hero Sports Management and a visiting professor from the Communication University of China(CUC).
Chinese passion for e-sports is not in doubt, with more than 18,000 e-sports companies registered as of 2021, according to corporate database Qichacha.The number of e-sports users in China reached 500 million in 2021, and the market had a value of more than 145 billion yuan as of 2020, according to Chinese consulting group iResearch. Meanwhile,the industry chain is becoming more complete.
Jobs in areas such as supervision and content production require talent and training. The number of available jobs is estimated at 500,000,and could reach 3.5 million in the next five years, according to China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.
Well-known universities such as CUC and the Shanghai Theatre Academy have responded to the country’s call and are preparing graduates for the e-sports market.Yet not every major graduate is qualified for the positions available, as the jobs normally require practical experience,which is something a lot of graduates lack.
Industry insiders have indicated that e-sports is an industry with rapid iteration(迭代), and some companies prefer to hire people with experience instead of spending time training recruits.
Roughly half of the graduates will enter the gaming industry, said Xiao Pi, an e-sports major graduate from CUC. “Some of the rest will pursue further studies for their master’s degree.”
“Even though e-sports majors have advantages in finding jobs, students need practical experience to better suit the different positions,” said Gu Liming, president of Perfect World Games.
1. What do the public think of e-sports majors according to the text?| A．They don’t exist in job markets. |
| B．They deserve a promising future. |
| C．They don’t have a wide appeal. |
| D．They replace many other majors. |
| A．They had great passion for electronic sports. |
| B．They wanted to respond to the public’s call. |
| C．They had the potential for e-sports courses. |
| D．They wanted to meet the social demands. |
| A．E-sports have a large database. |
| B．E-sports see a larger-scale market. |
| C．E-sports get advice from iResearch. |
| D．E-sports arise from a complete chain. |
| A．The fierce competition. | B．Familiarity with markets. |
| C．Practical experience. | D．A master’s degree. |
3 . The pink and green buoys（浮标）moved gently over the surface of the water as Catherine Puckett steered（操纵）her boat towards them. Underneath the area, Ms Puckett plants kelp-a type of seaweed-on long ropes that are like washing lines. In a good year she harvests about five tonnes of the stuff.
Seaweed has long been a mainstay(支柱)of Japanese cuisine, but it is now catching on in America. Dieticians(营养师)praise kelp's high nutritional value and its many uses in the kitchen. Restaurants offer kelp salads.
Seaweed also owes its rising popularity to something else. Research has shown that it restores underwater habitats and helps to reduce the effects of climate change.
Seaweed farming is attracting newcomers, especially women, to the seafood industry. GreenWave, a non-profit, has a waiting list of about 8, 000 people for its ocean-farming programme.
People, such as Suzie Flores, are switching careers. Before opening her kelp farm in 2017, she was a manager at a higher-education software company. Bren Smith, founder of GreenWave, says one reason ocean faming attracts newcomers is that starting a seaweed farm is easier than becoming a commercial fisherman, which requires permits that come in limited numbers and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For kelp farmers, however, getting the required permits can be a process involving numerous state agencies. Ms Flores says that outside of Maine(缅因州), plants to process the seaweed crop are limited. Ms Puckett has to harvest her crop within a five-hour window to get it on a ferry(渡船)before noon(she hopes to build her own processing plant on the island). And farmers sometimes have to deal with people who complain that the farming gear, though mostly underwater, spoils the view from their seafront villas(别墅).
The kelp industry is still young and farming seaweed is not always profitable. But, says Ms Flores, “I find it to be very fulfilling. You are growing food that is healthy for the environment and healthy for people. ”
1. What's Catherine Puckett?| A．A fisherman. | B．A seaweed farmer. | C．A scientist. | D．A dietician. |
| A．Fishing is no longer permitted. |
| B．It's not difficult to enter seafood industry. |
| C．A seaweed farm can be started at no cost. |
| D．It's more profitable than software industry. |
| A．Kelp farmers face some difficulties. |
| B．Kelp farmers complain about the ocean view. |
| C．Kelp farmers harvest their crop in the afternoon. |
| D．Kelp farmers process seaweeds in seafront villas. |
| A．Worried. | B．Doubtful. | C．Positive. | D．Unclear. |
4 . Early in the year, the hope was that the bottlenecks that messed up the global supply chain in 2020 would be mostly cleared by now. They've actually only gotten much worse and evidence is mounting that the holiday season is at risk.
Across Europe, retailers (零售商) can't meet demand because of delivery delays. In the U.S., Nike cut is sales forecast after COVID-19 set off factory closures in Vietnam that wiped out months of production.
Covid outbreaks have affected ports. There still aren't enough containers, causing prices to increase 10 times from a year ago. Labor shortages have delayed trucking and pushed U.S. job openings to all-time highs.
On the supplier side, Jay Foreman's been making toys with manufacturing partners in China for more than three decades, and he's never seen anything like this. His mid-sized toy company, Basic Fun, is on pace for its best year ever. There is no shortage of demand, but a shortage of containers has left thousands of the company's Lite Brites and TinkerToys waiting to be shipped. At just one factory in Shenzhen, there's roughly $8 million worth of finished goods that could fill 140 containers.
The bigger, more systemic risk—one that could hurt every retailer—is that Americans spend less than expected because there isn't enough inventory (库存). The available goods may also not be all that attractive. The sharp increase in shipping prices has forced manufacturers to make hard decisions about what to transport. Hicks, the Academy Sports CEO, predicted that shoppers “will have to settle more because they just won't have as good of a selection.”
Shipping big items and goods with lower value don’t make as much economic sense right now. iPhones are small and pricey, making them an ideal good to ship, but the same case can’t be made for low-end furniture or toys.
“Consumers might see news about port backups (阻塞), but that won’t hit home until they try to buy the toy of the year and can’t get it,” Bartashus, an analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, said, “That’s when they’ll hit crisis mode.”
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The goods are mounting. | B．Supply chain issues are getting worse. |
| C．The consumers become hopeless. | D．The holiday season hits the bottlenecks. |
| A．Basic Fun lacks orders. |
| B．There exists a shortage of shippers. |
| C．His toy company has its worst year. |
| D．The factory is filled with finished goods. |
| A．Consumers will have limited options. |
| B．Consumers can't afford the attractive goods. |
| C．The shipping company will stop shipping expensive goods. |
| D．The manufactures will have poor selections of shipping companies. |
| A．The port problem will be settled. |
| B．Consumers will prefer to stay at home. |
| C．The government will pass the financial crisis. |
| D．The market will be in various forms of panic. |
5 . Since1972 Americans have sat through more than 9,000 episodes of“The Price is Right". a game show with an economic twist. After being selected from the audience by the famous catchphrase－“come on down”－contestants must guess the exact price of prizes. ranging from guitars to garden furniture. If they bid too high, they are disqualified. In a recent paper, Jonathan Hartley of Harvard Kennedy School points out an interesting trend. Contestants have got a lot worse at guessing prices.
Technology may play a role. Reaching for a smartphone is easier than recalling a fact from memory. Who remembers phone numbers anymore? People may just fall out of the habit of recalling prices. Still. the rise of the smartphone is a recent phenomenon - it cannot explain why contestants became worse guessers during thel970s, 1980s and 1990s.
Economic changes may be a better explanation. A paper published in 2001 suggested that higher GDP growth raised “price-recall error". Like the famous politician who thinks a gallon of milk costs S15, as people get richer they worry less about budgeting.
A related trend is that Americans devote a shrinking share of their household spending to goods - which tend to appear on "The Price Is Right" — and a rising share to services, such as dining and childcare. which do not. Contestants might be pretty good at guessing the price of a gym class or a babysitter.
Perhaps the most interesting explanation, however, relates to globalization. In the early 1970s consumers had a relatively limited selection of products to choose from. Around the time that “The Price Is Right” first aired, Sears catalogue s were hundreds of pages long. But a search on Amazon brings up nearly1,000 results just for the word “toaster". Firms offer a huge range of differentiated products at wildly different prices, allowing consumers to satisfy their special wants. The result is that guessing prices is trickier.
The rise of online shopping adds further confusion. Online retailers respond instantly to fluctuations in supply and demand. Alberto Cavallo of Harvard Business School finds that some large retailers now change their prices. both upwards and downwards, twice as frequently as they did a decade ago. All of this suggests that contestants' guesses may yet get worse.
1. What does Jonathan Hartley find out from “The Price Is Right"?| A．People are becoming less price-sensitive. |
| B．Technology makes it easier to guess prices. |
| C．Guessing prices has become a growing trend. |
| D．It's necessary to have the habit of guessing prices. |
| A．To present "The Price Is Right" tends to focus on daily goods. |
| B．To complain “Price-recall error" is common among politicians. |
| C．To reveal Americans are spending more on services than goods. |
| D．To show a good economy makes people less concerned about prices. |
| A．It has caused frequent price wars. |
| B．It has brought a wealth of products. |
| C．It directs people's attention to online shopping. |
| D．It leads to huge price differences among retailers. |
| A．Goals. | B．Changes. | C．Charges. | D．Examples. |
