1 . People have speculated (思索) for centuries about a future without work. Some imagine that the coming work-free world will be defined by inequality: A few wealthy people will own all the capital, and the masses will struggle in a wasteland. A different prediction holds that without jobs to give their lives meaning, future people will simply become lazy and depressed.

But it doesn’t necessarily follow from findings like these that a world without work would be filled with dissatisfaction. Such visions are based on the downsides of being unemployed in a society built on the concept of employment. In the absence of work, a society designed with other ends in mind could provide strikingly different circumstances for the future of labor and leisure.

These days, spare time is relatively rare for most workers. “When I come home from a hard day's work, I often feel tired,” says John Danaher, a lecturer at the National University of Ireland, adding, “In a world in which I don’t have to work, I might feel rather different — perhaps different enough to throw himself into a hobby with the enthusiasm usually reserved for professional matters.”

Daniel Everett, an anthropologist (人类学家) at Bentley University studied a group of hunter-gathers in the Amazon called the Piraha for years. According to Everett, while some might consider hunting and gathering work, hunter-gatherers don’t. “They think of it as fun,” he says. “They don’t have a concept of work the way we do.”

Everett described a typical clay for the Piraha: A man might get up, spend a few hours fishing, have a barbecue, and play until the evening. Does this relaxing life lead to the depression and purposelessness seen among so many of today’s unemployed? “I’ve never seen anything like depression there, except people who are physically ill,” Everett says. While many may consider work necessary for human life, work as it exists today is a relatively new invention in the course of human culture. “We think it’s bad to just sit around with nothing to do,” says Everett. “For the Piraha, it’s quite a desirable state.”

1. What might be some people’s attitude towards the work-free world?

A．Objective.	B．Negative.
C．Skeptical.	D．Cautious.

2. What does the underlined word “downsides” in Paragraph 2 probably refer to?

A．Risks.	B．Losses.
C．Challenges.	D．Disadvantages.

3. John Danaher might agree that _____.

A．work plays an important role in our future life

B．people don’t know how to balance work and life

C．people’s work-free future life will be full of charm

D．higher unemployment makes life tougher for workers

4. Why is Daniel Everett’s study mentioned?

A．To justify John Danaher’s opinion.	B．To show a future life without work.
C．To compare different views on work.	D．To introduce the Piraha in the Amazon.

2 .

In the last seven days I have seen the pressure that the NHS is under. I have seen the personal courage not just of the doctors and nurses but of everyone, the cleaners, the       1    (cook), the health care workers of every description-physios, radiographers     2    have kept coming to work, kept putting themselves in harm's way, kept     3    (risk) this deadly virus. It is thanks to that courage, that devotion, that duty and that love that our NHS has been unbeatable.

The Arctic Ocean in summer will very likely be ice free before 2050, at least temporally. The research team     4       (analyze) recent results from 40 different climate models. Using these models, the researchers considered the future evolution of Arctic sea ice cover in a scenario with high future CO2 emissions and little climate protection. As     5    (expect), Arctic sea ice disappeared quickly in summer in these simulations.

However, the new study finds that Arctic summer sea ice also disappears occasionally if CO2 emissions are       6    (rapid) reduced.

In order to understand    7     bird brains changed, a team of 37 scientists used CT scan data to create endocasts(内腔)of hundreds of birds and dinosaurs, which the    8    (combine)with a large existing database of brain measurements from modern birds.

They then analyzed brain-body allometry (体形变). “There is no clear line     9    the brains of advanced dinosaurs and primitive birds,”    10    (note) co-author Dr. Amy Balanoff of Johns Hopkins University." Birds like pigeons have the same brains sizes you would expect for a dinosaur of the same body size, and in fact some species like moa(恐鸟) have smaller-than-expected brains.”

3 . Over the last 25 years, British society has changed a great deal – or at least many parts of it have.    1    . Ideas about social class – whether a person is “working - class” or “middle - class” – are one area in which changes have been extremely slow.

In the past, the working-class tended to be paid less than middle-class people. The typical working man would collect his wages on Friday evening and then, it was widely believed, having given his wife her "housekeeping", would go out and squander the rest on beer and betting.

The old style of what a middle-class man did with his money was perhaps nearer the truth. He was-and still is - inclined to take a longer-term view. Not only did he regard buying a house as a most important thing, but he also considered the education of his children as extremely important.    2    Only in very few cases did workers have the opportunity （or the education and training） to make such long-term plans.

    3    . In a large number of cases factory workers earn as much as their middle – class supervisors (管理者). Social security and laws to improve century, have made it less necessary than before to worry about "tomorrow". Working-class people seem slowly to be losing the feeling of inferiority(自卑感). In fact there has been a growing tendency in the past few years for the middle-classes to feel slightly ashamed of their position.

    4    .They generally tend to share very similar tastes in music and clothes, they spend their money in having a good time, and save for holidays or longer-term plans when necessary. There seems to be much less difference than in precious generations.    5    . As long as this gap exists, there will always be a possibility that new conflicts and jealousies will emerge, or rather that the old conflicts will re-appear, but between different groups.

A．Nowadays, a great deal has changed

B．Both of these provided him and his family with security

C．As a result, differences in life – styles and attitudes came into existence

D．However, we still have a wide gap between the well – paid and the low - paid

E．In recent years, the working – class people have begun to design long – term plans

F．In some ways, however, very little has changed, particularly where attitudes are concerned

G．The changes in both life – styles and attitudes are probably most easily seen among younger people