1 . China has announced that couples will be permitted to have up to three children in a major policy shift from the existing two-child limit, after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world's most populated country.
"To actively respond to the ageing of the population…a couple can have three children," state media Xinhua reported on Monday, citing a committee meeting hosted by President Xi Jinping
Early this May, China reported the slowest population growth since the early 1960s, despite scrapping its one-child policy in 2015 to encourage more births and avoid a potential population crisis.
A once-a-decade survey showed that the overall population of China grew to 1,41178 billion in the 10 years to 2020, up by 5. 38%. The increase reflects an average annual rise of 0.53%, down from 0.57% reported from 2000 to 2010.
The announcement drew a chilly response on Chinese social media, where many people said they could not afford to have even one or two children. "I am willing to have three children if you give me 5 million yuan (£554,350)," one user posted on Weibo. As a matter of fact, experiment of the three-child policy in Heilongjiang province in the last few years also resulted less effectively than expected.
It is not only China that is facing such a population challenge. Across east Asia, authorities have, for years, been struggling to persuade couples to have more babies. South Korea and Japan both have used allowance to encourage.
The policy change will come with "supportive measures, which will be beneficial to improving our country's population structure, fulfilling the country's strategy of actively coping with an ageing population and maintaining the advantage of human resources", Xinhua said. It did not specify the support measures.
1. Why did China announce the three-child limit this May?| A．To completely stop the population from ageing. | B．To show concern over the ageing population. |
| C．To increase the birth rate of the country. | D．To remove the two-child limit. |
| A．Issuing. | B．Changing. | C．Adopting. | D．Canceling |
| A．China has a smaller population in 2020 than in 2010. |
| B．Many couples can't afford to raise two or more children. |
| C．Hei Longjiang has the smallest population among the provinces. |
| D．Korea and Japan have managed to cope with ageing population. |
| A．A book review. | B．An online newspaper | C．A travel brochure. | D．A biology textbook. |
2 . Like a tired marriage, the relationship between libraries and publishers has long been reassuringly dull. E-books, however, are causing heartache. Libraries know they need digital wares if they are to remain relevant, but many publishers are too careful about piracy and lost sales to co-operate. Among the big six, only Random House and Harper Collins license e-books with most libraries. The others have either denied requests or are reluctantly experimenting.
Publishers are wise to be nervous. Owners of e-readers are exactly the customers they need: book-lovers with money—neither the devices nor broadband connections come cheap. If these wonderful people switch to borrowing e-books instead of buying them, what then? Electronic borrowing is awfully convenient. Unlike printed books, which must be checked out and returned to a physical library miles from where you live, book files can be downloaded at home. Digital library catalogues are often browsed at night from a; comfortable sofa. The files disappear from the device when they are due. Awkwardly for publishers, buying an e-book costs more, than renting one but offers little extra value.
You cannot resell it, lend it to a friend or burn it to stay warm. Owning a book is useful if you want to savor (品尝) it repeatedly, but who reads “Fifty Shades of Grey” twice?
E-lending is not simple, however. There are lots of different and often incompatible e-book formats, devices and licences. Most libraries use a company called Over Drive, a global distributor that secures rights from publishers and provides e-books and audio files in every format. Yet publishers and libraries are worried by Over Drived market dominance, as the company can increasingly dictate fees and conditions.
Library boosters argue that book borrowers are also book buyers, and that libraries are vital spaces for readers to discover new work. Many were cheered by a recent Pewsurvey, which found that more than half of Americans with Horary cards say they prefer to buy their e-books. But the report also noted that few people know that e-books are available at most libraries, and that popular titles often involve long waiting lists, which may be what inspires people to buy.
So publishers keep adjusting their lending arrangements in search of the right balance. The story of the library e-book is a nail-biter.
1. What can be inferred from the first paragraph?| A．Libraries are eager to keep relationship with publishers. |
| B．Several publishers have sold e-books to most libraries. |
| C．Libraries care too much about piracy and book sales. |
| D．Most publishers hesitate to cooperate with libraries. |
| A．It can help save readers' expenses on devices and broadband connections. |
| B．It needs checking out and returning to the library via the Internet. |
| C．It enables readers to resell the book files or lend them to friends. |
| D．It has a time limit for the book files downloaded on the device. |
| A．It has the privilege to offer readers various brands of e-readers. |
| B．It distributes e-books and audio files to publishers. |
| C．Its market dominance threatens publishers and libraries. |
| D．It devotes itself to improving conditions of e-book market. |
| A．people with library cards have to wait to borrow popular e-books |
| B．E-books are accessible in libraries and full of exciting prospects. |
| C．more than half of Americans choose e-books over physical copies |
| D．the desire to collect a popular book inspires people to buy it |
3 . China on Monday issued strict new measures aimed at addressing what authorities describe as youth videogame addiction, which they blame for a variety of societal ills, including distracting young people from school and family responsibilities.
The new regulation, announced by the National Press and Publication Administration, will ban minors from playing videogames entirely between Monday and Thursday. On the other three days of the week, and on public holidays, they will be only permitted to play" between 8 p. m. and 9 p. m.
The announcement didn't offer a specific age for minors, but previous regulations targeting younger videogamers have drawn the line at 18 years old. Enforcement measures weren't detailed, but in response to previous moves by the government to limit videogame playing by young people, Tencent Holdings Ltd. , the world's largest videogame company, has used a combination of technologies, automatically kicking off players after a certain period of time and using real-name registration and facial-recognition technology to limit game play for minors.
In restricting videogame play for younger people, the government is seeking to "effectively protect the physical and mental health of minors," China's state-run Xinhua News Agency said Monday.
Monday's new rule is likely to be felt through China's online gaming industry, one of the world's largest. The measure comes as the Chinese government seeks to restrict China's technology industry, a campaign that has caused a trillion-dollar selloff in Chinese stock market and hit a range of businesses, including for-profit education providers, ride-hailing (打车) services and e-commerce platforms.
Videogames have become a particular object of anger as Beijing seeks to reshape an industry it has described as motivated by profit at the expense of public morals. A state-media remarks this month triggered a selloff in shares of Tencent after it published an article that described online games as "opium (鸦片) for the mind. "
After the regulations were published on Monday, following the close of stock-market trading, Tencent said it had introduced a variety of new functions to better protect minors. It promised to continue to do so as it "strictly follows and actively implements the latest requirements from Chinese authorities. "
1. According to the new regulation, how long can a minor play videogames during a weekend?| A．One hour | B．Two hours | C．Three hours | D．Unlimited hours |
| A．Parental guidance | B．Automatic registration |
| C．Compulsory offline | D．Fingerprint identification |
| A．They harm teenagers' mental health | B．They make people easy to get angry |
| C．They make people entirely irresponsible | D．They bring in lots of profits for the government |
| A．No More Games | B．Protection of the Youth |
| C．The End of Technology Industry | D．Further Restriction on Youth Gaming |
主要优势 | 1、 促进文化交流，让人们更多地了解当地文化与历史； 2、 提供更多的就业机会，有助于地方经济的发展； 3、 改善生活条件； |
| 负面影响 | 4、 破坏自然环境，造成严重污染； 5、 游客大量涌入，引发交通问题； |
| 建议 （由学生自拟） | 6、 7、 …… |
注意：1、词数：120左右，开头已为你写好，不记入总词数。2、适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。3、参考词汇：促进promote vt.；经济economy
Our class made a survey on our local government’s decision to speed up its tourism. Most people think
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5 . Singapore, a country with a great population, produces only about 10 percent of its own food needs. Only 1 percent of Singapore’s 724 square kilometers is currently used for agriculture.
Singapore has announced new measures designed to quickly increase local food production in the next ten years, including rooftop farming.
This plan includes efforts to find new farming spaces, such as industrial areas and empty building spaces.
The plan were announced as the worldwide spread of COVID-19 has caused shortages of many products, including food in some areas. Limitations on population movements around the world have weaken supply chains and raised concern about worsening shortages and price increases.
But it has decided to speed up the process of increasing local production to begin within the next six months.
| A．The rising prices are hitting customers hard as well. |
| B．Singapore’s Food Agency says its goal is specific. |
| C．Climate change has great influence on food production. |
| D．And production costs there are higher than the rest of Southeast Asia. |
| E．It also calls for adding new technologies to improve farming methods. |
| F．Singapore stated that it has enough food to get through the COVID-19 crisis(危机). |
| G．It wants to meet 30% of nutritional needs with locally produced food by 2030. |
6 . In 2008, someone, or perhaps a group of people, using the name Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper to an online group that discussed cryptography（密码使用法）. That paper described a process that would use cryptography to create a secure electronic cash system, now known as a cryptocurrency（ 加密货币）. Person to person payment could be made online using a shared network of computers instead of a bank or other financial institution. Each deal could happen very quickly. The shared network of computers would also serve as the means to prove those deals safely. Getting rid of the need for a centralized banking system would open up the possibility for anyone to become part of the digital economy.
Today, there are well over a thousand different cryptocurrencies. Most are still trying to be feasible global payment system like Bitcoin. They are held back by problems affecting the entire cryptocurrency industry.
One issue is weak security on cryptocurrency websites where users either store their electronic cash in virtual “wallets” or exchange one kind of electronic cash for another. In recent years, clever thieves have broken into many of these websites and stolen electronic cash. The websites are struggling to protect their users from such thefts.
Another problem is the large number of fake cryptocurrencies that are advertised on the internet. The advertisements invite internet users to visit websites offering new cryptocurrencies. Many visitors are persuaded by the websites to buy their cryptocurrencies using actual money. Later, the webistes disappear along with the victims’ money. In response to this problem, companies like Facebook and Google are limiting cryptocurrency advertising on their websites.
1. What does the article explain about Satoshi Nakamoto?| A．Satoshi’s background in international baking and investment. |
| B．Satoshi’s grave doubts about the true value of cryptocurrencies. |
| C．Satoshi’s close partnership with suspicious financial institutions. |
| D．Satoshi’s contribution to the development of the digital economy. |
| A．They and their users have been robbed. |
| B．They’ve revealed the identities of their users. |
| C．They reward their users with coll prizes. |
| D．They arrange recreational events for users. |
| A．It’s had to lay off lots of workers. |
| B．It’s celebrating a profitable year. |
| C．It’s facing some serious challenges. |
| D．It’s set a very high moral standard. |
| A．Few cryptocurrencies need to be marketed. |
| B．They’ve created their own cryptocurrency. |
| C．They didn’t listen to cryptocurrency fans. |
| D．Too many cryptocurrecies aren’t real. |
Gross domestic product, the GDP, is a simple way to describe the health of big, complicated economies. And for the last century, the goal of many countries has been to make their GDP go up.But concentrating only on GDP has had some downsides.
“In growing the economy, we have, as an unintended consequence, destroyed parts of nature, which are also important for our well-being." said Stephen Polasky, an environmental economist at the University of Minnesota. He and his colleagues have created a new measurement: the gross ecosystem product, or GEP. So that we actually have metrics that say how are we doing on ecosystems management, managing nature—and not just for nature's sake but how is that coming back and influencing our own well-being?
So really, GEP is trying to say, What is the contribution of nature to the economy? So in a parallel way to what GDP does in measuring economic performance."
Evaluating up the economic value of timber and fisheries is fairly straightforward. But other benefits of a healthy environment can be less obvious.
Insects pollinate crops. Intact rivers improve water quality and buffer downstream cities from floods. Thriving ecosystems draw tourists, who spend money.
"And part of the issue here is that it is difficult to price some of these things.
Some people even say, Well, they are priceless. Unfortunately, what it means in Zero value in the GDP but not in the GEP.
For example, Polasky and his colleagues calculated the figure for Qinghai, a province in western China. They found that the gross ecosystem product exceeded GDP in the year 2000 and equaled three quarters of GDP in 2015.
Over that period, GEP rose by 127 percent, thanks to major restoration efforts and the increasing value of water. The results are in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The researchers focused on Qinghai because it's one of several provinces where the Chinese government is experimenting with using GEP as part of its formal decision-making process. For instance, GEP can help officials weigh the pros and cons of potential projects like dams. Or it can be used to show whether local leaders are taking care of the environment and not just expanding the economy.
GEP could also serve as the basis for programs that pay residents to be good stewards of natural resources that benefit themselves and others.
In Qinghai, such a program could work for water—the province is where the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers originate, and their waters sustain cities and farms across Asia.
Polasky says their work is just a first step, and he expects GEP to be refined over time. But he says we have to start somewhere.
"If we are actually going to have a sustainable civilization, then we have to pay attention to, kind of, the infrastructure, basically—the essential things that nature does for us—and not continue to just take them for granted."
1. What is the downside of GDP?2. What is GEP and its benefits compared with GDP?
3. Why did the research focus on Qinghai?
4. What is the attitude of Polasky towards GEP?
8 . Thirty-two cases of illegal hunting or trading wild animals have been uncovered involving 33 suspects since a crackdown against illegal wildlife trade was launched on April 10.
Beijing police seized 74 wild animals grouped in China into the first-grade and second-grade state protected animals, including African grey parrots and cockatoos, as well as nearly 50 wild birds and 21 pangolin scales.
On April 16, police in the capital city’s Chaoyang district caught two suspects, who were respectively identified as Liu and Wang, for buying wild animals, and recovered more than 40 wild birds, including one cockatoo and one African grey parrot, at their homes, the statement said, adding the two suspects have been detained (拘留).
In another case, a 35-year-old man surnamed Hu was also sentenced to imprisonment in Daxing district after he was found selling wild animals through QQ, a popular instant messaging tool in the country. He was caught on April 14.
The bureau highlighted the importance of protecting the wildlife, noting Chinese laws and a new decision adopted by the nation’s top legislature (立法机关) have also shown the country’s determination against illegal trade of wild animals.
The Chinese Criminal Law clarifies that those illegally hunting, buying, selling or transporting wild animals on the state protection list, endangered animals or the wildlife-related products will face an imprisonment of more than 10 years and fines if their behaviors are identified as “extremely serious”.
On Feb 24, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislative body, also passed the decision that clearly states all wildlife on the protection list of the existing Wild Animal Protect Law or other laws, and all wild animals, including those artificially bred and farmed, are not permitted to be hunted or traded.
With the strict crackdown campaign against illegal trade of wild animals on the go in Beijing, the whole nation is attaching great importance to wild life protection.
1. The author mentions the cases at the very beginning of the passage to ______ .| A．explain the new laws on wildlife protection |
| B．show the present situation of wildlife extinction |
| C．highlight the problem of illegal trade of wild animals |
| D．introduce Beijing’s campaign against illegal wildlife trade |
| A．The number of wild animals is decreasing sharply. |
| B．Hunting and trading wildlife has become a nationwide concern. |
| C．Effective actions have been taken to prevent wildlife from illegal trade. |
| D．The strong action to stop trading illegal wild animals has a long way to go. |
| A．serious actions of trading wild animals will face fierce punishment |
| B．people risk heavy fines but no imprisonment for trade of wildlife |
| C．the trade of wildlife-related products will receive no punishment |
| D．those who hunt illegally may face 10 years of imprisonment |
| A．Determined. | B．Hopeful. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Doubtful. |
9 . LIANG TAO.sold 80 pink Givenchy bags in 12 minutes.Becky Fang sold 100 Mini Cooper cars in just five.Both are wanghong,literally"red-hot on the web".Every day millions of Chinese search social media for wanghong posts or tune in to live-streams for wanghong's opinions on everything.The fans are helping this new Chinese Internet star to make money out of their popularity and to shake up the country's e-commerce industry in the process.
A few of wanghong have been hired by luxury brands.Jaeger-LeCoultre, a Swiss watchmaker,hired Papi Jiang for a video ad targeting young urbanites(都市人），including her 27m fans on Sina Weibo,a Twitter-like microblog. Zhang Yi of iiMedia Research,a consulting firm,estimates that up to 15%of sales on shopping sites like Taobao or social-media apps such as WeChat are influenced by wanghong's public support.The length of a dress might be decided by a survey of a wanghong's fans;its launch date might be based on the number of hits,shares or comments it collects,some of which can cause last-minute design changes.
This poses a new challenge for retailers(零售商），whose supply chains must respond even more quickly to wanghong's opinions.Whereas previously a company would look for a celebrity to match its image,wanghong and their admirers are shaping goods.
Another challenge comes directly from wanghong themselves.They increasingly make money not merely from online support or advice but by launching their own e-commerce stores.Sales of goods accounted for just under half of wanghong earnings of 53bn yuan($8bn)in 2016,estimates Analysis,a Chinese market-research firm(the rest came mostly from live-show tips and adverts).
Some wanghong are going a step further.In November Becky Fang launched her own clothing line.Part of her motivation,she says,was that the brands she supported did not always match the trends she was sharing with her followers.By creating her own brand,Becky's Fantasy,she has full control of the quality.She also gains a new income. For the time being only 3-5%of wanghong follow Becky Fang's example,iiMedia Research estimates.But it expects the model to become an industry in its own right, including entertainment and e-commerce,and driven by online data..
1. Why can wanghong use their popularity to make money?| A．Because they are Internet stars. |
| B．Because they use social media. |
| C．Because their opinions influence fans.. |
| D．Because they can shake the e-commerce industry. |
| A．They are fans-based. |
| B．They are social-media-based. |
| C． They are design-shared. |
| D． They are youth-targeted. |
| A．Online support and advice. |
| B．Increasing sales of goods online. |
| C．Quick responses to the.market changes. |
| D．Wanghong's opinions and e-commerce stores. |
| A．Because they want.to attract more fans. |
| B．Because they want to share with their followers. |
| C．Because they want to set up a new industry model. |
| D．Because the brands they speak for can't satisfy their fans. |
| A．supportive | B．objective |
| C．indifferent | D．worried |
10 . It is fashionable today to criticize Big Business, and there is one issue on which the many critics agree: CEO pay. We hear that CEOs are paid too much (or too much relative to workers) , or that they control others’ pay, or that their pay is insufficiently related to positive outcomes. But the more likely truth is CEO pay is largely caused by intense competition.
It is true that CEO pay has gone up---top ones may make 300 times the pay of typical workers on average, and since the mid-1970s, CEO pay for large publicly traded American corporations has, by varying estimates, gone up by about 500%. The typical CEO of a top American corporation-from the 350 largest such companies-now makes about $18.9 million a year.
While individual cases of overpayment definitely exist, in general, the determinants of CEO pay are not so mysterious and not so trapped in corruption (腐败). In fact, overall CEO compensation for the top companies rises pretty much in line with the value of those companies on the stock market.
The best model for understanding the growth of CEO pay, though, is that of limited CEO talent in a world where business opportunities for the top firms are growing rapidly. The efforts of Americans highest-earning 1 % have been one of the more dynamic elements of the global economy.
It’s not popular to say, but one reason their pay has gone up so much is that CEOs really have upped their game relative to many other workers in the U. S. economy.
Today’s CEO, at least for major American firms, must have many more skills than simply being able to “run the company.” CEOs must have a good sense of financial markets and maybe even how the company should trade in them. They also need better public relations skills than their predecessors, as the costs of even a minor slipup can cause a bad consequence. Then there’s the fact that large American companies are much more globalized than ever before, with supply chains spread across a larger number of countries. To lead in that system requires knowledge that is fairly incredible.
There is yet another trend: virtually all major American companies are becoming tech companies, one way or another. An agribusiness company, for instance, may focus on R&D in highly IT- intensive areas such as genome sequencing (基因组序列). Similarly, it is hard to do a good job running the Walt Disney Company just by picking good movie scripts and courting stars ； you also need to build a firm capable of creating significant CGI (计算机生成图像) products for cartoon movies at the highest levels of technical sophistication and with many frontier innovations along the way.
On top of all of this, major CEOs still have to do the job they have always done- which includes motivating employees, serving as an internal role model, helping to define and extend a corporate culture, understanding the internal accounting, and presenting budgets and business plans to the board. Good CEOs are some of the world’s most powerful creators and have some of the very deepest skills of understanding.
1. Which of the following has contributed to CEO pay rise?| A．The growth in the number of cooperation |
| B．The general pay rise with a better economy |
| C．Increased business opportunities for top firms |
| D．Close cooperation among leading economics |
| A．foster a stronger sense of teamwork |
| B．finance more research and development |
| C．establish closer ties with tech companies |
| D．operate more globalized companies |
| A．operation | B．success |
| C．mistake | D．promotion |
| A．CEOs Are Not Overpaid | B．CEO Pay: Past and Present |
| C．CEOs’ Challenges of Today | D．CEO Traits: Not Easy to Define |
