1 . When Carolina Escudero was severely depressed, going to a therapist’s office became hard to face. So she joined BetterHelp, a popular therapy app. She paid $65 each week but spent most of her time waiting for her assigned counsellor to respond. She got two responses in a month.“It was like texting an acquaintance who has no idea how to deal with mental illness,” she says. BetterHelp says its service does not claim to operate around the clock, all its therapists have advanced degrees and “thousands of hours of hands-on clinical work”, and users are able easily to switch them if scheduling is hard.
Helping people to deal with mental problems has rarely been more urgent. The incidence of depression and anxiety has soared in the pandemic by more than 25% globally in 2020, according to the Lancet, a medical journal. That, combined with more people using online services, has led to a boom in mental-health apps. The American Psychological Association reckons 10,000-20,000 are available for download.
Underneath, though, a trauma lies in some corners of the industry. In October 2020 hackers who had breached Vastaamo, a popular Finnish startup, began blackmailing some of its users. Vastaamo required therapists to back up patient notes online but reportedly did not anonymize (匿名) them. Threatening to share private information on the dark web, the hackers reportedly demanded money from some 30,000 patients.
Other cases may arise. No universal standards for storing “emotional data” exist. John Torous of Harvard Medical School, who has reviewed 650 mental- health apps, describes their privacy policies as terrible. Some share information with advertisers. “When I first joined BetterHelp, I started to see targeted ads with words that I had used on the app to describe my personal experiences,” reports one user.
As for effectiveness, the apps’ methods are exceedingly difficult to evaluate. Woebot, for instance, is a chat robot which uses artificial intelligence to reproduce the experience of cognitive behavioural therapy. The product is marketed as clinically validated based in part on a scientific study which concluded that humans can form meaningful bonds with robots. But the study was written by people with financial links to Woebot.
Mental-health apps were designed to be used in addition to clinical care, not in the place of them. With that in mind, the European Commission is reviewing the field. It is getting ready to promote a new standard that will apply to all health apps. A letter-based scale will rank safety, user friendliness and data security. Liz Ashall-Payne, founder of ORCHA, a British startup that has reviewed thousands of apps, says that 68% did not meet the firm’s quality criteria. Time to head back to the couch?
1. What can we learn about Betterhelp?| A．Betterhelp is highly responsive to users' needs. |
| B．Betterhelp provides around-the-clock service. |
| C．Betterhelp is an app helping people deal with mental problems. |
| D．Betterhelp is trustworthy in terms of protecting users’ privacy. |
①The increasing awareness of one’s physical and mental health.
②The soaring incidence of mental problems during the pandemic.
③The widespread use of online services.
④The universal standards in quality evaluation.
| A．①② | B．②③ | C．③④ | D．①④ |
| A．To illustrate to readers what kind of product Woebot is. |
| B．To inform readers that Woebot is clinically validated. |
| C．To show how artificial intelligence is used in health apps. |
| D．To prove how difficult it is to evaluate the effectiveness of health apps. |
| A．Optimistic. | B．Indifferent. | C．Doubtful. | D．Negative. |
2 . In his 1930 essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren”, John Keynes, a famous economist, wrote that human needs fall into two classes: absolute needs, which are independent of what others have, and relative needs, which make us feel superior to our fellows. He thought that although relative needs may indeed be insatiable (无止境的), this is not true of absolute needs.
Keynes was surely correct that only small part of total spending is decided by the desire for superiority. He was greatly mistaken, however, in seeing this desire as the only source of insatiable demands.
Decisions to spend are also driven by ideas of quality which can influence the demand for almost all goods, including even basic goods like food. When a couple goes out for an anniversary dinner, for example, the thought of feeling superior to others probably never comes to them. Their goal is to share a special meal that stands out from other meals.
There are no obvious limits to the escalation of demands for quality. For example, Porsche, a famous car producer, has a model which was considered perhaps the best sports car on the market. Priced at over $120,000, it handles perfectly well and has great speed acceleration. But in 2004, the producer introduced some changes which made the model slightly better in handling and acceleration. People who really care about cars find these small improvements exciting. To get them, however, they must pay almost four times the prices.
By placing the desire to be superior to others at the heart of his description of insatiable demands, Keynes actually reduced such demands. However, the desire for higher quality has no natural limits.
1. According to the passage, John Keynes believed that ________.| A．desire is the root of both absolute and relative needs |
| B．absolute needs come from our sense of superiority |
| C．relative needs alone lead to insatiable demands |
| D．absolute needs are stronger than relative needs |
| A．Understanding | B．Increase | C．Difference | D．Decrease |
| A．absolute needs have no limits |
| B．demands for quality are not insatiable |
| C．human desires influences ideas of quality |
| D．relative needs decide most of our spending |
3 . LONDON (Reuters) — Quiet place — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth is preparing to have her swans counted.
Buckingham Palace has announced that the annual Swan Upping, a tradition dating back to the 12th century which involves a census (审查) of the swan population on the River Thames, will be conducted by the Queen’s official Swan Marker from July 20 to 24.
“With the assistance of the Queen’s Swan Warden, Professor Christopher Perrins of the University of Oxford, the swans and young cygnets (小天鹅) are also assessed for any signs of injury or disease,” Buckingham Palace said in announcing the count.
The process involves the Swan Marker, David Barber, rowing up the Thames for five days with the Swan Warden in traditional skiffs while wearing special scarlet uniforms and counting, weighing and measuring swans and cygnets.
It may seem odd, but it is very important to the Queen. According to custom, Britain’s sovereign owns all unmarked, mute swans in open water, but the Queen now exercises the right only on stretches of the Thames and its nearby tributaries.
In medieval times, the Swan Marker would not only travel up the river counting the swans, but would catch as many as possible as they were sought after for banquets and feasts.
This year, the Swan Marker and the Swan Warden are particularly keen to discover how much damage is being caused to swans and cygnets by attacks from dogs and from discarded fishing tackle (渔具).
It is also an important year because Queen Elizabeth has decided to join her team of Swan Uppers for part of the census. She will follow them up the river and visit a local school project on the whole subject of swans, cygnets and the Thames.
“Education and conservation are essential to the role of Swan Upping and the involvement of school children is always a rewarding experience,” Buckingham Palace said.
1. In medieval times, ________.| A．swans were better protected than now |
| B．a lot of swans were killed by dogs |
| C．swans were a delicious dish on royal banquets |
| D．common people could catch the swans |
| A．remains almost unchanged in the past years |
| B．involves a lot of royal members |
| C．sometimes lasts longer than before |
| D．is always guarded by special soldiers |
| A．Britain’s Queen is concerned about swans. |
| B．Britain’s Queen orders a count of swan. |
| C．An old tradition in Buckingham Palace. |
| D．Queen Elizabeth will count swans herself. |
| A．districts | B．banks | C．trees | D．branches |
4 . Until we start to lose our balance, we barely notice that it’s there at all. “It starts for a lot of people with simple stuff,” says Dr Anna Lowe, an expert on healthy ageing and physical activity. “
The key, it is increasingly becoming clear, is to address the decline before it gets serious: and that can happen earlier than you might think.
What is balance? Technically, it’s the complex interaction of several different systems in your body — from muscles, nerves, eyesight and the inner ear to the sensory system that lets you recognise where your body is touching the ground, along with movement receptors within your joints that tell you where your body is in space.
A lack of balance is, globally, associated with serious health problems. Earlier this year, the British Journal of Sports Medicine published the results of a decade-long study involving more than 1,700 middle-aged participants, which concluded that an inability to balance was associated with an almost twofold increase in risk of death.
“
| A．Early interventions are key, so you’ve got to stay active. |
| B．Perhaps surprisingly, those who deal with it have struggled to settle on a single definition. |
| C．It’s not something we’re born with, but also it’s not something we learn, but an ability that we gain early and lose over time. |
| D．For some people. just try to build in an element of balance and muscle strengthening. |
| E．Maybe you used to be able to quickly stand on one leg to put a shoe on, and you’ve stopped doing that at some point. |
| F．Whatever activity you choose, the lesson is to work on your balance before you need to, not when it becomes an issue. |
| IN CONTEXT BRANCH Geology BEFORE 6th century BCE The Greek thinker Thales of Miletus notes magnetic rocks, or lodestones (天然磁石). 1st century CE Chinese diviners make primitive compasses with iron spoon that can turn around to point south. 1269 French scholar Pierre de Maricourt sets out the basic laws of magnetic attraction, repulsion, and poles. AFTER 1824 French mathematician Siméon Poisson models the forces in a magnetic field. 1940s American physicist Walter Maurice Elsasser attributes Earth’s magnetic field to iron swirling in its outer core as the planet rotates. 1958 Explorer 1 space mission shows Earth’s magnetic field extending far out into space. | By the late 1500s, ships’ captains already relied on magnetic compasses to maintain their course across the oceans. Yet no one knew how they worked. Some thought the compass needle was attracted to the North Star, others that it was drawn to magnetic mountains in the Arctic. It was English physician William Gilbert who discovered that Earth itself is magnetic. Stronger reasons are obtained from sure experiments and demonstrated arguments than from probable conjectures (推测) and the opinions of philosophical speculators. William GilbertGilbert’s breakthrough came not from a flash of inspiration, but from 17 years of careful experiment. He learned all he could from ships’ captains and compass makers, and then he made a model globe, or “terrella,” out of the magnetic rock lodestone and tested compass needles against it. The needles reacted around the terrella just as ships’ compasses did on a larger scale—showing the same patterns of declination (pointing slightly away from true north at the geographic pole, which differs from magnetic north) and inclination (tilting down from the horizontal toward the globe). Gilbert concluded, rightly, that the entire planet is a magnet and has a core of iron. He published his ideas in the book De Magnete (On the Magnet) in 1600, causing a sensation. Johannes Kepler and Galileo, in particular, were inspired by his suggestion that Earth is not fixed to rotating celestial spheres, as most people still thought, but is made to spin by the invisible force of its own magnetism. |
| A．The North Star navigated their ships. |
| B．The magnetic mountains in the Arctic guided their journey. |
| C．Magnetic compasses helped them maintain the course. |
| D．The forces in a magnetic field attracted the ships. |
| A．Through trials and errors. |
| B．Through some personal philosophical speculation. |
| C．By acquiring some flash inspiration. |
| D．By studying the ideas of some philosophers. |
| A．The earth stays still. |
| B．Gilbert successfully refuted the laws of magnetic attraction. |
| C．Gilbert’s findings and conclusions are sensational. |
| D．The earth has its own magnetic field. |
6 . My husband and I live near San Luis Obispo, California, close to the beach. In November 2023, during the humpback whale migration, we kayaked (划皮划艇) out to watch the wildlife. We were in awe watching these graceful whales breach and spray through their blowholes.
At the time, my friend Liz was staying with us. Initially, she refused to join us on the water, fearing the kayak would overturn among the whales. After some cajoling (劝说) she finally agreed to join me. The following morning, we set out early and had our first whale sighting just past the pier: two humpbacks swimming toward us. How amazing to be that close to a creature that size, I thought as the whales dipped under the waterline.
When whales go down after breaching, they leave what looks like an oil slick on the water. I figured if we paddled toward that spot, we’d be safe from the whales, since they’d just left. We followed them at a distance — or what I thought was a distance. I later found out that it’s recommended to keep 300 feet away. We were more like 60 feet away.
Suddenly, we were surrounded by jumping silverfish fleeing from the whales. Before we could react, our kayak was lifted out of the water about six feet, bracketed by massive jaws. Liz and I slipped out of the kayak into the whale’s mouth. As the whale’s mouth closed, I felt the creature begin to dive and had no idea how deep we’d be dragged. Still, I didn’t panic. I just kept thinking. I’ve got to fight this. I’ve got to breathe.
Whales have enormous mouths but tiny throats. Anything they can’t swallow they spit right out. That included us. As soon as the whale dipped underwater, it ejected us, and we popped back up onto the surface about a foot apart. The entire ordeal lasted only about 10 seconds.
Other kayakers rushed to our aid, shocked to see us alive. But I am much more aware of the power of nature and the ocean than I was before. Liz was shaken up, comparing the ordeal to a near-death experience, and she says her whale-watching days are over. But even she had to laugh when she got home that afternoon and realized she’d brought back a souvenir. When she pulled off her shirt, six silverfish flopped out.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?| A．At first, Liz was hesitant to go on the kayaking trip because she was not interested in whale watching. |
| B．If Liz and I had maintained a distance of 300 feet from the whales, we might have avoided the subsequent danger. |
| C．Liz and I slipped into the whale’s mouth because jumping silverfish overturned our kayak. |
| D．Liz is likely to go on another whale-watching trip someday because she found a precious souvenir from this kayaking. |
| A．Terrified and panicked. | B．Disoriented underwater |
| C．Calm and focused. | D．Regretful about going kayaking. |
| A．a challenging or difficult experience | B．a thrilling experience |
| C．a surprising encounter | D．a joyful adventure |
| A．How to Survive a Whale Attack | B．Respecting the Power of Nature |
| C．A Day at San Luis Obispo Beach | D．I Survived Being Swallowed By a Whale |
7 . What can be done about mass unemployment? All the wise heads agree: there’re no quick or easy answers. There’s work to be done, but workers aren’t ready to do it — they’re in the wrong places, or they have the wrong skills. Our problems are structural, and will take many years to solve.
But don’t bother asking for evidence that justifies this bleak (暗淡的) view. There isn’t any. On the contrary, all the facts suggest that high unemployment in America is the result of inadequate demand. Saying that there’re no easy answers sounds wise, but it’s actually foolish: our unemployment crisis could be cured very quickly if we had the intellectual clarity and political will to act. In other words, structural unemployment is a fake problem, which mainly serves as an excuse for not pursuing real solutions.
The fact is job openings have plunged in every major sector, while the number of workers forced into part-time employment in almost all industries has soared. Unemployment has surged in every major occupational category. Only three states, with a combined population not much larger than that of Brooklyn, have unemployment rates below 5%. So the evidence contradicts the claim that we’re mainly suffering from structural unemployment. Why, then, has this claim become so popular?
Part of the answer is that this is what always happens during periods of high unemployment — in part because experts and analysts believe that declaring the problem deeply rooted, with no easy answers, makes them sound serious.
I’ve been looking at what self-proclaimed experts were saying about unemployment during the Great Depression; it was almost identical to what Very Serious People are saying now. Unemployment cannot be brought down rapidly, declared one 1935 analysis, because the workforce is “unadaptable and untrained. It cannot respond to the opportunities which industry may offer.” A few years later, a large defense buildup finally provided a financial stimulus adequate to the economy’s needs — and suddenly industry was eager to employ those “unadaptable and untrained” workers.
But now, as then, powerful forces are ideologically opposed to the whole idea of government action on a sufficient scale to jump-start the economy. And that, fundamentally, is why claims that we face huge structural problems have been multiplying: they offer a reason to do nothing about the mass unemployment that is crippling (损害) our economy and society.
So what you need to know is that there’s no evidence whatsoever to back these claims. We aren’t suffering from a shortage of needed skills; we’re suffering from a lack of policy resolve. As I said, structural unemployment isn’t a real problem, it’s an excuse — a reason not to act on America’s problems at a time when action is desperately needed.
1. What does the author think of the experts’ claim concerning unemployment?| A．Self-evident. | B．Thought-provoking. | C．Groundless. | D．Objective. |
| A．The booming defense industry. | B．The wise heads’ benefit package. |
| C．Nationwide training of workers. | D．Thorough restructuring of industries. |
| A．Economists, failure to detect the problems in time. |
| B．Very Serious People’s attempt to cripple the economy. |
| C．Evidence gathered from many sectors of the industries. |
| D．Powerful opposition to government’s stimulus efforts. |
| A．To confirm the experts’ analysis of America’s problems. |
| B．To offer a feasible solution to the structural unemployment |
| C．To show the urgent need for the government to take action. |
| D．To alert American workers to the urgency for adaptation. |
8 . Unlike so-called basic emotions such as sadness, fear, and anger, guilt emerges a little later, in conjunction with a child’s growing grasp of social and moral norms. Children aren’t born knowing how to say “I’m sorry”, rather, they learn over time that such statements appease (安抚) parents and friends and their own consciences. This is why researchers generally regard so-called moral guilt, in the right amount, to be a good thing.
And guilt, by prompting us to think more deeply about our goodness, can encourage humans to correct errors and fix relationships.
Viewed in this light, guilt is an opportunity. Work by Tina Malti, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, suggests that guilt may compensate for an emotional deficiency. In a number of studies, Malti and others have shown that guilt and sympathy (and its close cousin empathy) may represent different pathways to cooperation and sharing. Some kids who are low in sympathy may make up for that shortfall by experiencing more guilt, which can control their impulses.
In a 2014 study, for example, Malti and a colleague looked at 244 children, aged 4, 8, and 12. Using caregiver assessments and the children’s self-observations, they rated each child’s overall sympathy level and his or her tendency to feel negative emotions (like guilt and sadness) after moral transgressions (违背) . Then the kids were handed stickers and chocolate coins, and given a chance to share them with an anonymous child.
“That’s good news.” Malti says, “We can be pro-social because of the empathetic proclivity (倾向) , or because we caused harm and we feel regret.”
| A．And vice versa: High sympathy can substitute for low guilt. |
| B．The main reason why guilt works comes down to simple psychology and conditioning we receive as children. |
| C．For the low-sympathy kids, how much they shared appeared to turn on how likely they were to feel guilty. |
| D．Guilt is an incredibly powerful emotion which has slip by unnoticed for long. |
| E．In the popular imagination, of course, guilt still gets a bad reputation. |
| F．Guilt, in other words, can help hold a cooperative species together. |
9 . The worst time to look for a job is when you feel desperate and must have a new one immediately.
Identify at least two different roles. You do not have to be qualified for these positions today, nor do they have to exist in your company. However, these roles should be related to your current skill set. They are career options that look interesting.
Do exceptional work. In any role, there is a way to perform at your best. Look for ways to deliver a top performance. Show up early, be flexible to new assignments, have a positive attitude, cooperate with other departments, pay attention to the little details.
Be professionally curious. Talk to people about their careers. Learn more about how success measured in other roles, departments and companies, Ask people their thoughts on different industries.
As in all things in life, getting in front of a difficult task early is always less stressful than reacting to a career surprise. Changing jobs is to be expected. No matter how secure you feel today, the time will come when either you or your employer decide it is time to change.
| A．lf you associate with distinguished people, you are likely to find yourself with better opportunities. |
| B．Challenge yourself to expand your business knowledge through interactions with people at regular time. |
| C．In addition, the chances, if any, are low that you can find a satisfactory job in an economic situation like this. |
| D．Once you have a couple of targets, think about why and what interests you. |
| E．That is to say, the people you keep company with determine your character development. |
| F．Job searching under pressure often results in nervous interviewing and decision-making from relatively few options. |
10 . He’s considered the father of the technological innovation, and apart from that, he was also known as a design perfectionist. There is no single executive or creator in the technology industry who is more creative and inspirational than him, and with that being said he was a one-in-billion creator.
On February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, United States, a baby named Steve Jobs entered the world. His parents’ inability to provide for him led to a difficult childhood, one in which he battled with his sense of self and felt constantly confused and unfulfilled. Nonetheless, who could have predicted that this person would cause such a dramatic shift in the information technology? The way Steve Jobs showed the world the new products and devices he was working on was truly out of this world, and that’s a big part of why he’s so beloved.
Steve Jobs was well-informed, but he was not a scholar. He possessed a high IQ but showed little enthusiasm for formal education. His main hobbies were playing tricks on people via phone and computer, goofing off with his best friends, and coming up with ground-breaking business concepts.
Steve Jobs’ philosophy on education is well-known at this point; he has stated publicly that he was only able to learn after leaving college. When Steve Jobs and his friend Wozniak were in their early 20s, they came up with the idea for the Apple Computer. Steve Jobs’ Volkswagen bus and Wozniak’s beloved scientific calculator were sold to finance the pair’s garage-based startup. Jobs and Wozniak have been given much of credit for democratizing the computer industry by making computers more user-friendly, portable, and affordable.
Wozniak envisioned a line of accessible and lightning-fast personal computers, and Jobs was put in charge of the company’s marketing and management. From the get-go, Apple sold the computers for up to $666. The unexpected greatness of their early success inspired them to develop more powerful machines. In the 70s, they accomplished what would become the company’s crowning achievement. Assembled by Apple, Inc. , the high-performance computer was an instant success in their home state of California, and its sales helped make Jobs a multimillionaire.
1. Which of the following is a big reason for Jobs being beloved?| A．Jobs revolutionized the technology industry. |
| B．Jobs realized his dream despite his painful childhood. |
| C．Jobs employed an extraordinary way to present the new devices. |
| D．Jobs is the most creative and motivational person in the technology industry. |
| A．quitting school | B．playing around |
| C．starting a business | D．learning knowledge |
| A．Jobs is keen on keeping in contact with friends via phone and computer. |
| B．Jobs and Wozniak advocated democracy for every staff in the computer industry. |
| C．Jobs showed less passion for education because of the influence of his difficult childhood. |
| D．The economic situation was a barrier to Jobs and Wozniak when they started their business. |
| A．All things come to those who always choose to wait. |
| B．The only thing that keeps you going is that you love what you do. |
| C．Knowledge makes you humble, while ignorance makes you proud. |
| D．If you look at what you have in your life, you will always have more. |
