1 . Recent research reveals that the adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI) by companies in the US has a disproportionate impact on women. According to a recent analysis, approximately 79% of the jobs lost to AI were held by women. This difference can be due to several factors.
Women are more likely to work in industries that are highly be influenced by automation, such as retail, hospitality, and administrative support. These sectors often involve repetitive tasks that can be easily automated by AI technologies. Consequently, women employed in these industries face a higher risk of job displacement.
Gender biases in AI algorithms (运算法则) can worsen the situation for women. AI systems are trained on historical data, which may reflect existing gender biases in hiring and promotion practices. This can result in biased decision-making during recruitment and performance evaluations, putting women at a disadvantage in the workplace.
The lack of diversity in the development of AI technologies contributes to the gender difference. The underrepresentation (代表名额不足) of women in the field of AI means that their perspectives and experiences are not adequately considered during the design and development process. As a result, AI systems may not fully understand or cater to the needs of women, continuously leading to gender inequalities.
To address these challenges, it is crucial to prioritize diversity and inclusion in the development and deployment of AI technologies. This involves increasing the representation of women in AI-related fields and ensuring diverse perspectives are considered during the design and testing phases. Additionally, companies should actively work towards eliminating gender biases in AI algorithms and regularly assess their impact on different demographic groups.
In conclusion, although men currently dominate the labor market, women bear a disproportionate burden due to the adoption of generative AI. The combination of industry composition, gender biases in algorithms, and lack of diversity in AI development contribute to this disparity. To relieve these effects, it is essential to prioritize diversity and inclusion in AI development and address gender biases in algorithms. Only through these efforts can we ensure that the benefits of AI are distributed equitably among all individuals, regardless of gender.
1. Why are women in the US workforce more influenced by the adoption of generative AI than men?| A．Women are less adaptable to technological changes. |
| B．Women have a lower level of education compared to men. |
| C．Women are generally less skilled in technology and AI-related fields. |
| D．Women are more likely to work in industries that are highly automatable. |
| A．Increasing gender proportion in AI development teams. |
| B．Providing targeted training and programs for women and giving them more chances in AI-related fields. |
| C．Encouraging women to pursue careers in non-automatable industries. |
| D．Offering financial supports to companies that prioritize gender diversity in AI programmes. |
| A．It ensures equal opportunities for women in the workforce. |
| B．It promotes innovation and creativity in AI solutions. |
| C．It reduces the risk of biased algorithms that perpetuate gender inequalities. |
| D．It improves the overall performance and effectiveness of AI systems. |
| A．The impact of AI on job losses in the US. |
| B．The role of women in AI-related fields. |
| C．Gender biases in AI algorithms and their effects on women. |
| D．Solutions to address challenges faced by women due to generative AI. |
2 . Interactive television advertising, which allows viewers to use their remote controls to click on advertisements, has been pushed for years. Nearly a decade ago it was predicted that viewers of Friends, a popular situation comedy, would soon be able to purchase a sweater like Jennifer Aniston’s with a few taps on their remote control. “It’s been the year of interactive television advertising for the last ten or twelve years,” says Colin Dixon of a digital-media consultancy.
So the news that Cablevision, an American cable company, was rolling out interactive advertisements to all its customers on October 6th was greeted with some skepticism.
Television advertising could do with a boost. Spending fell by 10% in the first half of the year.
In theory, interactive advertising can engage viewers in a way that 30-second spots do not. Unilever recently ran an interactive campaign for its Axe deodorant (除臭剂), which kept viewers engaged for more than three minutes on average.
| A．The popularization of digital video recorders has caused advertisers to worry that their commercials will be skipped. |
| B．But it seems that less viewers are attracted to the new version. |
| C．During commercials, an overlay will appear at the bottom of the screen, prompting viewers to press a button to request a free sample or order a catalogue. |
| D．The amount spent on interactive advertising on television is still small. |
| E．What’s more, it may not be a wise choice for advertisers to keep adding more new elements. |
| F．Yet there are doubts whether people watching television, a “lean back” medium, crave interaction. |
3 . As is the fate of anyone running a hotel in Kerala these days, Bijoy George is a man with too much to do. Before pandemic-caused lockdowns began in 2020, he managed 40 employees at the Eighth Bastion Hotel in the charming historic quarter of Kochi, a bustling coastal city. Now that business is back to pre-covid levels he needs the same number of staff again. But he has only 20 workers. His plight is shared with every other hotel, café and bar. It is a result of the state’s hospitality (招待) employees moving all together in large numbers to Qatar, not to watch football but to take up employment tied to the World Cup.
As the start of the competition approaches on November 20th, workers are quitting at a rate Mr. George says he has never seen in his 22 years in the business. Qatar, a country with a population of under 3m, will have welcomed more than 1.5m visitors before the matches conclude on December 18th. That means finding staff to run all the new hotels that have been built along with other venues that have been pressed into service to profit from the sports fans.
Kerala has long been a significant source of hospitality workers for Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries. Its state government provides good schools with English-language instruction but few jobs. More than 2m people, 17% of its working population, already work overseas, largely in the Gulf.
The appeal of Qatar is straightforward. Starting salaries approach $1,000 a month, more than six times the level for similar jobs in Kerala. To replace those who have left, Kerala’s employers have been casting their nets wider. Recruiters have been extending their searches to many other Indian cities. But that means the most common word on name-tags pinned to the breast pockets of workers is “trainee”.
Among the many skills that need to be taught, says Mr. George, is smiling at customers — the failure to do so a result of shyness among those new to the workforce. The danger is that after a week or so when confidence grows, even these employees may slip away to the Gulf.
Most contracts run for three months, concluding at the end of December, not long after the World Cup final. Returning workers will be welcomed back with open arms. Filling the gaps is even more important as Indian tourism and weddings have restarted. The reunions, though, may be short-lived. The game these workers will have learned from the World Cup is how to be paid better. That means leaving India.
1. The underlined sentence in paragraph one implies that __________.| A．other hotels, cafes and bars will share Bijoy’s 20 employees |
| B．other hotels, cafes and bars will have to lay off some workers |
| C．other hotels, cafes and bars also send the workers to Qatar |
| D．other hotels, cafes and bars also find it hard to employ enough workers |
| A．Millions of tourists have to be served during the World Cup. |
| B．Hospitality workers are in high demand with new hotels and venues open for business in Qatar. |
| C．Qatar provides good education and English training for potential workers in Kerala. |
| D．The salaries of similar jobs in Kerala are much lower than those in Qatar. |
| A．Kerala’s employers have to take on new employees in Asian cities. |
| B．Many of the new employees will pin their name tags to their breast pockets. |
| C．The new employees will not greet the customers as a result of shyness. |
| D．The new employees may soon follow the trend of going to the Gulf. |
| A．Jobs outside India can provide Indian workers with a more decent life. |
| B．It will soon be the off season for Indian tourism and weddings. |
| C．Another grand occasion will soon begin in the Gulf. |
| D．The workers only sign short-term contracts with the employers in India. |
4 . You may never know why. The email will arrive and reasons offered for your rejection might be the real ones—or not. Companies do not always like to admit that they have been scrolling through your information posted on your social media sites. Yet many, particularly the big ones, are doing just that. And in increasing numbers, they are acting on what they find when deciding whom to hire and whom to pass over.
Even before the pandemic, online checks on applicants were common. Research in 2017 found that 28% of large companies had turned down applicants after carrying out such checks. Reed Screening, a large agency doing this work, was asked to run over a third more social-media checks in December 2021 than a year earlier. And in 2022, the UK government gave the practice approval when the Department for Education said schools and colleges “should consider carrying out an online search (including social media) as part of their due diligence (尽职调查)”.
The way screening works is simple. Any “problematic” behaviour will be marked with a red flag. There are laws governing such online screening. David Erdos, Co-Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Cambridge, says that companies are supposed to warn candidates before screening their social media and tell them that they have the right to refuse consent (同意). Some companies follow these rules, but others may not. As for the right to refuse, it is hardly practicable. “Who on earth is going to be that person who says ‘Hang on a minute — I’m not happy about that’?” says Mr Erdos. “That itself is likely to be a red flag.”
All agree that the spread of online screening is alarming, as it is so unforgiving. People may be unable ever to be free of their online past, says Mr Erdos. Some footballers recently were punished for comments made almost a decade ago when they were but teenagers, as they have found to their cost.
Those within the industry think laws should be tightened, with punishment for illegal acts. In the meantime, caution (谨慎) is advisable. In talks with university students, Keith Rosser, director of Reed Screening warns them what companies will do to their social media when they apply for jobs. They are “universally terrified”, he says. And rightly.
1. What can we infer about online screening from paragraph 2?| A．It is turned down by large companies. | B．It boosts the development of education. |
| C．It is becoming more socially acceptable. | D．It highlights the wisdom of employers. |
| A．They reject the red flags. | B．They have to give in to it. |
| C．They will charge the company. | D．They postpone carrying it out. |
| A．Companies are tolerant of it. | B．It should be under strict laws. |
| C．Its influence is hard to remove. | D．University students are free to do it. |
| A．Social-media Checks Are Around the Corner |
| B．Companies Are Watching Job Candidates Online |
| C．Online Checks Are to Blame for Unemployment |
| D．Laws Governing Online Screening Are Being Introduced |
5 . Pay No Mind: People Admit to Driving, Texting, Drinking During Telehealth Visits
A recent study of 1,000 Americans revealed people are quite distracted during their virtual doctors and therapy appointments.
Hello, people of the technologically advanced world. Remember how we all hoped technology would make us better, more evolved? How’s that going for us lately? Great, I suspect — because look at how far we have come!
The only problem is that we all seem to be having a tough time concentrating. On Wednesday, a survey from a health company found people texting, driving, watching TV, playing video games and even drinking during telehealth visits.
The study was small, surveying only 1,000 Americans over the age of 18 — but people admitted to exercising (18%), scrolling through social media (21%) and even smoking (11%) during health visits.
Confused? Well, let’s talk it through…
Who decided we should be sober during health visits anyway?
To be fair, I have always thought that conversations about fungal infections, or having to strip off completely naked in front of a complete stranger, are things best done drunk. But if you really want to take your health seriously, perhaps it’s better to start with a clear mind.
Oh, so you mean there are downsides to visiting the doctors from the comfort of our homes?
Get used to it! Now people are pretty good in the art of multitasking.
Yes. And for us to truly move forward we must constantly disrupt! Or be disrupted! By, er…drinking beers. At least some people were exercising during their health visits, I suppose.
Are there any dangerous behaviors which have been reported?
Some have admitted to driving during their health appointments. In fact, one doctor told Forbes that she has had to ask patients to pull over on to the side of the road during their appointments so that they can concentrate.
Perhaps your life is not that interesting-your therapist might be busy doing more important things, like watching TV series.
| A．So that’s why my therapist just seems to be absent-minded. |
| B．Yes, the downside is that humans are fickle beings who can’t even look away from Twitter during a therapy session. |
| C．We can now have doctors’ visits from the comfort of our homes, phones and laptops. |
| D．We simply find it unable to enjoy the advances brought by technology. |
| E．A quarter of these people were doing so while in a virtual therapy session. |
| F．But it’s not just us patients that are feeling distracted. |
6 . Success is something that all of us wish to attain. Its relative elusiveness is what makes it special. It’s exclusive to a handful of people who did extraordinary things in their lives to get them to where they are today. Most successful people in this world started from the bottom and worked their way up in life. The only time luck plays a role is when you are in the right place at the right time, but it’s up to you to get yourself there and then.
They have sacrificed everything to get to their positions and will eat and sleep thinking about work. It becomes a part of their life. They will rarely complain about how hard they are working because they know that all their hard work will pay off.
Most people are stubborn.
They know that knowledge is the backbone of success and they are hungry for more information because the more they know, the easier it makes it for them. They apply or take advantage of what they learn in life.
| A．And it wasn’t because they were lucky or because it was just handed to them. |
| B．The truly successful people work on themselves and never quit! |
| C．Successful people understand that without hard work you get nowhere in life. |
| D．Do you have what it takes? |
| E．Successful people want to learn everything about everything! |
| F．Successful people are the complete opposite. |
7 . “May 17, 2157
Dear diary,
Today, Tommy found a real book!...”
“What’s it about?” Margie asked.
“School.” replied Tommy, turning the yellow pages.
“Why would anyone write about school? I hope they can take my geography teacher away.”
“It’s not our school. This is the old sort that they had centuries ago.”
“Anyway, they had a teacher.” Margie said, reading the book over his shoulder.
“Sure, they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
“A man? How could a man be a teacher?”
“Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave them assignments and asked them questions.”
“A man isn’t smart enough.”
“Sure, he is. My father knows as much as my teacher.”
Margie wasn’t prepared to argue about that. She said, “I wouldn’t want a strange man in my house to teach me.”
Tommy laughed. “The teachers didn’t live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there.”
“And all the kids learned the same thing?”
“Sure, if they were the same age.”
“But my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently.”
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to read the book.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Margie said quickly.
They weren’t even half-finished when Margie’s mother called, “Margie! School!”
“Not yet, Mamma.”
“Now!” said Mrs. Jones.
Margie said to Tommy, “Can I read the book some more with you after school?”
“Maybe,” Tommy said.
Margie went into the schoolroom, right next to her bedroom, and the mechanical teacher was on waiting for her.
The screen was lit up, and it said, “Please insert yesterday’s assignments in the proper slot.”
Margie was still thinking about the old schools they had when her grandfather’s grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole neighborhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things, so they could help one another on the assignments and discussed them.
And the teachers were people…
1. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?| A．Margie doesn’t like her school. |
| B．It’s common to read paper books in 2157. |
| C．Online learning is what Margie wants. |
| D．Tommy feels his father is smarter than his teacher. |
| A．There are only female teachers at school. |
| B．Teachers give no assignments to students. |
| C．A special building is constructed for teachers. |
| D．Students learn different things at their own pace. |
| A．Envelope. | B．Opening. |
| C．Screen. | D．Schoolroom. |
| A．Longing. | B．Objection. |
| C．Suspicion. | D．Tolerance. |
8 . Are you a different person when you speak a foreign language? That’s just one of the questions The New Yorker’s writer and native North Carolinian Lauren Collins explores in her engaging autobiography, about her tough efforts to master French after marrying a Frenchman whose name — Olivier — she couldn’t even pronounce properly. When in French ranges from the humorously personal to a deeper look at various theories of language acquisition and linguistics.
The couple met in London “on more or less neutral ground: his continent, my language.” But the balance shifted when they moved to Geneva for Olivier’s work. The normally voluble Collins found herself at a loss — “nearly speechless.” The language barrier, and her dependence on her husband for simple things like buying the right cut of meat worsened her mixed feelings about “unlovely, but not ridiculous” Geneva. She comments, “Language, as much as land, is a place. To be cut off from it is to be, in a sense, homeless.”
Her sense of alienation (疏离感) leads to an examination of America’s miserable record when it comes to foreign languages: “Linguists call America ‘the graveyard of languages’ because of its singular ability to take in millions of immigrants and make their native languages die out in a few generations,” Collins writes. Educated in Wilmington, N.C., and at Princeton, she could — like the vast majority of Americans — only speak their mother tongue.
Eight months after she moved to Switzerland, Collins gave up on the natural acquisition of language and finally enrolls in a French course. As she struggles with grammar and vocabulary, Collins notes smartly that vert (green), verre (glass), ver (worm), vers (toward), and vair (squirrel) compose a quintuple homonym (同形异义). “Although it’s difficult, French can be tried,” she says.
Yet French is actually considered among the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn, especially compared to Arabic or Mandarin Chinese. Collins, whose notably rich English vocabulary includes glossolalia (nonsense speech) and shibboleth (catchword or slogan), finds plenty of terrific French words to love. She writes, “English is a trust fund, an unearned inheritance, but I've worked for every bit of French I've banked.”
Unlike Jhumpa Lahiri, who became so hooked on Italian and used it to write In Other Words, Collins’ goals for learning French were more modest: “I wanted to speak French and to sound like North Carolina.” She also wanted to be able to deal with chimney sweeps and butchers, communicate with her in-laws, and “to touch Olivier in his own language.” She admits that she feels different speaking French: “Its austerity (朴素) made me feel more confused.”
1. Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word “voluble” in Paragraph 2?| A．Graceful. | B．Dependent. | C．Talkative. | D．Energetic. |
| A．Because other languages are prohibited in America. |
| B．Because only English-speaking people can immigrate into America. |
| C．Because immigrants’ native languages contradict English in America. |
| D．Because American culture swallows up immigrants’ native languages gradually. |
| A．Collins’ English vocabulary knowledge contributes little to her French learning. |
| B．Collins has found out some effective ways of mastering French words. |
| C．Arabic or Mandarin Chinese is easier to learn than French for English speakers. |
| D．It’s terrifying for Collins to have French words in store for practical use. |
9 . Facebook Tagging and Privacy
On Facebook, there are some Privacy settings you can set to limit who can see posts and photos where you are tagged.
See, if your Facebook friend posts a photo, and you are in that photo, then usually only her friends (or whichever audience she chooses) will see the photo. But, if she TAGS you in the photo, then potentially YOUR friends will see it too.
But you can limit the visibility of photos and posts that you are tagged in. Just take a look at the Privacy settings page and click on “Timeline and Tagging”.
For “Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline?” you want that to say “Yes”. With this setting enabled, you will be notified when you are tagged and can choose whether an individual tag will show up on your Timeline. (For example, you can preview a photo to make sure you look good before all your friends see it! )
Next take a look at the setting “Who can see posts you’ve been tagged in on your timeline?” Your choices here are the standard audience settings such as Everyone, Friends, Friends or Friends, Custom or Only Me. This is the most private option, as your friends will not see posts that you are tagged in (assuming you did not tag yourself; we’re talking about posts by other people here).
So what if your friend did indeed post an unflattering photo of you? You can also “untag” yourself from a photo on Facebook.
Follow the steps to remove a tag of yourself from a Facebook photo:
1. Click Options at the bottom of the photo;
2. Check to untag yourself;
3. Click Remove tag, and voilà, you are no longer tagged in the photo! The photo remains on Facebook but the tag is gone. This photo will no longer show up on your timeline under the heading “Photos of You”.
1. Who will have a go at your presence on Facebook if you are tagged?
| A．Only friends. | B．The friends chosen. |
| C．Friends’ friends. | D．The union of all the friends. |
| A．Active the option to approve any tagging before they appear on your timeline. |
| B．Double check whether you’ve posted unflattering photos of you on Facebook. |
| C．Unfollow those who can either see your posts or add your posts to their stories. |
| D．Remove any posts or photographs that have been previously tagged. |
| A．An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure | B．Bad news has wings. |
| C．Details are the key to success. | D．Better late than never. |
| A．show us how to use Facebook |
| B．tell us how to remove tags on Facebook |
| C．teach us how to beautify pictures on Facebook. |
| D．inform us how to set limits to protect privacy online. |
10 . How Did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die?
On November 20th, 1791, Mozart suddenly came down with fever and was wracked with pain. His arms and legs were severely swollen. In the following days his health significantly deteriorated. He died on December 5 after lapsing into a coma. The death certificate states he died of “severe miliary fever”. Exactly which disease led to Mozart’s death has been a mystery for the last 200 years.
SpeculationsMany myths —some more plausible than others — entwine (缠绕) Mozart’s early demise. One of the most popular myths — that Mozart was poisoned by his rival Antonio Salieri — rose to prominence due to the popularity of the film Amadeus. This theory is supported by the fact that Mozart had been living through a phase of depression before his death, suffering from paranoia and existential fear. Mozart himself suspected that the cause of his deteriorating health was being poisoned over a long time. However, it is highly likely that this was just his subjective view of reality.
Many other speculations circulate. Syphilis and trichinellosis are frequently mentioned. In 1905, a French physician assumed uric acid poisoning due to a never fully healed nephritis. In 1961, lead poisoning was suggested as a possible cause of death.
Scientific attempts to explain Mozart’s deathIn 2000, a group of American scientists proposed rheumatic fever caused by a strep infection after conducting meticulous detective work. The symptoms stated in literature and the reports of Mozart’s contemporaries yielded the clues. Without antibiotics, such an infection would inevitably lead to death. Rheumatic fever causes a weakening of the heart, which could explain Mozart’s swollen limbs.
In 2009, the Dutch scientist Richard Zegers extensively studied surviving documents and concluded that Mozart had been suffering from pharyngitis, a throat infection with symptoms including cramps, fever, rashes and a swollen neck. Mozart’s sister-in-law Sophie Haibel had described these symptoms. The death registry of Vienna for winter 1791 lists several deaths caused by this disease.
Whatever the cause of Mozart’s death, it came far too early. Let us thank him for his manic urge to create art and remember him on December 5th!
1. Which of the following is similar in meaning to the underlined word “deteriorate” (Paragraph 1)?| A．To become worse. | B．To change greatly. |
| C．To recover quickly. | D．To be harmed rapidly. |
| A．It is generally believed that Mozart was poisoned by his friend. |
| B．Mozart’s depression paranoia and existential fear led to his death. |
| C．Mozart had been poisoned sustainably for a long time before he died. |
| D．Mozart once got a nephritis and it was never healed. |
| A．Mozart’s disease was recorded in contemporary literature and reports. |
| B．Antibiotics were not discovered at that time. |
| C．Rheumatic fever can only be caused by strep infection. |
| D．Mozart’s illness cannot be cured even today. |
| A．To back up the Dutchman’s study. |
| B．To prove they were common symptoms causing death in 1791. |
| C．To prove Mozart did have such symptoms before his death. |
| D．To emphasize her special identify as a witness to Mozart’s death. |
