Some times people complain that getting to work in a big city is no easy matter, just like the popular saying goes, "Taking a bus is too crowded, getting a taxi is too expensive, buying a car is not practical. " It seems that traffic jams and cities go hand in hand. Everyone complains about being stuck in traffic, however, like the weather, no one seems to do anything about it. Needless to say, traffic jam occurs where there are lots of people but limited spaces. However, there are indeed some things: you can do to reduce the time you spend in traffic jams.
For example, the highway is not always the fastest way to get from Point A to Point B. Research the area and check online maps to see if you can find a shorter route to work, which usually flows more smoothly during rush hour and can help reduce much of your driving time. From the above you may know that alternative route is of great importance.
Let's take another example. Most of the population works from8 am to 5 pm, which means that the majority of traffic jams happen around 7 am and 6 pm. So if you want to avoid a traffic jam, talk to your manager about arriving at the office earlier and leaving earlier, If some of us and companies can do like this, the conditions of heavy traffic can be changed in a way.
Finally you can take gymnastics, dance or yoga lasses after work to avoid traffic jams. Actually, there are many reasons for us to take exercise classes and going to the gym, instead of shopping and entertaining friends after work. This is a clever solution that can also help people improve their health and meet others with similar interests.
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Clearly if we are to participate in the society in which we live, we must communicate with other people. A great deal of communicating is performed on a person-to-person basis by the simple means of speech. If we travel in buses, buy things in shops, or eat in restaurants, we are likely to have conversations where we give information or opinions, receive news or comment and very likely have our views challenged by other members of society.
Face-to face contact is by no means the only form of communication and during the last two hundred years the art of mass communication has become one of the dominating factors of current society. Two things, above others, have caused the enormous growth of the communication industry. Firstly, inventiveness has led to advances in printing, telecommunications, photography, radio and television. Secondly, speed has revolutionized the transmission and reception of communications so that local news often takes a back seat to national news, which itself is often almost eclipsed (失去优势) by international news.
No longer is the possession of information restricted to a wealthy minority. In the last century the wealthy man with his own library was indeed fortunate, but today there are public libraries. Forty years ago, people used to go to the cinema, but now far more people sit at home and turn on the TV to watch a program that is being channeled into millions of homes.
Communication is no longer merely concerned with the transmission of information. The modern communication influences the way people live in society and broadens their horizons by allowing access to information, education and entertainment. The printing, broadcasting and advertising industries are all involved with informing, educating and entertaining.
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Every time there is a mass shooting, the debate surrounding guns tends to flare up in America. The abuse of guns has been a serious problem in the US all along, but why doesn’t the US government just dismiss owning guns privately?
The right to own a gun and defend oneself is central to American society. As early as the1600s, when the first Europeans set foot on the continent of North America, they had to face a lot of dangers. They could only rely on themselves. Therefore, guns played a significant role in self-defense. Guns were also important in American’s Independent War and the Civil War.
Secondly, the American founding fathers believed that gun ownership was necessary for a truly free country. If the government distrusts the people and disarms them, then that government no longer represents the people. The Second Amendment to the US Constitution specifies that the American people cannot be deprived of the “right to keep and bear arms.” So the sale and purchase of firearms are legal in the United States according to law.
The importance of guns is also derived from the role of hunting in American culture. In the nation’s early years, hunting was essential for food and shelter. Today, guns are a vital part of hunting, which remains very popular as both a sport and a way of life in many parts of the country. People spend time with friends, sharing the pleasure that the sport brings.
For those reasons, when critics say guns mean violence, they miss a large part of the picture, and they misrepresent the complex nature of America’s diverse gun culture. Most people who own guns privately, are actually part of the gun culture. They have rational and thoughtful reasons to own and use guns.
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Early Adopters Fall into a Costly Trap
Being among the first to try out a new piece of technology is cool. When you’re the only member of your social circle with the latest hot device, people stare in fascination. However, people tend to underestimate the costs of this temporary coolness, which they pay in more ways. Frankly speaking, early adoption is a bad investment. The earliest versions of devices are not only expensive, they are also the most expensive that those devices will ever be. Companies are attempting to recover the cost of production as fast as they can, and once the profits from early adopters’ purchases are safely in their hands, they can cut the price and shift to the next marketing stage: selling the product to everyone else. This is why the cost of the original iPhone dropped about $200 only eight months after its release.
Those who are first to leap into a new technology also risk wasting money and time on something that will never catch on. In 2006, HD DVDs, a new format for video, entered the market. A few eager consumers bought HD DVD players that were discontinued in early 2008. The early adopters were then stuck with pricey devices that just sat on their shelves collecting dust.
Another good reason to resist the early adoption temptation is that the first version of a product typically has imperfections. For example, when Microsoft’s game machine, Xbox One, was first released in 2013, users immediately began to complain of problems. Devoted gamers worked to find and share solutions to these issues. Such problems are so common with new technology that early adopters are basically unpaid testers.
So don’t join the first wave of consumers who invest in the latest version of device; instead, wait and see.
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Wilderness Therapy
When most people hear the term “psychotherapy”, they picture traditional talk therapy – someone sitting on a couch or chair talking about their troubling thoughts and feelings with a psychologist or other mental health professional. However, talk therapy isn’t the only type of psychotherapy used to help individuals struggling with depression, anxiety, and a whole host of other challenging disorders, emotional struggles, and other types of problems. In reality, therapy takes place in all kinds of settings. One of them is wilderness therapy.
When the campsite is set up and the fire is lit, the doctor is in. Wilderness therapy is a successful, and sometimes controversial (有争议的) way to help troubled youth by teaching life and social skills on the hiking trail. Intensive group therapy and one-on-one sessions are coupled with outdoor activities like mountain climbing and fly-fishing to teach self-reliance and responsibility. Programs promise to reform even the most wayward (任性的) of offenders, including teens with depression, anger management issues, or eating disorders.
While wilderness therapy can be effective, certain methods have come under fire for using unethical, and sometimes abusive (施虐的) techniques to help struggling youth. Wilderness programs are loosely regulated, so not all programs are staffed by qualified professionals. Upon closer examination, some “therapy” groups seemed to be just military-style boot camps with little mental health benefit.
Even legal wilderness therapy groups have been criticized for partnering with teen escort (陪同) companies to forcibly remove unwilling participants from their homes to attend the program. While controversy and risk exist, wilderness therapy might be a creative way to teach life skills when other methods have failed.
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The Dangerous Downsides of Perfectionism
In one of my earliest memories, I’m drawing. I don’t remember what the picture is supposed to be, but I remember the mistake. My marker slips, an unintentional line appears and my lip trembles. The picture has long since disappeared. But that feeling of deep frustration, even shame, stays with me.
That’s the thing about perfectionism, a crucially self-defeating way to move through the world. It makes you better at your career and relationships and life in general. Culturally, we often see perfectionism as a positive.
But the disadvantage of perfectionism isn’t just that it holds you back from being your most successful, productive-self. Perfectionistic tendencies have been linked to a long list of clinical issues: depression, social anxiety disorder, eating disorders, and most damaging of all, suicide (自杀).
“Based upon the 60-odd studies that we’ve done, the higher the perfectionism is, the more psychological disorders you’re going to suffer,” says York St John University’s Hill. “Factors often labeled ‘healthy’ perfectionism, like striving for excellence, aren’t actually perfectionism at all. They’re just conscientiousness (尽职尽责)—which explains why people with those tendencies often have different results in studies. Perfectionism isn’t interpreted by working hard or setting high goals. It’s that critical inner voice.”
Take the student who works hard and gets a poor mark. If she tells herself, “I’m disappointed, but it’s okay; I’m still a good person overall,” that’s healthy. If the message is, “I’m a failure. I’m not good enough,” that’s perfectionism.
Perfectionists can make smooth sailing into a storm, a brief ill wind into a category-five hurricane. Eventually, the behaviours perfectionists adapt, actually, do make them more likely to fail.
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How much money should I spend each month? This is asked by college students at the start of every term, and it’s become a hot topic of discussion following a controversial online post. The post was about a college student who demanded 4,500 yuan for monthly living expenses from her mom, reported China Daily
In the post, this new college student explained that her school is in a top-tier city and that her expenses included skin-care products and new clothes. Her mother did not agree and “only” gave her 2,000 yuan.
The post started a heated debate. Some people came to her defense. Girls invest a lot in skin-care products and new clothes while boys invest much in shoes, latest electronic devices and equipment for games.
However, someone thinks 4,500 yuan is too much. According to a 2019 report, students in 15 cities spent more than 1,500 yuan a month on average. Beijing topped the list at 2,400 yuan, and Shanghai followed close behind at 2,300 yuan. In some cities, a parent may only earn a monthly salary of 4,000 or 5,000 yuan. Nevertheless, some students insist on buying Dyson vacuum cleaners (吸尘器) for their dormitories instead of common brooms. Others demand Apple laptops to study at Starbucks, instead of going to the library.
【写作内容】
1．用约 30 个词概括上文内容；
2．用约 120 个词谈谈你对这一现象的看法，包括如下要点：
（1）分析哪些原因造成了大学生生活开销的上涨（不少于两点）；
（2）你觉得文中该大学生的要求是否合理？请阐述你的理由或建议（不少于两点）。
【写作要求】 不能直接引用原文句子。
Why Starbucks In China Is So Expensive
China’s national television network CCTV recently launched another of its campaigns against yet another foreigner brand that has become hugely popular in China: Starbucks. The report intended to spark something about the Starbucks Pricing Controversy and compared the price of a latte at Starbucks in China with those in other countries around the world, the Price of a 354 ml Medium Cup Latte—27 Yuan at a Starbucks in Beijing; 24.25 yuan at a Starbucks in London, UK; 19.98 yuan at a Starbucks in Chicago, USA;14.6 yuan at a Starbucks in Bombay, India.
The report basically was true: Starbucks in China is more expensive than pretty much anywhere else in the world. But it completely missed the point: Regarding the cost structure, as others have pointed out, they have a high cost model for producing coffee beverages and other products. Principally, they are often located in high rent areas, and are optimized(使……优化) for service quality rather than cost-efficiency. Regarding how they are able to charge such high prices, it is largely a product of branding and convenience.
In China, Starbucks, and many other cafe chains like them, don’t just sell caffeinated beverages, they provide a luxury service for middle and upper class class consumers; they sell class consciousness, status. The fact that they are expensive is one of their biggest selling points, it is well known fact that Starbucks is expensive, and this is commercially inhibiting factor, it is one of the chain’s best marketing strategies. Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee in China, but sells status. It is the same rule for just about every other company marketing its good and services towards China’s moneyed classes: luxury items in China are far more expensive than in the West for no other reason than the fact that this country has a rather large, new rich consumer class which desires the status symbols to separate themselves from the masses.
Ban the Bag!
Standing in line at the grocery store last week, I watched the woman in front of me buy a tube of toothpaste. As the clerk placed her purchase in a plastic bag, I couldn’t help wondering how long it would take for that bag to end up in the trash. Then I noticed the big purse the woman was carrying and wondered why she had needed a plastic bag at all.
People have come to rely on plastic bags as everything from shopping bags for groceries to trash-can bags. Although plastic bags can be recycled, only about one percent of those used in the United States are. Instead, after helping people transport items from one place to another, most are thrown away. They end up in landfills, where it can take a plastic bag up to a thousand years to decay. Some bags end up elsewhere in the environment, sticking to trees and fences, blocking rivers and oceans, or floating along city sidewalks.
Plastic bags harm the environment in several ways. First, they break down into particles that pollute our soil and water. Because most plastic bags are made of polyethylene, a product derived from crude oil (原油) or natural gas, they waste nonrenewable resources. Plastic bags can also harm animals. Scientists estimate that more than one million sea animals, including whales, seabirds, and turtles, die each year from intaking or becoming stranded in plastic.
People all over the world are starting to recognize the problems associated with plastic bags. Countries such as China, South Africa, Switzerland, and Uganda are taking action and banning the bags. Other nations, including Italy and Ireland, have been trying to restrict the use of plastic bags by taxing them. In the United States more and more communities are ridding themselves of plastic bags. Now more and more people are also purchasing inexpensive, reusable bags and using them when they shop. If we all take this simple step, we can be a part of a “green” revolution.
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Even without ‘assigned’ seating, it is a little surprising how many people always choose the same seat in a classroom or auditorium. Or the same table in a restaurant. After close observation, psychologists believe they have figured out the reason for this behavior.
In one such study, Marco Costa, a psychologist at the University of Bologna in Italy selected two lecture halls for a sample of 47 and 31 students. Costa purposefully chose rooms where there were more seats than students so that they had more freedom to choose where to sit. He set up hidden cameras to record how the students chose their seats over a period of four weeks. As suspected, most students picked the same scat over and over. But why?
Costa calls this habit ''territoriality(领域感).M The word often makes us think of gangs protecting their territory or wolf packs(群) fighting off other packs to control a certain area. In other words, territoriality usually suggests aggression and defense. However, Costa as well as another psychologist, Professor Robert Gifford of the University of Victoria, believes that this seat-choosing behavior is designed to keep the peace. “Most of the time，most people claim a space and others quietly agree to it, ” Gifford explained.
The phenomenon of classroom seating selection perhaps shows an even deeper truth. Life can be messy and unpredictable. The reason students go to school is to study. Going to class and knowing where you will sit is just one less thing to distract a student from this greater purpose. In short, sitting in the same place sets students up for a psychologically more comfortable learning environment and makes it easier for them to concentrate on the lecture at hand.
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