1 . How the economics profession should fix its gender problem

At the heart of economics is a belief in the virtues (好处) of open competition as a way of using the resources you have in the most efficient way you can. Thanks to the power of that insight, economists routinely tell politicians how to run public policy and business people how to run their firms. Yet when it comes to its own house, academic economics could have done more to observe the standards it applies to the rest of the world.

In particular, it recruits (招聘) too few women. Also, many of those who do work in the profession say they are treated unfairly and that their talents are not fully realised. As a result, economics has fewer good ideas than it should and suffers from a skewed (歪曲的) viewpoint. It is time for the dismal science to improve its dismal record on gender.

For decades relatively few women have participated in STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and maths. Economics belongs in this list. And a survey by the American Economics Association (AEA) this week shows that many women who do become academic economists are treated badly.

To deal with its gender shortfall (缺口), economics needs two tools that it often uses to analyse and solve problems elsewhere: its ability to crunch data and its capacity to experiment. Take data first. The AEA study is commendable, but only a fifth of its 45,000 present and past members replied to its poll. Better data are needed to capture how work by female economists is discriminated against. The more comprehensive (全面的) the picture that emerges, the sooner and more easily action can be taken to change recruitment and to reform professional life.

The other priority is for economists to experiment with new ideas, as the AEA is recommending. For a discipline that values dynamism, academic economics is often conservative, sticking with teaching methods, hiring procedures and social conventions that have been around for decades. The AEA survey reveals (显示) that 46% of women have not asked a question or presented an idea at conferences for fear of being treated unfairly, compared with 18% of men. Seminars could be organised to ensure that all speakers get a fair chance. The way that authors’ names are presented on papers could ensure that it is clear who has done the intellectual heavy lifting.

Instead of moving cautiously, the economics profession should do what it is best at: recognise there is a problem, measure it objectively and find solutions. If the result is more women in economics who are treated better, there will be more competition for ideas and a more efficient use of a scarce (稀缺的) resource. What economist could possibly object to that?

1. Why does economics have fewer excellent ideas than it should?

A．Economical environment isn’t good enough.

B．Professionals in this field are treated unjustly and their gifts are not fully recognized.

C．Too many women are employed.

D．Women do worse in economics than men.

2. What does economics need to handle its gender gap?

A．Data to capture how work by female economists is discriminated against.

B．Its ability to process data quickly and its capacity to experiment.

C．Action to change recruitment and professional life of female economists.

D．Seminars organised to ensure that all speakers get a fair chance.

3. What can we know from the last paragraph?

A．The result of the AEA survey is that there is better treatment to women.

B．More women in economics will bring more competition of scarce resource.

C．A balanced sex ratio will do good to the development of economics.

D．Men in economics can’t make this discipline better.

4. What can we infer about the author’s attitude towards the economics and its recruitment now?

A．Opposed.

B．Positive.

C．Objective.

D．Indifferent.

2 . 阅读下面材料, 根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段, 使之构成一篇完整的短文。

My sixth-grade students were seated in a large circle on the floor of our classroom. Each student held a different tool in his or her hand, such as a hammer, a flashlight, and even an awl. The lesson had gone perfectly. The students discussed how words are like tools—they have the ability to build or to destroy, and they discovered how the right tool used at the right time for the right job can cause great results. The sixth graders freely shared personal stories of how they had experienced someone’s words used as a tool, , to wound or to heal. I watched and listened with a sense of satisfaction—they got it!

A few days later, one of my students, Laura, had an unexpected and uncharacteristic outburst of destructive behaviors in class. She refused to work with her group. I was aware from reading Laura’s file that she had struggled with disobedient (叛逆的) behavior in previous years, but we had developed a good relationship and she was always a respectful, thoughtful, and positive contributor to our class. Her behavior caught me off guard. I asked her to excuse herself and told her I would visit with her in our next door team center in just a minute, She refused to leave and sat silently glaring at me from the back of the room. I rather firmly told her she needed to excuse herself—this was NOT optional. She knew I meant it. She marched from the back of the room to our classroom door, shooting me an angry look, and slammed the door as she left for the team meeting room.

I continued our lesson and when the students were working together in their groups, I gently closed our classroom door behind me, then marched the five steps next door to cur meeting room where Laura was seated. In an unexpected and uncharacteristic gesture of frustration, I slammed the meeting room door behind me. As I stood over her, I began to express how disrespectful her behavior had been to our class. Her behavior angered me and I was sharp in my tone and my words. Without looking at me, she absorbed my anger.

注意:
1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。

When I paused for her response, she slowly turned and proudly stated, “You’re using your tool against me!”

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For the rest of the day and the rest of the year; Laura never had another outburst.

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4 . 阅读下面短文, 在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The brief outline takes us to the beginning of the twentieth century,     1     now we’ll have a closer look at Beijing’s housing conditions during that time.

At the beginning of the century, living conditions for the majority of working people in the East Beijing were very basic indeed. Houses were crowded closely together and usually very badly     2     (build), because there were no regulations. But the poor and       3     (need) were attracted by the possibility of work, and they had to       4     (house). It was the       5     (available) rather than the conditions of the housing that was the major concern.

Few houses had electricity at this time. So other sources of power were used, like coal for the fires       6     heated perhaps just one room. Of course, the smoke from these contributed a great deal       7     the air pollution for which Beijing used to be famous.     8     (luck), Beijing is not like what it used to be. It’s     9     cleaner than before and we can breathe safely.

A tiny, damp, unhealthy house like this might well be occupied by two full families, possibly including several children, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Can you imagine a big family     10     (live) in so little room like that?

6 . Health officials on Tuesday authorized the first electronic cigarettes in the U.S., saying the R.J. Reynolds vaping (电子烟) products can benefit adult smokers.

The Food and Drug Administration said data submitted by the company showed its Vuse e-cigarettes helped smokers either quit or significantly reduce their use of cigarettes, the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S.

Tuesday’s first-of-a-kind decision is part of a sweeping effort by the FDA to bring scientific scrutiny (审查) to the multibillion-dollar vaping industry after years of delays.

In September, the agency said it had rejected applications for more than a million e-cigarettes and related products, mainly due to their potential appeal to young children. But supervisors delayed making decisions on most of the major vaping companies. The FDA said it rejected 10 other requests from the company for other flavored products. The agency is still inspecting the company’s request to sell a menthol-flavored (薄荷味) nicotine formula (配方). “Today’s authorizations are an important step toward ensuring all new tobacco products healthy and legal after the FDA’s premarket evaluation,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s tobacco center, in a statement, “The manufacturer’s data demonstrates its tobacco-flavored products could benefit addicted adult smokers who switch to these products — either completely or with a significant reduction in cigarette consumption.”

E-cigarettes first appeared in the U.S. more than a decade ago with the promise of providing smokers with a less harmful alternative to smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes. But there has been little tight study of whether the e-cigarettes truly help smokers quit. And efforts by the FDA to begin checking vaping products and their claims were repeatedly slowed by competing political interests.

In recent years, the vaping market grew to include hundreds of companies selling a good supply of devices and nicotine solutions in various flavors and strengths. But the vast majority of the market is controlled by a few companies including Juul Labs, which is partially owned by Altria, and Vuse. To stay on the market, companies must show that their products benefit public health. In practice, that means proving that adult smokers who use the products are likely to quit or reduce their smoking, while teens are unlikely to get hooked on them.

1. Why did U.S. health officials authorize R.J. Reynolds’ e-cigarette products?

A．E-cigarette products are not harmful to humans, especially adult smokers.

B．E-cigarette products could help control the death rates in the United States.

C．E-cigarette products are effective in reducing cigarette use in America.

D．E-cigarette products can ensure that adult smokers keep away from smoking.

2. What does Paragraph 4 mainly talk about?

A．Process of e-cigarette product assessment.	B．Significance of e-cigarette products’ data.
C．Advantages of using e-cigarettes among smokers.	D．Reasons for declining e-cigarettes applications.

3. From the author’s perspective, which factor will keep the company’s e-cigarette products in the market for a long time?

A．Interests of the consumers.	B．Quality the products.
C．Evaluation of the public.	D．Marketing strategy.

4. What does the underlined phrase “get hooked on” mean in the last paragraph?

A．Be addicted to.	B．Be reliable on.
C．Be satisfied with.	D．Be anxious about.

8 . Each summer I teach at the Cranberry Lake Biological Station, a remote wilderness field school in the Adirondacks.

One of our best teachers return s every summer. There are hundreds of sandy places for a snapping turtle (鳄龟) nest, but this turtle chooses to lay her eggs in the warm open sand of our volleyball court. Our students are excited to snap photos as eggs leave her body. It is a highlight of their field biology summer. But they also want to play volleyball. So the class carefully uncovers the eggs and takes them to another site the students have prepared and measured to be sure it’s a good place for warm, dry sand, so the babies will hatch (孵化) .

The turtle shows me that my life is thanks to the kindness of nature’s creatures who share this beautiful world with us. We’ve been ignoring the many other living things on this planet because of our way of taking without giving back. Science, armed with models to predict the coming changes, is a powerful tool for addressing these crises. But it is not the only one. As a scientist, I hear the certain data, and also a message, carried by snapping turtles: The Earth asks more of us than gratitude.

A few years ago, there was a second mother in just the same spot on our volleyball court. The next day there was another. And another. In all, more than a dozen snapping turtles came among us in a dozen days. Why would lonely things walk into a community of 100 humans? When our students went to find suitable sites for the repeated groups of eggs, they found that as the lake level rose, they had to seek out higher ground. It seemed to me that the snapping turtles had become climate refugees.

I believe the turtles madly climbing to higher places are trying to tell us something important. They’re showing us that we’re dangerously close to a huge climate disaster, and lots of plants and animals are quickly going extinct. They want us to notice and take action before it’s too late.

1. What do the students do after the turtle comes?

A．Find a nest for her in advance.	B．Photo the course of her laying eggs.
C．Clean the volleyball court completely.	D．Lead her to a good place for birth.

2. What does the author learn from the turtle mother?

A．Species actually owe a lot to the earth.	B．Humans should quit their culture of taking.
C．The earth asks gratitude of human beings.	D．Science isn’t powerful enough to save wildlife.

3. What can we infer about snapping turtles in paragraph 4?

A．They were eager to live in a community.	B．They found the volleyball court the best nest.
C．They gradually adapted to a life on land.	D．They displaced themselves for climate change.

4. What is the purpose of writing this text?

A．To appeal people to protect wildlife.	B．To amuse people with interesting turtle stories.
C．To introduce the survival ability of turtles.	D．To show the wisdom of turtles in laying eggs.

9 . Teen Writing Contest at the Morgan Library & Museum

How does money impact our behavior? The Morgan Library & Museum’s exhibition Medieval (中世纪) Money, Merchants, and Morality explores mainly how the newly widespread use of money in medieval life transformed society, often challenging and conflicting with the moral beliefs of the community. Choose an object from the Selected Images on the exhibition page and write a diary entry from the opinion of a character in the image.

Winners receive a $100 MasterCard gift card!

Entry rules:

▲Identify the title of the Medieval Money artwork that inspired you in your submission.

▲Participants can submit up to two diary entries per person. Character limit is 3,000 per entry.

▲Awards will be given in two age groups: Middle School (Grades 7 to 8) High School (Grades 9 to 12)

Entries will be judged by a group of Morgan Library & Museum staff for originality, creative choice of opinion and style.

Written work should be submitted in a format (格式) readable by Google Drive and/or Microsoft Word. Submissions must be written in English. Content will be published on the Morgan’s webpage and via our social media channels.

Morgan Teen Writing Contest Guidelines:

◆Participants must live, work, or go to school in one of the five areas of New York City.

◆Participants must be between 13 and 19 years of age as of the date of entry.

◆Contest ends at 11:59:59 PM ET on Sunday July 10,2024.

◆Limit two entries per person, per email address.

◆Winners will be informed on Friday, July 29,2024.

◆The Morgan requests a photograph of the winner to post with their writing.

1. What does the writing contest focus on?

A．Money and behaviors.	B．Characters and images.
C．Art and opinions.	D．Exhibition and inspiration.

2. What is the writing style for the contest entries?

A．A news report.	B．An inspiring poem.
C．A personal diary.	D．An artwork review.

3. What do we know about the writing contest?

A．Winners will be awarded in cash.

B．The entry will be judged by famous writers.

C．Participants should write in their native languages.

D．Submissions should be emailed before the deadline.

10 . Climate anxiety is appearing as a serious mental health concern, particularly among children, teens, and young adults, with symptoms ranging from frustration to constant anxiety.

A recent global survey illustrates the depth of anxiety many young people are feeling about climate change, with nearly 60% admitting feeling worried. Signs of climate anxiety include: They feel helpless about climate change.     1     They actively check climate news and weather forecasts. They experience physical symptoms such as headaches, shortness of breath, and racing heartbeats.

So how do we cope with climate anxiety? The first step is to understand that our reactions are normal.     2     However, you can learn to deal with it. You are experiencing climate anxiety because you care about what is happening to our planet; that’s a good thing.

Next, try to find small reasons to be hopeful. Our natural preference is to focus on the negative, and when it comes to climate change, this can be unbearable. We may destroy the future, thinking about all the ways climate change could ruin our lives.     3    

It can also help to remember that you’re not alone.     4     Fortunately, there are ways to cope. Connecting with other like-minded people who are working to fight climate change can help you feel less alone. A variety of organizations are taking climate action, and many are made up of people just like you.

    5     Get involved in activism can help you feel like your efforts are making a difference. Whether it’s writing to a politician or participating in marches, and get involved is an important step toward climate wellness.

A．Don’t forget to take action.

B．You have many people to turn to.

C．They worry extremely about the future.

D．This can lead to feelings of powerlessness.

E．They need support from others a great deal.

F．The climate crisis is alarming and overwhelming.

G．Many people are struggling with these feelings.