1 . A penny saved is a penny earned. And more and more benny-wise young Chinese are abandoning consumerism by leading an increasingly frugal (节俭的) life by developing anti-consumerism concepts.
According to a survey by JD.com, nearly 50% of respondents would use all means to save money and more than 30% plan to become deal-hunters to fit in their budgets. More than 80% of Generation Z Chinese spend less than 5,000 yuan ($737) a month. When shopping, they care the most about practicability, personal preference and price, instead of brands, popularity and brand spokesmen.
And more than 600,000 users have joined a group named Frenzied Money Savers on Douban, a popular social media platform, where members share sometimes extreme ideas, tips, books and everything to save hard-earned money. For instance, some recommended uninstalling shopping apps such as Taobao, Meituan and Pinduoduo and installing it each time you really need to buy something so as to hold back the urge to spend. And milk tea, coffee and takeouts are strongly opposed by many.
Chinese have long established and valued the saving culture with the country’s household savings rate leading the world. Young Chinese who are born in a relatively prosperous and abundant society have learned to get rid of the addiction to consumerism and use money in a more sensible and wiser way, which could help create a more healthy and upbeat social vibe (社会风气), besides reducing the huge waste and damages to the environment caused by over consumption.
Just as the American writer Theodore Thornton said, the habit of saving is itself an education. Yet saving is certainly not the final goal, but spending money where it truly deserves helps realize one’s life objectives. To save and spend wisely are lessons young people all over the world have to learn.
1. Why are more and more young Chinese becoming benny-wise?| A．They tend to accept consumerism. | B．They spend money without hesitation. |
| C．They are shaped by multiple cultures. | D．They are in favor of economical life. |
| A．Budgets and service. | B．Practicability and price. |
| C．Personal preference and brands. | D．Shopping apps and platforms. |
| A．Anti-consumerism is beneficial to social progress. |
| B．Saving money can be many people’s life objective. |
| C．Many social issues mainly result from consumerism. |
| D．Young Chinese are lucky to be born in a prosperous society. |
| A．There is no increasing need for consumerism. |
| B．Old virtue of being frugal is still not outdated. |
| C．Tips on saving money are important for the young. |
| D．Consumerism has an impact on economic development. |
2 . Taking an “eco-break” was once almost the same as a weekend’s hedge-laying or a summer spent conserving wildlife. Here is how things have changed: being a green traveler today is no longer restricted to one-off gestures but, rather, it’s a state of mind. Influences include, but are not limited to what we pack, how we reach our destination, where we stay and what activities we take part in.
Such change has come about thanks to both a growing understanding of climate change and the pioneering efforts of some travel operators to show the joy of going green. Luxury camping specialists Feather Down Farms and Forest, for example, led the glamping (豪华野营) revolution. Digital platforms such as Under the Thatch and Canopy & Stars have made booking low-impact rural accommodations easier. Adventure operators such as TYF, Intrepid and Much Better Adventures set the agenda for sustainable outdoor relaxation.
But the increased appetite for travel and the trend for replacing annual trips with multiple shorter breaks has seen a rise in carbon-intensive air travel. Meanwhile, key overland routes have been discontinued (such as ferry services to Scandinavia and overnight “train hotels” through France and Spain), and cuts in local transport services have severely impacted car-free access to rural areas. Dishonest and immoral businesses have also jumped on the “eco” travel wave, muddying the waters.
There are, however, signs we’re entering a golden age of green travel. Richard Hammond, founder of the Green Traveler website, shares over 20 years’ worth of expertise in his new guidebook outlying methods to explore the world sustainably. Many travel companies are also starting to provide tools to help travelers tell the genuinely green from greenwashing operations (Booking. com and Google, for instance, are working with not-for-profit Travalyst to flag up officially-approved and eco-certified hotels in their search results) while the upcoming national rollout (推广) of electric car charging, the modernization of cross-channel ferry services and the return of rail means choosing lower-carbon overland travel is becoming practical and more appealing.
1. How have things changed for being green now?| A．Each stop on a route is planned with care. |
| B．Many aspects of our travels are influenced. |
| C．Wildlife preservation is not as essential as before. |
| D．The health conditions of tourists are considered. |
| A．To compare their jobs in different fields. |
| B．To offer the readers select recommendations. |
| C．To impress the readers with outdoor activities. |
| D．To show their joint contributions to green travel. |
| A．Eco-unfriendly. | B．Illegal. | C．Disorderly. | D．Evergreen. |
| A．Going Green | B．Costing the Earth Less |
| C．Experiencing Rural Lifestyles | D．Adventuring Into the Golden Age |
3 . Most of us know what it’s like to get presents. Whether it’s for a birthday or other celebration, it’s hard to beat the excitement of opening a carefully wrapped box to find something that’s both unexpected and suits you perfectly. Now, imagine if you could get the same feeling when you go shopping for yourself. That’s the feeling that mystery boxes hope to reach.
Mystery boxes are not a new idea—they were a feature of department stores in Japan in the early 20th Century. They contain different products sold at a lower price than their combined value. The key thing is that customers don’t know what’s in the box before they buy. All kinds of mystery boxes are available: fashion boxes, food boxes, beauty boxes, even loot boxes, which are virtual items for video games.
The pleasant surprise is not the only attraction of mystery boxes. They also allow people to try things that they otherwise wouldn’t. Seasonal vegetable subscription(订购)boxes might lead people to learn to cook new meals. They can also potentially offer great savings—as the recommended selling price of the contents is often far higher than the purchase price. For sellers and suppliers, the benefits are clear- it allows them to sell unwanted things for a profit. British fashion mystery box businessman Mario Maher highlights how mystery boxes can help reduce the amount of waste in the fashion industry. People might discover product ranges that would otherwise be thrown away.
There is an obvious disadvantage to mystery boxes -when you buy them, you don’t know what you’ll get! It may be that the goods inside are not to your taste, but there is also the potential for cheats to use the unpredictability of mystery boxes to send items that have a much lower value than the price of the box.
So, are mystery boxes a fun way of reducing waste and making shopping more exciting, or more an opportunity for disappointment, or worse—tricks?
1. What do loot boxes probably contain in Paragraph 2?| A．Something unwanted. | B．Gifts received from friends. |
| C．Virtual prizes for game players. | D．Something best suitable for you. |
| A．Helping throw away plenty of waste. | B．Bringing down the prices of products. |
| C．Encouraging people to try new things. | D．Leading people to gather unwanted things. |
| A．Subjective. | B．Objective. |
| C．Concerned. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．They can be invaluable. | B．They are a modern trend. |
| C．They can change our lifestyle. | D．They are a double-edged sword. |
4 . Dogs are welcome in the outdoor areas of restaurants in New York, US. In the past, health and safety laws made it illegal (违法的) to bring dogs to any restaurant in New York. But last May state lawmakers voted (表决) to let people bring dogs to restaurants that have tables outdoors: Not one lawmaker voted no. The law was soon passed. Several special rules are included in this law. The dogs must be kept on a leash (皮带). Dogs must not share water bowls. Also, restaurants can choose to let people bring dogs or not.
New York joins California, Florida and Maryland in the list of states with similar laws. In many European countries, bringing dogs to restaurants is common. Paris in France has allowed dogs to go with their owners in restaurants for a long time.
Governor Andrew Cuomo believes that this new law will help businesses grow. But not all New Yorkers are happy about this new law. Christopher Miller is the spokesman for the New York City Department of Health. He told the New York Daily News that letting dogs in restaurants could cause problems. “The Health Department loves all dogs, but just not at restaurants where they can create a risk to the health and safety of diners, restaurant workers and other dogs,” Miller said.
New York City is often the center of the new ideas in the US. A law asking some restaurants in the city to show the amount of calories (卡路里数量) in the food they served was passed in 2009. The city leader tried unsuccessfully to stop the sale of large amounts of soft drinks in 2012. Smoking was made illegal in restaurants in 1993.
1. What can we know about the new law from Paragraph 1?| A．Who made it. | B．Why it was made. |
| C．Why there are special rules. | D．What the special rules are. |
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．It could help businesses grow. | B．It could be bad for the environment. |
| C．It could bring health and safety problems. | D．It could make people pay more attention to dogs. |
| A．Smoking. | B．Bringing dogs. |
| C．Supplying high-calorie food. | D．Selling soft drinks in big cups. |
5 . Nuclear energy is one of the cleanest power on earth. It is cleaner than any energy source except wind. But that doesn’t necessarily mean nuclear is the long-term solution for the world because nuclear material is perhaps the most poisonous matter on earth. In addition, uranium, the element most commonly used in nuclear reactors, is not in limitless supply. But the biggest problem is nuclear waste.
How can we deal with nuclear waste? The answer is simple—put them somewhere where they can stay, undisturbed, isolated, forever. Finland is building just that. This region is largely lacking in natural disasters. It really doesn’t encounter any natural phenomenon that could damage a nuclear waste storage site, especially if it’s 1, 500 feet underground. Beneath an island on the Finnish Baltic Sea coast, the country is digging. They’ re building the very first permanent nuclear waste storage facility in the world in the stable bedrock 1,500 feet below.
Currently they’ re just finishing their dig down, then very soon they’ll start filling the facility with nuclear waste. They’ll dig long tunnels with small holes in which they’ll place nuclear waste then backfill the tunnels with clay to be left forever.
With this system, there’s near zero risk of nuclear material leaking out into the groundwater and, once it’s filled in the year 2120, it can just be left, forever. Because the material will be so far down and so difficult to get to, no human management will be necessary once completed.
No security, no maintenance, nothing which means it should be truly secure, but before leaving it, Finland needs to fight against one thing—human nature. As curious beings, it’s hard to fight a person’s urge of discovery. If someone finds a mysterious structure from thousands of years ago, it’d just be natural to want to open it up, and that’s a problem for nuclear waste sites.
We essentially did just that with the pyramids in Egypt. These structures were built as the final, permanent resting places and we opened them up because we were curious. Opening the nuclear storage facilities would release radiation into a future civilization, so we have to tell them to leave the sites alone, but that’s easier said than done.
1. Why is Finland building a nuclear storage site deep underground?| A．The tunnels there are easy to dig. | B．The supply of uranium is limited. |
| C．Modern technology makes it possible. | D．No natural disaster can influence the site. |
| A．Being curious. | B．A desire for security. |
| C．Being adventurous. | D．A desire for control. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Tolerant. | C．Doubtful. | D．Pessimistic. |
| A．To arouse people’s curiosity. | B．To predict the site’s development. |
| C．To illustrate the author’s concern. | D．To stress the importance of the project. |
The international community
Japan’s action is seen as
The radioactive water is discharged into the Pacific resulting from the Fukushima nuclear leakage
On August 24, the Tokyo Electric Power Company,
7 . Children and teens in China do not get enough sleep, which can put their health at risk. Nearly 63 percent of Chinese youths at 6 to 17 sleep less than eight hours a day. Among 13- to 17-year-olds the figure is more than 81 percent, according to a survey covering nearly 70,000 children and teens across the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
The report found that the heavy school homework and the use of electronic devices (设备) were the two top causes for the lack of sleep. From Monday to Thursday, 8.4 percent of the group would still be busy with their homework after 11 pm. More than 41 percent of children and teenagers who sleep too little use electronic devices such as computers and mobile phones. Other than that, youths whose parents use smartphones in front of them are more likely to have less sleep. Other factors, such as noise and increasing light pollution, contributed to the problem, the report said.
The survey also suggests that good sleep results in higher efficiency (效率) in study. Students who sleep longer generally finish homework in two and three hours per day, while those who sleep less require four to six hours.
Gao Xuemei, vice-president of Chinese Sleep Research Society, said studies have shown that decreasing sleeping time for children and teenagers has been a global trend in the past 10 years, but the problem appears to be worse in East Asia, including China, largely due to a heavier load of school homework. Besides, the overuse of electronics devices in China is responsible for teenagers’ sleeping problems as well.
“Lack of sleep among children and teenagers needs more attention, because it can seriously affect their health and growth,” Gao said. She also suggested that local education officials take measures to help students get more sleep, including putting off the start of morning classes by half an hour.
1. Which factor leads to the sleep problem of Chinese youths?| A．Increasing Air pollution. | B．Low efficiency in study. |
| C．Too many school activities. | D．Overuse of smartphones. |
| A．Those who study efficiently can sleep well. |
| B．Parents may affect children’s sleeping time. |
| C．Chinese kids’ sleeping problem is the worst. |
| D．Chinese students stay up on weekends to do homework. |
| A．By rescheduling the morning class. | B．By paying high attention to the problem. |
| C．By quitting the use of electronic devices. | D．By cutting down the amount of homework. |
| A．Too much homework results in the lack of sleep. |
| B．Electronic devices lead to serious health problems. |
| C．Chinese kids are suffering from sleeping problems. |
| D．Measures should be taken to help teens get more sleep. |
8 . Telecom fraud (电信诈骗) is the abuse of telecommunication products and services with the intention of stealing money from phone or Internet users.
As an individual, there are some alerts to pay attention to.
Block unknown and unwanted calls. Your personal details may be available online (e. g. on social media).
To build a sound online environment, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has launched multiple channels, including the 12377 hotline and a mobile app, for netizens to report illegal and harmful online activities.
| A．It has caused billions of financial losses to individuals and organizations worldwide. |
| B．Beware of strangers’ calls concerning personal purchases. |
| C．The Chinese government is determined to address this problem, too. |
| D．Don’t assume a caller is genuine just because they have such details. |
| E．Cyberspace is getting safer with joint efforts from netizens and authorities. |
| F．Weak and lazy passwords are the most common reason for telecom fraud. |
| G．China will issue severe punishment to fight the criminal chain of telecom fraud. |
9 . Chloe Silvestre feels so fortunate like a winner of a lottery ticket (彩票). As a working mum with two young children, she is the winner in the “granny game”, allowing her career to develop and saving a fortune along the way. If Chloe paid for her own childcare in London, it could cost £40,000.
“Both my mother and mother-in-law are available and passionate,” she said. “They have looked after my children, so they needn’t go to nursery. Sometimes, they even bring an evening meal for us when we get home from work, or have my children stay so we can go away at weekends.”
Most grandmothers help look after their grandchildren. Yet the exchange is not always good for the grannies’ own careers. “Young grannies in their 50s consider childcare as a burden as they are also trying to deal with their own jobs. For those in their 70s, it may be too physically demanding. Yet for those in their 60s, it’s usually great,” said Kanji, professor at Goldsmiths.
Kanji extolled the results and said, “The care the children get is exceptional. It’s one-on-one, loads of books, no screen time and good fresh food. We often get comments on how confident and polite they are and chatty with adults. Their social skills are there because they spend much time with someone who listens and responds to them. The arrangement has bonded all three generations too, over shared meals for example.”
The parents and children have all the benefits of grannies’ involvement. So do grannies themselves. “We saw that grandparents who stopped looking after their grandchildren suffered mental health impacts from that withdrawal,” said Kanji.
Chloe’s mum Janet thinks that she has the best side of the childcare bargain. She said, “It can be tiring but they fill an emotional gap. I’d be very lonely without them. It’s so wonderful to be able to help. If everyone did it, they would know what a precious thing it is.”
1. Why does Chloe feel so fortunate?| A．She won a lottery ticket. |
| B．She has two young children. |
| C．Her mother paid for the childcare in London. |
| D．Her mother and mother-in-law help care for her children. |
| A．Grandmothers love their own jobs. |
| B．Women’s employment is unsatisfactory. |
| C．Not all grandmothers are suitable for childcare. |
| D．Looking after children is physically demanding. |
| A．Repeated. | B．Praised. | C．Abandoned. | D．Generated. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Uncertain. | C．Supportive. | D．Skeptical. |
10 . Since 2016, non-cash payments have increased by more than 60 percent worldwide. It’s predicted that a quarter of the world’s payments will be conducted online by 2025. However, it’s probably too early to welcome the death of cash. After all, going cashless encourages us to spend more than we would otherwise. This is known in behavioral economics as the “cashless effect”.
In 1996, Ofer Zellermayer described the idea of “pain of payment”. “The ‘pain’ will change when we use different methods of payment,” he wrote. “One factor behind this effect is a psychological phenomenon called ‘coupling’. When we pay in cash, the act of paying and the item are closely related with something tangible (有形的). The physical act of handing over money can reduce our enjoyment of the consumption. It’s this lack of coupling that can make paying with credit cards seem less painful.”
“Decoupling” is a trick long used by gaming companies. When game-players use tokens (代币) instead of cash, they are much more likely to play longer. Research suggests it’s all to do with how real the brain treats these representations of money. As Lapuz and Griffiths described in a paper published in the journal Gambling Research, “the use of tokens may help to remove the pain of losing money”. The paper even goes on to say that a “socially responsible” gaming company should remove tokens and bring back cash.
Since “cashless is painless”, it’s no wonder that the average credit card payment is more than double the size of the average cash one. Of course, it’s impractical for customers to take thousands of dollars for a car purchase, for example. The problem, though, is that sometimes spending needs to be painful to avoid overspending.
1. What percentage of the world’s payments might be made online by 2025?| A．25%. | B．40%. | C．60%. | D．75%. |
| A．Exchanging an iPhone for a TV. | B．Purchasing a big house with gold. |
| C．Paying for a car with a bag of money. | D．Buying game equipment with a credit card. |
| A．Unclear. | B．Doubtful. | C．Supportive. | D．Tolerant. |
| A．The disadvantages of cash payments in the past. |
| B．The meanings of the so-called “cashless effect”. |
| C．The potential problems with non-cash payments. |
| D．The social responsibilities of gaming companies. |
