1 . We all try to spend our days doing engaging things, but the reality is that there’s a lot of boring work which also must be done. Whether it’s washing the dishes, filing papers, entering data, or any of the countless dull yet critical tasks that keep our homes, organizations, and communities running, we all have less-than-exciting tasks we have to do. Of course it’s not always easy to get ourselves to stick to these tasks, even if we know we should. What does it take to persist (坚持) when work is boring?
Researchers have explored this question from many angles and studies have shown that people may persist longer when they monitor their progress, receive rewards, or when a task is made more fun. These findings have direct effects on how we design products and policies. For instance, companies are increasingly offering incentives to encourage employees to get more exercise, and managers are carrying out various game strategies to make employees’ work more fun.
Recent research by Harvard University, however, suggests that for tasks that don’t require a lot of attention, there may be a better approach. Researchers conducted a series of studies with over 2,000 participants and found that in many cases, people stop working on tasks earlier than expected not because they aren’t motivated enough, but because the tasks do not need enough attention.
Often, strategies designed to increase persistence will involve changing something about the work itself — but you can only make washing the dishes so exciting or mentally stimulating (振奋人心的). Rather than endlessly attempting to make boring tasks less boring, it can sometimes be more effective instead to pair these activities with other tasks that require more attention. This concept is called tangential immersion (切入式专注法).
Basically, the mind seeks to be engaged. We experience boredom when doing tasks that require less attention than we have available, and this leads us to quit those tasks too early. But if there is a second activity in which we can involve ourselves at the same time with the low-attention task, it can occupy that extra attention, reducing boredom and thus increasing persistence.
1. In what circumstance may people continue with a boring task?| A．When they feel motivated. | B．When they want to kill time. |
| C．When they are full of energy. | D．When they lack attention. |
| A．Instructions. | B．Rewards. | C．Programmes. | D．Positions. |
| A．The tasks were beyond them. | B．The studies took too much time. |
| C．The tasks demanded less attention. | D．The participants were not devoted. |
| A．By making it more challenging. | B．By checking the progress repeatedly. |
| C．By refreshing the mind regularly. | D．By pairing it with a demanding one. |
2 . Technology seems to discourage slow, immersive reading. Reading on a screen, particularly a phone screen, tires your eyes and makes it harder for you to keep your place. So online writing tends to be more skimmable and list-like than print. The cognitive neuroscientist Mary Walt argued recently that this “new norm” of skim reading is producing “an invisible, game-changing transformation” in how readers process words. The neuronal circuit that sustains the brain’s capacity to read now favors the rapid absorption of information, rather than skills developed by deeper reading, like critical analysis.
We shouldn’t overplay this danger. All readers skim. Skimming is the skill we acquire as children as we learn to read more skillfully. From about the age of nine, our eyes start to bounce around the page, reading only about a quarter of the words properly, and filling in the gaps by inference. Nor is there anything new in these fears about declining attention spans. So far, the anxieties have proved to be false alarms. “Quite a few critics have been worried about attention span lately and see very short stories as signs of cultural decline,” the American author Selvin Brown wrote. “No one ever said that poems were evidence of short attention spans.”
And yet the Internet has certainly changed the way we read. For a start, it means that there is more to read, because more people than ever are writing. If you time travelled just a few decades into the past, you would wonder at how little writing was happening outside a classroom. And digital writing is meant for rapid release and response. An online article starts forming a comment string underneath as soon as it is published. This mode of writing and reading can be interactive and fun. But often it treats other people’s words as something to be quickly harvested as fodder to say something else. Everyone talks over the top of everyone else, desperate to be heard.
Perhaps we should slow down. Reading is constantly promoted as a social good and source of personal achievement. But this advocacy often emphasizes “enthusiastic”, “passionate” or “eager” reading, none of which adjectives suggest slow, quiet absorption.
To a slow reader, a piece of writing can only be fully understood by immersing oneself in the words and their slow comprehension of a line of thought. The slow reader is like a swimmer who stops counting the number of pool laps he has done and just enjoys how his body feels and moves in water.
The human need for this kind of deep reading is too tenacious for any new technology to destroy. We often assume that technological change can’t be stopped and happens in one direction, so that older media like “dead-tree” books are kicked out by newer, more virtual forms. In practice, older technologies can coexist with new ones. The Kindle has not killed off the printed book any more than the car killed off the bicycle. We still want to enjoy slowly-formed ideas and carefully-chosen words. Even in a fast-moving age, there is time for slow reading.
1. What is the author’s attitude towards Selvin Brown’s opinion?| A．Favorable. | B．Critical. | C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
| A．advocacy of passionate reading helps promote slow reading |
| B．digital writing leads to too much speaking and not enough reflection |
| C．the public should be aware of the impact skimming has on neuronal circuits |
| D．the number of Internet readers is declining due to the advances of technology |
| A．Comprehensive. | B．Complicated. | C．Determined. | D．Apparent. |
| A．Slow Reading Is Here to Stay |
| B．Digital Technology Prevents Slow Reading |
| C．Screen vs. Print: Which Requires Deep Reading? |
| D．Reading Is Not a Race: The Wonder of Deep Reading |
I had always enjoyed living in my flat on the top floor of a Victorian building in Wimbledon. Being so high up made me feel safe and secure, and I enjoyed wonderful views across the tree tops. I had never expected that I would experience a fire in the flat.
One night I went to sleep as usual after setting my alarm clock for 7 am and switching off the bedside light. A few hours later, I woke up puzzled. I could smell smoke and I could see that the bedroom was extremely dark. Then I realized the room was so dark because it was filled with smoke. I immediately left my bed and stood by the door. I was in panic. I was also convinced that I had somehow caused the fire without knowing it. I thought, “What will my neighbors think? I must get rid of the smoke before it gets into their flats.”
I managed to make my way to the curtains and tried to draw them open. This simple everyday act proved quite beyond me. When I finally opened the window, I saw all my neighbors standing on the lawn below, tightly wrapped up in their dressing gowns against the December cold. Then I realized it wasn’t me that had caused the fire. It was someone else.
Even though I had taken many fire awareness courses at work, I forgot everything I’d ever been taught at that time. My one instinct was to flee down the stairs.
“There’s a fire! Stay by the window!” someone shouted below the building. And that man’s words of warning stopped me and helped save my life. If I had opened my front door at the top of the stairwell to escape, the flames raging below would have been drawn upwards by the rush of oxygen and would have swept over me in an instant. I knew I should go to the kitchen and wait for help by the window there. I knew the firemen would save me using a ladder.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
So I went to the kitchen.
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Finally, the firemen arrived.
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4 . Schools in the US and elsewhere are announcing bans on the recently released AI — powered ChatGPT out of fear that students could use the technology to complete their assignments. However, bans may be practically impossible given how difficult it is to detect when text is composed by ChatGPT. Is it instead time to rethink how students are taught and evaluated?
Educators are starting to question what it means to assess student learning if an AI can write an essay or paper similar to, or even better than, a student would — and the teacher can’t tell the difference. Many teachers believe the time-honored learning tradition will be destroyed from the ground up by Chat GPT. The Los Angeles Unified School District in California first blocked the use of ChatGPT on networks and devices in December 2022.
However, removing technology from the classroom can mean undesirable consequences, such as creating more obstacles for students with disabilities, says Trust. Additionally, restricting the use of ChatGPT on school networks and devices can’t stop students from using ChatGPT at home and in libraries.
It is also unclear if anti-cheating software can reliably detect AI-assisted writing. OpenAI is working to develop a digital watermark that can help teachers and academics spot students who are using ChatGPT to write essays. Open AI’s attempts to watermark AI text, however, hit limits.
Instead of worrying about how ChatGPT could enable cheating, educators should ask what motivates students to cheat in the first place and work on developing relationships of trust, says Jesse Stommel at the University of Denver in Colorado.
“Talk to students really frankly about what ChatGPT’s capable of, what it’s not,” says Stommel. “Have students use it to write an essay about Jane Austen and gender dynamics, and then have them read that essay and peer review it and think about what ChatGPT gets right and wrong.”
1. What does the author suggest schools do?| A．Adjust teaching and assessment. |
| B．Meet different demands from students. |
| C．Prohibit the use of ChatGPT in classrooms. |
| D．Break with the traditional teaching method. |
| A．Dark future of ChatGPT. | B．Educators’ worrying concern. |
| C．Crisis of traditional learning. | D．Difficulty in telling AI’s writing. |
| A．Amused. | B．Hopeful. | C．Shocked. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．AI helps students tell right and wrong. |
| B．Students should write about famous writers. |
| C．Educators should guide students to use AI properly. |
| D．The trust between teachers and students is hard to form. |
5 . Brendon Birt accidentally took a wrong turn down a street in Red Oak, Iowa. But it turned out it was exactly where he was
The homeowner, Tender Lehman, was
| A．needed | B．discovered | C．received | D．chosen |
| A．street | B．restaurant | C．fire | D．bus |
| A．rubbish | B．people | C．bikes | D．smoke |
| A．sleeping | B．working | C．eating | D．cooking |
| A．quietly | B．quickly | C．finally | D．repeatedly |
| A．moved | B．rushed | C．listened | D．referred |
| A．surprise | B．excitement | C．anxiety | D．pleasure |
| A．up | B．out | C．ill | D．busy |
| A．oldest | B．smartest | C．tallest | D．kindest |
| A．came out | B．broke down | C．gave up | D．went off |
| A．stayed | B．helped | C．awoken | D．believed |
| A．shop | B．office | C．garden | D．building |
| A．met | B．saved | C．honored | D．taught |
| A．thankful | B．careful | C．serious | D．proud |
| A．troubled | B．started | C．remembered | D．made |
6 . Billionaire Sir Christopher Hohn expects the greatest “demand disruption (中断)” for oil since the 1970s shock to cause an increase in renewable energy investment.
He said high oil prices are “a positive thing” for the climate as the energy crisis results in a “dramatic speed-up” in decarbonisation (碳减排). “The whole world should now be focused on seeking alternatives, whether they’re renewables or hydrogen fuels. All of these things are far more economic.”
He pointed to the recent boost of EU (欧盟) for renewable energy funding, as part of a plan to reduce imports of gas. Even as oil and gas companies obtain record profits from the high prices at present, Hohn said climate-focused investors will ultimately benefit from the energy price shock.
“The oil price increase leads to plans for accelerated decarbonisation,” said Hohn. “I personally believe that we’ll have demand disruption as we had in the 70s, and that there will be a dramatic acceleration in decarbonisation. I actually view it as a positive thing.”
Hohn has pressured companies to give shareholders a vote on their climate plans. Spanish airport operator Aena and aircraft manufacturer Airbus improved their emissions (排放) tar-gets as a result. Hohn has also pushed for stricter regulation on corporate climate promises. “Corporate decarbonisation isn’t going to happen through voluntary methods,” Hohn said.
Hohn is also backing a new rating agency that will grade company emissions strategies, through his charity, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. The Climate Action-plan Rating Centre (Climate-Arc) will analyse public company data and publish climate plan ratings.
Investors often struggle to analyse corporate climate plans. “Because though some organizations declare their commitment to environmental protection, they actually do the opposite,” Hohn said, “I expect a large proportion of companies will get graded F if they’re not doing enough. Even companies with net zero emissions targets have failed to set out plans about how to reach those goals. The impact is going to be a bit like, ‘the emperor has no clothes’.”
1. Why are high oil prices a positive thing according to Hohn?| A．They will reduce energy demand. |
| B．They will bring economic benefits. |
| C．There will be a shift to clean energy. |
| D．There will be a reduction in energy imports. |
| A．Climate regulation should be stricter. |
| B．Decarbonisation should be voluntary. |
| C．Emissions targets should be debated. |
| D．Climate plans should be informed to the public. |
| A．The method of avoiding being graded F. |
| B．The suggestion about helping investors. |
| C．The method of reaching zero emissions targets. |
| D．The suggestion about reducing carbon emissions. |
| A．Energy crisis—a hard nut |
| B．Energy crisis—a wake up call |
| C．Energy crisis—a cruel circle |
| D．Energy crisis—a cause of economic depression |
7 . The slogan of a University of Northern Iowa clothing exchange also serves as the perfect description of a fashion currently popular among students: thrifting-trading clothes with friends informally or through campus events and websites such as Swapstyle or at a thrift store.
Students are becoming increasingly vocal champions of this creative and commercial effort and the culture it represents. The act of thrifting is at the heart of the rise in students’ do-it-yourself (DIY) fashion shows and themed parties in which clothes must be handmade-composed of older, organic or recyclable items.
More broadly, the thrifting movement represents a generational switch built on five basic beliefs: old is new, mixing is far better than matching exchanging beats shopping, the best things in life are free (or incredibly cheap), and social responsibility is the new black.
According to recent campus and professional press reports, more students are thrifting so they can remain fashionable during the economic downturn.
They are giving up brand loyalty. They are also increasingly unwilling or unable to buy things at full price. Instead, they are seeking discounted ways to stand out stylistically, including making certain classic clothes the next big things.
“It’s often hard to find two of the same clothing items in a thrift store. You can leave knowing that the special outfit you are getting for your major event, no one will have,” Saint Xavier University rising senior Sydney Bennett confirms. “Because a lot of the items in thrift stores are classic, you will have a chance to showcase a ‘recycled style’ that is just like new for our generation.”
To this end, Bennett calls thrifting “a treasure hunt and shopping experience rolled into one ”.
1. Which item of the following will disqualify you for DIY fashion shows?| A．A newly-bought dress. | B．A pair of washed-out jeans. |
| C．An out-dated sweater. | D．A second-hand cotton jacket. |
| A．It’ll damage economy. | B．It’s a temporary success. |
| C．It was started by the government. | D．It reflects a change in philosophy of life. |
| A．Getting anything for nothing. | B．Staying loyal to the brand. |
| C．Seeking out unique items. | D．Buying as many clothes as possible. |
| A．To evaluate a rule. | B．To clarify a concept. |
| C．To introduce a new trend. | D．To recommend a way of life. |
8 . Stereotypes (刻板印象) are widely held but very general, simplified opinions about other people. Many of us start to use stereotypes at school — the cool kids or the hot kids — we know all the different ones by heart.
Looks, clothes, personal traits (特征) and interests are all aspects which, on the surface of it, make us different from our contemporaries. Students pounce on these in order to categorise others. “When you’re a social animal, you need to understand who is a member of your pack, and who is a member of a different pack,” says psychology professor, John Dovidio.
A girl dressed all in black may seem a bit depressed. But perhaps, deep down inside, she just likes black and is actually cheerful. She has the same interests as you — (the “cool kid”) — but she just dresses differently. The problem of typecasting is that it involves using labels which are merely shells (外表) containing assumptions. It makes one wonder why people see only a narrow view of a complicated human being.
According to Dovidio, even if we think we don’t stereotype others, we do. “We categorise immediately and without thinking,” says Dovidio. “And we stereotype others not just on their appearance, how they dress or act, but — wrongly — on their race and sex too.”
Student stereotypes may have special meanings, as teens are in the process of forming their own identity and figuring out who they feel most comfortable with. To some extent, stereotyping offers a sense of order, direction and connection to the close friends they make over time. But it’s too simple to make assumptions that “they” — teenagers in other groups — are alike or different from “us”. It’s easy to throw a group of people into a bucket (水桶) and judge them as a whole; it’s much more difficult to look at each person as an individual. On the other hand, Jim, another high school student, says “by labelling people we’re actually highlighting similarities not differences. If we didn’t stereotype, it would make many things today impossible. Think of marketing studies focused on specific audiences, or clubs for people with similar interests or hobbies.”
1. Which can best replace the underlined part “pounce on” in paragraph two?| A．Put up with. | B．Make fun of. |
| C．Take pride in. | D．Catch hold of. |
| A．Don’t distinguish yourself from others. |
| B．Don’t make simple things complicated. |
| C．Don’t identify others by their appearance. |
| D．Don’t label others according to their personal traits. |
| A．We cannot avoid being stereotyped. |
| B．We may correctly recognise others’ sex. |
| C．We cannot help the way we react to others. |
| D．We may make wrong judgements about ourselves. |
| A．Positive. | B．Uninterested. | C．Uncertain. | D．Critical. |
There was a pretty strict system of segregation (种族隔离)in Atlanta. For a long, long time I could not go swimming. until there was a Negro YMCA(黑人基督教青年会). A Negro child in Atlanta could not go to any public park. I could not go to the so-called white schools. In many of the stores downtown, I couldn’t go to a lunch counter to buy a hamburger or a cup of coffee. I could not attend any of the theaters. There were one or two Negro theaters, but they didn’t get any of the main pictures. If they did get them, they got them two or three years later.
I had grown up hating not only segregation but also the cruel acts that grew out of it. I had seen police violence with my own eyes, and watched Negroes receive the most tragic injustice in the courts. I can remember the organization known as the Ku Kux Klan. It stands out white supremacy(至高无上), and it was an organization that in those days even used violent methods to preserve segregation and to keep the Negro in his place. I remember seeing the Klan actually beat Negro. I had passed spots where Negroes had been savagely lynched (用私刑). All of these things did something to my growing personality.
In my late childhood and early adolescence, two incidents happened that had a tremendous effect on my development. The first was the first empty seats at the front of the store. A young white clerk came up and murmured politely:
”I’ll be happy to wait on you if you’ll just move to those seats in the back. “
Dad immediately replied, ”There’s nothing wrong with these seats. We’re quite comfortable here. “
”Sorry, “said the clerk, ”but you’ll have to move. “
”We’ll either buy shoes sitting here, “my father said quickly, ”or we won’t buy shoes at all. "
1. 续写词数应为150左右:
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Therefore he took me by the hand and walked out of the store.
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I remember riding with him another day when he accidentally drove past a stop sign.
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10 . There are a lot of reasons we fail to make effective decisions. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest ones:
We’re unintentionally stupid. I like to think that I’m rational (理智的) and capable of interpreting all information in a non-biased way but that’s a dream. Cognitive biases (偏见) are great at explaining how our evolutionary programming leads us wrong.
We use the wrong model.
We fail to learn. We all know the person that has 20years of experience but it’s really the same year over and over.
Luckily, we can take steps to reduce the odds of stupidity and increase the chances of good decisions in each of these categories.
| A．We overlook doing right. |
| B．We collected the wrong information. |
| C．Well,that person is sometimes us. |
| D．We use mental models to make decisions. |
| E．Knowledge of these biases in advance rarely helps us make better decisions. |
| F．Making decisions with the wrong assumptions or facts is likely to lead to disaster. |
| G．We often want to feel good about ourselves first and the outcome we desire second. |
