1 . Age has its privileges (特权) in America, and one of the most important of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age — in some cases as low as 55 — is automatically entitled to a dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility (资格) is determined not by one’s need but by the date on one’s birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses — as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them; yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent (有支付能力的). Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that “elderly” and “needy” are synonymous. Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor. But most of them aren’t.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant (刺激物) in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involve a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Supported by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job — thereby reducing employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become an economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don’t need them. It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can’t take care of themselves and need special treatment; and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against — discrimination by age.
1. We learn from the first paragraph that ______.| A．offering senior citizens discounts has become routine commercial practice |
| B．senior citizen discounts have enabled many old people to live a comfortable life |
| C．giving senior citizens discounts has boosted the market for the elderly |
| D．senior citizens have to show their birth certificates to get a discount |
| A．tax | B．expense | C．profits | D．expansion |
| A．Businesses, having made a lot of profits, should do something for society in return. |
| B．Old people are entitled to special treatment for the contribution they made to society. |
| C．The elderly, being financially underprivileged, need humane help from society. |
| D．Senior citizen discounts can make up for the inadequacy of the Social Security system. |
| A．Senior citizens should fight hard against age discrimination. |
| B．The elderly are selfish and taking senior discounts for granted. |
| C．Priority should be given to the economic needs of senior citizens. |
| D．Senior citizen discounts may well be it type of age discrimination. |
2 . When Liam McGee quitted as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than announce his leaving in the usual vague excuse, he came right out and said he was leaving “to pursue my goal of running a company.” Broadcasting his ambition was “very much my decision,” McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29.
McGee says leaving without a position waiting for him gave him time to reflect on what kinds of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his ambition. And McGee isn’t alone. In recent weeks the No.2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. When boards scrutinize(审查)succession plans(后续计划) in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don’t get the nod also may wish to move on. Economic depression also has senior managers careful of letting vague announcements cloud their reputations.
The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have followed the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are not the sitting ones，but the ones who must be hunted elsewhere.
Those who jumped without a job haven’t always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana when the business became part of PepsiCo (PEP) a decade ago, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willemstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later.
Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. “The traditional rule was it’s safer to stay where you are, but that’s been fundamentally inverted,” says one headhunter. “The people who’ve been hurt the worst are those who’ve stayed too long.”
1. When McGee announced his departure, his manner can best be described as being______.| A．modest. | B．frank. | C．self-centered. | D．impulsive. |
| A．their expectation of better financial status |
| B．their need to reflect on their private life |
| C．their strained relations with the boards |
| D．their pursuit of new career goals |
| A．top performers used to cling to their posts |
| B．loyalty of top performers is getting outdated |
| C．top performers care more about reputations |
| D．it’s safer to stick to the traditional rules |
| A．CEOs; Where to Go? |
| B．CEOs: All the Way Up? |
| C．Top Managers Jump without a Net |
| D．The Only Way Out for Top Performers |
3 . Why stress and anxiety aren’t always bad
People generally think of stress and anxiety as negative concepts, but while both stress and anxiety can reach unhealthy levels, psychologists have long known that both are unavoidable - and that they often play a helpful, not harmful role in our daily lives, according to a presentation at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association.
“Many Americans now feel stressed about being stressed and anxious about being anxious,” said Lisa Damour, PhD, a private-practice psychologist who presented at the meeting.
Stress usually occurs when people operate at the edge of their abilities - when they push themselves or are forced by circumstances to stretch beyond their familiar limits, according to Damour.
“It’s important for psychologists to share our knowledge about stress with broad audiences that stress is a given in daily life, that working at the edge of our abilities often builds those capacities and that moderate levels of stress can actually have an inoculating (预防的) function, which leads to higher than average resilience (适应力) when we are faced with new difficulties,” she said.
Viewing anxiety as sometimes helpful and protective allows people to make good use of it. For example, Damour said she often tells the teenagers she works with in her practice to pay attention if they start to feel anxious at a party because their nerves may be alerting them to a problem.
“In other words, stress causes harm when it exceeds any level that a person can reasonably absorb or use to build psychological strength,” she said.
| A．Anxiety, too, gets some unnecessarily criticism, according to Damour |
| B．Unfortunately, by the time someone reaches out to a professional for help, stress and anxiety have already built to unhealthy levels |
| C．That doesn’t mean that stress and anxiety can’t be harmful, said Damour |
| D．Anyone feeling overwhelmed by stress should, if possible, take measures to reduce his or her stress |
| E．It’s also important to understand that stress can result from both bad and good events |
| F．Likewise, anxiety becomes unhealthy when its alarm makes no sense |
4 . It’s never easy to admit the mistakes you make, but doing so is an important step toward moving forward. National Geographic magazine recently published an article with the title “For decades, our coverage was racist. To rise above our past, we must acknowledge it.” It was written by the magazine’s editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg, the first woman and first Jewish person to hold the position. National geographic has acknowledged that its coverage of black and minority ethnic people in America and the wider world has been historically racist, frequently promoting caricatures (讽刺画) of the “nobel savage (野蛮人)” and barely featuring the US’ minority ethnic population.
According to Goldberg, the 130-year-old publication’s April issue “explores how race defines, separates and unites us”. In honor of 50 years since the killing of Martin Luther King, who is known for fighting racial inequality in the US, the issue is devoted to race.
The publication republished a number of examples of historical racism in its coverage. One 1916 article about Australia included a photo of two Indigenous Australians with the caption (说明文字): “South Australian Black fellows: These savages rank lowest in the intelligence of all human beings.”
To review its previous coverage of race, Goldberg asked University of Virginia historian John Edwin Mason to look back at the magazine’s text, choice of subjects, and photography of people of color from the US and abroad. “Until the 1970s, National Geographic all but ignored people of color who lived in the United States, rarely acknowledging them beyond laborer or domestic workers,” Goldberg wrote about Mason’s findings. “Meanwhile, it pictured ‘natives’ elsewhere as exotics, famously and frequently unclothed, happy hunters, noble savages.”
Mason also found that the magazine often ran photos of “uncivilized” natives amazed by “civilized” Western technology.
In recent years, however, the magazine has improved. For example, in a 2015 project, National Geographic gave cameras to young people in the Caribbean country of Haiti and asked them to shoot pictures of their everyday lives.
The coverage wasn’t right before, because it was told from a white American point of view, and I think it speaks to exactly why we needed a diversity of storytellers,” Goldberg told the Associated Press.
National Geographic’s look at its past also inspired other media organizations to revisit their own historical coverage of race. The New York Times admitted that most of its obituaries (讣告) were about the lives of white men, and has started publishing obituaries of famous women in a special section titled “Overlooked”. After all recognizing overlooked mistakes is what makes us grow.
1. What is special about the April issue of National Geographic magazine?| A．It is devoted to race in memory of Martin Luther King. |
| B．It is released to mark National Geographic’s 130th anniversary. |
| C．It is the first issue since Susan Goldberg became the editor-in-chief. |
| D．It is in this issue that readers can see Mason’s investigation report. |
| A．It often pictured colored people with decent jobs. |
| B．Natives were often pictured as unclothed happy hunters. |
| C．It asked ordinary people to shoot pictures of their daily lives. |
| D．It only featured minority groups in America but overlooked others. |
| A．It used to tell stories from the perspective of a white Jewish woman. |
| B．The overall image of natives in it was brave, intelligent but uncivilized. |
| C．It pushed other media organizations to reflect on their coverage of race. |
| D．Its texts and choice of subjects were diverse and had no racial prejudice. |
| A．affect the image of the world famous magazine |
| B．eliminate racial discrimination around the world |
| C．help the magazine to move forward and grow better |
| D．discourage the editors from reporting bravely and honestly |
5 . Imagine ordering something online. Then, imagine that item being delivered in just a few minutes by a drone. Believe it or not, this may be probable in the near future. Drones have been used by militaries since the 1970s. They refer to them as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. However, over the last two decades, drone technology has advanced rapidly and is increasingly available to the public. In fact, drones have already started doing work in many different industries. But is this going to be a good thing or a bad thing?
On the plus side, drones can do many things faster and more efficiently than people. For example, during an emergency, drones can quickly locate injured people by using special cameras. They can also distribute food, water, and medical supplies to people in hard-to-reach or dangerous places.
Drones are not just flying vehicles. Some travel on land and sea, and some even work on farms! Selfdriving tractors are being developed to help out farmers, and flying drones may soon be used to spread seeds. As for the sea, an autonomous sailboat was recently launched to collect data about the ocean and atmosphere.
Drones can truly help people in many ways. They are starting to be used in a wide variety of applications, from healthcare to mining. Even though drones can be very useful, some people believe drones also have some major problems that should be taken into consideration.
One of the biggest concerns about drones is privacy. What if a drone enters your house and takes a look around? Depending on local regulations, there may not be laws preventing drones from doing this. Drone technology is changing so quickly that it’s hard for governments to keep up!
Drones are often used to fly around and collect data. This data is then uploaded to the cloud. Unfortunately, hackers are sometimes able to steal the data when it is being uploaded. Flying drones can also pose a danger to aircraft. Many airports have reported close calls with drones.
Drones are not perfect. In the wrong hands, they can be used for criminal purposes, and even as weapons! However, most people think the positives of drone technology outweigh the negatives. Thus, it is likely that you will be seeing more and more drones in the near future. What is your opinion on drones? Do you think they are worth having around?
1. According to the passage, drones can be applied in many areas EXCEPT that______.| A．drones can quickly deliver the items you order online to your home. |
| B．drones, equipped with special cameras, can detect the location of the injured. |
| C．flying drones can be developed to help farmers spread seeds on a farm. |
| D．drones can unlock the keys to doors and enter the house in case of emergency. |
| A．They may help hackers collect confidential data and upload the information to them. |
| B．Airplanes on course may narrowly escaped being crashed into flying drones. |
| C．They may destroy the food supplies before sending them to people in inaccessible areas. |
| D．Drones can be granted permission from the local government to access private homes. |
| A．Drones to the rescue | B．Drones in fashion |
| C．Drones: the flying delivery | D．Drones on the road to ruin |
6 . My past students are starting to organize a scientific conference for my 60th birthday to be held about a year from now. Their gesture reminded me of Rabbi Hanina’s words: “I have learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues and the most from my students.”
We all started as students. Just as kids bump into things as they’re learning to
For example, the first advice I received from my postdoctoral mentor was to develop specialized skills and focus them on a
Keeping this in mind, I encourage my students to think broadly and
It is customary to consider a student’s raw potential as a stand-alone commodity whose value can be
As chair of the Harvard astronomy department for almost a decade, I witnessed many examples of students who were initially very slow to make progress but blossomed academically as soon as they selected a different advisor and a new topic for their Ph. D. A good mentor
On the one hand, mentors get a kick from Oscar Wilde’s insight: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...” But on the other hand, they should allow students to break free from the
| A．process | B．explore | C．reform | D．include |
| A．Conflicts | B．Negotiations | C．Approvals | D．Mysteries |
| A．play | B．deny | C．access | D．change |
| A．commercial | B．strange | C．narrow | D．broad |
| A．Therefore | B．Additionally | C．However | D．Consequently |
| A．failure | B．obligation | C．ignorance | D．breakthrough |
| A．independently | B．mutually | C．temporarily | D．undoubtedly |
| A．embraced | B．evaluated | C．contained | D．imposed |
| A．if | B．lest | C．while | D．unless |
| A．crucial | B．elaborate | C．unpredictable | D．inaccessible |
| A．Within | B．Given | C．Without | D．Due to |
| A．spots | B．hides | C．applies | D．recalls |
| A．argument | B．interaction | C．criticism | D．interview |
| A．beaten | B．broken | C．chaotic | D．fresh |
| A．mentors | B．imitations | C．fortune | D．mistakes |
根据以上现象，思考自己认同哪一方？以“Getting a Pet：From Breeders or Shelters？”为题，写一篇120-150字的文章。
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8 . Recently, as the British doctor Lord Robert Winston took a train from London to Manchester, he found himself becoming steadily enraged. A woman had picked up her phone and begun a loud conversation, which would last an unbelievable hour. Furious, Winston began to tweet about the woman. He took her picture and sent it to his more than 40,000 followers.
When the train arrived at its destination, Winston bolted. He’d had enough of the woman’s rudeness. But the press were now waiting for her on the platform.
Winston’s tale is something of a microcosm of our age of increasing rudeness, fueled by social media. What can we do to fix this?
Studies have shown that rudeness spreads quickly and virally, almost like the common cold. Just witnessing rudeness makes it far more likely that we, in turn, will be rude later on. Once infected, we are more aggressive, less creative and worse at our jobs.
We must have the guts to call it out, face to face. We must say, “Just stop.” For Winston, that would have meant approaching the woman, telling her that her conversation was frustrating other passengers and politely asking her to speak more quietly or make the call at another time.
We must instead combat rudeness head on. When we see it occur in a store, we must step up and say something. If it happens to a colleague, we must point it out. We must defend strangers in the same way we’d defend our best friends. But we can do it with grace, by handling it without a trace of aggression and without being rude ourselves.
| A．Think twice before using mobile phones in elevators, museums, churches or other indoor public places — especially enclosed spaces. |
| B．Because once rude people can see their actions through the eyes of others, they are far more likely to end that strain themselves. |
| C．The embarrassment caused by the tweets made the woman improve her behavior. |
| D．The rage and injustice we feel at the rude behavior of a stranger can drive us to do odd things. |
| E．The only way to end a strain is to make a conscious decision to do so. |
| F．When they gleefully showed her Lord’s messages, she used just one word to describe Winston’s actions: rude. |
9 . University students have wasted nearly £1bn on empty rooms in flat shares and halls of residence that they have been unable to use because of coronavirus restrictions this
The average student has so far paid £1, 621 in rent for empty rooms for which they have not received a
Two in five (43%) respondents said they had spent under three months on campus, while nearly half (46%) would have made
Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, the National Union of Students’ vice-president for higher education, said: “Students have been consistently
Students’ anger with high rents, which Save the Student estimates take up three-quarters of their maintenance loans at an average of £146 per week,
There has been a patchy response from universities, private halls of residence and landlords, with some
On 14 February, 92 students at the School of Oriental and African Studies became the first to
The government has so far responded to students’ financial concerns with £70m in additional hardship funding, a figure that falls short of more
Most students have been asked to remain at the address where they spent Christmas-in many cases their family homes-during lockdown. Plans for their
| A．unpredictable | B．educational | C．academic | D．sentimental |
| A．refund | B．deposit | C．pension | D．commission |
| A．cautious | B．inexpensive | C．mindful | D．different |
| A．accountability | B．flexibility | C．stability | D．availability |
| A．exploited | B．dismissed | C．mistreated | D．unfavoured |
| A．sufferers | B．stuck | C．potentials | D．engaged |
| A．held up | B．boiled over | C．consumed up | D．crossed over |
| A．legitimizing | B．skinning | C．proposing | D．refusing |
| A．accumulated | B．relevant | C．incomparable | D．extended |
| A．trick | B．incline | C．withhold | D．proclaim |
| A．joined | B．established | C．cornered | D．characterized |
| A．humane | B．authoritative | C．generous | D．distinctive |
| A．return | B．accommodation | C．revision | D．curriculum |
| A．considering | B．given | C．though | D．supposing |
| A．sake | B．settlement | C．approaching | D．remainder |
10 . Unhappy people glue themselves to the television 30 percent more than happy people. The finding, announced on Thursday, comes from a survey of nearly 30,000 American adults as part of the General Social Survey.
While happy people reported watching an average of 19 hours of television per week, unhappy people reported 25 hours a week. The results hardly change after taking into account education, income, age and marital status.
In addition, happy individuals were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often that their less-chipper ones.
The researchers are not sure, though, whether unhappiness leads to more television-watching or more viewing leads to unhappiness. In fact, people say they like watching television. The research has shown that when people watch television they enjoy it. In these studies, 9 in 10 participants reported that on a scale from 0(dislike) to 10 (greatly enjoy), TV-watching was nearly an 8.
But perhaps the high from watching television doesn’t last.
“These conflicting data suggest that TV may provide viewers with short-run pleasure, but at the expense of long-term malaise (不舒服),” said researcher John Robinson, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, College Park.
In this scenario, even the happiest campers could have a bad mood if they continue to stare at the TV. The researchers suggest that over time, television-viewing could push out other activities that do have more lasting benefits. Exercise and reading come to mind, as do parties and other forms of socialization known to have psychological benefits.
Or, maybe television is simply an escape for people who are already unhappy.
“TV is not judgmental nor difficult, so people with few social skills or resources for other activities can engage in it,” Robinson write in the December issue of the journal Social Indicators Research.
They add, “Furthermore, short-run unhappiness can be socially and personally debilitated by many positive social and personal activities. However, even the unhappiest people can click a remote and be passively entertained by a TV.”
The researchers say follow-up studies are needed to find out more facts about the issue.
1. The passage is mainly about_________.| A．the relationship between watching TV and unhappiness |
| B．the benefits and weakness of watching TV |
| C．the suitable way to watch TV |
| D．the reasons of an unhappy life |
| A．threatened | B．developed | C．weakened | D．explained |
| A．watching TV doesn’t require intelligence and is passive activity |
| B．watching TV keeps people from doing other meaningful things |
| C．people may see many sad scenes on TV which make them unhappy |
| D．watching TV is a personal activity which makes people lonely |
| A．The time spent on TV watching is affected by education and income. |
| B．Scientist has made it clear that unhappiness results in too much TV watching. |
| C．Most happy people in the study stated that they didn’t enjoy watching TV. |
| D．Watching TV can give temporary happiness but no lasting pleasure. |
