1 . German workers enjoy good worker protections and shorter working hours than those in other countries. How can a country that works an average of 35 hours per week (with additionally average 24 paid vacation days) maintain such a high level of productivity?
In German business culture, when an employee is at work, he should not be doing anything other than his work. Facebook, office chat with co-workers, and pulling up a fake spreadsheet when your boss walks by are socially unacceptable behaviors.
In the BBC documentary Make Me A German, a young German woman explained her culture shock while on a working exchange to the UK. “I was in England for an exchange. I was in the office and the people are talking all the time about their private things...” What’s the plan for tonight?’, and all the time drinking coffee...” She was quite surprised by the casual nature of British workers. Upon further discussion, the Germans reveal that Facebook is not allowed in the office, and no private email is permitted.
German business culture is one of intense focus and direct communication. German workers will directly speak to a manager about performance reviews and use commanding language without softening the orders with polite phrases. For example, an American would say, “It would be great if you could get this to me by 3pm,” while a German would say, “T need this by 3pm”.
Germans work hard and play hard. Since the working day is focused on achieving efficient productivity, the off hours are truly off hours. Because of the focused atmosphere and formal environment of German businesses, employees don’t necessarily hang out together after work. Germans generally value a separation between private life and working life.
1. What should an employee do while working in German?| A．Glance over Facebook. | B．Just do their work. |
| C．Chat with co-workers. | D．Send private emails. |
| A．Agreeable. | B．Understanding. | C．Tolerant | D．Astonished. |
| A．German employees have longer hours than most other countries. |
| B．German employees always communicate by using polite words. |
| C．German employees often work hard and pursue efficiency. |
| D．German employees hang out together after work. |
| A．Unacceptable behaviors in German business culture. |
| B．Germans value goal-oriented and direct communication. |
| C．Germans attach importance to their working life. |
| D．Why Germans work fewer hours but produce more. |
1. 你的观点；
2. 给出理由。
注意：写作词数不少于100字。
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注意：1.词数100词左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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4 . When you re grocery shopping, have you ever noticed that most grocery stores often don’t have windows and if they do they’re only at the front of the store? You might not pay much attention to the architectural features of the building you re grocery shopping in—you’re there to shop for food, not admire the layout! But that’s not just it!
“Grocery stores want to create a separate environment within the stores, where the outside world doesn’t exist,” explains Andrei Vasilescu, a shopping expert who has studied shopping behaviors and psychology. “You don’t get bothered by the rain, sunshine, or the fact that your kids are waiting in the parking lot. All your focus is on the shopping experience.” This technique also prevents shoppers from noticing that it’s getting dark out.
“Walls instead of windows can keep daylight out of grocery stores and help preserve the products, as some products can go bad faster in direct sunlight. Too much sun exposure can even cause packaging labels to fade. Furthermore, having windows in their stores would decrease the space available to showcase products,” says Margine Biswas, an architect with expertise in retail (零售) design. “Compared to windows, exterior (外部的) walls have stronger structural supports and can hold the heavier items on the shelves of those walls.”
Are some grocery stores going against this trend? In Germany, a study was conducted to test out stores with more natural light. A few stores had some bread products going bad rapidly due to the sunlight. They needed to replace the glass with specially designed panes (窗格) that help reduce the heat and radiation. This technique hasn’t caught on widely yet. A National Rewable Energy laboratory study in 2002 assessed the effects of natural light on shoppers—and it found that shoppers felt vastly more comfortable when there was more natural light around. They were also better able to identify both products and other people in the stores. It’s worth noting; though, that this study assessed natural light in all retail spaces, not just grocery stores. The challenges of adding more natural light to grocery stores remain.
1. How does a grocery store without windows influence its shoppers?| A．It keeps them absorbed in shopping. | B．It helps to strengthen family bonds. |
| C．It prevents them from shopping relaxedly. | D．It misleads them to buy unnecessary goods. |
| A．Retail design is not complex. | B．Natural light is available. |
| C．Windows still have their value. | D．Windows barely benefit them. |
| A．It can be carried out widely. | B．Shoppers will be discouraged by it. |
| C．It proves less challenging. | D．The stores should be cautious. |
| A．Potential effects of natural light on grocery stores. | B．Reasons why most grocery stores have no windows. |
| C．Some tricks applied by a majority of grocery stores. | D．How consumers can better enjoy grocery shopping. |
5 . A new study warns 1,500 endangered languages could no longer be spoken by the end of this century.
The study, led by The Australian National University (ANU), identified predictors that put endangered languages at high risk. Co-author Professor Lindell Bromham said that of the world’s 7,000 recognized languages, around half were currently endangered. “We found that without immediate intervention, language loss could triple in the next 40 years. And by the end of this century, 1,500 languages could cease (停止) to be spoken.”
Their study finds the widest range of factors ever putting endangered languages under pressure. One finding was that more years of schooling increased the level of language endangerment. The researchers say it shows we need to build curricula that support bilingual education, promoting both native language proficiency as well as use of regionally-dominant languages. “Across the 51 factors or predictors we investigated, we also found some really unexpected and surprising pressure points. This included road density,” Professor Bromham said. He added, “Contact with other local languages is not the problem. But we found that the more roads there are, connecting country to city, and villages to towns, the higher the risk of languages being endangered. It’s as if roads are helping dominant (主导的) languages ‘steam roll’ over other smaller languages.”
Professor Bromham said the study’s findings were a vital reminder that more action was urgently needed to preserve at-risk languages. He added, “When a language is lost, or is ‘sleeping’ as we say for languages that are no longer spoken, we lose so much of our human cultural diversity. Every language is brilliant in its own way. Many of the languages predicted to be lost this century still have fluent speakers, so there is still the chance to invest in supporting communities to bring native languages back to life and keep them strong for future generations.”
1. Which suggestion is mentioned to save the endangered languages?| A．Setting up bilingual courses. | B．Avoiding building more roads |
| C．Opening more local schools. | D．Contacting different languages. |
| A．Some exact examples for the new research. |
| B．Detailed ways to help dominant languages. |
| C．Different factors to brighten at-risk languages. |
| D．Elements to make endangered languages at risk. |
| A．Indifferent. | B．Hopeless. |
| C．Optimistic. | D．Uncertain. |
| A．1,500 endangered languages at high risk. |
| B．A new study concerning dominant languages. |
| C．Reasons putting languages under pressure. |
| D．Some good ways to save endangered languages. |
6 . NBC News published an opinion piece declaring that parents aren’t qualified to make decisions about school curricula for their children. The column, “Schools face parents who want to ban critical race theory and don’t get how teaching works”, written by author Christina Wyman was instantly roasted on social media.
“Parents and politicians across the country are getting their fingers into the curricula that public schools use to teach students. Some states are passing laws to keep critical race theory out of schools, and school libraries are coming under attack for containing books about gender. There are even parents who are trying to keep students away from learning about mental health and as though helping children build emotional strength is a bad thing,” Wyman wrote to kick off the piece.
“While the political climate and national involvement in school districts give the phenomenon a broader platform and have more serious impact, this behavior is nothing new. Parents have always tried to interfere (干涉) with curricula, as I observed when teaching middle school in the mid-2000s,” she continued. Wyman then compared parents wanting to have a say in what their children learn to people breaking into an operating room during surgery on their children. “These interventions are nothing more than theater, and school boards and administrators should be protecting their teachers and students from them rather than bowing to them,” she wrote.
Wyman, who spent some time discussing her own schooling and Ph. D. in curriculum, painted parents as under-qualified to cut in unless they have achieved the same level of education that is required of most teachers. Wyman wrote, “An educator’s primary goal is to teach students to think. Parents who attempt to influence curricula with their personal opinions block that goal.”
1. How did Wyman begin the piece?| A．By presenting some unreasonable phenomena. |
| B．By calling for parents’ concern about children. |
| C．By stressing students’ mental health problems. |
| D．By introducing various public school curricula. |
| A．Curricula. | B．Parents. |
| C．Interventions. | D．Administrators. |
| A．To attract readers’ attention to NBC. | B．To reflect parents’ love for children. |
| C．To call for more concern for curricula. | D．To persuade parents out of interfering. |
| A．Stubborn. | B．Qualified. | C．Optimistic. | D．Unprofessional. |
7 . The Human Library has been working to encourage a sense of shared humanity for almost two decades. It is quite different from traditional libraries.
The Human Library is an association which attempts to create respect and understanding for the diversity in society through efforts.
As its website details, the library hosts weekly events in local communities. The volunteer “human books” welcome members of the public to come and talk to them.
Ronni Abergel is the founder of the library.
| A．It creates a safe space for dialogue. |
| B．His ambition is to build a hi-tech library. |
| C．COVID-19 has led to many virtual events as well. |
| D．This library allows people to start an online conversation. |
| E．He just wants to get the whole world listening and talking. |
| F．Here, various questions are expected, appreciated and answered. |
| G．At this library, you can “borrow” people for a conversation instead of books. |
8 . The United Nations believes about 17 percent of the world’s food goes to waste each year from homes, stores and food companies.
The information comes from the UN Environment Program’s Food Waste Index Report 2021. The report says food waste is not only a problem in rich countries like Britain or the United States. It happens in poor countries, too.
Researchers say food waste is a growing concern because of the large amount of land and energy required to produce food, raise animals and plant crops.
| A．We have many ways to reduce food waste. |
| B．That amounts up to 931 million tons of food. |
| C．Food supplies can go bad without cold storage there. |
| D．Some restaurants reward customers who eat up their food. |
| E．Sometimes the food is still good for several days after the date. |
| F．Forests are also cleared to make space for more food production. |
| G．Sometimes stores of reduced prices on larger amounts of food. |
9 . A shortage of semiconductors (半导体) has helped firms such as Nvidia, whose chips (芯片) power everything from video gaming to machine learning and data centres. But boom time for sellers means misery for buyers. Carmakers, whose products have become computers on wheels, are among the victims. Analysts say the industry might build around 5 million fewer cars this year, all for want of the chips. Apple and Microsoft have also warned that they will be affected.
The shortage is the result of a sudden rise in demand. Chipmaking has been enjoying strong growth for decades as computers have stepped into every corner of society. But there was a strong upward trend during the pandemic. Locked-down consumers shopped online, had meetings remotely, and killed time with video-streaming and videogaming.
The crisis has had three consequences, two encouraging and one less so.
The first is an investment boom. Big producers such as Intel, Samsung and TSMC are planning to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on extra capacity (产能) over the next few years. As in many markets, high prices are the best cure for high prices.
The second is that the chip industry’s customers are adapting. too. When demand fell early in the pandemic, carmakers cut their orders with chipmakers. Following Tesla, Volkswagen has announced plans to develop driver-assistance chips in-house.
Unwelcome effect has been a sudden rise of techno-nationalism. America is planning to hand out billions of dollars to attract chipmakers back from East Asia. Europe wants to double its share of global production, to 20%，by 2030. Even Britain has declared the fate of a small chip factory in Wales to be a matter of national security.
Chips have come to occupy what used to be called the “commanding heights” of an economy, in the way that car factories did in the 20th century. But as last century’s governments discovered, subsidies (补贴) lend 10 oversupply. Personally, the chip shortage is mostly a self-solving problem. Governments should resist the temptation to scc themselves as saviours (救星).
1. What is the main cause of the sudden shortage of chips according to the passage?| A．Economic crisis | B．The outbreak of the pandemic. |
| C．Governments’ control. | D．Great demand in online products. |
| A．Hot investment in chips. | B．Carmakers’ adaptation to the market. |
| C．Arise of techno-nationalism. | D．Realization of technological globalization. |
| A．Markets are the cure for the chip shortage. |
| B．Government subsidies will lead to waste. |
| C．The government should rescue the market. |
| D．Car factories in the 20th century were on the rise. |
| A．Chip Shortage—A Self-solving Problem |
| B．Techno-nationalism—A War without Smoke |
| C．Challenges—Promises of New Opportunities |
| D．High Prices—the Best Cure for High Prices |
（1）电动自行车使用现状；
（2）开展该项行动的目的；
（3）呼吁人们积极响应（如学习道路交通法规，购买合格的安全头盔，自觉佩戴）。
注意：（1）词数100左右；（2）参考词汇：头盔 Helmet
Dear fellow citizens,
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Yours Sincerely,
Li Hua
