1 . The clock rules our lives. The more we try to save time, the less time we seem to have. In every area of our lives we are doing things faster. And many of us live in towns and cities which are getting noisier and more stressful as each day passes. But now a worldwide movement, whose aim is to slow life down, has started. Its supporters are people who believe that a happier and healthier way of life is possible.
The Slow Food movement was founded the day that an Italian journalist, Carlo Petrini, saw that McDonald’s had opened a restaurant in a beautiful square in Rome. He thought it was sad that many people today live too quickly to sit down for a proper meal and only eat much fast food. He decided that he had to try to do something about it and so he started the Slow Food movement. Slow Food has become a global organization ever since and now has more than 80,000 members in 100 countries.
Slow Food also encourages people to eat local and regional food, to use local shops and markets, to eat out in small family restaurants, and to cook with traditional recipes.
The idea of Slow Cities was inspired by the Slow Food movement. The aim of Slow Cities is to improve people’s quality of life. Towns which want to become a Slow City have to reduce traffic and noise, increase the number of green areas, plant trees, build pedestrian zones, and promote local businesses and traditions. Now it has spread to other countries all over the world, from the UK to Japan and Australia. There are now 135 Slow Cities in 24 countries across the world that have been named since founding of the organization in 1999. Gao Chun County, in east China’s Jiangsu Province, is expected to be named the first “Slow City” in China next year.
“Slow Cities are about having a community life in the town,” said a local resident. “It is not ‘slow’ as in ‘stupid’. It is ‘slow’ as in the opposite of ‘worried’ and ‘stressful’.”
But not everybody is happy. For teenagers, who have to go 25km to Norwich, the nearest city, to buy CDs, living in a Slow City is not very attractive. “It’s all right here for adults,” says Lewis Cook, 16. “But if you want excitement, you have to go to Norwich. We need more things here for young people.”
1. What’s the aim of the Slow Food movement?| A．To call on people to eat out. | B．To make people enjoy cooking. |
| C．To drive McDonald’s out of Rome | D．To encourage people to slow down. |
| A．reducing traffic and noise | B．increasing the number of green areas |
| C．building more department stores | D．promoting local businesses and traditions |
| A．Slow Food was founded in 1999 | B．there is no Slow City in China now |
| C．Slow Cities are mainly in the UK | D．there are about 24 Slow Cities in the world |
| A．Satisfied. | B．Excited. | C．Happy. | D．Dissatisfied. |
| A．Slow down and you’ll move fast. | B．Time flies never to be recalled. |
| C．Eat slowly and you’ll be healthy. | D．Pay attention to the quality of life. |
2 . Shrinkflation has made British shoppers unhappy. For years, producers have quietly shrunk product sizes rather than rise prices. A multipack(合装包)of Fazzles, used to cost £1 ($1.36) and contain eight bags. Now it contains six. Cadbury’s Creme Eggs used to come by the half-dozen; now they come in fives. Quality Street, a chocolate box, weighed 1.2kg in 2009; today, just 650g.
The logic of Shrinkflation is that consumers are less likely to notice it than its alternative: higher prices. For years, the government has worked on the same principle. Taxpayers paid roughly the same, but government services became worse. Now an era of price increases in the form of tax rises has begun. In a nasty combination of inflation and shrinkflation, voters will be expected to pay more for less.
It will be an awkward shift. Since coming to power in 2010, the Conservatives (保守党) have used shrinkflation just as retailers do. In the early austerity (财政紧缩) years, the government shrank (收缩，减少), but its cost did not. As a percentage of GDP, it fell from a peak after the financial crisis of 46% of GDP to 39%. Taxes stayed around their historic norm of about 32% of GDP. But citizens received fewer services.
And, as when shoppers fail to notice the missing packet of Frazzles, voters did not care much at first. Weekly bin collections became fortnightly or monthly. Once-generous legal aid became mean; in-work benefits fell; police solved fewer crimes. But eventually voters and shoppers start to feel confused. Was a box of Quality Street always so small? Were the police always so used to fraud (诈骗)? Moreover, shrinkflation cannot continue forever. Just as people will not buy an empty packet of Frazzles, taxpayers will not pay for government services that are not provided at all. Eventually prices must rise — as the Conservatives are discovering. By 2026 the tax burden will be 36% of GDP, the highest since the post-war era, under Clement Atlee. This will cause several problems such as one of expectations. Atlee’s government promised a new Jerusalem (耶路撒冷): voters accepted higher taxes in return for a welfare(福利)state. Similarly, when New Labour governments raised taxes in the 2000s, they provided more in return. They increased national insurance, in order to bring heath care spending in line with other European countries. Schools were rebuilt and repaired; civic art, though sometimes of questionable quality, appeared in town squares.
Unfortunately, this time higher spending will at best stop things getting worse. Sajid Javi, the health secretary, admits that the health-and social-care systems will struggle even after a 2.5 percentage-point rise in national insurance,
“Is that all we get for £12bn” asked the Daily Mail, a newspaper that lends to see eye-to-eye with the Conservatives, when the plan to cut hospital waiting-lists was announced. British voters are often said to want American taxes and a European welfare government. Instead, they face paying European taxes for services as insufficient as those in American.
1. Shrinkflation refers to the process of items ______.| A．shrinking in size or quantity while their prices remain the same |
| B．shrinking in size or quantity while their prices become higher |
| C．expanding in sire or quantity while their prices remain the same |
| D．expanding in size or quantity while their prices become lower |
| A．Consumers will pay higher taxes for government services. |
| B．Consumers are more sensitive to price increases in products. |
| C．Consumers can hardly notice the changes in government services. |
| D．Consumers are unwilling to pay for government services. |
| A．Critical. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Supportive. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．Both inflation and shrinkflation exist in Britain. |
| B．The Americans pay high taxes for poor services. |
| C．The British government will be costlier with fewer services. |
| D．The Daily Mail is in favor of the current economic policy. |
3 . Downey, a professor of sociology at The Ohio State University, had an argument with his son, Nick. “I explained to him how bad his generation’s social skills were because they spent so much time on screens,” Downey said. “Nick asked me how I knew that. And when I checked, there really wasn’t any solid evidence. It then occurred to me that something is needed.”
Downey, with his colleague, started to investigate before long. They used data from early childhood studies. They compared how teachers and parents rated social skills of children who started kindergarten in 1998 with data on those who started school in 2010, when the first iPad appeared. Downey was surprised to find despite the time spent on smartphones and social media, young people today are as socially skilled as those from the previous generation.
Results showed both groups of kids were rated similarly on interpersonal skills, such as the ability to form and maintain friendships and get along with different people. They were also rated similarly on self-control, such as the ability to control their temper (脾气). In fact, the evaluations of children’s interpersonal skills and self-control tended to be slightly higher for those in the 2010 group than those in the 1998 group. The results showed that even the children with the most screen exposure in both groups experienced similar development in social skills compared to those with less screen exposure. There was one exception: The skills were a bit lower for children who accessed online gaming and social networking sites many times a day. “But even that was a pretty small effect,” Downey said. In general, there was little evidence that screen time damages most children’s social skills.
There is a tendency for every generation at my age to worry about the younger generation. It is an old story. Now we know we really shouldn’t have been so,” said Maggie, one of the parents providing evaluation. Fears for screen-based technology represent recent panic in response to technological change. If anything, new generations are learning that having good social relationships means being able to communicate successfully both face-to-face and online, Downey said.
1. Why is Downey’s argument with his son mentioned?| A．To attract reader’s attention to kids’ social skills. |
| B．To explain the reason for Downey’s study. |
| C．To show the impact of screen time on children. |
| D．To introduce tension between parents and children. |
| A．They were bad news for new generations. |
| B．They were uncommon in the field of sociology. |
| C．They were different from his assumption. |
| D．They were opposite to findings of previous studies. |
| A．They were addicted to online games. |
| B．Their social skills were barely impacted. |
| C．They were more likely to lose their temper. |
| D．Their interpersonal relationship was damaged. |
| A．Worried. | B．Doubtful. | C．Disappointed. | D．Relieved. |
4 . Being in college, coupled with being immersed (沉浸的) in social media means students are constantly surrounded by peers and their profiles (个人资料). “I am so pleased to announce that I have received an internship (实习工作).” If I opened my LinkedIn（a social network for job seekers, professionals and business）right now, the probability of me seeing posts of this kind is 100 percent.
I know the idea of comparison via social media has been studied and discussed a lot, but what we don’t put enough emphasis on is the physical and personal impact it can have on students. When students look at achievements and positions held by their peers, it is easy to feel as though they are not doing enough. When we go to career fairs and stand in lines for hours to not receive an interview, it is easy to feel as though there isn’t a bright future ahead. When we study in the library to improve our GPA (Grade Point Average) so as to get a job, it is easy to feel as though we have no fun.
It is easy to feel this way when we are immersed in what we think our peers’ lives and achievements look like. It can be easy to assume that the girl, who is doing two jobs, is a leader in three clubs, is taking 22 credit s and has an awesome internship lined up for the summer, is so happy and it’s going to be successful. However, what we don’t see are the three hours of sleep she gets each night or the lack of nutrition in her meals or that she is unable to keep up with her social relationships.
“One of the people we judge the most is ourselves. When we compare, we build on that judgment we make on ourselves in a negative way,” says Teri Pipe, Arizona State University’s chief well-being officer. This is not to say that it is impossible to do all those things, but it also important to know yourself and what you value when deciding what you want to do. “We should come back to the balancing point to understand that each of us has something important to do and serve in the world, which is as unique as your fingerprint,” says Pipe. By removing yourself from other people’s lives and things that have happened in the past or could happen in the future, you can allow yourself to be fully immersed in the present to enjoy and cherish what you’re doing.
The mental impacts of stress can also lead to physical pain. “When you are comparing yourself to someone, you start questioning yourself, and so you either make some changes blindly or feel defeated, and stop doing critical thinking,” says Jamie Valderrama. She is a lecturer in the university’s Schools of Social Work, which is one of the largest and most diverse social work program s in the US. “You might start feeling happiness in your heart, or your breathing and heart rate might accelerate. By paying attention to the body, you can take a step back and take preventive measures to make sure you calm the reaction down to handle the issue quickly in a positive way.”
1. What do we know about the profiles the author often sees on LinkedIn?| A．They often contain false information. |
| B．They completely show the positive side. |
| C．They focus on one’s working experience. |
| D．They usually show a person’s uniqueness. |
| A．Their peers’ relaxed life. |
| B．Their peers’ high GPAs. |
| C．Their peers’ good luck. |
| D．Their peers’ success. |
| A．How your peers are misunderstood in general. |
| B．The price of looking perfect on social media. |
| C．What the average girl on social media is like. |
| D．The reasons why one can become successful. |
| A．They could be negative. | B．They are rather ordinary. |
| C．They could discourage us. | D．They tend to be unrealistic |
5 . Heritage sites of outstanding and universal value located along the African coast are at threat of rising sea levels, and increased climate change adaptation is urgently needed for the protection of the heritage sites, according to research.
The research, published last week by the University of Cape Town’s African Climate and Development Initiative, indicated that more heritage areas are exposed to flooding compared with erosion. Findings showed that 56 of 284 identified African heritage sites are at risk of a 100-year coastal extreme event. Furthermore, the researchers project the number of exposed sites to more than triple by 2050.
Michalis Vousdoukas, scientific officer at the European Commission and lead author of the report, said the Loss of forts and castles along the coast would have strong consequences not only for the people living in their neighborhood, but also the international community. He said many of the sites are deeply connected with peoples’ identity and tradition, and they are essential for social well-being, safe-guarding traditional knowledge and livelihoods.
The research findings highlight the urgent need for increased climate change adaptation for heritage sites in Africa, including governance and management approaches, site-specific vulnerability assessments, exposure monitoring and protection strategies. The findings also indicated that reducing greenhouse gas emissions would result in a 21 percent reduction of the median exposed area, as well as 25 percent fewer sites that would be highly exposed by the end of the century.
The National Museums of Kenya, a state corporation that manages cultural and natural heritage, is working with communities to conserve sites that are threatened by coastal flooding and erosion. Fatma Twahir, the chief curator （负责人） of heritage site Fort Jesus in Kenya’s coastal Mombasa city, told Kenya News Agency that the National Museums of Kenya has partnered with the cultural protection fund to train curators and communities living near the heritage sites to keep them safe.
1. What does the underlined word “event” refer to in the context?| A．the natural disaster | B．the loss of forts and castles |
| C．the international support | D．the environment adaptation measures |
| A．Those forts and castles are of great economic value in terms of tourism. |
| B．The loss of those sites would conceal the identity of the people living nearby. |
| C．If the sites got damaged, the whole world would be influenced as well as the local. |
| D．The protection of those sites is necessary for the safety of the whole continent. |
| A．Monitoring all the heritage sites. |
| B．Reducing greenhouse gas emissions. |
| C．Assessing the short-term climate change. |
| D．Developing new methods of governing their countries. |
6 . Advertising uses repetition to increase consumers’preference for brands. Particularly for novel brands, much exposure and repetition is necessary to establish the brand name in the first place. Do you still remember your feeling when you see or hear the names YAHOO or GOOGLE for the first time? Now they are imprinted in your brain. Basic psychological research has already shown that repeatedly perceived (感知) information is easier to be remembered for the brain process.
Recent research has shown that repetition effects actually are originally caused from the mouth. Each time we come across a person’s or product name, the lips and the tongue automatically simulate (模仿) the pronunciation of that name. This happens without our awareness and without actual mouth movements. During inner speech, the brain attempts to say the novel name. When names are presented repeatedly, this simulation happens repeatedly. However, if this inner speech is disturbed, for instance during chewing gum or whispering another word, the repetition effect vanishes.
An interesting experiment was conducted in movie theaters. 96 participants were invited to a real movie theater and were presented a block of commercials and a movie later on. Half of the participants received popcorn to eat. For them, the mouth was occupied with chewing the popcorn so the mouth muscles could not engage in inner speech when watching the ads for the novel brands. The other half of the participants only received a small sugar cube, which dissolved quickly in their mouth so that the mouth muscles were free to simulate the pronunciation of the brand names. The participants were invited to the lab one week after the cinema session. They were presented with images of products. Half of these products had been advertised in the cinema session; the other half were completely novel products. Participants were asked to indicate the products that they liked, and their physiological responses were measured. Those participants who had only received a sugar cube proved that there was a clear advertising effect. They preferred advertised novel products and also showed positive physiological responses of familiarity for advertised products. However, those participants who had eaten popcorn while watching the commercials one week before showed no such advertising effect.
1. Why does the author mention Yahoo and Google in Paragraph One?| A．To remind readers of brand names. |
| B．To prove the influence of repetition. |
| C．To compare the effects of two brands. |
| D．To draw readers’ attention to the research. |
| A．Disappear. | B．Improve. | C．Reduce. | D．Occur. |
| A．held positive attitude toward movies |
| B．showed preference for advertisements |
| C．tended to choose the advertised products |
| D．felt familiar with the commercials and the movies |
| A．A psychological report. |
| B．An entertainment website. |
| C．A commercial advertisement. |
| D．A popular science magazine. |
7 . Musk, Hawking, Gates — the tech giants have redoubled their warnings about how we could destroy ourselves with technology. But they’re not talking about deliberately pushing buttons to trigger disaster. They mean accidentally killing ourselves with something that we invent for our benefit.
It’s a little embarrassing to have to admit that accidental deaths are increasing in a world that our ancestors made safer for hundreds of years. Our grandparents saw the invention of the automobile, the bulldozer (推土机) and so on, and they made them all safer. However, nowadays, we put a smartphone on every hand, and now more than 1000 distraction-related crashes happen on our roads every day. Kids and pets die of heatstroke (中暑) inside cars — we are on track to set a new record for hot car deaths in 2021. We may not have to worry about AI, but our innovations are quietly outpacing our ability.
We place blind trust in complex systems that reveal little about how they work. It seems that we have superhuman abilities, and consumers seem willing to play along. They drive at a speed of 80 mph with a phone and a cup of coffee, and they are proud of their multitasks. Sure, other people on phones are dangerous, but you can smoothly switch your attention and notice when any emergency occurs, right?
When we misjudged a situation in the past, we got immediate feedback. But technology can place the consequences of our missteps at a distance. Delayed reactions, complex chain reactions —these are all part of how technology works. But having adapted to a world of new inventions, we are crazy about driverless cars, seldom stopping to consider what could go wrong later down the road. Worse still, technology is even hacking our feedback system. We get excited when we check our phone while driving. Edith Harbaugh, whose company, Launch Darkly, specializes in the controlled release of new technology into the wild, pointed out that we’re creating a dangerously unbalanced system of actions and rewards: “We are not given ice creams every time we do something safe.”
So it is too late to worry about threatening technology, which is upon us. The modern world is breaking everything we know about staying safe. If we have any hope of staying alive with the rise of the machines, we are going to need to learn to survive the things we have today.
1. Why is the warning of tech giants mentioned in Paragraph 1?| A．To give a definition. | B．To highlight their wisdom. |
| C．To offer background information. | D．To introduce the topic. |
| A．We trust complex systems blindly. |
| B．We create too many inventions. |
| C．Our ability cannot keep pace with the innovations. |
| D．Technology can’t give us feedback immediately. |
| A．The rise of the machines. | B．The destruction of the world. |
| C．The measures to deal with the problem. | D．The worries about threatening technology. |
| A．Technology is killing us | B．Technology is benefiting us |
| C．How should we survive technology | D．How should we deal with technology |
8 . With a name like The Daily Orange in America, you will think the Syracuse University student-run newspaper prints a new issue every day. The newspaper began operating at the Syracuse, New York-based school in 1903. But it only prints a new issue three times a week.
Editor in chief Haley Robertson worries about where she will find companies willing to pay for advertising space. She also worries about having to fire friends. And, she searches out former students willing to donate money so the newspaper can send reporters on the road to cover the university’s sports teams. Media executives many years older than Robertson are facing similar problems. The news industry’s financial difficulties have spread to colleges and universities across the US, which brought challenges to these young journalists. Student reporters train for the future in two main ways. They receive a traditional classroom education from professors. They also put what they learn to use in student-run newsrooms.
Chris Evans is president of the College Media Association, or the CMA. He notes that few college newspapers have shut down the way local newspapers in towns and cities across the country have, considering the central role they are playing. But some have had to cut the number of times they publish each week. Some would find a former student for donation or sell enough advertising to cover it.
The University of North Carolina reports that newspaper newsroom jobs across the country dropped from 52,000 in 2008 to 24,000 today. There are other kinds of jobs in the field, of course, but not a very high number of them. Many journalism educators have wondered whether their students can deal with that. Journalism schools should do more than just equip students for possible media jobs, said Marie Hardin, head of Penn State’s Donald Bellisario College of Communications. She said journalism educators need to teach students communication, critical thinking and writing. Such skills are highly sought in many different fields.
1. It can be learnt that The Daily Orange ________.| A．is a national newspaper | B．is seeking sponsorships |
| C．lacks enough reporters | D．will go fully Internet-based |
| A．Because they can get donations from the outside. |
| B．Because they are popular among towns and cities. |
| C．Because the CMA provides much support for them. |
| D．Because journalism students need training chances. |
| A．Creating new jobs in the news industry. |
| B．Improving professional skills of educators. |
| C．Preparing students for more job options. |
| D．Encouraging students to turn to other fields. |
| A．Journalism Schools Apply New Teaching Methods |
| B．US College Student Reporters Face Difficult Future |
| C．How to Run Traditional University Newspapers Well? |
| D．Is Transformation of College Newspapers Necessary? |
9 . In battling the timber poachers who enter the thick Sierra Madre forests near his home, Larry Garaes has found a new support: solar panels.
With solar chargers, the radios he and other forest rangers (护林人) rely on no longer run out of power on multi-day operations in the mountains.
“Communication between rangers is a lot better. Now, we can catch the poachers while they are in the act because we can coordinate (使协调) our moves quietly without turning to shout at the next ranger — unlike before,” Garaes said.
Access to clean energy is bringing a range of unexpected benefits around the world. On the longest mountain range in the Philippines, those benefits include better forest protection — and power for tribal people who once lacked it.
More than 2 million households — or about 10 percent of all households — in the Philippines lack electricity, according to a 2017 report by the country’s Department of Energy.About three quarters are in remote rural locations, in a country spread over thousands of islands, according to the Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG), which is trying to get them connected.Because bringing the national grid (网格) power to many of those people is not cost effective, the state National Power Corporation has charged SPUG with setting up and running small power plants in these areas. So far 327 such plants have been established. Government plans to call for 100 percent electrification of the country by 2022.
“Government has to do its work to connect all those areas that are not yet connected to the grid,” said Edmundo Veloso Jr. “But all but one of the new generation plants use diesel fuel, he said — even though transport of fuel can be a big problem in remote areas. Diesel is the fastest and the only technology available at the moment for off-grid areas. Diesel is still the cheapest in terms of capital outlay (开支).”
1. What do Garaes’ words suggest?| A．Fewer poachers come there. |
| B．They used to move loudly. |
| C．Their conditions improved. |
| D．They were tired of shouting. |
| A．People are unwilling to use clean energy. |
| B．Using clean energy benefits people there. |
| C．Forest protection turns out to be serious. |
| D．People in the area require more attention. |
| A．The serious shortage of electricity. |
| B．The poor conditions in rural areas. |
| C．The improvement of power supply. |
| D．The popularity of power plants. |
| A．Lacking funds. | B．Shipping fuel. |
| C．Technology. | D．Shortage of attention. |
10 . What’s your baby doing right now? I hope he or she is not rolling on the floor. Such behaviour might seem natural and age-appropriate but this laid-back environment could come back to haunt you at a later date.
Eventually you may be forced to reflect upon those wasted opportunities. In allowing your baby to unproductively behave just like, well, a baby, you may be failing to foster his or her personal growth. Are you denying your child the chance to achieve his or her full potential as a well-rounded baby?
You see, some parents are hot-housing their infants as we speak. While your baby’s programme revolves around the traditional routines of sleeping, eating and playing, other people’s offspring are on the fast-track to certain giftedness. And Baby Einstein DVDs, which were all the rage when I was a new mother, are really the least of your problems.
Ever eager to exploit our perceived inadequacies, smart marketers have found something else for parents to feel guilty about. There’s a manufactured fear that we’re squandering those valuable moments when a baby’s brain is said to be like a sponge, ready and willing to soak up new information at an alarming rate.
I’ve never seen the point of deliberately setting up your little one to be more advanced than his or her peers. I like the idea of babies just being babies and children just being children. Anyway, if they can read at the age of three then what will they learn in their first year of school?
One thing’s for sure: for some people parenting has taken on the proportions of a competitive sport. Some children wrestle with after-school activities every day of the week. Others are enrolled in extra tuition — sometimes simply to reach an acceptable standard and other times in order to be top of the class. There are tennis camps, swim academies and dancing schools. Some households even speak English downstairs and French upstairs. What? That’s not how you run your home? Oh dear. I see bilingualism passing your child by, for sure.
1. What does the author imply in paragraph 2?| A．The author likes raising baby at home. |
| B．Many parents don’t realize their babies’ potentials. |
| C．We don’t have enough time or money to raise babies. |
| D．Many parents foster their children’s personal growth by any chance. |
| A．They were good enough for mothers. |
| B．They were effective in teaching babies. |
| C．They were cheaper than other products. |
| D．They were popular with many mothers. |
| A．It’s a good way to build up potentials. |
| B．It’s not helpful to baby’s development. |
| C．It’s vital to develop baby’s brain. |
| D．It’s not so cheap to be invested by all parents. |
| A．Give children more sports. |
| B．Develop children more. |
| C．Let babies grow as they are. |
| D．Develop children’s bilingualism. |
