1 . Before the Internet age, critical thinking was the most important skill of people. But in the digital age, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a famous psychologist, a more important skill is critical ignoring..
As researchers point out, we live in an attention economy where content producers on the Internet compete for our attention. They attract us with many eye-catching stories while providing little useful information, so they can expose us to profit-generating advertisements. Therefore, we are not customers but products, and each link we click is a sale of our time and attention. To protect ourselves from this, Kozyreva advocates (提倡) for learning the skill of critical ignoring, in which readers can control their information environment to reduce exposure to raise information.
According to Kozyreva, critical ignoring includes three strategies. The first is to design our environments, which includes removing low-quality yet hard-to-resist (难以抵制的) information from around. Successful dieters need to keep unhealthy food out of their homes. Similarly, we need to set up a digital environment where attention-grabbing items are kept out of sight. Like dieting, if one tries to depend on willpower not to click eye-catching "news", he'll surely fail. So, it's better to keep them out of sight at first!
The next is to evaluate the reliability (可靠性) of information, whose purpose is to protect you from false information. It can be realized by checking the source in the mainstream, news agencies, which are trustworthy.
The last is: "never feed the trolls." Trolls are some people who spread false information online to cause harm. Do not correct them, because they do not care about whether the information is correct. Annoying others is their goal. So, never respond to their bad behaviour with our attention.
By using the above critical ignoring skills, we can make the most of the Internet while avoiding falling victim to those who try to control our attention, time, and minds.
1. What can we learn about the attention economy from paragraph 2?| A．It offers more information. | B．It features depressing stories. |
| C．It saves time for Internet users. | D．It seeks profits from each click. |
| A．To discuss the quality of information. | B．To prove the benefits of healthy food. |
| C．To show the importance of environments. | D．To explain the effectiveness of willpower. |
| A．Review their intention. | B．Turn a deaf ear to them.. |
| C．Correct their behaviour. | D．Send hard facts to them. |
| A．Reasons for critical thinking in the attention economy. |
| B．Practising the skills of critical ignoring in the digital age. |
| C．Maximizing the benefits of critical ignoring on the Internet. |
| D．Strategies of abandoning critical thinking for Internet users. |
2 . Exposure to new technologies including trackers,robots and AI-based software at work is bad for people's quality of life, according to a groundbreaking study from the Institute for the Future of Work.
The authors found that the more workers were exposed to technologies in three of these categories —software based on AI and machine learning; monitor devices such as wearable trackers; and robotics-the worse their health and wellbeing tended to be.
By contrast, use of more long-established information and communication technologies (ICTs)such as laptops, tablets and instant messaging at work tended to have a more positive effect on wellbeing.
Dr Magdalena Soffia,the study's lead author, said it was not necessarily the technologies themselves that are the problem,but the way in which they are adopted."We don't want to claim that there is some sort of determinism in what technology causes,in terms of wellbeing,"she said,“We say it really depends on the context:on lots of structural factors,on environmental conditions,how it is designed and how it is used.So lots of human decisions.”
“We wanted to give a more multidimensional understanding of what was happening in terms of wellbeing.So we used a well-established measure which is a very effective measure, used by the UK public health sector;"Soffia said.
Discussing the promotion to quality of life from ICTs,she suggested"one possible potential mechanism is that actually what they do is to streamline work processes,and they make working life a bit more efficient.And that in turn,gives you kind of a sense of achievement."
By contrast,the findings about trackers and monitor technologies corespond with recent wanings from trades unions and campaigners about the negative impact on workers whose performance is being constantly monitored.
Mary Towers,the TUC's lead on Al,said:"These findings should worry us all.They show that without strong new regulation,Al could make the world of work a cruel and unhealthy place for many.Things don't have to be this way.If we put the proper guardrails in place,AI can be controlled to genuinely enhance productivity and improve working lives."
1. What does the study find about new technologies?| A．They are well received. |
| B．They worsen people's life. |
| C．They consist of three items. |
| D．They are developing rapidly. |
| A．Influence on humans. |
| B．Origin of the problem. |
| C．Solutions to the problem. |
| D．Decisive role of the environment. |
| A．Increase work efficiency. |
| B．Enhance our confidence. |
| C．Ensure our safety at work. |
| D．Improve working conditions. |
| A．Critical. | B．Doubtful. | C．Hopeful. | D．Unclear. |
3 . Life can change in the blink of an eye. For Bridgette Ponson, one of those moments took place in the parking lot at her workplace, Layton Christian Academy. While she was in the parking lot, her 2-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl in tow, a car hit them. This left the mother and her kids trapped beneath the car. Thankfully, the woman driver wasn’t driving very fast. At that moment, she was blinded by the sun. However, she got out of the car to help as soon as possible. Plus, she wasn’t the only one who stopped what they were doing to save Bridgette and her kids.
Soon, Chris Crowder, CEO of the school, became aware of the accident. Without delay, he united a group of students to help. “It was split second,” Chris recalled. “I immediately just ran into the building because I knew I had to get a lot of people to lift this car. The students just heard me shout. All students from different countries just ran out and lifted it up.”
Still, this wasn’t an easy task. The car was heavy. But the whole group of students worked together to lift the car enough for Bridgette and her kids to get free. Finally, one kid was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital while Bridgette and the other kid were taken by ambulance to the hospital. Although Bridgette took the brunt of the injuries, all three of them were expected to make complete recoveries within a few days. The heroic students who helped out certainly got their well-deserved praise.
“I’m very proud of our kids. They ran out without hesitation, and they just knew what to do without even being told what to do. I’m even surprised by the driver who was behind the wheel. She immediately ran to help,” said Chris.
1. Which of the following caused the accident in the parking lot?| A．The car was speeding. | B．The driver was trapped in the car. |
| C．Bridgette ignored the surroundings. | D．The sunlight blocked the driver’s sight. |
| A．To meet foreign students. | B．To avoid the car accident. |
| C．To provide emergency aid. | D．To lift the kids out of the car. |
| A．Many hands make light work. | B．The hospital is no place to be sick. |
| C．Injuries may be forgiven, but not forgotten. | D．Praise makes good men better and bad men worse. |
| A．Passive. | B．Hesitant. | C．Timely. | D．Expected. |
4 . Once a week, Percy Buttons heads off to work, clocking in for a shift at a job one could say she was born to do. Percy, 18 months, is a baby “worker” at a nursing home, “hired” to brighten the days of residents whose own grandchildren may rarely visit. “It energizes me to see her, so this really helps me,” said Charles Alison, 93, one of about 100 residents at the nursing home in the city of Oklahoma.
The patter (啪嗒声) of little feet around wheelchairs and walkers here is meant to alleviate the isolation that can come with growing older, especially in a shrinking and rapidly aging nation. The nursing home’s director, Jasper White, came up with the idea of baby workers three years ago when her own newborn granddaughter was visiting and she saw how happy it made the residents. “When I saw the elderly people smile, I realized the power possessed by infants,” she said.
The nursing home now has about 70 babies, who can inspire even the toughest residents. They work flexible hours, strolling around the nursing home with their parents, mostly mothers. “It’s funny that I’m not working but Percy has a job,” said her mother, Gloria Gleam.
Percy and her colleagues are paid in diapers (纸尿裤) and milk powder. But those are not the only rewards, said Gloria, who started bringing Percy to the nursing home when she was 5 months old as a way to meet new people after the family moved to Oklahoma.
The requirements for Jasper’s recruits are simple: They should be under 3 years old, and the less they speak, the better. That’s because older people can struggle to speak and communicate, Jasper said, especially if they have cognitive impairment (障碍).
For nursing home residents, Jasper said, the visits from toddlers arouse the common experience of family members from multiple generations living under the same roof.
1. Why are baby workers needed in the nursing home?| A．To help ease the director’s burdens. |
| B．To offer physical care to the elderly. |
| C．To provide education for the nursing workers. |
| D．To bring joy and relieve the loneliness of the elderly. |
| A．The badly need for more workers. |
| B．The great power possessed by babies. |
| C．Her granddaughter’s visit to the nursing home. |
| D．The strong desires of the elderly residents. |
| A．A baby who is 3 minus and less talkative. |
| B．A baby who is 3 minus and very outgoing. |
| C．A baby who is 3 plus and communicates fluently. |
| D．A baby who is 3 plus and has cognitive impairment. |
| A．To recommend a career. | B．To popularize a practice. |
| C．To advocate a living style. | D．To introduce a phenomenon. |
5 . In the rich countries of the West, the electric vehicle revolution is well occurring. Climate-conscious consumers drive Teslas or Polestars for reasons of morality (道德) and fashion. Poorer countries are also experiencing a wave of electrified trend. In Bangladesh, electric three-wheeler taxis, known as tuk-tuks, are rapidly replacing gas-powered ones on the streets. Such electric vehicles are climate friendly, cost effective, and help reduce air pollution.
Yet a glance under the hood (引擎盖) of these vehicles shows a poisonous secret: each tuk-tuk runs on five massive lead-acid batteries (铅酸电池), containing almost 300 pounds of lead (铅) in total. Every year and a half or so, when those batteries need to be replaced and recycled, about 60 pounds of lead leaks into the environment. Battery recycling, often at small-scale unregulated factories, is a highly profitable (高利润的) but deadly business.
Lead is dangerous, and any exposure to it is harmful to human health. Lead that has entered the environment hurts people on an unexpected scale. The numerous ways lead enters air, water, soil, and homes across the developing world and the enormous damage it does to human health, wealth, and welfare cause one of the biggest environmental problems in the world yet receives little attention.
The World Bank estimates that lead kills 5.5 million people per year, making it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. On top of the shocking deaths, the social burden of lead poisoning is heavy, as is its contribution to global inequality — our research on the cognitive (认知的) effects of lead poisoning suggests that it may explain about one-fifth of the educational achievement gap between rich and poor countries.
But unlike many challenges faced by developing countries, lead poisoning is a problem that can be resolved through financial investment (财政投入). Better monitoring, research, and rules can help protect children all over the world from the unpleasant effects of lead poisoning and reduce the massive global costs it brings.
1. How does the author describe the lead problem in paragraph 2?| A．By listing some numbers. | B．By analyzing hidden causes. |
| C．By making an interesting comparison. | D．By explaining its working principle. |
| A．Lead enters poor countries in one way. |
| B．Lead leaking has been avoided in all the countries. |
| C．Lead will definitely not harm anymore. |
| D．Lead poisoning may make poor societies poorer. |
| A．Fixing these used batteries. | B．Reducing the cost of recycling lead. |
| C．Ignoring the illegal use of lead. | D．Putting certain effort and money. |
| A．The Impacts of Lead Poisoning on Man. |
| B．The Global Lead Poisoning Problem. |
| C．The Ways to Solve Lead Problem. |
| D．The Benefits of Using Electric Vehicles. |
6 . You may have visited antique stores and found cutting-edge goods in second-hand furniture stores, but have you ever stooping? On the streets of big cities at night, some young people are “looking for something”. Obsessed with the spiritual core of the old thing recycling, they fell in love with it. But what exactly is stooping?
In fact, this English word originally meant “bending over”, and now refers to a way of life of picking up discarded items and renovating and recycling old things, which originally emerged in New York and other foreign big cities.
Since the beginning of last year, the trend of “stooping” has spread to many big cities in China and many young people look for second-hand items such as discarded furniture on the streets, take home and repurpose them with a new look. In order to make the flow of information better, some “stoopers” have also built communities where group members can share “treasures” on the street with each other.
Mikiko, 27, is reportedly one of the first people in China to get involved in practicing stooping. At first, she posted online things that people no longer use, want to throw away, or exchange at home, and slowly hundreds of messages flooded in and since then, stooping has become more and more popular among young people. Mikiko admitted that she was surprised that the concept has become a hit on social media, as older generations often stigmatize picking up things from the street or using second-hand goods. “People like my mom consider stooping as’rubbish-picking’, and people will be looked down upon by doing this.” She even created an app called “Grecycle” where people can give away or take unwanted items for free, hoping people may realize that stooping can also be about doing good and helping others.
This generation of young people has given “new life” to old things, practiced social responsibility in their own environmentally friendly ways in life, and also contributed to the circular economy and sustainable society.
1. What do we know about “stooping” in this text?| A．It was developed in England. | B．It equals to rubbish-picking. |
| C．It is an expression to show respect. | D．It is a way to turn trash to treasure. |
| A．To show off their good use of items. |
| B．To argue about the misuse of good treasure. |
| C．To share the information of the discarded items. |
| D．To make some comments on the abandoned items. |
| A．Be skilled at. | B．Be ashamed of. |
| C．Be fed up with. | D．Be accustomed to. |
| A．Second-hand stores are worth visiting. |
| B．Big cities offer more job opportunities. |
| C．Young people spend less than older people. |
| D．The young have a stronger eco-awareness. |
7 . It’s rare that you see the words “shyness” and “leader” in the same sentence. After all, the common opinion is that those outgoing and sociable guys make great public speakers and excellent net-workers and that those shy people are not.
A survey conducted by USA Today referred to 65 percent of managers who believed shyness to be a barrier to leadership. Interestingly, the same article stresses that roughly 40 percent of leaders actually are quite shy — they’re just better at adapting themselves to situational demands. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Charles Schwab are just a few “innies”.
Shy people take a cautious approach to chance. They listen attentively to what others say and absorb it before they speak. They’re listening so they can learn what to say. Along the same lines, shy people share a common love of learning. They are intrinsically (内在地) motivated and therefore seek content regardless of achieving an outside standard.
Being shy can also bring other benefits. Remember being in school and hearing the same kids contribute, until shy little Johnny, who almost never said a word, cut in? Then what happened? Everyone turned around to look with great respect at little Johnny actually talking. This is how shy people made good use of their power of presence: they “own” the moment by speaking calmly and purposefully, which translate to a positive image.
Shyness is often related to modesty. Not to say that limelight-seekers (引人注目的人) aren’t modest, but shy people tend to have an accurate sense of their abilities and achievements. As a result, they are able to recognize mistakes, imperfections, knowledge gaps and limitations.
Since shy people have a lower desire for outside rewards than outgoing ones, they’re more comfortable working with little information and sticking to their inner desires. Shy people are also more likely to insist on finding solutions that aren’t primarily apparent. Albert Einstein once said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s that I stay with problems longer.” Obviously, finding certainty where uncertainty is typically popular is a huge plus for any successful person.
1. What is the traditional belief to the shy people?| A．They are good at making friends. |
| B．They are not popular with people. |
| C．They like making speeches in public. |
| D．They are unlikely to become leaders. |
| A．Shy people. | B．Public speakers. |
| C．Net-workers. | D．Survey conductor. |
| A．They focus on achieving themselves outside rewards. |
| B．They make the best of the power of presence actively. |
| C．They realize their abilities and imperfections clearly. |
| D．They perform more confidently than outgoing people. |
| A．By making contrasts and giving examples. |
| B．By quoting authorities and making evaluations. |
| C．By explaining problems and providing solutions. |
| D．By giving definitions and presenting research results. |
8 . More than 50 million people in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere follow pastoralism(游牧) as a way of life. The practice has survived for so long because it is designed to change with the environment. Pastoralists move with animals to find new lands and water, leaving behind eaten plants to regrow.
Mongolia is well known for its pastoralism. Agvaantogtokh and his family are herders(牧民). On horseback, he rides with nearly a thousand sheep and goats to help them find water. Sometimes, he and his wife, Nurmaa, stop to help struggling young ones, weak after a difficult winter.
For families like Agvaantogtokh’s, pastoralism is more than a profession. It is a cultural identity that connects generations. At its heart is the human connection to animals. While they consider the animals as their property, they also see them as living beings working alongside them.
Researchers say herders believe in “animal agency”. Agvaantogtokh lets his animals choose the food they eat and where they find water. To him, restricting an animal’s movement and asking it to eat the same thing each day is like putting a person in prison.
In Mongolia, weather extremes are a part of life. When Agvaantogtokh thinks about climate change, he is concerned about humans and animals. Continuous dry and warm weather affects Mongolia. Since 1940, the government says, average temperatures have risen 2.2 degrees Celsius. To keep their practice alive, pastoralists seek ways to modernize. In Mongolia, Lkhaebum recently began using a small vehicle to more easily search for horses. The family uses electricity and has other technologies including a TV and a washing machine. They also use a cellphone to follow the weather and access social media where herders share information.
One of the biggest threats to pastoralism comes from within. Nurmaa and Agvaantogtokh’s 18-year-old daughter studies medicine. Their son spoke about becoming a herder when he was a child, but not anymore. “I won’t regret anything if my child won’t be a herder,” Nurmaa said. “I would like them to do what they desire to do.”
1. What contributes to the survival of pastoralism?| A．Huge pastoralist populations. | B．Adaptation to the environment. |
| C．Herders’ desire to travel to new places. | D．Slow development of modernization. |
| A．The distinct identity of animals. | B．A poorly-paid profession. |
| C．An out-of-date lifestyle. | D．The bond between man and animals. |
| A．Animals’ living in cages. | B．Animals’ eating the same thing. |
| C．Animals’ struggling in shelters. | D．Animals’ moving around freely. |
| A．Modern technology. | B．No government support. |
| C．Young people’s disinterest in it. | D．Lack of information exchange. |
9 . Gather together a couple of good friends and take a leisurely stroll through the streets — this is what many youngsters in China enjoy doing when they visit a new city.
To them, Citywalk means “roaming around the city” on foot. Participants can follow a distinctive urban route, soaking up the atmosphere, exploring old buildings, browsing boutique shops, sipping a cup of coffee, or indulging in authentic local snacks.
Citywalk can be a special guided trip for a small group of people, or simply a leisurely stroll for one or two to explore new areas, sticking to the key point: avoiding famous scenic spots and big crowds to gain a more inclusive experience of the places you visit. Besides interacting with a city, Citywalk provides young people with a new social scene, where they who share the same interests and ideas can easily make friends.
In China, the Citywalk trend is spreading from first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai to second and third-tier cities, encouraging more participants and event organizers to get involved. Some organizers invite folk culture researchers and enthusiasts to act as tour guides. Xiao Yiyi, a young entrepreneur in Changsha, recently launched six Citywalk routes in different cities on her social media account, with the aim of providing experiences for visitors to “walk in open-air museums”. Her Changsha route features more offbeat sights like historical architecture from the 19th century, artsy old alleys, and even a stop-off to sample the local spicy crayfish specialty.
Even though Citywalk is a relatively new phenomenon, it is offering a positive change to urban travelers as they can better choose the experiences based on their interests and needs. At the same time, Citywalk represents an opportunity for tour guides and travel service providers to offer a more tailored, professional service to meet with ever-changing market demands.
1. Why do young people choose Citywalk?| A．To enjoy a guided tour. |
| B．To cut down expenses. |
| C．To dig deeper into a city. |
| D．To make new friends. |
| A．Doing sightseeing on foot. | B．Avoiding hot scenic spots. |
| C．Taking a local tour guide. | D．Keeping a fixed urban route. |
| A．A tour guide | B．A culture researcher. |
| C．A Citywalk enthusiast. | D．An event organizer. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Dismissive. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
10 . To get a sense of how spending in my generation is different from that of my parents’, just consider one simple transaction: a utility bill. When my parents paid their utility bill, they had to take out their checkbook, put pen to paper, write a check, and then record it in their checkbook. If they did not know how much their utility bill was, they had to be purposefully ignorant.
My utility bill is paid automatically from my banking app. For me to know how much my utility bill is, I have to be purposefully diligent. And the truth is, I’m not in most cases.
Of course, I’m not just talking about utility bills here. As with most millennials (千禧一代), technology has made the payment of bills so simple that we tend to take it for granted and hardly have to think about it anymore. And that is the problem: By streamlining our personal finances, technology has also made it so much easier to ignore the costs. However, in doing so, it has broken the connection between the things we buy and the cost of having them. And it is precisely that connection that keeps our financial lives on track—making sure that we save enough and spend our money on the things that really matter.
The question now is: How do we get that connection back, without giving up the convenience that technology has brought us?
The good news is that whatever is given can be taken back. Much of the battle is simply to recognize what we have lost. The first thing is thus to be aware of how much we are spending by using personal-finance apps. These apps can categorize purchases and send you a spending report. They can detect—and warn you—if a repeated payment is going to get you in trouble. And they can send you a notification when each automatic payment is being made. These real-time tools, used together, are probably better practice than balancing a checkbook on a Saturday morning.
The fact, however, is that all of these tools require the user to make a conscious effort to sign up for these services, and to actually use them. And that is where the ”stop me before I do something foolish“ process must begin. If we millennials want to be smart about our money, it seems that we have no choice: We need to bridge that gap between what we spend and how we pay. We need to feel the connection between the value of our purchases and the effort it takes to make them.
1. The example mentioned in the first two paragraphs was meant to suggest that__________.| A．spending habits vary from generation to generation |
| B．banking apps have quickly developed in recent years |
| C．the younger generations are much lazier than their parents |
| D．the payment process has greatly changed over the past decades |
| A．handling | B．stretching |
| C．improving | D．simplifying |
| A．Out of sight, out of mind. | B．The devil is in the details. |
| C．Rome wasn’t built in a day. | D．You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. |
| A．stopping the use of automatic paying apps |
| B．setting aside a regular time to pay their bills |
| C．making the best use of personal-finance apps |
| D．thinking twice before making expensive purchases |
