1 . The information age has reached a critical point, with AI’s superior computation ability surpassing that of humans. A report released by Goldman Sachs in March 2023 estimated that AI is capable of doing a quarter of all the work currently done by humans.
The second category is jobs that require sophisticated interpersonal relationships like nurses, business consultants and investigative journalists. These are jobs where you need a very deep understanding of people.
The third safe zone includes jobs that really require lots of mobility and problem-solving ability in unpredictable environments. Electricians, plumbers, welders (焊工) and the like all fall under this umbrella, where you’re dealing with different situations all the time.
In short, seeking roles in dynamic, shifting environments that include unpredictable tasks is good way to avoid job loss to AI, at least, for a while. It’s important to note that an advanced education is not a defense against AI takeover. In many cases, more educated workers are going to be more threatened than even the least educated workers.
A.That could be terrible. |
B.However, they are not coming for all jobs. |
C.Thankfully, there are still things AI isn’t capable of. |
D.The first would be jobs that are genuinely creative. |
E.Think of the person that cleans hotel rooms. |
F.That doesn’t necessarily mean all jobs that are considered “creative” are safe. |
G.It’ll be a long time before AI has the ability to really build relationships and interact. |
2 . Moving around Bogota can be a bit of a Jekyll-or-Hyde experience. On the one hand, the city is infamous (声名狼藉的)for having the world’s worst traffic. Yet, on the other, its cycling infrastructure is considered a good model of sustainable urban mobility, according to the Copenhagenize Index, which ranks bike-friendly cities. The Colombian capital generated a now-international movement in the 1970s called Ciclovia, which sees 1.5 million people cycle across 128km of car-free streets each Sunday morning.
So, when the pandemic reached its shores in mid-March, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez, an avid cyclist herself, introduced one of the world’s first plans to encourage bike travel, using traffic cones to create 76 km of temporary lanes.
“Everyone started using a bicycle, and they already knew how to get around on one because we have this bike culture thanks to the Ciclovia,” says Carlos Pardo, a local cycling advocate and senior advisor at the New Urban Mobility Alliance. Pardo got involved at the beginning of the pandemic by partnering with a local bikeshare company to provide 400 free e-bikes to health workers. Now, he’s busy persuading the public that the government’s new bike lanes should become permanent fixture (固定设施).
“Some drivers say, ‘you took away our lane’, but we’re saying, we took one car lane and made a two-lane bidirectional bike lane,” he explains. “So, you’re duplicating the effectiveness of the space, and moving more people per hour, per direction.”
Biking has enjoyed a renaissance (复兴) around the world as urban citizens avoid public transport for the relative safety of a two-wheeled commute. Now, many advocates like Pardo are working with local governments in the hope of turning these pandemic-response measures into lasting changes—ones that are more plausible now than ever after lockdowns provided an unprecedented (空前的)opportunities to fast-track infrastructure trials. The results of these urban planning experiments could not only radically shape the way we commute across global cities, but also make them more adaptable to future shocks.
1. What can best illustrate the underlined sentence?A.Much knowledge that is of help in learning about a new place. |
B.A mixed feeling that is too confusing to express themselves. |
C.An understanding that everything has both advantages and disadvantages. |
D.An idea that human beings are born somewhere between good and evil. |
A.The outbreak of the pandemic in mid-March. |
B.The worldwide bike culture dating back to the 1970s. |
C.The government’s support for the temporary bike lanes. |
D.The local bike company’s contribution to health workers. |
A.The increasing number of cyclists. | B.Duplicated effectiveness of road use. |
C.A well-rounded city expansion plan. | D.The growth of car ownership. |
A.Urban life. | B.Politics. | C.Sports | D.Advice column. |
3 . In general, the society is becoming one of giant enterprises directed by a bureaucratic (官僚主义的) management in which man becomes a small, well-oiled cog in the machinery. The oiling is done with higher wages, well-equipped factories and piped music, and by psychologists and “human-relations” experts; yet all this oiling does not change the fact that man has become powerless, that he does not wholeheartedly participate in his work and he is bored with it. In fact, the blue-collar and the white-collar workers have become economic puppets who dance to the tune of automated machines and bureaucratic management.
The worker and employee are anxious, seemingly because they might find themselves out of a job or they would say that they are unable to acquire any real satisfaction or interest in life. In fact, they feel desperate as they live and die without ever having confronted the fundamental realities of human existence as emotionally and intellectually independent and productive human beings.
Those higher up on the social ladder are no less anxious. Their lives are no less empty than those of their subordinates. They are even more insecure in some respects. They are in a highly competitive race. To be promoted or to fall behind is not a matter of salary but even more a matter of self-respect. When they apply for their first job, they are tested for intelligence as well as for the right mixture of submissiveness and independence. From the moment on they are tested again and again by the psychologists, for whom testing is a big business, and by their superiors, who judge their behavior, sociability, capacity to get along, etc. This constant need to prove that one is as good as or better than one’s fellow-competitor creates constant anxiety and stress, the very causes of unhappiness and illness.
Am I suggesting a return to the pre-industrial mode of production or to nineteenth-century “free enterprise” capitalism? Certainly not. Problems are never solved by returning to a stage which one has already outgrown. I suggest transforming the social system from a bureaucratically managed industrialism in which maximal production and consumption are ends in themselves into a humanist industrialism in which man and full development of his potentialities — those of all love and of reason — are the aims of social arrangements. Production and consumption should serve as means to this end, and should be prevented from ruling man.
1. By “a small, well-oiled cog in the machinery”, the author expresses the idea that man is _________.A.an essential part of society with irreplaceable functions |
B.expected to work in reasonable harmony with the rest of society |
C.an unimportant component of society, though functioning smoothly |
D.responsible for the smooth running of society and business operations |
A.they are filled with an overwhelming fear of being unemployed |
B.they don’t have any genuine satisfaction or interest |
C.they have to face the fundamental realities of human existence |
D.they lack a sense of independence and productivity |
A.caution | B.obedience | C.commitment | D.optimism |
A.To introduce the production mode of our ancestors. |
B.To show the problematic situation in society. |
C.To argue for full development of human potentials. |
D.To help people escape production and consumption. |
4 . In the days before the Internet, critical thinking was the most important skill of informed citizens. But in the digital age, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development, and her colleagues, an even more important skill is critical ignoring.
As the researchers point out, we live in an attention economy where content producers on the Internet compete for our attention. They attract us with a lot of emotional and eye-catching stories while providing little useful information, so they can expose us to profit-generating advertisements. Therefore,we are no longer customers but products, and each link we click is a sale of our time and attention. Toprotect ourselves from this, Kozyreva advocates for learning the skill of critical ignoring, in which readers intentionally control their information environment to reduce exposure to false and low-quality information.
According to Kozyreva, critical ignoring comprises three strategies. The first is to design ourenvironments, which involves the removal of low-quality yet hard-to-resist information from around. Successful dieters need to keep unhealthy food out of their homes. Likewise, we need to set up a digital environment where attention-grabbing items are kept out of sight. As with dieting, if one tries to bank onwillpower not to click eye-catching “news”, he’ll surely fail. So, it’s better to just keep them out of sightto begin with.
The next is to evaluate the reliability of information, whose purpose is to protect you from false and misleading information. It can be realized by checking the source in the mainstream news agencies which have their reputations for being trustworthy.
The last goes by the phrase “do not feed the trolls.” Trolls are actors who internationally spread false and hurtful information online to cause harm. It may be appealing to respond to them to set the facts straight, but trolls just care about annoying others rather than facts. So, it’s best not to reward their bad behaviour with our attention.
By sharpening our critical ignoring skills in these ways, 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 little 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.Reveal 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 skill 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 |
5 . I recently had a conversation with a friend who was feeling very upset about work. Why? He thought his manager didn’t like him. He rarely heard much from his manager, and when his manager said something, it was about correcting some aspects of his work or giving him some constructive advice.
Not surprisingly, given my friend’s understandably anxious view of these workplace dynamics (动态), he was afraid of his annual performance evaluation. He was worried that his boss might even tell him that he wasn’t needed anymore. Accordingly, he considered looking around for another job — not because he really wanted to, as he liked the kind of work he was doing, but because he suffered from the kind of management.
The evaluation day came, and to his great surprise, rather than being harshly critical, his manager told him that he was doing a fine job and gave him a promotion.
The sad truth is, this kind of phenomenon is by no means unusual in the workplace. One recent survey showed that nearly half of the employees have considered leaving a job “due to lack of recognition”. Another similar study found 46 percent of the employees left a job “because they felt unappreciated”.
The good news is that, in this case, the damage was repaired before it was too late — before my friend was out the door and his company began the expensive and time-consuming process of hiring a new employee. But as the research noted above shows, workplace problems related to recognition and appreciation are as common as the office air we breathe.
This conforms with my personal experience; during my decades of corporate management, I saw similar appreciation issues all the time. When a job isn’t done well, nobody deserves anything, of course. But when a job is done well, if you’re an employee, it’s entirely natural to expect at least a bit of appreciation. So if you’re a manager, it’s a good idea to show some. It’s that simple.
1. What phenomenon does the author want to describe through his friend’s case?A.Unclear rewards and punishments. | B.Employee-management misunderstanding. |
C.Unfair promotion in the workplace. | D.Fierce competition among new employees. |
A.His company hired a new employee. |
B.He continued to work for the company. |
C.His company simplified the evaluation process. |
D.He repaired the relationship with his colleagues. |
A.Results from. | B.Separates from. |
C.Agrees with. | D.Contrasts with. |
A.Defend employees’ rights. | B.A friend’s unforgettable experience. |
C.Acknowledge employees’ work. | D.Misunderstanding between employees. |
6 . “It’s too sugary, I can’t manage very many,” said a friend. She wasn’t talking about dessert but about some fresh cherries. I bit into another cherry and realized she was right. The fruit was so sweet that it was as if it had been pre-sugared.
But the cherries of my childhood were much less sweet than today’s cherries. Some of them were hardly sweet at all, which made it all the more exciting when you happened upon a super sweet one.
Is modern fruit getting sweeter? The answer is yes. Some of the most powerful evidence comes from zoos. In 2018, Melbourne Zoo in Australia had stopped giving fruit to most of its animals because cultivated fruit was now so sweet that it was causing tooth decay and weight gain.
Breeding isn’t the only reason that modern fruit is sweeter; there’s also climate change. It’s found that since the 1970s, with rising temperatures, Fuji apples have become significantly sweeter and softer.
But the sweetness of modern fruit is not without its problems, especially for people with diabetes, who have to be careful to moderate their intake of higher - sugar fruits such as pineapple. Fruit that is bred sweeter also tends to be lower in the phytochemicals (植物化学成分) that make it so healthy.
Health aside, maybe the real problem with modern fruit is that it has become yet another sweet thing in a world filled with sugar. Even grapefruit, which used to be quite bitter, is sometimes now as sweet as oranges. If you’ve never tasted a sour cherry, how can you fully appreciate a sweet one? Experts put forwards some thoughts about how to appreciate the various tastes of modern fruit.
1. Why does the author mention her friend’s words in Paragraph 1?A.To introduce the topic of the extreme sweetness of modern cherries. |
B.To highlight the content of friend’s preference for sour cherries. |
C.To emphasize the importance of pre-sugaring fruits. |
D.To show the breeding and selection of modern fruit. |
A.The author believes it has no impact on health. |
B.The author sees it as a triumph of plant breeding. |
C.The author thinks it is a bit worrying in today’s world. |
D.The author is concerned that it will lead to bitterness in fruit. |
A.It is short of healthy phytochemicals. |
B.It may not be as tasty as it used to be. |
C.It could lack variety and contrast in taste. |
D.It doesn’t meet people’s need for sweetness. |
A.The advice on selecting modern fruit. |
B.The approaches to freeing bitter fruit. |
C.The comments about cultivated grapefruit. |
D.The research into the health of zoo animals. |
7 . Psychological science is full of interesting topics, many of which tell a coherent picture of human nature, but some of which create seemingly contradictory stories. A case in point is the tricky, and misunderstood, overlap between strength-based science and the research on narcissism (自恋).
There is now convincing evidence to show that narcissism is on the rise, especially in our youth. Some researchers have gone so far as to say that it is occurring in epidemic proportions, with about 25% of young people showing symptoms of narcissism. The inflated ego of Generation Me is reflected in reality TV, celebrity worship, out-of-control consumerism and materialism…perhaps even a new type of president.
We are correct to be concerned about this phenomenon but our fear that all kids are potential narcissists has caused an unhelpful counter-reaction to approaches that seek to make our children and teens feel good about themselves.
In my own research on strength-based parenting, it is common for people to wrongly label this approach as a recipe for narcissism. Their argument seems to be that a child who knows their strengths will automatically view themselves as better than everyone else. It is argued that the self-assurance that comes with identifying and using their positive qualities will make a child arrogant, selfish and uncaring. Genuine confidence about one’s strengths is categorized as over-confidence; desirable self-knowledge is branded as excessive self-admiration.
Why does this occur? It’s partly because more is known about narcissism than strengths. While strengths psychology has largely stayed within the limit of academic journals or has been applied only within certain contexts such as the workplace, research on narcissism has made its way into the mass media and into our collective consciousness. The New York Times noted that narcissism is a favored “go-to” topic and that people everywhere are diagnosing others with it.
The fear that a strength-based approach will cause narcissism also occurs because we unknowingly fall prey to binary (非此即彼) thinking. We mistakenly believe that one cannot be both confident and humble. We focus on Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian rather than Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa. There’s no way that Gandhi and Mother Teresa could have achieved what they did without confidence in their strengths, and yet they are both pillars of modesty and selflessness.
When we assume that strength-focus is the same as a self-focus, we fail to entertain the idea that people who know their strengths are, actually, more likely to be pro-social and focus on helping others.
It’s tempting to conclude that every young person is at risk of becoming a narcissist but I’d like to stand up for the thousands of young kids I have worked with who are caring, thoughtful and humble—even when they use their strengths.
1. Why teenagers’ strengths are often mistaken for narcissism?A.Teenagers with strengths are always arrogant, selfish and uncaring. |
B.The public are more exposed to research on narcissism. |
C.There is a lack of strengths in our collective consciousness. |
D.Numbers of people are diagnosed with narcissism by doctors. |
A.they are both victims of binary thinking |
B.public figures unknowingly fall prey to narcissism |
C.confidence is quite important for celebrities |
D.one can be both modest and sure of himself |
A.Skeptical. | B.Neutral. | C.Favorable. | D.Cautious. |
A.Teens’ Confidence Misunderstood |
B.Teens’ Narcissism Diagnosis |
C.Teens’ Anxiety and Depression |
D.Teens’ Strength Psychology |
8 . The recent reports of a 4-year-old girl on a Shanghai beach have gone viral on social media platforms, provoking debate about whether China should criminalize negligence in child supervision.
The father of the little girl claimed that he left her alone on the beach for about 12 minutes to fetch his phone. However, she was nowhere to be found when he was back. Surveillance (监控) videos show that she waited for about 10 minutes before walking toward the water’s edge alone, and then disappeared into the water. Two weeks later, her body was discovered about 100 kilometers away in neighboring Zhejiang Province.
The core issue in this case is the father’s leaving his young daughter unattended on the beach, causing her tragic death. Should such behavior, when it causes harm to a child, be seen as a criminal act? In an online survey, more than 90 percent of respondents insisted that the father be held legally responsible and face criminal punishments.
Nevertheless, according to Liu Chunquan, a lawyer, it may not satisfy the criteria for criminal negligence, since the primary focus of Chinese criminal law is on extreme cases of parental neglect, such as physical abuse and mental torture. Rarely do legal authorities charge parents; instead, they are just likely to face penalties consisting of warnings and fines.
In 2022, a 2-year-old baby drowned in a cesspool while in the company of his father. The court ruled shared responsibility between the father and the cesspool’s owner, with a 7:3 proportion. The owner was ordered to pay 20,000 yuan to the child’s family. Unluckily, similar cases do exist nationwide. Roughly, 100,000 children lose their lives in accidents annually in China, which is largely due to negligence, such as parents leaving their children unattended, either in locked cars or at home. Besides, drowning is now the main cause of death for children aged 1 to 14 years old.
It is no wonder that an increasing number of netizens request that specific laws and regulations be passed to ensure the safety of children and their well-being. Hopefully, criminalizing child supervision negligence in China can serve as a warning and precaution.
However, downsides of introducing such legislation may also emerge. For instance, it’s difficult to distinguish between a regrettable accident and criminal negligence, so that over-criminalization can be triggered, in which well-meaning parents making honest mistakes are charged with a crime.
Therefore, a more balanced approach to addressing the issue of infant safety should involve a combination of new legislation, education and support services. The ultimate objective is to prevent similar catastrophes in the future. We must recognize that children are not only their parents’ offspring, but also the nation’s future.
1. What can we infer from the tragedy of the 4-year-old girl?A.Her father’s carelessness and negligence should be to blame. |
B.The beach in Shanghai should not be open to small children. |
C.Her father has been sentenced to severe penalties by the police. |
D.She would have survived if she had not waited in the water for a long time. |
A.Irresponsible adults contribute to children’s death. | B.People can’t be too concerned about child safety. |
C.Kids shouldn’t be allowed to swim alone. | D.Parents’ constant monitoring is a must. |
A.the mild penalties in the existing laws | B.parents’ ignorance of potential dangers |
C.frequent occurrence of such incidents | D.masses of netizens’ urgent appeals |
A.Indifferent. | B.Negative. | C.Objective. | D.Supportive. |
9 . As athletes get stronger and faster, the pace of play continues to increase. The burden of making sure games are played according to the rules and that the officiating (裁判) is accurate is now being taken out of human hands and falling more and more into the lap of technology. It’s called the video replay.
The National Football League is expanding its replay system this upcoming season to include pass interference (传球干扰). Major League Baseball now relies on it for safe-or-out and home run calls. If you’ve been watching the FIFA World Cup, you may have noticed that the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) played a key role in almost every game. And in the Kentucky Derby, a horse was disqualified for knocking another horse. No one knew why until a video replay confirmed the call and controversy was avoided.
However, many purists—those who want people to follow rules carefully and do things in the traditional way—especially in soccer, argue it’s not the way the game was invented, and that the video replay is tainting the sport. But don’t you want to see the proper application of the rules throughout the games? I know I do. Yes, it can slow the game down, but I feel it is worth it. If technological advancements allow fans watching from home to spot mistakes instantly, those same views need to be available to the officiating crews. Another example occurred in the most recent National Football Conference (NFC) Championship Game between the Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints. When obvious pass interference was committed by the Los Angeles Rams player Nickell Robey-Coleman, with just 109 seconds to play, no flag was raised on the field. It weakened the New Orleans Saints spirits. The Los Angeles Rams won a 26-23 overtime victory. The no-call deeply angered the public. The video replay showed the referees had just missed one of the most apparent pass interference calls.
There are no easy answers regarding replay technology and whether it is a curse (魔咒). But for me, keeping the officiating honest and on task is the right step in limiting controversy.
1. What trend in sports can be observed in paragraph 2?A.The video replay has been widely used. |
B.League games have become competitive. |
C.Rules of professional games are becoming stricter. |
D.People are showing more interest in sports than before. |
A.Tricking. | B.Promoting. | C.Damaging. | D.Restoring. |
A.They relied a lot on the video replay. |
B.They cared too much about details. |
C.They were definitely stressed out. |
D.They were terribly disqualified. |
A.Video replays: high-end technology in sports |
B.Is technology like VAR a blessing in sports? |
C.Officiating: a duty that requires honesty |
D.What do qualified referees really mean? |
10 . In America’s retirement crisis, women get the short end of the stick. While women have a lifetime to build up their wealth, there are several factors that impact their ability to achieve economic security into retirement.
Retirement is a gender (性别) issue. Wealth is accumulated by saving and long-term investing, but women are at a disadvantage compared with men. A TIAA report found that if two recent college graduates, a man and a woman, want to have the same amount saved for retirement, it would take about 18% of the woman’s salary to equal 10% of the man’s salary. The reasons are simple. Women are usually paid less and tend to receive fewer salary increases. And women usually retire relatively earlier, so this gives them less time to accumulate wealth. Women have longer life expectancy. As a result, they often face financial instability in retirement.
Investing is another issue. While the investing industry would tell you we’re gender-neutral, 99% of investment dollars are managed at companies owned by white men, 98% of mutual (互助) fund dollars are managed by men, 90% of traders are men, and 86% of financial advisors are men. Maybe the reason women aren’t investing as much is that it is dominated by men.
The pandemic has a greater impact on women. Women who are privileged enough to work from home have lost productivity by double-digit percent, while men have gained productivity, like gains of 50%. The promotions that have occurred during the pandemic had gone something like 3-to-1 to men. A large number of women work in industries that have been deeply affected by the pandemic, including hospitality, retail, restaurants and caregiving, occupations that require in-person work. With these businesses having to either lay off employees or temporarily shut down, and with domestic and caretaker responsibilities, many women have opted to leave the workforce altogether.
How can the retirement risks women face be relieved? That’s what the government should take into consideration.
1. All the following factors contribute to women’s financial risks in retirement EXCEPT ________.A.women are generally paid less than men |
B.women live longer than men on average |
C.women save more of their salaries than men |
D.women may retire a few years earlier than men |
A.Women happily choose to work at home. |
B.Their income is reduced more than ever before. |
C.Women’s productivity has been reduced to 50% online. |
D.Only one third of women get the chance to be promoted. |
A.Be at a disadvantage. | B.Be in a great dilemma. |
C.Travel a short distance. | D.Become unable to reach one’s goal. |
A.Whether women are still being discriminated. |
B.Why women face more retirement risks than men. |
C.How the government can handle the retirement risks. |
D.Why women should take measures to solve their retirement problems. |