1 . Obese people experience discrimination (歧视) in many parts of their lives, and the workplace is no exception. Studies have long shown that obese workers, defined as those with a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, earn significantly less than their slimmer co-workers.
Yet the costs of weight discrimination may be even greater than previously thought. “The overwhelming evidence,” wrote the Institute for employment Studies, “is that it is only women living with obesity who experience the obesity wage penalty (薪资损失).” They were expressing a view that is widely aired in academic papers. To test it, The Economist has analyzed data concerning 23,000 workers from the American Time Use Survey, conducted by the Bureau of Labour Statistics. Our number-processing suggests that, in fact, being obese hurts the earnings of both women and men.
The data we analyzed cover men and women aged between 25 and 54 and in full-time employment. At a general level, it is true that men’s BMIs are unrelated to their wages. But that changes for men with university degrees. For them, obesity is associated with a wage penalty of nearly 8%, even after accounting for the separate effects of age, race, graduate education and marital status.
The conclusion — that well-educated workers in particular are penalized for their weight — holds for both sexes. Moreover, the higher your level of education, the greater the penalty. We found that obese men with a Bachelor’s degree (学士学位) earn 5% less than their thinner colleagues, while those with a Master’s degree earn 14% less. Obese women, it is true, still have it worse: for them, the equivalent figures are 12% and 19%, respectively (分别地).
Your line of work makes a difference, too. When we dealt with the numbers for individual occupations and industries, we found the greatest differences in high-skilled jobs. Obese workers in health care, for example, make 11% less than their slimmer colleagues; those in management roles make roughly 9% less, on average. In sectors such as construction and agriculture, meanwhile, obesity is actually associated with higher wages.
These results suggest that the total costs of wage discrimination borne by overweight workers in America are greater than expected. Now, it’s time for our governments to take it seriously.
1. What does the underlined word “it” refer to in paragraph 2?| A．Obese men earn less salary. |
| B．Only obese women earn less salary. |
| C．Both obese men and women earn less salary. |
| D．Weight discrimination may be greater than previously thought. |
| A．A fat woman office director. |
| B．An obese construction worker. |
| C．An obese man with a bachelor’s degree. |
| D．A heavier female doctor with a Doctor’s degree. |
| A．Supportive | B．Objective | C．Subjective | D．indifferent |
| A．Overweight discrimination in other countries. |
| B．The reason of discriminating obese people in their lives. |
| C．American people’s attitude towards overweight discrimination. |
| D．Actions taken against overweight discrimination in workplaces. |
2 . When American anthropologist Colin Turnbull published The Mountain People in 1972, he referred to his subjects — a Ugandan group called the Ik — as “the loveless people.” After two years of observations, he decided that they reflected humanity’s basic instincts (本能): cheat, thievery, and pitilessness. But when Athena Aktipis and her colleagues from the Human Generosity Project took a deeper look, they identified a community that shared everything. “Turnbull had visited Uganda during a disastrous famine (饥荒). All he saw is what happens when people are starving.” says Aktipis. But her team revealed that despite living under pressure, the Ik placed a high value on helping one another when they could.
Aktipis believes that altruism is more common and beneficial than evolutionary social science has long thought. “It was assumed that people are designed to only do things to help themselves or their relatives.” she says. By studying the unique, selfless practices that helped nine communities across the world to continue to exist, the experts from the Project are looking to show that we are indeed capable of widespread cooperation.
The Maasai people in Kenya provide one of the project’s main points. They rely on two-way friendships for resources like food or water when they’re in need, without expecting any repayment. Also, a world away, in New Mexico, while folks often help transport cattle and receive support in return, they will assist without repayment if someone faces difficulties, such as an injury or the death of a loved one.
Aktipis believes theoretical frameworks she’s perfected through studying these groups can apply broadly to any interdependent systems. Her big goal is to design social-service systems that support everyone. Take market-based insurance in the United States as an example: It’s priced based on individual risk factors such as health histories and where people live, which means millions of Americans can’t afford it. But in a system built on neighboring, pooled costs (合并成本) would level the burden during collective hardship like natural disasters and pandemics.
1. What did Turnbull think of the Ik people?| A．Heartless. | B．Helpful. | C．Restless. | D．Generous. |
| A．Trying to be strong and tough to survive. |
| B．Making full use of the surrounding resources. |
| C．Being devoted to themselves or their relatives. |
| D．Caring about the needs and happiness of others. |
| A．Friendships guarantee a well-being life. | B．Folks assist each other to get support. |
| C．Cooperation is a good and natural instinct. | D．People tend to provide resources for free. |
| A．By designing a policy for public health. |
| B．By monitoring individual health histories. |
| C．By creating a system against collective hardship. |
| D．By lowering insurance prices for individual victims. |
3 . Researchers found that young netizens still desire to be in a romantic relationship, and only a few expressed no intention. But young netizens’ willingness to get married is much lower than their willingness to fall in love.
Sina Weibo data shows that among the 5,492 young netizens surveyed,16.4 percent expressed a desire for romance, while only 0.6 percent clearly said they have no intention to have a romantic relationship. However, only 3.4 percent expressed a positive attitude toward marriage as opposed to 1.2 percent who expressed a negative attitude.
Young netizens with a higher education background have a strong er willingness for both romance and marriage. Statistics show that compared to young netizens with a middle school or high school degree, those with a bachelor’s (学士的) or master’s degree are more willing to get involved in a romantic relationship and get married, which might correspond to their high income as people with a higher education level tend to have higher income and are more likely to be able to afford the costs associated with maintaining a healthy romantic relationship and marriage.
Regarding the difference between young netizens’ willingness to have a romantic relationship and their willingness to get married, an analysis of Sina Weibo posts shows a disconnection between relationships and marriage: to fall in love boldly but get married gingerly has become the main trend when it comes to young netizens’ relationship attitudes.
The analysis of Sina Weibo posts reveals that the reason young netizens are unwilling to get married is that they are under the influence of the “anti-social clock” concept and have a higher need to pursue individualized goals and ideals than to follow the ordinary social rhythm. The inequality between rights and duties in marriage and a gender trust crisis caused by issues like domestic violence — both due to insufficient social support systems — are also contributing factors.
1. Which is young netizens’ relationship attitude?| A．They relate love to marriage. |
| B．They prefer romance to marriage. |
| C．They value romance above education. |
| D．They disconnect income with education. |
| A．They are more sociable. |
| B．They more obey the social rule. |
| C．They have a higher personal goal. |
| D．They are able to afford more time. |
| A．Eagerly. | B．Simply. | C．Carefully. | D．Officially. |
| A．The complexity of the reasons. |
| B．The role of social support systems. |
| C．The potential problems of marriage. |
| D．The social influence on marriage concept. |
4 . Paris is full of cultural significance. Yet, despite its wealth of cultural hotspots and architectural delights, some tourists who explore the City of Light experience “Paris syndrome (巴黎综合征), a psychological condition that often results in nausea (恶心) and increased heart rates. An interesting phenomenon is that Paris syndrome is “most common among Japanese tourists”. Why?
Many Japanese visitors go with a deeply romantic picture of Paris----the beauty of French women, the high culture and art. But when the reality of the modern city of Paris sets in, with its seemingly unfriendly service and confusing public transport, some tourists simply find their hope falling through.
“An encounter with a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures. But for the Japanese —used to a society where politeness is valued and voices are rarely raised in anger-----the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare (噩梦) can simply be too much,” said Rodanthi Tzanelli, a professor of cultural sociology.
So Paris syndrome should be regarded as an extreme form of culture shock, which is an illness resulting from the loss of meaning when people find themselves in a different symbolic reality, according to Rachel Irwin, a senior researcher. The symptoms (症状) associated with culture shock are similar to those experienced by someone who is feeling anxious. According to the analysis (分析) of Calm Clinic, a mental health resource platform, when someone is experiencing anxiety, signals that are related to the fight or flight response will be sent to the stomach. The signals change the way the body processes food, causing nausea.
Besides, Tzanelli points out that the syndrome is not specific to Paris and nobody can be free of culture shock as long as they go to new places. The syndrome is likely a “general phenomenon”, as younger generations tend to travel to different countries, and are likely to be more aware of what they’ll encounter at a destination. Therefore, they’re unlikely to be bitterly disappointed when they’re there.
1. Why do Japanese tourists experience great discomfort in Paris?| A．Paris lacks real historical and cultural hotspots. |
| B．Paris fails to meet their romantic expectations. |
| C．They find Paris’ public transport less modern. |
| D．They cannot adapt to the local climate. |
| A．How culture influences the behavior of tourists. |
| B．How Japanese tourists react to Paris syndrome. |
| C．Why Paris syndrome particularly strikes the Japanese. |
| D．Why the Japanese value politeness and avoid conflicts. |
| A．People’s inability to adapt to new cultures. |
| B．The methods of overcoming culture shock. |
| C．People’s varied attitudes to different cultures. |
| D．The physical discomfort caused by culture shock. |
| A．To be prepared for new encounters in advance. |
| B．To focus on the positive aspects of a destination. |
| C．To visit new places together with young people. |
| D．To avoid going to unfamiliar destinations. |
5 . Hiring processes can be thought of as a battle between integrity and dishonesty. You might imagine this is a simple fight between truth-seeking firms and self-promoting candidates, and to a certain extent it is. But companies themselves are prone (有倾向的) to bend reality out of shape in ways that are self-defeating.
Start with the obvious wrongdoers: job applicants. When it comes to writing the resume (简历), they tend to massage (美化) reality into the most appealing shape possible. Everyone beyond a certain level of experience is a transformational leader personally responsible for generating millions income; the world economy would be about 15 times bigger than it actually is if all such claims were true. The average British spends four and a half hours a day watching TV and online videos. But each average job candidate is an enthusiast for public welfare, using their spare time only for worthy purposes, like volunteering in soup kitchens.
But the tendency to stretch the truth infects companies as well as applicants. The typical firm will write a job description that invariably describes the work environment as fast-paced and innovative, and then lays out a set of improbable requirements for the “ideal candidate”, someone who almost by definition does not exist. Sometimes, the requirements include an ability to go back and change the course of history.
Too few firms offer an accurate account of what a position actually involves in their job previews, which are supposed to give prospective employees a genuine sense of the negatives and positives of the job, as well as a clear idea of the company’s corporate culture. One effective strategy is to lay out in text or video, what a typical day in the role would look like.
Such honesty can be its own reward. Research has long suggested that realistic job previews lead to lower turnover and higher employee satisfaction. A paper in 2011 by David Eamest of Towson University and his co-authors concluded that favourable perceptions of the organisation’s honesty are the best explanation for why. So a process designed to uncover the truth about job applicants would run a lot more smoothly if firms were also honest about themselves.
1. Why are “leader” and “enthusiast” mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To present a rule. | B．To clarify a fact. |
| C．To make a comparison. | D．To explain a phenomenon. |
| A．Overstate. | B．Overturn. | C．Overlook. | D．Overestimate. |
| A．They show a position as it is. | B．They are made either in text or video. |
| C．They are favorable for bigger firms. | D．They mainly contain negatives of a job. |
| A．Pains and gains of employees. | B．How to get the lying out of hiring. |
| C．How to be more appealing in hiring. | D．A wrestle between applicants and companies. |
6 . California has been using recycled wastewater for many years. A team has used it to make ice surfaces for the game of hockey(冰球运动). It has been used to make snow for the sport of skiing. And farmers use it to water their crops. But it has not been used directly for drinking water.
Recently, California officials approved new rules to let water agencies recycle wastewater and put it right back into the pipes that carry drinking water to homes, schools, and businesses. It is a big step for California.
California’s new rules would let—but not require—water agencies to take wastewater, treat it, and then put it right back into the drinking water system. That means proving to people that recycled water is not only safe to drink but also not dirty. California would be just the second US state to permit this, following Colorado. It has taken officials more than 10 years to develop these rules, a process that included several studies by independent groups of scientists.
A project in San Diego is aiming to produce nearly half of the city’s water through recycling wastewater by 2035. And the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California aims to produce up to nearly 570 million liters(升)a day for its 19 million people. Adel Hagekhalil is with Metropolitan Water. He said the new rules will permit new projects that have not yet been considered.
California’s new rules require the wastewater be treated for all bacteria and viruses, even if they are not present in the wastewater. In fact, the treatment is so intense that it removes all of the minerals that make fresh drinking water taste good. That means the minerals need to be added back at the end of the process. Polhemus is a director of the drinking water group for the California Water Resources Control Board. “It’s at the same drinking water quality, and probably better in many instances,” he said, adding that it takes time and money to build these treatment centers. So, they will only be available for bigger cities at first.
1. What does paragraph 1 mainly tell us about the recycled wastewater?| A．Its qualities. | B．Its functions. |
| C．Its target users. | D．Its disadvantages. |
| A．They made some new rules on pollution. |
| B．They spent ten years recycling wastewater. |
| C．They tried to make wastewater safe to drink. |
| D．They requested water agencies to speed up treating water. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Favorable. | C．Pessimistic. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．The Process of Recycling Wastewater Is Complicated |
| B．California Tries to Reduce the Wastewater Generation |
| C．California Permits Turning Wastewater to Drinking Water |
| D．New Wastewater Treatment Projects Have Been Approved |
7 . Street Art is a very popular form of art that is spreading quickly all over the world. You can find it on buildings, sidewalks, street signs and trash cans. Even art museums and galleries are collecting the work of street artists.
Art experts claim that the movement began in New York in the 1960s.
One well-known New York street artist is Swoon. She cuts out paper images of people and puts them on walls or sets them up on sidewalks.
In today’s world, the Internet has a big influence on street art.
| A．There are various forms of street art. |
| B．Street art has become a global culture. |
| C．Street artists do their work for some reason. |
| D．Swoon didn’t start her career as a street artist. |
| E．It was considered as a very new popular form of culture. |
| F．Artists can show their pictures to people all over the world. |
| G．Young adults sprayed (喷洒) words and other images on walls and trains. |
8 . Schools need to give students all the tools they need to navigate the world when they graduate. Besides teaching the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, teaching about mindfulness, and mental health are important life skills for young people to have. The state of Florida agrees.
Now, public schools in Florida have been required to teach five or more hours about mental health for students in grades 6 — 12. This new directive was approved by the Florida Board of Education in July and is being carried out as a potential lifesaver.
The new curriculum requires students to learn about the symptoms of mental illness and where to find help if they are feeling depressed or have other issues and even teaches the adolescents how to help their friends and classmates if they see them struggling.
“We know that 50 percent of all mental illness cases begin by age 14, so we are being active in our commitment to provide our kids with the necessary tools to see them through their successes and challenges. Providing mental health instruction is another important step forward in supporting our families,” Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said.
Florida is the third state, following New York and Virginia in 2020, to pass laws that require mental health education in schools. According to CNN, the New York law updated the health curriculum to include mental health for elementary, middle and high school students. The Virginia law required that mental health education be provided for 9th and 10th graders.
These three states in the US are taking bold steps to help youth deal with the intricacy of life as they grow from adolescents into adults. It is a confusing world they face and giving them the tools to navigate it safely is essential. Mental health is something that should be taught in schools in all the US and across the globe.
1. What does Richard Corcoran intend to stress in paragraph 4?| A．The effect of mental illness cases. |
| B．The content of the health curriculum. |
| C．The step of mental health instruction. |
| D．The importance of mental health education. |
| A．A technology report. |
| B．A natural science magazine. |
| C．An educational website. |
| D．A government document. |
9 . Many parents worry that showing negative emotions in front of their children will cause them to suffer. For example, children may end up thinking it’s their fault or simply “catch” the emotion. Indeed, this worry has a sound basis — the phenomenon of “emotional contagion” (情绪感染) is real, and one recent study found that parents can transfer their fear of going to the dentist, for example, to their children.
On the other hand, there is the natural idea that we should “be real” with our children, and that they will benefit from watching a parent who struggles and eventually deals with their negative emotions like any other human being.
There are three concepts to consider when it comes to emotional display in front of children: suppression (压抑)，“uncontained” expression, and talking about emotions. Suppression of emotion is when you hide the outward signs of an emotion. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well — the act of suppressing your emotion actually increases your blood pressure. Observers can pick up on your distress despite your efforts to hide it, making them feel stressed. The recent research has also found that when parents feel negative emotions and keep them from their children, they experience lower relationship quality and decreased responsiveness to their child’s needs.
On the other hand, “uncontained” expression of anger and sadness by the parent is also not salutary for the child. Uncontained means high intensity emotion, with no attempts to regulate or take ownership of it. Shouting, smashing (摔) things and blaming someone else for “making you angry” are all example of this .
So, what is the middle ground? That would be talking about emotion taking ownership of them and showing your child that you are trying to deal with them. Classic research found that six-year-old kids had better emotional understanding and perspective-taking skills if their mothers had talked to them about their emotions at the age of three. In fact, the more the mothers had talked, the better the outcome would be.
So next time you feel sad, angry or frustrated and your child is watching you expressing emotion, do explain what’s going on in terms they can understand.
What’s the structure of the text?A． | B． |
C． | D． |
10 . There is a famous story about British poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was writing a poem when he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
This was an age before the telephone. Someone was delivering a message. When Coleridge got back to his poem, he had lost his inspiration. His poetic mood had been broken by the knock on his door. His unfinished poem, which could otherwise have been a masterpiece, would now never be more than a fragment (片段).
This story tells how unexpected communication can destroy an important thought. That brings us to the invention of the cellphone.
The most common complaint about cellphones is that people talk on them to the annoyance of people around them. But more damaging may be the cellphone’s disruption (中断) of our thoughts.
We have already entered a golden age of little white lies about our cellphones, and this is by and large a healthy, protective development. “I didn’t hear it ring” or “I didn’t realize my phone had shut off” are among the lies we tell to give ourselves space where we’re beyond reach.
The notion of being unreachable is not a new concept — we have “Do Not Disturb” signs on the doors of hotel rooms. So why must we feel guilty when it comes to cellphones? Why must we apologize if we decide to shut off the cellphone for a while?
The problem is that we come from a long-established tradition of difficulty with distance communication. Until the recent mass use of cellphones, it was easy to communicate with someone next to us or a few feet away, but difficult with someone across town, the country or the globe. We came to take it for granted.
But cellphones make long-distance communication common, and endanger our time by ourselves. Now time alone, or a conversation with someone next to us which cannot be interrupted by a phone, is something to be cherished (珍惜). Even cellphone devotees, myself usually included, can’t help at times wanting to throw their phones away, or curse the day they were invented.
But we don’t and won’t, and there really is no need. All that’s required to take back our private time is a general social recognition that we have the right to it.
In other words, we have to develop a healthy contempt (轻视) for the rings of our own phones. Given the ease of making and receiving cellphone calls, if we don’t talk to the caller right now, we surely will shortly later.
A cellphone call deserves no greater priority than a random word from the person next to us. Though the call on my cellphone may be the one-in-a-million from Steven Spielberg — who has finally read my novel and wants to make it his next movie. But most likely it is not, and I’m better off thinking about the idea I just had for a new story, or the slice of pizza I’ll eat for lunch.
1. What is the point of the story about the poet Coleridge?| A．To direct readers’ attention to the main topic. |
| B．To attract readers’ attention to read his poems. |
| C．To show how important inspiration is to a poet. |
| D．To emphasize the disadvantage of not having a cellphone. |
| A．To encourage us to use the cellphone as much as we can. |
| B．To persuade us not to worry about the ring of the cellphone. |
| C．To inform us that the cellphone is not to be disturbed in our life. |
| D．To ask us to make an apology when we don’t answer the cellphone call. |
| A．Cellphones require more attention than any other invention. |
| B．We sometimes throw the phone away when it is too disturbing. |
| C．The writer would rather continue his own work than be interrupted by the ring. |
| D．We should give priority to the cellphone as it has brought us so much convenience. |
