1 . The Covid-19 pandemic has forced millions of us to participate in one of the biggest social experiments of our time: what would happen if office workers largely abandoned their workplaces and began working from home?
One thing seems clear: more people working remotely has brought some benefits for the environment. Wildlife has be enable to reclaim urban spaces while people have been tapping away at their home keyboards, with less commuter (通勤者) traffic.
Many people have also been able to get more done while working remotely.
As vaccines help to control Covid-19, many organizations are hoping to reap the best of both worlds by letting employees work from home on some days and travel to the office on others.
| A．But what about the benefits to people? |
| B．More than 2 years in, it is time to reflect. |
| C．After a severe period, there is no turning back. |
| D．However, the experiment hasn’t been all positive. |
| E．It is time to reset and rethink how we actually work. |
| F．Many managers have also reported declines in innovation. |
| G．The productivity level is found to rise as they work from home. |
2 . When drawing scientists. U. S. children now depict (描画) female scientists more often than ever, according to new Northwestern University research, which has analyzed five decades of “Draw-A-Scientist” studies conducted since the 1960s.
This change suggests that children’s stereotypes (刻板印象) linking science with men have weakened over time, said the researchers, consistent with more women becoming scientists and children’s media depicting more female scientists on television shows and other media.
In the first study, conducted between 1968 and 1979, less than one percent of 5,000 children drew an image resembling a woman when asked to draw a scientist. Almost all their artwork depicted men working with laboratory equipment, often with lab coats, glasses and facial hair.
But in later studies (1988 to 2019), 28 percent of children drew a female scientist, on average. In addition, both girls and boys drew female scientists more often over time, though girls overall drew female scientists much more often than boys.
“Our results suggest that children’s stereotypes change as women’s and men’s roles change in society.” said study lead author David Miller. “Children still draw more male than female scientists, but that is expected because women remain a minority in several science fields.”
The researchers also studied how children form stereotypes about scientists across child development. The results suggested children did not associate science with men until grade school; around age 5, they drew roughly equal percentages of male and female scientists. During elementary and middle school, the tendency to draw male scientists increased strongly with age. Older children were also more likely to draw scientists with lab coats and glasses, suggesting that children learn other stereotypes as they mature.
“These changes across children’s age likely reflect that children’s exposure to male scientists accumulates during development, even in recent years.” said Miller.
“To build on cultural changes, teachers and parents should present children with multiple examples of female scientists across many contexts such as science courses, television shows and informal conversations,” Miller said.
1. What is the change in children drawing scientists?| A．Children draw more male scientists. |
| B．Children draw more female scientists. |
| C．Girls draw more scientists than boys. |
| D．Children draw more female than male scientists. |
| A．It’s not surprising. | B．It’s not reasonable. |
| C．It’s unexpected. | D．It’s not acceptable. |
| A．How children develop their drawings. |
| B．How children’s stereotypes change with age. |
| C．Why children draw more male scientists. |
| D．What scientists look like in children’s drawings. |
| A．By encouraging children to attend science courses. |
| B．By encouraging children to become scientists in the future. |
| C．By giving children an example of drawing female scientists. |
| D．By making female scientists known to children in various situations. |
3 . One Earth Award
About this award
Sponsored by the One Earth Fund, the One Earth Award offers $1,000 scholarships for four students whose works address the pressing issue of human-caused climate change.
Why should I create art or writing about climate change?
Some consequences of climate change include: sea-level rise, increase in air pollution, hurricane, droughts, extreme weather, and rising temperatures, among others. Your work can advance our thoughts about climate change and our understanding of solutions. It can also improve awareness of actions that we can take, in order to reduce the harm that human action has on our environment.
How do I apply?
Enter your work to any category in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. When selecting the category of your work, choose the One Earth Award. You will be required to include a personal statement on your work.
What should I write for the personal statement?
Your personal statement should be 50 words or more and answer the following questions:
What specific aspect of climate change does your work address?
What is your personal connection to this aspect of climate change, and why do you think talking about climate change is important?
Getting started on your work
These resources can help you learn about climate change and create your own art and writing about it.
Consider how poets talk about climate change with the Poetry Foundation.
Explore visual art activities and writing activities from the Teacher’s Climate Guide.
Try writing exercises developed by English Teachers Concerned about Climate Crisis.
1. What is the first thing to do to get the One Earth Award?| A．Choosing the One Earth Award. |
| B．Contacting the One Earth Fund. |
| C．Presenting the personal statement. |
| D．Visiting the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. |
| A．What action you will take. | B．What you are concerned about. |
| C．Why your work is important. | D．What suggestion you will make. |
| A．How do I apply? |
| B．About this award |
| C．Getting started on your work |
| D．What should I write for the personal statement? |
4 . Some experts have been concerned lately about robots leaving humans behind, taking our jobs and possibly a lot more, as in sci-fi films. Christ of Koch, a famous neuroscientist (神经学家), has suggested a novel method. To keep up with the machines, we should increase our brainpower with brain implants (植入物).
Koch notes that brain implants are already helping the paralyzed or people unable to move control computers and robots, and they are being explored for the treatment of mental disorders. Future implants could help us download huge amounts of information instantly, he says, so we can learn “novel skills and facts without even trying”. “Another exciting aspect,” Koch says, “is combining two or more brains into a single conscious mind by direct neuron-to-neuron links.” Koch calls for a “crash program” in brain technologies to make us smarter.
But Koch ignores the obvious facts that bad persons can hack (侵入) into our smartphones and laptops. What if hackers could attack our brains? They may be able to spy on, change or control the memories of people implanted with brain devices. What’s more, we are nowhere close to being able to strengthen the brain in the manner that Koch imagines. Scientists have been experimenting with neuro-technologies for mental illness for more than half a century, and they have little to show for it.
Koch genuinely feared that science, far from addressing our problems, might exacerbate them. The use of robots in the workshop, for example, could cause mass unemployment. Do we just count the immediate job losses—without measuring any other potential positive effect on the economy? Despite losing some jobs to robots in the short term, the increase in productivity will help our overall economy grow faster, which, in turn, will create more, higher quality jobs than we had before.
The future is not as scary as we think. Perhaps we’ve got serious problems on our hands, and we have a lot of work to do to settle them. Brain implants are not the answer.
1. What leads to Koch’s optimism about future brain implants?| A．The great advance in AI research. |
| B．Their application in medical fields. |
| C．The breakthrough in surgical techniques. |
| D．Their easy adaptation to the human body. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Unconcerned. | C．Favorable. | D．Excited. |
| A．Avoid. | B．Worsen. | C．Reduce. | D．Answer. |
| A．Are Brain Implants at Risk of Hacker Attack? |
| B．Will Robots Take the Place of Humans in Future? |
| C．Will Brain Implants Let the Disabled Live Normally? |
| D．Do We Need Brain Implants to Keep Up with Robots? |
5 . If you’re a parent, you’re well aware of just how many challenges virtual schooling presents. It’s incredibly stressful to get your kids to pay attention in their “classrooms”. Well, now there’s another thing you need to worry about: hackers. As more school districts rely on remote learning, they’re increasingly becoming targets for cybercriminals.
Believe it or not, your email address is actually a hacker’s primary method of attaining your families’ personal information. That’s why you need to be on the lookout for phishing emails. These emails appear to be from a legal company you’re familiar with—like your bank, credit card company, an online store, or, yes, a school—but are actually from a hacker.
However, there are a few tricks to decode if an email is fake or not. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), these emails often “tell a story to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment.” If you receive an email asking you to update your account, change your password, or make a payment, do a little digging first and contact the company directly to ensure that it is indeed legal.
There are indeed some alarming things a hacker can do when they steal your children’s information. According to FTC, “a child’s Social Security number can be used by identity thieves to apply for government benefits, open bank and credit card accounts or apply for a loan, which may go unnoticed for years—usually until they’re adults and attempt to open a credit card.” To make matters worse, a criminal doesn’t even need the child’s complete information to cook up a new identity. “Known as ‘synthetic identity theft’, the thief grabs a Social Security number and combines it with a fake name, address, phone number, and more,” explains the Identity Theft Resource Center, “That makes it a little harder for victims and law enforcement to notice the problem in the first place or take action after the fact.”
1. Why do we need to watch out for phishing emails?| A．They make our emails too crowded to operate. |
| B．They are from a legal organization that is familiar to you. |
| C．It is impossible to tell whether an email is authentic or not. |
| D．It may be quite easy for hackers to steal personal information. |
| A．To put it into the trash with little digging. |
| B．To click on the link and open the attached files. |
| C．To update your account and change the password. |
| D．To check its validity with the sender of the email. |
| A．The definition of “synthetic identify theft”. |
| B．The approaches to protecting children’s information. |
| C．The consequences of children’s information being stolen. |
| D．The suggestions on preventing children from internet addiction. |
| A．Email hack: a disastrous threat |
| B．Email hack: an unavoidable issue |
| C．School hack: an unnoticeable but terrible threat |
| D．School hack: an invisible hand affecting children’s study |
6 . How would you feel if you were invited to the moon? If you found a gold coin, would you save it, give it to charity or use it for a holiday? Personality quizzes of this kind, known as “psychometrics”, have bothered many job seekers. Now, it is being applied to the oldest problem in finance: will a borrower repay?
In rich countries, lenders use credit scores to weigh risk. But just 7% of Africans and 13% of South Asians are covered by credit bureaus (征信机构). Bailey Klinger of the Entrepreneurial Finance Lab (EFL), which explores new kinds of credit data, argues that psychometrics could include many more people in the financial system. Everyone has a personality, after all.
Judging character is not new. Psychometrics attempts to make it a science. The model developed by EFL has undergone many tests and adapted to different cultures. Its collected data reflect something unnoticed. For instance, young optimists are risky, but old ones are a safe bet.
Clever design cuts cheating. There are no obvious right answers; responses are cross-checked for consistency. The model monitors mouse movements for signs of indecision or distraction. When borrowers lie to get a loan, they often do so in predictable ways. In an EFL test, people are shown pictures of five drinks and asked which one they would be. Choosing water over something with small bubbles may be a sign of cheating.
This sounds fanciful, but there is evidence that it works. In one Indonesian bank, combining psychometrics with existing customer data cut default (违约) rates for small businesses by 45%. A study by the World Bank found that EFL’s model increased lending to those without a credit history.
The technique needs further development. At present, turning to credit bureaus is still the best way to tell if somebody will repay a loan. But bureaus improve more slowly than technology. Lenders will find ever more ways to look into their customers’ souls.
1. What are the figures intended to show in the second paragraph?| A．Racial discrimination from lenders. |
| B．Uncertain property of poor people. |
| C．Great risks brought by credit scores. |
| D．Current weakness of credit bureaus. |
| A．It has been greatly improved. |
| B．Its data confirm some ideas. |
| C．Its effects vary with cultures. |
| D．It can’t tell character exactly. |
| A．Borrowers’ responses. | B．Lenders’ answers. |
| C．Pictures of five drinks. | D．Drinks with bubbles. |
| A．It will replace credit bureaus. |
| B．It will be mature in the future. |
| C．It has won most lenders’ love. |
| D．It is far from satisfactory. |
