在中国城市中'随处可见身穿制服骑者电动摩托车(electric scooter)的外卖骑手穿梭于大街小巷，风雨无阻为市民送餐。外卖对你的生活有何影响？请根据自身实际经历谈谈外卖服务的利弊。
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2 . Is any economist so dull as to criticize Christmas? At first glance, the holiday season in western economies seems a treat for those concerned with such vagaries (奇想)as GDP growth. After all, everyone is spending; in America, retailers make 25% of their yearly sales and 60% of their profits between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even so, economists find something to worry about in the nature of the purchases being made.
Much of the holiday spending is on gifts for others. At the simplest level, giving gifts involves the giver thinking of something that the recipient would like he tries to guess his or her preferences, as economists say - and then buying the gift and delivering it. Yet this guessing of preferences is not easy; indeed, it is often done badly. Every year, ties go unworn and books unread. And even if a gift is enjoyed, it may not be what the recipient would have bought if they had spent the money themselves.
Interested in this mismatch between wants and gifts, in 1993 Joel Waldfogel, then an economist at Yale University, sought estimate the difference in dollar terms. In a research, he asked students two questions at the end of a holiday season: first, estimate the total amount paid (by the givers) for all the holiday gifts you received; second, apart from the emotional value of the items, if you did not have them, how much would you be willing to pay to get them? His results were gloomy: on average, a gift was valued by the recipient well below the price paid by the giver.
In addition, recipients may hot know their own preferences very well. Some of the best gifts, after all, are unexpected items that you would never have thought of buying, but which turn out to be especially well picked. And preference can change. So by giving a jazz CD, for example, the giver may be encouraging the recipient to enjoy something that was ignored before. This, a desire to build skills, is possibly the hope held by many parents who ignore their children’s desires for video games and buy them books instead.
Finally, there are items that a recipient would like to receive but not purchase. If someone else buys them, however, they can be enjoyed guilt-free. This might explain the high volume of chocolate that changes over the holidays. Thus, the lesson for gift-givers is that you should try hard to guess the preference of each person on your list and then choose a gift that will have a high emotional value.
1. For what reason are economists concerned about holiday purchases?| A．Seasonal sales don’t match profits well. |
| B．Some of the holiday purchases end up with waste. |
| C．Sales and profits arc far from being matched. |
| D．Seasonal sales fail to satisfy people's special wants. |
| A．accurate | B．persuasive |
| C．depressing | D．undoubtable |
| A．Recipients tend to overestimate the values of a gift. |
| B．People’s preference is born with nature and remains unchanged. |
| C．Chocolate is a gift which may cause recipients’ sense of guilt |
| D．Gifts may be used to help a person to cultivate a hobby or skill. |
| A．Guessing preference is important although sometimes it fails. |
| B．The more money you spend on the gift, the more emotional value it has. |
| C．Recipients’ preferences have an impact on the holiday season economy. |
| D．The attached value of a present is the essence of gift giving. |
3 . For young Chinese, being single was once a source of shame. Now, it’s becoming a badge (标志) of freedom —and
Eating at a restaurant alone used to be rare in China, where food is traditionally shared by large groups gathered around a circular table. But these attitudes are
The number of singles in China has now surpassed 200 million, according to government data released last year The total number of single people living alone is
23 Seats, a Beijing noodle bar, is one of many restaurants catering to this new breed of “single dogs” — as China's singletons self-mockingly (自嘲地) call themselves.
Sun Yun, 23 Seats' 33-year-old co-owner, says its deliberately antisocial decorate (装饰) is designed to attract people who
“We could have designed the layout to provide seats for more customers, but in the end we decided against this,” Sun says. “We wanted to create a space where solo diners wouldn't feel
It's a concept that's
Since opening last year, 23 Seats has seen a(n)
“At the moment, half of our diners come here alone, while... many of the group customers will
The solo dining revolution is spreading
| A．customers | B．businesses | C．advertisers | D．banks |
| A．strengthening | B．presenting | C．softening | D．exchanging |
| A．Previously | B．Constantly | C．Noticeably | D．Temporarily |
| A．taking up | B．arranging for | C．planning on | D．putting off |
| A．entertaining | B．socializing | C．exercising | D．refreshing |
| A．expected | B．scheduled | C．proposed | D．promised |
| A．reluctantly | B．cheerfully | C．simply | D．anxiously |
| A．annoyed | B．sorry | C．desperate | D．uneasy |
| A．adding up | B．dying out | C．catching on | D．moving in |
| A．company | B．contact | C．focused | D．connected |
| A．full | B．standard | C．overall | D．reduced |
| A．investment | B．boom | C．decline | D．risk |
| A．revisit | B．check | C．evaluate | D．inspect |
| A．worldwide | B．online | C．rapidly | D．similarly |
| A．important | B．valuable | C．possible | D．difficult |
Barry Jenkins: ‘When you climb the ladder, you send it back down’
“So, you saw the film?” Barry Jenkins is eager to ask the minute we are introduced. He gives good eye contact through those stylish thick-rimmed glasses – not the big-time, Oscar-winning writer-director speaking, but a nervous artist, anxious
Adapted from James Baldwin’s 1974 novel, Beale Street tells the story in which the personal experiences of a young black couple
Baldwin has been dead for 30 years, but his depiction of the fight against a country’s powerful prejudice is a sad reminder
Beale Street
5 . Shopping therapy has long been considered as a good way to let off stress. Now, US scientists have discovered not only does shopping therapy exist, but that it could be caused by an individual's fear of sudden death. Researchers found materialistic people thought terrorism and war more stressful than others.
Psychologists believe the rise of materialism around the world and its treatment effect on extreme stress might be a response to fear of death caused by acts of terrorism, disease and natural disasters.
The scientists from Michigan State University said people with possession obsessions often have lower self-esteem than others so are more likely to shop as the result of severe psychological suffering.
Ayalla Ruvio, a business professor studying people's shopping habits while rockets fell in Israel, said, "When the going gets tough, the materialistic people go shopping. This stress spending is likely to produce even greater stress and lower well-being. Essentially, materialism appears to make bad events even worse."
Dr Ruvio led a two-part study of Israeli citizens living in a town that came under extreme rocket attacks for about six months in 2013. She compared 139 residents of the southern town with 170 from another town that was not under attack to see how their symptoms of post-traumatic stress and shopping habits varied. Dr Ruvio found that, when faced with a deadly threat, those who are highly materialistic suffered much higher levels of stress, while their tendency to shop was increased.
Dr Ruvio said, "The relationship between materialism and stress be more harmful than commonly thought."
The second stage of their research surveyed 855 Americans about their materialistic nature and fear of death. They found shopping was used to relieve feelings of stress and anxiety about death but this was in response to fear of a variety of life-threatening events like car accidents, criminal attacks and natural disasters.
1. Which of the following opinion is NOT right according to the text?| A．Terrorism is believed to easily cause the rise of materialism |
| B．The materialistic find terrorism and war more stressful than others. |
| C．The scientists think people with possession obsessions suffer a lot mentally. |
| D．The scientists think possession obsessions help people get self-respect. |
| A．Impulsive spending does good to people's health. |
| B．Faced with great stress, people feel hopeless for life. |
| C．Shopping can't lower one's stress as it is expected. |
| D．Faced with threat, people's wish to shop will decrease. |
① Greater stress; ② Car accidents; ③ Criminal attacks; ④ Natural disaster;
| A．①②③ | B．②③④ | C．①②④ | D．①③④ |
| A．Can greater stress lead of the passage? |
| B．Does shopping help lead to shopping? |
| C．Is shopping very important in people's life? |
| D．Can shopping reduce stress and relieve the fear of death? |
6 . Freshmen are always fearful when learning they are to live with a roommate of a different race assigned by the computer casually. They are full of
An Ohio State University study found that black students living with a white roommate saw higher
Grace Kao, a professor at Penn said she was not
"In the past two years, I've experienced roommate conflicts between interracial students," said one Penn resident advisor (RA). To give a better picture, she
Kao said it was
| A．disappointment | B．expectation | C．worry | D．ambition |
| A．decorating | B．sharing | C．managing | D．renting |
| A．prejudice | B．expense | C．dependence | D．understanding |
| A．athletic | B．economic | C．social | D．academic |
| A．controlled | B．buried | C．attacked | D．blamed |
| A．practices | B．chances | C．changes | D．problems |
| A．positions | B．nations | C．races | D．majors |
| A．angrily | B．separately | C．closely | D．happily |
| A．surprised | B．satisfied | C．confused | D．convinced |
| A．played | B．lived | C．worked | D．learned |
| A．account | B．scholarship | C．housing | D．course |
| A．randomly | B．secretly | C．forcefully | D．terribly |
| A．approved | B．complimented | C．added | D．adopted |
| A．same | B．friendly | C．competitive | D．peaceful |
| A．unsuccessful | B．unnecessary | C．unscientific | D．unusual |
7 . If you're visiting Florence, Italy, you've got to see the world-famous Uffizi Gallery. But why? Because that's what
Those are obviously
For example, you cannot visit the Statue of Liberty (自由女神像) at all without serious
Still, a lot can
Another reason to set aside more time: visitors can check out the less famous but equally worthwhile—often beautifully complementary (互补的) sites
| A．everybody | B．somebody | C．nobody | D．another |
| A．free | B．pleasant | C．necessary | D．possible |
| A．terrible | B．odd | C．vital | D．similar |
| A．check | B．appreciate | C．possess | D．control |
| A．example | B．order | C．advice | D．crowd |
| A．testing | B．planning | C．meeting | D．training |
| A．at a distance | B．by chance | C．in advance | D．on time |
| A．expect | B．come | C．change | D．improve |
| A．Support | B．Observe | C．Follow | D．Inform |
| A．experienced | B．rushed | C．discouraged | D．talented |
| A．home | B．oversea | C．nearby | D．halfway |
| A．recommended | B．designed | C．extended | D．canceled |
| A．covered | B．found | C．predicted | D．missed |
| A．visit | B．skip | C．replace | D．recognize |
| A．familiar with | B．sick of | C．used to | D．attracted to |
8 . While human achievements in mathematics continue to reach new levels of complexity, many of us who aren't mathematicians at heart (or engineers) may struggle to remember the last time we used calculus.
It's a fact not lost on American educators, who amid rising math failure rates are debating how math can better meet the real-life needs of students. Should we change the way math is taught in schools, or eliminate some courses entirely?
Andrew Hacker, Queens College political science professor, thinks that advanced algebra and other higher-level math should be cut from curricula in favor of courses with more routine usefulness, like statistics.
"We hear on all sides that we're not teaching enough mathematics, and the Chinese are way ahead of us," Hacker says. "I'm suggesting we're teaching too much mathematics to too many people. Not everybody has to know calculus. If you're going to become an aeronautical engineer, fine. But most of us aren't."
Instead, Hacker is pushing for more courses like the one he teaches at Queens College: Numeracy 101. There, his students of "citizen statistics" learn to analyze public information like the federal budget and corporate reports. Such courses, Hacker argues, are a remedy for the numerical illiteracy of adults who have completed high-level math like algebra but are unable to calculate the price of, say, a carpet by area.
Hacker's argument has met with opposition from other math educators who say what's needed is to help students develop a better relationship with math earlier, rather than teaching them less math altogether.
Maria Droujkova is a founder of Natural Math, and has taught basic calculus concepts to 5-year-olds. For Droujkova, high-level math is important, and what it could use in American classrooms is an injection of childlike wonder.
"Make mathematics more available," Droujkova says. "Redesign it so it's more accessible to more kinds of people: young children, adults who worry about it, adults who may have had bad experiences."
Pamela Harris, a lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin, has a similar perspective. Harris says that American education is suffering from an epidemic of "fake math"—an emphasis on rote memorization of formulas and steps, rather than an understanding of how math can influence the ways we see the world.
Andrew Hacker, for the record, remains skeptical.
"I'm going to leave it to those who are in mathematics to work out the ways to make their subject interesting and exciting so students want to take it," Hacker says. "All that I ask is that alternatives be offered instead of putting all of us on the road to calculus."
1. What is the general complaint about America's math education according to Hacker?| A．America is not doing as well as China. | B．Math professors are not doing a good job. |
| C．It doesn't help students develop their literacy. | D．There has hardly been any innovation for years. |
| A．Allow students to learn high-level math step by step. |
| B．Enable students to make practical use of basic math. |
| C．Lay a solid foundation for advanced math studies. |
| D．Help students to develop their analytical abilities. |
| A．Make complex concepts easy to understand. | B．Start teaching children math at an early age. |
| C．Help children work wonders with calculus. | D．Try to arouse students' curiosity in math. |
| A．To enable learners to understand the world better. | B．To help learners to tell fake math from real math. |
| C．To broaden Americans' perspectives on math. | D．To exert influence on world development. |
9 . The designer, Charles Frederick Worth (1825-95), was the first to sew labels into the clothes that he created. Because of this and his international fame, Worth is generally considered to be the father of
An article in The Economist suggests labelled clothes really do
The research concluded that like a peacock’s tail, designer labels are seen as
| A．luxury industry | B．modern art | C．fashion design | D．market economy |
| A．influential | B．famous | C．creative | D．unknown |
| A．appealing to | B．persisting in | C．complaining of | D．experimenting on |
| A．exclusive | B．latest | C．complicated | D．delicate |
| A．In addition | B．For example | C．On the whole | D．After all |
| A．applied | B．queued | C．looked | D．walked |
| A．solution | B．opposition | C．devotion | D．restriction |
| A．benefit | B．impact | C．confuse | D．please |
| A．understandable | B．fashionable | C．reliable | D．visible |
| A．stored | B．improved | C．developed | D．altered |
| A．special | B．luxurious | C．wrong | D．untold |
| A．suitable for | B．keen on | C．satisfied with | D．independent of |
| A．classes | B．signs | C．advantages | D．principles |
| A．change | B．fake | C．regain | D．show |
| A．elevate | B．neglect | C．assess | D．imitate |
Emergence of Pop-up Museums
None of the major traditional museums seemed to see it as a threat when the Museum of Ice Cream opened in New York in 2016.
However, as more of these pop-up museums started showing up over the next two years, they seemed to become a trend that should have been taken more seriously. And the latest member to join this list is the Museum of Pizza, set to open in New York this October for two weeks.
It seems that museums are no longer just places to “see” art.
“Not only are visitors taking pictures of art, but they are taking pictures of themselves within these spaces,” Jia Jia Fei, a director at the Jewish Museum of New York, said in a TED Talk. “In the pre-digital photography era, the message was: This is what I’m seeing. Today, the message is:
This immersive (沉浸式的) experience that pop-up museums provide also allows visitors to get away from their real life—even just for a short period of time—and enter a fantasy world.
For example, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama took her exhibition “Infinity Mirrors” to Washington, US in 2016. It attracted a large number of visitors who were willing to stand in line for hours just to visit each of the six mirrored rooms for just 30 seconds.
“I felt an unexpected calm,” wrote Baltimore City Paper reporter Maura Callahan after spending 30 seconds in one of the rooms. “Something about the vastness of the illusion rubbing up against the actuality of being confined to a box was comforting.”
| A．I came, I saw, and I selfied |
| B．Pop-up museums remain open—at least for now |
| C．However, the long wait seemed to have been worth it |
| D．After all, as a “pop-up museum”, it only stayed open there for a month |
| E．It’s this experience of feeling close to art that allows pop-up museums to keep “popping up” |
| F．People want to have more interactive experiences instead of being kept a polite distance from exhibits |
