1 . Age has its privileges (特权) in America, and one of the most important of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age — in some cases as low as 55 — is automatically entitled to a dazzling array of price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. Eligibility (资格) is determined not by one’s need but by the date on one’s birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a routine part of many businesses — as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them; yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent (有支付能力的). Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that “elderly” and “needy” are synonymous. Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor. But most of them aren’t.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant (刺激物) in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involve a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Supported by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job — thereby reducing employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become an economic privilege to a group with millions of members who don’t need them. It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can’t take care of themselves and need special treatment; and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against — discrimination by age.
1. We learn from the first paragraph that ______.| A．offering senior citizens discounts has become routine commercial practice |
| B．senior citizen discounts have enabled many old people to live a comfortable life |
| C．giving senior citizens discounts has boosted the market for the elderly |
| D．senior citizens have to show their birth certificates to get a discount |
| A．tax | B．expense | C．profits | D．expansion |
| A．Businesses, having made a lot of profits, should do something for society in return. |
| B．Old people are entitled to special treatment for the contribution they made to society. |
| C．The elderly, being financially underprivileged, need humane help from society. |
| D．Senior citizen discounts can make up for the inadequacy of the Social Security system. |
| A．Senior citizens should fight hard against age discrimination. |
| B．The elderly are selfish and taking senior discounts for granted. |
| C．Priority should be given to the economic needs of senior citizens. |
| D．Senior citizen discounts may well be it type of age discrimination. |
2 . How coming to China has changed my life and career
Hello, everyone. My name is Jonathan Lopez, and I am a dual(双重的) citizen from Colombia and Canada.
When I was 18 years old, I had the opportunity to leave Columbia for the first time to go to see my father in Canada. I studied in a university in Canada, during which I had a chance to go study abroad in universities in Netherlands and Australia, travelling to many countries.
When it came to China, I had so many ideas about what China was supposed to be about. The surprise is that it was nothing like I imagined in a more positive way than expected. When I come here,
It's been only three years in China and it's just the beginning. There is so much more that I can continue to learn in this place, and it's just an open invitation for people that are thinking to study abroad, work abroad or do things anywhere in the world, to also consider China. Hence, this is a place to be, and this is a place where you can learn and grow a lot.
| A．So I decided to stay |
| B．And then I was ready to come to China |
| C．Today I want to share why coming to China changed my life |
| D．And this is something that really can change your life as well |
| E．mobile payment was one of the things that struck me the most |
| F．By the time I graduated from university I had already traveled to 61 countries |
| G．I realize all the potential that this place has and all the things that I could learn about China |
3 . There is a popular saying in the English language: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Well, that is not true. Unkind words, name-calling or even the so-called “the silent treatment” can hurt children as much as being physically hit, sometimes even more so. A recent study of middle school children showed that verbal (言语的) abuse by other children can harm, the development in the brain. The study was a project of researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Researcher Martin Teicher and his team studied young adults, aged 18 to 25. These young men and women had not ever been treated in a cruel or violent way by their parents. The researchers asked the young people to rate their childhood exposure to verbal abuse from both parents and other children. Then the researchers performed imaging tests on the brains of the subjects.
The images showed that the people who reported suffering verbal abuse from peers in middle school had underdeveloped connections between the left and right side of the brain. The two sides of the brain are connected by a large bundle of connecting fibers called the corpus callosum. This was the area that was underdeveloped.
The middle school years are a time when these brain connections are developing. So, unkind, hurtful comments from children or adults during this period have the greatest effect. The researchers tested the mental and emotional condition of all the young people in the study. The tests showed that this same group of people had higher levels of fear, depression, anger and drug abuse than others in the study.
The researchers published their findings online on the American Journal of Psychiatry's website.
Parents cannot control what other people say to their children, but they can prepare their children.
1. Why does the author use the popular saying at the beginning?| A．To show the power of words. |
| B．To introduce an opposite view. |
| C．To prove the author's argument. |
| D．To show ancient people's wisdom. |
| A．They were hurt by unkind words. |
| B．They performed poorly in imaging tests. |
| C．They had their brain slightly damaged. |
| D．They experienced no physical abuse at home. |
| A．Comments on the findings. |
| B．Approaches to further studies. |
| C．Suggestions to parents. |
| D．Different opinions on the matter. |
| A．Unkind words hurt the brain. |
| B．Verbal violence should be stopped. |
| C．The way we speak matters. |
| D．Words are worse than sticks and stones. |
4 . When making choices, people assume that they pick what they like. However, research suggests that we like something strictly because we have chosen it. In other words, we dislike things we don’t choose. And this phenomenon has existed since we were babies.
In an experiment, US researchers brought several 10 to 20-month-old babies into a lab and gave them two same bright and colorful soft blocks to play with. They set each block far apart, so the babies had to crawl to one or the other—a random choice. After the baby chose one of the toys, the researchers took it away and came back with a new option. The babies could then pick either the toy they didn’t play with before, or a brand-new toy.
It turned out that the babies reliably chose to play with the new toy rather than the one they had not chosen.
In follow-up experiments, when researchers instead helped choose which toy the baby would play with, the phenomenon disappeared. “As if they were saying, ‘Hmm, I didn’t choose that object last time, because I guess I didn’t like it very much” said Lisa Feigenson, co-author of the study.
This is a very important phenomenon in life, Feigenson noted. Adults will less like the thing they didn’t choose, even if they had no real preference in the first place. It looks like babies do just the same.
It shows that the act of making choices changes how we feel about our options. The random choices might become our preferences. “They are really not choosing based on whether they are novel or what they prefer,” said Alex Silver, co-author of the study.
This new finding explains why adults build unconscious preference when they make choices between the same things. Justifying(证明有道理) choice is somehow fundamental to the human experience. “I chose this, so I must like it. I didn’t choose this other thing, so it cannot be so good. Adults make these inferences unconsciously,” Feigenson said.
Such tendency makes sense to us as we live in a consumer culture and must make so many choices every day, between everything from toothpaste brands to styles of jeans.
Next, researchers will look at whether too many choices could be a problem for babies as they certainly are for adults.
1. What is the purpose of the experiments?| A．To test whether people choose what they like. |
| B．To see why babies prefer new toys to old ones. |
| C．To explain how babies and adults make choices differently. |
| D．To study if too many choices could create problems for people. |
| A．Babies prefer bright and colorful toys. |
| B．Babies’ preference largely affects their choices. |
| C．Babies prefer adults to help them make choices. |
| D．Babies’ previous random choices affect their preference. |
| A．It entirely changes our styles to choose. |
| B．It helps us make wise decisions in a consumer culture. |
| C．It promotes the relationship between adults and babies. |
| D．It helps us understand our unconscious preference for choices. |
| A．Babies like what they choose | B．Random choices matter |
| C．Too many choices puzzle the adults | D．Preference affects the choice |
5 . Mumbai, India’s financial capital, is famous for its terrible traffic. But since October 22nd its roads have been unbelievably clear. The reason is that drivers for Uber and Ola, India’s two biggest ride-hailing(打车服务) companies, have been on strike(罢工). Local newspapers reported that 90% of the roughly 35,000 drivers in the city have stopped working. Mumbai’s middle classes have been forced back onto trains and buses to get around.
Protests(抗议者) against working conditions at ride-hailing companies are not new, nor unique to India. The drivers’ complaints are clear. When Uber, an American company and Ola, from Mumbai, started operating five years ago, they paid drivers generously. Some made as much 100,000 rupees a month ($1,360), a fortune in India. But over the past two years pay has been cut strongly. And in recent months, rising petrol prices have made things worse.
But that drivers are poor can’t make sure a successful strike. What seems to be making a difference in Mumbai is the organizing strength of powerful unions, in particular one called Maharashtra Rajya Rashtriya Kamgar Sangh. If it were not for those colleagues of this union who keep order, forcing striking drivers to take off their clothes or destroying their phones, thousands of angry drivers would have crossed the warning line.
The ride-hailing companies do not think they have the support of the authorities; last year, Uber won an injunction(禁令), forcing police officers to stop threatening its drivers. But if the companies give in to the strikers, what will happen? In July, one of Ola’s top managers said that the company’s losses increased by 55% last year to $660m. Uber does not publish figures for each of its markets, but it is not thought to be making money in India. Striking drivers should perhaps not push things too far: they may find themselves out of jobs.
1. Why have the roads in Mumbai been clear recently?| A．People in Mumbai prefer trains and buses to get around. |
| B．Most of drivers stopped working because of the strike. |
| C．The roads are under repair. |
| D．Unions in Mumbai stopped all the drivers from working. |
| A．Unions in Mumbai have little organizing strength. |
| B．The decrease of drivers’ income is the main cause of this strike. |
| C．Mumbai’s traffic used to be very terrible. |
| D．Uber may not earn much money in India market. |
| A．With the help of the authorities, ride-hailing companies will not give in to drivers. |
| B．The strike will be successful in the end. |
| C．Drivers should continue their strike until their demands are met. |
| D．Drivers should not protest extremely, or they would lose their jobs. |
| A．Ride-hailing in India: A Hopeless Story. |
| B．Ride-hailing in India: A Successful Business. |
| C．Ride-hailing in India: Facing Great Challenges. |
| D．Ride-hailing in India: Struggling for Survival. |
6 . Kids and science seem to be made for each other!
The basic science is a combination of thought and experiment called the scientific method. It’s where you start with an idea, create a way to prove or disprove your idea, and show what you learned based on facts. Learning to follow this process helps you think logically and carefully. These important thinking skills can be used in many areas of study. To give a child practice with these thinking skills is like giving vitamins (维生素) to a developing mind.
One of the greatest things we can teach our children is to love learning. Learning science is a great way to do so. Children are easy to be interested in science. Because much of science is hands-on (实践), it attracts most children. Nothing makes a child sit up and take notice like the “WOW!” of a great science showing.
Science opens doors to many subjects at school. Building love for science can be helpful in other areas of study. For example, one cannot love science for very long without becoming good at its language-math! So science encourages children to study math. An interest in science is an interest in how things were once understood compared to how they are understood now. Thus studying science lends itself easily to studying history. And after you do an experiment, you need to write a lab report. Therefore, writing becomes an important part of science.
Science is the basic thing for much of our life. The science of farming shows how our food is produced; biomedical science keeps us healthy; even our beds these days are designed according to scientific facts. We almost eat, sleep and breathe with the help of science! When we prepare the next generation of voters, creators and policy makers, it is important to make sure they are not only comfortable but also good at science.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．How kids can make use of science. | B．Why science is important. |
| C．Why kids should learn science. | D．What kids should learn at school. |
| A．Think very carelessly. | B．Think carefully. |
| C．Think according to a reason. | D．Think on your own. |
| A．usually has no time for other subjects. |
| B．is likely to learn many other subjects well. |
| C．is usually bad at such subjects like history. |
| D．usually loses interest in other activities. |
| A．Science is too difficult for children. |
| B．Children usually consider science boring. |
| C．Science could make children love learning. |
| D．Children who can’t think carefully shouldn’t learn science. |
7 . You’re standing at a city bus stop, waiting for a bus to arrive. You wait and wait.
What’s going on? Why do buses always seem to come in bunches (成群) instead of at regular intervals (间隔) ?
However, experts who study traffic say that bunching really can happen quite easily.
Suppose many people happen to gather at a particular stop.
Check it out the next time you hop (跳上) a bus!
| A．There’s supposed to be a bus every 10 minutes. |
| B．But you don’t know the exact time the bus will arrive. |
| C．The problem is the different numbers of people at the stops. |
| D．Some people claim that bus bunching doesn’t happen very often. |
| E．And soon after several more stops, the second bus catches up with the first. |
| F．Find the probability that the waiting time is longer than you expected. |
| G．It takes longer than usual for the passengers to board the first bus that arrives. |
| A．Fifty | B．Five | C．Fifteen |
9 . Have you ever run into a careless cell phone user on the street? Perhaps they were busy talking, texting or checking updates on WeChat without looking at what was going on around them. As the number of this new “species” of human has kept rising, they have been given a new name — phubbers(低头族).
Recently, a cartoon made by students from China Central Academy of Fine Arts put this group of people under the spotlight. In the short film, phubbers with various social identities（身份）are buried in their phones. A doctor plays with his cell phone while letting his patient die, a pretty woman takes selfie(自拍照)in front of a car accident site, and a father loses his child without knowing about it while using his mobile phone. A chain of similar events eventually destroys the world.
Although the ending sounds overstated(夸大), the damage phubbing can bring is real. Your health is the first to bear the effect and result of it. “Continuously stretching(伸展) your head to check your cell phone could damage your neck,” Guangming Daily quoted doctors as saying. “the neck is like a rope that breaks after long-term stretching.” Also, staring at cell phones for long periods of time will damage your eyesight gradually, according to the report.
But that’s not all. Being a phubber could also damage your social skills and drive you away from your friends and family. At reunions with family or friends, many people stick to their cell phones while others are chatting happily with each other and this creates a strange atmosphere, Qilu Evening News reported.
It can also cost you your life. There have been lots of reports on phubbers who fell to their death, suffered accidents, and were robbed(抢劫) of their cell phones in broad daylight.
1. The author gives the example of a cartoon in Paragraph 2 _________.| A．to advertise the cartoon made by students. |
| B．to inform people of the bad effects of phubbing. |
| C．to show the world will finally be destroyed by phubbers. |
| D．to warn doctors against using cell phones while treating patients. |
| A．hide | B．use |
| C．cover | D．pay all attention to |
| A．His social skills could be affected. |
| B．His neck and eyesight will be gradually harmed. |
| C．He will cause the destruction of the world. |
| D．He might get separated from his friends and family. |
| A．negative(消极的). | B．supportive. |
| C．positive. | D．objective(客观的). |
| A．Advice on how to use a cell phone. | B．People addicted to phubbing. |
| C．Consequences of phubbing. | D．Measures to reduce the risks of phubbing. |
1. Where are the speakers?
| A．In Britain. | B．In Germany. | C．In France. |
| A．She handles daily affairs (事务). | B．She deals with e-mails. | C．She manages the telephones. |
| A．At 5:15 p.m. | B．At 4:30 p.m. | C．At 4:15 p.m. |
| A．A secretary. | B．A director. | C．An engineer. |
