1 . Once a year, around the time when Christians celebrate Easter, Muslims celebrate Ramadan and Jews celebrate Passover, I often invite my 24-person team to a joyful and special dinner at my place. To
I think this
Yet when people
I’m also really
As the person in charge of the lab, I see preserving a variety of cultural backgrounds as an important part of my job. Such an accessible, varied and supportive
A.accommodate | B.avoid | C.change | D.control |
A.enjoy | B.throw | C.prepare | D.taste |
A.dream | B.tradition | C.promise | D.debate |
A.strange | B.conservative | C.poor | D.diverse |
A.gives up | B.turns down | C.consists of | D.leaves out |
A.breakthroughs | B.backgrounds | C.ambitions | D.hobbies |
A.differences | B.recipes | C.requirements | D.standards |
A.visit | B.praise | C.join | D.aid |
A.regret | B.charge | C.sympathy | D.love |
A.surprised at | B.proud of | C.interested in | D.worried about |
A.curious | B.casual | C.careful | D.relaxed |
A.thank | B.defeat | C.compare | D.choose |
A.scientifically | B.physically | C.mentally | D.financially |
A.respect | B.protect | C.stand | D.doubt |
A.chance | B.position | C.lecture | D.environment |
2 . Community Development Projects Overseas
The aim of Community Development Projects abroad in Temple Conservation, DIY and more is to improve poorer local communities. You can do them as part of your work experience, gap year or career break, or just as a volunteering holiday.
South Africa
Time: 1st, March — 31st, May 2024
Registration fee: $65
Maintenance/Handyman/DIY skills, this project would love to have you! The project is truly unique. You will assist an Animal Rehabilitation Center that desperately needs any help it can get and you will be benefiting the animals at the same time! And, of course, the location is very unusual. And finally, conservation are lovely people to work with!
Sri Lanka
Time: 1st, May — 31st, July 2024
Registration fee: Free
Buddhist Temple Repair and Construction, Project in Kandy
Rebuild and repair Buddhist temple in and around Kandy. This unique and fascinating project offers an opportunity to learn about Sri Lankan construction using traditional manual methods, without using modern machines.
Work includes construction, repairing temples, cleaning in and around temples, interacting with children and villagers and helping the Temples arrange Community Centers for the village youths. You will also assist with the repair of paintings and sculptures inside the temples.
Zimbabwe
Time: 1st, October — 31st, December, 2024
Registration fee: $120
Community Healthcare and Medical Project in Gweru gain basic medical experience in local clinics and play a role in HIV/AIDS education and awareness. You will be able to get involved in not only this clinic but others in the nearby area as well. You do not need to be qualified in any particular area. You will work with children from the ages of 3 to 6 years. It is a very worthwhile, enjoyable placement.
1. What is the aim of Community Development Projects abroad?A.To improve your work experience. |
B.To bring you a chance to travel abroad. |
C.To offer a meaningful volunteering holiday. |
D.To better underdeveloped local communities. |
A.People skilled in painting. |
B.People good at treating AIDS. |
C.People experienced in travelling. |
D.People expert at tending animals. |
A.It will all be done in modern method. |
B.It will involve using hands and strength. |
C.Experienced experts will direct the work. |
D.The village youths will help with the repair. |
A.health and medicine |
B.animals and resources |
C.food and environment |
D.community and education |
A.They require specific skills. |
B.They charge a registration fee. |
C.They have the same length of time. |
D.They need fluency in foreign languages. |
3 . “Thank you for letting me observe your classes. It was an unusual experience,” the email began, which got my heart racing.
I am an industry scientist, and in my spare time I was teaching a course for computer science students at a local university. By that point in the semester, I hadn't asked the students to solve any technical problems or even open their computers. Instead, I taught them teamwork and communication and skills they
I thought of these lessons when I started to develop the university class. The part-time role was appealing because I was eager to share my expertise and get back to working with students. But I didn’t want to use my old teaching style, which focused on lectures and whiteboard exercises. I wanted to develop the same qualities I was looking for in job candidates at my company.
I decided to use games and challenges to encourage teamwork and creativity. In one, students had to work together to decide how to survive a tough desert environment. In another, they built the tallest structure they could out of spaghetti and candies. The teaching expert sat in on one such class.
I worried they might have been taken aback(吓到). But after that unsettling opening, their email was positive: “I understand the important message you
In the end, education is not just about sharing knowledge. It's also about helping students develop soft skills that will help them succeed wherever they plan to go, be it academia or industry.
1. What made the author's heart race?A.Uneasiness. | B.Excitement. | C.Heart failure. | D.Lack of sleep. |
A.To teach communication skills. | B.To take over the author's work. |
C.To learn about the author's teaching. | D.To help solve technical problems. |
A.Survival skills. | B.Soft skills. | C.Game design. | D.Book knowledge. |
A.He has a great impact on the author's career. |
B.He attaches importance to sharing knowledge. |
C.He points out the leading role of the computer. |
D.He shares the same teaching idea with the author. |
4 . I was driving when my phone alerted me to a new email. Filled with eager anticipation, I pulled over, turned on my hazard lights, and opened it. My emotions quickly changed as I learned, for the sixth and final time, that I had been denied a promotion to full professor. My institution didn’t seem to value what I brought to the table. But when I told my family that night, my children offered a surprisingly positive response. They were excited to see what I was going to do next, they said. They apparently knew long before I did that losing my bid for a promotion would turn out to be the best thing that could have happened for me.
This had been the final step in a long process spanning 15 months and involving so much effort. I had started by studying successful promotion bids and asking senior scholars for frank discussions about my readiness. I had carefully prepared my application packet, summarizing everything I had achieved in my career. For more than a year, I had spent hours every day trying to prove my worth to my university.
To my surprise, having a final answer brought a welcome sense of closure. As a first step toward healing, I decided to prioritize my own values and follow my own internal compass. I disconnected from people in my life who violated my values, cultivated my relationships with those who share my priorities and bring out the best in me, and spent more time with my family. I founded a nonprofit that helps first-generation and low-income students and young professionals advance in the workforce while serving their community. The initiative had long been a dream of mine, but I never pursued it because typical academic hiring and promotion don’t reward such efforts. Now, such considerations were no longer my North Star.
Five months after that email from top leadership, I found myself in the car again, experiencing another career-defining moment. I may have lost my bid for a big promotion, but in the end, it brought me to the right place.
1. What did the author feel after he read the email?A.Anxious and annoyed. | B.Embarrassed and ashamed. |
C.Relieved and peaceful. | D.Disappointed and sorrowful. |
A.What contributions the writer had made. | B.What preparations the writer had made. |
C.How successful the career had been. | D.How tiring the process had been. |
A.Success is more than a title or a rank. |
B.One’s internal compass is to be developed. |
C.Serving the community may heal a broken heart. |
D.One’s real value first lies in his family interaction. |
A.Emails: my North Star |
B.Full professor: a double-edged sword |
C.A career setback becomes a great opportunity |
D.An academic career witnesses a failed promotion |
5 . Richard is a very a successful businessman. It is common for him to work hard with a non-stop. He wasn’t aware that he might wear himself out or die an early death until he overslept one morning, which was a sort of alarm. And then what happened? He had a week’s leave during which time he read novels, listened to music and walked with his wife on a beach, which has enabled Richard to return to work again.
In our modern life, we have lost the rhythm between action and rest. Amazingly, within this world there is a universal but silly saying: “I am so busy.”
We say this to one another as if our tireless efforts were a talent by nature and an ability to successfully deal with stress. The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, and to be unable to find time to relax — this has become the model of a successful life.
Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We miss the guide telling us where to go, the food providing us with strength, the quiet giving us wisdom.
How have we allowed this to happen? I believe it is this: we have forgotten the Sabbath, the day of the week — for followers of some religions — for rest and praying. It is a day when we are not supposed to work, a time when we devote ourselves to enjoying and celebrating what is beautiful. It is a good time to bless our children and loved ones, give thanks, share meals, walk and sleep. It is a time for us to take a rest, to put our work aside, trusting that there are larger forces at work taking care of the world.
Rest is s spiritual and biological need; however, in our strong ambition to be successful and care for our many responsibilities, we may feel terribly guilty when we take time to rest. The Sabbath gives us permission to stop work. In fact, “Remember the Sabbath” is more than simply permission to rest; it is a rule to obey and a principle to follow.
1. What’s the function of the paragraph 1?A.To tell us that Richard lives a healthy life. |
B.To bring up the topic of the passage. |
C.To give us a brief introduction of Richard |
D.To tell Richard is a successful businessman. |
A.a signal of stress | B.a warning of danger |
C.a sign of age | D.a spread of disease |
A.be able to work without stress | B.be more talented than other people |
C.be more important than anyone else | D.be busying working without time to rest |
A.Praying for our family. | B.Taking a good break. |
C.Only working for two hours. | D.Enjoying delicious meal. |
A.We should balance work with rest. |
B.The Sabbath gives us permission to rest. |
C.It is silly for anyone to say “I am busy.” |
D.We should be available to our family and friends. |
6 . The following jobs are expected to be in high demand in 2023. Clicking on the “Find jobs” link will take you to the list of current job postings and help you make career choices.
Nurse Practitioner
Average hourly wage: $56. 00
Nurse practitioners can perform many of the tasks that doctors do, such as creating treatment plans for patients and managing medical records. The big difference is that nurse practitioners cannot prescribe medications in most states. To become a nurse practitioner, you will need a graduate degree in nursing along with the appropriate licenses for the states in which you work.
Data Scientist
Average hourly wage: $52. 00
From car rental companies to telecommunication businesses, data scientists analyze the information to figure out the best ways for their businesses to be more successful. The job duties include identifying what types of business and customer data are worth gathering, then checking whether the information is accurate. It’s a big job that generally requires eight working hours a day and professional skills in mathematics.
Web Developer
Average hourly wage: $38. 00
Most people rely on the Internet to stay informed and connected with our communities. Web developers make sure those sites function properly while also updating them to include new functions that make them easier to use. Most of the work can be done remotely, which is favored by young people.
Choreographer(编舞师)
Average hourly wage: $20. 00
Maybe it’s the popularity of viral dance videos on TikTok that brings about the increasing demand in recent years. In addition to instructing trainees and performing on the stage and in the film, they work on smaller events such as weddings and other family gatherings. No degree is necessary to work in this field, but you will need some training and rhythm.
1. How much will a data scientist get per day on average?A.$52. | B.$56. | C.$416. | D.$448. |
A.Data scientist. | B.Web developer. |
C.Choreographer. | D.Nurse practitioner. |
A.They can earn at least $20 per hour. |
B.They need to get a degree before work. |
C.They make money by making dance videos. |
D.They are gaining popularity owing to social media. |
7 . When I turned twelve, I worked in summer at my father’s small brick cleaning business. I remember the harsh acid smell of the cleaning solution, the dim bulb light reflecting the busy figures and the scraping sound of stiff iron brushes against rough brick. It was tempting to have your job just finished. But anybody who worked for Thomas Kahoon had to meet his standards, and that included me. If I messed up, he made me stay late until I got it right. My father wasn’t being mean. He demanded the exact same of himself. Every brick he cleaned on the house stood out like a red jewel in a white setting. It was his signature.
In 1970, when I was twenty, I was to get married. I moved out of my parent’s modest place into a housing project. Drugs and gang violence were just beginning to damage the projects. Some of my friends went to jail. Some were killed. My wife Verllen, was 18, and nobody gave our marriage a chance. But we believed in each other. And our faith made us strong.
When we married, I worked as a stock clerk at Southwest Super Food. It was hard, tedious work. Each Friday night a truck came, with cases of food that had to be unloaded, priced and placed on shelves. Most of stock clerks try to get Friday night off. But I was always ready to work. By Saturday morning, all the cans and jars in my aisle were placed with a label facing smartly out, like a line of soldiers on review. That was my signature. I took pride in a job nobody wanted.
Years past since I established my belief in doing the job, influenced profoundly by my father’s persistence and standards. In my mind, it has become a tradition I hope this generation and the generations behind can keep to and follow.
1. What do we learn about the author’s father?A.He is a tough person. | B.He is quite mean to others. |
C.He is very demanding in his work. | D.He usually works very late. |
A.It was a promising industry. | B.It was bothered by drugs and gang violence. |
C.It enabled the author to get married. | D.It forced many people to go to prison. |
A.He was mainly responsible for unloading food. | B.He had to sign his name on every label. |
C.He had to endure the hardship and boredom. | D.He was required to work at Friday night. |
A.Persistence can be passed on to the next generation. |
B.Hardship can help develop a person’s patience. |
C.Demanding jobs are hard to address for a beginner. |
D.Strong will must be cultivated in the harsh working environment. |
A. addressing B. adoption C. attend D. budgeting E. cautions F. correspond G. extended H. hesitancy I. packages J. regardless K. rigid |
Top work-life balance benefits for 2023
“Flexibility is the gold standard of work-life balance benefits,” says Jonathan Pas, health care leader at consulting firm Mercer.
It’s no surprise then that two years after the pandemic forced most office workers to perform their jobs remotely. 78% of employers say they’ll allow employees to continue doing so regularly in 2023, according to a Mercer survey. But there’s still some
Pas
Other benefits requiring a broader organizational buy-in are sabbaticals(公休假) and unlimited vacation days. Both benefits encourage employees to pursue interests outside of work with
Instead, they prefer to find new ways to give employees more money, with the rise of employer-funded lifestyle accounts, which are often reserved for big-ticket items that might otherwise require some
But perhaps the most telling statistic about the importance of
9 . Your colleague is the first one in and the last one to leave. They volunteer to take on every additional task that comes your team’s way and they respond to emails within minutes. They’re working all the time, whether from the office or from home.
Dealing with a workaholic colleague can be challenging, but there are steps you can take to ease the negative effects of their behavior on yourself and your team.
Depersonalize their actions.
While it’s tempting to assume that your colleague is overworking in an attempt to outshine you, this is a classic example of a cognitive bias (偏差). In social psychology, this refers to the tendency humans have to owe another person’s actions to their character or personality, while crediting our own behavior to external or situational factors that are outside our control.
Resist peer pressure.
Workaholics tend to have few boundaries. You’ll need to play defense by managing their expectations around your response times and availability. Let’s say your colleague asks you to turn around a project brief in less than 24 hours. You can push back and explain, “That’s not possible. If you have this sort of task in the future, I’ll need at least a three day’s notice to work it into my schedule.” You might also advocate for better systems and processes that remove the need for excess effort.
Finally, remember to adjust your perspective on productivity. While it may be tempting to evaluate your daily success based on the number of hours you work, it’s the quality of work you deliver that matters most.
A.Set boundaries. |
B.Make lifestyle adjustments. |
C.In short, you’re dealing with a workaholic, or a work enthusiast. |
D.The workaholic’s behavior can affect our well-being for the worst. |
E.Being good at your job doesn’t mean working more but producing results. |
F.Guilt can make it easy for you to fall into the same patterns as your colleague. |
G.In other words, your colleague is probably not overworking to frighten or exceed you. |
Chinese netizens are passionately discussing the “Kong Yiji mindset,”
As The Paper, a Chinese media company based in Shanghai, writes, “Kong Yiji would rather steal than do
The related term, “Kong Yiji mindset,” refers to those who see Kong in
Some netizens are concerned that education itself may one day be seen as superfluous (多余的). “When we were young, we
In recent years, China has been pushing to expand vocational education as a means to solve the surplus of college graduates. However, the transition remains challenging as the prejudices