1 . “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. |
2 . 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 |
3 . 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. |
4 . 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. |
5 . 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. |
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
7 . Li Jianguo, a 49-year-old teacher at the Tianjin Vocational Institute, is set to be named as one of the “2022 most beautiful teachers” — an annual public award sponsored by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Ministry of Education.
Li has stood out by taking the lead in the training of students in vocational skills, gaining a number of honors including being named a national role model teacher. He has mentored seven national-level technique experts and a team of 14 technique “masters”. One of his students, Guo Jinpeng, who graduated from the institute in 2007, became a college teacher at the Chengdu Auto Vocational and Technical School and was named a national role model teacher in 2019.
Li’s nomination as one of the “most beautiful teachers” reflects that China is focusing on the importance of vocational education and aims to foster more leading personnel with the spirit of craftsmanship in the manufacturing industry.
At an international vocational and technical education conference in Tianjin last month, Li noted that there is no difference between vocational education and ordinary education, and “vocational education is not “secondary” nor should it ever be treated as less than ordinary education”. “Vocational education has the mission of fostering a quality workforce and technical experts for the country. The hardworking spirit is the key to building any ordinary people into leading personnel,” he said.
Li joined the institute in 1993 and later founded a machinery engineering practice center, providing free training to 7,500 people a week. In 2015, he led a team of teachers to work for 40 days to renovate 124 machine tools in the center. Li has devoted himself to building the country’s first additive manufacturing technique and application center at the institute to satisfy the thirst for the country’s human resources in 3D printing.
1. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?A.China Sponsoring Annual Award for Teachers |
B.China Aiming to Develop More Leading Personnel |
C.Vocational Teacher to Be Awarded as “Most Beautiful Teachers” |
D.Different Education Training Different Kinds of Students |
A.To make a comparison with Li Jianguo. | B.To show the achievements of Li Jianguo. |
C.To praise national-level technique experts. | D.To publicize national role model teachers. |
A.It is a good way of winning awards. | B.It is not as good as ordinary education. |
C.It should develop qualified and skilled talent. | D.It has nothing to do with hardworking spirit. |
A.Boring. | B.Well-paid. | C.Difficult. | D.Creative. |
8 . Is loyalty in the workplace dead?
Just recently, Lynda Gratton, a workplace expert, proclaimed that it was. In The Financial Times, she said that it had been “killed off through
It’s sad if this good virtue is now out of place in the business world. But the situation may be more
Fifty years ago, an employee could stay at the same company for decades, said Tammy Erickson, an author and work-force consultant. Many were
Now many companies cannot or will not hold up their end of the bargain, so why should the employees hold up theirs? Given the opportunity, they’ll take their skills and their portable retirement accounts elsewhere. These days, Ms. Gratton writes,
Ms. Erickson says that the quid pro quo (交换物,报酬) of modern employment is more likely to be: As long as I work for you, I promise to have the relevant skills and
For some baby boomers, this
A longtime employee who is also productive and motivated is of enormous value, said Cathy Benko, chief talent officer at Deloitte. On the other hand, she said, “You can be with a company a long time and not be highly committed.”
Ms. Benko has seen her company shift its
Then there are the effects of the recent recession. Many people - if they haven’t been
If the pendulum(摇摆不定的事态或局面) shifts, how will businesses persuade their best employees to stay?
Loyalty may not be what it once was, but most companies will still be better off with at least a core of people who stay with them across decades.
If loyalty is seen as a
A.tightening | B.lengthening | C.shortening | D.loosening |
A.complicated | B.confused | C.difficult | D.conservative |
A.confine | B.convince | C.identify | D.define |
A.guaranteed | B.provided | C.supplemented | D.rewarded |
A.belief | B.trust | C.confidence | D.tolerance |
A.occupy | B.engage | C.sacrifice | D.involve |
A.rightly | B.immediately | C.exactly | D.fairly |
A.difference | B.exchange | C.shift | D.modification |
A.assuming | B.ensuring | C.assuring | D.approving |
A.focus | B.mind | C.faith | D.importance |
A.laid off | B.employed | C.valued | D.supported |
A.Salary | B.Money | C.Loyalty | D.Credit |
A.However | B.Rather | C.Therefore | D.Otherwise |
A.promise | B.compliment | C.commitment | D.command |
A.interest | B.sake | C.disadvantage | D.benefit |
9 . “I was not exceptional at all,” Claudia Goldin once told me of her time as an economics PhD student at the University of Chicago. But as the course progressed, she said, “I felt like lightbulbs were going on in my head.” On October 9 the brightness of those lights was confirmed, as she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes”.
Goldin found men relatively dull, at least as a topic of study. Their labour was uniform compared to that of women, who might switch between caring for children, toiling (辛苦工作) in the family businesses or sweating somewhere else. But this complexity was harder to measure. According to America’s historical statistics, for example, their occupation was often unhelpfully listed as “wife”. So Goldin set out to measure their work properly.
The standard pattern of development was once that as countries got richer, women were pulled into the labour market. But by painstakingly stitching together different data sets, Goldin established that America’s path was more complicated, and that growth in the 1800s coincided with women moving away from work other than domestic labour.
Why? For a start, factory jobs were harder to combine with childcare than, say, sewing at home. And richer families could afford to spare women the indignity of toil. Goldin argued that stigma (污名) reinforced this, or the idea that “only a husband who is lazy and neglectful of his family would allow his wife to do such labour.” Later the stigma faded — the office clerk job of the 20th century was easier, and consistent with the impression of a supportive spouse. With the arrival of tight labour markets in the 1950s, discriminatory policies against hiring married women were virtually abandoned.
Today, women still work and earn less than men. As social norms have shifted and real barriers have fallen, Goldin says that most of the remaining gender gaps facing college-educated women are due to something else. So-called “greedy jobs” reward round-the-clock work and are conflicting with being on call for children. Perhaps men should also share the family burden and allow their partners to be more professionally involved instead.
1. How does Claudia Goldin find women’s domestic labour?A.Complicated to understand. | B.Tricky to assess. |
C.Less changeable than men’s work. | D.More valuable than men’s career. |
A.They took an active part in workforce. |
B.They were comfortable enough not to work. |
C.They stood a good chance in office jobs. |
D.They were still stuck in household chores. |
A.To explain the current gender gaps. |
B.To introduce the employee reward system. |
C.To call on men to stay at home. |
D.To expose the greedy nature of capitalists. |
A.Gender Pay Gap Research Wins the Nobel Prize in Economics |
B.How Goldin Transformed Our Understanding of Women’s Work |
C.Women’s Century-Long Journey Toward Equality |
D.Do Greedy Jobs Cause the Gender Pay Inequality |
If you have not heard of Yangshi Lei, the
All the above great cultural relics and popular tourist attractions have been included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List,
Yangshi
With so many architectural