1 . I started participating in student journalism when I was in high school. And when I started, I really just saw my articles as more fun versions of the academic essays I was writing every day in class. It wasn’t really until an article I wrote in March 2020, that I really understood the power of expressing my voice through journalism, and the unique appeal and responsibility of being both a student and a journalist.
Most of the things reported on in student publications directly or indirectly affect the journalists writing about them. This differs from mainstream publications (刊物), who often have the privilege (特权) to objectively cover things that they have no connection with. Student journalists, on the other hand, often find themselves trying to put on a different “hat” when it comes to reporting, but in my eyes part of the magic of being a student journalist is that despite putting on a different “hat”, it’s still the same you.
We know what is important to report on because we are constantly surrounded by the student voice. An Irish Times or Independent reporter would never know about the burden of high rents, or why so many campus spaces are not accessible, or feel the fears of examination changes in light of artificial intelligence. Students know what students care about, and what issues aren’t getting the attention they deserve.
I’ve always been drawn to comment articles, particularly because it’s a place I feel my voice holds a special significance, and one where my words and my articles come together to represent me. Opinion pieces are unique, in that they are the only article format that doesn’t have to be entirely objective. I, and many other comment writers I chat to, find this freeing. It’s a relaxing experience to work out an important issue from your own viewpoint and even with your own frustration (挫败、失意) or praise, and it feels especially personal.
We need to protect student journalists, but we also need to expand the field we can cover in student journalism. The student voice is powerful because it is diverse, and it’s critical to reflect their voice. The press also has an important role in defending itself. Freedom of information is one of the most sacred (神圣的) things we have, and one that we as students need to protect.
1. How are student journalists different from the mainstream publications?| A．They can hardly identify issues relevant to peers. |
| B．They have an objective viewpoint on the issues. |
| C．They report on issues directly affecting them. |
| D．They prioritize objectivity over other things |
| A．student voice may always lead us to making unfair judgments |
| B．student reporters can keep their individuality when playing various roles |
| C．student articles offer an entertaining twist on traditional academic essays |
| D．student journalists should focus on the topics within their professional fields |
| A．inform readers of the high rents |
| B．attach importance to student voice |
| C．praise mainstream media for their efforts |
| D．bring up the topic of artificial intelligence |
| A．Freedom of speech and the press |
| B．The importance of student journalism |
| C．The responsibility of mainstream media |
| D．Embracing the diversity of student voice |
The Waterslide Tester
When the pool where he worked as a lifeguard was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Guillaume Pop took jobs at various other pools that were virtually deserted. In one video on the social platform, he pretended to be a “professional waterslide tester”. Unexpectedly, Pop became a social media sensation. He was then hired to “test” slides and other facilities at water parks and swimming pools all over France. “It’s the best job in the world,” declares Pop, whose videos have received 80 million views. “I’m not behind a desk. I’m active and outside in the sun. In fact, all the children tell me they want to be a waterslide tester!”
The Reindeer HerderFinnish Lapland is home to around 200,000 wild reindeer. Anne Ollila, one of the 4,000 owners of these animals, works in this harsh but beautiful region with her big family. She gave up her job as a sociology researcher in 2010 to devote herself to reindeer herding full time. In summer, Ollila sleeps during the day and walks up to 12 miles a night through marsh and forest, enduring all kinds of insects. In deepest winter there is little daylight. Grasslands are frozen and the reindeer move into the forest for protection. “Life here isn’t easy but it’s how nature works,” says Ollila, “I love the environment, the animals and the freedom. Also, I have a sense of belonging to something bigger than me, to the chain of life through the generations.”
The Zombie TrainerStevie Douglas, a 52-year-old Scot, has taught people how to behave like all varieties of the undead. A big fan of horror movies, Douglas noticed the zombies he saw in films were often unconvincing. “Their movement was poor and I thought I could do better.” So, in 2012, he formed ScareScotland to provide zombies for films and events such as horror conventions. A year later they started a zombie training program, which took off when they received a request for 300 zombies for a three-week-long interactive production. “What we do is very specific.” says Douglas. Many people enjoy being frightened, and he’s happy to oblige them.
1. What do the three people introduced in the passage above have in common?| A．Their jobs are dangerous, unstable and low-paid. |
| B．Their jobs are well received throughout the world. |
| C．They have great passion and pride in what they do. |
| D．They need professional qualifications to do their job. |
| A．It has a sense of freedom. | B．It is full of vigor and energy. |
| C．It is what he has been doing for decades. | D．It satisfies people’s wishes to be frightened. |
| A．Employees who are considering switching jobs. |
| B．Students who are applying for ideal universities. |
| C．Children who are interested in unusual activities. |
| D．Graduates who are deciding on their essay topics. |
3 . At first the question was how quickly people would get back to the office. Then it was whether they would ever return. The last three years has introduced in a major change in white-collar working patterns. The office is not dead but many professionals have settled into a hybrid (混合的) arrangement of some office days and some remote days.
Hybrid working has much to recommend: flexibility for employees, periods of concentration at home, bursts of cooperation in the office. A new paper from Harvard Business School describes an experiment in which workers at BRAC, a non-profit organisation in Britain, were randomly assigned to three groups, each spending different amounts of time working from home. The intermediate (中等的) group, who spent between 23% and 40% of their time in the office, performed best on various performance measures.
But a shift on this large scale is bound to raise tricky issues. In workplaces that have moved to hybrid work, there are still plenty of open questions. One is how to handle the impact of less time in the office for new joiners and younger workers. Research by Emma Harrington of the University of Iowa shows that software engineers receive more feedback on their code when the team sits next to each other in the office, especially new engineers. According to Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, making new employees spend more time in the office can be a good way of integrating them into company culture and improving their competence. And these younger employees were most likely to quit when everyone was forced to go remote.
A second question concerns how strictly to enforce attendance on days when teams are meant to be in the office. An agreement holds that there should be agreed “anchor days” on which all the people come to work in the office; since the idea is to spend time together, as many people as possible should be there. But one person on the team might have moved somewhere else; someone else might have asked to stay home to let the repairer in. In practice, therefore, hybrid working still often means a mixture of people on screen and people in the office.
Other questions exist. How to define performance measures so managers do not spend time worrying about lazy workers at home? Do you require company-wide anchor days or team-level ones? The era of hybrid working is only just beginning, so it will take time for answers to emerge. But if there is a message from this first full year of hybrid working, it is that flexibility does not mean a free-for-all.
1. How can in-office work help new employees?| A．Giving them more feedback from senior employees. |
| B．Getting them to catch up with the work schedule. |
| C．Saving them the cost of staying at home. |
| D．Helping them feel part of the company. |
| A．Young workers prefer working on screen. |
| B．Engineers object to the idea of anchor days. |
| C．Office workers can’t take a day off as expected. |
| D．Employees have various private matters to address. |
| A．It is necessary to grant employees full autonomous rights. |
| B．Employers should go with the flow because new questions will emerge. |
| C．Allowing flexibility in work arrangements does not mean having no rules. |
| D．It is no easy job to arrange either company-wide or team-level anchor days. |
| A．Hybrid working is outdated after workers’ return. |
| B．There are some open questions of hybrid working. |
| C．A shift of working patterns calls for hybrid working. |
| D．Fixed restrictions should be applied to hybrid working. |
4 . What kind of dinosaur are you? If you answered Tyrannosaurus rex, then the bad news is that you probably won’t get the job you’re applying for.
Welcome to the strange world of extreme interviewing, the latest trend in which interviewers throw bizarre questions at candidates to see how they react.
It may seem like a game, but extreme interviewing is deadly serious. The idea is to see how quickly job seekers think on their feet and, at a time when 25 percent of recent graduates are unemployed, it offers employers a new way of separating the brilliant candidates from the merely very good.
This new approach to selecting candidates comes from Silicon Valley in California. One of the early pioneers of extreme interviewing was Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, who could be famously cruel with job seekers. Faced once with a candidate he considered boring, Jobs suddenly pretended to be a chicken, flapping his arms and making clucking noises around the unfortunate applicant, waiting to see what he would do. In fact, the secret to extreme interviewing is neither in the question nor the answer. It is in the candidate’s reaction.
David Moyle, a headhunter with the recruitment agency Eximius Group, who admits to using the dinosaur question selecting candidates, said: “Essentially, that kind of interviewing is used by us to give someone an opportunity to show they are smart.”
“Most candidates actually get something out of it, it’s not about trying to crush them. We are trying to give them an opportunity to show their personality, rather than just showing how they perform in an interview.”
Of course, getting the job is just the start. In the modern business world, survival will depend on what kind of dinosaur you really are.
1. The word “bizarre” in paragraph 2 is closet in meaning to ______.| A．common | B．unusual | C．instinctive | D．dishonest |
| A．They can attract more graduates to apply in this way. |
| B．They can learn to answer job seekers properly in this way. |
| C．They can find the most outstanding applicants in this way. |
| D．They can avoid being cruel to the interviewees in this way. |
| A．Their past experience. | B．Their job performance. |
| C．Their interview skills. | D．Their real personality. |
5 . 
Take Off with Historic Hiring Growth
A message from Kate Gebo
Welcome aboard!
We are so happy to have you fly with us. I’m sure you’ve thought about United as a way to travel, and with over 95,000 employees and growing, our company is also the center for rewarding careers.
I could not be prouder to lead Human Resources at United during this exciting time for our company, while we’re building the biggest and best airline in the history of aviation. Earlier this year, we announced that we are on track to hire at least 15,000 new employees by the end of this year.
When people think of career opportunities at United, they often think of being a pilot or flight attendant. In reality, our organization has a wide variety of roles in addition to our fantastic pilots and flight attendants, with jobs and functions to keep our airports running and our planes flying.
Whether it’s for operational roles, such as ramp service employees, customer service representatives, and aircraft technicians, or for corporate roles in human resources, digital technology, and social media, we’re hiring across every function of the airline, seeking strong talent that will take us to new heights.
A role at United is not just a job; it’s a career. Many of our employees have taken on new roles in different departments throughout their tenure (聘用期), which we support to develop and invest in our workforce. In the past seven years, more than 1,500 frontline employees were promoted to management roles, and 78 % of our senior leaders were promoted internally.
Beyond the traditional career paths, we’re proud to create new paths to help our talent pipelines fulfill some of the industry’s most critical job functions. Aviate, our pilot career development program, offers aspiring and established pilots a path to the United flight deck. Calibrate is our full-time, paid apprenticeship program for those wanting to go into aircraft maintenance and other technical operational roles. Our newly launched Innovate program helps provide the skills and experiences needed to succeed in a technology career at United.
We’re hiring from coast to coast, at our seven major hubs and across a broad range of positions. If you’re ready to join me and 95,000 of the industry’s best and brightest at United, I encourage you to visit careers.united.com today to see what opportunities await you. Your career is cleared for takeoff.
United with you,
Kate Gebo
Executive Vice President,
Human Resources and Labor Relations
1. What is the main purpose of this passage?| A．Guarantee to provide first-class customer service. |
| B．Promote frontline employees to management roles. |
| C．Introduce jobs available in some departments of United. |
| D．Advertise for United to enroll pilots and flight attendants. |
| A．Visit careers.united.com, and you can see positions available. |
| B．Employees at United can change their jobs with interest. |
| C．Employees have to keep their positions throughout their tenure. |
| D．The United is making efforts to be the biggest and best airline. |
| A．The full-time, paid apprenticeship program. | B．The traditional United career path. |
| C．The newly launched Innovate program. | D．The new paths for talent pipelines. |
6 . If you try to explain to someone, without using pictures, how to build the building that you have designed, it would take an enormous amount of writing and might end up with a very funny-looking building. The architect uses pictures called details to show how many hundreds of parts go together to form a complete building. This type of drawing is called drafting and is done by people called draftsmen.
Draftsmen make up the largest group of the architectural offices’ work force. Because of the wide range of duties they perform, draftsmen are sometimes called architectural technicians. In a typical office, there are not only career draftsmen but also architectural graduates working as junior draftsmen to learn the trade. Career draftsmen are usually graduates from a two-year junior college called technical school. There was a time when architectural office used young people right out of high school as tracers. Their job was to trace over the other people’s details while learning to be a draftsman. This is no longer possible with the fast-pace of architects’ offices today although a junior draftsman is given guides by the more experienced employees.
So a good comprehensive architectural drafting course is a must before anyone seeks a job with an architectural firm. The job of the draftsmen is to translate the ideas and directions of architects, designers and engineers into complete and accurate working drawings. These become the plans and details used in the actual construction of a building. The project must be shown in great detail and drawn very clearly, so there is no chance for misunderstanding by the contractors(承包商). Every line and figure has an effect on the finished product.
As you can see, the draftsman is a key member of the architectural team. Of course, a junior draftsman is not expected to produce a complete set of working drawings. Depending on the size of the office and difficulty of the project, draftsmen may work in groups. The group leader coordinates the group and works closely with the project architect while the drawings are being produced.
Working conditions are mostly very pleasant as draftsmen’s work is intense and many people depend on accurate work. Each draftsman has a large combination drawing board and desk with various drawing aids. Almost without exception, members of the architectural team have at one time in their careers worked as draftsmen. This is essential to an architect education and most architects never get very far away from the drafting board.
1. According to the passage, career draftsmen are usually ______.| A．experienced architects | B．architectural designers |
| C．high school graduates | D．graduates of technical schools |
| A．the architect’s rough drawings and directions |
| B．the ideas and directions for the project |
| C．the plans and details for the actual construction |
| D．the designer’s handbooks, tables and building codes |
| A．They all work in groups with a project architect. |
| B．They are the main members of the architectural team. |
| C．They provide labor and building materials. |
| D．They give guides to inexperienced architects. |
| A．An architect education. | B．The spirit of team work. |
| C．Accuracy in the drawings. | D．Advanced drawing aids. |
7 . “Come in, Kim. Have a seat, please.” said Bill Williams, the manager. This was Kim’s first experience with an assessment. After only six months he was due for a raise if this assessment (测评) was satisfactory.
“Kim.” began Bill Williams. “I am very pleased with the quality of your work. I have nothing but praise for your devotion and your hard work. My only concern is that you are not active enough in putting forward your suggestions.”
“But,” replied Kim. “I have always completed every assignment you have given me. Mr. Williams.” “I know that, Kim. And please, call me Bill. But what I expect is for you to think independently and introduce new ideas. I need more input from you—more feedback on how things are going I don’t need a “yes man”. You never tell me what you think. You just smile as though everything is find.”
“But,” said Kim. “I feel that since you are my superior, it would be presumptuous of me to tell you what to do.”
“I’m not asking you to tell me what to do, but what you think we could do. To make suggestions. I employed you because I respect your experience in this field, but you are not communicating your thoughts to me.”
“Yes, I see. I’m not accustomed to this, but I will try to do as you say…, Bill”
“Good, then, I expect to hear more from you at staff meetings or at any other time you want to discuss an idea with me.”
“Yes, of course. Thank you, Mr. Will… Bill.”
1. Kim is the sort of employee who _______.| A．does not speak out his own ideas | B．is not devoted to the job |
| C．laughs too much over work | D．can not finish his work on time |
| A．full of respect | B．too confident and rude |
| C．lacking in experience | D．too shy and quiet |
| A．Kim has been invited to take charge of the staff meetings. |
| B．the manager appreciates those who just do what be tells them to do |
| C．the manager is pleased with Kim’s hard work and his suggestions |
| D．Kim is likely to have a higher salary if he can pass the assessment. |
8 . I was ten when I first sat with my grandmother behind the cashier(收银台)in her general store. Before long, she let me sit there by myself.I quickly learned the importance of treating customers politely and saying “thank you”.
At first I was paid in candy.
By the time I was 12, My grandmother thought I had done such a good job that she promoted me to selling cosmetics(化妆品). I developed the ability to look customers directly in the eye. Even though I was just a kid, women would ask me such things as “What color do you think I should wear? ”I took a real interest in their questions and was able to translate what they wanted into makeup(化妆)ideas.
The job taught me a valuable lesson: to be a successful salesperson, you didn’t need to be a rocket scientist—you needed to be a great listener.
| A．Later I received 50 cents an hour. |
| B．I ended my selling a record amount of cosmetics. |
| C．Today I still carry that lesson with me: I listen to customers. |
| D．My grandma’s trust taught me how to handle responsibility. |
| E．Soon I found myself looking more beautiful than ever before. |
| F．Watching my money grow was more rewarding than anything I could have bought. |
9 . The Four-day Work Week
If Liz Truss can reduce a whole premiership to seven weeks, why can’t a standard working week be squashed into something shorter? A six-month pilot (试点) scheme, in which around 3,300 workers from 70 companies are testing out a four-day workweek, is due to conclude this month.
Of the participating organisations, 46% reported maintaining overall output at the same level, and 49% said it had improved.
Becoming a four-day operation can be hard in a five-day world, however. Bookishly, an online shop, chose Wednesdays off to avoid having three days in a row when packages are not mailed out; people are warned about the new schedule before they order.
More tests are on the horizon. In January South Cambridge shire District Council will become the first British local authority to try out a four-day week. The lessons learned are likely to be valuable even if the idea does not spread.
| A．Sceptics might observe that the companies involved are self-selecting. |
| B．Advocates say a shorter week delivers a better work-life balance without hurting overall output. |
| C．The trial’s largest company, Outcomes First Group, tracks indicators for its 1,027 participating employees. |
| D．The scheme holds useful lessons about productivity. |
| E．Platten’s, a fish-and-chip shop in Norfolk, gives its 50-or-so employees two days on and two days off to cover the week. |
| F．But customers are not always prepared to wait, so most firms in the scheme have tried to spread staff more thinly. |
10 . As is the fate of anyone running a hotel in Kerala these days, Bijoy George is a man with too much to do. Before pandemic-caused lockdowns began in 2020, he managed 40 employees at the Eighth Bastion Hotel in the charming historic quarter of Kochi, a bustling coastal city. Now that business is back to pre-covid levels he needs the same number of staff again. But he has only 20 workers. His plight is shared with every other hotel, café and bar. It is a result of the state’s hospitality (招待) employees moving all together in large numbers to Qatar, not to watch football but to take up employment tied to the World Cup.
As the start of the competition approaches on November 20th, workers are quitting at a rate Mr. George says he has never seen in his 22 years in the business. Qatar, a country with a population of under 3m, will have welcomed more than 1.5m visitors before the matches conclude on December 18th. That means finding staff to run all the new hotels that have been built along with other venues that have been pressed into service to profit from the sports fans.
Kerala has long been a significant source of hospitality workers for Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries. Its state government provides good schools with English-language instruction but few jobs. More than 2m people, 17% of its working population, already work overseas, largely in the Gulf.
The appeal of Qatar is straightforward. Starting salaries approach $1,000 a month, more than six times the level for similar jobs in Kerala. To replace those who have left, Kerala’s employers have been casting their nets wider. Recruiters have been extending their searches to many other Indian cities. But that means the most common word on name-tags pinned to the breast pockets of workers is “trainee”.
Among the many skills that need to be taught, says Mr. George, is smiling at customers — the failure to do so a result of shyness among those new to the workforce. The danger is that after a week or so when confidence grows, even these employees may slip away to the Gulf.
Most contracts run for three months, concluding at the end of December, not long after the World Cup final. Returning workers will be welcomed back with open arms. Filling the gaps is even more important as Indian tourism and weddings have restarted. The reunions, though, may be short-lived. The game these workers will have learned from the World Cup is how to be paid better. That means leaving India.
1. The underlined sentence in paragraph one implies that __________.| A．other hotels, cafes and bars will share Bijoy’s 20 employees |
| B．other hotels, cafes and bars will have to lay off some workers |
| C．other hotels, cafes and bars also send the workers to Qatar |
| D．other hotels, cafes and bars also find it hard to employ enough workers |
| A．Millions of tourists have to be served during the World Cup. |
| B．Hospitality workers are in high demand with new hotels and venues open for business in Qatar. |
| C．Qatar provides good education and English training for potential workers in Kerala. |
| D．The salaries of similar jobs in Kerala are much lower than those in Qatar. |
| A．Kerala’s employers have to take on new employees in Asian cities. |
| B．Many of the new employees will pin their name tags to their breast pockets. |
| C．The new employees will not greet the customers as a result of shyness. |
| D．The new employees may soon follow the trend of going to the Gulf. |
| A．Jobs outside India can provide Indian workers with a more decent life. |
| B．It will soon be the off season for Indian tourism and weddings. |
| C．Another grand occasion will soon begin in the Gulf. |
| D．The workers only sign short-term contracts with the employers in India. |
