1 . Do you feel like there are too many things to do in a day, but not enough time to do them? If so, you’re experiencing what researchers call time poverty.
If you want a satisfying social life, buy time for it. You might pay to have a disliked housework done by others, get a direct flight instead of a cheaper one with a stopover, or pay extra to drive the fastest route home.
Another way to get more time is to give it away. In one study, researchers asked people to devote part of their Saturday morning to doing something for themselves that they weren’t already planning to do or doing something for someone else. The people who gave away their time later felt like they had more of it.
If you have too many things to do and not enough time to do them, try to cut back on some things.
A.Time poverty is a sign of the times |
B.Helping others expands our sense of time |
C.Buying time is a good way to free you from the boredom of repeated tasks |
D.The choices we make with our time greatly affect our happiness and social lives |
E.Then invest your free time in something socially engaging |
F.You don’t have to keep up with the pace of the modern world |
G.Yet, feeling short on time is associated with lower level of happiness and connection |
2 . Some of the most successful people have done their best work in coffee shops. Pablo Picasso, JK Rowling, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Bob Dylan ---whether they’re painters, writers, philosophers, or singer-songwriters, people across nations and centuries have tapped into their creativity working away at a table in a café.
There are many ways coffee shops stimulate our creativity in a way offices and homes don’t. Research shows that the stimuli in these places make them effective environments for work; the combination of noise, visual variety and casualness can give us just the right amount of distraction to help us be at our sharpest and most creative.
Some of us put on our noise-cancelling headphones as soon as we sit down to work in a public setting. But background noise can benefit our creative thinking. A 2012 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research showed that a low-to-moderate level of background noise in a place like a cafeteria can actually increase our creative output. Another study from 2019 had similar findings: the right amount of noise benefits our senses. And while that right level of noise is different for everyone, audio (听觉的) stimuli in the background also help us improve decision-making. So, the jazz music, light conversation and noises from coffee bar workers aren’t vexatious —they could help you come up with your next masterwork.
Also, one thing that can make working from home and the office dull is the unexciting visual environment. “Visual stimulation has an effect on peoples creative thinking process. Coffee shops generally have visual stimuli,” says Sunkee Lee, whose research suggests that visual variety “helps you to think outside the box”. Korydon Smith, who co-wrote a recent article on the benefits of working in coffee shops, says, “People come and go. The daylight changes. The colours of food vary. These activities inspire our brains to work a bit differently than at home”.
And while the typical coffee shop user might be a lone worker, experts say these café settings can also benefit work groups who are brainstorming. “There is an implied formality when gathering on office-based or digital meeting platforms. By contrast, there is an air of informality when meeting up at a bar or café. Agendas are not required to meet someone for coffee, but are inbuilt in a scheduled meeting, virtual or otherwise, which can kill creativity,” says Smith.
1. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 2?A.Add some background knowledge. | B.Summarize the following paragraphs. |
C.Support the first paragraph with examples. | D.Introduce a controversial topic for discussion. |
A.Unexpected. | B.Permanent. | C.Annoying. | D.Original. |
A.Visual variety there encourages creativity. |
B.Audio stimuli there help with decision-making. |
C.A lo ne worker can meet like-minded people there. |
D.Bar workers there always make people feel at home. |
A.Its air of excitement. | B.Its implied formality. |
C.Its casual atmosphere. | D.Its nice food and drink. |
3 . One of my bad habits is saying “busy” when people ask me how I’m doing. Sometimes it’s because I actually am busy, but other times it’s because that’s what I think I’m supposed to say. That’s what important or promoted people say.
In 2016, researchers conducted a study to figure it out.
That’s why we feel like we have to appear busy, and there’s a real perception that if someone is knee-deep in meetings, emails, and stress, then they’re probably a big deal.
That’s why we recently launched the Out of Office Email Generator, a free tool you can use before your next long weekend or trip.
A.Actually, leading a busy life can be avoidable. |
B.But working long hours doesn’t drive better results. |
C.A person of high status feels tired when promoted. |
D.Busy people are found to be those with high social rank. |
E.You can share you won’t be checking the mailbox till you return. |
F.This culture of busyness is making it hard to find work-life balance. |
G.Personally, I’m going to stop saying “busy” when people ask me how I am. |
When night falls, the hustle and bustle of the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou turns to the banks of the Pearl River in Liwan district. Hundreds of people and cars
Liang Jinsheng, a local youth, sells lemon tea at the bazaar,
“I used
“Although my ‘shop’ is small, I have obtained the necessary business licenses
While
“Recently, a lot of residents
5 . Studies have shown the mere exposure effect, also referred to as the familiarity principle, inspires our decisions. It is a helpful psychological mechanism that helps us sustain our energy and focus our attention on other things. Getting used to new things takes effort and it can be exhausting. So unless we have a terrible experience, we are likely to buy from companies we’ve got used to. That is why companies spend so much money on advertising and marketing and why insurance companies openly charge existing customers more than new ones.
It’s not the case that we only desire things we already know. Some studies suggest when invited to share our preferences, we sometimes see less familiar options as more desirable. But when acting on that preference, we fall back to what we know. This might explain why sometimes the things we want and the things we do don’t quite match up. We might even return to companies that treated us poorly in the past or stay in bad relationships.
It’s easy to paint the familiarity principle as an enemy or something to battle as if it is something that holds us back from living our dreams. But this attitude might be overwhelming because it tends to encourage us toward big-picture thinking. Where we imagine that change requires a substantial dramatic swing that we don’t feel ready for. Some articles suggest the solution to familiarity frustration is complete exposure to novelty. While this can appear effective in the short run, we may only end up replacing one problem with another. It also risks overwhelm and burnout.
So what if we can work with the familiarity principle instead? Familiarity is something we can learn to play with and enjoy. It is a setting for creativity and a pathway to expansion. We can broaden the zone of familiarity bit by bit. If we think of familiarity as something that can expand, we can consider changing the conditions in and around our lives to make more space for our preferences to take root and grow gently. From here, we will start to make decisions, drawing from an ever-deepening pool of valuable options.
1. What allows insurance companies to charge old customers more?A.The improved service. | B.The advertising cost. |
C.The familiarity principle. | D.The law of the market. |
A.Our preferences affect our decisions. |
B.Familiarity tends to generate disrespect. |
C.The familiarity principle is a double-edged sword. |
D.There can be a mismatch between desires and actions. |
A.Disapproving. | B.Tolerant. | C.Objective. | D.Reserved. |
A.Step Out Of Your Familiarity Zone | B.Spare A Thought For Your Preference |
C.Gently Expand Your Familiarity Zone | D.Give Priority To The Mere Exposure Effect |
6 . If you want to disturb the car industry, you’d better have a few billion dollars: Mom-and-pop carmakers are unlikely to beat the biggest car companies. But in agriculture, small farmers can get the best of the major players. By connecting directly with customers, and by responding quickly to changes in the markets as well as in the ecosystems, small farmers can keep one step ahead of the big guys. As the co-founder of the National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC, 美国青年农会) and a family farmer myself, I have a front-row seat to the innovations among small farmers that are transforming the industry.
For example, the Quick Cut Greens Harvester is a tool developed just a couple of years ago by a young farmer, Jonathan Dysinger, in Tennessee, with a small loan from a local Slow Money group. It enables small-scale farmers to harvest 175 pounds of green vegetables per hour — a huge improvement over harvesting just a few dozen pounds by hand — suddenly making it possible for the little guys to compete with large farms of California. Before the tool came out, small farmers couldn’t touch the price per pound offered by California farms. But now, with the combination of a better price and a generally fresher product, they can stay in business.
The sustainable success of small farmers, though, won’t happen without fundamental changes to the industry. One crucial factor is secure access to land. Competition from investors, developers, and established large farmers makes owning one’s own land unattainable for many new farmers. From 2004 to 2013, agricultural land values doubled, and they continue to rise in many regions. Another challenge for more than a million of the most qualified farm workers and managers is a non-existent path to citizenship — the great barrier to building a farm of their own.
There are solutions that could light a path toward a more sustainable and fair farm economy, but farmers can’t awkwardly put them together before us. We at the NYFC need broad support as we urge Congress to increase farmland conservation, as we push for immigration reform, and as we seek policies that will ensure the success of a diverse and ambitious next generation of farmer from all backgrounds. With a new farm bill to be debated in Congress, consumers must take a stand with young farmers.
1. Why does the author mention car industry at the beginning of the passage?A.To introduce the progress made in car industry. |
B.To introduce a special feature of agriculture. |
C.To introduce a trend of development in agriculture. |
D.To introduce the importance of investing in car industry. |
A.Loans to small local farmers are necessary. |
B.Technology is vital for agricultural development. |
C.Competition between small and big farm is fierce. |
D.Small farmers may gain some advantages over big ones. |
A.To gain more financial aid. | B.To hire good farm managers. |
C.To have farms of their own. | D.To win old farmers’ support. |
A.Seek support beyond NYFC. | B.Expand farmland conservation. |
C.Become members of NYFC. | D.Invest more to improve technology. |
7 . A digital footprint is a record of a person’s online activity, and it’s becoming more common for companies to perform social media checks before hiring people, Business News Daily reported.
When posting on social media platforms, some students don’t think enough about how it could affect them in the future. Sometimes students post reckless (鲁莽的) content to their social media profiles without considering the potential consequences: They could be creating a damaging digital footprint that may prevent them from getting hired.
Before determining who to hire, 70 percent of companies screen potential applicants and look at their social media, with 18 percent of employees losing their job due to their social media posts, according to a September 2022 study by CareerBuilder, a company that helps employers hire in the United States. “Sometimes some people’s social media tell a lot more about somebody than an interview,” said Rithika Mothukuri, a senior media studies and production major.
A 17-year-old lost out on a job opportunity after the company performed a background check and saw her videos on TikTok, Buzzfeed reported. Many of the videos shared overly personal stories, which was enough to cost her a job.
Therefore, students should ensure a search for their name doesn’t surface inappropriate content because even one unprofessional post could potentially ruin job opportunities. They should perform a digital declutter if there is such content though it may be very challenging to do that. So the most important is to refrain (避免) from posting content that contributes to a negative image in the first place.
“I never had anything controversial or something that could get me fired from a workplace or school or something, but there are many cases of that happening and we should be learning from their mistakes,” said Kieran Mc Carney, a junior social work major.
While having a clean digital is important, it’s also important that students avoid doing anything that can be considered inappropriate in their real life. In this way, even others cannot post inappropriate images or videos of them on social media.
1. What problem is discussed in the second paragraph?A.Students have too many reckless behaviors in life. |
B.Social media platforms could harm students’ future |
C.Too much inappropriate content is present on social media. |
D.What students post online may damage their images. |
A.To recommend a way of understanding people. |
B.To show interviews have become less important. |
C.To show most companies consider social media content. |
D.To prove companies are cautious when hiring people. |
A.Clear-up. | B.Add-up. | C.Check-in. | D.Take-over. |
A.Content founded on social media platforms is very reliable. |
B.Students should avoid inappropriate behavior in life. |
C.Companies shouldn’t care about people’s personal life. |
D.Students should stop posting anything on social media. |
Whether it is watching television or using computers, teens experience serious physical and mental health
UQ researcher Asad Khan said the
“Psychological complaints from teens included feeling low, nervousness and sleeping difficulty, and physical complaints included headaches, backaches and
Key study findings showed teen boys who watched more than two hours of television per day, compared with those
High computer use for entertainment purposes was also reported to result
“Our findings support existing public health recommendations of
The research
1.简述现象;
2.分析原因(2至3个);
3.发表你的看法。
注意:词数100词左右。
Should Our Parents Accompany Us in Studying?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
10 . In 2019, Gotham Greens opened its 9,300-square-metre Baltimore farm on the former site of Bethlehem Steel, which was the largest steel-manufacturing plant in the world.
Urban populations are projected to increase by 2. 5 billion by 2050.
Florian Payen, an environmental scientist, and his colleagues looked at previous studies done in 53 countries where crops were grown in different urban environments, including “grey” spaces such as rooftops, and by using different growing methods. They found that yields(产量) of urban crops were often the same as those from conventional farms. Just as importantly, they revealed the most commonly-grown types of crops and the most effective growing methods.
It’s known that the benefit of urban farming is a reduction in food miles.
A.But there are other benefits. |
B.Urban agriculture can help feed our growing cities. |
C.It’s well worth investing in rooftop gardens or greenhouses. |
D.The farm was one of the farms the company had set up in cities. |
E.Urban agriculture in any given city can take lots of different forms. |
F.However, urban-grown crops aren’t a more environmentally friendly option. |
G.Surprisingly, they found little difference in overall yields between indoor and outdoor spaces. |