1 . In Japan many workers for large corporations have a guarantee of lifetime employment. They will not be laid off during recessions or when the tasks they perform. are taken over by robots. To some observers, this is capitalism at its best, because workers are treated as people not things. Others see it as necessarily inefficient and believe it cannot continue if Japan is to remain competitive with foreign corporations more concerned about profits and less concerned about people.
Defenders of the system argue that those who call it inefficient do not understand how it really works. In the first place not every Japanese worker has the guarantee of a lifetime job. The lifetime employment system includes only “regular employees”. Many employees do not fall into this category, including all women. All businesses have many part-time and temporary employees. These workers are hired and laid off during the course of the business cycle just as employees in the United States are. These “irregular workers” make up about 10 percent of the nonagricultural work force. Additionally, Japanese firms maintain some flexibility through the extensive use of subcontractors. This practice is much more common in Japan than in the United States.
The use of both subcontractors and temporary workers has increased markedly in Japan since the 1974 — 1975 recession. All this leads some to argue that the Japanese system is not all that different from the American system. During recessions Japanese corporations lay off temporary workers and give less business to subcontractors. In the United States, corporations lay off those workers with the least seniority. The difference then is probably less than the term “lifetime employment” suggests, but there still is a difference. And this difference cannot be understood without looking at the values of Japanese society. The relationship between employer and employee cannot be explained in purely contractual terms. Firms hold on to the employees and employees stay with one firm. There are also practical reasons for not jumping from job to job. Most retirement benefits come from the employer. Changing jobs means losing these benefits. Also, teamwork is an essential part of Japanese production. Moving to a new firm means adapting to a different team and at least temporarily, lower productivity and lower pay.
1. according to the passage, a woman in Japan ________.| A．cannot get a lifetime job | B．is impossible to get a part time job |
| C．will be employed for life | D．is among the regular workers |
| A．They don’t want to lose their retirement benefits. |
| B．They are not adaptable people. |
| C．Any change of jobs will make them less paid. |
| D．They get used to the team work. |
| A．Those who want to change jobs frequently in Japan should think twice. |
| B．Those who are first laid off by American corporations are temporary workers. |
| C．The use of subcontractors makes Japan films less flexible |
| D．The Japanese system is totally different from the American system |
Complaining: The Happiness Killer
In 15th-century Germany, there was an expression: Greiner, Zanner, which can be translated as “a chronic (长期的) complainer.” Are you a bit of a Greiner, Zanner? If so, you’re not alone. Survey data show that customers today are more than twice as likely to complain about a product or service as they were in 1976. A U. K.-based survey also observed a rise in job dissatisfaction over a two-year period before autumn 2022.
Complaints can be grouped into different categories. As is reported, 45 percent of complaints concern the behavior of others. For instance, parents repeatedly criticize their children for small issues like messy bedrooms or dirty clothes. Another 29 percent focus on personal discomfort. A common complaint in this category might be about feeling too hot in a room without air conditioner. The remaining 26 percent involve unpleasant obligations like unnecessary work meetings people are forced to attend.
The problem with all of these complaints is that it can feel helpful — but it typically isn’t . Although complaining might offer temporary relief, it’s bad for your happiness in the long run. Researchers who measured people’s mood before and after they complained found that those complainers’ mood was significantly worsening. Besides, complaining can also lower the happiness of the people around you. In some relationships, the negative effect can pass like a virus to those exposed. In other words, when people see others’ complaints expressing anger, disgust and sadness, they can, in turn, feel similar emotions.
As the 20th-century Bulgarian philosopher Archimandrite Seraphim Aleksiev observed, “Complaining is like the winter frost which, when it falls, destroys all the labors of the gardeners.”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________3 . Both my parents worked for 30-plus years for their employers — they had lifelong careers at a single company. Growing up, they taught me the importance of “loyalty” and “commitment”.
But in a rapidly changing world, the concept of a job for life has become as rare as a dial-up internet connection. This shift from stable, long-term employment and single-employer careers to a world where frequent job changes are the norm comes directly from globalisation, rapid technological advancements and the changing ideas about work.
Globalisation has turned the world economy into a giant, interconnected web. This has made job markets fiercely competitive and talent and opportunities in the labour market more diverse and digitally accessible.
Jobs can be widely publicised and explored online and are no longer tied to your city of birth. Add to this the rapid technological progress. We now live in a world where the skills you learned yesterday might not be enough for today’s job market.
The job market is transforming, with new careers emerging as automation and artificial intelligence (AI) advances. Risks and price policies can be efficiently assessed using AI, making insurance underwriters redundant while advanced software in banking and finance mean data analysis can be automated.
Online booking has reduced demand for travel agents and desktop publishers are being replaced by user-friendly software, which allows people to create their own materials. These changes highlight the need for professionals to update their skills and adapt to a technologically evolving job market.
As a result, career paths have become fluid and multi-directional. It’s no longer just about climbing the corporate ladder and getting a regular paycheck; it’s about exploring different paths, switching jobs and industries and sometimes even venturing into freelancing and the gig economy.
Loyalty is defined as an employee’s commitment to their organisation and its goals. It means a willingness to put in extra effort and to uphold the company’s values and objectives. Loyal workers often identify strongly with their workplace, are reliable and view the organisation positively, even during tough times.
When long-term employees change workplaces, it does not mean they are disloyal. It signifies a change in priorities and a redefined loyalty bond. Employees are loyal to their employer and its interests while working there. But they also seek mutual growth and expect to be recognised and rewarded.
Career paths are now a kaleidoscope (万花筒) of experiences and opportunities. Instead of a career identity being about a company brand, it is about skills, experiences and the meaningfulness of the work. This transformation means career decision-making is more intricate, considering personal aspirations, market trends and family considerations.
1. What factors have contributed to the shift in job market dynamics?| A．Increased reliance on desktop publishing software. |
| B．Changing ideas about loyalty and commitment. |
| C．The decreasing demand for travel agents due to online booking systems. |
| D．Globalization, rapid technological advancements, and evolving work concepts. |
| A．Skills related to desktop publishing. |
| B．Skills that were relevant yesterday. |
| C．Skills in data analysis and adaptability. |
| D．Skills in insurance underwriting. |
| A．By remaining with a single employer for their entire career. |
| B．By prioritizing personal growth and recognition. |
| C．By relying on traditional definitions of loyalty. |
| D．By avoiding job changes to maintain loyalty. |
| A．Forget About a Job for Life |
| B．Learn More as Much as You Can |
| C．Benefit from Long-term Employment |
| D．The Impact of Globalization |
4 . Alipay, the digital payment arm of Chinese financial technology company Ant Group, is allocating more resources to roll out translation services in 16 languages, to ensure foreigners in China can use mobile payments without any hurdles.
Alipay’s move comes amid China’s intensified efforts to further improve foreigners’ payment
Alipay has allowed foreigners in China to link their
Users of 10 overseas e-wallets are also able to use their familiar home e-wallets on their own phones by
According to Alipay, foreigners can use the app to complete payments at restaurants, hotels, scenic spots, convenience stores and supermarkets, as well as for ride-hailing, shared bikes, buses and other public
The mobile payment app has also
The State Council, China’s Cabinet, published a guideline on improving payment services and
Last week, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank,
Wang Pengbo, a senior analyst at market consultancy Botong Analysys, said the intensified efforts to provide convenient payment services will not only
Wang said the move demonstrates the country’s resolve to expand high-standard opening-up,
Meanwhile, Chinese banks are taking measures to expand the
Dong said more efforts are needed to expand the scenarios of various types of payment methods at tourist attractions, sporting events, transportation hubs, healthcare and beauty centers and other daily
| A．expectations | B．memorizations | C．experiences | D．durations |
| A．international | B．domestic | C．interior | D．commercial |
| A．copying | B．photographing | C．sharing | D．scanning |
| A．transportation | B．security | C．education | D．maintenance |
| A．evolved | B．launched | C．specialized | D．simplified |
| A．decreased | B．restricted | C．suspended | D．raised |
| A．implementing | B．enhancing | C．administrating | D．subscribing |
| A．diversified | B．facilitated | C．digitalized | D．conflicted |
| A．purchased | B．authorized | C．released | D．commercialized |
| A．designs | B．illustrations | C．instructions | D．imagery |
| A．significantly | B．artificially | C．individually | D．frequently |
| A．gateway | B．industry | C．deadline | D．term |
| A．developing | B．monitoring | C．securing | D．adding |
| A．recognition | B．acceptance | C．regulation | D．policy |
| A．construction | B．application | C．production | D．consumption |
5 . Growing up in the 80s as a child with lots of siblings, I played in the street until dark or until we were called for dinner. We had an amazing community of neighbours. However, one elderly neighbour hated us. Every time the football went into her garden, she would confiscate it – and then pop the ball. When she collected over 20 deflated footballs, she would take them down to the police station and complain. To her, at least, free and active children were a pest and a disgrace.
Actually, at that time, nothing but one stopped us playing: the shattering of a window and the scream of a parent coming outside to tell us off. On reflection, I was probably part of the last generation of children to play outside regularly. Now in London, the estate I live in is covered with historic signs saying: “No ball games”.
The signs function as a play ban for children. Even during the summer, there are only a couple of rebels who dare to play football on the street. They get my nod and a kick of the ball back when it comes in my direction.
The problem is, many people don’t know that these signs are not enforceable by law: they are simply a request from local housing associations.
Of course, if people are kicking the ball against someone’s house or out on the streets making noise late at night, it would be considered criminal damage and antisocial behaviour – and quite right. But most of the time the signs are just preventing children from playing.
The London Sport charity has recommended that these signs are removed. I agree - let’s burn them all. But I do think it is simplistic to imagine banning the signs will combat a national obesity epidemic.
The Active Lives Survey shows that just 47% of children in England are getting the recommended 60 minutes or more of sport and physical activity a day. Removing “No ball games” signs doesn’t mean that the other 53% of children will feel motivated to venture outside and play.
The Active Lives Survey also suggests that boys are more likely to be active than girls. Perhaps boys are still given more activity opportunities. The Lionesses(英格兰女足)win at the Euros football tournament highlighted the lack of opportunities for girls in football and inequitable sports curriculums in schools.
Children and young people of black, Asian and other minority ethnicities are least likely to be active. Perhaps because racism in sport is alive and kicking?
In addition, access to sport and physical activity is a social justice issue that depends on location and financial circumstances. For a child from an economically disadvantaged background, who lives in a high-rise flat with little green space around, the costs and practicalities of participating in sport are prohibitive. For example, a weekend tennis court costs anywhere between £10 and £27, without travel or equipment.
So, while we can burn all the “No ball games” signs in the country, the real barrier to combating low activity levels in children is social inequality. What really needs to happen to get our children moving?
1. What does the underlined word “confiscate” in Paragraph 1 mean in the context?| A．Collect something as a hobby | B．Take something away as a punishment |
| C．Destroy something due to being annoyed | D．Remove and make something disappear |
| A．Because children prefer indoor activities. |
| B．Because boys are more active than girls. |
| C．Because access to physical activity is influenced by social inequality. |
| D．Because of the lack of interest in sports among children. |
| A．Removing the signs will directly address the issue of low activity levels. |
| B．Social inequality is the primary barrier to increasing children’s activity levels. |
| C．Boys are more likely to play sports than girls due to cultural biases. |
| D．Racism in sports is a significant factor in preventing children from being active. |
| A．The author reminisces about their childhood and the changes in outdoor play. |
| B．The ineffectiveness of “No ball games” signs in encouraging physical activity among children. |
| C．The impact of social inequality on children’s access to physical activity. |
| D．The author’s support for removing “No ball games” signs but recognition of deeper issues. |
| A．The history of Chinese New Year celebrations. |
| B．The debate over banning fireworks during Chinese New Year. |
| C．The environmental impact of fireworks. |
| D．The cultural significance of the Spring Festival. |
| A．Over 80 percent of people support fireworks. |
| B．Most people believe fireworks bans are necessary. |
| C．There are few objections to fireworks bans. |
| D．The majority of people prefer quiet celebrations during the festival. |
| A．Limited enforcement resources. |
| B．Public resistance leading to unrest. |
| C．Economic concerns from manufacturers. |
| D．Environmental activism pressures lawmakers. |
7 . Martha Stewart was charged, tried and convicted of a crime in 2014. As she neared the end of her prison sentence, a well-known columnist wrote that she was “paying her dues,” and that “there is simply no reason for anyone to attempt to deny her right to start anew. ”
At least 65 million people in the United States have a criminal record. This can result in severe penalties (惩罚) that continue long after punishment is completed.
Many of these penalties are imposed regardless of the seriousness of the offense or the person’s individual circumstances.
In all, more than 45,000 laws and rules serve to exclude vast numbers of people from fully participating in American life. Some laws make senses. No one advocates letting someone convicted of pedophilia (恋童癖) work in a school.
These laws are also counterproductive (适得其反), since they make it harder for people with criminal records to find housing or a job, two key factors that reduce backsliding. A recent report makes several recommendations, including the abolition of most post-conviction penalties, except for those specifically needed to protect public safety.
The point isn’t to excuse or forget the crime. Rather, it is to recognize that in America’s vast criminal justice system, and second chances are crucial. It is in no one's interest to keep a large segment of the population on the margins of society.
| A．Criminals should pay the price of finding housing or a job and getting qualifications for benefits. |
| B．Surely, the American ideal of second chances shouldn’t be reserved only for the rich and powerful. |
| C．But too often collateral (附随的) consequences bear no relation to public safety. |
| D．Where the penalties are not a must, they should be imposed only if the facts of a case support it. |
| E．American’s vast criminal justice system provides criminals with necessary support for living. |
| F．Laws can restrict or ban voting, access to public housing, and professional and business licensing. |
8 . THE GLOBAL WASTE TRADE IS ESSENTIALLY BROKEN
Cut into hillside in northern Malaysia stands a large, open-air warehouse. This is a recycling factory, which opened last November. On a very hot afternoon in January, Shahid Ali was working his very first week on the job. He stood knee-deep in soggy, white bits of plastic. Around him, more bits floated of the conveyor belt and fell to the ground like snowflakes.
Hour after hour, Ali sorts through the plastic jumble moving down the belt, picking out pieces that look off-color or soiled-rejects (废品) in the recycling process. Though it looks like backbreaking work, Ali says it is a great improvement over his previous job, folding bed-sheets in a nearby textile factory, for much lower pay. Now, if he eats simply, he can save money from his wages of just over $l an hour and send $250 a month to his parents and six brothers and sisters in Peshawar, Pakistan, 2,700 miles away, “As soon as I heard about this work, I asked for a job,” says Ali, 24, a bearded man with glasses and an easy smile. Still, he’s working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. “If I take a day off, I lose a day’s wages,” he says.
In the warehouse, hundreds of bags are stacked more than 60 feet high-each stuffed with plastic wrappers and bags thrown away weeks earlier by their original users in California. The fact that the waste has traveled to this distant corner of the planet in the first place shows how badly the global recycling economy has failed to keep pace with humanity’s plastics addiction. This is an ecosystem that is deeply dysfunctional, if not on the point of collapse: About 90% of the millions of tons of plastic the world produces every year will eventually end up not recycled, but burned, buried, or dumped.
Plastic recycling enjoys ever-wider support among consumers: Putting yogurt containers and juice bottles in a blue bin is an eco-friendly act of faith in millions of households. But faith goes only so far. The tidal wave of plastic items that enters the recycling stream each year is increasingly likely to fall right back out again, casualties of a broken market. Many products that consumers believe (and industries claim) are “recyclable" are in reality not, because of hard economics. With oil and gas prices near 20-year lows, so-called virgin plastic, a product of petroleum feed-stocks, is now far cheaper and easier to obtain than recycled material. That unforeseen shift has yanked the financial rug out from under what was until recently a practical recycling industry. “The global waste trade is essentially broken,” says the head of the global plastics campaign at Greenpeace. “We are sitting on vast amounts of plastic with nowhere to send it and nothing to do with it.”
1. What is the author’s attitude towards Shahid Ali?| A．Critical. | B．Merciless. | C．Indifferent. | D．Sympathetic. |
| A．The prices of oil and gas have been increasing. |
| B．Tons of wastes travel so far before being recycled. |
| C．Recyclable products are not really recycled. |
| D．Governments don’t support the recycling industry. |
| A．Out of stock. | B．Far from pleased. | C．Full of energy. | D．Out of order. |
| A．To illustrate how plastic waste has been recycled in the world. |
| B．To warn people that the global waste trade is essentially broken. |
| C．To analyze the relationship between consumers and factories. |
| D．To solve the conflict between the recycling industry and governments. |
| A. engage B. assess C. combination D. intentions E. refresh F. understanding G. relaxed H. consciously I. return J. threatens K. regretfully |
“Dealing with money is a basic life skill”
Why financial transactions are about relationships and why the
quality of the relationship is more important than the transaction itself.
British psychologist, William Bloom, has long argued that society would benefit if money flowed more freely-if, for example, people regularly give part of their salaries or profits to charity.
When you say, “Money should flow more freely,” what do you mean?
“There are two metaphors that I like to use for money. One is the energy of the environment and human nature. Money represents a(n)
Money still isn’t flowing freely.
A lot of it is dammed up in banks and in the hands of a small percentage of extremely wealthy individuals. “We have to build a society in which we are not threatened by each other. The gap between the rich and the poor
How can we deal with money in a healthier way?
“When it comes to money, there is a lot of naiveté. Children need to be taught in school that dealing with money is a basic life skill. They need to be able to read a bank statement in a(n)
Another form of flow is giving. Can that be a kind of spiritual practice?
“Humans are paradoxical beings. It is possible to have pure
Bob’s problems began during his formative years. His parents got divorced when he was young, and neither of his parents wanted to raise him or his brother and sister, so he
Unfortunately, his foster father was a strict authoritarian and often beat him. Bob rebelled against this strict upbringing, and by the time he was eight years old, he
This has raised some interesting questions about the modern family system.
In fact, many people believe that we
