1 . How Young Americans Spend Their Money
Young people have always puzzled their elders. Today’s youngsters are no different; indeed, they are confusing. They have thin wallets and expensive tastes. They prize convenience and a social conscience. They want shopping to be personal.
Their absolute numbers are impressive. The European Union is home to nearly 125m people between the ages of ten (the youngest will become consumers in the next few years) and 34. America has another 110m of these Gen-Zs and millennials, a third of the population. The annual spending of households headed by American Gen-Zs and millennials hit $2.7trn in 2021, around 30% of the total.
The light-speed online world also appears to have lowered tolerances for long delivery times. A study by Salesforce, a business-software giant, found that Gen-Z Americans, who prefer to use their phones to pay for shopping, are the likeliest of all age groups to want their groceries delivered within an hour.
The Internet has also changed how the young discover brands. Print, billboard or TV advertising has given way to social media. Instagram, part of Meta’s empire, and TikTok, a Chinese-owned app, are where the young look for inspiration, particularly for goods where looks matter such as fashion, beauty and sportswear.
A.They desire genuineness while constantly immersed in a digital world. |
B.TikTok’s user-generated videos can lead even tiny brands to speedy viral fame. |
C.The lifestyle of the “moonlight clan” has made many young people feel overwhelmed. |
D.Easy access to means of spreading payments may encourage spending money like water. |
E.A heightened expectation of convenience comes with being raised in the age of Amazon. |
F.These “always-on purchasers” often shift from a weekly shop to quicker fixes of everything from fashion to furniture. |
2 . In the roughly 250 years since the Industrial Revolution, the world’s population, like its wealth, has exploded. Before the end of this century, however, the number of people on the planet could shrink for the first time since the Black Death. The root cause is not an increase in deaths, but a drop in births. Across much of the world the fertility rate, the average number of births per woman, is collapsing. Although the trend may be familiar, its extent and its consequences are not. Even as artificial intelligence (AI) leads to optimism in some quarters, the baby bust (婴儿荒) hangs over the future of the world economy.
Whatever some environmentalists say, a shrinking population creates problems. The world is not close to full and the economic difficulties resulting from fewer young people are many. The obvious one is that it is getting harder to support the world’s pensioners. Retired folk draw on the output of the working-aged, either through the state, which requests taxes on workers to pay public pensions, or by cashing in savings to buy goods and services or because relatives provide care unpaid. But whereas the rich world currently has around three people between 20 and 64 years old for everyone over 65, by 2050 it will have less than two. The implications are higher taxes, later retirements, lower real returns for savers and, possibly, government budget crises.
Low proportion of workers to pensioners are only one problem resulting from collapsing fertility. Younger people have more of what psychologists call “fluid intelligence”, the ability to think creatively so as to solve problems in entirely new ways. This youthful energy adds to the accumulated knowledge of older workers. It also brings change. Patents filed by the youngest inventors are much more likely to cover breakthrough innovations. Older countries and their young people are less enterprising and less comfortable taking risks. Because the old benefit less than the young when economies grow, they have proved less keen on pro-growth policies, especially housebuilding. Creative destruction is likely to be rarer in ageing societies, restricting productivity growth in ways that compound into an enormous missed opportunity.
Eventually, therefore, the world will have to make do with fewer youngsters—and perhaps with a shrinking population. With that in mind, recent advances in AI could not have come at a better time. A productive AI economy might find it easy to support a greater number of retired people. Eventually AI may be able to generate ideas by itself, reducing the need for human intelligence. Combined with robotics, AI may also make caring for the elderly less labour-intensive. Such innovations will certainly be in high demand.
If technology does allow humanity to overcome the baby bust, it will fit the historical pattern. Unexpected productivity advances meant that demographic time-bombs (人口定时炸弹) failed to explode. Fewer babies mean less human genius. But that might be a problem human genius can fix.
1. What can be learned from the first paragraph?A.The collapsing fertility rate is to blame for the shrinking population. |
B.Black Death marked the shrinking number of people for the first time. |
C.Industrial Revolution weakened the increase of the world’s population. |
D.The public are familiar with the extent and the influence of the baby bust. |
A.Close relatives have refused to take care of the old without being paid. |
B.The output of the working-aged which the old can draw on is shrinking. |
C.The old have cashed in savings to cover expenses of goods and services. |
D.The government has requested taxes on younger employees to pay pensions. |
A.Because older workers boast more accumulated knowledge. |
B.Because the old benefit less than the young in creative destruction. |
C.Because collapsing fertility results in low proportion of workers to pensioners. |
D.Because restricting productivity growth compounds into a missed opportunity. |
A.The Old Pensioners Make a Comeback | B.Artificial Intelligence Leads to a Bright Future |
C.The Measures to Overcome the Baby Bust | D.The Effect of the Baby Bust on Economy |
3 . I’m pretty good at sticking with things even when they get hard. Bad relationships, unpleasant workplaces,
After all, isn’t every success story littered with
All of us are constantly making tricky choices between going further into familiar territory and
Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t quit something just because you’ve put a lot of time into it. Economists call this the sunk cost fallacy (谬误): People are more likely to
If you don’t get energy out of doing something, it can be a(n)
In fact, dogged persistence in the face of energy-sucking disappointment can
But the good news is that people can learn to pay better attention to these moments when they’re happening and make
A.engaging | B.demanding | C.inevitable | D.leisure |
A.worsen | B.occur | C.improve | D.continue |
A.frustrations | B.determinations | C.attempts | D.inspirations |
A.Therefore | B.Additionally | C.For example | D.However |
A.amaze | B.scare | C.distress | D.compliment |
A.breaking up | B.looking up | C.standing up | D.backing up |
A.venture | B.specialize | C.explore | D.relax |
A.benefit from | B.approve of | C.stick with | D.withdraw from |
A.evaluate | B.avoid | C.overlook | D.cut |
A.human | B.crazy | C.sensible | D.tricky |
A.indication | B.desire | C.occasion | D.recognition |
A.accomplish | B.upgrade | C.modify | D.maintain |
A.prevent | B.trigger | C.relieve | D.contract |
A.researches | B.choices | C.changes | D.resolutions |
A.shortcut | B.barrier | C.guarantee | D.pathway |
4 . Ideally, childhood is a time of growth and learning, preparing for adulthood and also having fun. But for many children around the world, this time is cut short when they are forced to work, sometimes in dangerous conditions.
As of 2020, around 160 million children worked as child laborers, which means that one child in 10 was a child laborer.
About 79 million children are engaged in hazardous child labor. Sometimes this means the work itself is dangerous because of heavy machinery or exposure to
The primary goal of the World Day Against Child Labor is raising
Child labor and poverty often go hand in hand as parents feel removing their children from school is necessary to earn money for their survival. So, measures meant to fight
Child labor is harmful to children and to communities, since it prevents children from growing into healthy, educated citizens who could make a(n)
A.In addition | B.As a result | C.Above all | D.After all |
A.recognize | B.discover | C.choose | D.consider |
A.Nevertheless | B.Therefore | C.Overall | D.Moreover |
A.distinguished | B.transferred | C.ranged | D.evolved |
A.evaluated | B.classified | C.combined | D.separated |
A.sincerely | B.negatively | C.positively | D.morally |
A.chemicals | B.lights | C.wastes | D.gases |
A.harm | B.pollution | C.exposure | D.danger |
A.value | B.awareness | C.status | D.significance |
A.take place | B.take care | C.take over | D.take action |
A.options | B.questions | C.elements | D.examples |
A.promoting | B.urging | C.challenging | D.adjusting |
A.disease | B.disaster | C.survival | D.poverty |
A.available | B.sustainable | C.accessible | D.advisable |
A.choice | B.difference | C.effort | D.decision |
Japan’s robot revolution in senior care
Japan’s artificial intelligence expertise is transforming the elder care industry, with
The rapidly graying population
The long-standing shortage of professional care workers has encouraged the Japanese government
The Advice Gap
Advice My Parents Gave Me: Go to college and major in what you love.
Advice I Will Give My Kids: Go to college only if you’ll major in science, engineering, or money. It’s a depressing job market, and majoring in English literature or anything with the word English in it has been useless since 1910s.
My Parents: Never show up to a party empty-handed.
Me: Never show up to a party. Send a text to the host twenty minutes before the party starts to say that you’re “sooooooo sorry” to cancel but your stomach is feeling “weird”.
My Parents: To find a job, walk into the offices of ABC News’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” and ask for one.
Me: Apply to jobs via LinkedIn, Zip-Recruiter, or your connections. Write a cover letter and attach your résumé, then manually enter the same information through the company’s portal, which looks as though it were designed in Microsoft Paint. Do this twenty times a day for two years, and you’re bound to make it to a third round of phone interviews before getting ghosted.
My Parents: Learn the difference between a 401(k) (an employer-sponsored defined-contribution pension account) and a Roth I. R. A. (a special retirement account) so that you can start investing early.
Me: Learn the difference between a 401(k) and a Roth I. R. A. so that you can explain it to me.
My Parents: Never wait to do your taxes.
Me: If you wait long enough to do your taxes, there might be a global crisis that forces the federal government to extend the deadline: Then you can wait some more and do them right before the new deadline.
My Parents: Work hard so you can save for retirement.
Me: Retirement is something you’ll read about in your history books under the title “Abstract Ideas”.
My Parents: When we’re gone, look after your siblings and never fight with them over money!
Me: When I’m gone, clear my browser history. Don’t quarrel with your siblings over who gets my monthly ten-cent payments from Medium (an American online publishing platform).
1. Why do you think the author has written this passage?A.To present a better guide for young people today. |
B.To demonstrate the contemporary generation gap. |
C.To exhibit his capability of living a worthy life. |
D.To show his annoyance with his parents’ advice. |
A.Siblings shouldn’t fight with each other over whether to protect their gone parents’ privacy. |
B.Science majors shouldn’t be favored over those related to English in college. |
C.Job seekers should try various means and prepare for depressing prospects. |
D.You should check your stomach first before texting to the host of a party. |
A.saving for retirement may be a thing of the past |
B.the younger generation may inherit the legacy of their parents’ payment bills from Medium in the future |
C.the knowledge about a 401(k) and a Roth I. R. A is so significant for early investment that children should have a good knowledge of it by themselves |
D.doing taxes is absolutely urgent, even allowing for unpredictable economic conditions |
How to Be a Better Boss
Workplaces have changed dramatically over the past few years. Teams have become more isolated owing to remote work. Technology has brought great benefits but also constant interruptions, from endless Zoom calls to message flows on Slack. With each shift, the job of the manager has become harder. Many report feeling burnt-out, overloaded and confused.
Yet in real life everyone suffers when management is bad and benefits when it is good Research based on a long-running survey of management techniques has found that well-managed firms tend to be more productive, export more and spend more on research and development.
So the prize for better management is big. But how to obtain it? Read enough management books and you might conclude that managers need to change their personality thoroughly, becoming either Machiavelli’s prince or a Marvel superhero. However, study successful managers, and more practical lessons can be drawn.
One is to be clear about a firm’s processes. Managers should make clear the purpose of a team, what a meeting should achieve and who will take a decision. Meeting agendas at GSK, a British drugs firm, clearly say whether an item is for awareness, to gather participants’ input or intended to make a decision. Such clarity means that everyone knows what they are doing, and why.
Management isn’t all about piling up tasks, meetings or processes. A second lesson is that managers can add value by deleting. Sparing workers from pointless meetings, emails and projects frees them to concentrate on the work that fattens the bottom line. At the start of the year, Shopify, an e-commerce firm, deleted 12,000 repeated meetings from its employees’ calendars. The useful ones were eventually added back. But the firm says that meetings are down by 14% since the mass deletion while productivity has gone up by a similar amount.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________8 . Early Childhood Education
Early childhood education is the formal teaching and care of young children. It primarily focuses on learning through playing to encourage children’s different kinds of development.
Studies with Head Start programs throughout the United States have shown some evidence that there are quite a few advantages to early childhood education, which can produce significant gains in children’s learning and development. Compared with a child who does not attend pre-school, children completing their early education programs are found to be better at math and reading skills. They are excited to learn and have the tools to do so.
Early childhood education gives most children a jump-start on education for their kindergarten and primary school years. It is clear that early childhood education do a lot of good to children.
A.The long-term influence of early education is significant as well. |
B.They can benefit greatly from encouragement in their early childhood. |
C.Yet its quality must be assessed to see what kind of benefits it actually provides. |
D.They are also able to relate to others in a superior way and that improves their social skills. |
E.Many experts of education, however, are concerned about what early childhood education means today. |
F.It consists of activities that serve children in the pre-school years and is designed to improve later school performance. |
假设你是美国一所中学的学生Sam,最近你班要召开一次主题为“不让霸凌成为青春的一道疤”的班会。根据主题内容,写一篇发言稿(所给材料可供参考)。
Here are the national statistics about bullying in the USA About 20% of students aged 12-18 experienced bullying nationwide. Students aged 12-18 who reported bullied said they thought those who bullied them: -- had the ability to influence other students’ perception of them (56%). -- were physically stronger or larger (40%). -- had more money (31%). | |
Word box: bully v/n 恐吓;伤害;/ 恃强凌弱者 |
Going Hungry in the Land of the Rich
The United States is one of the world’s wealthiest countries. Despite this, many Americans struggle just to put healthy food, or any food at all, on the table every day. One might think that a food shortage
Meanwhile, people who live in poor or rural areas often have little or no access to food. These areas are called “food deserts.” They have fewer supermarkets, and the only food options that they
What can we do to help
The girls set up Fresh Hub with 10 of their classmates,