Several studies in recent years have suggested that ride-sharing services like Uber can
The new study,
Overall, the researchers reported that ride-sharing trips now result in an estimate 69% more climate pollution on average than the
One of the big reasons they give for this result is that usually ride-sharing vehicles
The study urges services like Uber
2 . Three young American men were on a crowded train when they came across a dangerous robber. Ignoring their personal safety, they rushed the robber and controlled him. Only some people seem capable of this sudden form of heroism (英雄主义). Why some men rise to the occasion — and others don’t — has been a bit difficult to explain. Psychologists have explored this question through biological and personality psychology.
Of course, heroism and courage can appear in many forms, and men and women risk their reputation (名声), health, and social recognition to do what they think is right. When it comes to physically risky bravery, people assume that men will take the lead. There are sound biological reasons for this fixed image. One of the most common fears in men is that they will be viewed as a coward (懦夫), and a man who fails to display physical courage will suffer damage to his reputation in a way that a woman will not. Throughout history, gaining a higher position among peers (同龄人) has been the ticket that needs to get punched for a man to attract future wife and father children.
People tend to have an idea of what heroes are like. When rating (打分) the personalities of movie heroes, participants expected them to be more hard-working, open to experience, approachable, and emotionally stable than the average person. But some studies suggest that people who show heroic behavior usually have the personalities of madmen: risk-taking, coolness under stress, and an eagerness to take over in social situations.
The study of the relationship between personality and heroism is at an early stage. Psychologists are still at a loss to predict in advance who will heroically step up when needed. Often, the hero is an otherwise ordinary person who finds himself on an extraordinary occasion. Meanwhile, some individuals trained to behave heroically might hesitate in a dangerous situation. Various factors like identities, occasions and specific training will influence the final heroism. Hopefully, the right mix of occasion and personalities enable courage to carry the day.
1. How is the topic introduced in the first paragraph?| A．By presenting an idea. | B．By giving an example. |
| C．By making a comparison. | D．By drawing a conclusion. |
| A．Be bought. | B．Be returned. | C．Be abandoned. | D．Be gained. |
| A．Heroes are born, not made. |
| B．Heroic acts only appear in a specific crisis. |
| C．Individual personality is not a dependable sign of heroism. |
| D．Heroism is a phenomenon influenced by numerous factors. |
| A．How Are Heroes Trained? | B．Why Are Heroes Important? |
| C．Who Are the True Heroes? | D．What Makes a Person Heroic? |
3 . Whenever he can, 15-year-old Elliot Morgan practices basketball in his backyard. He says it’s a good stress-reliever. But it wasn’t that long ago that he didn’t have time for this new hobby. “There were times in the summer when I would spend four or five hours a day on my phone,” he says. When school started in the fall, Morgan found himself scrolling (划屏) as soon as he woke up. “I realize I start to avoid workouts because I’m on my phone,” he says. “It’s affecting my focus.”
It has become clear that social media is a key player in many drivers of unhealthy habits. Social media apps are designed to encourage overuse, and teenagers are more likely to be influenced because their brains are at an important period of development that makes it harder to be free from temptation (诱惑). All of this makes limiting use more challenging — even for families who set rules.
“It’s a really big problem,” says Elliot’s mom, Alyssa. She was shocked when she discovered Elliot had bypassed parental controls and was spending five hours a day on social media. “I asked him, ‘Can you just take a look and see? Just tell me what you think. Does this feel good to you?’” she says.
Elliot hadn’t realized how many hours he was on social media. And he was at a loss. With his mother’s help, he tried to start cutting back. After several months, he decided to delete (删除) social media apps altogether. “After that, I actually sleep enough and feel better,” he says. He’s now closer with his friends because they spend more time talking instead of scrolling. And joining school clubs has also helped him reduce time on his phone.
1. What can we learn about Elliot from the first paragraph?| A．He is always late for class. | B．He used to work out early. |
| C．He likes football at school. | D．He lost himself in his phone. |
| A．They tend to develop bad habits. | B．They will take up more challenges. |
| C．They can improve reading skills. | D．They find it hard to make friends. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Positive. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Lonely. | B．Simple. | C．Enjoyable. | D．Difficult. |
4 . Childhood can bring a lot of awe (敬畏). Research also suggests that awe is important in promoting well-being beyond our individual lives — it can encourage our children to care for others.
A recent study by researchers Eftychia Stamkou, Keltner, and their colleagues invited children aged 8-13 to take part in an experiment. In the awe group, children were offered a short part of a movie that features a child transformed into a seal (海豹) and exploring the sea while in the joy group, children were offered a short part of another movie where friends were celebrating.
Researchers measured children’s kindness toward poor families by inviting children to support their food drive by spending as much time as they wanted in counting donated things, to make sure the poor got access to the donated food as quickly as possible. They also invited children to donate the reward they earned from taking part in the research (e.g., a snack or a museum ticket) to a poor family.
The results? Children who watched the awe-inspiring video spent more time counting food donations and donated their rewards to poor families more often compared to the children who watched the joy-inspiring video. These findings highlight that awe-inspiring art can motivate children to be sympathetic toward people who have been forcibly displaced (离开家园) from their countries of origin.
As parents, we can also seek out everyday experiences of awe in our communities to share with our children, like wall paintings of the city scenery and folk art. Awe can be inspired by music, like the harmonious sounds of a wooden guitar and the beat of a drum. Awesome architecture, like symphony halls, museums, and even features like staircases, can be a way to experience awe with our children.
1. What does the research find?| A．Awe should be inspired early. | B．Awe helps kids be more generous. |
| C．Individual lives affect kids’ health. | D．Training awe gives kids excitement. |
| A．They watched different movies. | B．They commented on the videos. |
| C．They were asked some questions. | D．They donated money to poor families. |
| A．They learned this from a video. | B．They were motivated by the movie. |
| C．They liked to contribute to charity. | D．They were reminded by the homeless. |
| A．Give reasons for feeling awe. | B．List experiences of awe. |
| C．Show benefits of awe to kids. | D．Appeal for developing awe in kids. |
Each year on July 17th, the world comes together to celebrate World Emoji Day, an annual event
Besides, emojis now include
The popularity of emojis has even led
All in all, whether you’re sending a heart emoji to express love
6 . An increase in a country’s working-age population is a blessing. Lots of workers support relatively few children and retired people. So long as the labor market can absorb an increasing number of job-seekers, output per head will rise. That can boost savings and investment, leading to higher economic growth, more productivity gains and developmental speed-up. Yet for countries that fail to seize this opportunity, the results can be tough.
Consider Thailand. It is rapidly aging. In 2021, the share of Thais aged 65 or over hit 14%, a figure that is often used to define an aged society Soon Thailand will, like Japan, South Korea and most Western countries, see a decreasing supply of workers and flagging productivity and growth without extraordinary measures. Yet unlike Japan and the rest. Thailand is not a developed country. It has got old before it has got rich.
This is a big barrier to Thailand’s future development. To protect its aging citizens, many of whom are poor, Thailand’s government will have to spend more on health care and pensions (养老金). This will make it harder to invest in productivity-boosting skills and infrastructure (基础设施). And where Thailand goes, many developing countries will follow.
One conclusion is that countries with a working-age burst need seeking more economic growth out of it. India may never have a better chance than the present. It is widely accepted that privatization and looser foreign-investment rules could raise its growth rate.
Another conclusion is that developing countries need to start planning for old age earlier. They should reform their pension systems, including by raising retirement ages. They should encourage financial markets, providing options for long-term saving and health insurance. And they should try harder to increase female participation in the labor force. Getting more women into jobs would help deal with the fact that women live longer than men, but tend to have less savings and pensions, leaving them in difficult situations in old age.
1. What does “opportunity” in the first paragraph refer to?| A．Providing more jobs for working-age laborers. |
| B．Reducing support for children and the elderly. |
| C．Encouraging investment for economic growth. |
| D．Increasing economic output and labor productivity. |
| A．It causes a shortage of young workers. |
| B．It forces the country to invest in infrastructure. |
| C．It leads to less investment in economic development. |
| D．It increases the burden on the working-age population. |
| A．To extend women’s retirement ages. |
| B．To encourage women to be included in health insurance. |
| C．To equalize the number of men and women in the workplace. |
| D．To settle the conflict between women’s long lifespan and small pension. |
| A．Aging Problems in Developing Countries. |
| B．Planning Ahead for Aging Societies. |
| C．Challenges and Opportunities of Aging Societies. |
| D．The Role of Female Labors in Addressing the Aging Issue. |
During the May Day holiday, many Chinese people went out for travel,
Aside from traditional popular destinations, county tourism has developed into a new fashion and brought in new vitality (活力) into the tourism market. The tourism growth rate of small counties and towns is higher. Data from Alipay showed that many young
Tourists’ continuous enthusiasm for domestic travel is also proved by other factors, such as the number of short videos
Furthermore, the inbound (入境的) tourism market is further heating up as visa-free policies and easy payment services provide
8 . In early 2023, OpenAI’s ChatGPT brought a new age—one in which artificial intelligence (AI) went from a dream to an issue for workers. Many workers may have believed that burger-flipping (翻汉堡包的) robots in fast food restaurants would be the first to be replaced by AI tools. Yet the light-speed use of AI tools may now mean knowledge-work jobs that were long considered “safe” could be endangered even faster than workers expected.
Robots that act like AI coworkers are on the way—and in some cases, they’re already here. In early December 2023, Artisan AI—a startup founded by Jaspar Carmichae-Jack—showed its first “Artisan”, an AI-powered digital worker called “Ava” who will work as a saleswoman. “She can make suggestions, edit campaigns, join meetings and take notes,” Carmichael-Jack says. “Our goal is to have Artisans working alongside humans directly and have cohesion (凝聚力), and we want the boring work to be moved onto the Artisan, which doesn’t have feelings about whether something is boring or difficult.”
Although AI technology is already shaking the workforce, “we’re still at the beginning” when it comes to AI fully combined into the workplace, says Erik Brynjolfsson, a Stanford University professor. He says as AI plays a more important role in economical fields, it should increase output and money for businesses. The question, however, is what the human toll of that growth will be, particularly in terms of job losses.
Whether the workers are reduced by AI technologies will be a choice. Workers will need to have the right to decide how AI is introduced and used in some industries. One example of this is the agreement between the Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood studios that sets limits on the use of AI in film and television production. The question is whether other industries will follow the example to protect their workers’ living.
1. What can be learned about knowledge workers?| A．They have experienced greater creativity. | B．They have used the AI at the speed of light. |
| C．They may be at the risk of replacement by AI. | D．They may have a safer working environment. |
| A．They will assist salesmen in their daily work. | B．They will become members of a human team. |
| C．They will assess the difficulty level of a task. | D．They will make boring work more interesting. |
| A．Interest. | B．Contribution. | C．Action. | D．Suffering. |
| A．AI should be forbidden in movies and television production. |
| B．Workers should have a say when using AI in some industries. |
| C．Industries should work hard to protect their workers’ living. |
| D．AI-related agreements should be reached as soon as possible. |
In today’s world, technology has become a necessary part of our lives. However, with the increasing
One of the concerns that technology poses (造成)
Another concern comes from balancing our virtual and real relationships. We can
Navigating responsible technology use is
10 . Some educators are trying to draw students’ attention with technology, such as educational videos, computer gaming and AI, just to name a few. However, teachers using these tools often struggle to keep students focusing on the materials, competing with the latest social media phenomenon, and can feel limited by using them to get some knowledge across.
Graphic novels (图画小说) offering graphic information married with text provide a means of attracting students in the classroom. Educators have used this method in their teaching. For example, instead of filling out problem sheets, students in a math class were asked to read a story called Who Killed Professor X?. In this story, all of the suspects (嫌疑人) are famous mathematicians. As they tried to figure out the connections between the suspects, students often forgot that they were doing math — focusing instead on finding secret details to solve the problem. Although this is just one experience for these students, it improves their confidence and shows them how math can be fun.
Jason Ho, a professor at Marian University, uses Max the Demon Vs Entropy of Doom to teach his physics students about a topic. This topic can be particularly difficult for some students because they can’t physically touch something. Ho said graphic novels can create an attractive learning environment. Most of his students now understand the subject by getting clear explanations for some ideas.
Although the Internet offers a lot of math and physics resources (资源), it can be tiring to search through many hours of videos to find the perfect one to get the “aha!” moment in learning. Graphic novels provide a starting point with different specific topics. Want to learn about programming? Try the Secret Coders series. Need more female role models in science? Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier could be just what you’re looking for.
With all that graphic novels offer, we believe that the right set of graphic novels can inspire future scientists as much as any single person can.
1. What problem are some teachers faced with?| A．Teaching students to learn self-control. |
| B．Helping students master high-tech knowledge. |
| C．Ensuring the teaching effectiveness of using technology. |
| D．Making all the students take an active part in learning. |
| A．They can make learning more enjoyable. |
| B．They serve the field of math the best. |
| C．They require students to learn through performance. |
| D．They lead students to work hard on problem sheets. |
| A．Surprised. | B．Doubtful. | C．Supportive. | D．Concerned. |
| A．Graphic novels suitable for students |
| B．The great popularity of graphic novels |
| C．How technology influences students’ learning |
| D．Why we should use graphic novels in teaching |
