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 . Thailand has somtam, India has bhel puri and South Africa has a snack of bunny chow. They are some of the most famous street foods in these countries. Around 2.5 billion people eat street food around the world. The significance of street food culture is obvious in the following areas.
●Cultural identity
Street food identifies community and tradition, keeping alive one of the most important aspects of local culture — the eating habits of the people.
●Employment and business opportunities
●Food accessibility
The significance of street food culture also includes improved access to food across countries, including their poor communities. Since the cooks have low operation costs, street foods are low in price.
In a word, support for street food businesses could help to preserve culturally significant recipes, provide employment opportunities and supply low-cost food options.
A.However, the industry has developed without outside assistance. |
B.The street food industry has offered new positions for low-income people. |
C.And the owners can also aid small farms by buying ingredients from them. |
D.Street food culture is able to create a connection within specific communities. |
E.Making laws to ensure the safety of street foods is important for public health. |
F.Thus, people with little income can depend on street foods every day to support themselves. |
G.Additionally, the street food industry protects traditional recipes that are passed down through generations. |
3 . If you had to use one word to define yourself, what would it be? Imagine trying to summarize your entire being in just one word or two — a challenging task indeed. Labels, like “confident” or “creative”, may suggest certain aspects, but they can never fully capture the richness and depth of a person’s character.
Labels take on an “all-or-nothing” meaning. Someone either is something, or they’re not. The biggest problem with labeling people is that it oversimplifies their complex nature. Using labels infers people’s current behavior is fixed, but people change. As they learn, they grow, and someone we think of in a certain way today might not remain the same in a few months or years. When we label people, we deny their complexity, their right to change, and their richness as human beings.
Furthermore, labels can become self-fulfilling prophecies (预言). When people are constantly told they are a certain way, they may start to remember these labels and act accordingly. This hinders their potential for growth and development, as they may feel trapped by social expectations. For example, if parents label a child as “annoying” or “a complainer”, the child may feel their needs aren’t important. Over time, being ignored for complaining too much can lead the child to believe that expressing their needs is not acceptable. Consequently, their self-perception (自我认知) may suffer, and they may even start to devalue themselves as a result.
Linguist Benjamin Whorf once argued that the words we use to describe what we see are rarely objective, as they carry personally prejudice. Labels can be harmful because they can reduce individuals to a single characteristic or stereotype (刻板印象). Therefore, we should be mindful of the language we use and the labels we attach to people. By adopting a more open view of life, people, and events, we can appreciate the richness and diversity of human experience, and cope with the complexities of our interconnected world.
1. What is the biggest problem with labeling people?A.It expresses a subjective opinion. | B.It denies the complexity of humans. |
C.It overstates people’s shortcomings. | D.It ignores goodness in human nature. |
A.Exposes. | B.Cultivates. | C.Restricts. | D.Determines. |
A.To present the bad effects of labeling on people. |
B.To show the importance of using language skillfully. |
C.To prove people’s natural tendency for being prejudiced. |
D.To encourage people to take an open-minded perspective. |
A.Stop Labeling People |
B.Define Yourself Objectively |
C.Children Suffer a Lot from Labels |
D.Different Individuals Diversify the World |
4 . Many economists predict 2024 will be the time shoppers tighten their belts. That doesn’t mean people will stop spending, say retail (零售) analysts. But it will change what they choose to buy. With a slowing job market, global consumers are likely to move away from more high-priced purchases and focus instead on smaller, less expensive treats.
The economic uncertainty means that consumers are becoming more discriminating about their purchases, says Ethan Chermofsky, senior vice president of marketing at intelligence platform Placer. ai. “There are the things we decide are necessary, and then there’s another category of things that aren’t necessary but that we consider affordable luxuries, he says. This desire for these “affordable luxuries” is common in difficult economic times. Some economists refer to the phenomenon as the “lipstick index”: a small economic increase led by budget-minded consumers seeking out relatively affordable splurges (挥霍), like small cosmetics (化妆品).
Analysts at Deloitte say consumers will spend on little luxuries like specialty coffees and snacks as well. Additionally, stressed-out shoppers are prioritizing small splurge purchases for wellness and personal care.
As retailers see shoppers turning to little luxuries, they’re offering more and more of them. Target, for example, has staked a flag in what they refer to as “affordable joy”, which includes a selection of self-care and cosmetic products, along with wellness-centric beauty products. Beyond diversifying their offerings, stores are also bringing in luxury-feeling products at lower price points to appeal to more consumers.
Ethan says not every shopper will shift their spending to little luxuries-but even those who are still longing for the “must-haves” of social media will also look to get a deal. They want the feeling of purchasing lower-priced affordable treats. To get these goods, shoppers are likely to tap into the re-sale market for designer items at a more reasonable price. They want things that make them feel good about themselves-they just want to do it without breaking the bank.
1. What can affordable luxuries be?A.Inexpensive daily necessities. | B.High-end products. |
C.Reasonably-priced designer items. | D.High-priced purchases. |
A.The strategies retailers use. | B.The joy businesses offer. |
C.The competition stores face. | D.The products consumers buy. |
A.Social-media deals. | B.World-famous brands. |
C.Second-hand bargains. | D.Budget-friendly pleasures. |
A.Lipstick Index: Where Does It Lead Us? | B.Must-have Treats: A Future Spending Trend |
C.Affordable Joy: Will We Fall Into The Trap? | D.Little Luxuries: A Driving Force Behind Consumption |
1.介绍此次的调查结果;
2.发表你对国货的看法。
注意:
1. 词数80左右;
2.短文的首句已给出,不计入总词数。
A recent survey shows why young people have a preference for domestic brands when purchasing electronic products.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________6 . Migration (迁移) has become a flashpoint for debate in many countries. But research from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) finds that it generates significant economic benefits and more effective integration (融合) of immigrants (移民) could increase those benefits.
Moving more labor to higher-productivity settings boosts global GDP. Immigrants of all skill levels contribute to this effect, whether through entrepreneurship (创业) or through freeing up natives for higher-value work. In fact, immigrants make up just 3. 4 percent of the world’s population, but MGI’ research finds that they contribute nearly 10 percent of global GDP. They contributed roughly $6.7 trillion to global GDP in 2015 — some $3 trillion more than they would have produced in their origin countries. Developed nations realize more than 90 percent of this effect.
Employment rates are slightly lower for immigrants than for native workers in top destinations, but this varies by skill level and by region of origin. Wide-ranging academic evidence shows that immigration does not harm native employment or wages, although there can be short-term negative effects if there is a large inflow of immigrants to a small region, if immigrants are close substitutes (代替者) for native workers, or if the destination economy is experiencing a downturn.
Realizing the benefits of immigration depends on how well new arrivals are integrated into their destination country’s labor market and into society. Today immigrants tend to earn 20 to 30 percent less than native-born workers. But if countries narrow that wage gap to just 5 to 10 percent by integrating immigrants more effectively across various aspects of education, housing, health, and community engagement, they could generate an additional boost of $800 billion to $1 trillion to worldwide economic output annually. This is a relatively conservative goal, but it can produce broader positive effects, including lower poverty rates and higher overall productivity in destination economies.
The stakes are high. The success or failure of integration can last many years, influencing whether second-generation immigrants become fully participating citizens who reach their full potential or remain in a poverty trap.
1. What is the purpose of this text?A.To give a definition. | B.To explain a phenomenon. |
C.To introduce a research. | D.To report a finding. |
A.immigrants set up their own businesses |
B.immigrants work as replacements for native workers |
C.a large number of immigrants flood into a certain area |
D.the destination country is suffering from economic depression |
A.How skilled immigrants are. |
B.How much immigrants make up the local population. |
C.How good the destination economy is. |
D.How integrated immigrants are into local society. |
A.immigration | B.integration |
C.contribution | D.second-generation |
7 . We live in the age of the short attention span. And yet: Finding a recipe in a post requires first scrolling past a “novel” detailing the chef’s personal experience with the dish. Even platforms once known for short-form media are stretching the limits: YouTube videos once were within 10 minutes; now they can and do reach 12 hours. Even TikTok is going long, reportedly testing a new limit of up to 15 minutes for some creators.
Surely some of this is born of genuine audience interest. Length, after all, is sometimes associated with quality. Sometimes, storytelling deserves a surprising length. Other times, it does not. Online media are frequently lengthened not because the subject demands it but because creators are attempting to game algorithms (算法) to make more money. Algorithms, on the most basic level, are supposed to recommend whatever else people post online. Yet in the process, they end up encouraging people to generate a lot of junk.
Some of these apps seem to realize what they’ve done. TikTok and YouTube give users the ability to speed things up. But the solution only underscores the problem. Because it gives rise to all those ads that run before videos or between paragraphs. Any extra real estate for these ads, be it space on a page or time on a podcast, is a chance for platforms to make more money.
Some algorithms may in fact prioritize length as an indicator of quality. But it’s hard to say for sure, because tech companies tend not to give many details about their inner workings. In some ways, whether an algorithm prefers longer videos matters less than whether creators think an algorithm does. If people start believing that longer videos do “better”, they’ll make more of them.
People are afraid that generative AI will pollute the Internet. But social-media and search algorithms have been doing that for years. It’s even cheaper and easier for generative AI to produce long content. All of this is just a taste of what’s to come.
1. How does the author introduce the topic?A.By telling stories. | B.By referring to studies. |
C.By giving examples. | D.By offering personal experience. |
A.To enhance their storytelling abilities. | B.To take advantage of algorithms for profit. |
C.To gather data concerning popular subjects. | D.To provide the audience with interesting ideas. |
A.Highlights. | B.Upgrades. | C.Overlooks. | D.Forecasts. |
A.Algorithms are sure to pick out longer videos. |
B.The development of AI will facilitate longer content. |
C.The best content is lengthened by video producers. |
D.Search algorithms are easily polluted and destroyed. |
8 . People may typically think of memory as the recollection of the past. Memory enables people to learn from past experiences and apply that knowledge in present circumstances. It is a vital part of our identity. So is culture, the way of life specific to a group of people.
Cultural memory is the constructed understanding of the past that is passed from one generation to the next through text, oral traditions, monuments and other symbols. Cultural memory is often amassed in objects, such as museums or historical monuments. To understand culture, humans access a mass of cultural symbols, such as books. Artifacts (历史文物) of the past provide insights into where we came from. Libraries and the Internet keep a seemingly boundless amount of data on what it means to be part of a culture. Cultural memory is the longest-lasting form of memory.
Like all forms of memory, cultural memory has important functions. For example, it makes the experiences a nation owns clear. It provides us with an understanding of the past and the values of the group to which we belong. Besides, it creates a form of shared identity and a means for communicating this identity to new members. The most powerful forms of cultural memory may involve memories of past disastrous experiences undergone by groups of victims. For example, in Russia, their role in World War Ⅱ — in which tens of millions of Russians were killed — is still an important part of modern Russian identity. Because all groups have cultural memory, it can bring about a spirit of resistance or survival among threatened groups.
The main function of cultural memory is not to recall the past, whether it is good or bad. Rather, it is to use knowledge of past experiences to avoid making the same mistakes again and again. Aleida Assmann, a professor who has worked on memory theory since the 1960s, calls this “remembering forward”. Cultural memory enables people to adapt to their culture; it enables cultures to adapt to new circumstances by keeping traces (痕迹) of what worked in the past.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?A.Reporting a discovery of cultural memory. |
B.Leading to the concept of cultural memory. |
C.Introducing the importance of memory in identity. |
D.Making a connection between memory and culture. |
A.Stored. | B.Overlooked. | C.Evaluated. | D.Created. |
A.the features of cultural memory | B.the formation of cultural memory |
C.the role of big events in Russian identity | D.the impact of cultural memory on identity |
A.Pass previous wisdom down. | B.Keep traces of history. |
C.Get people to know about the past. | D.Remind people of their identity. |
1. What percentage of the Indian youth are hopeful for the future?
A.53%. | B.49%. | C.20%. |
A.Energy. | B.Technology. | C.Environment. |
A.Giving a lesson. | B.Hosting a show. | C.Broadcasting news. |
10 . Scarcity is a common condition of human existence. Everyday circumstances of limited resources can make individuals experience a sense of scarcity. Scarcity functions like an obstacle to goal pursuit, which intensify the value of goal.
Scarcity prioritizes our choices and it can make us more effective. The time pressure of a deadline focuses our attention on using what we have most effectively. When we have little time left, we try to get more out of every moment. For example, we are more frugal with the toothpaste as the tube starts to run empty, and college seniors tend to get the most out of their time before graduation.
Many stores strategically create perception of scarcity to motivate consumer behavior. For example, the pricing practice of limiting number of items per person can lead to increased sales. The sign implies that the items are in short supply and the fear of missing out can have a powerful effect on shoppers.
For an item that is attractive to begin with, its attractiveness will intensify when it is scarce. For instance, warning labels on violent television programs, designed to decrease interest, often backfire and increase in watching the programs.
The scarcity effect explains why shyness often is considered an attractive attribute? Experts say that “playing hard to get” is a most effective strategy for attracting a partner, especially in the context of long-term love. A “hard to get” player likes to appear busy, create interest and keep the suitors guessing. However, playing hard to get is less effective in men, as they are the ones who are socially expected to initiate the relationship.
Scarcity also contributes to an interesting and a meaningful life. Scarcity shows that reminding individuals of the reality of death increases the value of life. Midlife often heightens the feeling that there is not enough time left in life to waste. We overcome the illusion (幻觉) that we can be anything, do anything, and experience everything. We restructure our lives around the needs that are essential.
1. What does the underlined word “frugal” in paragraph 2 probably mean?A.Economical. | B.Flexible. | C.Anxious. | D.Sensible. |
A.Because the programs have appealing openings. |
B.Because there are few violent programs available. |
C.Because the message on warning labels isn’t clear. |
D.Because people want things that they cannot get. |
A.A car company constantly launches new model cars. |
B.A restaurant puts up a “two cans per person” poster. |
C.A man pretends to be busy in front of his girlfriend. |
D.A 50-year-old tries things he has never done before. |
A.To prove a theory. | B.To offer a solution. |
C.To illustrate a phenomenon. | D.To challenge a concept. |