Museums have an important role to play as second classrooms. According to the National Cultural Heritage Administration, more than 40,000 exhibitions
“Museums for Education and Research” was the theme of this year’s International Museum Day, which served as
Museums are the places where we can gain a deeper knowledge of the past, a
2 . Recently, fans of self-driving cars have gotten some good news, followed by bad news. Two self-driving taxi companies got permission (许可) to run their Robotaxis in San Francisco. But a series of accidents has led to new concerns about how safe the cars actually are.
Cruise and Waymo are two companies that have been developing self-driving taxis, sometimes called “Robotaxis”. Both companies have been testing their cars in San Francisco for years. Until recently, the cars have had a human in the driver’s seat, ready to take over if there was a problem. But the newest self-driving cars don’t have anyone in the driver’s seat. They are programmed to do everything on their own, including following the rules of the road and avoiding people and other cars. Until recently, the Robotaxis could only drive in specific areas, at certain times. But in early August, Waymo and Cruise were given full permission to run their Robotaxis in San Francisco. The companies were allowed to run as many driverless cars as they wanted, 24 hours a day. And the companies weren’t required to have safety drivers in their cars.
The move was a big step for self-driving cars, and many people were excited about the change. But at the same time, there were problems. A Cruise car crashed into a fire truck, sending a person to the hospital. Later, a Cruise car stopped working in the middle of an intersection (十字路口), causing a traffic jam.
In spite of the problems, both Waymo and Cruise are planning to expand (扩展) their self-driving car service to other cities. Cruise has plans to bring their Robotaxis to at least 15 cities. Waymo says its driverless system will soon be able to work “in any city, on any kind of vehicle”.
Though the quality of self-driving cars is improving, it’s likely to be a while before most people view them as safe.
1. Which of the following is the good news for the two companies?| A．They were allowed to produce as many Robotaxis as possible. |
| B．Their Robotaxis have passed the safety check successfully. |
| C．Their Robotaxis were popular with people in San Francisco. |
| D．They were given full permission to expand their work. |
| A．The permission to develop self-driving taxis. |
| B．The permission to drive Robotaxis in specific areas. |
| C．The full permission given for Robotaxis companies. |
| D．The permission to drive Robotaxis at certain times. |
| A．They can only be driven in big cities. |
| B．They are most likely to have a bright future. |
| C．They will be in practical use soon. |
| D．There will be a lot of limitations on them. |
| A．Robotaxis Move Forward but Face Problems |
| B．Robotaxis Start Operations in San Francisco |
| C．Robotaxis Will Completely Replace Taxis Soon |
| D．Robotaxis Are the Safest Vehicles in the World |
3 . Experts assert that China must capitalize on its vast data resources to cultivate new growth engines and broaden data application scenarios across sectors, as data emerges as a pivotal production element, fueling the digital economy’s high-quality development. Jiang Xiaojuan, head of the China Society of Industrial Economics, emphasized at a recent conference that data influences societal resource allocation and economic operations. Given China’s status as the world’s leading data producer, Jiang advocated for maximizing data’s multiplier effects, enriching sector-specific applications, and enhancing public data utilization.
Peking University’s Huang Yiping stressed that data use is nascent, advocating for a structured data trading framework, robust security measures, and privacy safeguards. China’s data output in 2023 reached 32.85 zettabytes, up 22.44 percent year on year, with core digital economy industries contributing 10% to GDP, according to the National Data Administration (NDA). The NDA plans to introduce eight guidelines addressing data property rights, circulation, revenue distribution, security, and public & enterprise data development this year. Twelve key sectors, including manufacturing and finance, will see expanded data application scenarios.Industry insiders underscored the importance of classifying data resources, clarifying rights, exploring pricing mechanisms, and enhancing data circulation and utilization. Ouyang Rihui, of the Central University of Finance and Economics, noted that data elements are integral to production, consumption, and social services, driving industrial upgrades. The fusion of data with traditional industries boosts efficiency, optimizes resource allocation, fosters new business models, and generates social value. Data’s commodity-like attributes enable market-driven allocation, creating significant economic and social benefits.
In December 2022, China outlined 20 measures to construct foundational data systems and unlock data’s full potential. These encompass data property rights, trading, revenue distribution, and security governance. Globally, the digital economy thrives, with emerging businesses powered by big data, cloud computing, and AI finding applications across sectors and merging with the real economy. According to a report, the combined digital economy of the US, China, Germany, Japan, and South Korea surpassed $33 trillion, accounting for 60% of these nations’ GDP, marking an 8% annual increase.
1. What is recognized as a new type of production factor that is crucial for the high-quality development of the digital economy in China?| A．Renewable energy resources |
| B．Advanced manufacturing techniques |
| C．Data |
| D．Artificial intelligence algorithms |
| A．It solely improves the efficiency of communication networks. |
| B．It is irrelevant to the economic and social operations. |
| C．It affects the allocation of social resources and the logic of economic and social operations. |
| D．It decreases the importance of traditional industries. |
| A．It decreased by 5% compared to the previous year. |
| B．It reached 32.85 zettabytes, showing a 22.4% increase year-on-year. |
| C．It remained stable with no significant changes. |
| D．It was primarily concentrated in the technology sector. |
| A．Plans to reduce the overall data output to manage environmental impacts. |
| B．Guidelines to restrict the use of data in sensitive industries. |
| C．A ban on international data trading to protect domestic interests. |
| D．Twenty key measures to build foundational data systems and fully unleash the value of data resources. |
4 . Is boredom a thing of the past, like black-and-white television? And, if so, is that a good thing? Julie Robinson, a former teacher who now represents the Independent Association of Prep Schools, thinks that boredom is regarded as an enemy of today’s children, and they are losing the ability to become thoughtful and reflective (沉思的).
“We should not fear boredom.” said Julie Robinson. “Boredom is valuable to children. Quiet, reflective time is just as important as purposeful activity,” she added.
Her opinion is that constant (连续不断的) activity for a child, often the result of the dreams of parents, will lead to concerned and worrying adult. The traditional ideas that children should be constantly active could prevent the development of their imagination. So anything that improves a greater thoughtfulness is to be warmly welcomed.
Parents now feel a sense of failure when they hear their children complain about being bored. They seek an electronic devices (设备) to play games at once. And we didn’t feel bored during long car journeys anymore by the impatient “Are we there yet?” because all kinds of electronic devices have been taken along to avoid even a minute of boredom. So what chance do children have to allow their thoughts to wander?
But it’s not just children who need lessons in reflection. Adults need that, too. On my train journey to work this morning, I couldn’t see a single person who wasn’t using an electronic device. No one was simply looking out of the window at the beautiful views of the county side. Not time for quiet thinking, even in the quiet library. There were emails to send, texts to read, and games to play. The wider world, seemingly, didn’t exist. The mobile phone has changed many things about our lives, and has developed an inability — among adults as well as children — to live in the present. What Julie Robinson regards is a cross-generational phenomenon: the fear of “inactivity”. And she is right.
1. Julie Robinson thinks boredom is useful because it makes children_________.| A．find effective solutions to social problems |
| B．improve the ability to learn knowledge |
| C．have time to think and have their imagination developed |
| D．communicate more with their parents and friends |
| A．Sending emails on a train. |
| B．Playing games with friends. |
| C．Planning constant activity for children. |
| D．Looking out of the window at the beautiful views. |
| A．the trip on a quiet train was very boring |
| B．the view of the countryside was beautiful |
| C．people had too much work to do |
| D．electronic devices influence people’s life greatly |
| A．Both adults and children like to stay alone and recall their past days. |
| B．People fail to leave their children enough time to think and imagine. |
| C．Electronic devices are always good for both children and adults. |
| D．Parents should tell their children how to use a mobile phone. |
5 . Identity theft is a problem that affects millions of people each year.
Shred (粉碎) any documents you don’t need, especially the ones that contain personal information.
Protect your computer from viruses to stay secure online.
Carry only the minimum personal information you need at any given time. Never carry your credit cards, passport, and social security card in the same wallet. Make photocopies of all the cards and documents in your wallet to keep at home, or scan them and store them electronically.
Safeguard your mailbox well. One common way for criminals to steal personal information is by searching through mailboxes.
Identity theft is an increasingly serious problem that is worth attention. It is much easier to take these simple steps to prevent identity theft than it is to get your identity back once it has been stolen!
| A．Nowadays many personal documents arrive by mail. |
| B．It means a thief gets enough of someone’s information. |
| C．Keep your password a secret instead of sharing it with others. |
| D．These records can be extremely helpful if your wallet is stolen. |
| E．Constantly update your software, including your operating system. |
| F．Some people are worried about this occurrence and are trying to avoid it. |
| G．Bills and credit card statements are examples of documents to destroy for safety. |
6 . I’ll admit it — when someone asks me how I’m doing, the first word that usually comes out of my mouth is “busy”. It seems that “busy” has become the new normal.
According to Emily Fletcher, founder of Ziva Meditation, the desire to keep busy is an essential part of being human. “We love feeling important and needed, which is what ‘busy’ provides us with,” she said, adding that packed schedules are considered a necessary part of achieving big dreams. “It is well known that the intense race has some built-in promises. The harder you work now, the bigger the payoff in the future.” As a result, we fill our days with work and social commitments.
But are you really as busy as you think you are? Most career-driven people would probably guess they spend most of their time at work. But author Laura Vanderkam argues that that’s probably not the case.
In her new book, I Know How She Does It, she asked 143 mothers with six-figure jobs to record what they did for every hour of one week. Surprisingly, she found that these undeniably “busy” women worked only 44 hours a week on average and slept nearly eight hours a night, leaving 70 hours per week for other things.
So what gives? “This is just human nature: we overestimate (高估) the things we don’t want to do — work, housework — and underestimate the things we do want to do,” she says. “Psychologists also have found that negative events tend to stand out in the mind more than positive events.”
Simply tracking how you spend your time, says Vanderkam, is the first step to breaking free of the “busy” trap. “It’s a lot harder to lie to ourselves when we see where the time goes, right there in black and white.”
It is also necessary to recognize that you’re mostly in charge of how you spend your time and that you can choose differently. Another really important thing — Stop telling people how busy you are. Try and take a pause when someone asks “How are you?” to really check in and see what is going on, as opposed to relying on the “busy” line.
1. Why do people like to keep themselves busy?| A．They accept busyness as a normal part of life. |
| B．They hold that only a busy life is meaningful. |
| C．They believe that being busy promises success. |
| D．They just follow the examples of successful people. |
| A．They make work the center of their lives. |
| B．The work they do is relatively challenging. |
| C．They tend to underestimate their ability to work. |
| D．Work is something they have a low intention of doing. |
| A．By reducing the time we spend at work. |
| B．By spending less time chatting with others. |
| C．By understanding the negative effects of busyness. |
| D．By avoiding constantly emphasizing busyness. |
| A．To get people out of the bad habit of keeping themselves busy. |
| B．To reveal the different meanings of busyness in different times. |
| C．To make people understand the harm that busyness can do to us. |
| D．To uncover why people’s lives are busier and busier these days. |
7 . 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. |
8 . 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. |
9 . Social welfare programs, including quality early education, earned-income tax credit and health care, can change children’s lives. More importantly, recent studies show the benefits from these programs strongly influence the next generation, lifting them out of poverty.
The long-term impact of prekindergarten is well established and widely known. 50 years ago, 123 three-and four-year-old African Americans from low-income families in Ypsilanti, Michigan took part in an experiment. About half attended a pioneering early education program called Perry Preschool, while the control group did not. Researchers have been able to track the lives of most of these children ever since. The kids who went to Perry Preschool did better in school, made more money, and were healthier than the control group.
The benefits of Perry Preschool didn’t just stop with those children. A study published last summer by Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman and his colleagues takes the implications of Perry a giant step further. This research shows that the children of the Perry preschoolers are also better off because of their parents’ experience.
As the Perry preschoolers grew up, they became better educated and developed greater socio - emotional skills than the control group. They became better parents. Their children grew up in harmonious two-parent families that made, on average, about $ 10,000 more a year. It was enough to lift many of them out of poverty. This healthy upbringing has had a long-lasting effect on the children of the Perry preschoolers. Compared to the children of the control group, they were much less likely to have dropped out, and more likely to have graduated from high school.
Here’s another example. A Norwegian study demonstrated the decades-long impact on babies who, during their first year, benefited from their mothers’ having had the opportunity to sign up for free mother and child health care centers. In the following years, these youngsters grew taller and stayed in school longer than those whose mothers did not receive the same support. At 40, they are in better health.
1. What do we know about Perry Preschool?| A．It provided early quality education. | B．It divided the kids into two groups. |
| C．It received kids from all backgrounds. | D．It continued to track half of the kids’lives. |
| A．Truths. | B．Assumptions. |
| C．Effects. | D．Suggestions. |
| A．Perry preschoolers received less education. |
| B．It had no impact on the participants’ children. |
| C．Early education could bring economic benefits. |
| D．The children of the control group became healthier. |
| A．Early quality education matters most. |
| B．Social welfare can break the cycle of poverty. |
| C．Wealth can be passed down through generations. |
| D．Parents are important in shaping future generation. |
10 . Recently, after I gave a virtual presentation on my book Indistractable, a listener wrote something in the Zoom chat that drove me crazy, “This is great but wouldn’t work for me. I’m a Gemini (双子星座的人).”
Ironically, the Zoom listener is right. If she thinks she’s incapable, she’ll prove it correct — whether it has anything to do with the stars and moon or not. Her inflexible self-identification denies her the chance to improve her life. It’s incredibly self-limiting.
That’s why we should stop defining ourselves as fixed identities and nouns, and instead start describing ourselves using verbs.
Words are powerful. Linguistic research shows that language shapes people and culture; it can also give us insight into ourselves and our behavior. In a well-known study, researchers Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobsen had all students in the same elementary school take a standard IQ test. Then they randomly selected a group of students, regardless of their test results, and told teachers the group would show “dramatic intellectual growth”. Eight months later, those students scored significantly higher on an IQ test. The study concluded that teachers’ positive perception of students correlated to those students’ high performance on intellectual and academic tests. The labels the children received became a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy (预言).
That’s because language shapes expectations, which shape our reality. If we have experiences that lead us to label ourselves with specific nouns during our life, then we are likely to stick with those labels and the behaviors that go with them.
Using verbs to identify ourselves is an effective method for releasing “trapped priors”—a term in psychology for a perception of reality that’s affected or trapped by past experiences. Verbs are action words well suited to describing short-lived behaviors that can and do change. They don’t lay claim to our entire identity, but they acknowledge that we are people first and foremost, not whatever a singular noun may say we are. So, instead of saying, “I am a procrastinator (拖拉者)”, you should say, “I am a person who often procrastinates.”
By focusing on our behaviors, not fixed characteristics, we can release harmful perceptions of ourselves that hold us back from trying methods that might improve our lives — like those that can help us achieve the critical skill of being indistractable.
1. What does the author want to show through the example of the Zoom listener?| A．The concept of flexible self-identification. |
| B．His confusion about the way to self-identify. |
| C．His understanding of proper self-identification. |
| D．The negative effects of using nouns to define oneself. |
| A．Self-fulfilling prophecies change over time. |
| B．Encouragement promotes students’ improvement. |
| C．Language usage will have an impact on teaching. |
| D．IQ has little to do with students’ academic performance. |
| A．By highlighting their behaviors. |
| B．By focusing on their advantages. |
| C．By analyzing their typical characteristics. |
| D．By assessing their academic performance. |
| A．Nouns are more powerful than verbs |
| B．Your words can determine your future |
| C．How we define ourselves really counts |
| D．Our option of words reflects our identity |
