1 . Every order of takeout comes with a side of single-use plastics and each plastic fork. knife, spoon and straw-whether or not you wanted it or used it-ends up in the trash.
New research found that 139 million metric tons of single-use plastic waste was generated in 2021-six million metric tons more single-use plastics compared to 2019. A hunger for takeout meals during the pandemic contributed to the surge.
An estimated 60% of Americans order takeout or delivery at least once a week and online ordering is growing 300% faster than in-house dining; that means millions of single-use plastic utensils (餐具) are going out with every order.
New laws aim to address the problem. Some of the recent bills are thanks to The National Reuse Network, part of the environmental nonprofit Upstream, which launched a national Skip the Stuff campaign to work out policies that require restaurants to include single-use plastic utensils, straws, and napkins only when customers request them.
The bills also require meal delivery and online apps like Uber Eats, GrubHub and Door Dash to add single-use extras to their menus; customers can choose the items and quantities to have them included in the order. Customers that don’t order the single-use plastics won’t receive them. The goal of the bills is to reduce the 40 billion plastic utensils sent to the landfill (垃圾填埋场) every year.
“Most of the time, people are taking food home or to their offices where there are reusable utensils so these utensils wind up in a drawer or get thrown out,” says Alexis Goldsmith, national organizing director for a nationwide project Beyond Plastics. “Some people do need utensils, but for the most part, they’re not needed.”
To date, Skip the Stuff bills have been passed in several cities, including Denver, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, California and Washington state passed statewide bills that make single-use plastic “accessories” available with takeout orders only upon request.
Organizations like Upstream, Beyond plastics and NRDC have created toolkits to help additional communities launch their own Skip the Stuff campaigns.
1. What does the underlined word “surge” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Great desire. | B．Sharp decline. | C．Rapid increase. | D．Obvious panic. |
| A．Choosing green products. | B．Adding single-use napkins. |
| C．Recycling and reusing utensils. | D．Providing utensils only on request. |
| A．To reduce plastic waste. | B．To stop bad eating habits. |
| C．To encourage people to eat out. | D．To better the dining environment. |
| A．Unimportant. | B．Damaging. | C．Much-needed. | D．Well-known. |
2 . Hiring processes can be thought of as a battle between integrity and dishonesty. You might imagine this is a simple fight between truth-seeking firms and self-promoting candidates, and to a certain extent it is. But companies themselves tend to bend reality out of shape in ways that are self-defeating.
Start with the obvious wrongdoers: job applicants. When it comes to writing the resume (简历) , they tend to massage reality into the most appealing shape possible. Everyone beyond a certain level of experience is a transformational leader personally responsible for generating millions income; the world economy would be about 15 times bigger than it actually is if all such claims were true. The average British spends four and a half hours a day watching TV and online videos. But each average job candidate is an enthusiast for public welfare, using their spare time only for worthy purposes, like volunteering in soup kitchens.
But the tendency to stretch the truth infects companies as well as applicants. The typical firm will write a job description that invariably describes the work environment as fast-paced and innovative, and then lays out a set of improbable requirements for the “ideal candidate”, someone who almost by definition does not exist. Sometimes, the requirements include an ability to go back and change the course of history.
Too few firms offer an accurate account of what a position actually involves in their job previews, which are supposed to give prospective employees a genuine sense of the negatives and positives of the job, as well as a clear idea of the company’s corporate culture. One effective strategy is to lay out in text or video, what a typical day in the role would look like.
Such honesty can be its own reward. Research has long suggested that realistic job previews lead to lower turnover and higher employee satisfaction. A paper in 2011 by David Eamest of Towson University and his co-authors concluded that favourable perceptions of the organization’s honesty are the best explanation for why. So a process designed to uncover the truth about job applicants would run a lot more smoothly if firms were also honest about themselves.
1. Why are “leader” and “enthusiast” mentioned in paragraph 2?| A．To present a rule. | B．To clarify a fact. |
| C．To make a comparison. | D．To explain a phenomenon. |
| A．Overstate. | B．Overturn. | C．Overlook. | D．Overestimate. |
| A．They show a position as it is. | B．They are made either in text or video. |
| C．They are favorable for bigger firms. | D．They mainly contain negatives of a job. |
| A．Pains and gains of employees and employers |
| B．How to get the lying out of hiring. |
| C．How to be more appealing in hiring. |
| D．A wrestle between applicants and companies. |
3 . The apparent complexities of the TikTok algorithm(算法)may actually be as simple as a bag of chips. In a video with more than 700,000 views, creator Celeste Aria laid out her “Dorito theory”, which she uses to explain the addictive nature of endlessly-scrolling social media feeds.
Everyone has a topic they just can’t stop thinking about, and Aria’s Roman Empire is Doritos. In her popular video, she expresses that TikTok scrolling is so addictive because it is never fully satisfying. Like a Dorito, a scrolling session on the For You Page is most stimulating during the first few bites. The end of the chip or video brings a desire to start consuming another one, thus returning to that first-bite feeling.
Essentially, the Dorito theory suggests that activities like eating Doritos, which provide a quick burst of pleasure but lack lasting satisfaction, can be highly addictive. Aria compared it to consuming foods that offer deeper satisfaction, like a hearty steak, where the feeling of fullness and contentment lasts longer.
The theory can apply to a lot of different experiences, but it’s particularly well-suited as a metaphor for the dopamine (多巴胺) boosts that occur while scrolling through social media feeds. Dr. Jamie Sorenson, a board-certified psychiatrist, said that the Dorito theory is consistent with existing ideas regarding addiction. “The more immediate the reward is, the more likely we are to repeat that behavior, whether it’s eating Doritos or scrolling on social media.”
Aria may not be a licensed medical professional, but she treats junk food the way any nutritionist would. “I’d recommend just trying to remove anything that you think falls into the Dorito category,” she says in her video.
The Dorito theory trend has led to reflections on the nature of addiction and the pursuit of instant satisfaction in today’s society, resonating (共鸣) with many TikTok users who recognize similar patterns in their own lives. So, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before Doritos responds to Aria’s theory.
1. What do the underlined words “Roman Empire” in paragraph 2 probably refer to?| A．A video. | B．A subject. | C．A country. | D．A snack. |
| A．Social media. | B．Different flavors. | C．Lasting satisfaction. | D．First-bite feeling. |
| A．By introducing a concept. | B．By conducting an experiment. |
| C．By making a comparison. | D．By quoting an expert’s words. |
| A．The Role of Dopamine in Social Media Addiction |
| B．The Theory behind Snacking: A Deep Dive into Dorito |
| C．Maximizing Your Social Media Reach: Tips from Top Creators |
| D．Snack-Sized Satisfaction: How Social Media Hooks Us Like a Bag of Chips |
4 . The Stanford marshmallow (棉花糖) test was originally conducted by psychologist Walter Mischel in the late 1960s. Children aged four to six at a nursery school were placed in a room. A single sugary treat, selected by the child, was placed on a table. Each child was told if they waited for 15 minutes before eating the treat, they would be given a second treat. Then they were left alone in the room. Follow-up studies with the children later in life showed a connection between an ability to wait long enough to obtain a second treat and various forms of success.
As adults we face a version of the marshmallow test every day. We’re not tempted by sugary treats, but by our computers, phones, and tablets — all the devices that connect us to the global delivery system for various types of information that do to us what marshmallows do to preschoolers.
We are tempted by sugary treats because our ancestors lived in a calorie-poor world, and our brains developed a response mechanism to these treats that reflected their value — a feeling of reward and satisfaction. But as we’ve reshaped the world around us, dramatically reducing the cost and effort involved in obtaining calories, we still have the same brains we had thousands of years ago, and this mismatch is at the heart of why so many of us struggle to resist tempting foods that we know we shouldn’t eat.
A similar process is at work in our response to information. Our formative environment as a species was information-poor, so our brains developed a mechanism that prized new information. But global connectivity has greatly changed our information environment. We are now ceaselessly bombarded (轰炸) with new information. Therefore, just as we need to be more thoughtful about our caloric consumption, we also need to be more thoughtful about our information consumption, resisting the temptation of the mental “junk food” in order to manage our time most effectively.
1. What did the children need to do to get a second treat in Mischel’s test?| A．Take an examination alone. | B．Share their treats with others. |
| C．Delay eating for fifteen minutes. | D．Show respect for the researchers. |
| A．the calorie-poor world and our good appetites | B．the shortage of sugar and our nutritional needs |
| C．the tempting foods and our efforts to keep fit | D．the rich food supply and our unchanged brains |
| A．Be selective information consumers. | B．Absorb new information readily. |
| C．Use diverse information sources. | D．Protect the information environment. |
| A．Eat Less, Read More | B．The Later, the Better |
| C．The Marshmallow Test for Grownups | D．The Bitter Truth about Early Humans |
5 . In the days before the Internet, critical thinking was the most important skill of informed citizens. But in the digital age, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development, and her colleagues, an even more important skill is critical ignoring.
As the researchers point out, we live in an attention economy where content producers on the Internet compete for our attention. They attract us with a lot of emotional and eye-catching stories while providing little useful information, so they can expose us to profit-generating advertisements. Therefore,we are no longer customers but products, and each link we click is a sale of our time and attention. Toprotect ourselves from this, Kozyreva advocates for learning the skill of critical ignoring, in which readers intentionally control their information environment to reduce exposure to false and low-quality information.
According to Kozyreva, critical ignoring comprises three strategies. The first is to design ourenvironments, which involves the removal of low-quality yet hard-to-resist information from around. Successful dieters need to keep unhealthy food out of their homes. Likewise, we need to set up a digital environment where attention-grabbing items are kept out of sight. As with dieting, if one tries to bank onwillpower not to click eye-catching “news”, he’ll surely fail. So, it’s better to just keep them out of sightto begin with.
The next is to evaluate the reliability of information, whose purpose is to protect you from false and misleading information. It can be realized by checking the source in the mainstream news agencies which have their reputations for being trustworthy.
The last goes by the phrase “do not feed the trolls.” Trolls are actors who internationally spread false and hurtful information online to cause harm. It may be appealing to respond to them to set the facts straight, but trolls just care about annoying others rather than facts. So, it’s best not to reward their bad behaviour with our attention.
By sharpening our critical ignoring skills in these ways, we can make the most of the Internet while avoiding falling victim to those who try to control our attention, time, and minds.
1. What can we learn about the attention economy from paragraph 2?| A．It offers little information. | B．It features depressing stories. |
| C．It saves time for Internet users. | D．It seeks profits from each click. |
| A．To discuss the quality of information |
| B．To prove the benefits of healthy food. |
| C．To show the importance of environments. |
| D．To explain the effectiveness of willpower. |
| A．Reveal their intention. | B．Turn a deaf ear to them. |
| C．Correct their behaviour. | D．Send hard facts to them. |
| A．Reasons for critical thinking in the attention economy. |
| B．Practising the skill of critical ignoring in the digital age. |
| C．Maximizing the benefits of critical ignoring on the Internet. |
| D．Strategies of abandoning critical thinking for Internet users |
6 . Businesses are now in cost-cutting mode. Title inflation (通胀) has crept into the workplace. Layoffs, hiring freezes and concerns about a recession (经济衰退) are plaguing employers.
To balance this unique economic environment, employers have figured out a way to comfort employees and job applicants without spending more money. They are offering impressive titles to soften the blow of not providing a raise to internal employees or big compensation to job candidates.
An employee’s title is their identity. It gives them credibility in the office and makes them feel more powerful. In this sense, the policy is a sensible way to help keep staff and attract top candidates.
But if you don’t really deserve the new title, it could come back and trouble you. Recruiters will be pleased to find a candidate who is a perfect fit for a significant, well-paying position in terms of skills, background, and previous experience. However, a stumbling block arises when they notice the candidate has a higher title than the client offers. Since a recruiter wants to make a placement and earn a fee, they won’t waste time and will seek out other candidates who are a better fit.
Even if the recruiters decide to contact the candidate, there’s a good chance the candidate won’t accept. Because most people aren’t aware that their title was inflated and believe it was a reward for their outstanding performance. Understandably, they would be offended if they received a lower-level post. Now that you are at a certain level, you don’t want to go backward.
What’s more, if your current title is too high, it raises red flags. For example, when searching for a new job, if your title is “director,” but the new role is under that level, the interviewer will curiously inquire, “why do you want to go down in title?” There will be an assumption from the hiring manager that something isn’t right. They may feel that the job seeker is leaving before being fired and willing to downgrade. Rather than trying to figure out the motivations of the candidate, they’ll move on to others who have a cleaner story without any baggage.
1. What can we learn about employees with impressive titles?| A．They tend to look down upon others. |
| B．Their salaries don’t match their titles. |
| C．Their fear of being fired will disappear. |
| D．They get a good platform for development. |
| A．Consult with the client | B．Contact the job applicant. |
| C．Rule out the candidate. | D．Gather more related information. |
| A．Enthusiastic. | B．Dismissive. | C．Appreciative. | D．Skeptical. |
| A．The impact of title inflation on the recruiting process. |
| B．Strategies employed by employers to navigate economic challenges. |
| C．The influence of title inflation on job candidates’ self-esteem. |
| D．Consequences of layoffs and hiring freezes on workplace dynamics. |
7 . While it’s true that introverts tend to enjoy alone time, it’s not true they dislike people or social environments. Just because you show more reservation than enthusiasm in these settings, it doesn’t mean you need to change or that you can’t make new friends. Kat Vellos, a speaker and connection coach, advises introverts to “Resist pressure from the outside world and don’t hide your true nature or force yourself to be extroverted.”
Danielle Bayard Jackson, a friendship coach, says that introverts can be good friends. “I think we sometimes joke about them being incapable or not knowing what to do…and they actually have a lot of superpowers that we don’t give credit(赞扬)to. They’re very observant. They’re really good listeners. And I think that makes for really good friends.” So, how can introverts use their strengths and make new friends in the process?
“One of my favorite ways to do this is by going to a social event, then camping out on the edge with other highly sensitive people who don’t want to be in the center of the action.” Vellos, who is an introvert herself, says. “The kitchen and the edge of the yard are where I’ve often found the best conversations and feelings of connection at an otherwise overwhelming(令人难以应对的)party.”
The key for introverts is to be mindful of how they spend their energy so that when they spend it, they spend it well. “If you know you have a small social battery and you can show up for one hour after which it’ll be overwhelming for you, make good use of that information about yourself.” Jackson says. “If you know you only have an hour to spend, choose carefully the things that you say yes to.”
As an introvert, you feel and think deeply, so this means that you have the rare(罕见的)ability to go deeper more quickly with someone new. An hour or two nay be just the amount of time you need.
1. What is Vellos’ suggestion for introverts?| A．Change yourself to make personal relationships better. | B．Make friends with more extroverts. |
| C．Organize various social events. | D．Accept who you really are. |
| A．They prefer to enjoy alone time. |
| B．They are incapable of making new friends. |
| C．They have many advantages that are often ignored. |
| D．They are more popular than extroverts in the workplace. |
| A．Stay with other introverts in less crowded places. |
| B．Invite other introverts to go camping with her. |
| C．Have conversations with sociable guests. |
| D．Give a hand in the kitchen. |
| A．Why we need introverted friends |
| B．How to make friends as an introvert |
| C．Ways of getting along with introverts |
| D．Differences between introverts and extroverts |
8 . A March 2023 report from Goldman Sachs estimated that AI could do a quarter of all the work currently done by humans.
The second category is jobs that require complicated interpersonal relationships like nurses, business consultants and investigative journalists. These are jobs where you need a very deep understanding of people.
The third safe zone are jobs that really require lots of mobility and problem-solving ability in unpredictable environments. Electricians, plumbers, and the like all fall under this umbrella, where you’re dealing with a new situation all the time. They are probably the hardest of anything to automate.
It’s important to note that an advanced education is not a defence against AI takeover. In many cases, more educated workers are going to be more threatened than then even the least educated workers.
In short, seeking roles in dynamic, shifting environments that include unpredictable tasks is good way to avoid job loss to AI.
| A．And that could be terrible. |
| B．Thankfully, it’s not all bad news. |
| C．The robots really are coming for some jobs. |
| D．The first would be jobs that are genuinely creative. |
| E．Think of the person that works cleaning hotel rooms. |
| F．That doesn’t necessarily mean all jobs that are considered ”creative” are safe. |
| G．It’ll be a long time before AI has the ability to really build relationships and interact. |
9 . Horror movies are designed to cause seemingly bad emotions — shock, fear and disgust. Yet many people want to sit through those films. Why? Clasen, who directs the Recreational Fear Lab at Aarhus University in Denmark, made a survey of more than 250 American horror fans with his team, and the responses of those participants revealed three types of fans.
The first type felt great and were in high spirits. The second type reported some negative reactions to scary movies, and some even had nightmares at first, but they explained that they were feeling like they learned something about themselves at last. The third type of fans seemed to use horror to deal with bad feelings and events in real life. They supported statements such as “Watching horror movies makes me realize that everything in my own life is OK.”
According to previous studies, thrill seekers, who often seek out new and intense experiences, tend to be horror fans. Men also seemed to be slightly bigger horror fans than women. Clasen’s teammates didn’t think so. “They are stereotypes (老套),” they said. Men are less likely to admit in surveys that they are afraid of horror. Likewise, researchers think it’s unfair to paint all horror fans as thrill seekers. What may influence how much people like horror is something called the need for affections. “People differ on that — how much emotion they want in their lives,” Clasen explained.
After watching a horror movie, you could be left unsettled and anxious, or you have nightmares, but it may actually help you become more prepared in real life. Horror fans reported lower levels of distress (忧虑) during the pandemic, for instance. “That’s because horror movies let people practice negative emotions in a safe setting,” Clasen said. “That way, when it comes to scary situations in real life, you know how to react quickly and correctly.”
Good or not, scary movies aren’t for everyone. And that’s OK. “Monster movies are good,” sociologist Margee Kerr said, “because you know that they’re not real.” “If you are not ready to watch a horror movie, there are other ways to test yourself. One is writing your own horror-movie story. If you are writing a story about something that you are afraid of, you are taking control of it,” she explained. “That can be really helpful.”
1. How did the second type of horror fans respond after watching horror movies?| A．The movies made them feel worried about their real life for some time. |
| B．The movies stopped the fans from having unpleasant dreams. |
| C．The fans could have a better understanding of themselves. |
| D．The fans felt fantastic and were in high spirits. |
| A．The concept of thrill seekers. | B．The features of horror fans. |
| C．The reason why people need affections. | D．The reason why people love horror. |
| A．Horror movies can make people unsettled and anxious in real life. |
| B．Horror movies can help people deal with scary situations more readily. |
| C．Horror movies can help people get rid of negative emotions in real life. |
| D．Horror movies can make people have a false judgement about scary situations. |
| A．Skeptical. | B．Supportive. | C．Disapproving. | D．Objective. |
10 . When a group of college students put their sorrows into action, they never imagined the project would fuel a nationwide movement to help deal with-hunger and control on food waste.
But that’s exactly what the Farmlink Project has done since 2020, bringing together hundreds of young volunteers to rescue nearly 77 million pounds of excess food and deliver it to those in need. The organization’s efforts help farmers, the environment, and people struggling to feed their families all at once.
“In the United States, 40 million Americans don’t have enough food to eat. They don’t know where their next meal is going to come from,” said Aidan Reilly, who co-founded Farmlink. “Meanwhile, in the United States, were throwing out over 100 billion pounds of food every year.”
Back in 2020, Reilly and his childhood fiend James Kanoff were reading and watching news about food shortages, and they learned that area farms were forced to destroy excess produce that they couldn’t sell, especially with restaurants, schools and hotels closed. Reilly, Kanoff and a core group of friends worked together over Zoom, texted and e-mailed to contact farms coast to coast “We didn’t really set out to start a nonprofit,” Reilly said. “We just thought, there’re so many people suffering if we can figure out one way to help, then that’ll be great.”
In California, they found a farmer who had 13, 000 eggs that could be donated, and Reilly offered to do the pickup and delivery himself. That was the first of many more deliveries. With “well come to you” as their catchphrase(标语), the group rented U-Haul trucks and attempted to do all the food pickup and deliveries themselves.
“We had a lot of small problems in the beginning,” Reilly said. ”We broke axles (车轴), loaded in 40. 000 pounds of potatoes in a wrong way and had to try to drag them out by using another truck and a rope. But we made it work.
“Farmlink has worked with more than 100 farms and 300 communities in the US, rescuing and moving enough food to distribute more than 64 million meals,” Reilly said.
1. What can we learn about Farmlink Project from the text?| A．It was launched by some college students. | B．It helps relieve American poverty. |
| C．It cooperated with the farms worldwide. | D．It is supported by the government |
| A．The produce was of poor quality. |
| B．Nobody came to purchase the produce. |
| C．The farmers refused to sell it at a low price. |
| D．Food shortages were not a problem globally. |
| A．They were lacking in experience. | B．They overloaded the supply. |
| C．Their truck aids didn’t work. | D．The vehicles were inadequate. |
| A．Americans faced a food shortage crisis. |
| B．Farmers in poor areas worried about food waste. |
| C．Volunteers delivered farm produce to those in need. |
| D．Students took action to tackle hunger and food waste. |
