1 . In recent years, there has been a growing focus on the environment and human health. Though chemical farming is used by over 90 per cent of the world’s farmers, the wide range of damage it has caused to the environment and human health makes it a bad choice. Organic farming, on the other hand, aims to improve food quality, reduce farming’s environmental impact and promote consumers’ health. It is therefore the option that farmers may choose.
Organic food is very popular. It is also expensive. Some organic food costs twice as much as non-organic food, but new parents and pet owners are willing to pay up to 200% more for organic food. However, there are people who think it is a waste of money.
There is one main difference between organic and non-organic food. Organic farms do not use agricultural chemicals, such as pesticides. In many countries organic foods have special labels. These guarantee that the products are natural.
Some people think organic means locally grown. Originally this was true. Over time organic farming became more difficult. The demand for organic food grew larger than the supply. Small companies had to sell out to large companies. There weren’t enough organic ingredients, such as grain and cattle. This made it difficult for many organic companies to stay in business. Today, many large-companies have an organic line of products.
Is organic food more nutritious? This is part of the debate. Many farmers and consumers believe it is. They think agricultural chemicals cause health problems, such as cancer. Many health professionals disagree. Few studies prove that organic foods prevent health problems. Health specialists worry more about bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella. These can get into contact with organic and non-organic food. Doctors recommend washing produce very carefully. Handling meat carefully is important too.
Most people agree that naturally grown food tastes better. Is tastier food worth the extra money? This is a matter of opinion. Whether it is healthier or not may require more research. However, organic consumers argue it is better to be safe than sorry.
1. What phenomenon does the author describe at the beginning of the passage?| A．Chemical farming is a wise choice now. |
| B．The environment and human health draw no attention. |
| C．Organic farming has taken the place of Chemical farming. |
| D．The positive effects of organic farming contribute to farmers’ favor. |
| A．Some organic food costs much more than non-organic food. |
| B．Organic farms consume quantities of agricultural chemicals. |
| C．It’s never hard for all organic companies to stay in business. |
| D．Health specialists pay no attention to E. coli and salmonella. |
| A．By following time order. | B．By providing some examples. |
| C．By showing cause and effect. | D．By comparing opinions. |
| A．Price. | B．Safety. | C．Freshness. | D．Nutrition. |
Walking through his neighborhood supermarket in Australia,
Chinese sauerkraut, a pickle which
During the last decades, Chinese businessmen have set
But for Huang, Chinese sauerkraut is an everlasting link to home. “Although I have tried delicacies from across
3 . Hiring processes can be thought of as a battle between honesty and dishonesty. You might imagine this is a simple fight between truth-seeking firms and self-promoting candidates (候选人), and to a certain extent it is. But companies themselves are prone (有倾向的) 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 (美化) 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 involves 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 职位预告, which are supposed to give prospective employees a real 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 organisation’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 principle 原则. | B．To make a prediction 预言. |
| C．To make a comparison 对比. | D．To explain a phenomenon 现象. |
| A．beautify. | B．admit. | C．defend. | D．separate. |
| 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. | B．How to get the lying out of hiring. |
| C．How to be more appealing in hiring. | D．A battle between applicants and companies. |
4 . There is plenty of complaints about how social media—texting in particular—may harm children’s social and intellectual development. But a new study suggests that constant instant messaging (IM’ing)and texting among teens may also provide benefits, particularly for those who are introverted (内向的).
British researchers studied instant messages exchanged by 231 teens, aged 14 to 18. All of the participants were “regular” IM’ers. The researchers analyzed150 conversations in the study, and reported the results in the journal Computers in Human Behavior. In 100 of these chats, the study participant began IM’ing while in a negative emotional state such as sadness, pain or anger. The rest were conversations begun when the participant was feeling good or neutral. After the chat, participants reported about a 20% reduction in their pain—not enough to completely get rid of it, but enough to leave them feeling better.
“Our findings suggest that IM’ing between adolescents and their peers may provide emotional relief and consequently contribute to their well-being,” the authors write. People who talk with their real-life friends online report feeling closer to them than those who just communicate face-to-face, implying a strengthening of their bond.
Why would digital commutation improve human contact? The reasons are complex, but may have something to do with the fact that users can control expression of sadness and other emotions via IM without revealing emotional elements like tears that some may be considered as embarrassing or sources of discomfort. Studies also show)that the anonymity (匿名) of writing on a device blankets the users in a sense of safely that may make people feel more comfortable in sharing and discussing their deepest and truest feelings. Previous research has shown that expressive writing itself can “vent”. emotions and provide a sense of relief—and doing-so knowing that your words are reaching a sympathetic friend may provide even more comfort Researchers also found that introverted participants reported more relief from IM conversations when they were painful than extraverts (内向的) did. As Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, wrote recently for TIME: Introverts are often full of thoughts and care deeply for their friends, family and colleagues. But even the most socially skilled introverts sometimes long for a free pass from socializing or talking on the phone. This is what the Internet offer; the chance to connect—but in measured amount and from behind a screen.
1. What is the finding of the new study by British researchers?| A．Instant messaging will harm children’s social and intellectual development. |
| B．Introverted teens may benefit from constant instant messaging. |
| C．A lot of American teens use instant messaging every day. |
| D．American teens aged 14 to 18 are addicted to instant messaging. |
| A．Teens are more likely to send instant messages when feeling unhappy. |
| B．Instant messaging can help completely remove teens’ negative emotions. |
| C．Chat via instant messaging services makes participants feel good or calm. |
| D．Constant instant messaging can help teens control their negative emotions. |
| A．Avoid embarrassment and discomfort. | B．Share and discuss more information. |
| C．Produce more expressive writings. | D．Find more sympathetic friends. |
| A．They do not reveal their thoughts to friends, family and colleagues. |
| B．They tend to feel more unhappy about IM conversations than extraverts. |
| C．They are more skillful at the art of socializing than extraverts. |
| D．They at times desire to socialize or talk via social media. |
5 . Do you ever get to the train station and realize you forgot to bring something to read? Yes, we all have our phones, but many of us still like to go old school and read something printed.
Well, there’s a kiosk (小亭) for that. In the San Francisco Bay Area, at least.
“You enter the fare gates (检票口) and you’ll see a kiosk that is lit up and it tells you can get a one-minute, a three-minute, or a five-minute story,” says Alicia Trost, the chief communications officer for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit — known as BART. “You choose which length you want and it gives you a receipt-like short story.”
It’s that simple. Riders have printed nearly 20,000 short stories and poems since the program was launched last March. Some are classic short stories, and some are new original works.
Trost also wants to introduce local writers to local riders. “We wanted to do something where we do a call to artists in the Bay Area to submit stories for a contest,” Trost says. “And as of right now, we’ve received about 120 submissions. The winning stories would go into our kiosk and then you would be a published artist.”
Ridership on transit (交通) systems across the country has been down the past half century, so could short stories save transit?
Trost thinks so.
“At the end of the day all transit agencies right now are doing everything they can to improve the rider experience. So I absolutely think we will get more riders just because of short stories,” she says.
And you’ll never be without something to read.
1. Why did BART start the kiosk program?| A．To promote the local culture. | B．To discourage phone use. |
| C．To meet passengers’ needs. | D．To reduce its running costs. |
| A．By popularity. | B．By length. |
| C．By theme. | D．By language. |
| A．Organizing a story contest. | B．Doing a survey of customers. |
| C．Choosing a print publisher. | D．Conducting interviews with artists. |
| A．It will close down. | B．Its profits will decline. |
| C．It will expand nationwide. | D．Its ridership will increase. |
6 . What was your answer when you were asked to name the best university in the world? I can bet with almost 100% confidence that the universities you came up with included widely known institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge, Harvard, MIT, or Tsinghua University.
The medium through which they are known, other than word of mouth, is to a large extent attributed to various university rankings, some of which are considered to be more accurate and authoritative than others. Among all the organizations that produce global university rankings, the three most trusted and established ones are Shanghai Ranking Consultancy (SRC), Times Higher Education (THE), and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).
Each year, they rank universities by assessing a combination of measures of their strengths. Since each organization prioritizes a different set of factors that make for a good university, the three organizations often yield different results. Take the year 2023 as an example: QS ranked MIT number one while THE assigned the honor to the University of Oxford. For SRC, the spot belonged to Harvard.
Thousands of students and parents refer to those rankings when they make college application decisions; academics also look to how their own universities measure up in this fiercely competitive race of academic competence.
However, there also exist skeptics who hesitate to hold these rankings in too high a regard. They argue each of the rankings emphasizes a criterion that is different from the other two, yet no criterion is completely free of prejudice.
SRC, for instance, values a university’s research performance the most, but ignores the level of diversity in terms of each university’s demographics (人员构成). The methods THE and QS use to rank universities have also been subject to questioning and criticism. They mostly ask scholars from a selected list of higher-education institutions to state their opinions about a certain university’s reputation, and they use these scholars’ opinions as their standard. Such methods sound subjective to many people.
As for the next time when someone asks you which university is the best in the world, you might not want to rush into a fixed answer.
1. What does the example in 2023 show?| A．Different criterion produces different result. |
| B．The best university varies from year to year. |
| C．SRC, THE and QS are more trustworthy organizations than others. |
| D．MIT, Oxford and Harvard are universally acknowledged as the best universities. |
| A．worried | B．doubtful | C．annoyed | D．careful |
| A．Explanation of the ranking process. |
| B．Impact of the rankings on the public. |
| C．Limitation of each of the three rankings. |
| D．Opinions of students on the three rankings. |
| A．Think twice before deciding. |
| B．Pay no attention to the rankings. |
| C．Just rely on your own judgement. |
| D．Take the research performance as a priority. |
7 . Food labels seem to provide all the information a thoughtful consumer needs, so counting calories should be simple.
Food-processing includes cooking, mixing and mashing (捣烂).
As a result, when we are losing weight, we should reject processed food. And to do so would be much easier if our food labels gave us some advice about how many calories we would save by eating less-processed food.
| A．Same calories, different outcomes. |
| B．Processed foods should be given more restrictions. |
| C．It can be done by the food industry before you buy. |
| D．Food labels fail to offer a specific number of calories. |
| E．So why do our nutrition advisers keep silent on the topic? |
| F．But things get tricky because food labels tell only half the story. |
| G．Our food labeling therefore faces a choice between two systems. |
8 . Look! Dawson is immersing himself in sculpting a pot while Molly is buried in learning to weave. Leo is waving his paint brush on the paper and Jessica is killing her time through knitting. It’s no surprise to see scenes like these. Many of us like to make things which we can use or give as gifts. Crafting is certainly a hobby that’s seen a return and growth, and those who pursue it claim getting creative improves their mood.
Many people, especially those who work from home, are turning to hobbies such as craft making as a way to relieve their working burnout. Knitting, weaving, pottery and painting are all crafts that have seen a renaissance, and many of them are being done by youngsters.
Besides turning to arts and crafts as an interesting pastime, people take it as a way to make a bit of pocket money. A large number of websites, such as Etsy and Folksy, allow people to sell their home-made handicrafts. Richard Sennett, author of The Craftsman, told the BBC: “A lot of people are finding their day jobs pretty empty, while learning a craft provides a real satisfaction. It’s a skill- things like carpentry and weaving are mentally and physically encouraging, and people get essential pleasure out of that kind of work.”
The Internet has also been the paradise to turn to to buy craft tools which help you get started with your craft-making projects, such as candle making. But many people are enjoying designing and making things from the beginning and are doing it just for pleasure or to occupy their minds—and there’s evidence that it’s good for us as well. According to research conducted by BBC Arts, even the briefest time spent on a creative pastime such as painting, pottery or playing the piano, has an impact on our well-being and emotions. The survey of around 80,000 people found being creative can help avoid stress, free up mind space and improve self-development, which helps build self-respect.
1. How does the author introduce the topic of the text?| A．By describing scenes. | B．By showing differences. |
| C．By giving a definition. | D．By making comparisons. |
| A．Beneficial to health. | B．Essential to work. |
| C．Easy to make money. | D．Convenient to learn. |
| A．Well-being influences people’s creativity. | B．Getting creative enhances people’s mood. |
| C．Online shopping helps people avoid stress. | D．People enjoy learning crafts on the Internet. |
| A．To display people’s hobbies at home | B．To explain a scientific study by BBC. |
| C．To introduce the benefits of craft making. | D．To arouse the youth’s passion for crafts. |
The National Healthcare Security Administration said on Monday that the coverage of China’s basic medical insurance is stabilized at over 95percent. It also said that the quality
Data from the administration show that from 2003 to 2023, the government’s
Throughout the years, a total of 744
10 . One of my bad habits is saying “busy” when people ask me how I’m doing. Sometimes it’s because I actually am busy, but other times it’s because that’s what I think I’m supposed to say. That’s what important people say. That’s what people who get promoted say. But working long hours doesn’t drive better results. Never taking a vacation won’t lead to a promotion. So why are we so proud to talk about how busy we are all the time?
In 2016, researchers from Columbia, Harvard, and Georgetown conducted a study to figure it out. They found busy people are perceived to be of high status, and interestingly, the status is heavily influenced by our own beliefs about social mobility. In other words, the more we believe that one has the opportunity for success based on hard work, the more we tend to think that people who skip leisure and work all the time are of higher standing.
That’s why we feel like we have to appear busy, and there’s a view that if someone is knee-deep in meetings, emails, and stress, then they’re probably a big deal. This culture of busyness is making it hard for employees to find work-life balance. According to a recent study, one in five highly engaged employees is at risk of burnout.
Personally, I’m going to stop saying “busy” when people ask me how I am. It sounds self-righteous (自以为是的) and sets the wrong tone. Phrases like “I have limited access to email” and “I’ll respond as soon as I get back” sound like you’re being held against your will from working as opposed to making the most of your time off.
That’s why we recently launched the Out of Office Email Generator, a free tool you can use before your next long weekend or trip. You can share loud and proud that you won’t be checking email until you’re back. Managers need to think twice about emailing their teams on the weekend and talking about how busy they are. Leaders should take time off themselves and encourage employees to do the same.
1. What is a reason for the author to be in the habit of saying “busy”?| A．He is actually proud to be fully occupied. |
| B．He just follows successful people’s example. |
| C．He thinks everyone should be devoted to work. |
| D．He believes busyness ensures accomplishments. |
| A．Our status can be down to our social mobility. |
| B．Few people of high status have time for leisure. |
| C．Our opportunity for success never comes easily. |
| D．We hold the belief that hard work leads to success. |
| A．I enjoy my time off work. | B．I am forced to stop working. |
| C．1 am opposed to the work culture. | D．I am too busy to check all emails. |
| A．To stop managers talking about how busy they usually are. |
| B．To allow for less time busy employees spend checking emails. |
| C．To ensure employees as well as employers truly have time off. |
| D．To encourage employers and employees to answer emails in time. |
