1 . Lithium (锂) is called “white gold” for good reason. The metal’s value has been growing sharply over the last several years, in a large part because it is an essential part of batteries as well as several key sustainable technologies where energy storage is of huge significance. As electric cars, wind and solar power have grown into major players in the energy industry, lithium has become key to engineering a future free of fossil (化石) fuels.
But acquiring lithium comes at an enormous cost. It often works like this: Water containing lithium is delivered to the surface from underground and mixed with fresh water. The mixture then sits in pools to get rid of water, leaving the rest of its contents behind as brightly colored “mud”. Then heat and chemical reactions are used to get lithium from that, changing it into powder which is then packaged and shipped to buyers around the world.
Any accident that releases mine contents into surrounding communities or the groundwater supply could have unimaginable long-term impacts. To be specific, indigenous (土著的) communities often bear the damage, and political leaders have typically given little weight to their concerns. In Arizona, for example, an expanding lithium mine is threatening the Hualapai Tribe’s cultural and historic sites. Recently, mining lithium and other precious metals has brought about conflict: How do you ensure the availability of materials essential to the future of renewables while protecting those communities’ rights?
Mining of the metal is expected to increase dramatically in coming years. Over time, experts say, that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions (排放) by making electric cars more affordable and, therefore, more popular. As environmentally conscious consumers buy electric cars in ever-greater numbers, it’s important to be aware of the dirty process that powers those clean air vehicles.
1. What does the author’s intention of writing Paragraph 1?| A．To introduce the background of an event. | B．To explain a complex industrial theory. |
| C．To describe a noticeable recent tendency. | D．To predict the future of a main technology. |
| A．Unexpected material leak. | B．Violent chemical reactions. |
| C．Wrong political decisions. | D．Lithium mine expansion. |
| A．Intolerant. | B．Uncaring. | C．Favorable. | D．Objective. |
| A．High Expense of Lithium Mining | B．Potential Benefit of Using Lithium |
| C．Hidden Threat behind Clean Energy | D．Bright Future of Renewable Resources |
2 . Three researchers from Harvard Business School, the University of London and the University of British Columbia have found that college graduates who value time over money report being happier a year later than those who report the opposite. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, Ashley Whillans, Lucia Macchia and Elizabeth Dunn, described their study and what they learned from it.
Most people who have lived for a long time know that there is very often a trade-off (权衡) between doing things that make you happy and doing things to make it possible — like earning more money. For those who are still young and in the process of making major life decisions, the trade-off might not be so obvious. In this new effort, the researchers sought to learn more about the decision-making processes of people about to graduate from college, and how those decisions affected their level of happiness just a year later.
The researchers administered a two-part survey to the volunteers. The first part asked questions regarding whether they valued time over money or vice versa. They also asked them to rate how happy they were. The first part of the survey was given to 1,000 volunteer students while they were still in college. The second part, which was identical to the first, was given to the same people one year later.
The researchers report that in the first survey, nearly two-thirds of respondents reported valuing time over money — a year later, they found that the ratio (比率) had changed somewhat. 14 percent of those who had reported valuing money over time switched their answer, while 13 percent of those who had first reported valuing time over money switched. The researchers also report that those students who had reported valuing money over time while still in school tended to accept jobs that were more income-focused, while those who chose time over money were more focused on working in an environment that they liked. The researchers also found that those who reported valuing time over money on either survey rated themselves as happier than those who valued money over time.
1. The purpose of the research is to find out ______.| A．how decision-making in youth affects happiness in the near future |
| B．what is the effect of the trade-off between choices in life |
| C．what is the proper process of making major life decisions |
| D．how to make a new effort to make something possible |
| A．Neither was concerning level of happiness. | B．They were carried out in the same year. |
| C．They were targeted at different volunteers. | D．Both asked the same questions. |
| A．More volunteers value money over time than those reporting otherwise in the first part. |
| B．Those choosing time above money in both parts claimed to experience more happiness. |
| C．All volunteers attached equal significance to income-focused jobs in employment. |
| D．More volunteers switched their answers in the second part than those who didn’t. |
| A．Time or money: that is the question | B．Valuing time over money makes you happier |
| C．Making life decisions is essential | D．A happy job makes more money |
3 . Although problems are a part of our lives, it certainly doesn't mean that we let them rule our lives forever. One day or another, you'll have to stand up and say—problems, I don't want you in my life.
But good news is that all problems can be dealt with. Now read on to know how to solve your problems.
Talk, it really helps. What most of us think is that our problem can be understood only by us and that no talking is going to help.
Write your problems.
Don't lose faith and hope. No matter what you lose in life, don't lose faith and hope. Even if you lose all your money, family…you should still have faith.
Your problems aren't the worst. No matter what problem you get in life, there are another one million people whose problems are huger than yours.
Go about and solve your problems because every problem, however big or small, always has a way out.
| A．Of course, we've been fighting troubles ever since we were born. |
| B．When we have a problem, a pressing, critical, urgent, life-threatening problem, how do we try and solve it？ |
| C．Having a personal diary can also be of huge help if you don't want a real person to talk with. |
| D．But the truth is that when you talk about it, you're setting free the negative energies that have been gathering within you. |
| E．We can often overcome the problem and achieve the goal by making a direct attack. |
| F．Tell yourself：when they can deal with them, why can't I？ |
| G．With faith and hope, you can rebuild everything that you lose. |
4 . In 1970, before he became a blues legend, Stevie Ray Vaughan was working as a dishwasher in Dallas. One of his jobs was cleaning out the trash bin. To do it, Vaughan had to stand on some large wooden barrels, which were for the kitchen crew to dump hot grease(油脂). One day, while he was cleaning, the top of a barrel suddenly gave and he fell in.
Luckily for Vaughan, it had been a while since the last grease dump, so the stuff had cooled and he was able to safely climb out of the barrel. However, the next day, Vaughan’s boss fired him for breaking the barrel. The young man could have been severely injured, and he lost his job for his trouble.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. National surveys suggest that burns, cuts, falls and other injuries are extremely common in the fast food industry, where underpaid people are placed under intense pressure to work quickly.
Then there’s wage theft—employers trying to avoid paying workers what they’re legally entitled to. According to the Economic Policy Institute, federal and state agencies recovered $933 million for victims of wage theft in 2012 alone and that’s just for the workers who successfully pursued their cases.
People with power—employers, managers and owners of businesses big and small—quite often do mistreat their workers. And they do it because there are no consequences to fear and workers often can’t leave a job without putting their livelihood at risk. So they daren’t speak out their voice.
So we also need social institutions—a universal basic income, wage allowance, a job guarantee, truly universal health care and more—that give workers an alternative to depend on in the market for income. And we need a strong labor movement that can credibly punish employers if they don’t give workers a fair share and press the government to enforce the law.
1. Why was Vaughan able to escape serious injury?| A．The barrel did not have a cover. |
| B．His colleagues rescued him in time. |
| C．The temperature of the stuff was low. |
| D．He immediately broke the barrel and ran away. |
| A．Employers treat their employees badly. |
| B．Employees may easily get injured while working. |
| C．Competition is much fiercer in fast food industry. |
| D．Employees fail to defend their rights through laws. |
| A．The potential consequences of wage theft. |
| B．The reasons for the phenomenon of wage theft. |
| C．The conflict between employers and employees. |
| D．The complaints from employees about wage theft. |
| A．Employees should work harder to improve income. |
| B．Vaughan was fired owing to his negative attitude to work. |
| C．It’s unnecessary for employees to be in conflict with employers. |
| D．Some measures should be taken to protect employees’ interests. |
5 . Living with your parents has its benefits at least when it comes to raising your kids― their grandkids. Two new studies add to the evidence that grandmothers can enhance the survival of grandchildren. That is, unless grandma's too old or lives too far away.
Humans are unusual in that the females live long past the age at which they stop having babies. Patrick Bergeron, professor of biology at Bishop's University in Quebec, said that most of the organisms will reproduce up to their very last moment. This increase is often explained by the so-called "grandmother effect". He thinks there could still be a benefit for women who stop having babies to increase their genetic footprint by helping their daughters to raise larger families.
To explore the "grandmother effect" hypothesis （假设），Bergeron and his colleagues examined nearly 200 years' worth of French-Canadian population records from the 17th and 18th centuries. "At the time, life was tough. In some years, a third o£ the kids were not even making it to one year of age.” But the researchers found that having a grandmother still alive was a definite plus."Families with grandmothers alive were larger by about two and the survival of these grandchildren to age 15 was much improved."
This beneficial effect was only seen when the matriarchs （女家长）lived nearby. That role is tougher for them to fulfills as they get older in poor health, which brings us to the second study. The researchers found that the benefits associated with having a grandmother on hand depended on her age. Once manna hit 75, the grandchild survival benefit disappeared. This was almost certainly due to some form of indirect resource competition, though, rather than wickedness （邪恶）on the part of co- resident grandmothers.
So a healthy grandma helps make for a healthy grandchild. If ',over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house" isn't too long a trip.
1. What's the second paragraph mainly about?| A．Differences between animals and human beings. |
| B．Disadvantages of living with grandmas |
| C．Grandmothers' influence on the kids. |
| D．What's called“grandmother effect”. |
| A．By voicing opinions. | B．By providing facts. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By telling stories. |
| A．Society should be concerned about the old women. |
| B．Grandmothers over 75 years old are unwilling to help. |
| C．Some grandmothers may occupy kids' relative recourses. |
| D．Some grandmothers are getting wicked after they are old. |
| A．A healthy one living nearby. , |
| B．A healthy one living abroad. |
| C．An old one living in a nursing home. |
| D．A knowledgeable one living together. |
6 . Financial Education-Awareness Dilemma
When it comes to financial education, the majority of today's youth will regard it as a necessity for certain specific people who want to make their career in the financial world.
Suppose you have $100 in a saving account that pays simple interest at the rate of 2%per year. lf you leave the money in the account, how much will you have accumulated after 5 years: more than $102, exactly $102, or less than $102? The test might look simple, but only half of the people surveyed gave the correct answer.
On the contrary, people who have a lower degree of financial literacy tend to borrow more, accumulate less wealth, and pay more in fees related financial products. They are less likely to invest, more likely to experience difficulty with debt, and less likely to know the terms of their mortgages and other loans. Thus, the cost of this financial ignorance is very high.
What is the solution?
| A．Financial education must start early. |
| B．However, they miss an important point. |
| C．Why does each of us have to face a financial challenge? |
| D．Why does financial literacy matter so much in our society'? |
| E．Rich people are generally better educated on financial management. |
| F．Besides, these people have more than double the wealth of people who don’t. |
| G．For example, they frequently make late credit card payments, overspend their credit limit, etc. |
7 . Connecting with people has become so much easier with advancing technology. Tasks that once required a postage stamp or carrier pigeon are now as simple as tapping a name or even a face on your screen, and you’re connected. But also easier is unconsciously getting caught up in a dilemma by violating certain new rules for communicating. A big one for some: Don’t call until you’ve texted to confirm it’s OK to call. But that’s just the beginning.
“I’m usually pretty mild and not much bothers me,” said Mark Angielle, a 29-year-old office manager from White Plains, New York. But the one thing that he hates more than anything else in life is the terrible one-word message — “K.” “At the very least reply with, Got it.” he said “At least give me a few words here. You’re not that busy.”
There are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of others who have taken Lo social media to express their distaste for people who don’t follow the unwritten rules of digital communication.
“These rules are simply a new display of a phenomenon we’ve seen in the past,” said James Ivory, professor of communication a Virginia Tech. In the same way that generations and small groups of friends have their own slang and customs, internet culture has given birth to technology-dependent beings that have their own unique set of routine.
But not everyone gets the point. Unlike language, digital communication can be filled with ambiguous clues (线索、迹象) that the person on the other end of the call, text or email may or may not easily understand.
“As soon as people aren’t talking face to face, the first thing that gets lost is some of the richness of the body language,” Ivory said, “People immediately fill that gap by using emoji (表情符号) to sum up a feeling in seconds.
“There's great potential for danger,” Ivory warned. “What's considered polite in one form might be inappropriate or rude in another occasion.”
1. What can you infer about Mark from Paragraph 2?| A．He is a businessman with a bad temper. |
| B．He complains about social manners. |
| C．He can’t bear one- word messages. |
| D．He dislike a busy business life. |
| A．John says “I got it.” to his boss face to face. |
| B．Jim calls Bill without confirming in advance. |
| C．Mary texts Lily to make sure if she can call her. |
| D．Jack sends “Thanks a lot” to his business friends. |
| A．Emoji cannot sum up feelings. |
| B．People use their own slang and customs. |
| C．There are large quantities of written rules. |
| D．People gets wrong messages without clear clues. |
| A．To obey their own digital communication rules. |
| B．To be aware of rules during digital communication. |
| C．To use advancing technology even with disadvantages. |
| D．To keep pace with digital communication development. |
8 . Spring is coming, and it is time for those about to graduate to look for jobs. Competition is tough, so job seekers must carefully consider their personal choices. Whatever we are wearing, our family and friends may accept us, but the workplace may not.
A high school newspaper editor said it is unfair for companies to discourage visible tattoos (纹身), nose rings, or certain dress styles. It is true you can’t judge a book by its cover, yet people do “cover” themselves in order to convey certain messages. What we wear, including tattoos and nose rings, is an expression of who we are. Just as people convey messages about themselves with their appearances, so do companies. Dress standards exist in the business world for a number of reasons, but the main concern is often about what customers accept.
Others may say how to dress is a matter of personal freedom, but for businesses it is more about whether to make or lose money. Most employers do care about the personal appearances of their employees, because those people represent the companies to their customers.
As a hiring manager I am paid to choose the people who would make the best impression on our customers. There are plenty of well-qualified candidates, so it is not wrong to reject someone who might disappoint my customers. Even though I am open-minded, I can’t expect all our customers are.
There is nobody to blame but yourself if your set of choices does not match that of your preferred employer. No company should have to change to satisfy a candidate simply because he or she is unwilling to respect its standards, as long as its standards are legal.
1. Which of the following is the newspaper editor’s opinion according to Paragraph 2?| A．People’s appearances carry message about themselves. |
| B．Customers’ choices influence dress standards in companies. |
| C．Candidates with tattoos or nose rings should be fairly-treated. |
| D．Strange dress styles should not be encouraged in the workplace. |
| A．Candidates have to wear what companies prefer for an interview. |
| B．What to wear is not a matter of personal choice for companies. |
| C．Companies sometimes have to change to respect their candidates. |
| D．Hiring managers make the best impression on their candidates. |
| A．Employees Matter | B．Personal Choices Matter |
| C．Appearances Matter | D．Hiring Managers Matter |
| A．enthusiastic | B．negative |
| C．positive | D．sympathetic |
A tender woman, or an independent one, which one would you prefer? A recent research shows that most people would choose the latter.
This type of woman is called a nühanzi (“tough woman”). Experts believe these characteristics have social and psychological roots among young females in China. Su Hao’s friends all call her a tough woman, because she can finish tough tasks usually carried out by men. For example, she carries 10-litre water to her dormitory on the 5th floor. “I depend on no one but myself,” she says.
According to a recent survey by China Youth Daily, tough women have become rather common in society. Of the 21,265 respondents, 78.5 percent said they are familiar with a tough woman. About 50 percent said they like women with tough characteristics, while less than 29 percent expressed the opposite view.
Why are tough women gaining popularity? Shen Meng, a psychological consultant, believes the fierce competition in society is contributing to this trend. “Women are often in a disadvantaged position compared to men,” Shen says. “In order to survive, they have to be independent, strong and tough.”
Liu Xiaolin, professor of psychology at Wuhan Mental Health Center, believes tough women are brought up this way. They are often on close relationship with their fathers, who teach their daughters to be brave and decisive,” he says. As a result, these women are more likely to be psychologically healthy and more tolerant to stress, according to Liu.
Though Liu believes that this is a good trend, Hu Shenzhi, a psychologist at the Guangdong Sunflower Counseling Center, says the popularity of tough woman indicates an unclear line between gender identities, which can lead to relationship problems. “Some women with characteristics that differ from the traditional female image may have a difficult time finding Mr Right,” he says.“Even if they get married, their manly characteristics might cause family conflicts.
1. Which of the followings does NOT belong to the characteristics of a tough woman?| A．She is independent of others in daily life. |
| B．She is soft and tender to others. |
| C．She is more tolerant to stress. |
| D．She can solve problems usually for men. |
| A．About 10,600. | B．About 16,700. |
| C．21,265. | D．About 6,200. |
| A．Because tough women are more lovely. |
| B．Because more women want to be independent. |
| C．Because girls often love fathers more. |
| D．Because of the fierce competition in society. |
| A．It’s difficult for them to be friends. |
| B．They often suffer gender confusion. |
| C．They may have difficulty with marriage. |
| D．They have different characteristics form traditional female images. |
