1 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式.
For thousands of years, Chinese people
It is a time when people think highly of individual freedom
Therefore, there is every reason to believe that this trend of families in reduced size is
2 . I came across an image recently of a distance runner with a message that told readers to persevere (坚持) at all costs. It reminded me of a conversation I had. My colleague’s teaching assistant was asking for my advice. He wanted to know when to quit something. He described how he’d been playing an online game with people for some time. It hadn’t been very fun lately, but there was always that small chance of a reward (upgraded equipment, etc).
I inquired further about his relationship with the players and his gains from the game. I then discussed the sunk cost dilemma, a concept I studied in advanced school due to its personal impact. In high school, I applied to five universities, planning to choose the cheapest one. SUU offered the best scholarship, and after paying a $100 commitment fee, I heard back from another school with an even better scholarship. Despite the new offer, I stayed committed to SUU, believing that switching schools, even if it meant acknowledging the “wasted” $ 100, would have been the wiser financial choice.
A rational (理性的) decision maker is not ruled by past investments, but weighs future outcomes. I didn’t focus on future outcomes when weighing colleges. I focused on the money I sunk into SUU. Rather than evaluating future career options, I focused on the fact that I’d already taken elementary education courses.
I’m not the only one that’s fallen prey to this. I wear clothes I dislike simply because I spent money on them (and that money won’t come back). Unhealthy relationships last because of the invested time (leading to more unhappy years). However, time, effort, or money that you’ve invested doesn’t mean you should continue. Society often stresses perseverance — never quit, never give up, don’t waste. However, only you know your right path. Walking away can be the toughest choice. You might realize a path you’re on is no longer the right one or never was.
1. Why does the author introduce a distance runner’s image at first?| A．To make a contrast. | B．To give a definition. |
| C．To draw a conclusion. | D．To illustrate a theory. |
| A．Following suit as most people. | B．Taking elementary education. |
| C．Valuing the development in future. | D．Overlooking past investments. |
| A．Get benefits from. | B．Be harmed by. | C．Be interested in. | D．Get rid of. |
| A．Perseverance is a virtue | B．The chosen path is the toughest |
| C．Cut your losses for your winners | D．Walking away means losing all |
3 . Americans no longer expect public figures, whether in speech or in writing, to command the English language with skill and gift. Nor do they aspire to such command themselves. In his latest book, Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care, John McWhorter, a linguist and controversialist (善辩者) of mixed liberal and conservative views, sees the triumph of 1960s counter-culture as responsible for the decline of formal English.
Blaming the permissive 1960s is nothing new, but this is not yet another criticism against the decline in education. Mr. McWhorter’s academic specialty is language history and change, and he sees the gradual disappearance of “whom,” for example, to be natural and no more regrettable than the loss of the case-endings of Old English.
But the cult of the authentic and the personal, “doing our own thing”, has spelt the death of formal speech, writing, poetry and music. While even the modestly educated sought an elevated tone when they put pen to paper before the 1960s, even the most well regarded writing since then has sought to capture spoken English on the page. Equally, in poetry, the highly personal, performative genre is the only form that could claim real liveliness. In both oral and written English, talking is triumphing over speaking, spontaneity over craft.
Illustrated with an entertaining array of examples from both high and low culture, the trend that Mr. McWhorter documents is unmistakable. But it is less clear, to take the question of his subtitle, why we should, like, care. As a linguist, he acknowledges that all varieties of human language, including non-standard ones like Black English, can be powerfully expressive — there exists no language or dialect in the world that cannot convey complex ideas. He is not arguing, as many do, that we can no longer think straight because we do not talk proper.
Russians have a deep love for their own language and carry large chunks of memorized poetry in their heads, while Italian politicians tend to elaborate speech that would seem old-fashioned to most English-speakers. Mr. McWhorter acknowledges that formal language is not strictly necessary, and proposes no radical education reforms — he is really grieving over the loss of something beautiful more than useful. We now take our English “on paper plates instead of china”. A shame, perhaps, but probably an inevitable one.
1. What do we know about the decline of formal English according to McWhorter?| A．It is inevitable in radical education reforms. |
| B．It is but all too natural in language development. |
| C．It has caused the controversy over the counter-culture. |
| D．It brought about changes in public attitudes in the 1960s. |
| A．Modesty. | B．Personality. | C．Liveliness. | D．Informality. |
| A．Logical thinking is not necessarily related to the way we talk. |
| B．Black English can be more expressive than standard English. |
| C．Non-standard varieties of human language are just as entertaining. |
| D．Of all the varieties, standard English can best convey complex ideas. |
| A．Their interest in their language. | B．Their appreciation of their efforts. |
| C．Their admiration for their memory. | D．Their contempt for their old-fashionedness. |
4 . Nowadays, for many people, buying a house or flat is just too expensive. However, the total amount of rent paid by tenants in Britain in 2017 rose to more than 50 billion-more than double the level of ten years prior. Consequently, a lot choose to share the flat.
The pros? People rent a room and share the kitchen, living room and bathroom to save money.
Now the cons.
| A．Lastly, there’s the emotional support. |
| B．Those flat-sharing can share the secrets. |
| C．To start with, do you lack private space? |
| D．There’s limited storage space, for a start. |
| E．Whether the pros outweigh the cons depends. |
| F．Then what are the pros and cons of flat-sharing? |
| G．Also, living with others means that you can pool your resources. |
5 . Do you remember all those years when scientists argued that smoking would kill us but the doubters insisted that we didn’t know for sure? That the evidence was inconclusive, the science uncertain? That the antismoking lobby was out to destroy our way of life and the government should stay out of the way? Lots of Americans bought that nonsense, and over three decades, some 10 million smokers went to early graves.
There are upsetting parallels today, as scientists in one wave after another try to awaken us to the growing threat of global warming. The latest was a panel from the National Academy of Sciences, enlisted by the White House, to tell us that the Earth’s atmosphere is definitely warming and that the problem is largely man-made. The clear message is that we should get moving to protect ourselves. The president of the National Academy, Bruce Alberts, added this key point in the preface to the panel’s report: “Science never has all the answers. But science does provide us with the best available guide to the future, and it is critical that our nation and the world base important policies on the best judgments that science can provide concerning the future consequences of present actions.”
Just as on smoking, voices now come from many quarters insisting that the science about global warming is incomplete, that it’s OK to keep pouring fumes into the air until we know for sure. This is a dangerous game: by the time 100 percent of the evidence is in, it may be too late. With the risks obvious and growing, a prudent people would take out an insurance policy now.
Fortunately, the White House is starting to pay attention. But it’s obvious that a majority of the president’s advisers still don’t take global warming seriously. Instead of a plan of action, they continue to press for more research — a classic case of “paralysis by analysis.”
To serve as responsible stewards of the planet, we must press forward on deeper atmospheric and oceanic research. But research alone is inadequate. If the Administration won’t take the legislative initiative, Congress should help to begin fashioning conservation measures. A bill by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, which would offer financial incentives for private industry, is a promising start. Many see that the country is getting ready to build lots of new power plants to meet our energy needs. If we are ever going to protect the atmosphere, it is crucial that those new plants be environmentally sound.
1. What was an argument made by supporters of smoking?| A．There was no scientific evidence of the correlation between smoking and death. |
| B．The number of early deaths of smokers in the past decades was insignificant. |
| C．People had the freedom to choose their own way of life. |
| D．Antismoking people were usually talking nonsense. |
| A．A protector. | B．A judge. | C．A critic. | D．A guide. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Arbitrary. | C．Responsible. | D．Expericed. |
| A．They both suffered from the government’s negligence. |
| B．A lesson from the latter is applicable to the former. |
| C．The outcome of the latter aggravates the former. |
| D．Both of them have turned from bad to worse. |
China’s top liquor maker Kweichow Moutai and domestic coffee chain Luckin Coffee have got a hit on their hands, with a new baijiu-flavored latte. The latte has become one of the most discussed topics on Chinese social media with people curious about
In Beijijng, the Moutai-flavored latte sold out in some Luckin Coffee
“It seems that people prefer
People have been sharing their reactions after trying the latte on social media, with most
In recent years, Moutai has been looking for ways to be more
7 . Personality used to be a one-per-customer deal: like it or not, you were who you were, and lying to a pen pal was about the closest you could get to have a different ego. That was then. With the appearance of MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites, a second, carefully crafted identity is now available to anyone with an Internet connection. And that has psychologists wonder: just how well do these online personalities match the person sitting at the keyboard?
The answer, it turns out, is pretty well. In a recent study of 133 undergraduates with Facebook profiles, University of Texas psychologist Samuel D. Gosling measured the correlation between personality tests online and off, and found — contrary to the assumption that social networking sites can’t capture one’s features—that the students represented themselves quite faithfully.
Gosling surveyed the group on a standard five-point personality test, which measures extroversion (外向性), agreeableness, sense of responsibility, emotional stability, and openness to new experiences. Then he rated the same subjects based only on their Facebook profiles, which usually included photos and lists of interests, from academic majors to favorite books and movies.
Gosling found a correlation between assessments in four of the five categories, with emotional stability as the only one showing no significant results across personal and online assessments.(Gosling says he was not surprised at the latter, since emotional stability is something that people are good at hiding across most media.)While extroversion showed the highest correlation, the study suggests that “openness to new experience” is perhaps better conveyed online than in person.
“Facebook users don’t tend to put a lot of personal information on their pages, ” Gosling says, so someone who posted touching personal stories, for example, might come off as oversharing without intending to.
In short, says Gosling, Facebook users aren’t generally using the site as an image buffer, a resume enhancer, or a separate self. “They just use it as a medium for social life.”
1. What is the usual assumption about social networking sites?| A．They provide good study platforms. |
| B．They contain totally fake information. |
| C．They couldn’t show one’s real nature. |
| D．They are friendly to various personalities. |
| A．Openness to new experience. | B．Extroversion. |
| C．Sense of responsibility. | D．Emotional stability. |
| A．True personality beautifies image. |
| B．The site is a medium for social life. |
| C．Only cheats invest in a false identity. |
| D．Various interests can be shared there. |
| A．To introduce a finding. | B．To offer a recommendation. |
| C．To defend a viewpoint. | D．To present a phenomenon. |
8 . Housing officials say that lately they are noticing something different: students seem to lack the will, and the skill, to deal with ordinary conflicts. “We have students who are mad at each other and they text each other in the same room,” says a teacher. “So many of our conflicts are because kids don’t know how to solve a problem by formal discussion.”
And as any pop psychologist will tell you, bottled emotions lead to silent discontent (不满) that can boil over into frustration and anger. At the University of Florida, emotional conflicts occur about once a week, the university’s director of housing education says, “Over the past five years, roommate conflicts have increased. The students don’t have the person-to-person discussions and they don’t know how to handle them.” The problem is most dramatic among freshmen; housing professionals say they see improvement as students move toward graduation, but some never seem to improve, and they worry about how such students will deal with conflicts after college.
Administrators guess that reliance on cell phones and the Internet may have made it easier for young people to avoid uncomfortable encounters. Why express anger in person when you can vent (发泄) in a text? “Things are posted on someone’s wall on Facebook like: Oh, my roommate kept me up all night studying,” says Dana Pysz, an assistant director at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s a different way to express their conflict to each other, consequently creating even more conflicts as complaints go public.” In recent focus groups at North Carolina State University, dorm residents said they would not even deal with noisy neighbors on their floor.
Administrators point to parents who have fixed their children’s problems in their entire lives. Now in college, the children lack the skills to attend to even modest conflicts. Some parents continue to interfere (干涉) on campus.
1. What is the main reason for many roommate conflicts?| A．Students are not good at reaching an agreement about the problems. |
| B．Students are not satisfied with each other. |
| C．Housing directors are not responsible for them. |
| D．Students are not strong-willed. |
| A．Students, especially freshmen, should bottle up their dissatisfaction. |
| B．Students in Florida sit down and have a person-to-person talk once a week. |
| C．Not all students are able to handle conflicts by the time they graduate. |
| D．The number of conflicts among roommates has decreased in the past five years. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Indifferent. | C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
| A．They should be involved in their children’s life on campus. |
| B．They should deal with their children’s problems in their whole lives. |
| C．They should constantly contact the administrators of the college. |
| D．They should teach their children the skills to tackle the conflicts. |
9 . In the race to catch up with the changing time, we are forgetting how to live without the support of our phones, laptops, and tablets.
The first thing you need to do to unplug is to turn off your phone notifications. As soon as we hear a notification drop on our phones — whether it is something of importance or not — we are attracted to check it. When you’re not working and are not required to call, text, or return an email, turn off your phone (or put it on silent mode).
I know it’s hard to stay away from your phone when it keeps buzzing with incoming texts, calls, and emails.
One of the best ways that I believe can help you disconnect is being in nature.
| A．Keep track of how much time you’re spending on your phone. |
| B．This way you won’t be tempted and keep getting distracted. |
| C．Take a walk in the park near you or your garden without your phone. |
| D．When feeling bored, we often look for our phones to overcome our boredom. |
| E．Here are some simple ways you can disconnect and unplug for a more mindful living. |
| F．Therefore, setting a boundary on what to reply, and when to reply should be important. |
| G．Disconnecting from technology can be very helpful for quality time with your beloved ones. |
10 . Survivor bias (偏见，偏差), occurs when you tend to assess successful outcomes and disregard failures. This sampling bias paints a more promising or even misleading picture of reality.
Survivor bias is a sneaky problem that tends to slip into analyses unnoticed. For starters, it feels natural to emphasize success, whether it’s entrepreneurs, or survivors of a medical condition. We focus on and share these stories more than the failures.
Think about the famous college dropouts who became highly successful, such as Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates. These successful examples might make you think a college degree isn’t beneficial. However, that’s survivor bias at work! These famous individuals are at the forefront of media reports. You hear more about them because they are extraordinary. You’re not considering the millions of other college dropouts that aren’t rich and famous. You need to assess their outcomes as well.
Survivor bias has even occurred in medical studies about severe diseases. Younger, healthier, and more fit patients tend to survive a disease’s initial diagnosis more frequently. Hence, they are more likely to join medical studies. On the contrary, older, weaker patients are less likely to survive long enough to participate in studies. Consequently, these studies overestimate successful disease outcomes because they are less likely to include those who die shortly after diagnosis.
Undeniably, successful cases are usually more visible and easier to contact than unsuccessful cases. However, focusing on the high-performing successes and disregarding other cases introduces survivor bias. After all, you’re leaving out a significant part of the picture as it’s harder to collect data from the less successful members of a population. Incomplete data can affect your decision-making process. Put simply, survivor bias produces an inaccurate sample, causing you to jump to incorrect conclusions.
To minimize the impact of survivor bias, you should find ways to draw a representative sample from the population, not just a few of successful samples. That process might call for more expense and effort, but you’ll get better results.
1. What writing technique is used in Paragraphs 3 and 4?| A．Making comparisons. | B．Giving examples. |
| C．Describing facts. | D．Analyzing data. |
| A．You will take all factors into account before making a final analysis. |
| B．You will overestimate the failure rate so you may quit your project. |
| C．You will only have partial data and reach an incorrect conclusion. |
| D．You will be more likely to survive in unfavorable circumstances. |
| A．People tend to lose sight of the overall statistics. |
| B．People are unwilling to read unsuccessful stories. |
| C．Doctors don’t have enough expense to collect abundant samples. |
| D．The media should be responsible for kids’ dropping out of school. |
| A．Leave out the famous historic cases. |
| B．Collect a wide enough range of samples. |
| C．Focus on those most mentioned examples. |
| D．Select some successful and inspiring tales. |
