1 . Lining up to board a plane has become an evident indicator of how our society has commodified (使商品化) the very act of waiting. The more you pay, the sooner you can get on the plane and the less likely you will have to check a bag. It’s not just airlines, it’s also museums, online purchases and amusement parks where VIP status can help you avoid lines. When did the act of waiting get such a bad reputation?
The very act of waiting can enhance our appreciation of something. We enjoy the anticipation like a child waiting for Christmas or summer vacation. Perhaps the person waiting in line to see his favorite singer perform in concert relishes the night more because of the time invested in getting into the venue.
As our world has sped up, this desirable balance between instant and delayed satisfaction conflicts with the current expectations of many people. When we denigrate (诋毁) the act of waiting, we risk losing an important part of our shared humanity. Having to wait is taken as a sign of being less well off or “not in the game”. It encourages privileged impatience and disdain (鄙视) for those who are caught waiting.
But the capacity to wait is a foundational part of a civilized society and thus an important skill to have. If we lose our ability to stand in line or to wait our turn, we suffer from the stress of a changing world. If we label people who wait as “losers”, we release strong urges to grab what’s ours at any cost with no concern about those we leave behind. We see the people in line as “other”, not like us, and that dehumanization (非人化) is dangerous.
Of course, we should not have to wait patiently for everything. For example, there are times when injustice deserves immediate action. Asking people to wait can be a calculated obstacle to change. In a larger context though, all of us are supposed to understand the act of waiting not only as a necessary evil but also as an important function which allows us to participate fully in life alongside our fellow travelers.
1. What is the author’s purpose of writing paragraph 1?| A．To draw a conclusion. | B．To explain a new rule. |
| C．To raise a hot issue. | D．To propose a suggestion. |
| A．Values. | B．Memorizes. | C．Hates. | D．Ignores. |
| A．Our society will fall into depression. | B．We will fail to achieve success. |
| C．Our society will see less civilization. | D．We will suffer from mental illness. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Intolerant. | C．Objective. | D．Doubtful. |
2 . The Age of Information is bulging: if you tried to download all the data available today, you’d need more than 180 million years to do so. But you are wrong to assume that all information would stimulate a boost of innovation to match the output of data. Indeed, the last time we found ourselves in a period of significant innovation was over 120 years ago, called the Age of Insight.
Innovations, big or small, start with a new idea. Often, these ideas occur as a moment of insight — the result of a novel connection in our brains made between existing and new information. Studies show insights involve quiet signals deep in the brain. Anything that helps us notice quiet signals can increase the chance of insights. However, it’s becoming more challenging to find those signals today, every moment filled with an endless supply of content.
Besides, we also want to increase the quality of them to sort through big new ideas and find the really valuable ones that can be hard to measure. Launched in 2015, the Eureka Scale (尤里卡量表) allows us to assess the strength of our insight experiences on a five-point scale, namely, intense emotions, motivation, memory advantage, aftershocks, and following ideas. The Scale combines these five variables into a single value to define the importance of a new idea and has broad applications for measuring and improving individual and organizational performance. Even it can be used to measure the impact of different kinds of work environments and learning approaches on participants’ growth. The level-5 insight, involving the richest emotion, motivation, and lasting impact, holds the greatest significance.
In order for organizations to benefit from another age of insight, it’s not enough to try to access more data or increase the number of insights we generate. Instead, it’s about making space for the biggest ideas to emerge from all the information. Using the Scale as a way to measure how important ideas are will enable better decision-making toward practical and competitive outcomes. If we’re to enter a new age of insight, we must make timely and necessary changes to design our environments for the best insight possible to surface.
1. What does the underlined word “bulging” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Approaching. | B．Exploding. | C．Shifting. | D．Updating. |
| A．By engaging in ongoing social media interactions. |
| B．By relying on technology to receive regular notices. |
| C．By stepping away from computers between meetings. |
| D．By participating in additional training and coaching sessions. |
| A．The Eureka Scale controls the influence of our insights. |
| B．One with a level-5 insight has minimal emotional responses. |
| C．Both the quantity and quality of insights are essential to innovation. |
| D．A breakthrough has been made in innovation due to a wealth of information. |
| A．Uncertain. | B．Optimistic. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Dissatisfied. |
3 . How do oceans affect you? If you live far from the coast, you might think they don’t. But life on this planet depends on the ocean. It covers almost three-quarters of the planet and holds 97% of Earth’s water. The phytoplankton (浮游植物) that live on the oceans’ surface produce half of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Oceans are a vital source of food and other resources and an economic engine for many communities.
For all the ocean provides us, we haven’t always been so responsible in our stewardship (管理). “The ocean was considered as a dumping ground for so long,” says Caitlyn Toropova of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). “There was a sense that there was no way we could harm it because it is so vast.”
But human activities are having a negative impact on many of the world’s oceans, jeopardizing marine life, habitats, and ecosystems. These threats include overfishing or destructive fishing, coastal development, pollution and water runoff, and the introduction of non-native species. Climate change is also having a big effect by causing warming seas and ocean acidification.
Realizing that something needs to be done to stem or reverse the damage has led to the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs). There are approximately 5,000 designated (指定) MPAs around the world but many more that are not officially recognized. That may sound like a lot, but less than 1% of the world’s oceans is protected. “Countries around the world have committed to protecting 10%. But even though there’s been an increase in the past ten years, at the current rate, it would take 100 years to reach that goal,” Toropova says.
1. What does paragraph 1 intend to show us?| A．The human impact on ocean species. |
| B．The importance of oceans to humans. |
| C．The urgency of protecting our oceans. |
| D．The great success in ocean exploration. |
| A．It was too vast to be fully explored. |
| B．Ocean pollution was not very serious. |
| C．Human activities had little effect on it. |
| D．It provided us with abundant resources. |
| A．Rescuing. |
| B．Classifying. |
| C．Discovering. |
| D．Endangering. |
| A．More efforts are needed to protect oceans. |
| B．MPAs contribute little to ocean protection. |
| C．People’s goals are too unrealistic to be achieved. |
| D．Every country has the duty to save marine wildlife. |
4 . Are you frequently overwhelmed by the feeling that life is leaving you behind, particularly when you look through social media sites and see all the exciting things your friends are up to? If so, you are not alone.
FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, refers to the perception that other people’s lives are superior to our own, whether this concerns socializing, accomplishing professional goals or generally having a more deeply fulfilling life. It shows itself as a deep sense of envy, and constant exposure to it can have a weakening effect on our self-respect. The feeling that we are always being left out of fundamentally important events, or that our lives are not living up to the image pictured by others, can have long-term damaging psychological consequences.
While feelings of envy and inadequacy seem to be naturally human, social media seems to have added fuel to the fire in several ways. The reason why social media has such a triggering effect is tied to the appeal of social media in the first place: these are platforms which allow us to share only the most glowing presentations of our accomplishments, while leaving out the boring aspects of life. While this kind of misrepresentation could be characterized as dishonest, it is what the polished atmosphere of social media seems to demand.
So how do we avoid falling into the trap of our own insecurities? Firstly, consider your own social media posts. Have you ever chosen photos or quotes which lead others to the rosiest conclusions about your life? Well, so have others and what they’ve left hidden is the fact that loneliness and boredom are unavoidably a part of everyone’s day-to-day life, and you are not the only one feeling left out. Secondly, learn to appreciate the positives. You may not be a regular at exciting parties or a climber of dizzying peaks, but you have your health, a place to live, and real friends who appreciate your presence in their lives. Last of all, learn to shake things off. We are all bombarded daily with images of other people’s perfection, but really, what does it matter? They are probably no more real than the most ridiculous reality TV shows.
1. What can frequently experiencing FOMO lead to?| A．Harm to one’s feeling of self-value. | B．A more satisfying and fulfilling social life. |
| C．Damage to one’s work productivity. | D．Less likelihood of professional success. |
| A．The primary reason for FOMO is deeply rooted in social media. |
| B．Our own social media posts help us feel much more confident. |
| C．People who don’t share posts on social media are more bored. |
| D．Social media’s nature enhances envious feelings and self-doubt. |
| A．To emphasize how false what we see on social media can be. |
| B．To indicate how complicated social media has turned to. |
| C．To figure out how popular and useful social media has been. |
| D．To point out how educational value reality TV shows reflect. |
| A．Myths and misconceptions about FOMO | B．FOMO: what it is and how to overcome it |
| C．How FOMO is changing human relationships | D．We’re now all in the power of “FOMO addiction” |
5 . Fast food chains have tried for years to appeal to customers who care about their health. They have added lighter food to their menus, such as salads and yogurt. Of course, the lighter food goes with the usual burgers, fried chicken and shakes.
Menus have changed over the past three decades. According to a recent study, fast food menus are less healthy than they were 30 years ago. The study suggests the problem is getting worse. The fat, salt content and size of fast food meals are the problem. They are often the reason for the rising obesity (肥胖) rate among adults in the United States. The researchers found that the average main dish weighed more in 2016 than in 1986. It also had more calories and more sodium (钠). One expert said, “The restaurants have not done enough. The big picture is that there have been some positive changes, but they are small. Overall, the changes have gotten worse.”
The average fast food dessert had more calories in 2016. It also weighed more than the average fast food dessert thirty years earlier. Restaurants are counting on bigger sundaes and cookies to increase the amount spent on each order. For example, McDonald’s recently introduced “donut sticks” dusted with sugar. Six sticks have 280 calories. But you can also order 12 sticks for less than the cost of two single orders.
The researchers found that, over the 30 years, there were more calories in items like chips, soup, and French fries. Sodium content rose even though portion(一份) size did not grow much. When consumed together as a single meal, the study found that the average main dish and side order account for nearly 40 percent of a 2000-calory daily diet.
1. Why do fast food chains provide lighter food?| A．To match the fast food. | B．To attract more customers. |
| C．To reduce the cost of each meal. | D．To improve the health of customers. |
| A．They take in more calories from fast food. |
| B．They have little time to exercise regularly. |
| C．They eat much more dessert after every meal. |
| D．They eat fast food more frequently than before. |
| A．Showing the way of restaurants’ making cookies. |
| B．Presenting the popularity of restaurants’ new food. |
| C．Stressing the increase in restaurants’ food varieties. |
| D．Explaining the intention of restaurants’ adding dessert. |
| A．Fast Food Is Still Killing Us | B．Don’t Eat Any Fast Food Now |
| C．Try to Eat More Lighter Food | D．People Are Becoming Fatter and Fatter |
1. 描述调查结果;
2. 分析其原因并给出建议。
1. 写作词数应为80左右;
2. 短文的题目和首句已为你写好。
Students’ Time Spent on Physical Exercise Weekly
Nowadays, many students are aware of the significance of physical exercise, although the time they spend on it varies.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________7 . Two and a half millennia ago, Socrates complained that writing would harm students. With a way to store ideas permanently and externally, they would no longer need to memorize. However, studies today have found that writing on paper can improve everything from recalling a random series of words to better understanding complex concepts.
For learning material by repetition, the benefits of using a pen or pencil lie in how the motor and sensory memory of putting words on paper reinforces that material. The scribbling (涂鸦) on a page feeds into visual memory: people might remember a word they wrote down in French class as being at the bottom-left on a page.
One of the best-demonstrated advantages of writing by hand seems to be in note-taking. Students typing on computers wrote down almost twice as many words directly from lectures, suggesting they were not understanding so much as rapidly copying the material. However, handwriting forces note-takers to process and organize ideas into their own words. This aids conceptual understanding at the moment of writing, resulting in better performance on tests.
Many studies have confirmed handwriting’s benefits, and policymakers have taken note. Though America’s curriculum from 2010 does not require handwriting instruction past first grade (roughly age six), about half the states since then have required more teaching of it. In Sweden there is a push for more handwriting and printed books and fewer devices. England’s national curriculum already includes the teaching of basic cursive writing (连写体) skills by age seven.
However, several school systems in America have gone so far as to ban most laptops. This is too extreme. Some students have disabilities that make handwriting especially hard. Nearly all will eventually need typing skills. Virginia Berninger, professor of psychology at the University of Washington, is a longtime advocate of handwriting. But she is not a purist; she says there are research tested benefits for “manuscript” print-style writing but also for typing.
Socrates may or may not have had a point about the downsides of writing. But no one would remember, much less care, if his student Plato had not noted it down for the benefit of future generations.
1. According to the text, why does writing on paper have benefits for learning?| A．It provides visual enjoyment in class. |
| B．It improves the effect of memorization. |
| C．It promotes the motor and sensory ability. |
| D．It helps to remember the information forever. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By providing statistics. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By making classification. |
| A．Difficulties faced by the disabled. |
| B．Unreasonableness of forbidding typing. |
| C．The research-tested benefits of typing. |
| D．The longtime advocacy for handwriting. |
| A．To thank Plato for his efforts. |
| B．To defend Socrates’ point of view. |
| C．To show people’s indifference to typing. |
| D．To confirm the importance of handwriting. |
8 . Nowadays, people are increasingly interacting with others in social media environments where algorithms control the flow of social information they see. People’s interactions with online algorithms may affect how they learn from others, with negative consequences including social misperceptions, conflict and the spread of misinformation.
On social media platforms, algorithms are mainly designed to amplify (放大) information that sustains engagement, meaning they keep people clicking on content and coming back to the platforms. There is evidence suggesting that a side effect of this design is that algorithms amplify information people are strongly biased (偏向的) to learn from. We call this information “PRIME”, for prestigious, in-group, moral and emotional information.
In our evolutionary past, biases to learn from PRIME information were very advantageous: Learning from prestigious individuals is efficient because these people are successful and their behavior can be copied. Paying attention to people who violate moral norms is important because punishing them helps the community maintain cooperation. But what happens when PRIME information becomes amplified by algorithms and some people exploit (利用) algorithm amplification to promote themselves? Prestige becomes a poor signal of success because people can fake prestige on social media. News become filled with negative and moral information so that there is conflict rather than cooperation.
The interaction of human psychology and algorithm amplification leads to disfunction because social learning supports cooperation and problem-solving, but social media algorithms are designed to increase engagement. We call it functional mismatch. One of the key outcomes of functional mismatch is that people start to form incorrect perceptions of their social world, which often occurs in the field of politics. Recent research suggests that when algorithms selectively amplify more extreme political views, people begin to think that their political in-group and out-group are more sharply divided than they really are. Such “false polarization” might be an important source of greater political conflict.
So what’s next? A key question is what can be done to make algorithms facilitate accurate human social learning rather than exploit social learning biases. Some research team is working on new algorithm designs that increase engagement while also punishing PRIME information. This may maintain user activity that social media platforms seek, but also make people’s social perceptions more accurate.
1. What are social media algorithms targeted at?| A．Improving social environment. | B．Generating PRIME information. |
| C．Avoiding side effects of social media. | D．Raising the media platform click rate. |
| A．To make an assumption. | B．To illustrate a conclusion. |
| C．To explain a political issue. | D．To present an extreme case. |
| A．boost engagement and regulate amplification |
| B．strengthen social learning and delete biases |
| C．identify biases and punish PRIME information |
| D．monitor media platforms and guarantee users’ privacy |
| A．PRIME information meets with misperceptions |
| B．Algorithms control the flow of social information |
| C．Social media algorithms twist human social learning |
| D．Online algorithm designs face unexpected challenges |
1. What did the man use last weekend?
| A．A shared bike. | B．A shared charger. | C．A shared umbrella. |
| A．The proper ways to use the sharing product. |
| B．Her attitude towards the sharing economy. |
| C．The advantages of the sharing economy. |
| FEEDING AMERICA: BY THE NUMBERS* | ||
| 41, 200, 000 AMERICANS ARE FOOD INSECURE (Meaning they don’t know when and how they’ll get their next meal) | WANT TO DOSOMETHING? One way to stem the tide of hunger is via neighborhood food banks. They need three things: money, your time, and food. If you plan on donating food, here are the items food banks need most： ●Applesauce ●Boxed meals ●Canned chicken ●Canned chili ●Canned fish(tuna, salmon) ●Cooking oils ●Crackers ●Dried herbs and spices ●Nuts ●Peanut butter ●Whole-grain cereal (Note: Avoid items with glass packaging because they can be broken in transport. Pop-top ans are a plus—no opener needed.) | |
| 13 MILLION AMERICAN CHILDERN FACE HUNGER—THAT’S 1 IN 6 KIDS | 1.5 MILLION Veterans receive food stamps | |
| 27% of households with incomes Above the federal poverty level Are food insecure | ||
| 18.7% Of Mississippians are food Insecure (Highest rate of all states) | 5.4 MILLION Senior citizens currently face food insecurity in America. Lack of transportation, functional limitations, and health problems are major factors. | |
| 8.7% Of Hawaiians are food Insecure (Lowest rate of all states) | ||
| ＄1 donated to Feeding America will buy 10 meals for people facing hunger in America. | ||
| *Trusted Media Brands—Readers’ Digest’s parent company—has become an official media partner of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief charity. See how you can help our efforts at feedingamerica.com | ||
| A．Those Americans who live above the poverty line won’t go hungry. |
| B．13 million American children are food insecure for lack of transportation. |
| C．Among all the states in the USA, food insecurity in Mississippi is severest. |
| D．Neighborhood banks have no additional requirements for food packaging. |
| A．To warn readers against dangers of insecure food. |
| B．To urge readers to help the poor out of poverty. |
| C．To inform readers of the severe food shortage in America. |
| D．To advocate readers contributing to food relief in America. |
