1 . Marketers assume the more choice they offer, the more likely customers will be able to find just the right thing. For instance, offering fifty styles of jeans instead of two increases the chances that shoppers will find a pair they really like. Nevertheless, research now shows when there is too much choice, consumers are less likely to buy anything at all, and if they do buy, they are less satisfied with their selection.

It all began with jam. In 2000, psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper published a remarkable study. On one day, shoppers saw a display table with 24 varieties of jam. Those sampling the jam received a coupon for $1 off any jam. On another day, shoppers saw a similar table, but only six varieties of jam were on display. The large display attracted more interest than the small one. But when the time for purchase came, people seeing the large display were one-tenth as likely to buy as people seeing the small one.

Other studies have confirmed this result that more choice is not always better. As the variety of snacks, soft drinks and beers offered at convenience stores increases, for instance, sales volume and customer satisfaction decrease. These results challenge our opinions about human nature and the determinants of well-being.

Choice is good for us, but its relationship to satisfaction appears to be more complicated than we assumed. What’s more, psychologists and business academics have largely ignored another outcome of choice: More of it requires increased time and effort and can lead to anxiety, regret, excessively high expectations and self-blame if the choice doesn’t work out.

Without doubt, having more options enables us, most of the time, to achieve better objective outcomes. Again, having fifty styles of jeans rather than two increases the likelihood that customers will find a pair that fits. But the subjective outcome may be that shoppers will feel dissatisfied, which creates a significant challenge for retailers and marketers. Choice can no longer be used to justify a marketing strategy. More isn’t always better, either for the customer or for the retailer.

1. How does the author mainly support the topic?

A．By quoting sayings.	B．By giving examples.
C．By stating arguments.	D．By making comments.

2. Why does too much choice sometimes bring challenges to customers?

A．It always wastes customers’ time.	B．It’s difficult to accept the bad results.
C．It may result in some negative feelings.	D．It makes the business more complicated.

3. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．More choice leads to shopping themselves.

B．Choice plays an important role in marketing strategies.

C．Having fifty styles of jeans is extremely better than two.

D．More choice causes the decline in consumption to some degree.

4. What may be the best title for the text?

A．Less choice does harm	B．More isn’t always better
C．More purchase is better	D．Less choice favors consumption

2 . You may hear the awful saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, which speaks to a common belief about older adulthood that it’s a time when we’ve become so set in our ways that we’re not likely to change.

Psychologists used to follow the same line of thinking: After young adulthood, people tend to become stabler as people age. However, more recent studies suggest that something unexpected happens to many people as they reach and pass their 60s: Their personality starts changing again. People’s personality can change in response to their circumstances, adapting to a changing life. These developments clarify personality is not a permanent state but an adaptive way of being.

We can’t say with certainty what factors are driving these shifts, but a few theories exist. One possibility is that personality is shaped by specific life events that tend to happen in older age: retirement, empty nesting or widowhood (丧偶). But such milestones aren’t very reliable sources of change. They affect some people deeply, but have no impact on others. Any one event could mean many different things, depending on its context. Jenny Wagner, a psychologist at the University of Hamburg, in Germany, gave an example. Losing a partner could be a great loss, but for some it could be a bit of a relief at the same time-say, for someone who’s been caring for their ill partner for years.

Granted, old-age personality changes don’t always result from a sense of helplessness or an endlessly shrinking life. Research has shown that when people get older, they commonly recalibrate their goals; though they might be doing less, they tend to prioritize what they find meaningful and really appreciate it. That may involve adjusting to what they can’t control, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re reacting to a bad life—just a different one.

At the same time, not all of the changes coming with old age are unavoidable. And if old adults had more support from their communities and society, perhaps they’d be better able to command their circumstances—rather than having to make up for factors slipping out of their grasp.

1. Why is the saying in paragraph 1 mentioned?

A．To lead in the topic.	B．To explain a reason.
C．To show an attitude.	D．To offer a suggestion.

2. What do we know about old-age personality changes?

A．They can’t be avoided or prevented.	B．They will happen to most old people.
C．They may vary from person to person.	D．They put elders in a terrible situation.

3. Which can replace the underlined word “recalibrate” in paragraph 4?

A．establish

B．adjust

C．pursue

D．reach

4. What should we do in response to old-age personality changes?

A．Give old people help and care.	B．Help communities and society.
C．Teach old people to adapt to such changes.	D．Study more about the change of circumstances.

3 . Delivery workers will finally be able to charge their electric bicycles — and themselves — at new stations created out of repurposed news stands in New York City, Senator (参议员) Chuck Schumer announced on Monday.

The repurposed news stands, the first of their kind in the nation, will feature charging stations safe for e-bike batteries, bike parking, and a place for delivery workers to rest or ride out bad weather.

“You’ve been riding this bike a long time. You need a break. Maybe you’ve got to make a phone call. Maybe you have to take care of your personal needs, any of these things,” Schumer said. “They’re constantly out on the street, no place to rest, no shelter to protect them — imagine it’s pouring rain, or even snow and you still got to do this,” he said. “And so we’re going to take underutilized (未利用的) public space on our streets like this news stand right behind us. Very simple.”

And the stations, which will be designed by Manuel Mansylla, will not contain bathrooms — which were once a flashpoint (焦点) for delivery workers who were banned from using the restrooms at some of the very restaurants from which they were delivering food.

But thanks to new city laws that went into effect at the start of this year, including requiring restaurants to allow delivery workers to use their restrooms, that’s thankfully not the main concern anymore, said Gustavo Ajche, a delivery worker. “The bathroom is different. There’s no problem with that any more what we need here is more parking spaces,” he said.

Not everyone loves the idea of news stands being repurposed for e-bike charging stations. “After car chargers on the sidewalk, this is another facility of the city taking pedestrian (行人) space to create charging stations,” said Christine Berthet of CHEKPEDS, the pedestrian advocacy group that has long called for the creation of more public space for pedestrians.

1. What service can delivery workers expect from the repurposed news stands?

A．Charging their phones.	B．Selling them e-bike batteries.
C．Repairing their bikes.	D．Offering them shelter.

2. What do Schumer’s words in paragraph 3 highlight about the repurposed news stands?

A．They are underutilized.	B．They are necessary.
C．They are simple to construct.	D．They are gaining popularity.

3. How do the new city laws issued this year affect delivery workers?

A．They get more parking spaces.	B．They can use car chargers on the sidewalk.
C．They can use restaurant bathrooms.	D．They get extra pay for working in bad weather.

4. What is Berthet’s attitude toward the repurposed news stands?

A．Critical.

B．Unclear.

C．Tolerant.

D．Favorable.

4 . For night owls like Chen Danhong, 28, who works for a technology company in Beijing, the day really just begins after about 8 pm, a psychological hint that she can relax. “When I get home, I’m feeling worn out and tired, but that suddenly turns to excitement and I go on the Internet, read novels or watch movies. I’ll be playing video games and continually saying to myself, ‘OK, this is the last one’ before I eventually realize that it’s 2 o’clock,” says Chen.

Common symptoms (症状) include falling asleep later than 2 am, with the average time taken to fall asleep being more than one hour. Young people in cities are most vulnerable to such symptoms, according to the 2020 Chinese National Healthy Sleep White Paper. Common causes are loneliness, overtime sequelae (后遗症), excessive stress and emotional disorders. On March 21, World Sleep Day, a newspaper, Nanguo Morning News, conducted a survey that attracted 2,000 interviewees.

According to the survey, the reasons for going to bed late vary widely, with overtime work or taking care of a baby accounting for just five percent of the interviewees’ answers on this question. Sixty-four percent said they sleep late because they watch dramas, various shows, read books or play with their mobile phones. Fourteen percent said they do not want to go to bed too early even if they have nothing to do.

Many interviewees said they have had experience of the dangers of going to be late. Twenty-three percent said they have no serious physiological problems, but they can feel weak, are easily fatigued and have a poor complexion. Twenty-one percent said they are forgetful and find it hard to concentrate on work. More worrying is that an unwillingness to sleep can lead to a vicious circle (恶性循环), and15 percent of the respondents said they cannot fall asleep even if they want to.

1. Why does the author mention Chen Danhong’s situation in the first paragraph?

A．To lead in the topic.	B．To present an argument.
C．To shock the reader.	D．To raise a question.

2. What makes young people tend to go to bed late?

A．Unwillingness to sleep.	B．The various entertainments.
C．Caring for their family.	D．The frequent overtime.

3. What does the underlined word “fatigued” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Concerned.

B．Exhausted.

C．Focused.

D．Sleepy.

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Young people are more strong enough to sleep late.

B．Young people can fall asleep anytime they want to.

C．Going to bed late affects many people’s health or work.

D．Sleeping late occasionally isn’t harmful to our health.

9 . Journal editors decide what gets published and what doesn’t, affecting the careers of other academics and influencing the direction that a field takes. You’d hope, then, that journals would do everything they can to establish a diverse editorial board, reflecting a variety of voices, experiences, and identities.

Unfortunately a new study in Nature Neuroscience makes for disheartening reading. The team finds that the majority of editors in top psychology and neuroscience journals are male and based in the United States: a situation that may be amplifying existing gender inequalities in the field and influencing the kind of research that gets published.

Men were found to account for 60% of the editors of psychology journals. There were significantly more male than female editors at each level of seniority, and men made up the majority of editors in over three quarters of the journals. Crucially, the proportion of female editors was significantly lower than the overall proportion of women psychology researchers.

The differences were even starker in the neuroscience journals: 70% of editors were male, and men held the majority of editorial positions in 88% of journals. In this case, the proportion of female editors was not significantly lower than the proportion of female researchers working in neuroscience—a finding that reveals enduring gender disparities in the field more broadly.

Based on their results, the team concludes that “the ideas, values and decision-making biases of men are overrepresented in the editorial positions of the most recognized academic journals in psychology and neuroscience.”

Gender inequality in science is often attributed to the fact that senior academics are more likely to be male, because historically science was male-dominated: it’s argued that as time goes on and more women rise to senior roles, the field will become more equal. Yet this study showed that even the junior roles in psychology journals tended to be held disproportionately by men, despite the fact that there are actually more female than male junior psychology faculty.

This implies that a lack of female academics is not the problem. Instead, there are structural reasons that women are disadvantaged in science. Women receive lower salaries and face greater childcare demands, for instance, which can result in fewer publications and grants—the kinds of things that journals look for when deciding who to appoint. Rather than simply blaming the inequality of editorial boards on tradition, we should be actively breaking down these existing barriers.

A lack of diversity among journal editors also likely contributes to psychology’s WEIRD problem. If journal editors are largely men from the United States, then they will probably place higher value on papers that are relevant to Western, male populations, whether consciously or not.

1. What would we expect an editorial board of an academic journal to exhibit in view of its important responsibilities?

A．Insight	B．Diversity
C．Expertise	D．Integrity

2. What do we learn from the findings of a new study in Nature Neuroscience?

A．The majority of top psychology and neuroscience journals reflect a variety of voices, experiences and identities.

B．The editorial boards of most psychology and neuroscience journals do influence the direction their field takes.

C．The majority of editors in top psychology and neuroscience journals have relevant backgrounds.

D．The editorial boards of the most important journals in psychology and neuroscience are male-dominated.

3. What can we infer from the conclusion drawn by the team of the new study on the basis of their findings?

A．Male researchers have enough representation in the editorial boards to ensure their publications.

B．Male editors of top psychology and neuroscience journals tend to be biased against their female colleagues.

C．Women’s views are underrepresented in the editorial boards of top psychology and neuroscience journals.

D．Female editors have to struggle to get women’s research articles published in academic journals.

4. What does the author suggest we do instead of simply blaming the inequality of editorial boards on tradition?

A．Strike a balance between male and female editors	B．Implement overall structural reforms
C．Increase women’s employment in senior positions	D．Enlarge the body of female academics

10 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The concept of “gap days”     1     (appear) on a variety of social media platforms recently. Unlike a gap year, a gap day means an     2     (extreme) brief period of relaxation and escape from everyday routine. After resting, people will continue to devote     3     (they) to the busy pace of normal life.

Apart from “gap days”, other similar expressions have made     4     hit on the Internet, such as “city walk”, “da zi (activity partner)” and so on. This growing trend of creating new phrases or euphemisms (委婉语) for something otherwise ordinary and common has caused     5     (heat) discussion.

Some people think that these kinds of new phrases better cater to (迎合) people’s mindsets,     6     (show) their optimism. For example, the common expression “taking a walk” is neutral (中性的). But “city walk”     7     (be) the positive version of it, meaning “to explore the city with a curious mind”.

Others disagree, however, and think that it’s simply just a kind of “sugaring up”, satisfying one’s need for showing off. For example, “city walk” is the same as “taking a walk”     8     general. But by calling it a “city walk”, people feel like they are doing something fancier than it actually is.

But no matter how we think of these phrases, they have taken root in our daily lives and have already gained wide     9     (recognize) among the younger generation. So     10     we need to do is not make them out to be bigger than they actually are.