The endless choice gives birth to anxiety in people’s lives. Buying something as
2 . We are a social animal. Indeed, it is our sociality — such as the ability to make sense of each other, to communicate, to work cooperatively and, finally, to create culture — that marks us off from other animal species.
But then why are we everywhere striving to increase our isolation and limit our contact with others? As musician David Byrn e argues in an essay published last month, it is a striking fact about the new technologies that have so come to shape our lives, that they have precisely this effect: they limit our need for human contact. Online shopping? Check. Automated checkout? Check. Ride hail apps? Check.
Efficiency is the key. We purchase efficiency by limiting the human aspect, known as “autonomous operation”. This is perhaps even more pronounced with new technologies on the horizon. Take the MOOC, the teacher-less virtual classroom. As Byrn e notes, this is meant to deliver the values of a learning environment without, well, without the environment — you get to stay at home — no teacher, but also, no fellow students.
Byrne isn’t claiming we are consciously choosing to isolate ourselves. We shop online because it is convenient. The absence of contact with others is a side-effect. Maybe even an unavoidable one, as one of the things that makes online shopping so easy is precisely the absence of contact with other people.
But Bryne’s thought is that whatever our intention, the tendency of our tech to isolate us may be a feature, not a bug. His hypothesis is that we actually, at some level, crave (渴望) the increased isolation and we are actually making technologies to satisfy impulses that, in some way, go beyond or against our social nature. But I wonder, is this really new?
Even if we are social by nature, and do everything we can to embed ourselves socially, the need to find ways to be alone is, well, nothing new. It’s also striking that the very activities that risk separating us — in the old days, books, newspapers, TV; nowadays, the latest apps also connect us. We read about each other. What we read gives us information to share with each other.
I am well aware of the data that shows the more time you spend on social media, the sadder and more isolated and envious you feel of others. But how novel is the isolating effect of social media? Being there reminds me a lot of what it was like to be social in high school — you have a vivid sense of your status and your standing in relation to others, and you have to deal with that.
This may be isolating, sure. But it’s the isolating face of the social lives we’ve always had. It is isolating because of the ways technology brings us into real contact with others, not because it removes that contact.
I wonder whether more isolation is a real option, after all.
1. Which of the following best reflects “autonomous operation”?| A．Getting a toothbrush via a hotel delivery robot. |
| B．Teaching mom how to establish a smart home. |
| C．Seeking help by calling human customer services. |
| D．Having an online meeting at home with colleagues. |
| A．Technology offers fresh insights into our social status. |
| B．Actions seemingly isolating can bond people. |
| C．Social platforms help bring people closer. |
| D．Social media has come to define our life. |
| A．What Technologies Do to Human Nature | B．Do Technologies Shape Our Lives? |
| C．How Isolation Changes with Connection | D．Can We Erase Human Element? |
3 . Women experience a “gender tenure gap”, lasting in CEO roles at publicly listed companies for shorter periods than men, according to new research which may support the idea that female leaders are subject to a “ glass cliff ” where they are set up to fail.
The concept of the glass cliff is that women are more likely to be appointed as leaders when an organization is in a time of crisis, so that their position is seen as more precarious than male counterparts.
Researchers at the University of Exeter found in 2005 that women were more likely to be appointed as board members after a company’s share price had performed badly. Professor Ryan told the Observer that the Russell Reynolds analysis was “ robust and added to the body of work in this area”.
“If women are more likely to take on leadership roles in times of crisis, then it follows that their time in office is likely to be stressful, more heavily scrutinised and shorter in tenure. This reduced tenure could be for a number of reasons — because there is often higher turnover in times of crisis, because they are judged as not performing well, even though poor performance was in train before their appointment, or because when things start to turn around, men come back into leadership roles.” she said.
Chief executive roles have a very low turnover, she said, which makes progress harder. “I think men can enjoy a greater followership — support within the organization. They can suffer big setbacks and rise again. Women who have been CEOs tend to go off to an alternative career.
However, she said that there was cause for optimism. The number of women on FTSE 350 boards is now 41%, up from 9.5% in 2011, and appointing women is “now the norm”. Russell Reynolds also found in a survey of 1,500 leaders worldwide that there were no significant differences in how women and men were perceived by the people who worked for them, showing that they were equally effective as leaders, although women were seen as being better at coaching and development.
1. What does the underlined word “precarious” probably mean?| A．Dangerous. |
| B．Profitable. |
| C．Essential. |
| D．Available. |
| A．“gender tenure gap” can be found in the majority of companies. |
| B．Male leaders are less likely to be appointed as board members. |
| C．Woman leaders in times of crisis tend to be shorter in tenure. |
| D．Female leaders are generally not performing well during their appointment. |
| A．Women leaders are destined to eliminate glass cliff in the future. |
| B．Nowadays woman leaders differ hugely from man leaders in followership. |
| C．Man leaders are superior to woman leaders in every aspect. |
| D．Woman leaders are no less competent than man counterparts. |
4 . In this age of social media, everyone has followed the review trend. Nearly every business or website persuades customers to leave reviews as they can drive traffic to the site or business. The online business directory Yelp, which gets 178 million monthly visitors, invites anyone with a cellphone to leave a review of a business or restaurant. But by no means are negative reviews always honest. Some people threaten to give a bad review to extort (敲诈) discounted or free food from a restaurant. Some then follow through when their demands are not met.
But there are two sides to every story. One Denver chef decided to respond to bad reviews at his restaurant. As it turned out, some customers who left bad review s deserved bad reviews themselves. One customer’s terrible review claimed that the food at the restaurant was so awful that he didn’t eat a single bite. The chef looked through the monitor and found clear evidence that he had eaten every bite! In response, the chef called out the dissatisfied customer in his own negative review. Since the chef started responding to all his negative reviews, business at his restaurant has nearly doubled.
Telling people what you think of them as the result of a bad review can backfire on you, especially when a bad review is justified. Reviews are important because 94 percent of diners read online review s before they decide where to eat.
But bad reviews appear for many reasons. The reviewer may be having a bad day, or the chef may be sick and the substitute (代替者) couldn’t fill his shoes, so the cuisine suffered. Or perhaps the service wasn’t as good as usual. The worst-case scene is that the reviewer wants to punish the restaurant on purpose for some slight, real or imagined. So one or two bad reviews need to be taken with a grain of salt. Many negative reviews, however, indicate a problem.
So what is a restauranteur to do? First give an honest assessment of any negative reviews. Take a step back and ask if the writer has made any valid points. Are there areas for improvement? If the answer is yes, make adjustments. Reviewers themselves need to be honest and constructive. The goal should be to improve the situation, not just blow off steam.
1. The author mentions Yelp in Paragraph 1 to ______.| A．introduce the topic | B．predict the ending |
| C．evaluate an argument | D．support a statement |
| A．positive | B．objective | C．negative | D．doubtful |
| A．Philosophical. | B．Identical. | C．Reasonable. | D．Legal. |
| A．Who to Be Responsible for Bad Reviews? | B．When to Respond to Bad Reviews? |
| C．How to Criticise Bad Reviews? | D．What to Do with Bad Reviews? |
5 . Being sensitive means that you are observant, careful, and thoughtful. It can also mean you sometimes overinterpret or overreact to perceived criticism or judgment. If you tend to be a highly sensitive person, you are more likely to misread signals from others, sense social threats, and struggle to adapt to new circumstances.
The power of insensitivity can be interpreted as “sluggish (迟钝的) power” .
Practicing insensitivity involves several key strategies. Firstly, be assertive. Express our needs and opinions positively and with confidence. Secondly, adopt a forward-looking mindset.
| A．Learn to view the problem as two parts. |
| B．That’s where the need to be insensitive comes from. |
| C．I hope everyone can obtain the ability to be insensitive. |
| D．Behind insensitivity is a strong sense of self-awareness. |
| E．Being a highly sensitive person can come with many challenges. |
| F．It implies the ability to calmly face the setbacks and firmly move forward. |
| G．Focus on long-term goals rather than the ups and downs of life at the moment. |
Some university students carried out a campaign
When we’re solving a complicated problem, we often gather a group
Extensive evidence shows that when we generate
8 . I’ve been paralyzed (瘫痪的) since childhood and I started using a wheelchair in first grade. So I’ve had 30 years to learn just how
As a culture, Americans are
Well, here’s the
“So how am I supposed to be helpful?” you might be asking. You have to
Like anyone else, disabled people are both capable and in need of some help. If you want to be genuinely, actively “
| A．capable | B．desperate | C．friendly | D．responsible |
| A．promised | B．convinced | C．trusted | D．questioned |
| A．brave | B．honest | C．helpful | D．grateful |
| A．test | B．change | C．reason | D．problem |
| A．forget | B．refuse | C．continue | D．pretend |
| A．still | B．also | C．even | D．already |
| A．believe in | B．catch up with | C．smile at | D．pay attention to |
| A．tell | B．answer | C．lie | D．focus |
| A．kind | B．useful | C．faithful | D．polite |
| A．guidance | B．profession | C．performance | D．inclusion |
Children learn best when the significant adults in their lives—parents, teachers, and other family and community members—work together to encourage and support them. This basic fact should be a guiding principle as we think about how schools should be organized and how children should be taught. Schools alone cannot address all of a child’s developmental needs: the meaningful involvement of parents and support from the community are essential.
The need for a strong partnership between schools and families to educate children may seem like common sense. In simpler times, this relationship was natural and easy to maintain. Teachers and parents were often neighbors and found many occasions to discuss a child’s progress. Children heard the same messages from teachers and parents and understood that they were expected to uphold the same standards at home and at school.
As society has become more complex and demanding, though, these relationships have all too often fallen by the wayside. Neither educators nor parents have enough time to get to know one another and establish working relationships on behalf of children. In many communities, parents are discouraged from spending time in classrooms and educators are expected to consult with family members only when a child is in trouble. The result, in too many cases, is misunderstanding, mistrust, and a lack of respect, so that when a child falls behind, teachers blame the parents and parents blame the teachers.
At the same time，our society has created artificial distinctions （区别）of the roles that parents and teachers should play in a young person’s development. We tend to think that schools should stick to teaching academics and that home is the place where children’s moral and emotional development should take place.
Yet children don’t stop learning about values and relationships when they enter a classroom, nor do they cease learning academics— and attitudes about learning —when they are at home or elsewhere in their community.
These days, it can take extraordinary efforts to build strong relationships between families and educators. Schools have to reach out to families, making them feel welcome as full partners in the educational process. Families, in turn, have to make a commitment of time and energy to support their children both at home and at school.
1. What is important when it comes to children’s education?2. Why is it hard for parents and teachers to build a strong partnership nowadays?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Families and schools should join hands to support students’ development, and they should be aware that there is a clear division of their responsibilities in the education of children.
4. What are your suggestions on how to get parents involved in school affairs?
Connected to each other like never before, young people today are becoming agents of change, increasingly
The United Nations Institute for Training and Research
