1 . Thailand has somtam, India has bhel puri and South Africa has a snack of bunny chow. They are some of the most famous street foods in these countries. Around 2.5 billion people eat street food around the world. The significance of street food culture is obvious in the following areas.
●Cultural identity
Street food identifies community and tradition, keeping alive one of the most important aspects of local culture—the eating habits of the people.
●Employment and business opportunities
●Food accessibility
The significance of street food culture also includes improved access to food across countries, including their poor communities. Since the cooks have low operation costs, street foods are low in price.
In a word, support for street food businesses could help to preserve culturally significant recipes, provide employment opportunities and supply low-cost food options.
| A．However, the industry has developed without outside assistance. |
| B．The street food industry has offered new positions for low-income people. |
| C．And the owners can also aid small farms by buying ingredients from them. |
| D．Street food culture is able to create a connection within specific communities. |
| E．Making laws to ensure the safety of street foods is important for public health. |
| F．Thus, people with little income can depend on street foods every day to support themselves. |
| G．Additionally, the street food industry protects traditional recipes that are passed down through generations. |
2 . Scarcity is a common condition of human existence. Everyday circumstances of limited resources can make individuals experience a sense of scarcity. Scarcity functions like an obstacle to goal pursuit, which intensify the value of goal.
Scarcity prioritizes our choices and it can make us more effective. The time pressure of a deadline focuses our attention on using what we have most effectively. When we have little time left, we try to get more out of every moment. For example, we are more frugal with the toothpaste as the tube starts to run empty, and college seniors tend to get the most out of their time before graduation.
Many stores strategically create perception of scarcity to motivate consumer behavior. For example, the pricing practice of limiting number of items per person can lead to increased sales. The sign implies that the items are in short supply and the fear of missing out can have a powerful effect on shoppers.
For an item that is attractive to begin with, its attractiveness will intensify when it is scarce. For instance, warning labels on violent television programs, designed to decrease interest, often backfire and increase in watching the programs.
The scarcity effect explains why shyness often is considered an attractive attribute? Experts say that “playing hard to get” is a most effective strategy for attracting a partner, especially in the context of long-term love. A “hard to get” player likes to appear busy, create interest and keep the suitors guessing. However, playing hard to get is less effective in men, as they are the ones who are socially expected to initiate the relationship.
Scarcity also contributes to an interesting and a meaningful life. Scarcity shows that reminding individuals of the reality of death increases the value of life. Midlife often heightens the feeling that there is not enough time left in life to waste. We overcome the illusion (幻觉) that we can be anything, do anything, and experience everything. We restructure our lives around the needs that are essential.
1. What does the underlined word “frugal” in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Economical. | B．Flexible. | C．Anxious. | D．Sensible. |
| A．Because the programs have appealing openings. |
| B．Because there are few violent programs available. |
| C．Because the message on warning labels isn’t clear. |
| D．Because people want things that they cannot get. |
| A．A car company constantly launches new model cars. |
| B．A restaurant puts up a “two cans per person” poster. |
| C．A man pretends to be busy in front of his girlfriend. |
| D．A 50-year-old tries things he has never done before. |
| A．To prove a theory. | B．To offer a solution. |
| C．To illustrate a phenomenon. | D．To challenge a concept. |
3 . Recently, after I gave a virtual presentation on my book Indistractable, a listener wrote something in the Zoom chat that drove me crazy, “This is great but wouldn’t work for me. I’m a Gemini (双子星座的人).”
Ironically, the Zoom listener is right. If she thinks she’s incapable, she’ll prove it correct — whether it has anything to do with the stars and moon or not. Her inflexible self-identification denies her the chance to improve her life. It’s incredibly self-limiting.
That’s why we should stop defining ourselves as fixed identities and nouns, and instead start describing ourselves using verbs.
Words are powerful. Linguistic research shows that language shapes people and culture; it can also give us insight into ourselves and our behavior. In a well-known study, researchers Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobsen had all students in the same elementary school take a standard IQ test. Then they randomly selected a group of students, regardless of their test results, and told teachers the group would show “dramatic intellectual growth”. Eight months later, those students scored significantly higher on an IQ test. The study concluded that teachers’ positive perception of students correlated to those students’ high performance on intellectual and academic tests. The labels the children received became a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy (预言).
That’s because language shapes expectations, which shape our reality. If we have experiences that lead us to label ourselves with specific nouns during our life, then we are likely to stick with those labels and the behaviors that go with them.
Using verbs to identify ourselves is an effective method for releasing “trapped priors”—a term in psychology for a perception of reality that’s affected or trapped by past experiences. Verbs are action words well suited to describing short-lived behaviors that can and do change. They don’t lay claim to our entire identity, but they acknowledge that we are people first and foremost, not whatever a singular noun may say we are. So, instead of saying, “I am a procrastinator (拖拉者)”, you should say, “I am a person who often procrastinates.”
By focusing on our behaviors, not fixed characteristics, we can release harmful perceptions of ourselves that hold us back from trying methods that might improve our lives — like those that can help us achieve the critical skill of being indistractable.
1. What does the author want to show through the example of the Zoom listener?| A．The concept of flexible self-identification. |
| B．His confusion about the way to self-identify. |
| C．His understanding of proper self-identification. |
| D．The negative effects of using nouns to define oneself. |
| A．Self-fulfilling prophecies change over time. |
| B．Encouragement promotes students’ improvement. |
| C．Language usage will have an impact on teaching. |
| D．IQ has little to do with students’ academic performance. |
| A．By highlighting their behaviors. |
| B．By focusing on their advantages. |
| C．By analyzing their typical characteristics. |
| D．By assessing their academic performance. |
| A．Nouns are more powerful than verbs |
| B．Your words can determine your future |
| C．How we define ourselves really counts |
| D．Our option of words reflects our identity |
4 . Whenever he can, 15-year-old Elliot Morgan practices basketball in his backyard. He says it’s a good stress-reliever. But it wasn’t that long ago that he didn’t have time for this new hobby. “There were times in the summer when I would spend four or five hours a day on my phone,” he says. When school started in the fall, Morgan found himself scrolling (划屏) as soon as he woke up. “I realize I start to avoid workouts because I’m on my phone,” he says. “It’s affecting my focus.”
It has become clear that social media is a key player in many drivers of unhealthy habits. Social media apps are designed to encourage overuse, and teenagers are more likely to be influenced because their brains are at an important period of development that makes it harder to be free from temptation (诱惑). All of this makes limiting use more challenging — even for families who set rules.
“It’s a really big problem,” says Elliot’s mom, Alyssa. She was shocked when she discovered Elliot had bypassed parental controls and was spending five hours a day on social media. “I asked him, ‘Can you just take a look and see? Just tell me what you think. Does this feel good to you?’” she says.
Elliot hadn’t realized how many hours he was on social media. And he was at a loss. With his mother’s help, he tried to start cutting back. After several months, he decided to delete (删除) social media apps altogether. “After that, I actually sleep enough and feel better,” he says. He’s now closer with his friends because they spend more time talking instead of scrolling. And joining school clubs has also helped him reduce time on his phone.
1. What can we learn about Elliot from the first paragraph?| A．He is always late for class. | B．He used to work out early. |
| C．He likes football at school. | D．He lost himself in his phone. |
| A．They tend to develop bad habits. | B．They will take up more challenges. |
| C．They can improve reading skills. | D．They find it hard to make friends. |
| A．Uncaring. | B．Positive. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
| A．Lonely. | B．Simple. | C．Enjoyable. | D．Difficult. |
5 . Childhood can bring a lot of awe (敬畏). Research also suggests that awe is important in promoting well-being beyond our individual lives — it can encourage our children to care for others.
A recent study by researchers Eftychia Stamkou, Keltner, and their colleagues invited children aged 8-13 to take part in an experiment. In the awe group, children were offered a short part of a movie that features a child transformed into a seal (海豹) and exploring the sea while in the joy group, children were offered a short part of another movie where friends were celebrating.
Researchers measured children’s kindness toward poor families by inviting children to support their food drive by spending as much time as they wanted in counting donated things, to make sure the poor got access to the donated food as quickly as possible. They also invited children to donate the reward they earned from taking part in the research (e.g., a snack or a museum ticket) to a poor family.
The results? Children who watched the awe-inspiring video spent more time counting food donations and donated their rewards to poor families more often compared to the children who watched the joy-inspiring video. These findings highlight that awe-inspiring art can motivate children to be sympathetic toward people who have been forcibly displaced (离开家园) from their countries of origin.
As parents, we can also seek out everyday experiences of awe in our communities to share with our children, like wall paintings of the city scenery and folk art. Awe can be inspired by music, like the harmonious sounds of a wooden guitar and the beat of a drum. Awesome architecture, like symphony halls, museums, and even features like staircases, can be a way to experience awe with our children.
1. What does the research find?| A．Awe should be inspired early. | B．Awe helps kids be more generous. |
| C．Individual lives affect kids’ health. | D．Training awe gives kids excitement. |
| A．They watched different movies. | B．They commented on the videos. |
| C．They were asked some questions. | D．They donated money to poor families. |
| A．They learned this from a video. | B．They were motivated by the movie. |
| C．They liked to contribute to charity. | D．They were reminded by the homeless. |
| A．Give reasons for feeling awe. | B．List experiences of awe. |
| C．Show benefits of awe to kids. | D．Appeal for developing awe in kids. |
6 . An increase in a country’s working-age population is a blessing. Lots of workers support relatively few children and retired people. So long as the labor market can absorb an increasing number of job-seekers, output per head will rise. That can boost savings and investment, leading to higher economic growth, more productivity gains and developmental speed-up. Yet for countries that fail to seize this opportunity, the results can be tough.
Consider Thailand. It is rapidly aging. In 2021, the share of Thais aged 65 or over hit 14%, a figure that is often used to define an aged society Soon Thailand will, like Japan, South Korea and most Western countries, see a decreasing supply of workers and flagging productivity and growth without extraordinary measures. Yet unlike Japan and the rest. Thailand is not a developed country. It has got old before it has got rich.
This is a big barrier to Thailand’s future development. To protect its aging citizens, many of whom are poor, Thailand’s government will have to spend more on health care and pensions (养老金). This will make it harder to invest in productivity-boosting skills and infrastructure (基础设施). And where Thailand goes, many developing countries will follow.
One conclusion is that countries with a working-age burst need seeking more economic growth out of it. India may never have a better chance than the present. It is widely accepted that privatization and looser foreign-investment rules could raise its growth rate.
Another conclusion is that developing countries need to start planning for old age earlier. They should reform their pension systems, including by raising retirement ages. They should encourage financial markets, providing options for long-term saving and health insurance. And they should try harder to increase female participation in the labor force. Getting more women into jobs would help deal with the fact that women live longer than men, but tend to have less savings and pensions, leaving them in difficult situations in old age.
1. What does “opportunity” in the first paragraph refer to?| A．Providing more jobs for working-age laborers. |
| B．Reducing support for children and the elderly. |
| C．Encouraging investment for economic growth. |
| D．Increasing economic output and labor productivity. |
| A．It causes a shortage of young workers. |
| B．It forces the country to invest in infrastructure. |
| C．It leads to less investment in economic development. |
| D．It increases the burden on the working-age population. |
| A．To extend women’s retirement ages. |
| B．To encourage women to be included in health insurance. |
| C．To equalize the number of men and women in the workplace. |
| D．To settle the conflict between women’s long lifespan and small pension. |
| A．Aging Problems in Developing Countries. |
| B．Planning Ahead for Aging Societies. |
| C．Challenges and Opportunities of Aging Societies. |
| D．The Role of Female Labors in Addressing the Aging Issue. |
7 . Psychologists have long been in disagreement as to whether competition is a learned or a genetic component of human behavior. Whatever it is, you cannot but recognize the effect competition has on academics and many other areas of contemporary life.
Psychologically speaking, competition has been seen as an unavoidable consequence of human drives. According to Sigmund Freud, humans are born screaming for attention and full of organic drives for fulfillment in various areas. Initially, we compete for the attention of our parents.
Current work in anthropology (人类学) has suggested, however, that this view of the role of competition in human behavior may be a fallacy. Thomas Hobbes, one of the great philosophers of the seventeenth century, is perhaps best remembered for his characterization of the “natural world”, that is, the world before the introduction of the will of humanity, as being unpleasant and short. This opinion is still widely held, reinforced by Charles Darwin’s highly influential work, The Origin of Species, which established the doctrine (学说) of natural selection. Darwin’s theory has even been summarized as “survival of the fittest”-a phrase Darwin himself never used-further highlighting competition’s role in success. As it has often been pointed out, however, there is nothing in the concept of natural selection that suggests that competition is the most successful strategy for “survival of the fittest”. Darwin said in The Origin of Species that the struggles he was describing should be viewed as metaphors and couldn’t be separated from dependence and cooperation.
Many studies have been conducted to test the importance placed on competition rather than other values, such as cooperation, and generally conclude that Americans uniquely praise competition as natural, unavoidable, and desirable. In 1937, the world-renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead published Cooperation and Competition among Primitive Peoples, based on her studies of several societies that did not prize competition, and, in fact, seemed at times to place a negative value on it. One such society was the Zuni Indians of Arizona, and they, Mead found, valued cooperation far more than competition. After studying dozens of such cultures, Mead’s final conclusion was that competitiveness is a culturally created aspect of human behavior, and that its popularity in a particular society is relative to how that society values it.
1. What does the author think is commonly seen in many areas of contemporary life?| A．The origin of human drives. |
| B．The influence of competition. |
| C．The reasons for human behaviour. |
| D．The disagreement on competition. |
| A．A false idea. |
| B．A hard nut. |
| C．A losing battle. |
| D．A mixed blessing. |
| A．All species depend on others for survival. |
| B．The strongest species proves to be the fittest. |
| C．Struggles for survival include support of each other. |
| D．Competition is looked on as the best survival strategy. |
| A．It is characteristic of humans to be competitive. |
| B．Americans are uniquely opposed to cooperation. |
| C．Competition is relatively more popular in Western societies. |
| D．People’s attitude towards competition is actually culture-bound. |
8 . Many economists predict 2024 will be the time shoppers tighten their belts. That doesn’t mean people will stop spending, say retail (零售) analysts. But it will change what they choose to buy. With a slowing job market, global consumers are likely to move away from more high-priced purchases and focus instead on smaller, less expensive treats.
The economic uncertainty means that consumers are becoming more discriminating about their purchases, says Ethan Chermofsky, senior vice president of marketing at intelligence platform Placer. ai. “There are the things we decide are necessary, and then there’s another category of things that aren’t necessary but that we consider affordable luxuries, he says. This desire for these “affordable luxuries” is common in difficult economic times. Some economists refer to the phenomenon as the “lipstick index”: a small economic increase led by budget-minded consumers seeking out relatively affordable splurges (挥霍), like small cosmetics (化妆品).
Analysts at Deloitte say consumers will spend on little luxuries like specialty coffees and snacks as well. Additionally, stressed-out shoppers are prioritizing small splurge purchases for wellness and personal care.
As retailers see shoppers turning to little luxuries, they’re offering more and more of them. Target, for example, has staked a flag in what they refer to as “affordable joy”, which includes a selection of self-care and cosmetic products, along with wellness-centric beauty products. Beyond diversifying their offerings, stores are also bringing in luxury-feeling products at lower price points to appeal to more consumers.
Ethan says not every shopper will shift their spending to little luxuries-but even those who are still longing for the “must-haves” of social media will also look to get a deal. They want the feeling of purchasing lower-priced affordable treats. To get these goods, shoppers are likely to tap into the re-sale market for designer items at a more reasonable price. They want things that make them feel good about themselves-they just want to do it without breaking the bank.
1. What can affordable luxuries be?| A．Inexpensive daily necessities. | B．High-end products. |
| C．Reasonably-priced designer items. | D．High-priced purchases. |
| A．The strategies retailers use. | B．The joy businesses offer. |
| C．The competition stores face. | D．The products consumers buy. |
| A．Social-media deals. | B．World-famous brands. |
| C．Second-hand bargains. | D．Budget-friendly pleasures. |
| A．Lipstick Index: Where Does It Lead Us? | B．Must-have Treats: A Future Spending Trend |
| C．Affordable Joy: Will We Fall Into The Trap? | D．Little Luxuries: A Driving Force Behind Consumption |
9 . In early 2023, OpenAI’s ChatGPT brought a new age—one in which artificial intelligence (AI) went from a dream to an issue for workers. Many workers may have believed that burger-flipping (翻汉堡包的) robots in fast food restaurants would be the first to be replaced by AI tools. Yet the light-speed use of AI tools may now mean knowledge-work jobs that were long considered “safe” could be endangered even faster than workers expected.
Robots that act like AI coworkers are on the way—and in some cases, they’re already here. In early December 2023, Artisan AI—a startup founded by Jaspar Carmichae-Jack—showed its first “Artisan”, an AI-powered digital worker called “Ava” who will work as a saleswoman. “She can make suggestions, edit campaigns, join meetings and take notes,” Carmichael-Jack says. “Our goal is to have Artisans working alongside humans directly and have cohesion (凝聚力), and we want the boring work to be moved onto the Artisan, which doesn’t have feelings about whether something is boring or difficult.”
Although AI technology is already shaking the workforce, “we’re still at the beginning” when it comes to AI fully combined into the workplace, says Erik Brynjolfsson, a Stanford University professor. He says as AI plays a more important role in economical fields, it should increase output and money for businesses. The question, however, is what the human toll of that growth will be, particularly in terms of job losses.
Whether the workers are reduced by AI technologies will be a choice. Workers will need to have the right to decide how AI is introduced and used in some industries. One example of this is the agreement between the Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood studios that sets limits on the use of AI in film and television production. The question is whether other industries will follow the example to protect their workers’ living.
1. What can be learned about knowledge workers?| A．They have experienced greater creativity. | B．They have used the AI at the speed of light. |
| C．They may be at the risk of replacement by AI. | D．They may have a safer working environment. |
| A．They will assist salesmen in their daily work. | B．They will become members of a human team. |
| C．They will assess the difficulty level of a task. | D．They will make boring work more interesting. |
| A．Interest. | B．Contribution. | C．Action. | D．Suffering. |
| A．AI should be forbidden in movies and television production. |
| B．Workers should have a say when using AI in some industries. |
| C．Industries should work hard to protect their workers’ living. |
| D．AI-related agreements should be reached as soon as possible. |
10 . A new study by a team of researchers shows that searching to evaluate the truthfulness of false news articles actually increases the probability of believing misinformation, not the opposite.
The reason for this outcome may be explained by search-engine outputs in the study. The researchers found that this phenomenon is concentrated among individuals for whom search engines return lower-quality information.
“This points to the danger that ‘data voids’ — areas of the information ecosystem that are dominated by low quality, or even outright false, news and information — may be playing a resulting role in the online search process, leading to low return of credible information or, more alarming, the appearance of non-credible information at the top of search results,” observes lead author Kevin Aslett, an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida.
To study the impact, they recruited participants through both Qualtrics and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk for a series of five experiments and with the aim of measuring the impact of a common behavior: searching online to evaluate news (SOTEN).
The first four studies tested the following aspects of online search behavior and impact:
◎ The effect of SOTEN on belief in both false or misleading and true news directly within two days an article’s publication
◎ Whether the effect of SOTEN can change an individual’s evaluation after they had already assessed the truthfulness of a news story
◎ The effect of SOTEN months after publication
◎ The effect of SOTEN on recent news about a key topic with significant news coverage
A fifth study combined a survey with web-tracking data in order to identify the effect of exposure to both low- and high-quality search-engine results on belief in misinformation.
Across the five studies, the authors found that the act of searching online to evaluate news led to a statistically significant increase in belief in misinformation. This occurred whether it was shortly after the publication of misinformation or months later. This finding suggests that the passage of time does not lessen the impact of SOTEN on increasing the likelihood of believing false news stories to be true. Moreover, the fifth study showed that this phenomenon is concentrated among individuals for whom search engines return lower-quality information.
“The findings highlight the need for media literacy programs to ground recommendations in search engines to invest in solutions to the challenges identified by this research,” concludes Joshua A Tucker, professor of politics.
1. What can we learn from the first three paragraphs?| A．The more you assess the realness of fake news online, the more you’ll believe it. |
| B．There is little low quality, or false news in the areas of the information ecosystem. |
| C．Evaluating online the realness of fake news would prevent you believing it. |
| D．Fake news and information usually can’t be found at the top of search results. |
| A．Knowledge level. | B．Time effect. |
| C．Web-tracking data. | D．News type. |
| A．Rely on. | B．Focus on. | C．Work on. | D．Hold on. |
| A．Economics | B．Entertainment | C．Science | D．Insights |
