1 . For many, the idea of commuting (通勤) daily to a place of work might sound outdated. In the UK, at least, the shape of the working week is changing, and a new hybrid approach is becoming commonplace. This new look seem unavoidable; new technology means tasks traditionally done in the office can be done at home. And there’s the demand for a better work-life balance, too. All of this has been accelerated by the necessary changes brought on by the Covid pandemic.
One obvious change in the UK is that Friday has become the most popular day to work from home. One survey found it’s when just 13% of workers go into the office. It means employees can save on commuting costs and the price of lunches. Generally, employers thought the shift to hybrid working and home working had increased productivity rather than decreased it.
Monday is also becoming a “work from home” day: a recent study of mobile phone activity in the UK suggested a typical week in the office now runs from Tuesday to Thursday. This means companies have to think differently about the workspace they provide. There are going to be fewer people in offices for the longer term. A shorter office week isn’t great news for the city-centre shops, which depend on trade from workers. But suburban and small-town high streets are reporting an increase in footfall (客流量) as people work and shop locally.
There’s also an emerging trend for a shorter working week. Some companies are experimenting with a four-day working week—but with the same full-time pay. They have tried to make work time more efficient by cutting out unnecessary meetings and having shorter breaks, for example. They claim this has made workers more productive. All this makes you wonder if the act of going to work and doing the nine-to-five will become a thing of the past.
1. What is the driver for the changes mentioned in the first paragraph?| A．Covid pandemic | B．More work |
| C．New commuting approach | D．Novel technologies |
| A．City-centre | B．Downtown | C．Out-of-town | D．Metropolitan |
| A．It decreases productivity | B．It helps companies cut staff |
| C．It lowers employees’ wage | D．It promotes work-life balance |
| A．Workers Tired of Workplaces |
| B．Hybrid Working Trend in the UK |
| C．Home Working Makes Bosses Unhappy |
| D．Inefficient Nine-To-Five Working Mode |
2 . Doctors commonly view excessive (过多的) daytime sleepiness as a sign of disturbed or inadequate sleep. But a new study suggests it could also signal depression or even diabetes (糖尿病), regardless of whether an individual doesn’t sleep well.
Among a random sample of 16, 500 men and women ranging in age from 20 to 100 years old from central Pennsylvania, 8.7 percent had excessive daytime sleepiness.
Researchers, who considered a wide range of possible reasons for why these individuals were excessively sleepy during the daytime, found that excessive daytime sleepiness was more strongly associated with depression, diabetes and overweight than with sleep-disordered breathing.
Depression was by far the most significant risk factor for excessive daytime sleepiness, researchers reported in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. The likelihood of being excessively sleepy during the daytime was more than three times higher in those who reported they were being treated for depression. These searchers also observed strong ties between excessive daytime sleepiness and diabetes. Individuals reporting treatment for diabetes were close to two times more likely to report excessive daytime sleepiness than those who were not being treated for diabetes. Being overweight also increased the likelihood of excessive daytime sleepiness.
Excessive daytime sleepiness was more common in people younger than age 30, who were in a state of unmet sleep needs and depression. As for the over 75 crowd, increasing medical illness and health problems were the causes.
Sleep-disordered breathing—brief episodes when breathing stops during sleep—was not a significant player in excessive daytime sleepiness. This was consistent with prior studies that had reported only weak associations between sleep-disordered breathing and excessive daytime sleepiness.
1. Which of the following is slightly associated with excessive daytime sleepiness?| A．Depression. |
| B．Overweight. |
| C．Diabetes. |
| D．Sleep-disordered breathing. |
| A．Those who got treatment for diabetes can get three times daytime sleep than those who do not. |
| B．Depression is linked with overweight and diabetes. |
| C．Excessive daytime sleepiness contributes to depression. |
| D．Overweight may result in excessive daytime sleepiness. |
| A．Medical conditions. |
| B．Lack of sleep. |
| C．Breathing problem. |
| D．Depression. |
| A．The reasons for excessive daytime sleepiness. |
| B．The consequences of excessive daytime sleepiness. |
| C．The approaches to curing excessive daytime sleepiness. |
| D．The features of excessive daytime sleepiness. |
3 . When you have work to do, would you rather work at home, in an office, or at a café? For many, the answer would be a café. There is no doubt that the caffeine in coffee can provide some energy to help us work.
Another theory has to do with social psychology. Research has found that people are often more productive when they have an audience. In a setting like a café, people may be encouraged to increase their focus when they are surrounded by others who are also hard at work.
For many writers, cafés are the best places to go when an important deadline is coming up. The Manuscript Writing Cafe in Japan has decided to target writers that need to get their work done quickly.
What makes the Manuscript Writing Café even more unique is that customers have to announce their writing goals for the day to the cafe staff.
| A．Why are some people more productive in cafés? |
| B．This special café opened in Tokyo in April 2022. |
| C．The brain might consider others working nearby as competitors. |
| D．Customers are also charged for each half-hour they stay at the café. |
| E．But on top of that, a lot of people just seem to work more efficiently there. |
| F．It won’t let customers take a seat unless they do a writing or artistic project. |
| G．The staff will check on their progress every hour and ensure that they’ re being productive. |
4 . All over the world the need for more laptops and computers increases each year. Networks have been part of our life. Probably everyone with a portable device(移动设备）has once logged on to a public WiFi network without paying for it while they are having a coffee, on a train, in a shopping mall or at a hotel. However, is this kind of public WiFi network safe?
Some networks are better protected than others because encryption(加密) methods are used. Therefore, they are safer than others. But a survey in 2015 showed that more than 950 million records were not protected, including addresses, emails, birth dates, phone numbers, passwords and so on. These open WiFi networks are really not safe, because it is very easy for hackers(黑客)to break into the operating system and get people's private information.
Most smartphones and laptops, by themselves, search and connect to WiFi networks. They usually prefer a network with a connection that has been used before. Hackers' devices are able to record these searches and look like the trusted WiFi networks. When these smartphones and laptops log on to the networks which are not real, hackers can easily steal their private information.
So next time, when we want to use our laptops or our smartphones in public places which offer free WiFi networks, please think twice or take safe measures before using them.
1. Why do people like to log on to a public WiFi network?| A．Because it is free. |
| B．Because it is safe. |
| C．Because it can provide useful information. |
| D．Because the owner of the network is helpful. |
| A．not all the public WiFi networks are safe |
| B．all the public WiFi networks are safe to use |
| C．in 2015 more than 950 million records were protected |
| D．there is no way to protect our private information |
| A．our birth dates | B．our passwords |
| C．our phone numbers | D．our smartphones |
| A．Never Trust Public WiFi Networks |
| B．Why Hackers Break into the Operating System |
| C．Why the Public WiFi Networks a Possible Danger |
| D．The Importance of Protecting Our Private Information |
5 . In a normal world, getting on an airplane that circles in the air for a few hours before returning to the same airport would have been considered laughable. However, in the COVID-19 pandemic, when many international travels stopped, “flight to nowhere” or “scenic flights” were increasingly popular.
Taiwan's Taipei Songshan Airport was one of the first to offer this unique service. In June 2020, faced with an over 60 percent drop in passengers, the airport officials decided to offer consumers a virtual flight. People interested in the “pretend to go abroad” experience could sign up for a chance to win one of 90 daily tickets. Winners of the three half-day tours were treated to a full airport experience, including clearing immigration, checking in, and boarding the airplanes. Though the planes never took off, the idea was amazingly popular.
At the same time, Japan's First Airlines also offered travel-hungry tourists an affordable way to visit New York, Rome, and Paris — without leaving the ground. For only $60, passengers in their airline seats could enjoy a life-like virtual reality tour of one of the world-class cities while feasting on a destination-themed meal.
Qantas Airlines’ “flight to nowhere”, which was announced on September 22, 2020, and sold out within 10 minutes took air travellers on a scenic tour of Australia, flying over the Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales. The seven-hour flight, which departed and returned to Sydney on October 10, 2020, cost between $787 to $3, 787 Australian dollars.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) dropped the idea of a “fight to nowhere” on September 29, 2020. Instead, the company held several fun activities that allowed passengers to experience the airline’s world-famous hospitality without leaving the ground.
Strange as the offerings may seem, they were a win-win for both customers who are longing to travel and airlines trying their best to keep afloat during these difficult times.
1. What can tourists do in Taiwan's virtual flight?| A．Have a full airport experience. | B．Have a half-day tour. |
| C．Pretend to check in. | D．Fly a virtual plane. |
| A．It costs the least money. | B．It attracts the most tourists. |
| C．The plane really flies into the air. | D．It offers three half-day tours. |
| A．Adventurous. | B．Successful. | C．Competitive. | D．Environmentally-friendly. |
| A．Win. | B．Explore. | C．Compete. | D．Survive. |
6 . Smile, please. You’re on camera. This is not a joke. It seems that there are now more cameras than human beings in your community. I used to be annoyed when my children came into the toilet when I was using it. Now I worry about them coming in with camera phones. The last time it happened, I shouted, “I hope you’re not filming this for YouTube.” They responded, “Of course not, we have made a better proposal this month.”
Escaping to a pub, I complained about this camera-filled world and many listeners shared their stories.
A Londoner told me about a woman in England who threw a cat in the street. When the surveillance(监视) video went public, she received so many death threats that she needed police protection. It seems that, if you cause an animal some pain, the population rises up to beat you to death.
A man from New York told a story of how a truck had knocked a tree down. A 23-year-old woman was hurt in the accident. However, a surveillance camera revealed that she had thrown herself down on purpose to get money from the driver. “You have to admit, the camera was the hero in that story,” the New Yorker said.
“Of course, there are disadvantages, too”, the Londoner added, explaining that the UK now had about four million surveillance cameras. “I feel like cameras are looking at me all the time.” he said.
However, my attitude really changed after someone suggested: “If you had a large body of filmed work, why not register as an actor?” So I phoned a friend and got to know that all film or video actors with speaking parts could earn at least $782 per day.
Woohoo! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and do some “stupid dad tricks” at home.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 1?| A．The author doesn’t like telling a joke on camera. |
| B．The author’s children didn’t film anything for You Tube. |
| C．The author’s children bought camera phones this month. |
| D．The author thinks there are too many cameras in our lives. |
| A．They disturbed people’s everyday life. |
| B．They recorded the behavior of the heroes. |
| C．They helped people out of trouble. |
| D．They reduced traffic accidents. |
| A．He will never throw a cat in the street. |
| B．He is upset about cameras everywhere. |
| C．He will never make threats against people. |
| D．He hates being watched with close attention. |
| A．make videos of himself | B．register his kids as actors |
| C．play tricks on his kids | D．visit his friend |
7 . You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans — between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.
At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源) of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.
In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped (倾倒) from a truck all at once.
Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.
1. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?| A．Beautifying the city he lives in. | B．Introducing eco-friendly products. |
| C．Drawing public attention to plastic waste. | D．Reducing garbage on the beach. |
| A．To show the difficulty of their recycling. |
| B．To explain why they are useful. |
| C．To voice his views on modern art. |
| D．To find a substitute for them. |
| A．Calming. | B．Disturbing. |
| C．Refreshing. | D．Challenging. |
| A．Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety |
| B．Media Interest in Contemporary Art |
| C．Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies |
| D．Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures |
