2 . There’re currently 21.5 million students in America, and many will be funding their college on borrowed money. Given that there’s now over $1.3 trillion in student loans on the books, it's pretty clear that many students are far from sensible. The average student’s debt upon graduation now approaches $40, 000, and as college becomes ever more expensive, calls to make it “free” are multiplying. Even Hillary Clinton says that when it comes to college, “Costs won’t be a barrier.”

But the only way college could be free is if the faculty and staff donated their time, the buildings required no maintenance, and campuses required no utilities. As long as it's impossible to produce something from nothing, costs are absolutely a barrier.

The actual question we debate is who should pay for people to go to college. If taxpayers are to bear the cost of forgiving student loans, shouldn’t they have a say in how their money is used?

At least taxpayers should be able to decide what students will study on the public dime. If we're going to force taxpayers to foot the bill for college degrees, students should only study those subjects that are of greatest benefit to taxpayers. After all, students making their own choices in this respect is what caused the problem in the first place. We simply don’t need more poetry, gender studies, or sociology majors. How do we know which subjects benefit society? Easy.

Average starting salaries give a clear indication of what type of training society needs its new workers to have. Certainly, there’re benefits to a college major beyond the job a student can perform. But if we’re talking about the benefits to society, the only thing that matters is what the major enables the student to produce for society. And the value of what the student can produce is reflected in the wage employers are willing to pay the student to produce it.

A low wage for elementary school teachers, however, doesn’t mean elementary education isn’t important. It simply means there’re too many elementary school teachers already.

Meanwhile, there’re few who’re willing and able to perform jobs requiring a petroleum engineering major, so the value of one more of those people is very high.

So we can have taxpayers pick up students’ tuition in exchange for dictating what those students will study. Or we can allow students both to choose their majors and pay for their education themselves. But in the end, one of two things is true:

Either a college major is worth its cost or it isn’t. If yes, taxpayer financing isn’t needed. If not, taxpayer financing isn’t desirable. Either way, taxpayers have no business paying for students’ college education.

1. What does the author think of college students funding their education through loans?

A．They only expect to get huge returns.

B．They are acting in an unwise way.

C．They benefit at taxpayers’ expense.

D．They will regret doing so someday.

2. What should students do if taxpayers are to bear their college costs?

A．Work even harder to repay society.

B．Choose their subjects more carefully.

C．Choose majors that will serve society’s practical need.

D．Allow taxpayers to participate in college administration.

3. What does the author say about the value of a student’s college education?

A．It is well reflected in their average starting salary.

B．It is to be proved by what they can do on the job.

C．It is underestimated by profit-seeking employers.

D．It is reflected in how they remove social barriers.

4. What message does the author want to convey in the passage?

A．Students should think carefully whether to go to college

B．Taxpayers should only finance the most gifted students.

C．The worth of a college education is open to debate.

D．College students should fund their own education.

3 . As online technology advanced, web sites, podcasts, and blogs became powerful sources of information that allowed everyone to stay updated on any subject imaginable. Although all of these information sources remain popular, there's a new king of media and it's online video.

There are many reasons why online video has increased suddenly over the past few years. The first is increasing data speeds. It wasn't until recently that people everywhere had fast enough online connections to enjoy high-definition （高清）videos. However, once faster Internet speeds were provided, people quickly fell in love with online videos. The second reason why online videos have become so popular is convenience. Watching videos requires less effort and energy than reading through paragraphs of text after a day of hard work. Videos also seem to provide more satisfaction, as people prefer to connect with people they can hear and see, as against the words of some author whom they know little about.

Advancing digital technology has also helped, as it has made sharing videos easier and more convenient than ever. High-powered smartphones and more affordable video cameras allow anyone to easily record an event or give a few comments about a scorching topic that is on their mind. Meanwhile, sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and Ustream allow users to quickly upload their videos and share them with friends, family, and the general public if they wish.

Last but not least, advertising. Companies have made it easy for people to get rewarded for creating popular videos. Some people with large enough fan bases can even make a very wealthy living by uploading a few videos every week.

The future also looks bright for companies who post online video ads. In fact, new software allows them to watch viewers' emotional reactions to their content through the users' webcams （网络摄像机）.They'll be able to see whether users laugh, cry, or feel bored during videos, so they can adjust their ads. This should prove extremely helpful, as there will be millions of videos competing for viewers' attention.

1. Why do some people prefer watching videos to reading after work?

A．It helps them review the news.

B．It helps them get information with relative ease.

C．It provides them more information.

D．It helps them save time.

2. What does the underlined word "scorching" in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Unusual.

B．Future.

C．Hot.

D．Social.

3. How will the software mentioned in the last paragraph help companies in the future?

A．It will enable them to better understand what customers enjoy.

B．It will let more viewers see the advertisements they make.

C．It will cause viewers to create more popular videos.

D．It will make people like their videos.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Online Video:   The New King of Media

B．Online Technology is Developing Fast

C．Online Video:   A New Advertising Trend

D．Online Technology is Closely Related to People

4 . Forget about the “post-1995 generation”. Young people born in 1995 or later have another name in English — Generation Z. They are entering adulthood and will soon shape our future, which is why policy makers, as well as employers and marketers, are trying their best to understand these young people. So, how should we pin down the Gen Z-ers?

Most people will agree that the single biggest difference between Gen-Z and other generations is how connected they are. This is a group of people who had access to social media as soon as they were born. Social media has changed the way Gen Z-ers interact with each other and how they get and process information. They read news from Twitter, watch videos from Vine, share experiences in Instagram and post recipes in Pinterest.

“We are the first true digital natives. I can almost simultaneously create a document, edit it, post a photo on Instagram and talk on the phone, all from the user-friendly iPhone,” said Hannah Payne, an 18-year-old UCLA student.

It is noted that young people in the UK are becoming more active in Politics. Young people regard voting as one option among many to show their political engagement that can potentially influence policies. Instead of party politics, they focus more on single-topic issues such as feminism or climate change. And “much of the engagement and organizing they do takes place on social media rather than through traditional political structures,” according to the Guardians.

Gen Z-ers are also culture creators. Growing up with the Internet has freed this generation from traditional cultural expression. They are no longer willing to let their creativity be limited by their parents or traditional rules. “We decide what kind of content we want to experience and choose how we experience it,” wrote Masback, a Huffington Post blogger and a Gen Z-er herself.

1. What does the underlined phrase “pin down” mean in Paragraph 1?

A．Cooperate with.	B．Firmly convince.
C．Communicate with.	D．Clearly understand.

2. What is special about the Gen Z-ers’ engagement in politics?

A．It’s topic-specific.	B．It stresses social response.
C．It’s party-based.	D．It has an immediate effect.

3. What can be inferred about the Gen Z-ers?

A．They are socially responsible.	B．They are friendly and generous.
C．They are addicted to social media.	D．They are rooted in traditional culture.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards Gen Z-ers?

A．Worried.

B．Suspicious.

C．Objective.

D．Disapproving.

5 . Removing gender bias

Tailors worked out long ago that men and women have different shapes. Yet this message has failed to enter many other areas of design. Car seat belts, for example, which date back to the 1880s, are often still more suitable for men, who tend to sit farther back than women when driving. And today the most forward-looking tech companies on Earth are still placing old-school bias (偏见；成见) into new products. Consider smart phones. Most are too big to fit comfortably into the average woman’s hand, as are many video-game controllers.

An obvious part of the explanation for their design problem is that men control most of its companies—male-run firms receive 82% of venture-capital (VC) funding. Male bosses may be unaware of the problems women face. They may not flag up obvious areas of concern, or ask the right questions when doing their research for a new product design. And once an idea gets the green light, it will then be handled by product-design and engineering teams, three-quarters of whose members are men. These teams often use data to make decisions, but mixing all users together means they may fail to spot trends based on sex differences. Dependence on historical data, and the lack of data on underrepresented groups, can also create bias in algorithms (算法).

Next comes testing. Naturally, designers test original models on their intended customers, but they may not get feedback from a broad enough group of people. There is also the risk of confirmation bias—designers may listen to what they want to hear, and ignore negative reactions from some groups of users.

Tech’s design bias needs fixing for moral, safety and business reasons. The ethical importance is obvious: it is wrong that women have to make do with a “one-size-fits-men” world, as Caroline Criado Perez, a writer, puts it. As for safety, regulators can tackle that by banning things that are dangerous to women—including seat belts—because they are no! designed properly.

But there is also a powerful business case for avoiding design bias, because huge opportunities are being missed. Women are 50% of the population, and make 70—80% of the world’s consumer-spending decisions.

Change is coming. The first voice-recognition systems struggled to understand female voices, but most now manage just fine. “Femtech” start-up companies, which focus on women’s health and well-being, may raise MYM 1 billion by the end of this year. VC funds and tech firms are hiring more women. Ensuring that products are designed for everyone would lead to happier and safer customers. For the companies that get it right, that means higher profits. What is holding them back?

1. The underlined part in Paragraph 2 means ________.

A．hits the market	B．gets approval
C．becomes successful	D．comes into being

2. What is discussed in Paragraphs 2 and 3?

A．Why tech’s design bias needs to be fixed.

B．How gender bias is affecting tech companies.

C．Where gender bias in product design is rooted.

D．Who is to blame for gender bias in tech companies.

3. We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．tech companies are unwilling to change

B．design bias may result in missed opportunities

C．male workers benefit more in engineering teams

D．tech companies are poor at making user-friendly products

4. How does the author feel about the future of bias-free product design?

A．Uncertain.	B．Sceptical.
C．Positive.	D．Negative.

6 . For most thinkers since the Greek philosophers, it was self-evident that there is something called human nature, something that constitutes the essence of man. There were various views about what constitutes it, but there was agreement that such an essence exists—that is to say, that there is something by virtue of which man is man. Thus man was defined as a rational(理性的) being, as a social animal, an animal that can make tools, or a symbol-making animal.

More recently, this traditional view has begun to be questioned. One reason for this change was the increasing emphasis given to the historical approach to man. An examination of the history of humanity suggested that man in our time is so different from man in previous times that it seemed unrealistic to assume that men in every age have had in common something that can be called “human nature.” The historical approach was strengthened, particularly in the United States, by studies in the field of cultural anthropology (人类学). The study of primitive peoples has discovered such a diversity of customs, values, feelings, and thoughts that many anthropologists arrived at the concept that man is born as a blank sheet of paper on which each culture writes its text. Another factor contributing to the tendency to deny the assumption of a fixed human nature was that the concept has so often been abused as a shield(盾牌) behind which the most inhuman acts are committed. In the name of human nature, for example, Aristotle and most thinkers up to the eighteenth century defended slavery. Or in order to prove the rationality and necessity of the capitalist form of society, scholars have tried to make a case for acquisitiveness, competitiveness, and selfishness as natural human characters. Popularly, one refers cynically（愤世嫉俗地） to “human nature” in accepting the inevitability of such undesirable human behavior as greed, murder, cheating and lying.

Another reason for disbelief about the concept of human nature probably lies in the influence of evolutionary thinking. Once man came to be seen as developing in the process of evolution, the idea of a substance which is contained in his essence seemed untenable. Yet I believe it is precisely from an evolutionary standpoint that we can expect new insight into the problem of the nature of man.

1. Most philosophers believed that human nature ________.

A．is the quality distinguishing man from other animals

B．consists of competitiveness and selfishness

C．is something partly innate and partly acquired

D．consists of rationality and undesirable behavior

2. The traditional view of “human nature” was strongly challenged by ________.

A．the emergence of the evolutionary theory	B．the historical approach to man
C．new insight into human behavior	D．the philosophical analysis of slavery

3. According to the passage, anthropologists believe that human beings ________.

A．have some characters in common	B．are born with diverse cultures
C．are born without a fixed nature	D．change their characters as they grow up

4. The author mentioned Aristotle, a great ancient thinker, in order to ________.

A．emphasize that he contributed a lot to defining the concept of “human nature”

B．show that the concept of “human nature” was used to justify social evils

C．prove that he had a profound influence on the concept of “human nature”

D．support the idea that some human characters are inherited.

7 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空，在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Year 2020 has witnessed the nation’s battle with Coronavirus Disease 2019.     1    (prevent) the disease spreading further, people from all over China have been making changes to their everyday lives. Most people take their temperatures, wash their hands often, wear masks, and don’t go out unless necessary. One of     2    (painful) changes was that many Chinese people didn’t get together to celebrate the Spring Festival,     3     tradition dating back to 4,000 years. No matter how powerful the enemy is, united people will definitely defeat it in the end.

8 . We know that the pandemic(流行病)has had a far-reaching impact on our minds — so much so that it may have changed the very fabric of our society altogether. Mental health professionals think that those with social anxiety will not emerge from the pandemic unaffected.Counselling Directory member Beverley Blackman says, “For people with social anxiety, lockdown will make them deeply anxious in one way, and yet a relief in another.” He added, “On one hand, a person with social anxiety may feel relieved that they no longer have to socialize in person, but they may also feel that they have lost the opportunity to socialize with the people they feel safe and secure spending time with, meaning that they feel a new level of isolation and a different level of anxiety about socializing in any form.Without the security of those they feel safe with, self-confidence may very well decrease rapidly.Lockdown may have had a negative impact on those with social anxiety.”

Dr Daria J.Kuss, associate professor in psychology at Nottingham Trent University, says: “Following the lockdown, people in this country were allowed to meet up again, which for individuals with social anxiety may have led to stress and worry.They may not be comfortable being expected to be ‘social’ again, especially when in larger groups, and may worry about saying the wrong things and asking the wrong questions as they are reintegrating into their offline social lives.” Furthermore, Beverley says our even bigger reliance on social media and digital communication in the midst of lockdown could also have a negative impact on people with social anxiety.She says “For some people with social anxiety, communication by media can be even harder than communication in person.We know that words form only roughly 7-10% of the way in which we communicate and that we rely on body language, facial expression, tone of voice, and unconscious signals behind words to convey our thoughts and feelings.”

When it comes to what people with social anxiety can do to feel better as the lockdown situation continues to shift, Dr.Kuss says “I recommend being open and honest with their social environments. Friends and family will empathize when the concerns are voiced openly.Engaging in focused breathing and relaxation may also help alleviate feelings of worry and discomfort.Finally, negative thinking (e.g., “I don’t know what to say”) may be replaced with positive ones (e.g., “I am good enough” and “My friends want to see me”).”

1. Why do people with social anxiety feel relieved during the lockdown?

A．There is no one disturbing their life.

B．There is no need for them to socialize.

C．They have increased their self-confidence.

D．People can no longer communicate with each other.

2. What does the underlined word mean in the third paragraph?

A．Stimulate.

B．Relieve.

C．Begin.

D．Develop.

3. What can be the good advice for those with social anxiety during the lockdown?

A．Stay at home alone.	B．Communicate online.
C．Open heart to strangers.	D．Take a positive attitude.

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Stay with safe people can bring more confidence.

B．Lockdown can help people overcome the feeling of anxiety.

C．For people with social anxiety, lockdown is a double-edged sword.

D．It is a suitable way for people of social anxiety to communicate by media.

9 . Last year, Americans spent over $30 billion at retail(零售) stores in the month of December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other occasions throughout the year, including weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can generate ambivalent feelings in gift-givers. Many believe that gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger bonds with one’s closest peers. At the same time, many worry that their purchases will disappoint rather than delight the intended receivers.

Anthropologists describe gift-giving as a positive social process, serving various political, religious, and psychological functions. Economists, however, offer a less favorable view. They think that gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources. People buy gifts that receivers would not choose to buy on their own, or at least not spend as much money to purchase. Givers are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves.

What is surprising is that gift-givers have considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and gift-receivers, but nevertheless tend to overspend each time they set out to purchase a meaningful gift. In the present research, psychologists find a unique explanation for this overspending problem—gift-givers equate how much they spend with how much receivers will appreciate the gift. Although a link between gift price and feelings of appreciation might seem relevant to gift-givers, such an assumption may be unfounded. Indeed, we find that gift-receivers will be less willing to base their feelings of appreciation on the gift price than givers assume.

The thoughts of gift-givers and gift-receivers being unable to account for the other party’s perspective seems puzzling because people slip in and out of these roles every day. Yet, despite the extensive experience that people have as both givers and receivers, they often struggle to transfer information gained from one role and apply it in another.

1. What does the underlined word “ambivalent” in Para.1 probably mean?

A．Concerned	B．Conflicting.
C．Negative.	D．Positive

2. What can we learn from Para.3?

A．Gift-receivers link their appreciation closely to the gift cost.

B．Personal preferences are the least to be considered.

C．The assumption made by gift-givers is incorrect.

D．Gift-giving is a process of wasting resources.

3. According to the author, the different thoughts between the gift-givers and receivers are caused by        .

A．a trend of overspending

B．an inability to shift perspective

C．a growing opposition to gift-giving

D．a misunderstanding of intention

10 . 阅读下列短文，根据短文内容填空。在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词，在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。

Douban is a Chinese social networking platform whose users are mostly young people. Recently, a Douban discussion group    1    (name) “985 Loser Introduction Plan" became popular, causing a heated discussion. Most of the group members are students or graduates from top universities in China, but they consider     2    (they) as losers for various reasons. By writing down their own life stories, they share their    3    （suffer) and aim to improve their situations by learning from each other 's experiences.