Soft Skills—Soft or Not?
Rapidly advancing technology and its impact on education have been a subject of much debate. How can schools equip students with the skills to succeed in a changing job market? Since technology is driving many social changes, there is an opinion that governments should keep focusing on STEM subjects. These are often referred to as “hard skills”, which are prioritized in primary schools and right through to university level.
However, research from Harvard University on the global job market has shown that STEM-related careers grew strongly between 1989 and 2000 but have slowed ever since. In contrast, jobs in the creative industries, which are probably most associated with the need for soft skills, are growing rapidly. A study by Deloitte Access Economics predicts that “soft skill-intensive occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030”.
With the rapid evolution of technology, a focus on hard skills leaves people delicate when facing change, as these skills often have a limited shelf life. According to a survey, more than one in four adults reported a mismatch between their skills and those needed for their job role. Fortunately, soft skills can solve the problem, enabling people to adapt to change more easily in their chosen field. Additionally, interpersonal interactions in the modern workplace require some level of soft skills. At a company they might be negotiating to win a new contract or networking for a new job. People use soft skills every day at work and developing them will help things in the job go smoothly.
Many universities have begun to emphasize soft skills such as critical thinking alongside hard skills. But the issue goes much deeper. Soft skills need to be handled across the entire education system so that by the time students reach university level, they are already armed with the qualities needed to further develop these skills.
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| A. highlighting B. total C. enriched D. urgent E. relief F. perspective G. ignoring H. altered I. filling J. separate K. downgraded |
Chinese Women Bridging Gap
Zhang Jianli used to employ only male workers on his construction sites throughout Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. Now with large quantities of work but inadequate manpower, Mr. Zhang has
A labor shortage is pushing employers to hire more women to build high-rises, maintain rail tracks and drive trucks, among other roles. Chinese women are
Women’s presence on construction sites has grown a lot. As a consequence, employers have set up
State media, in recent years, have praised the roles of women working as truck drivers and construction workers,
3 . In rich countries like America, the absence of professional waste-pickers presents a problem. The general public is not very good at sorting rubbish. Households and businesses serviced by municipal waste-management providers may actually have got worse at sorting in the past 20 years, says Peter Keller of Republic Services, America's second-biggest waste management firm, which runs Newby Island in San Jose.
Citizens of rich countries, where almost 100% of municipal waste gets collected, take such services for granted - unless the collectors go on strike (罢工),as happened in the Belgian city of Ghent in early August, leaving streets in a stink (恶臭) for days. In some industrialized nations, increasingly, residents are charged based on volume (known as "pay-as-you-throw") To encourage sorting, such schemes often exempt recyclables.
The volume of recyclables has reached 1,400 tons a day, a lot by American standards, says Mr. Keller. That should come as no surprise. After all, inhabitants of the San Francisco Bay area pride themselves on their recycling ability. San Francisco boasts a recycling rate of 80% one of the highest of any rich-world city. San Franciscans may therefore be shocked to learn that a lot of them, as Mr. Keller puts it, “aren't very good at it"
Two possible reasons account for Mr. Keller's remarks. The first is that many people do not know what is recyclable. Beer bottles and soft-drink cans are, he says. Egg cartons and magazines are not, for there is not market for the materials of which they are made. Some things are recyclable on their own, but not when combined, such as "paper" cups lined with plastic film. It is hard to blame consumers for feeling increasingly puzzled, he admits
The other problem is that residents only have to separate recyclables from non-recyclables Cans, bottles and papers are all thrown into one bin. This mix can, to some degree, be sorted at plants like Newby, enabled by clever technology which uses optical sensor;(光电感应器) and magnets to separate materials automatically. Anyway, these was no match for humans when it came to sorting.
As the volume of recyclables increased in America and Europe, the quality of recycled output decreased because everything was mixed in together. This did not trouble materials. recovery facilities (MRF) operators so long as they would offload their increasingly impure stock abroad. Then China announced it would not accept any plastics or carboard, and American waste-management companies have been struggling to find what to do with their poor-quality waste.
1. According to the passage, the biggest problem in rich countries caused by lack of professional waste-pickers is that ________.| A．waste collectors often go on strike regardless of people's needs |
| B．no one teaches people how to tell apart recyclable and non-recyclables |
| C．waste sorting by machine is far from perfect so far |
| D．citizens fail to deal with waste sorting properly |
| A．make no charge for | B．set aside |
| C．fully expect | D．set the standard for |
| A．More advanced waste sorting machines will be launched (推出) as soon as possible. |
| B．San Franciscans are not informed that there is no need to recycle egg cartons. |
| C．Recycling ability is not all about separating recyclables from non-recyclables |
| D．It's hard for San Franciscans to change their recycling habits in the new times |
| A．the reason why MFR is not worried about poor-quality waste |
| B．China's new policy to keep foreign rubbish out |
| C．efforts to teach residents how better to sort their rubbish |
| D．the components (成分) of the mixed waste in America |
4 . The MacArthur Foundation late last month announced its latest crop of “genius grants”, and once again you thought maybe, just maybe, this was your year.
And why not? These days, we’re all geniuses. We might be “marketing geniuses” or “cooking geniuses” or “TV geniuses”. We have so weakened “genius” that it’s fast joining the company of “natural” and “mindful” (留心), words left inactive through overuse and misuse.
Admittedly, the word is tough to nail down. Sometimes we assume genius equivalent to raw intelligence. But many of humanity’s greatest breakthroughs were achieved by those with only modest IQs.
Sometimes we think of the genius as someone extremely knowledgeable, but that definition also falls short. During Albert Einstein’s time, other scientists knew more physics than Einstein did, but history doesn’t remember them. That’s because they didn’t make use of that knowledge the way Einstein did. They weren’t able to, as he put it, “regard old questions from a new angle”.
The genius is not a know-it-all but a see-it-all, someone who, working with the material available to all of us, is able to make surprising and useful connections. True genius involves not merely an extra advance, but a conceptual leap. As philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer put it: Talent hits the target no one else can hit; genius hits the target no one else can see.
We’ve lost sight of this truth, and too often grant the title of genius on talented people hitting visible targets. A good example is the much-boasted announcement earlier this year that scientists had, for the first time, recorded the sound of two black holes bumping, a billion light-years away. It was a remarkable discovery, no doubt, but it did not represent a dramatic shift in how we understand the universe. It merely confirmed Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
As Plato observed, “What is honored in a country is cultivated there.” What do we honor? Digital technology, and the convenience it represents, so naturally we get a Steve Jobs or a Mark Zuckerberg as our “geniuses”, which, in point of fact, they aren’t.
The iPhone and Facebook are wonderful inventions. In many ways, they make our lives a bit easier, a bit more convenient. If anything, though, a true genius makes our lives more difficult, more unsettled. William Shakespeare’s words provide more anxiety than relief, and the world felt a bit more secure before Charles Darwin came along. Zuckerberg and Jobs may have changed our world, but they haven’t yet changed our worldview.
We need to recover genius, and a good place to start is by putting the brakes on Genius Flooding.
1. The key factor that sets geniuses and talents apart is that ________.| A．geniuses have a larger range of knowledge | B．geniuses have access to far more resources |
| C．geniuses can see visible targets | D．geniuses approach things differently |
| A．their achievements bring people convenience |
| B．they have extraordinary intelligence |
| C．they are native to the country where digital technology is highly valued |
| D．they satisfy people’s needs in the age of high technology |
| A．We should stop the improper use of “natural” and “mindful”. |
| B．The first recording of two black holes bumping each other is a genius breakthrough. |
| C．Charles Darwin is hardly a genius. |
| D．More geniuses remain to be found in our life. |
| A．Get a new word, genius | B．Learn from a new model, genius |
| C．Join in a new group, genius | D．Make a new friend, genius |
1.
| A．Job hunting after university graduation. |
| B．Economic pressure in China and America. |
| C．Ways for the young to make money on campus. |
| D．Problems facing American and Chinese students. |
| A．Sensible. | B．Confident. |
| C．Knowledgeable. | D．Sensitive. |
| A．It is the society that causes university students to lack confidence. |
| B．Some American university students sell something to make money. |
| C．Many businesses ignore students’ ability to apply theory to practice. |
| D．Both the society and young people should try to solve the problems. |
6 . Hazel Mayfield usually cooks the Thanksgiving meal for her extended family in Houston, Texas. She usually welcomes friends and neighbors who are eager to taste her fried turkey, green bean casserole, candied yams, homemade cornbread dressing, and dirty rice-just a few of her signature dishes. Known as Sugar Mama, because her grandchildren think she’s so sweet, the 91-year-old typically likes to do her own shopping for the ingredients to make her special dishes.
“My mother is the head cook of the family,” said Panulette Mouton, Mayfield’s daughter. “Because of her reputation, you know, there’re people in and out all day and every family comes through. They want to get some of Sugar Mama’s cooking, and some of them would like to learn from her how to cook the food.”
But Mayfield hasn’t been to the grocery store since March. And there is little about Thanksgiving in 2020 that’s usual. Because of Covid-19, the deadly virus that has killed millions in the U.S. and spoiled life around the world, everything is different. Since limiting close face-to-face contact with others is the best way to reduce its spread, hundreds of thousands of American families have re-imagined the holiday with virtual celebrations and canceled or delayed travel plans. There can only be small gatherings with people in their households in response to COVID-19.
This year, Mayfield’s family members, without exception, are lamenting the absence of a big gathering. They’ve explained to their young children and grandchildren why this year’s Thanksgiving is different. Mayfield’s youngest daughter, Michelle Sanders, says it’s tough to help her grandchildren understand why they can’t see some of their other family members and why they have to stay at home, celebrating Thanksgiving all by themselves.
“It’s really hard, trying to explain to them,” Sanders said. “When-you’re talking to them and they want to come over, you have to tell them no. They really don’t know how to be careful.” Sanders added, “And, they don’t understand that, being three, four, and six, you know they don’t really understand that. So, it’s...it’s really, really hard, and heartbreaking.”
1. According to the passage, Hazel Mayfield is ________.| A．helpful and kind-hearted | B．stubborn and enthusiastic |
| C．talented and instructive | D．grateful and sensitive |
| A．fascinated by | B．upset about |
| C．ignorant of | D．embarrassed at |
| A．Children are too young to understand the situation. |
| B．Children are always careless on Thanksgiving Day. |
| C．It’s tough to help children overcome their problems. |
| D．Adults should show patience when talking with kids. |
| A．People are cutting down holiday celebration expenses. |
| B．People are trying hard to get together to have more fun. |
| C．People have to make changes in their lifestyle to stay safe. |
| D．People have put more emphasis on the traditional customs. |
Yold
The year 2020 marks the beginning of the decade of the yold, or the “young old”, as the Japanese call people aged between 65 and 75. By continuing to work and staying socially engaged, the boomers, in their new appearance as the young old, will change the world.
The yold are more numerous, healthier and wealthier than previous generations of seniors.
The yold are challenging the traditional expectations of the retired in many aspects. They won’t wear indoor shoes and look after the grandchildren.
Today, some big things will have to change, under pressure from the yold themselves. The most important is public attitudes towards older people and in particular the expectation that 60-somethings ought to quietly retire into the background.
| A．Healthy yold people will require great changes in health spending. |
| B．They become one of the fastest growing groups for airline businesses. |
| C．The rise of the yold will definitely be a blessing to both culture and economy. |
| D．Health worsens with age, but the yold are resisting the decline better than most. |
| E．Many companies treat older workers unfairly by offering training only to younger ones. |
| F．Bosses may think productivity falls with age, but studies in Germany suggest things different. |
| A. increased B. inexcusable C. reverse D. shelter E. governing F. priority G. widespread H. departing I. assigned J. response K. extra |
This corona-virus affects everyone, but not equally. Because of covid-19, the number of extremely poor people would rise by 70,000,000 to 100,000,000 this year, the World Bank predicted. Using a broader measure, including those who lack basic
The IMF and World Bank have
Mistakes are unavoidable, given how much remains unknown about the disease, but some are
