1 . It is reported that 90 million people in China suffer from depression, with around 90% not getting any effective treatment. Other research further suggests that mental disorders have generally become more common across China in the last 30 years.
China’s resources for dealing with mental health have not always been at the same level as other countries. A 2020 WHO report showed that there were only 1.7 psychiatrists per 100,000 people, compared with 15 per 100,000 in the European countries.
In the past, mental health support was largely focused on specific groups such as “left-behind children”. However, many now recognize the need to make support more widely available.
One issue that has helped bring mental health into the spotlight on a national scale is that of “996” work culture. The term refers to jobs in which employees are required to work six days per week from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. With the 996-work culture, more and more people are starting to realize that actually, mental health can affect a whole number of people. As we all know, long hours of overtime may cause many health problems, even leading to sudden death.
Our government is indeed designing policies to deal more effectively with mental health challenges. The country’s National Health Commission plans to introduce screening (筛查) for vulnerable groups and require medical institutions as well as universities, colleges and high schools to re evaluate mental health policies. The government plans to set up mental health outpatient services in 40% of the general hospitals in pilot areas by the end of 2022, a move catalyzed by the pandemic.
Whether said policies will be effectively implemented remains to be seen. However, what is clear is that mental health is now very much taken seriously across China.
1. What do we know from the first two paragraphs?| A．China’s medical level is quite backward. |
| B．Mental health problems are getting more serious. |
| C．China has the largest population with depression. |
| D．Many people with depression refuse to be treated. |
| A．Doctors. | B．Professors. |
| C．Researchers. | D．Patients. |
| A．It is well received by employees. | B．It severely affects people’s health. |
| C．It can make people work even harder. | D．It does harm to “left-behind children”. |
| A．Cooperating with medical institutions. | B．Establishing more voluntary organizations. |
| C．Setting up outpatient services in pilot areas. | D．Designing policies to deal with the challenges. |
2 . The e-commerce boom has fueled demand for warehouses (仓库). And the increasing demand is mostly linked to online shopping, because Internet shoppers are always expected to provide a wider variety of goods. Vacancy rates (空仓率) have therefore decreased greatly, from 10% across America and Europe a decade ago to just 5% now. In some places, like Toronto and Tokyo, they are below 2%.
The value of existing assets of warehouses is ballooning as a result. This in turn is attracting more investment. However, people’s enthusiasm for building new warehouses is now starting to run up against obstacles. The first is lack of space, especially in densely populated cities. The problem has grown so acute in parts of Germany that delivery lorries operate from sites across the border in Poland and France. High costs, restrictive zoning rules and current rents make it difficult to convert existing properties, such as struggling shopping malls, into distribution centers.
Public hostility to new sites is also growing. Large warehouses are noisy and operate around the clock. Suburban homeowners across America and Europe worry about pollution from lorries. Even where developers promise thousands of jobs, politicians complain that these will be low-skilled, or soon replaced by robots. Five Conservative members have called on Britain’s government, run by their own party, to stop a huge warehouse from being built in south-east England.
Warehouse owners are getting more crentive. Amazon is changing former golf courses in America into distribution centers. The online giant is also converting an empty car park in central London into a delivery hub. Less creatively, developers are raising rents and it’s estimated that they will go up by 6% globally this year. That may upset e-merchants.
1. What do the figures quoted in the first paragraph illustrate?| A．Online shopping is driving the demand for warehouses. |
| B．A large number of goods are sold at reduced prices. |
| C．The number of online shoppers has declined. |
| D．Goods in Toronto and Tokyo are less popular. |
| A．Because the shopping mall is not large enough. |
| B．Because people’s enthusiasm is not high enough. |
| C．Because delivery truckers don’t like the idea. |
| D．Because the cost of doing so is high. |
| A．Agreement. | B．Awareness. | C．Opposition. | D．Preference. |
| A．Warehouse owners are getting more creative. |
| B．Some vacant sites are converted into warehouses. |
| C．It’s harder for them to park in the center of London. |
| D．Rents for warehouses are rising all over the world. |
3 . It’s a cold night, and strong winds are blowing atop a hill in southwest Uganda. The wind rattles the giant metal insect trap. A 400-watt bulb is fixed at its center. The light is blinding to human eyes, but it’s a magnet for local bush crickets.
Protein dense and full of iron, zinc, and other essential minerals, bush crickets, and edible insects in general, have been praised by the UNFAO as a “food source of the future”, key to establishing food security. That’s important in countries such as Uganda, where nearly half of the children and a third of women suffer greatly from poor nutrition due to food shortage.
The visitors, as they’re called locally, come together to mate and feed in huge swarms after each rainy season in the autumn and pring, when hundreds of people across the country set aside their day jobs to catch then. Salted and fried, the crickets are a delicacy in Uganda, sold for two dollars a bag at open-air markets, taxi parks, and roadsides. Now what once was a small-scale and personal harvest in Uganda has become an increasingly commercialized undertaking, with giant traps taking tons of the insects at a time to meet the growing demand. “You see how you enjoy a movie with popcorn? Me, it’s movie with crickets,” says one fan.
However, this month, it should be the middle of the autumn harvest in Uganda. Legend has it that the insects come from the moon, and tonight it’s full. Yet “we’ve got nothing,” says a cricket catcher and wholesaler. “Where are they?”
Decreasing catches suggest the problem is not just overharvesting. Logging to clear land for cash crops has destroyed much bush cricket habitat. And climate change is making the rainy seasons unpredictable, affecting the crickets’ swarming patterns. With so many problems accumulating, there is still a long way to go. Thus, scientists have to start from scratch.
1. What does paragraph 1 present to us?| A．A scene. | B．A view. | C．A plot. | D．A lifestyle. |
| A．Because they are rich in essential minerals. |
| B．Because they can cure many different diseases. |
| C．Because they’re considered a symbol in local culture. |
| D．Because they can relieve hunger and ensure nutrition. |
| A．Tourists. | B．Crickets. |
| C．Local people | D．Cricket catchers |
| A．Because the weather is unpredictable. |
| B．Because it’s a tricky problem to deal with. |
| C．Because it’s too late to save the bush crickets. |
| D．Because people’s awareness should be raised. |
4 . Every year thousands of people are crowded in the city of Pamplona, in north eastern Spain, for the opportunity to run for their lives as six fighting bulls are released to charge through the town. There are dozens of injuries every year, and there have been at least 15 deaths recorded since 1910. Daniel Parisi, a physicist and computer scientist realized that the Pamplona bull-runs offered the perfect natural experiment to research the insight of the psychology of panicked crowds.
Dr. Parisi and his team went to two different rooftop locations in Pamplona in July 2019, and recorded footage (镜头) of the runners as the animals were released. A wave of people running at top speed raced past their cameras a few seconds ahead of the bulls. The researchers brought their recordings back to the lab to calculate the speed of the runners, the density (密度) of the crowd and the probability of a runner tripping and falling. They also examined the tracks of the bulls, the responses of individual runners as the bulls came near to them, and the relationship between runner-group density and speed.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the researchers found that runners picked up speed when the bulls drew near. Less expected was the finding that the speed of individual runners increased with the density of the crowd This finding is at odds with a long-held assumption in architectural and urban-design circles that people will slow their pace as group density goes up, in order to lower the risk of a collision, which could lead to a fall and, perhaps, injury or death as a runner is trampled by others.
It seems that, in the heat of the moment, people pay little attention to the danger of colliding with each other, and do not slow down. The duty falls upon urban designers to work out how best to plan the construction of future alleys, tunnels, bridges and other passages that restrict flow. The only option may well be to make them wider.
1. Why did Daniel Parisi and his team come to the Pamplona bull-runs?| A．To cover the event. | B．To work as volunteers. |
| C．To collect data. | D．To participate in the event. |
| A．The responses of the runners. |
| B．The process of the research. |
| C．The possibility of a runner tripping and falling. |
| D．The relationship between runner-group density and speed. |
| A．In contact with. | B．In combination with. |
| C．In harmony with. | D．In disagreement with. |
| A．They should make passages wider. |
| B．They should make buildings more solid. |
| C．They should slow down the construction of buildings. |
| D．They should pay less attention to density of buildings. |
5 . Restaurants’ growth accelerated in the 20th century. Dining out became relatively more expensive. And yet three economic changes ensured that demand for restaurants grew despite rising prices.
The first was immigration. In the 50 years after the Second World War, the net flow of migrants into rich countries were more than four times as before. Starting a restaurant was a good career move for new arrivals：it neither required formal qualifications nor, at least for chefs, fluency in the local language. Migrants tended to improve the quality of an area’s restaurants. London’s became far better in the era of free movement with the European Union. The melting pot that is Singapore has some of the best food in the world Restaurants became more tempting, even as prices went up.
The second factor was the changing microeconomics of the family. Households’ choices about whether to make their own food or to buy it premade were shaped not only by the cost of ingredients, but also by the time spent on shopping and preparation. As more women entered the workforce during the 20th century, a working woman who cooked dinner would be sacrificing time which might otherwise be used to earn money. And so eating out made increasing economic sense, even as it became more expensive.
The third factor was changing working patterns. Historically, poor people tended to work longer hours than rich ones. But in the latter half of the 20th century the opposite became true. The rise of knowledge-intensive jobs, and globalization, made rich people’s work more financially rewarding and enjoyable. Working late into the night became a sign of status. The result was that the people with the most money to spend on dining out increasingly needed it most, since they had the least free time.
The long-term future of the restaurant is less clear. The pandemic has led to many people buying more takeout than before, while others have a newfound love of cooking.
Restaurants have little choice but to continue to adapt. Maybe apart from food, they can also double down on what they do best: offering those who need to eat a taste of romance, glamour and love.
1. Why was starting a restaurant a good choice for the new migrants?| A．They could meet the requirements easily. |
| B．They could speak the local language fluently. |
| C．They could serve the best food in the world. |
| D．They could move to and from the country freely. |
| A．They might make little money. | B．They tended to eat at home. |
| C．They tended to work longer hours. | D．They might have a lower social status. |
| A．Restaurants have to double the price of dishes. |
| B．Restaurants have to reduce the cost of ingredients. |
| C．Restaurants have to adapt to the needs of customers. |
| D．Restaurants have to cancel the take-out service. |
| A．How to make restaurants more appealing. |
| B．How restaurants survive the pandemic. |
| C．What contributes to the development of restaurants. |
| D．Why people go to restaurants despite the rising price. |
