1 . This question has fascinated behavioural scientists for decades: why do we give money to charity?
The explanations for charitable giving fall into three broad categories, from the purely altruisic (利他的)— I donate because I value the social good done by the charity. The “impurely” altruistic— I donate because I extract value from knowing I contribute to the social good for the charity. And the not-at-all altruistic— I donate because I want to show off to potential mates how rich I am.
But are these motives strong enough to enable people to donate as much as they would want to? Most people support charities in one way or another, but often we struggle to make donations as often as we think we should. Although many people would like to leave a gift to charity in their will, they forget about it when the time comes.
Many people are also aware that they should donate to the causes that have the highest impact, but facts and figures are less attractive than narratives. In a series of experiments, it was found that people are much more responsive to charitable pleas that feature a single, identifiable beneficiary(受益者), than they are to statistical information about the scale of the problem being faced. When it comes to charitable giving, we are often ruled by our hearts and not our heads.
The good news is that charitable giving is contagious—seeing others give makes an individual more likely to give and gentle encouragement from an important person in your life can also make a big difference to your donation decisions— more than quadrupling them in our recent study. Habit also plays a part— in three recent experiments those who volunteered before were more likely to do donate their time than those who had not volunteered before.
In summary, behavioural science identifies a range of factors that influence our donations, and can help us to keep giving in the longer term. This is great news not just for charities, but also for donors.
1. What can we learn about people who do charitable giving?| A．Most people support charity as often as they think they should. |
| B．Some people don’t want to leave a gift to charity until the time comes. |
| C．Those who donate because they can gain an advantage are purely altruistic. |
| D．Some people send money to charity simply to tell others they are wealthy. |
| A．Not revealing the names of the donors. |
| B．Showing figures about the seriousness of the problem. |
| C．Telling stories that feature a single, recognizable beneficiary. |
| D．Reminding people to write down what to donate in the will in advance. |
| A．People will learn from others and follow the suit. |
| B．Many people are familiar with charitable giving. |
| C．Charitable giving helps the beneficiary in all aspects. |
| D．Charitable giving can bring a lot of benefits to donors. |
| A．To persuade more people to donate. |
| B．To explain the science behind why people donate. |
| C．To criticize some false charitable giving behaviours. |
| D．To explore approaches to making people donate more. |
Going on a vacation might seem like a rather unconventional way to try to improve your sleep habits,
In fact, interest
The global pandemic appears
But can short term sleep-focused travel experiences actually have a long term impact on a person’s overall sleep? According to Dr. Robbins,
“The concept of travel actually allowing you to return home
3 . Living car-free in the US
Culdesac admitted its first thirty-six residents in Tempe, Arizona, US, earlier this year.
In a country as car-dependent as the US, Culdesac is nothing short of visionary (有远见的).
| A．Still, there is hope |
| B．Cars are allowed, but parking is limited |
| C．This can effectively avoid traffic accidents on a road |
| D．This reliance on cars doesn’t come cheap, unfortunately |
| E．For some, cars equal freedom, but for me, it’s a restriction |
| F．It describes itself as the first car-free neighbourhood built in the US |
| G．The vast majority of Americans are entirely dependant on cars to get around |
4 . Consider the following statement: “My husband bought me a pink Lamborghini...” The correct way to finish the sentence, according to some, is not showing appreciation or acting excited, but to complain about the pricy gift. If you say, “The color is so ugly, men have such bad taste!” Congratulations, you have mastered the “Versailles (凡尔赛) literature.”
The term has nothing to do with the French palace nor with literature. It came from the Japanese manga series “The Rose of Versailles” and was coined by a Chinese influencer earlier this year. This new kind of bragging (吹嘘) is called humblebragging, the psychology behind which is to be recognized for one's successes and be liked by others at the same time. “The humblebragger recognizes that it's hard to be liked and be a showoff at the same time,” said psychologist Dr. Susan KraussWhitbourne at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
In an article titled “Why people hate humblebragging” published in Psychology Today, Whitbourne noted that the humblebrag is a “strategy in pursuit of respect” because it draws attention to one's accomplishments, but in a roundabout (迂回的) fashion.
However, studies on social media users show that humblebragging, as a self-promotion strategy does not work. In the essay, “Humblebragging: A distinct-and ineffective-self-presentation strategy,” researcher Ovul Sezer concluded from his research that humblebraggers are perceived more negatively than straight braggers due to the former's insincerity. “The critical factor telling these strategies was sincerity. People don't like braggers, but they at least see them as more sincere than humblebraggers.”
“So, next time if you hear ‘My husband bought me a pink Lamborghini. The color is so ugly, men have such bad taste!’. Just pretend you don’t get whatever it is they try to show off.” a Zhihu user advised others on how to respond to a “pretentious narcissist”, “Respond with genuine sympathy for their complaint.”
1. Which of the following can replace the example in Paragraph 1?| A．“I didn’t even have one look at my paper. I’m so over.” |
| B．“I have eaten nothing today, but I'm heavier than yesterday.” |
| C．“My husband bought me another Chanel purse. I love it so much.” |
| D．“I don’t even remember buying a house. My memory is really failing with age.” |
| A．Because they're really successful. |
| B．Because they want to show their complaint. |
| C．Because they want to be liked while bragging. |
| D．Because they always want to be the center of the topic. |
| A．Humblebraggers are dishonest |
| B．Straight braggers are popular with us. |
| C．Straight braggers are cleverer than humblebraggers. |
| D．Humblebraggers' insincerity accounts for their unpopularity. |
| A．How to avoid humblebragging. | B．Who might be a humblebragger. |
| C．How to fight a humblebragger back. | D．What might hurt a humblebragger. |
5 . More than one-third of the world’s food is wasted or thrown away, most of which ends up in landfills, producing very large amounts of planet-warming greenhouse gases. Now, many studies show that it is becoming harder to grow enough food to feed an increasing population due to climate change and soil degradation.
But one of the most promising and simplest solutions lies in the problem itself: this wasted food — if composted (堆肥) — could slow climate change and improve soil quality. Higher-quality soil also continues to absorb more carbon from the atmosphere, helping to improve plants and contributing further to fighting climate change. Returning one ton of organic matter to each hectare of soil would increase the production of cereal crops each year in Africa, Asia and South America by millions of tons.
While it is true that people can compost in their yards, community gardens, or even on their kitchen counters, larger-scale efforts, including infrastructure (基础设施) and incentives (激励) for consumers, would take it to the next level. Imagine if consumers could just leave unwanted food in a roadside bin for pickup, or drop it off at a local store, earning a few cents a bucket, just like what has been offered for recycling bottles or newspapers.
Moreover, in the case of composting, the payment incentive system would be sustainable because the end-product of compost can be sold to farmers, making it an economically workable model, something that is often lacking in recycling, especially for certain materials, like many types of plastics.
Eventually, more widespread composting of food would pave the way for solutions to additional waste challenges, such as the disposal of packaging and clothing. This will have other positive effects as well; if more consumers compost, companies will be more inspired to make and use compostable packaging, clothing, and other products. While more compostable items are starting to emerge today, additional composting will further drive demand and innovation, and offer a game-changing solution for the planet.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．The uneven distribution of food around the world. |
| B．The burden of population growth on the planet. |
| C．The urgency of properly dealing with wasted food. |
| D．The great impact of climate change on food. |
| A．A good system is needed to carry out it effectively. |
| B．It would take a long term to have an effect. |
| C．It is only workable on a small scale. |
| D．It may raise people’s awareness of reducing food waste. |
| A．It is highly profitable. |
| B．It is easy to carry out. |
| C．It is a sustainable economic cycle pattern. |
| D．It is more effective than other recycling systems. |
| A．How Wasted Food Could Be Reduced |
| B．How Wasted Food Could Save the Planet |
| C．How Wasted Food Could Impact Humans |
| D．How Wasted Food Could Become a Business |
6 . Which is more important for parents, making more money to give the kids a better life or spending more time with them? It is a problem for parents and it is not easy to decide. A new study shows that today’s parents are spending more time with their children than parents in the past. According to the study, today’s college-educated mothers spend about 21.2 hours a week taking care of their children. But women with less education spend about 15.9 hours. Before 1995, it was only 12 hours.
Dads are spending more time on ball games. Before 1995, fathers with college educations only spent about 4.5 hours a week playing with their children. Today, it increases to 9.6 hours a week. For fathers with high school education, the time goes up from 3.7 hours to 6.8.
These days, parents don’t care more about the cleaning or the cooking. They are trying their best to spend time with their families. As for the kids, they don’t mind how much time their parents spend with them. They just want to enjoy the time their parents do be with them.
So, take part in the kids’ activities when you are with them, such as helping with homework or playing soccer with them.
1. How long do college-educated mothers spend taking care of their kids a week?| A．About 9.6 hours. | B．About 12 hours. |
| C．About 15.9 hours. | D．About 21.2 hours. |
| A．Women with less education spend about12 hours staying with their kids, |
| B．Mothers in the past spent less time staying with kids than mothers these days. |
| C．Mothers with college education are lazier than those with less education. |
| D．Dads spend more time staying with their kids than mothers do. |
| A．About 4.5 hours. | B．Less than 9 hours. |
| C．About 13.5 hours. | D．About 18 hours. |
| A．They care about how much money their parents can make. |
| B．They care about how much time their parents spend with them. |
| C．They care if their parents are really with them. |
| D．They care if their parents can give them a better life. |
7 . Each food product in the United States must show a “best before” date on its container. The goal is to tell the buyer when the food will be at its freshest. Most people believe it is unsafe to use the food product after that date. But some observers say “best before” labels have nothing to do with safety. They worry that the information will lead consumers to throw away food good to eat.
Some food sellers in Britain recently removed “best before” labels from prepackaged fruit and vegetables. The European Union may soon announce changes to its labeling laws. It may even end the requirement to include a date.In the US, there is no similar effort. Some big food store owners and food companies are pushing for the US Congress to pass new laws on the subject.
Studies have found as much as 35% of available food goes uneaten in the United States.That adds up to a lot of wasted energy. It also means more greenhouse gases coming from landfills. 7% of US food waste comes from people’s misunderstanding of “best before” labels. That percentage is equal to about 3. 6 million tons each year.
Richard Lipsit owns a store called Grocery Outlet in Pleasanton, California. He said we can safely eat canned goods and many other packaged foods for years after their “best before”date. People should look for changes in color, thickness, or feel to learn if foods are all right to eat. “Our bodies are very well equipped to recognize the signs of decay,” Lipsit said. “We’ve lost trust in those senses and we’ve replaced it with trust in these dates.”
If new laws are approved in Congress, food could be donated to food rescue organizations even after its quality date has passed. Food rescue is making efforts to find uses for outdated food. Currently, at least 20 states ban the sale or donation of food after its quality date has passed.
1. What do most people think of the food out of “best before” date?| A．It is a threat to their health. | B．It is still fresh enough. |
| C．It should be donated to food rescue organizations. | D．It should be sold at a lower price. |
| A．To point out the mistake they have made. | B．To show the necessity for US to take similar measures. |
| C．To stop US Congress from passing new laws. | D．To praise their efforts on the subject. |
| A．There is an energy crisis in US nowadays. |
| B．Food industry is polluting the country. |
| C．The misunderstanding of “best before” labels is one cause of waste. |
| D．People know nothing about “best before” labels. |
| A．Food that has gone bad. | B．Food that is out of date. |
| C．Food that is not expensive. | D．Food that has a rare color. |
8 . In Japan many workers for large corporations have a guarantee of lifetime employment. They will not be laid off during recessions or when the tasks they perform. are taken over by robots. To some observers, this is capitalism at its best, because workers are treated as people not things. Others see it as necessarily inefficient and believe it cannot continue if Japan is to remain competitive with foreign corporations more concerned about profits and less concerned about people.
Defenders of the system argue that those who call it inefficient do not understand how it really works. In the first place not every Japanese worker has the guarantee of a lifetime job. The lifetime employment system includes only “regular employees”. Many employees do not fall into this category, including all women. All businesses have many part-time and temporary employees. These workers are hired and laid off during the course of the business cycle just as employees in the United States are. These “irregular workers” make up about 10 percent of the nonagricultural work force. Additionally, Japanese firms maintain some flexibility through the extensive use of subcontractors. This practice is much more common in Japan than in the United States.
The use of both subcontractors and temporary workers has increased markedly in Japan since the 1974 — 1975 recession. All this leads some to argue that the Japanese system is not all that different from the American system. During recessions Japanese corporations lay off temporary workers and give less business to subcontractors. In the United States, corporations lay off those workers with the least seniority. The difference then is probably less than the term “lifetime employment” suggests, but there still is a difference. And this difference cannot be understood without looking at the values of Japanese society. The relationship between employer and employee cannot be explained in purely contractual terms. Firms hold on to the employees and employees stay with one firm. There are also practical reasons for not jumping from job to job. Most retirement benefits come from the employer. Changing jobs means losing these benefits. Also, teamwork is an essential part of Japanese production. Moving to a new firm means adapting to a different team and at least temporarily, lower productivity and lower pay.
1. according to the passage, a woman in Japan ________.| A．cannot get a lifetime job | B．is impossible to get a part time job |
| C．will be employed for life | D．is among the regular workers |
| A．They don’t want to lose their retirement benefits. |
| B．They are not adaptable people. |
| C．Any change of jobs will make them less paid. |
| D．They get used to the team work. |
| A．Those who want to change jobs frequently in Japan should think twice. |
| B．Those who are first laid off by American corporations are temporary workers. |
| C．The use of subcontractors makes Japan films less flexible |
| D．The Japanese system is totally different from the American system |
9 . According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, we might all be braggarts (大话王) in this competitive society addicted to social networking.
Take a close look at your social-networking sites. Do you like to post photos of yourself in restaurants to show others what an exciting life you have? Or do you like to write about how happily in love you are? Or perhaps you are of the subtle type who constantly complain about jobs but really just want to impress others with your important position.
According to the results of a series of experiments conducted by Harvard University neuroscientists (神经科学家), the reward areas of our brain — the same areas that respond to “primary rewards” such as food — are activated when we talk about ourselves. We devote between 30 to 40 percent of our conversation time to doing just that. Unfortunately, Bernstein says, some people can’t tell the difference between sharing positive information that others might actually want to know and direct bragging. She suggests that bragging involves comparison, whether stated or implied.
“We are expected to be perfect all the time. The result is that more and more people are carefully managing their online images,” says Elizabeth Bernstein, a columnist with the Wall Street Journal.
But the issue is not limited to the Internet. In a fiercely competitive job market we must sell ourselves on multiple platforms and show that we are better than others. In fact, we have become so accustomed to bragging that we don’t even realize we are doing it, says Bernstein. This is harmful to our relationships and puts people off.
Bernstein talked to some experts who said that people brag for all sorts of reasons: to appear worthy of attention; to prove to ourselves we are doing fine and that people who said we would fail are wrong; or simply because we’re excited when good things happen to us.
“Feel sorry for them, because they’re doing this unconscious, destructive thing that won’t help them in the long run,” said Professor Simian Valier, a research psychologist at Washington University.
1. The underlined word “subtle” in Para.2 is closest in meaning to “________”.| A．hidden | B．apparent | C．outstanding | D．simple |
| A．They control conversation and only talk about themselves. |
| B．They know well how to share positive information. |
| C．They self-promote to stand out in their career. |
| D．They don’t pay much attention to their online image. |
| A．Braggarts make a good first impression but the effect decreases over time. |
| B．People who like bragging know what they are doing. |
| C．Braggarts always adopt comparison directly to show they are excellent. |
| D．They care much about the feelings of others when talking. |
| A．Are you a braggart? | B．Society addicted to networking |
| C．Why do we keep on bragging? | D．How to deal with a braggart? |
Complaining: The Happiness Killer
In 15th-century Germany, there was an expression: Greiner, Zanner, which can be translated as “a chronic (长期的) complainer.” Are you a bit of a Greiner, Zanner? If so, you’re not alone. Survey data show that customers today are more than twice as likely to complain about a product or service as they were in 1976. A U. K.-based survey also observed a rise in job dissatisfaction over a two-year period before autumn 2022.
Complaints can be grouped into different categories. As is reported, 45 percent of complaints concern the behavior of others. For instance, parents repeatedly criticize their children for small issues like messy bedrooms or dirty clothes. Another 29 percent focus on personal discomfort. A common complaint in this category might be about feeling too hot in a room without air conditioner. The remaining 26 percent involve unpleasant obligations like unnecessary work meetings people are forced to attend.
The problem with all of these complaints is that it can feel helpful — but it typically isn’t . Although complaining might offer temporary relief, it’s bad for your happiness in the long run. Researchers who measured people’s mood before and after they complained found that those complainers’ mood was significantly worsening. Besides, complaining can also lower the happiness of the people around you. In some relationships, the negative effect can pass like a virus to those exposed. In other words, when people see others’ complaints expressing anger, disgust and sadness, they can, in turn, feel similar emotions.
As the 20th-century Bulgarian philosopher Archimandrite Seraphim Aleksiev observed, “Complaining is like the winter frost which, when it falls, destroys all the labors of the gardeners.”
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