1 . Iceberg Water, which is harvested from icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland Canada, is achieving new heights of popularity in North America.
Arthur, Von Wiesenberger who carries the title “Water Master”, is one of the few water critics in North America. As a boy, he spent time in the larger cities of Italy, France and Switzerland, where bottled water is consumed daily. Even then, he kept a water journal, noting the brands he liked best. “My dog could tell the difference between bottled and tap water.” He says.
But is plain tap water all that bad? Not at all. In fact. New York’s tap water for more than a century was called the champagne of tap water and until recently considered among the best in the world in terms of both taste and purity. Similarly, a magazine in England found that tap water from the Thames River tasted better than several leading brands of bottled water that were 400 times more expensive.
Nevertheless, soft-drink companies view bottled water as the next battle-ground for market share — despite the fact that over 25 percent of bottled water comes from tap water: Pepsi Co’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani are both purified tap water rather than spring water.
As diners thirst for leading brands, bottlers and restaurateurs are desperate for the profits. A restaurant’s typical mark-up (加价) on wine is 100 to 150 percent, whereas on bottled water it’s often 300 to 500 percent. But since water is much cheaper than wine, and many of the fancier brands aren’t available in stores, most diners don’t notice or care.
As a result, some restaurants are turning up the pressure to sell bottled water. According to an article in The Street Journal, some of the more shameless methods include placing attractive bottles on the table for a visual sell, listing brands on the menu without prices, and pouring bottled water without even asking the diners if they want it.
Regardless of how it’s sold, the popularity of bottled water taps into our desire for better health. our wish to appear cultivated, and even a longing for lost purity.
1. What is Arthur’s purpose in mentioning his dog in paragraph 2?| A．To indicate his own preference for bottled water. |
| B．To show the importance of bottled water to dogs. |
| C．To clarify the difference between bottled water and tap water. |
| D．To exhibit the large consumption of bottled water in big cities. |
| A．tap water from the Thames River |
| B．famous wines not sold in ordinary stores |
| C．PepsiCo’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola’s Dasani |
| D．pricey bottled water with very impressive names |
| A．Most diners find bottled water affordable. |
| B．Competition from the wine industry is fierce. |
| C．Bottled water can bring in huge profits. |
| D．Bottled water satisfies diners’ desire to be fashionable. |
| A．Tap water: why tastes better? | B．Bottled water: why so popular? |
| C．A new favorite of. restaurants; bottled water | D．A rising star: tap water |
2 . Nearly one-third of American adolescents and adults are affected by anxiety, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. In fact, over the last decade, anxiety has surpassed depression as the most common reason college students seek counseling (咨询) services, the New York Times reported. Sixty-two percent of undergraduates in survey reported “unbearable anxiety,” a significant increase from 50 percent in 2011.
Anxiety, along with depression, cuts across all demographics (人口统计数据), including both privileged and disadvantaged teenagers. But privileged teens are among the most emotionally upset youth in America, Arizona State University psychology professor Suniya Luthar told the New York Times.
“These kids are incredibly anxious and perfectionistic,” Suniya Luthar said, “there’s always one more activity, one more A. P. class, one more thing to do in order to get into a top college. Kids have a sense that they’re not measuring up. The pressure is never-ending and getting worse.” But helicopter parents aren’t always to blame. Many students internalize the anxiety and put the pressure on themselves, Madeline Levine, co-founder of Challenge Success, a nonprofit aimed at improving student well-being, told the Times.
Another expert, psychiatrist Stephanie Eken, said despite the cultural differences, there’s a lot of overlap among teens regarding what makes them anxious. Eken mentions factors range from school, family conflicts, what food to eat, diseases, how they’re perceived by friends and notably in the last few years, Eken told the Times, to a rising fear about terrorism. “They wonder about whether it’s safe to go to a movie theater,” she said.
A lack of close, meaningful relationships is also a major factor. Experts have long said mental and physical changes associated with puberty (青春期) may leave teens at higher risk for anxiety. And social media doesn’t help, Eken said, adding that teens are always comparing themselves with their friends, which leaves them miserable.
When Times reporter Benoit Denizet-Lewis visited Mountain Valley, a nonprofit that offers teens need-based assistance for $910 a day, a college student at the facility said, “I don’t think we realize how much it’s affecting our moods and personalities. Social media is a tool, but it’s become this thing that we can’t live without but that’s making us crazy.”
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．A big rise in anxiety among teens. |
| B．A report on mental health of adolescents. |
| C．Common mental health disorders in adults. |
| D．The reason for adults seeking counseling services. |
| A．Their parents pressure them too much. |
| B．They are less anxious than disadvantaged teenagers. |
| C．Their pressure often comes from themselves, not from others. |
| D．They suffer extreme anxiety under pressure of perfection. |
| A．To give general causes of stress and anxiety. |
| B．To show typical examples of cultural differences. |
| C．To illustrate the importance of close relationships. |
| D．To state the impact of everyday things on mental health. |
| A．Is anxiety increasing in the United States? |
| B．Why are more US teens suffering from anxiety? |
| C．How is social media affecting teens with anxiety? |
| D．How do we help teenagers deal with mental illness? |
3 . Do you feel like there are too many things to do in a day, but not enough time to do them? If so, you’re experiencing what researchers call time poverty.
If you want a satisfying social life, buy time for it. You might pay to have a disliked housework done by others, get a direct flight instead of a cheaper one with a stopover, or pay extra to drive the fastest route home.
Another way to get more time is to give it away. In one study, researchers asked people to devote part of their Saturday morning to doing something for themselves that they weren’t already planning to do or doing something for someone else. The people who gave away their time later felt like they had more of it.
If you have too many things to do and not enough time to do them, try to cut back on some things.
| A．Time poverty is a sign of the times |
| B．Helping others expands our sense of time |
| C．Buying time is a good way to free you from the boredom of repeated tasks |
| D．The choices we make with our time greatly affect our happiness and social lives |
| E．Then invest your free time in something socially engaging |
| F．You don’t have to keep up with the pace of the modern world |
| G．Yet, feeling short on time is associated with lower level of happiness and connection |
4 . Did you grow up in one culture, your parents came from another, and you are now living in a totally different country?
The term “third-culture kids” was invented in the 1960s by U.S. sociologist Dr. Ruth Hill Useem. She first encountered this phenomenon when she researched North American children living in India.
Ginny, aged 20, was born in the U.K. Since her early childhood, she had lived abroad moving around with her parents every few years, before she returned to the U.K. to study. When returning to the U.K. to go to university, she realized she had benefited a lot from her years overseas.
Yet being a third-culture kid is not always easy. In fact, many hardships may arise from this phenomenon. A third-culture kid may not be able to adapt themselves completely to their new surroundings as expected.
As a part of the growing “culture”, TCKs may find it a great challenge for them to feel at home in many places.
| A．If so, then you are a third-culture kid! |
| B．About 90 percent of them have a university degree. |
| C．The languages picked up abroad were really useful. |
| D．The only problem was that she caught the travel bug. |
| E．After many years, these kids still could not adapt to their host culture. |
| F．Instead, they may always remain an outsider in different host cultures. |
| G．These children often get along well with those who suffer from the same confusion. |
5 . What are the most important factors that distinguish NBA legends from the rest? When scoping out talent, scouts (星探) look for two main things: outstanding previous performance and “unexploited potential”. There is an assumption that physical stature and athleticism (e.g., arm span, flexibility, swiftness, etc) are markers of unexploited potential, and will therefore continue predicting success in the NBA. But is this assumption correct?
A new study sheds some new light on the issue. Unsurprisingly, measures of physical makeup and athleticism clearly influence selection into the NBA draft. But they did not distinguish productive NBA players from unproductive players after taking into account prior performance. In fact, the only variables that predicted NBA success were youth, college performance, and college quality. Of course, the researchers didn’t analyze every possible measure of skill, such as passing, defense and shooting. Also, many external factors could also have played a role, such as coaching and team social dynamics. But none of them may be as important as the biggest elephant in the room. Let’s turn to Michael Jordan, the basketball legend.
A lot has been made of Jordan’s “cut” from his school basketball team in Grade Two in high school. In reality, Jordan wasn’t cut, but just placed elsewhere: on the junior team. The school team really needed size, and at the tryouts Jordan was 5feet 10 inches. He didn’t have his big growth shoot until the following year, when he was placed on the school team. What’s more, at the tryouts, Jordan didn’t really stand out on any of the characteristics the coaches were looking out for.
Well, except one: “If Jordan distinguished himself at all during the tryout, it was through his extreme effort.”
What truly saddens me is that professionals judge the “natural” performer who demonstrates early evidence of ability to be more talented, and more hirable than the “striver”, who shows early evidence of high motivation and perseverance. Maybe it’s time to completely rethink this whole belief of unexploited potential. Perhaps we should think about early ability as merely potential that was realized earlier than others. Nothing more, nothing less.
1. According to the passage, what do team managers generally value in players?| A．Athletic skills and training experiences. | B．Motivation and team social dynamics. |
| C．Physical makeup and athletic competence. | D．Early performance and professional spirit. |
| A．The most efficient training program. |
| B．The most essential quality as a player. |
| C．The greatest NBA legend Michael Jordan. |
| D．The most obvious factor but one that is ignored. |
| A．He lacked talent for the sport. |
| B．He was too short to win the coach’s favor. |
| C．He was needed more by the school’s junior team. |
| D．He didn’t make enough efforts to impress the coach. |
| A．Super efforts can make up for the lack of athleticism. |
| B．The concept of “unexploited potential” doesn’t make sense. |
| C．Those who show early evidence of ability are not truly talented. |
| D．Passion and dedication are as worth considering as athletic characteristics. |
1. What is the main topic of the talk?
| A．Different educational systems around the world. |
| B．The disadvantages of much homework. |
| C．Children’s mental health. |
| A．2nd grade. | B．3rd grade. | C．4th grade. |
| A．Canada. | B．Finland. | C．The US. |
| A．The school should give children no homework. |
| B．The school should improve kids’ performance. |
| C．The school should work with parents. |
7 . Late last year, in the days before the Dosakian election, a video featuring a well-known journalist and a key candidate circulated on social networks. However, it was absolutely fake (虚假的). The International Press Institute has called this episode in Dosakia the first time that AI deepfakes — fake images, or videos generated by artificial intelligence — have influenced a national election greatly.
Security experts consider misinformation the biggest global risk recently — more dangerous than war, and extreme weather events. A constant stream of people is wrestling with this issue. Now even economists are joining in.
Economist Iyan Smith, and others conduct a real-world experiment to see whether simple, low-cost nudges, or interventions, can be effective. Instead of focusing on the supply side of misinformation like social media platforms, they pay attention to the demand side: increasing our capacity to identify the fake information.
The economists split participants randomly into four different groups. One group was shown a video demonstrating a convincing journey of two people from two different social groups who, before interacting, express negative stereotypes (刻板印象) about the other’s group, overcoming their differences and ultimately regretting unthinkingly using stereotypes to dehumanize one another. Another group completed a personality test that shows them their cognitive traits (认知特点) causing prejudice, hoping to increase their self-awareness, and decrease their demand for misinformation. A third group did both while a control group did neither.
The economists find the simple intervention of showing the video makes the participants over 30 percent less likely to “consider fake news reliable”. But the personality test has little effect. As for participants doing both, they were about 31 percent less likely to view true headlines as reliable. In other words, they became so skeptical that even the truth became suspect.
Smith and his colleagues are far from the first scholars to fight misinformation by helping people to think more critically. University of Weymouth psychologist Lisa Kindle also advocates similar ways to help reject misinformation in the wild.
1. What does the author intend to do in the first two paragraphs?| A．Highlight the risk of AI deepfakes. | B．Discuss the global threat landscape. |
| C．Describe Dosakia’s election outcome. | D．Introduce the concept of misinformation. |
| A．The cognitive trait. | B．The short video. |
| C．The personality test. | D．The negative stereotype. |
| A．Videos reduce misinformation. | B．Deepfakes may discredit truth. |
| C．Misinformation causes dehumanization. | D．Personality tests sharpen thinking skills. |
| A．Battling Fake News | B．Deepfakes in Elections |
| C．The Spread of Misinformation | D．Expanding Thinking Capacity |
8 . Wall Street bankers, investors and economists have for months argued over whether a US recession (衰退) is coming. But for some Americans, the unforgiving economic pain typical during recession has already set in.
Al Brown and his wife faced a tough call in May when reviewing their weekly budget: what’s a higher priority, more food or dish soap? Based in Concord, North Carolina, Brown was the main breadwinner for his wife and their two children. Then in April, he was let go from his job as a global director of business development at software company Cascade. He’s since quit his gym membership and sold various items around his home, including a computer and yard furniture. His 13-year-old son quit the basketball team.
Brown, 37, now spends his days searching the internet for jobs or reaching out to potential connections. After filing over 600 applications, only a handful have produced interviews. That’s a far cry from the labor-market strength described in government figures.
Investors and economists have been expecting a recession since last year as the Fed raised interest rates to control inflation (通货膨胀). That caused companies to focus on profitability over growth, which meant cutting spending and reducing their workforces.
“I think it’s unlikely that I will get another good paying job with great benefits like the one I had,” McCollum, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, said. More Americans are likely to encounter similar cases, some experts predict.
“As we go through this year, and into next year, there is still going to be this focus on trying to reduce costs, and it is going to result in more unemployment,” said Thomas Simons, a senior economist at Jefferies. “The impact of layoffs, currently concentrated among white-collar workers, will last throughout the economy through a ‘big pullback in overall spending’,” Simons said. “Consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of economic output, so if more Americans are forced to cut back because they were laid off, that might throw the US economy into a recession.”
1. What are some Americans currently going through?| A．They can’t afford necessities of life. | B．They’ve lost interest in high-end gyms. |
| C．They are badly treated by their bosses. | D．They have difficulty making ends meet. |
| A．One should try various ways to find a job. |
| B．American labor market is not that friendly to job-seekers. |
| C．Few companies are interested in middle-aged job-hunters. |
| D．The government provides accurate figures of the job market. |
| A．By employing more workers. | B．By changing interest rates. |
| C．By giving priority to profits. | D．By cutting employees’ allowances. |
| A．Laid-off workers tend to go into debt. |
| B．Lower consumption may worsen the current situation. |
| C．Americans will spend more to increase economic output. |
| D．Companies are to blame for the unemployment of white-collar workers. |
9 . Imagine living in an apartment in Manhattan. When Covid-19 hits, you have nowhere to escape. Instead, you go up to the rooftop, where, to your surprise, other renters have come, too. After some awkwardness, everyone starts meeting nightly, drinks in hand, to share stories about themselves. This is the background setting of Fourteen Days, a “collaborative novel” edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston. In addition to these two, 34 authors of varied backgrounds contributed to the book. It is one of a growing number of new works, which are written together in some way.
AI services, such as ChatGPT, have started to become co-authors, too. Such models are also conversational machines, which can suggest phrases, give feedback and answer questions. “Cyborg authorship” is what MrRettberg of University of Bergen calls this. He published a book with Cyborg authorship, in which ChatGPT is tasked with generating reviews of famous works in the style of well-known authors — think Jane Austen writing about William Burroughs’s Naked Lunch.
Writing with collaborators, be they human or artificial, will only become more common. But individual authors will still dominate creatively. That is because collectively written books rarely make for great literature. Many contributions to Fourteen Days are cleverly woven together. But the book does not work quite well. Then there is authorial ego (自我价值感). Getting all 36 authors of Fourteen Days to agree on the text was a challenge, with some writers taking issue with how their story ended up being framed and referred to by other contributors later. And AI is not yet fully accepted in literary circles. Recently KudanRie, the winner of Japan’s top prize for literature, admitted she used ChatGPT to write around 5% of her science-fiction novel Tokyo Sympathy Tower. Such honesty is rare because most would never admit using AI. A new sort of “ghost writing” may be having a moment, but many writers will never want to name ChatGPT as their co-author.
1. Who created Fourteen Days?| A．New Yorkers suffering from Covid-19. | B．Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston. |
| C．Renters of a Manhattan apartment building. | D．Separate writers from different walks of life. |
| A．Generating phrases. | B．Giving feedback. |
| C．Writing book reviews. | D．Improving language fluency. |
| A．Collaborative writing is becoming less common. | B．Individual authorship makes creative literature. |
| C．Most authors reject to cooperate with AI. | D．Individual writing improves efficiency. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Negative. | C．Cautious. | D．Optimistic. |
Some university students carried out a campaign
