1. Which of the following will have the strictest ban on smoking according to the text?
| A．Canada. | B．Finland. | C．Hong Kong. |
| A．It can’t ban smoking forever. |
| B．It wants to ban smoking now. |
| C．It wants to ban smoking thoroughly. |
| A．Restaurants. | B．Cars. | C．Shopping malls. |
| A．Smoking and Cancer | B．Smoking in Hong Kong | C．Anti-smoking Laws |
2 . Learning to drive is important to the independence of teenagers, but it is also a great responsibility. Although having a law that keeps 16-year-old drivers from having more than one teenager in the car with them at first seems unfair, there are convincing reasons for this requirement.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that teens are four times more likely than older drivers to be involved in an automobile accident. It also reports that 16-and-17-year-old drivers are twice as likely to have an accident if they have two teenage friends in the car and four times as likely to have one if they have three or more teenage friends in the car with them. Fatal (致命的) crashes of 16-year-old drivers involve the highest percentage of speeding, driver error, and number of passengers. This information is enough to cause any reasonable person to wonder about the wisdom of allowing new teen drivers to take a carload of friends anywhere, even if the law permits it.
A study at the National Institutes of Health indicates that the part of the human brain that controls judgment and evaluates the consequences of our actions might not be fully formed until the age of 25. Until this study, researchers had placed the age at 18. If this is true, it could explain the reckless (鲁莽的) behavior of many teens, behavior that often extends into their twenties. It also could be a strong reason for being cautious about the driving circumstances of young people.
This is not the only study that indicates such caution is necessary. One study at Temple University in Philadelphia examines the results of peer pressure in risky driving situations. The study, which uses a driving game, has an individual guide a car through a course, both alone and in the presence of friends. Three different age groups participated in the study: 13-16, 18-22, and 24 and older. Members of the oldest group showed caution whether driving alone or with friends present, but the two younger groups took more chances when they were with their friends. Furthermore, because these drivers were accustomed to the noise and distraction of many passengers, they were unable to see their own mistakes. Once again, this is a good indication that a law restricting the number of teenagers in the car with a young driver is a good idea.
1. What does the author mainly tell us in Paragraph 2?| A．Many deaths have occurred because of inexperience and overconfidence. |
| B．It’s reasonable to severely limit the passenger number of teen drivers. |
| C．New teen drivers have to ask permission before driving with friends. |
| D．There are many causes behind the teens’ driving accidents. |
| A．different age groups have different peer pressure |
| B．teenagers often give wrong judgments above passengers’ noise |
| C．underdeveloped brain makes teens ignore their mistakes |
| D．driving circumstances are bound up with the risk of accidents |
| A．protect teens on the highway | B．raise teens’ sense of responsibility |
| C．reduce the number of fatal crashes | D．force teens to drive with caution |
| A．Some teenagers have risky behavior while driving. |
| B．Certain laws treat teenagers and adults differently. |
| C．We still need more studies on teen driving. |
| D．Driving is important to a teenager’s sense of independence. |
3 . “There is one and only one social responsibility of business,” wrote Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, “that is, to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits.” But even if you accept Friedman’s statement and regard corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies as a waste of shareholders’ money, things may not be absolutely clear-cut. New research suggests that CSR may create monetary value for companies at least when they are charged with corruption (腐败).
The largest firms in America and Britain together spend more than $15 billion a year on CSR, according to an estimate by EPG, a consulting firm. This could add value to their businesses in three ways. First, consumers may take CSR spending as a “signal” that a company’s products are of high quality. Second, customers may be willing to buy a company’s products as an indirect way to donate to the good causes it helps. And third, through a more diffuse (分散的) “halo effect” its good deeds earn it greater consideration from consumers and others.
Previous studies on CSR have had trouble distinguishing these effects because consumers can be affected by all three. A recent study attempts to separate them by looking at bribery prosecutions (起诉) under American’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). It argues that since prosecutors do not consume a company’s products as part of their investigations, they could be influenced only by the halo effect.
The study finds that, among prosecuted firms, those with the most comprehensive CSR programmes tend to get more lenient punishments. Their analysis rules out the possibility that it is the firm’s political influence, rather than its CSR stance, that accounts for the leniency: Companies that contribute more to political campaigns do not receive lower fines.
In all, the study concludes that whereas prosecutors should only evaluate a case based on its merits, they do seem to be influenced by a company’s record in CSR. “We estimate that either eliminating a substantial labor-rights concern, such as child labor, or increasing corporate giving by about 20% result in fines that generally are 40% lower than the typical punishment for bribing foreign officials.” says one researcher.
Researchers admit that their study does not answer the question at how much businesses ought to spend on CSR. Nor does it reveal how much companies are relying on the halo effect, rather than the other possible benefits, when companies get into trouble with the law, evidence of good character can win them a less costly punishment.
1. The author views Milton Friedman’s statement about CSR with___________.| A．uncertainty | B．interest | C．approval | D．tolerance |
| A．guarding it against malpractices | B．protecting it from consumers |
| C．winning trust from consumers | D．raising the quality of its products |
| A．less debatable | B．more lasting | C．more effective | D．less severe |
| A．comes across as reliable evidence | B．has an impact on their decision |
| C．is considered part of the investigation | D．increases the chance of being punished |
China’s top legislature (立法机构) passed the Yellow River Protection Law on Sunday. Due
The Yellow River, the second
The law
The Yellow River basin is home
5 . Michael Jackson had Bubbles, a chimpanzee(黑猩猩). Justin Bieber had Og Mally, a capuchin(卷尾猴), until it was seized by German customs officials and put in a zoo. Rihanna has been photographed bottle-feeding a baby monkey on holiday. The stars would find few fans in the British government, which on December 12, 2020 placed new restrictions on keeping primates(灵长目动物)as pets. Somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 marmoserts, lemurs, tamarins and other little species of primates are kept in private ownership in Britain, the government says, often bored to misery.
One of the benefits of cutting loose from the European continent is that Britain can fully express its passion for animals. Politicians are only too happy to work for it, for pet-friendly policies are cheap and popular. In the previous election, the Tory Party promised to help reunite missing pets with their owners by making it compulsory to put chips into the bodies of cats and dogs, and to deal with animal smuggling(走私). The Labour Party promised to ban the live-boiling of lobsters in restaurants.
Yet, Britain’s animal welfare laws are already among the most comprehensive in the world, according to the Animal Protection Index.
Wild animals in traveling circuses were banned by law last year, but a decreasing public appetite for parades of elephants and tigers balanced on chairs had already put an end to the business. By the time the ban came into force, only two licensed animal circuses were left in Britain. Members of Parliament are moved by the sad loss of pets because of motor accidents. James Daly has proposed Gizmo’s Law, named after a cat, the victim of a hit-and-run accident, which was burned without its owner’s knowledge. The law requires that dead animals be brought back from the roadside to scan them for microchips, so that they can be reunited with their brokenhearted owners rather than being burned without their names being known. A draft bill in 2018 proposed criminalizing drivers who failed to stop after striking a cat. Hit-and-runs on dogs, pigs, goats and humans are already illegal.
1. What does the author want to introduce by mentioning the three stars in Paragraph 1?| A．A recent pet-friendly policy in Britain. |
| B．British people’s passion for animals. |
| C．A trend towards keeping primates as pets. |
| D．The present situation of primates in Britain. |
| A．They’re two-faced about animal welfare. |
| B．They disapprove of European animal welfare. |
| C．They used to blame each other on animal welfare. |
| D．They devoted to making laws on animal welfare. |
| A．To track the hit-and-run driver. |
| B．To help the animals find their way home. |
| C．To inform their owners of the accidents. |
| D．To find out the exact locations of the accidents. |
| A．Animal welfare: all you need to know |
| B．Could Britain be a leader in animal welfare? |
| C．Could animal welfare plans be smart politics? |
| D．Animal welfare: a favorite issue for politicians. |
6 . My generation — people born after 1990 — are accustomed to “all-in-platform” life, where we use mobile apps of different platforms to do almost everything in life.
For instance, I ordered a cup of coffee on Monday using an online delivery app. Then, I called a taxi by tapping on the app of a ride-booking service. Next, I bought some necessities on shopping platform Taobao. That done, I moved on to various other online destinations to get my daily fix of music, reading, social networking and so forth.
Platforms now play an increasingly important role in almost all aspects of day-to-day life, not just in economic and political processes. Consumption and social interaction are closely linked to platforms now.
But, I began to get confused recently. I thought I was being treated differently. My friend and I called a taxi at the same time on a ride-hailing platform (打车平台) and found that for the same destination, the prices were different. The price indicated on my phone was higher. One of the potential reasons could have been that I regularly use the ride-hailing platform and have a higher ranking while my friend doesn’t use it that often. So, the ride-hailing platform offers discounts to newbies like her, to attract and have such customers.
China’s latest efforts in regulating monopolistic or improper market behavior are of great significance in protecting consumers’ lawful rights.
“The essence of platform-based monopoly (垄断) is that a large number of users are gathered on only a select few platform companies, leading to uneven data gathering different platforms. But in China some platforms use their own data and traffic (流量) to expand capital in a disorderly way,” said Wang Yong, deputy director of the Institute of Economics at Tinghua University.
Data monopoly also brought another inconvenience for comumers — platforms block links to each other. For instance, link to WeChat Pay of Tencent is not available on Alibuba’s Taobao while there is no Alipay link on JD app’s payment options.
Last year, Meituan was charged with preventing customers from using Alipay as a payment option on Meituan apps and platforms.
In July, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a six-month special rectification (专项治理) for the internet industry, asking platform operators to stop blocking each other’s link.
“More efforts should also be made to strike a good balance between personal information protection and interconnectivity between platforms Companies are being encouraged to further develop data encryption (加密) technology so that the data are available but not visible.”
1. What is the author’s purpose in writing Para.2?| A．To offer some tips on using apps on mobile phone. |
| B．To share his experience with mobile apps. |
| C．To further explain what is “all-in-platform” life. |
| D．To help readers familiarize themselves with mobile apps. |
| A．The author encountered so called “big data price discrimination”. |
| B．The author and his friend were treated differently by taxi drivers. |
| C．Due to the author's higher ranking, the platform offered him a cheaper price. |
| D．The ride-hailing platform offers discounts to regular customers. |
| A．to gather personal information |
| B．to expand capital |
| C．to protect consumers' rights |
| D．to use their data and traffic wisely |
| A．Sympathetic. | B．Approving. |
| C．Critical. | D．Grateful. |
| A．Data monopolies and the inconvenience they bring to mobile app life. |
| B．Mobile apps have greatly changed our lives. |
| C．How to protect personal information on mobile apps. |
| D．Platforms have impacted every aspect of our daily lives. |
7 . Known as a “living fossil”, the Chinese sturgeon(中华鲟)is a very precious species. It is believed to have lived alongside the dinosaurs more than 140 million years ago. Although dinosaurs are long since gone, the Chinese sturgeon still exists. However, the species has been listed as ‘‘Critically Endangered’’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species．
On May 14,Shanghai legislators(立法机构)passed a new law protecting the Chinese sturgeon, emphasizing “regional cooperation”, according to China Daily. “This is the first local legislation in the country to protect one endangered fish,” said Ding Wei, director of the legislative affairs committee of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress.
Taken effect on June 6, the regulation urges cooperation in law enforcement(实施), scientific research and rescue of the species between Shanghai and other provinces and regions in the Yangtze River basin, according to People’s Daily．
The need for collaborative efforts is due to the living habitat of the Chinese sturgeon. As an anadromous(溯河产卵的)species, it mainly lives in the Yangtze River and depends on the Vangtze estuary(河口)for migration.
The protection of the Chinese sturgeon is urgent. China began the artificial breeding and release of the fish in 1984. However, very few of the fanned fish have survived in the wild, the number of which is less than 1000, according to a report by the Shanghai Observer.
Whether this species can be preserved depends on the natural population. “If the natural population is not well protected, the Chinese sturgeon is in danger of extinction.” Li Furong, vice chairperson of the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee of Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress, said in the report.
Since Jan 1 of this year, a 10-year fishing ban on key areas of the Yangtze River basin has been issued, covering 332 nature reserves, which includes Shanghai’s Chinese sturgeon nature reserve．
1. What is the new law passed on May 14 in Shanghai about?| A．Forbidding fishing in the area. |
| B．Protecting the Chinese sturgeon. |
| C．Increasing the reproduction of the Chinese sturgeon. |
| D．Listing the Chinese sturgeon as an endangered species. |
| A．It mainly lives in the waters of Shanghai. |
| B．Artificial breeding technology costs too much. |
| C．Farmed fish multiplies quickly. |
| D．Saving the species depends on protecting their natural population. |
| A．immediate | B．joint | C．urgent | D．further |
| A．The Chinese Sturgeon: Living Fossil |
| B．Artificial Breeding: Future of the Chinese Sturgeon |
| C．A New Law for a Fish |
| D．Call for Conservation of the Chinese Sturgeon |
8 . Children experiencing frequent family violence in Guangdong Province will be regarded as victims, according to a local draft against family violence. The draft will be handed in for consideration and agreement by the People’s Congress.
“It will help to improve people’s understanding of family violence and provide a better family environment for the development of children’s mental health.” said Chen Yongkang, deputy director of the social construction committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, “More detailed and exact measures against family violence will be made in the near future to better protect children’s health. Although they are not victims of physical hurt, children will be living under huge psychological shadows for quite a long time.”
The Guangdong Women’s Federation said the province recorded 14,172 cases of family violence between 2016 and 2018. Nearly 30 percent of China’s 270 million families have family violence problems, which cause 100,000 families to fall apart every year. About 90 percent of family violence victims are women.
“Family violence not only causes broken marriages, but also brings great harm to the development of children’s mental health,” Chen said. “The new draft will also help offenders realize they are doing something harmful to children. It will also make governments and social organizations pay more attention to the problem.”
According to the draft, mental violence will also be seen as an aspect of family violence. “Family violence is not all about physical hurt. Mental violence, including frequent shouting, does harm to family members, especially children,” Chen said.
1. What does Chen Yongkang say about family violence?| A．It is difficult to solve the problem. | B．It is the main reason for broken marriages. |
| C．It greatly influences children’s mental health. | D．It hurts children more than other family members. |
| A．By listing data. | B．By giving examples. | C．By studying cases. | D．By comparing facts. |
| A．It aims to protect women victims. |
| B．It mainly focuses on children’s physical hurt. |
| C．It has been carried out in Guangdong Province. |
| D．It will make the public more concerned about family violence. |
| A．A law book. | B．A news report. |
| C．A lifestyle program. | D．A science magazine. |
9 . Are you the only child in your family? If so, do you enjoy it or do you want more siblings（兄弟姐妹）?
On May 31, a key meeting of the Communist Party of China unveiled a policy that would allow all couples to have up to three children.
The move is expected to maximize the population's role in driving economic and social growth, since this is a critical time for China to transform the world's most populous country into a powerhouse（强国）with a quality workforce, according to the National Health Commission.
The three-child policy is also expected to prevent the decline in the nation's birthrate and address the challenge of a rapidly aging population, China Daily reported.
China's annual number of newborns has fallen for four years in a row. The country's total birthrate—the average number of children born to each woman—stood at 1.3 in 2020. The number is below the rate of 2.1 that would maintain a stable population, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The declining birthrate has also brought a sharp increase in the proportion of the population aged 60 or above, rising from 10.3 percent to 18.7 percent in the past decade. An increasingly elderly population will increase the cost of labor and the pressure on the social security net. It also means there will be a lack of young labor force. Therefore, it's not good for economic growth, according to Chen Youhua, a professor at Nanjing University.
In fact, the new birth policy is a step to further relax the family planning policy. The one-child policy was introduced in the 1970s and aimed to control the fast-growing population. Then in 2013, China allowed couples to have a second child if either parent was an only child, and in 2016, all couples were allowed to have two children.
However, not all people have shown their support for this latest policy. Many couples complained about the rising costs of raising a child. A netizen named Qinfeng commented, "High cost of education and both the physical and mental exhaustion stopped me from having more than one child." Also, many women are reluctant（不情愿的）to give birth because that could mean sacrificing their career prospects, according to Mu Guangzong, a professor at Peking University.
In that case, Mu noted that it is better to implement supporting measures with the three-child policy, such as more preferential（优惠的）policies for couples that would ease their parental burden.
1. What might NOT be the main cause for the new policy?| A．To increase the population's role. |
| B．To stop the declining birthrate. |
| C．To improve the child- care service system. |
| D．To address the challenge of the aging population. |
| A．China's annual number of newborns has fallen for decades. |
| B．The government will protect the legal rights of women in employment. |
| C．Measures will be taken to improve the high-quality education. |
| D．The new policy allows couples to have up to three children. |
| A．To carry out. | B．To get along with. |
| C．To make use of. | D．To have a command of. |
| A．To show his love of children healthcare. |
| B．To introduce the new family size policy. |
| C．To share his concerns about birthrate. |
| D．To emphasize the physical and mental exhaustion. |
10 . The local government killed more than 34,000 stray dogs (流浪狗) several months ago because those officials were afraid that the dogs would spread rabies (狂犬病).
This caused a debate across the country. Some people said that it was very cruel to kill dogs. There might be a better way to prevent the disease.
In the future, killing stray dogs might be seen as a crime. The Chinese government published a draft of animal rights law. It says that a person who kills a stray dog without good reason will be put in prison.
The draft also says that animal abuse and abandoning animals will be considered crimes under the criminal law.
The government published the draft so that the public could read it and discuss their thoughts. People share different opinions. Some think the law is good. They say other countries like Britain and Japan have similar laws. They say we will do better at protecting animals if there is one. But others say it’s not necessary to fight animal abuse with a new law. Criticisms and fines can do the job.
Some people also say that the draft doesn’t deal with the biggest issues facing the country’s development. The country should make progress to give all people equal rights, they say, before turning attention to animals.
Another part of the draft is causing discussion. It says that people should not force animals to do something dangerous, like jumping through a ring of fire. But many people enjoy watching this kind of performance at the circus, especially kids. They say that if the animal does it properly, it will not get hurt.
1. Which of the following is acceptable according to the draft of animal rights law?| A．Killing a dog with rabies. |
| B．Beating an animal for fun. |
| C．Abandoning a blind pet dog. |
| D．Forcing a cat to jump through a ring of fire. |
| A．all people agree with the law |
| B．criticisms and fines can protect animals |
| C．protecting animals is the biggest issue in China |
| D．people have different opinions towards the law |
| A．people can’t kill stray dogs any longer |
| B．the country won’t have human right problems |
| C．kids may not be able to watch animals’ performances in a circus |
| D．animals will not be killed |
