2021考研英语英语一和考研英语二原文和答案

??Fluidintelligence is the type of intelligence that involves short-term memory andthe ability to think quickly, logically, and abstractly in order to solve newproblem. It peaksin young adulthood (between the ages of 20 and 30), levels out for a period oftime, and then generallystarts to slowly decline as we age. But while aging is inevitable, scientists arefinding out that certain changes in brain function may not be.

Onestudy found that muscle loss and the accumulation of body fat around the abdomen,which often begin in middle age and continue into advanced age, are associatedwith a decline in fluid intelligence. This suggests the possibility thatlifestyle factors, such as the type of diet you follow and the type and amountof exercise you get throughout the years to maintain more lean muscle, mighthelp prevent or delaythis type of decline.

Theresearchers looked at data that included measurements of lean muscle, abdominal fat andsubcutaneous fat (the type of fat you can see and grab hold of) from more than4,000 middle-to-older-aged men and women and compared that data to reported changes influid intelligence over a six-year period. They found that middle-aged people with higher measuresof abdominal fat scored worse on measures of fluid intelligence as theyears went by.

Forwomen, the association may be attributable to changes in immunity that resulted fromexcess abdominal fat; in men, the immune system did not appear to be involved. Futurestudies could explainthese differences and perhaps lead to different treatments for men and women.

Meanwhile,there are steps you can taketo help reduce abdominal fat and maintain lean muscle mass as you age in orderto protect both your physical and mental well-being. The two most generally recommendedlifestyle approaches are maintaining or increasing your levels of aerobicexercise and following a Mediterranean-style diet that is high in fiber from whole grains,vegetables, and other plant foods and eliminates highly processed foods. If youcarry extra belly fat, speak with your health care provider to determine a planthat is best for you.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cravings/202112/belly-fat-and-your-brain

阅览了解 Text 1

How can the train operatorspossibly justify yet another increase to rail passenger fares? It has become agrimly reliable annual ritual: every January the cost of travelling by trainrises, imposing a significant extra burden on those who have no option but touse the rail network to get to work or otherwise. This year’s rise, an averageof 2.7 per cent, may be a fraction lower than last year’s, but it is still wellabove the official Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation.

Successive governments havepermitted such increases on the grounds that the cost of investing in andrunning the rail network should be borne by those who use it, rather than thegeneral taxpayer. Why, the argument goes, should a car-driving pensioner fromLincolnshire have to subsidise the daily commute of a stockbroker from Surrey?Equally, there is a sense that the travails of commuters in the South East,many of whom will face among the biggest rises, have received too muchattention compared to those who must endure the relatively poor infrastructureof the Midlands and the North.

However, over the past 12 months,those commuters have also experienced some of the worst rail strikes in years.It is all very well train operators trumpeting the improvements they are makingto the network, but passengers should be able to expect a basic level ofservice for the substantial sums they are now paying to travel. Theresponsibility for the latest wave of strikes rests on the unions. However,there is a strong case that those who have been worst affected by industrialaction should receive compensation for the disruption they have suffered.

The Government has pledged tochange the law to introduce a minimum service requirement so that, even whenstrikes occur, services can continue to operate. This should form part of awider package of measures to address the long-running problems on Britain’srailways. Yes, more investment is needed, but passengers will not be willing topay more indefinitely if they must also endure cramped, unreliable services,punctuated by regular chaos when timetables are changed, or planned maintenanceis managed incompetently. The threat of nationalisation may have been seen offfor now, but it will return with a vengeance if the justified anger ofpassengers is not addressed in short order.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/01/02/passengers-wont-put-ever-rising-rail-fares-forever/

21.The author holds that this year’s increase in rail passengersfares?????????? .

A.will ease train operation’s burden

B.has kept pace with inflation

C.is a big surprise to commuters

D. remains an unreasonable measure

22.The stockbroker in Paragraph 2 is used to stand for?????????? .

A.car drivers

B. rail travelers

C.local investors

D.ordinary taxpayers

23.It is indicated in Paragraph 3 that train operators?????????? .

A.are offering compensations to commuters

B.are trying to repair relations with the unions

C. have failed to provide an adequateservice

D.have suffered huge losses owing to the strikes

24.If unable to calm down passengers, the railways may have to face

A.the loss of investment

B.?? the collapse of operations

C.a reduction of revenue.

D. a change of ownership

25.Which of the following would be the best title

forthe text?

A.Who Are to Blame for the Strikes?

B.Constant Complaining Doesn't Work

C.Can Nationalization Bring Hope?

D. Ever-rising Fares Aren't Sustainable

阅览了解 Text 2

Last year marked the third year ina row that Indonesia’s bleak rate of deforestation has slowed in pace. Onereason for the turnaround may be the country’s antipoverty program.

In 2007, Indonesia started phasingin a program that gives money to its poorest residents under certainconditions, such as requiring people to keep kids in school or get regularmedical care. Called conditional cash transfers or CCTs, these socialassistance programs are designed to reduce inequality and break the cycle ofpoverty. They’re already used in dozens of countries worldwide. In Indonesia,the program has provided enough food and medicine to substantially reducesevere growth problems among children.

But CCT programs don’t generallyconsider effects on the environment. In fact, poverty alleviation andenvironmental protection are often viewed as conflicting goals, says PaulFerraro, an economist at Johns Hopkins University.

That’s because economic growth canbe correlated with environmental degradation, while protecting the environmentis sometimes correlated with greater poverty. However, those correlations don’tprove cause and effect. The only previous study analyzing causality, based onan area in Mexico that had instituted CCTs, supported the traditional view.There, as people got more money, some of them may have more cleared land forcattle to raise for meat, Ferraro says.

Such programs do not have tonegatively affect the environment, though. Ferraro wanted to see if Indonesia’spoverty-alleviation program was affecting deforestation. Indonesia has thethird-largest area of tropical forest in the world and one of the highestdeforestation rates.

Ferraro analyzed satellite datashowing annual forest loss from 2008 to 2012 — including during Indonesia’sphase-in of the antipoverty program — in 7,468 forested villages across 15provinces and multiple islands. The duo separated the effects of the CCTprogram on forest loss from other factors, like weather and macroeconomicchanges, which were also affecting forest loss. With that, “we see that theprogram is associated with a 30 percent reduction in deforestation,” Ferrarosays.

That’s likely because the ruralpoor are using the money as makeshift insurance policies against inclementweather, Ferraro says. Typically, if rains are delayed, people may clear landto plant more rice to supplement their harvests. With the CCTs, individualsinstead can use the money to supplement their harvests.

Whether this research translateselsewhere is anybody’s guess. Ferraro suggests the importance of growing riceand market access. And regardless of transferability, the study shows thatwhat’s good for people may also be good value of the avoided deforestation justfor carbon dioxide emissions alone is more than the program costs.”

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/deforestation-trees-indonesia-cash-poor-families-programs

26.According to the first two paragraphs, CCT programs aim to?????????? .

A.facilitate health care reform

B. help poor families get better off

C.improve local


education systems

D.lower deforestation rates

27.The study based on an area in Mexico is cited to show that???????????? .

A.cattle rearing has been a major means of livelihood for the pool

B.CCT programs have helped preserve traditional lifestyles

C.antipoverty efforts require the participation of local farmers

D. economic growth tends to causeenvironmental degradation

28.In his study about Indonesia, Ferraro intends to find out?????????? .

A.its acceptance level of CCTs

B.its annual rate of poverty alleviation

C.


the relation of CCTs to its forestloss

D.the role of its forests in climate change

29.According to Ferraro, the CCT program in Indonesia is most valuable inthat?????????? .

Ait will benefit other Asian countries

B.it will reduce regional inequality

C. it can protect the environment

D.it can boost grain production

30.What is the text centered on?

A. The effects of a program.

B.The debates over a program.

C.The process of a study.

D. The transferability of a study.

阅览了解 Text 3

As a historian who’s alwayssearching for the text or the image that makes us re-evaluate the past, I’vebecome preoccupied with looking for photographs that show our Victorianancestors smiling (what better way to shatter the image of 19th-century prudery?).I’ve found quite a few, and – since I started posting them on Twitter – theyhave been causing quite a stir. People have been surprised to see evidence thatVictorians had fun and could, and did, laugh. They are noting that theVictorians suddenly seem to become more human as the hundred-or-so years thatseparate us fade away through our common experience of laughter.

Of course, I need to concede thatmy collection of ‘Smiling Victorians’ makes up only a tiny percentage of thevast catalogue of photographic portraiture created between 1840 and 1900, themajority of which show sitters posing miserably and stiffly in front of paintedbackdrops, or staring absently into the middle distance. How do we explain thistrend?

During the 1840s and 1850s, in theearly days of photography, exposure times were notoriously long: thedaguerreotype photographic method (producing an image on a silvered copperplate) could take several minutes to complete, resulting in blurred images assitters shifted position or adjusted their limbs. The thought of holding afixed grin as the camera performed its magical duties was too much tocontemplate, and so a non-committal blank stare became the norm.

But exposure times were muchquicker by the 1880s, and the introduction of the Box Brownie and otherportable cameras meant that, though slow by today’s digital standards, theexposure was almost instantaneous. Spontaneous smiles were relatively easy tocapture by the 1890s, so we must look elsewhere for an explanation of whyVictorians still hesitated to smile.

One explanation might be the lossof dignity displayed through a cheesy grin. “Nature gave us lips to conceal ourteeth,” ran one popular Victorian saying, alluding to the fact that before thebirth of proper dentistry, mouths were often in a shocking state of hygiene. Aflashing set of healthy and clean, regular ‘pearly whites’ was a rare sight inVictorian society, the preserve of the super-rich (and even then, dentalhygiene was not guaranteed).

A toothy grin (especially whenthere were gaps or blackened teeth) lacked class: drunks, tramps, and musichall performers might gurn and grin with a smile as wide as Lewis Carroll’sgum-exposing Cheshire Cat, but it was not a becoming look for properly bredpersons. Even Mark Twain, a man who enjoyed a hearty laugh, said that when itcame to photographic portraits there could be “nothing more damning than asilly, foolish smile fixed forever”.

https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/why-victorians-didnt-smile-pictures-myth-smiling-portraits/

31.According to paragraph 1, the author’s posts on Twitter???????????? .

A. changed people’s impression of theVictorians

B.highlighted social media’s role in Victorian studies

C.re-evaluated the Victorians notion of public image

D.illustrated the development of Victorian photography

32.Whatdoes author say about the Victorian portraits he has collected?

A.They are in popular use among historians.

B. They are rare among photographs ofthat age.

C.They mirror 19th-century social conventions.

D.They show effects of different exposure times.

33.What might have kept the Victorians from smiling for pictures in the 1890s?

A.Their inherent social sensitiveness.

B.Their tension before the camera.

C.Their distrust of new inventions.

D. Their unhealthy dental condition.

34.Mark Twain is quoted to show that the disapproval of smiles in pictureswas???????????? .

A. a deep-root belief

B.a misguided attitude

C.a controversial view

D.a thought-provoking idea

35.Which of the following questions does the text answer?

A. Why did most Victorians look sternin photographs.

B.Why did the Victorians start to view photographs.

C.What made photography develop slowly in the Victorian period.

D. How did smiling in photographs become apost-Victorian norm.

阅览了解 Text 4

From the early days of broadband,advocates for consumers and web-based companies worried that the cable andphone companies selling broadband connections had the power and incentive tofavor affliated websites over their rivals'. That’s why there has been such astrong demand for rules that would prevent broadband providers from pickingwinners and losers online, preserving the freedom and innovation that have beenthe lifeblood of the Internet.

Yet that demand has been almostimpossible to fill — in part because of pushback from broadband providers,anti-regulatory conservatives and the courts. A federal appeals court weighedin again Tuesday, but instead of providing a badly needed resolution, it onlyprolonged the fight.

At issue before the U.S. Court ofAppeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was the latest take of the FederalCommunications Commission (FCC) on net neutrality, adopted on a party-line votein 2021. The Republican-penned order not only eliminated the strict netneutrality rules the FCC had adopted when it had a Democratic majority in 2015,but rejected the commission’s authority to require broadband providers to domuch of anything. The order also declared that state and local governmentscouldn’t regulate broadband providers either.

The commission argued that otheragencies would protect against anti-competitive behavior, such as abroadband-providing conglomerate like AT&T favoring its own video-streamingservice at the expense of Netflix and Apple TV. Yet the FCC also ended theinvestigations of broadband providers that imposed data caps on their rivals’streaming services but not their own.

On Tuesday, the appeals courtunanimously upheld the 2021 order deregulating broadband providers, citing aSupreme Court ruling from 2005 that upheld a similarly deregulatory move. ButJudge Patricia Millett rightly argued in a concurring opinion that “the resultis unhinged from the realities of modern broadband service,” and said Congressor the Supreme Court could intervene to “avoid trapping Internet regulation intechnological anachronism.”

In the meantime, the court threwout the FCC’s attempt to block all state rules on net neutrality, whilepreserving the commission’s power to preempt individual state laws thatundermine its order. That means more battles like the one now going on betweenthe Justice Department and California, which enacted a tough net neutrality lawin the wake of the FCC’s abdication.

The endless legal battles andback-and-forth at the FCC cry out for Congress to act. It needs to give thecommission explicit authority once and for all to bar broadband providers frommeddling in the traffic on their network and to create clear rules protectingopenness and innovation online.

https://www.govtech.com/policy/Whats-the-Fate-of-Net-Neutrality-Its-Hard-to-Say-Opinion.html

36.There has long been concern that broadband provides would??????????????

A.bring web-based firms under control.

B.slow down the traffic on their network.

C. show partiality in treating clients.

D.intensify competition with their rivals.

37.Faced with the demand for net neutrality rules, the FCC??????????????

A.Sticks to an out-of-date order.

B. Takes an anti-regulatory stance.

C.Has issued a special resolution.

D.Has allowed the states to intervene.

38.What can be learned about AT &T from Paragraph 3?

A.It protects against unfair competition.

B. It engages in anti-competitivepractices.

C.It is under the FCC’s investigation.

D.It is in pursuit of quality service.

39.Judge Patricia Millett argues that the appeals court’s decision??????????

A.focuses on trivialities.

B.conveys an ambiguous message

C.is at odds with its earlier rulings

D. is out of touch with reality.

40.What does the author argue in the last paragraph?

A. Congress needs to take action toensure net neutrality.

B.The FCC should be put under strict supervision.

C.Rules need to be set to diversify online services.

D.Broadband providers’ rights should be protected.

新题型

In the movies and on television,artificial intelligence is typically depicted as something sinister that willupend our way of life. When it comes to AI in business, we often hear about itin relation to automation and the impending loss of jobs, but in what ways isAI changing companies and the larger economy that don’t involve doom-and-gloommass unemployment predictions?

A recent survey of manufacturingand service industries from Tata Consultancy Services found that companiescurrently use AI more often in computer-to-computer activities than inautomating human activities. One common application? Preventing electronicsecurity breaches, which, rather than eliminating IT jobs, actually makes thosepersonnel more valuable to employers, because they help firms prevent hackingattempts.

Here are a few other ways AI isaiding companies without replacing employees:

Better hiring practices

Companies are using artificialintelligence to remove some of the unconscious bias from hiring decisions. “Thereare experiments that show that, naturally, the results of interviews are muchmore biased than what AI does,” says Domingos. In addition,G “AI looks at résumés in greater numbers than humans wouldbe able to, and selects the more promising candidates.”One company that’s doing this is called Blendoor. It uses analyticsto help identify where there may be bias in the hiring process.

More effective marketing

Some AI software can analyze andoptimize marketing email subject lines to increase open rates. One company inthe UK, Phrasee, claims their software can outperform humans by up to 10percent when it comes to email open rates. This can mean millions more inrevenue. C.?? There are also companies like Acquisio, whichanalyzes advertising performance across multiple channels like Adwords, Bingand social media and makes adjustments or suggestions about where advertisingfunds will be most effective.Theseare “tools that help people use data, not a replacement for people,” saysPatrick H. Winston, a professor of artificial intelligence and computer scienceat MIT.

Saving customers money

Energy companies can use AI tohelp customers reduce their electricity bills, saving them money while helpingthe environment. Companies can also optimize their own energy use and cut downon the cost of electricity. Insurance companies, meanwhile, can base theirpremiums on AI models that more accurately access risk.E. “Before, they might not insurethe ones who felt like a high risk or charge them too much,”says Domingos, “or they would charge them too little and then itwould cost [the company] money.”

Improved accuracy

“Machine learning often provides amore reliable form of statistics, which makes data more valuable,” saysWinston. It “helps people make smarter decisions.”B.One accounting firm, EY, usesan AI system that helps review contracts during an audit. This process, alongwith employees reviewing the contracts, is faster and more accurate.

Protecting and maintaininginfrastructure

A number of companies,particularly in energy and transportation, use AI image processing technologyto inspect infrastructure and prevent equipment failure or leaks before theyhappen. “If they fail first and then you fix them, it’s very expensive,” saysDomingos.D.?? “You want to predict if something needs attention nowand point to where it’s useful for [employees] to goto.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/jpmc-2021/how-ai-might-actually-make-your-job-easier/2026/

翻译

WWII was the watershed event forhigher education in modern democratic societies. （46）Thosesocieties came out of the war with levels of enrollment that had been roughlyconstant at 3-5% of the relevant age groups during the decades before the war.But after the war, great social and political changes arising out of thesuccessful war against Fascism created a growing demand in European andAmerican economies for increasing numbers of graduates with more than asecondary school education. （47）Andthe demand that rose in those societies for entry to higher education extendedto groups and strata that had not thought of going to university before thewar. These demands resulted in a very rapid expansion of the systems of highereducation, beginning in the 1960s and developing very rapidly though unevenlyin the 70s and 80s.The growth of higher education manifests itself in at leastthree quite different ways, and these in turn have given rise to different setsof problems. （48）There was first therate of growth: in many countries of Western Europe the numbers of students inhigher education doubled within five-year periods during the decade of thesixties and doubled again in seven, eight, or ten years by the middle of the1970s. Second, growth obviously affected the absolute size both of systems andindividual institutions. And third, growth was reflected in changes in theproportion of the relevant age group enrolled in institutions of highereducation.?? Each of these manifestationsof growth carried its own peculiar problems in its wake. For example, ahigh growth rate placed great strains on the existing structures of governance,of administration, and above all of socialization. When a very large proportionof all the members of an institution are new recruits, they threaten tooverwhelm the processes whereby recruits to a more slowly growing system areinducted into its value system and learn its norms and forms. When a faculty ordepartment grows from, say, 5 to 20 members within three or four years, and （49）when the new staff arepredominantly young men and women fresh from postgraduate study, then theylargely define the norms of academic life in that faculty and its standards.And if the postgraduate student population also grows rapidly and there is lossof a close apprenticeship relationship between faculty members and students,then the student culture becomes the chief socializing force for newpostgraduate students, with consequences for the intellectual and academic lifeof the institution—this was seen in America as well as in France, Italy, WestGermany, and Japan. High growth rates increased the chances for academicinnovation;（50） they also weakenedthe forms and processes by which teachers and students are inducted into acommunity of scholars during periods of stability or slow growth. In thesixties and seventies of the last century, European universities saw markedchanges in their governance arrangements, with the empowerment of juniorfaculty and to some degree of students as well. They also saw higher levels ofstudent discontent, reflecting the weakening of traditional forms of academiccommunities.

International Handbook of Higher Education Part One:Global Themes and Contemporary Challenges, Part Two: Regions and Countries ByPhilip G. Altbach · 2006

参阅译文：

46. Those societies came out ofthe war with levels of enrollment that had been roughly constant at 3%-5% ofthe relevant age groups during the decades before the war.

46.二战后的前期这些国家的适龄人员入学率大致坚持在战前的几十年间的水平，即3%-5%。

47. And the demand that rose inthose societies of entry to higher education extended to groups and socialclasses that had not thought of attending a university before the war.

47.这些国家对高级教育的需要增加也拓宽到战前没有想过上大学的集体和社会阶层。

48. In many countries of westernEurope, the numbers of student in higher education doubled within five-yearsperiods during the 1960s and double again in seven eight or 10 years by themiddle of 1970s.

48.在许多西欧国家，20世纪60年代高级教育的学生人数在五年内翻了一番，到70年代中期，有的过七8年，有的过十年就又翻了一番。

49. and when the new staff arepredominantly young men and women fresh from post graduate study, they largelydefine the norms of academic life in that faculty.

49.当新的教职人员首要是刚从研讨生学习中结业的青年男女时，他们就根柢上界说了全体的学术日子范式。

50. High growth rates increasedthe chances for academic innovation, they also weakened the forms and processby which teachers and students are admitted into a community of scholars duringperiods of stability or slow growth.

50.高增加率添加了学术立异的机缘，也削弱了在平稳或增加缓慢时期教师和学生被归入专家集体需阅历的方法和进程。

??英语二

完形填空

It’s not difficult to set targets for staff. It is much harder, 1. however, tounderstand their negative consequences. Most work-related behaviours havemultiple components. 2.Emphasize one and the others become distorted.

Travelon a London bus and you’ll 3. quickly see how this works withdrivers. Watch people get on and show their tickets. Are they carefullyinspected? Never. Do people get on without paying? Of course! Are there inspectorsto 4. checkthat people have paid? Possibly, but very few. And people who run for the bus?They are 5. ignored.How about jumping lights? Buses do so almost as frequently as cyclists.

Why?Because the target is 6.punctuality. People complained that buses were late and infrequent. 7. So, the number ofbuses and bus lanes were increased, and drivers were 8. rewarded or punished according tothe time they took. And drivers hit their targets. But they 9. also hit cyclists.If the target was changed to 10. revenue, you would have more inspectors and moresensitive pricing. If the criterion changed to safety, you would get more 11. cautious driverswho obeyed traffic laws. But both these criteria would be at the expense oftime.

Thereis another 12. problem:people become immensely inventive in hitting targets. Have you 13. noticed that youcan leave on a flight an hour late but still arrive on time? Tailwinds? Ofcourse not! Airlines have simply changed the time a 14. trip is meant to take. A one-hourflight is now billed as a two-hour flight.

The15. moralofthe story is simple. Most jobs are multidimensional, with multiple criteria.Choose one criterion and you may well 16. sacrifice others. Everything can be donefaster and made cheaper, but there is a 17. cost. Setting targets can and does haveunforeseen negative consequences.

Thisis not an argument against target-setting. But it is an argument for exploringconsequences first. All good targets should have multiple criteria 18. relating to criticalfactors such as time, money, quality and customer feedback. The trick is notonly to 19. specifyjust one or even two dimensions of the objective, but also to understand how tohelp people better 20.achieve the objective.

阅览了解 Text 1

“Reskilling” is something that sounds like a buzzwordbut is actually a requirement if we plan to have a future where a lot ofwould-be workers do not get left behind. We know we are moving into a periodwhere the jobs in demand will change rapidly, as will the requirements of thejobs that remain. Research by the WEF, detailed in the Harvard Business Review,finds that on average 42 per cent of the “core skills” within job roles willchange by 2022. That is a very short timeline, so we can only imagine what thechanges will be further in the future.

The question of who should pay for reskilling is athorny one. For individual companies, the temptation is always to let go ofworkers whose skills are no longer in demand and replace them with those whoseskills are. That does not always happen. AT&T is often given as the goldstandard of a company who decided to do a massive reskilling program ratherthan go with a fire-and-hire strategy, ultimately retraining 18,000 employees.Prepandemic, other companies including Amazon and Disney had also pledged to createtheir own plans. When the skills mismatch is in the broader economy though, thefocus usually turns to government to handle. Efforts in Canada and elsewherehave been arguably languid at best, and have given us a situation where wefrequently hear of employers begging for workers, even at times and in regionswhere unemployment is high.

With the pandemic, unemployment is very high indeed.In February, at 3.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively, unemployment ratesin Canada and the United States were at generational lows and worker shortageswere everywhere. As of May, those rates had spiked up to 13.3 per cent and 13.7per cent, and although many worker shortages had disappeared, not all had doneso. In the medical field, to take an obvious example, the pandemic meant thatthere were still clear shortages of doctors, nurses and other medicalpersonnel.

Of course, it is not like you can take an unemployedwaiter and train him to be a doctor in a few weeks, no matter who pays for it.But even if you cannot close that gap, maybe you can close others, and doing sowould be to the benefit of all concerned. That seems to be the case in Sweden,where the pandemic kick-started a retraining program where business as well asgovernment had a role.

Reskilling in this way would be challenging in aNorth American context. You can easily imagine a chorus of “you can’t do that,”because teachers or nurses or whoever have special skills, and using anysupport staff who has been quickly trained is bound to end in disaster. Maybe.Or maybe it is something that can work well in Sweden, with its history ofco-operation between business, labour and government, but not in North Americawhere our history is very different. Then again, maybe it is akin to wartime,when extraordinary things take place, but it is business as usual after thefact. And yet, as in war the pandemic is teaching us that many things,including rapid reskilling, can be done if there is a will to do them. In anycase, Sweden’s work force is now more skilled, in more things, and moreflexible than it was before.

Of course, reskilling programs, whether for pandemicneeds or the post-pandemic world, are expensive and at a time when everyone’sbudgets are lean this may not be the time to implement them. Then again,extending income support programs to get us through the next months isexpensive, too, to say nothing of the cost of having a swath of long-termunemployed in the post-COVID years. Given that, perhaps we should think hardabout whether the pandemic can jump-start us to a place where reskillingbecomes much more than a buzzword.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-is-now-the-time-for-a-reskilling-revolution/

21.Research by the World Economic Forum suggests?????????? .

A.an increase in full-time employment

B. an urgent demand for new job skills

C.a steady growth of job opportunities

D.a controversy about the “core skills”

22.AT&Tis cited to show?????????? .

A. an alternative to the fire-and-hirestrategy

B.animmediate need for government support

C.the importance of staff appraisal standards

D.thecharacteristics of reskilling program

23.Efforts to resolve the skills mismatch in Canada?????????? .

A.have driven up labour costs

B.have proved to be inconsistent

C.have met with fierce opposition

D. have appeared to be insufficient

24.We can learn from Paragraph 3 that there was?????????? .

A.a call for policy adjustment

B.a change in hiring practices

C. a lack of medical workers

D.a sign of economic recovery

25.ScandinavianAirlines decided to______.

A.Great job vacancies for the unemployed

B. Prepare their laid-off workers forother jobs

C.Retrain their cabin staff for better services

D.finance their staff' s college education

阅览了解 Text 2

With the global population predicted to hit close to10 billion by 2050, and forecasts that agricultural production in some regionswill need to nearly double to keep pace, food security is increasingly makingheadlines. In the UK, it has become a big talking point recently too, for arather particular reason: Brexit.

Brexit is seen by some as an opportunity to reverse arecent trend towards the UK importing food. The country produces only about 60percent of the food it eats, down from almost three-quarters in the late 1980s.A move back to self-sufficiency, the argument goes, would boost the farmingindustry, political sovereignty and even the nation's health. Sounds great -but how feasible is this vision?

According to a report on UK food production from theuniversity of Leeds, UK, 85 percent of the country's total land area is associatedwith meat and dairy production. That supplies 80 percent of what is consumed,so even covering the whole country in livestock farms wouldn't allow us tocover all our meat and dairy needs.

There are many caveats to those figures, but they arestill grave. To become much more self-sufficient, the UK would need todrastically reduce its consumption of animal foods, and probably also farm moreintensively - meaning fewer green fields, and more factory style production.

But switching to a mainly plant based diet wouldn'thelp. There is a good reason why the UK is dominated by animal husbandry: mostof it's terrain doesn't have the right soil or climate to grow crops on acommercial basis. Just 25 percent of the country's land is suitable forcrop-growing, most of which is already occupied by arable fields. Even if weconverted all the suitable land to fields of fruit and veg - which wouldinvolve taking out all the nature reserves and removing thousands of peoplefrom their homes - we would achieve only a 30 percent boost in crop production.

Just 23 percent of the fruit and vegetables consumedin the UK are currently home-grown, so even with the most extreme measures wecould meet only 30 percent of our fresh produce needs. That is before we lookfor the space to grow the grains, sugars, seeds and oils that provide us withthe vast bulk of our current calorie intake.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24432530-100-brexit-ideas-of-uk-food-self-sufficiency-are-just-pipe-dreams/

26.Some people argue that food self- sufficiency in the UK would

[A]be hindered by its population growth

[B]post a challenge to its farming industry

[C]become a priority of the government

[D] contribute to the nationswell-being

27.The report by the University of Leeds showed that in the UK_

[A]farmland has been inefficiently utilized

[B]factory style production needs reforming

[C] most land is used for meat anddairy production

[D]more green fields will be converted for farming

28.Crop-growing in the UK is restricted due to

[A]its farming technology

[B]its dietary tradition

[C] its natural conditions

[D]its commercial interests

29.It can be learned from the last paragraph that British people_

[A] rely largely on imports for freshproduce

[B]enjoy a steady rise in fruit consumption

[C]are seeking effective ways to cut calorie intake

[D]are trying to grow new varieties of grains

30.The author's attitude to food self-efficiency in the UK is_

[A]defensive

[B] doubtful

[C]tolerant

[D]optimistic

阅览了解 Text 3

When Microsoft bought task management app Wunderlistand mobile calendar Sunrise in 2015, it picked up two newcomers that wereattracting considerable buzz in Silicon Valley. Microsoft’s own Officedominates the market for “productivity” software, but the start-ups representeda new wave of technology designed from the ground up for the smartphone world.

Both apps, however, were later scrapped, afterMicrosoft said it had used their best features in its own products. Their teamsof engineers stayed on, making them two of the many “acqui-hires” that thebiggest companies have used to feed their insatiable hunger for tech talent.

To Microsoft’s critics, the fates of Wunderlist andSunrise are examples of a remorseless drive by Big Tech to chew up anyinnovative companies that lie in their path. “They bought the seedlings andclosed them down,” complained Paul Arnold, a partner at San Francisco-basedSwitch Ventures, putting paid to businesses that might one day turn intocompetitors. Microsoft declined to comment.

Like other start-up investors, Mr Arnold’s ownbusiness often depends on selling start-ups to larger tech companies, though headmits to mixed feelings about the result: “I think these things are good forme, if I put my selfish hat on. But are they good for the American economy? Idon’t know.”

The US Federal Trade Commission says it wants to findthe answer to that question. This week, it asked the five most valuable US techcompanies for information about their many small acquisitions over the pastdecade. Although only a research project at this stage, the request has raisedthe prospect of regulators wading into early-stage tech markets that until nowhave been beyond their reach.

Given their combined market value of more than$5.5tn, rifling through such small deals — many of them much less prominentthan Wunderlist and Sunrise — might seem beside the point. Between them, thefive companies (Apple, Microsoft, 谷歌, Amazon and Facebook) have spent anaverage of only $3.4bn a year on sub-$1bn acquisitions over the past five years— a drop in the ocean compared with their massive financial reserves, and themore than $130bn of venture capital that was invested in the US last year.

However, critics say that the big companies use suchdeals to buy their most threatening potential competitors before theirbusinesses have a chance to gain momentum, in some cases as part of a “buy andkill” tactic to simply close them down.

https://www.ft.com/content/39b5c3a8-4e1a-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5

31.What is true about Wuderlist and sunrise after their acquisitions?????????? .

A.Their market values declined

B.Their tech features improved

C. Their engineers were retained

D.Their products were re-priced

32.Microsoft’s critics believe that the big tech companiestend to?????????? .

A.ignore public opinions

B.treat new tech talent unfairly

C.exaggerate their product quality

D. eliminate their potentialcompetitors

33.Paul Arnold is concerned that small acquisitions might?????????? .

A. harm the national economy

B.worsen market competition

C.discourage start-up investors

D.weaken big tech companies

34.The US Federal Trade Commission intend to??????????.

A. examine small acquisitions

B.limit Big Tech' s expansion

C.supervise start-ups'operations

D.encourageresearch collaboration

35.For the five biggest tech companies, their small acquisition have?????????? .

A. brought little financial pressure

B.raised few management challenges

C.set an example for future deals

D. generated considerable profits

阅览了解 Text 4

We’re fairly good at judging people based on firstimpressions, thin slices of experience ranging from a glimpse of a photo to afive-minute interaction, and deliberation can be not only extraneous butintrusive. In one study of the ability she dubbed “thin slicing,” the latepsychologist Nalini Ambady asked participants to watch silent 10-second videoclips of professors and to rate the instructor’s overall effectiveness. Theirratings correlated strongly with students’ end-of-semester ratings. Another setof participants had to count backward from 1,000 by nines as they watched theclips, occupying their conscious working memory. Their ratings were just asaccurate, demonstrating the intuitive nature of the social processing.

Critically, another group was asked to spend a minutewriting down reasons for their judgment, before giving the rating. Accuracydropped dramatically. Ambady suspected that deliberation focused them on vividbut misleading cues, such as certain gestures or utterances, rather than lettingthe complex interplay of subtle signals form a holistic impression. She foundsimilar interference when participants watched 15-second clips of pairs ofpeople and judged whether they were strangers, friends, or dating partners.

Other research shows we’re better at detectingdeception and sexual orientation from thin slices when we rely on intuitioninstead of reflection. “It’s as if you’re driving a stick shift,” says JudithHall, a psychologist at Northeastern University, “and if you start thinking aboutit too much, you can’t remember what you’re doing. But if you go on automaticpilot, you’re fine. Much of our social life is like that.”

Thinking too much can also harm our ability to formpreferences. College students’ ratings of strawberry jams and college coursesaligned better with experts’ opinions when the students weren’t asked toanalyze their rationale. And people made car-buying decisions that were bothobjectively better and more personally satisfying when asked to focus on theirfeelings rather than on details, but only if the decision was complex—when theyhad a lot of information to process.

Intuition’s special powers are unleashed only incertain circumstances. In one study, participants completed a battery of eighttasks, including four that tapped reflective thinking (discerning rules,comprehending vocabulary) and four that tapped intuition and creativity(generating new products or figures of speech). Then they rated the degree towhich they had used intuition (“gut feelings,” “hunches,” “my heart”). Use oftheir gut hurt their performance on the first four tasks, as expected, andhelped them on the rest. Sometimes the heart is smarter than the head.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202112/8-truths-about-intuition

36. Nalini Ambady’sstudy deals with

A.instructor student interaction

B.the power of people’s memory

C. the reliability of first impressions

D.People's ability to influence others

37.In Ambaby 's study, rating accuracy dropped when participants?????????? .

A.gave the rating in limited time

B. focused on specific details

C.watched shorter video clips

D.discussedwith on another

38.Judith Hall mentions driving to mention that?????????? .

A.memory can be selective

B. reflection can be distracting

C.social skills must be cultivated

D.deception is difficult to detect

39.When you are making complex decisions, it is advisable to?????????? .

A. follow your feelings

B.list your preferences

C.seek expert advice

D.collect enough data

40.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A.Generating new products takes time

B. Intuition may affect reflectivetasks

C.Vocabulary comprehension needs creativity

D. Objective thinking may boost intuitiveness

新题型

How to Disagree with Someone more powerful than you.

Your boss proposes a new initiative you think won’twork. Your senior colleague outlines a project timeline you think is unrealistic.What do you say when you disagree with someone who has more power than you do?How do you decide whether it’s worth speaking up? And if you do, what exactlyshould you say? Here’s how to disagree with someone more powerful than you.

41. Decidewhether to wait

You may decide it’s best to hold off on voicing youropinion. Maybe you haven’t finished thinking the problem through, the wholediscussion was a surprise to you, or you want to get a clearer sense of whatthe group thinks. If you think other people are going to disagree too, youmight want to gather your army first. People can contribute experience orinformation to your thinking — all the things that would make the disagreementstronger or more valid. It’s also a good idea to delay the conversation if you’rein a meeting or other public space. Discussing the issue in private will makethe powerful person feel less threatened.

42. Identify ashared goal

Before you share your thoughts, think about what thepowerful person cares about — it may be the credibility of their team orgetting a project done on time. You’re more likely to be heard if you canconnect your disagreement to a “higher purpose.” When you do speak up, don’tassume the link will be clear. You’ll want to state it overtly, contextualizingyour statements so that you’re seen not as a disagreeable underling but as acolleague who’s trying to advance a shared goal. The discussion will thenbecome more like a chess game than a boxing match.

43. Askpermission to disagree

This step may sound overly deferential, but, it’s asmart way to give the powerful person “psychological safety” and control. Youcan say something like, “I know we seem to be moving toward a first-quartercommitment here. I have reasons to think that won’t work. I’d like to lay outmy reasoning. Would that be OK?” This gives the person a choice, allowing themto verbally opt in. And, assuming they say yes, it will make you feel moreconfident about voicing your disagreement.

44. Stay calm

You might feel your heart racing or your face turningred, but do whatever you can to remain neutral in both your words and actions.When your body language communicates reluctance or anxiety, it undercuts themessage. It sends a mixed message, and your counterpart gets to choose what toread. Deep breaths can help, as can speaking more slowly and deliberately. Whenwe feel panicky we tend to talk louder and faster. Simply slowing the pace andtalking in an even tone helps the other person calm down and does the same foryou. It also makes you seem confident, even if you aren’t.

45. Stayhumble

Emphasize that you’re offering your opinion, notgospel truth. It may be a well-informed, well-researched opinion, but it’sstill an opinion, my talk tentatively and slightly understate your confidence.”Instead of saying something like, “If we set an end-of-quarter deadline, we’llnever make it,” say, “This is just my opinion, but I don’t see how we will makethat deadline.” Having asserted your position (as a position, not as a fact),“demonstrate equal curiosity about other views,” Remind the person that this isyour point of view, and then invite critique. Be open to hearing otheropinions.

https://hbr.org/2016/03/how-to-disagree-with-someone-more-powerful-than-you

翻译：

We tend to think that friends and family members areour biggest sources of connection, laughter, and warmth. While that may well betrue, researchers have also recently found that interacting with strangersactually brings a boost in mood and feelings of belonging that we didn'texpect.

In one series of studies, researchers instructed Chicago-areacommuters using public transportation to strike up a conversation with someonenear them. On average, participants who followed this instruction felt betterthan those who had been told to stand or sit in silence. The researchers alsoargued that when we shy away from casual interactions with strangers, it isoften due to a misplaced anxiety that they might not want to talk to us. Muchof the time, however, this belief is false. As it turns out, many people areactually perfectly willing to talk—and may even be flattered to receive yourattention.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happy-trails/201604/why-you-should-talk-strangers

参阅答案：

咱们倾向于认为兄弟和家人是咱们联络、欢笑和温暖的最大来历。尽管这很可所以真的，但研讨人员迩来也发现，与陌生人交流实践上会带来咱们意想不到的心境和归属感的前进。

在咱们的一系列研讨中，研讨人员指示芝加哥区域运用公共交通东西的通勤者与邻近的人搭讪。均匀而言，承受辅导的参加者比那些被奉告要站着或恬静地坐着的参加者感触非常好。研讨人员还认为，当咱们躲避与陌生人的随意互动时，一般是因为一种错位的焦虑，他们可以不想与咱们攀谈。可是，太多时分，这种崇奉是差错的。实际证明，许多人实践上非常情愿攀谈，甚至可以会因为得到你的重视而感到宠爱若惊。