What is the single most effective way to reduce greenhouse﹣gas emissions？ Go vegetarian？ Replant the Amazon？ Cycle to work？ None of the above． The answer is： make air﹣conditioners radically better． On one calculation， replacing refrigerants（制冷剂） that damage the atmosphere would reduce total greenhouse gases by the equivalent of 90bn tons of CO2 by 2050． Making the units more energy﹣efficient could double that．
Air﹣conditioning is one of the world's great overlooked industries． Automobiles and air﹣conditioners were invented at roughly the same time， and both have had a huge impact on where people live and work．
Unlike cars， though， air﹣conditioners have drawn little criticism for their social impact， emissions or energy efficiency． Most hot countries do not have rules to govern their energy use．
Yet air﹣conditioning has done quite a lot of things to benefit humankind． It has transformed productivity in the tropics and helped turn southern China into the workshop of the world． In Europe，its spread has pushed down heat﹣related deaths ten times less than what it was in 2003， when around 70，000 people， most of them elderly， died in a heatwave． For children， air﹣conditioned classrooms and dormitories are associated with better grades at school．
Environmentalists who call air﹣conditioning "a luxury we cannot afford" have half a point， however．
In the next ten years， as many air﹣conditioners will be installed around the world as were put in between 1902（when air﹣conditioning was invented）and 2005． Until energy can be produced without carbon emissions， these extra machines will warm the world． At the moment， therefore， air﹣conditioners create a vicious cycle． The more the Earth warms， the more people need them． But the more there are， the warmer the world will be．
Cutting the impact of cooling requires three things（beyond turning up the thermostat（温度调节器）to make rooms less Arctic）． First， air﹣conditioners must become much more efficient． The most energy﹣efficient models on the market today consume only about one﹣third as much electricity as average ones．
Minimum energy﹣performance standards need to be raised，or introduced in countries that lack them altogether， to push the average unit's performance closer to the standard of the best．
Next，manufactures should stop using damaging refrigerants．One category of these，hydrofluorocarbons， is over 1，000 times worse than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere． An international deal to phase out these pollutants， called the Kigali amendment， will come into force in 2019． Foot﹣draggers should approve and implement it；America is one country that has not done so．
Last， more could be done to design offices， malls and even cities so they do not need as many air﹣ conditioners in the first place． More buildings should be built with overhanging roofs or balconies for shade，or with natural air﹣circulation． Simply painting roofs white can help keep temperatures down．
Better machines are necessary． But cooling as an overall system needs to be improved if air﹣conditioners is to fulfill its promise to make people healthier，wealthier and wiser， without too high an environmental cost． Providing indoor shelters of air﹣conditioned comfort need not come at the expense of an overheating world．
1.Why does the author think air﹣conditioning is an overlooked industry？
A. Because many hot countries haven't put the energy﹣controlling rules into force．
B. Because it has caused the same impact on people's life and work as automobiles have．
C. Because it has brought great economic， physical， and educational benefits to humans．
D. Because it doesn't get the due criticism for its environmental impact as automobiles do．
2.What can we learn from Paragraph 4？
A. The price of air﹣conditioning will go up due to the large demand for it．
B. A high environmental cost will come along with the air﹣conditioning service．
C. Environmentalists are expecting extra machines which can warm the world．
D. Governments partially agree that air﹣conditioning is a luxury we cannot afford．
3.With regard to the measures to cut the impact of cooling， which of the following statements is TRUE？
A. Manufacturers should only stop using hydrofluorocarbons．
B. People should avoid turning up the air﹣conditioners to have cool rooms on hot days．
C. People should adopt more environmentally﹣friendly materials when designing buildings．
D. Governments should give a green light to the agreement on eliminating the pollutants．
4.The author writes this passage to ．
A. arouse people's attention to the global warming
B. appeal for the global joint efforts to combat global warming
C. give credit to air﹣conditioning for its great contributions to humans
D. offer a new perspective on how to reduce greenhouse gases emissions
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Public distrust of scientists stems in part from the blurring of boundaries between science and technology, between discovery and manufacture. Most governments, perhaps all governments, justify public expenditure on scientific research in terms of the economic benefits the scientific enterprise has brought in the past and will bring in the future. Politicians remind their voters of the splendid machines “our scientists” have invented, the new drugs to relieve old disorders, and the new surgical equipment and techniques by which previously unmanageable conditions may now be treated and lives saved. At the same time, the politicians demand of scientists that they tailor their research to “economics needs”, and that they award a higher priority to research proposals that are “near the market” and can be translated into the greatest return on investment in the shortest time. Dependent, as they are, on politicians for much of their funding, scientists have little choice but to comply. Like the rest of us, they are members of a society that rates the creation of wealth as the greatest possible good. Many have reservations, but keep them to themselves in what they perceive as a climate hostile to the pursuit of understanding for its own sake and the idea of an inquiring, creative spirit.
In such circumstances no one should be too hard on people who are suspicious of conflicts of interest. When we learn that the distinguished professor assuring us of the safety of a particular product holds a consultancy with the company making it, we cannot be blamed for wondering whether his fee might conceivably cloud his professional judgment. Even if the professor holds no consultancy with any firm, some people may still distrust him because of his association with those who do, or at least wonder about the source of some of his research funding.
This attitude can have damaging effects. It questions the integrity of individuals working in a profession that prizes intellectual honesty as the supreme virtue, and plays into the hands of those who would like to discredit scientists by representing them as corruptible. This makes it easier to dismiss all scientific pronouncements, but especially those made by the scientists who present themselves as “experts”. The scientist most likely to understand the safety of a nuclear reactor, for example, is a nuclear engineer, and a nuclear engineer is most likely to be employed by the nuclear industry. If a nuclear engineer declares that a reactor is unsafe, we believe him, because clearly it is not to his advantage to lie about it. If he tells us it is safe, on the other hand, we distrust him, because he may well be protecting the employer who pays his salary.
1.What is the chief concern of most governments when it comes to scientific research?
A. The reduction of public expenditure. B. Quick economic returns.
C. The budget for a research project. D. Support from the voters.
2.Why won’t scientists complain about the government’s policy concerning scientific research?
A. They know it takes patience to win support from the public.
B. They realize they work in an environment hostile to the free pursuit of knowledge.
C. They think compliance with government policy is in the interests of the public.
D. They are accustomed to keeping their opinions to themselves.
3.According to the author, people are suspicious of the professional judgment of scientists because ______.
A. some of them do not give priority to intellectual honesty
B. sometimes they hide the source of their research funding
C. they could be influenced by their association with the project concerned
D. their pronouncements often turn out to be wrong
4.Why does the author say that public distrust of scientists can have damaging effects?
A. Scientists themselves may doubt the value of their research findings.
B. People will not believe scientists even when they tell the truth.
C. It makes things difficult for scientists to seek research funds.
D. It may wear out the enthusiasm of scientists for independent research.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Discoveries in science and technology are thought by “untaught minds” to come in blinding flashes or as the result of dramatic accidents. Sir Alexander Fleming did not, as legend would have it, look at the mold (霉) on a piece of cheese and get the idea for penicillin there and then. He experimented with antibacterial substances for nine years before he made his discovery. Inventions and innovations almost always come out of tough trial and error. Innovation is like soccer; even the best players miss the goal and have their shots blocked much more frequently than they score.
The point is that the players who score most are the ones who take most shots at the goal—and so it goes with innovation in any field of activity. The prime difference between innovation and others is one of approach. Everybody gets ideas, but innovators work consciously on theirs, and they follow them through until they prove practicable or otherwise. What ordinary people see as fanciful abstractions, professional innovators see as solid possibilities.
“Creative thinking may mean simply the realization that there’s no particular goodness in doing things the way they have always been done.” Wrote Rudolph Flesch, a language authority. This accounts for our reaction to seemingly simple innovations like plastic garbage bags and suitcases on wheels that make life more convenient: “How come nobody thought of that before?”
The creative approach begins with the proposal that nothing be as it appears. Innovators will not accept that there is only one way to do anything. Faced with getting from A to B, the average person will automatically set out on the best-known and apparently simplest route. The innovator will search for alternate courses, which may prove easier in the long run and are sure to be more interesting and challenging even if they lead to dead ends. Highly creative individuals really do march to a different drummer.
1.What does the author probably mean by “untaught mind” in the first paragraph?
A. An individual who often comes up with new ideas by accident.
B. A person who has had no education.
C. A citizen of a society that restricts personal creativity.
D. A person ignorant of the hard work involved in experimentation.
2.According to the author, what differs innovators from non-innovators?
A. The way they present their findings. B. The way they deal with problems.
C. The intelligence they possess. D. The variety of ideas they have.
3.The phrase “march to a different drummer” (the last line of the passage) suggests that highly creative individuals are ________.
A. unwilling to follow common ways of doing things
B. diligent in pursuing their goals
C. concerned about the advance of society
D. devoted to the progress of science
4.The most suitable title for this passage might be ________.
A. The Relation Between Creation and Diligence
B. To Be a Creative Expert in the Study of Human Creativity
C. What Are So Special about Creative Individuals
D. Discoveries and Innovation
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say “I will take an interest in this or that.” Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do.
Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death and those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual labourer, tired out with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or business man, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend. As for the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can gratify every caprice and lay their hands on almost every object of desire — for them a new pleasure, a new excitement is only an additional satiation. In vain they rush frantically round from place to place, trying to escape from the avenging boredom by mere clatter and motion. For them discipline in one form or another is the most hopeful path.
It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But Fortune’s favoured children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their mind.
1.What does “are toiled” in the 2nd paragraph mean?
A. have hobbies B. feel pleased
C. work very hard D. are busy
2.Which is NOT true based on the first two paragraphs?
A. Being late in life to attempt to cultivate hobbies adds to mental stress.
B. Great knowledge irrelevant to the daily work can’t guarantee benefit.
C. Those tired out for a week’s labour are reluctant to play football on weekends.
D. Unfortunate people need discipline to help them build up hope.
3.For those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure, they ______.
A. are very willing to work long hours in the office or the factory
B. earn a large amount of money due to their hard work for a long time
C. are keen to enjoy the pleasure when they are off duty
D. usually enjoy themselves in the simplest and most modest forms
4.Which statement will the author agree with according to the 3rd paragraph?
A. The first class are lazy and the second class are bound to succeed.
B. The second class never need holidays because their life is harmonious.
C. The minority are more favoured by fortune because they never stop working.
D. One really needs alternation for a change in order to work better.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Ladies and gentlemen,
I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work - a life's work in the agony（痛苦） and sweat of the human spirit. But I would like to use this moment as a climax from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same agony and sweat, among whom is already that one who will someday stand here where I am standing.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.
He, the writer, must learn them again. He must teach himself that the worst of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is short-lived and doomed - love and honor and pity and pride and sympathy and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse（诅咒）. He writes not of love but of desire, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or sympathy. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands（腺体）.
Until he relearns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of sympathy and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and sympathy and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
1.The word “that” in the 2nd paragraph probably means ______.
A. the agony and sweat of the human spirit
B. the general and universal physical fear
C. the sustenance and endurance for a long time
D. the human heart in conflict with itself
2.According to the speaker, the old truths of the heart are so important that ______.
A. they are love, honor, pity, pride, sympathy and sacrifice
B. they prolong a writer’s life and protect him from curses
C. they are the soul of a real and powerful piece of writing
D. they can effectively stop the trend towards the end of man
3.How can poets / writers help man endure and prevail?
A. By inspiring man with his past glories through words.
B. By helping man endure the end through endless voices.
C. By recording sympathy, sacrifice and endurance in his soul.
D. By building spiritual pillars through immortal hearts.
4.The speaker may probably agree that ______.
A. the award was not fair because his life was too painful
B. young writers now are too fearful to bear the agony and sweat
C. the biggest obstacle to good writing is the writer’s fear
D. writing about man’s soul signals his final prevalence
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
By now you’ve probably heard about the “you’re not special” speech, when English teacher David McCullough told graduating seniors at Wellesley High School: “Do not get the idea you’re anything special, because you’re not.” Mothers and fathers present at the ceremony — and a whole lot of other parents across the Internet — took issue with McCullough’s ego-puncturing words. But lost in the uproar was something we really should be taking to heart: our young people actually have no idea whether they’re particularly talented or accomplished or not. In our eagerness to elevate their self-esteem, we forgot to teach them how to realistically assess their own abilities, a crucial requirement for getting better at anything from math to music to sports. In fact, it’s not just privileged high-school students: we all tend to view ourselves as above average.
Such inflated self-judgments have been found in study after study, and it’s often exactly when we’re least competent at a given task that we rate our performance most generously. In a 2006 study published in the journal Medical Education, for example, medical students who scored the lowest on an essay test were the most charitable in their self-evaluations, while high-scoring students judged themselves much more stringently. Poor students, the authors note, “lack insight” into their own inadequacy. Why should this be? Another study, led by Cornell University psychologist David Dunning, offers an enlightening explanation. People who are incompetent, he writes with coauthor Justin Kruger, suffer from a “dual burden”: they’re not good at what they do, and their very ineptness prevents them from recognizing how bad they are.
In Dunning and Kruger’s study, subjects scoring at the bottom of the heap on tests of logic, grammar and humor “extremely overestimated” their talents. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they guessed they were in the 62nd. What these individuals lacked (in addition to clear logic, proper grammar and a sense of humor) was “metacognitive skill”: the capacity to monitor how well they’re performing. In the absence of that capacity, the subjects arrived at an overly hopeful view of their own abilities. There’s a paradox here, the authors note: “The skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain.” In other words, to get better at judging how well we’re doing at an activity, we have to get better at the activity itself.
There are a couple of ways out of this double bind. First, we can learn to make honest comparisons with others. Train yourself to recognize excellence, even when you yourself don’t possess it, and compare what you can do against what truly excellent individuals are able to accomplish. Second, seek out feedback that is frequent, accurate and specific. Find a critic who will tell you not only how poorly you’re doing, but just what it is that you’re doing wrong. As Dunning and Kruger note, success indicates to us that everything went right, but failure is more ambiguous: any number of things could have gone wrong. Use this external feedback to figure out exactly where and when you screwed up.
If we adopt these strategies — and most importantly, teach them to our children — they won’t need parents, or a commencement（毕业典礼） speaker, to tell them that they’re special. They’ll already know that they are, or have a plan to get that way.
1.Which can be the best title of this passage?
A. Special or Not? Teach Kids To Figure It Out
B. Let's Admit That We Are Not That Special
C. Tips On Making Ourselves More Special
D. Tell The Truth: Kids Overestimate their Talents
2.The author thinks the real problem is that ______.
A. we don't know whether our young people are talented or not
B. young people don't know how to assess their abilities realistically
C. no requirement is set up for young people to get better
D. we always tend to consider ourselves to be privileged
3.Which is NOT mentioned about poor students according to the passage?
A. They usually give themselves high scores in self-evaluations.
B. They tend to be unable to know exactly how bad they are.
C. They are intelligently inadequate in tests and exams.
D. They lack the capacity to monitor how well they are performing.
4.We can infer from the passage that those high-scoring students ______.
A. know how to cultivate clear logic and proper grammar
B. don't know how well they perform due to their stringent self-judgement
C. don't view themselves as competent because they know their limits
D. tend to be very competent in their high-scoring fields.
5.The strategies of becoming special suggest that ______.
A. we need internal honesty with ourselves and external honesty from others
B. the best way to get better is to carefully study past success and failure
C. through comparison with others, one will know where and when he fails
D. neither parents nor a commencement speaker can tell whether one is special
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Traditional surgical procedures require surgeons to make large incisions(伤口) in a patient’s body in order to gain access to the internal organs. It was once common for heart surgeons, who perform highly specialized and complex procedures, to make long incisions in a patient’s chest and then split the breastbone to reach the heart. Patients who undergo surgery are often at the risk of infection, as bacteria can infect the cut in the skin. In addition, there is often a lengthy recovery period.
A surgical technique known as “keyhole surgery” has become more common in recent years. In general, the surgeon will make a couple of small incisions around the area where the operation is going to be performed. Tubes are pushed into the holes, and a tiny camera, which is called an endoscope, is put into the body. The camera is attached to a large monitor screen that is positioned so that the doctor can see it while he performs the operation. In addition to the camera, doctors also push their tiny surgical instruments through the tubes. The awkward part of keyhole surgery is that it is counterintuitive; that is to say, if a surgeon wants to move the tool to the left, he or she must push it to the right.
Other advancements in technology are also being used today in the OR (operation room). A new machine called the “da Vinci Surgical System” has been tested in hospitals in the U.S.. Unlike keyhole surgery, the da Vinci’s robot’s moving parts are designed to imitate the natural hand and wrist movement of a surgeon, thus providing better control and sensitivity. The system is controlled by a surgeon from a console(控制台). Sitting at a console a few feet from the patient, the surgeon can perform an operation by holding and moving highly sensitive pads that enable him or her to control the instruments. The area of the body on which the surgeon is working is enlarged on a screen, which is attached to the console. This gives surgeons a realistic three-dimensional view of the area — similar to what they would see during a traditional surgical procedure.
Although the da Vinci Surgical System is undergoing some trials for some procedures, it has been welcomed as revolutionary by many surgeons. Patients with serious illnesses must still undergo major surgery, but the smaller incisions and less invasive procedures typically mean that a shorter recovery time is needed. In some cases, the patient’s stay in the hospital has been cut in half when the da Vinci Surgical System was used. On the downside, some operations have taken up to fifty minutes longer because surgeons are inexperienced at using the new technology. As surgeons become more familiar with the machines, the time needed for surgical procedures is likely to decrease.
1.What can be learned about the traditional surgery according to the passage?
A. The cost of the traditional surgery is very high.
B. It often leaves a large wound in a person’s body.
C. Long incisions are made in a patient’s chest.
D. The incision is often infected after the operation.
2.Which of the following is one DISADVANTAGE of keyhole surgery?
A. It requires the use of long, thin tools and a tiny camera.
B. The doctor can not view the inside of the patient’s body clearly.
C. The direction in which a doctor moves the surgical tools is reversed.
D. An endoscope has to be inserted into the patient’s body in advance.
3.The da Vinci Surgical System differs from keyhole surgery in that _______.
A. requires that a surgeon make more small incisions on a patient
B. reduces the amount of time it takes to perform a surgical procedure
C. allows the surgeon to use the surgical instruments more sensitively
D. eliminates the need for surgeons to make large incisions on patients
4.The passage mainly tells the reader ________.
A. the challenges brought about by new technology
B. the benefits and drawbacks of the da Vinci Surgical System
C. the reflections on the development in medical science
D. the application of new technologies in modern surgery
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The study of psychology is facing a crisis. The Research Excellence Framework(the Ref) has led to a research culture which is holding back attempts to stabilize psychology in particular, and science in general. The Ref encourages universities to push for groundbreaking, novel, and exciting research in the form of 4* papers, but it does not reward the efforts of those who replicate(复制) studies.
The point of replicating a study is to test whether a statistically significant result will appear again if the experiment is repeated. Of course, a similar result may not appear – casting into question the validity(有效性) of the results from the first experiment.
Last year, the Open Science Collaboration attempted to replicate 100 studies from highly ranked psychological journals. While 97% of the original studies had a statistically significant result, just 36% of the replications had the same outcome. Equally worrying: when an effect did appear, it was often much smaller than previously thought.
Recent data calls into question some widely influential findings in psychological science. These problems are not confined to psychology however – many findings published in scientific literature may actually be false.
Science is supposed to be self-correcting and reproducibility is a cornerstone of the scientific method. Yet, we simply aren’t invested in replicating findings. We all want to be good researchers and understand more about how the world works. So why are we so reluctant to check our conclusions are valid?
Because no incentive is provided by the system we carry out our research in. In the UK, the Ref ranks the published works of researchers according to their originality (how innovative is the research?), significance (does it have practical or commercial importance?), and rigour (is the research technically right?). Outputs are then awarded one to four stars. 4* papers are considered world-leading. The cumulative total of 3* and 4* papers determines research funding allocation and has a knock-on effect on institutional position in league tables(排名表) and therefore attractiveness to students. Obviously, the more publications the better.
Worryingly, many academics admit to engaging in at least one questionable research practice in order to achieve publication. Examples of this include: coming up with a theory after data is collected, stopping collecting data when an effect appears in case it disappears later, or only reporting the significant effects from collected data. Others simply fabricate data – Dutch psychologist Diederik Stapel shockingly falsified data from more than 50 studies.
The Ref completely harms our efforts to produce a reliable body of knowledge. Why? The focus on originality – publications exploring new areas of research using new paradigms, and avoiding testing well-established theories – is the exact opposite of what science needs to be doing to solve the troubling replication crisis. According to Ref standards, replicating an already published piece of work is simply uninteresting.
With the next Ref just four years away, many researchers are effectively faced with a choice: be a good scientist, or be a successful academic who gets funding and a promotion.
1.What crisis is the study of psychology facing?
A. The Ref has led to a revolution in not-only psychology but also science.
B. The universities are encouraged to generate more groundbreaking research.
C. The Ref tends to set up a different standard of replications of studies.
D. The Ref’s indifference to replications of studies has led to worrying effects.
2.The Ref’s focus on originality has brought about _______.
A. a reliable body of knowledge
B. publications exploring new areas
C. tests of well- established theories
D. uninteresting replications of studies
3.We can infer from the passage that the Ref _______.
A. is a system for assessing the quality of research in UK universities
B. provides UK researchers with funding and job opportunities
C. recognizes researchers’ work and adds to their attractiveness to students
D. is planning to change its standard before the next Ref submission
4.What does the writer mean by saying “be a good scientist”?
A. Contribute to the solution to the replication crisis.
B. Reform the standards that have been set up by the Ref.
C. Give up possible funding and promotion given by universities.
D. Avoid using false research practices to test old theories.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Social norms of right and wrong are vital to a well-functioning society. However, such moral standards are changeable and the psychological mechanisms(机制) driving this change are unknown. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institute report that our view of selfish and unselfish behaviors changes depending on how common they are.
The results are based on a combination of behavioral experiments, mathematical models and computer simulations. In the experiments, the participants first observed other people's behavior in a so-called "public goods game," in which players receive a sum of money and then choose either to invest it to varying degrees so that it benefits everyone in the group, or to keep it for themselves. After every round, the participants were asked to judge the different choices as morally right or wrong, and whether the choices ought to be punished with a reduction in how much the players gained.
Unselfish behavior was considered more morally right than selfish, but both behaviors were judged to be more moral and less deserving of punishment if the majority exhibited them than if they were uncommon. The commonness of the selfish behavior also affected the participants' willingness to themselves pay to punish selfishness.
"Tolerance of selfish behavior increased when the majority of the players kept the money for themselves, which surprised me," says principal investigator Andreas Olsson, senior lecturer at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Clinical Neuroscience. "The fact that a behavior is common doesn't automatically mean that it's right -- this idea is based on faulty logic that confuses facts with moral values."
The study shows our view of what is morally right and wrong has strong similarities with social conformity, in that we tend to adapt ourselves to the people around us and how they behave. This means that changes in our social environment can quickly alter our moral compass.
"This is interesting from several angles, and could explain why moral attitudes change over time, such as those towards public goods or legality," says Björn Lindström, postdoc at University of Zürich and Karolinska Institutet's Department of Clinical Neuroscience.
1.According to Andreas Olsson’s analysis, if people accept selfish behavior, they actually________.
A. get facts and moral values mixed up B. misunderstand social mechanisms
C. follow the logic of their own D. consider it correct and reasonable
2.It can be concluded that the participants in the experiments are punished if _________.
A. they can’t play "public goods game"
B. invest the money to benefit group members
C. they behave differently from the majority
D. they keep the money for themselves
3.According to the passage, what is morally right or wrong is shaped by the following Except________.
A. the way people around us behave
B. changes in our social environment
C. personal standards of values and attitudes
D. how widespread a particular behavior is
4.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A. The psychological mechanisms behind attitude change
B. Behavior is considered more moral the more common it is
C. Our view of selfish and unselfish behaviors
D. Moral standards of selfish and unselfish behaviors
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The power and ambition of the giants of the digital economy is astonishing —Amazon has just announced the purchase of the upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.5bn, but two years ago Facebook paid even more than that to acquire the WhatsApp messaging service, which doesn’t have any physical product at all. What WhatsApp offered Facebook was an intricate and finely detailed web of its users’ friendships and social lives.
Facebook promised the European commission then that it would not link phone numbers to Facebook identities, but it broke the promise almost as soon as the deal went through. Even without knowing what was in the messages, the knowledge of who sent them and to whom was enormously revealing and still could be. What political journalist, what party whip, would not want to know the makeup of the WhatsApp groups in which Theresa May’s enemies are currently plotting? It may be that the value of Whole Foods to Amazon is not so much the 460 shops of owns, but the records of which customers have purchased what.
Competition law appears to be the only way to address these imbalances of power. But it is clumsy. For one thing, it is very slow compared to the pace of change within the digital economy. By the time a problem has been addressed and remedied it may have vanished in the marketplace, to be replaced by new abuses of power. But there is a deeper conceptual problem, too. Competition law as presently interpreted deals with financial disadvantage to consumers and this is not obvious when the users of these services don’t pay for them. The users of their services are not their customers. That would be the people who buy advertising from them — and Facebook and Google, the two virtual giants, dominate digital advertising to the disadvantage of all other media and entertainment companies.
The product they’re selling is data, and we, the users, convert our lives to data for the benefit of the digital giants. Just as some ants farm the bugs called aphids for the honeydew they produce when they feed, so Google farms us for the data that our digital liver yield. Ants keep enemy insects away from where their aphids(蚜虫) feed; Gmail keeps the spammers out of our inboxes. It doesn't feel like a human or democratic relationship, even if both sides benefit.
1.According to Paragraph1，Facebook acquired WhatsApp for its________.
A. digital products B. user information
C. physical assets D. quality service
2.Linking phone numbers to Facebook identities may________.
A. worsen political disputes B. mess up customer records
C. pose a risk to Facebook users D. mislead the European commission
3.Competition law as presently interpreted can hardly protect Facebook users because________.
A. they are no defined as customers B. they are not financially reliable
C. these services are generally digital D. the services are paid for by advertisers
4.The ants analogy is used to illustrate_________.
A. a win-win business model between digital giants
B. a typical competition pattern among digital giants
C. the benefits provided for digital giants' customers
D. the relationship between digital giants and their users
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
People are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Purchasing property that is environmentally responsible is a good investment for those who are concerned about their own health and the well-being of the earth. Based on this trend, entire districts, known as eco-communities, are being designed with a green focus in mind. Dockside Green in Victoria, British Columbia is one of them.
If everything goes according to plan, Dockside Green will be a self-sufficient community along the harbour front of British Columbia's capital city. The community will be home to 2500 people will consist of residential, office, and retail space. Builders of Dockside Green have the environment in mind with every choice they make. They ensure proper ventilation(通风), and guarantee residents 100% fresh indoor air. Building materials, such as paints and wood, are natural and non-poisonous. Eco-conscious builders use bamboo wherever possible because it grows fast and does not require pesticides(杀虫剂) to grow.
Energy efficiency is one of the top concerns in eco-communities, such as Dockside Green. Not only do energy efficient appliances and light fixtures(照明设备) reduce the environmental impact of heating and hot water, they also save residents and business owners money. Dockside Green claims that home owners will use 55% less energy than average residents in Canada. Residents will have individual water metres as studies show that people use around 20% less energy when they are billed for exactly what they use. In addition, water is treated at Dockside Green and reused on site for flushing(冲洗) toilets.
Planners of eco-communities such as Dockside Green must take the future into account. Dockside Green plans on reusing 90% of its construction waste. They also plan to continue using local suppliers for all of their transport and maintenance needs. This is a great way to reduce emissions(排放).
Dockside residents will be encouraged to make use of a mini transportation system and buy into the community's car share program. Finally, plans are in the works for a high-tech heating system that will use renewable energy instead of fossil fuels (化石燃料).
Dockside residents will benefit from excellent local services with high quality healthcare, shopping and education at the heart of the community, along with excellent recreation facilities and plentiful green open spaces. The Eco-Community will favour the use of locally-sourced goods and services; they will be desirable places to live, promoting a tangible(看得见的) sense of civic pride, responsibility and, as the name suggests, community.
1.Which of the following is TRUE about Dockside Green according to the passage?
A. It is an environmental charity aiming at reducing carbon footprint.
B. It is a self sufficient community with a population of 2500 people.
C. It is being built along the harbor front that is threatened by pollution.
D. It emphasizes the importance of green energy and energy efficiency.
2.Bamboo is a favorable choice for builders because it _________.
A. provides good air circulation B. keeps pets outside the house
C. grows quickly and easily D. does not produce any waste
3.Which is NOT one of the issues Dockside Green hope to address in the future?
A. Convincing local factories not to pollute the air.
B. Creating an alternative to fossil fuels heating.
C. Having people pay for individual household usage.
D. Promoting the car share program to the residents.
4.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. Ways to Reduce Carbon Footprint B. Green Energy: New Trends in Canada
C. Eco-Communities: Dockside Green D. Wise Investment in Eco-Communities
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
If a girl in a poor country goes to school, she will probably have a more comfortable life than if she stays at home. She will be less likely to marry while still a child, and therefore less likely to die in childbirth. So, not surprisingly, there is an Indian charity that tries to get girls into school and ensure they learn something, and there are Western philanthropists willing to pay for its work. What is noteworthy is how they have gone about this transaction.
On July 13th the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, presents the results of the world's first large development-impact bond, which paid for girls' education in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.
In this novel way of funding charitable work, a financial institution gives money to a charity, which tries to achieve various specified outcomes.
If a neutral arbiter rules that it has succeeded, a donor or philanthropist repays the investor, plus a bonus. If it fails, the investor loses some or all of its money. This is more convoluted than the usual way of funding charitable projects, in which a donor gives money to a charity, which spends it according to a pre-agreed plan. The donor tries to ensure the money is not wasted by keeping track of inputs-the number of solar panels installed or vaccinations given, say. Often, no one knows whether the intervention did much good.
In this case, the more complicated approach did achieve something. Educate Girls, the charity, identified 837 out-of-school girls aged 7-14 in the villages where it was active, and enrolled 768 of them. By using volunteers to teach both boys and girls in village schools for a few hours a week, it managed to raise test scores substantially relative to a control group.
So the investor, UBS Optimus Foundation, will be repaid by the Children's Investment Fund Foundation. For Safeena Husain, who runs Educate Girls, the process was satisfying as the results.
Instead of having to send tedious reports to a donor about how she was spending money, she concentrated on solving problems. Educate Girls found, for example, that many pupils could not do long division because they did not understand the concept of place value. So its workers gave additional classes. ID insight，the independent assessor, found that the main boost to children test stones came in the third year of the programmer, when Educate Girls hit its stride. It would be good if development -impact bonds teach donors to focus on outcomes.
Creating the development-impact bond was also complicated and time-consuming. Staff from several organisations spent months pinning down what Educate Girls would aim to achieve, how progress would be measured and what would be repaid. Outside experts were drafted in. The randomised controlled trial that IDinsight used to assess the teaching was, like many such trials, neither simple nor cheap. More development-impact bonds are now under way or under discussion, some involving big donors like the World Bank, USAID and DfID (America's and Britain's aid agencies). But they will probably remain infrequent oddities in the aid landscape.
1.The author writes this passage in order to __________.
A. urge the public to be aware of the need to help
B. attract more investors to newly-started researchers
C. Introduce a different approach to helping the poor
D. explain the reason for the popularity of a new project.
2.Which of the following statements about the new practice of charity is TRUE?
A. It favors results over process
B. The donor keep tracks of inputs
C. A neutral assessor will be paid
D. The money is spent based on a pre-agreed plan.
3.Concerning the development-impact bond, what can be inferred from the passage?
A. It will be popular in the near future
B. It has achieved great success in India
C. It is very effective since it saves time and trouble
D. It is very costly to carry out the development -impact bond
4.What is the attitude of the author towards the development -impact bond？
A. Doubtful B. Neutral
C. Positive D. Negative
难度: 中等查看答案及解析