英国《金融时报》
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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集（二）
英国《金融时报》 出品

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目　录

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.11

中国对美国进口血浆的需求日益增长

恐怖袭击的前世今生

用意大利菜偷走法国人的胃

留欧之路尚存一线生机

单身潮重塑中国餐饮业

中国“奶奶黑帮”获刑

内马尔转会背后的“人口贩卖”模式

“默克尔奶奶”深受德国年轻人欢迎

为什么Facebook应该给我们发钱？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.12

东京的俄罗斯女仆咖啡厅

中国游客海外“买买买”兴趣渐失

被科技行业遗忘的老员工

长寿的高昂代价

肥胖——生命中不能承受之重

我们需要多少种裸色？

智能电击手环——剁手党克星？

阿玛尼的新烦恼

抵制还是不抵制，这是一个问题

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.13

我们的领导人怎么了？

Lucinda Chambers与被炒鱿鱼的艺术

在极地的冰雪中，我找到了梦想中的工作

时尚和普通人无关吗？

如何穿得像个领导人？

马克龙：一位与特朗普打交道的大师

那天，我们一家成了法国人

从巴士到眼镜：非科技类初创公司走红硅谷

如何面对失去手机的危机？

脱欧之后，鱼该怎么办？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.14

硅谷员工餐厅中的珍馐美味

重出江湖的诺基亚经典手机能否再现辉煌？

黄瓜，想说爱你不容易

为何当今的欧洲不会出现特朗普？

为什么政府需要“电脑狂人”？

“第三只手”频频作祟，共享单车公司如何应对？

特蕾莎•梅与马克龙的英法“双国记”

大有来头的“川普式握手”？

“共享经济”不应是人类的未来

“行万里路”的品格塑造都是扯

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.15

为了房租，拼了！

人们越来越不喜欢喝酒了？

在中国，肥胖不再是富贵病

毕业生的工资又变少了？

世界银行的“语言战争”

“文化精英”有什么错？

传真机的乐趣

NASA的“逐日”计划

如何培养员工的凝聚力？

气候变化会给我们造成多大影响？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.16

外卖小哥的健康是件大事？

如何从“Smart casual”着装风格中拯救自己？

VPN使用指南

被未来拒之门外的千禧一代

iPhone的“商业”成功

医生才是社会地位最高的人？

怎样让“父母双忙”的孩子茁壮成长？

新时代送礼准则

聊天软件如何改变工作方式？

线上直播——网络时代的新型隐患？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.17

父母的年龄影响孩子的健康？

将你打倒的“踌躇满志”？

“天资”的现代定义

用人工智能“私人订制”的新闻，靠谱吗？

液体午餐成为现实？

你有多久没好好说过“再见”了？

给家长的开学“妙方”

怎样让黑客为你服务？

现代垄断将为竞争下新定义

牛油果如何走红？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.18

如何让信息革命造福每个人？

男女码农收入差多少？

如何读懂CEO的“言外之意”？

“大材小用”可能会更好

约会应该吃什么？

BBC能办好艺术节吗？

“她”真的不如“他”果断吗？

线上宣传：OUT！？

未来谁是职场抢手人才

向假新闻开战，你准备好了吗？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.19

招聘启事的秘密

人们眼中的女性难道只有“美腿”吗？

外派：女性晋升的捷径 ？

“川普医保”：美国人的灾难？

你们共享婚姻，但你们共享财富秘密吗？

家庭智能：科技的进步=人类的倒退？

儿童肥胖，巧克力要背锅？

一天“十苹果”，疾病远离我？

IPO市场萎靡，伦敦还好吗？

有多少中国人愿意为内容付费？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.20

外国房价上涨，中国买房团的锅？

中国纸尿裤企业的未来在何方？

拿什么拯救中国的医疗应用？

黑客入侵还有好处？

英国企业没了外国人能行吗？

自动驾驶汽车将如何改变我们的生活？

压力之下，谷歌：我们改！

饮食app真的有用吗？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集
Vol.11

中国对美国进口血浆的需求日益增长

中国是肝病大国，世卫组织的数据表明每13个中国人中就有一人受到慢性肝炎的困扰。但受到上世纪河南艾滋病事件、以及种种市井流言的影响，很少有人愿意献血。血浆的缺乏为肝病的治疗带来了困扰。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

protein蛋白质的['prəʊtiːn]

stigma耻辱，污名['stɪɡmə]

plasma血浆['plæzmə]

chronic长期的，慢性的['krɒnɪk]

hepatitis肝炎[ˌhepə'taɪtɪs]

elixir长生不老药[ɪ'lɪksə(r)]

undercut廉价出售[ˌʌndər'kʌt]

coax哄，诱骗[kəʊks]

pharmaceutical药物的[ˌfɑːrmə'suːtɪkl]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分59秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分54秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分47秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分58秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

China liver problems boost demand for US blood plasma（587 words）

By Tom Hancock

An unlikely transpacific trade in human blood plasma products is flourishing between the US and China, where a spate of liver diseases has driven up demand for a protein contained within the vital fluid.

Chinese patients last year consumed about 300 tonnes of serum albumin — the main protein component in human plasma — roughly half of the global total, according to analysts. About 60 per cent of that was imported, and demand is growing at 15 per cent annually.

Naturally produced by the liver, the protein can be harvested by “fractionation” of donated plasma, the liquid part of human blood. Donors in the US are typically paid a fee.

However, a stigma attached to paid plasma collection in China following a string of scandals means that the country relies on imports, driving up sales for overseas exporters.

Prices in China have increased to Rmb430 ($64) for 10 grammes since a state-specified cap of Rmb378 was abolished in 2015, meaning the domestic market is worth about $1.9bn a year.

“One reason for the high Chinese consumption is that it's a major country for liver disease,” said Zhang Tong, an analyst at brokerage China Merchant Securities. About 100m — or one in every 13 people in China — has some form of chronic hepatitis, according to the World Health Organization, putting them at high risk of developing cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Widespread misconceptions about blood injections as an elixir of youth have also boosted Chinese demand. “Some Chinese people have an unscientific idea that human albumin is a nutritious product, and some wealthy or privileged consumers such as retired officials demand it,” said Xu Xianming, an administrator at a Shanghai hospital.

A reluctance by Chinese to donate blood was fuelled by a 1990s scandal that saw tens of thousands of farmers in Henan province — who had been paid to provide blood and plasma — contract HIV from unsanitary needles. The scandal was subsequently covered-up by officials.

China collected about 7,000 tonnes of plasma last year — less than a quarter of the 31,000 tonnes collected in the US. That has pushed up the price of domestic production, and Chinese albumin suppliers have been undercut by overseas rivals. Australia's CSL is the leading overseas producer with a 36 per cent share of China's imports, according to China Merchants Securities, with Baxalta of the US and Grifols of Spain taking 32 per cent and 20 per cent shares respectively. All three companies have the majority of their plasma collection centres in the US.

CSL reported 35 per cent annual growth in Chinese albumin sales in 2016, and is targeting sales of $600m from the country this year. “Plasma product demand is growing faster than supply,” said Ben Yang, China general manager for CSL's US subsidiary CSL Behring. CSL this year bought an 80 per cent stake in Chinese plasma fractionator Wuhan Zhongyuan Ruide Biologics for $352m, giving it access to the fast-growing market for other plasma products such as the market for immunoglobulin, imports of which are currently not allowed by Beijing.

Mr Yang acknowledged the challenge of coaxing Chinese people to donate, but said prices for albumin would remain high, while immunoglobulin would see “some pricing upside”.

One factor that could bring down prices is a plan to bypass donation. Last month China's top pharmaceutical administration threw its weight behind a $29m research programme to grow human serum albumin by transplanting it into rice seeds. The agency said initial trials had shown the method was “safe and effective”.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is serum albumin according to the article？

A.The main protein component in human plasma.

B.Liquids originating from inside the bodies of living people.

C.A component of blood whose function is to stop bleeding.

D.Cells of the immune system that are involved in protecting the body.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which of the following is not a reason why serum albumin in China relies on imports?

A.China is a major country for liver disease with about 100m has chronic hepatitis.

B.Chinese people have a widespread misconceptions about blood injections.

C.A string of scandals in 1990s makes Chinese people reluctant to donate blood.

D.Privileged people in China use human albumin as a nutritious product.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which biotechnology company holds the largest share of China's serum albumin imports ?

A.Grifols of Spain.

B.Actelion of Switzerland.

C.CSL of Australia.

D.Baxalta of the US.

答案⁽³⁾

4. Which of the following statements is FALSE according to the article?

A.One in every 13 people in China has some form of chronic hepatitis.

B.China's demand for serum albumin is growing at 15 per cent annually.

C.China has abolished a state-specified cap of Rmb378 on paid plasma collection.

D.China has lifted its ban on imports immunoglobulin in 2016.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.The main protein component in human plasma.
解释：血清血蛋白是人类血浆中的主要蛋白质成分。

(2)答案：D.Privileged people in China use human albumin as a nutritious product.
解释：Xu Xianming表示，中国的富人和特权阶级将人类血浆作为营养品是一种不科学的谣传。

(3)答案：C.CSL of Australia.
解释：澳大利亚的CSL公司占据了中国进口份额的36%，在外国公司中居首位。

(4)答案：D.China has lifted its ban on imports immunoglobulin in 2016.
解释：中国政府目前仍然禁止进口免疫球蛋白。

恐怖袭击的前世今生

巴黎、布鲁塞尔、曼彻斯特、巴塞罗那……一次又一次血腥的恐怖袭击事件令人胆寒。历史上，曾有多个不同的政治群体在欧洲策划恐怖袭击，但如今，伊斯兰极端分子几乎成了恐怖主义的代名词。这一切都要追溯到1979年，那一年，西亚地区发生的一系列事件颠覆了整个伊斯兰世界……

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

spectrum光谱，范围['spektrəm]

morph变种，变体[mɔːrf]

upend竖直，颠覆[ʌp'end]

fanatic狂热，狂热者[fə'nætɪk]

groupuscule小团体，小派别['gruːpəskjuːl]

hostile怀敌意的，敌对的['hɒstaɪl]

dwarf使矮小[dwɔːf]

salient突出的，显著的['seɪliənt]

incarcerate下狱，监禁[ɪn'kɑːsəreɪt]

preacher传道者，牧师['priːtʃə(r)]

acolyte（教士的）助手，侍僧['ækəlaɪt]

reconstitute重新制定，改组[ˌriː'kɑːnstətuːt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分48秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分26秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分12秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Terrorism will always be with us（721words）

By Raffaello Pantucci

Most organised human societies are plagued by terrorism. Within any structured system there will be a political spectrum, and at the ends of this spectrum there will be extremes populated by people who feel the rest of the society is not hearing a political message they need to be awoken to.

Last week, Jonathan Evans, the former head of the UK security service MI5, said he believes that Britain will have to confront Islamist terrorism for at least another 20 years. And the reality is that once we have dealt with that strain of the virus, it will simply morph into a new form.

To get to the origins of violent Islamist terrorism, one has to go back far beyond the spectacular attacks on the US on September 11 2001 to 1979, a year that rocked the Muslim world. The Iranian revolution, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the siege at the Grand Mosque in Mecca by a group of fanatics all showed the violent force of fundamentalist ideas and their power to upend the established order. These three events showed how violent political movements inspired by Islamic theology could threaten superpowers. This was the lesson drawn by the architects of al-Qaeda's confrontation with the west that culminated on 9/11. Isis is in many ways simply an evolution from that.

The attacks on New York and Washington DC almost 16 years ago were not the first time that terrorism had been visited on the west, of course. Before 9/11, Europe had endured successive waves of terrorist violence. Those responsible included right and leftwing groupuscules, separatist outfits such as the IRA and Eta, Middle Eastern networks often linked to the intelligence services of hostile states, and (in the case of France in particular) violent Islamists linked to Algeria and the conflict in Bosnia.

The US, for its part, saw numerous violent groups active throughout the postwar period — from white supremacists through leftist organisations such as the Weather Underground to the rightwing “patriot” movement to which the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had connections.

But all this was superseded by the 9/11 attacks. They transformed our understanding of terrorist violence. Overnight, Islamist terrorism became the main concern of western security services. And with good reason — al-Qaeda's organisational effectiveness and ambition, demonstrated by the 9/11 attacks, was like nothing that had been seen before.

Previously active movements appeared to fade away or retreat, their activity dwarfed by the magnitude of what al-Qaeda had done. But they did not disappear. While some turned to the negotiating table, very few gave up. Leftwing groups continue to wage letter-bombing campaigns in parts of Europe, while the extreme right is enjoying a renaissance across the west. Eta and the IRA have for the most part given up violence, but Irish-related terrorism remains a major concern for British security services. And many other groups continue to exist in reduced but still active forms. Terrorism, it seems, never quite goes away.

More salient, the individuals involved do not go away. Some die fighting, some move on and some are incarcerated, but others stay free and continue the struggle even as they grow older. The recent attack at London Bridge showed how a specific group, al-Muhajiroun, continues to pose problems over 20 years after it was launched in the UK.

Older preachers talk to younger acolytes, creating a self-supporting structure in which followers eventually become leaders and in turn find their own recruits. This self-generating cycle means that eradicating these groups is a lengthy process that only really comes to an end when one ideological wave is overtaken by another.

For that to happen, an ideology must first wear itself out. But there are no signs of that happening with the current wave of violent Islamism. Al-Qaeda is reconstituting itself on the battlefield in Syria, while its affiliates in north Africa, Yemen and east Africa continue to thrive. Isis may be losing its capitals in Syria and Iraq but, as continued attacks around the world show, it retains some potency.

Terrorism did not start with Isis or al-Qaeda. Nor will it end with them. The current reigning Islamist ideology and groups may be overtaken by events, but they will undoubtedly be replaced by others. And, as Mr Evans pointed out, the long tail left by generations of followers means that security services will be watching people warily for some time yet.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What does the author mean by saying “once we have dealt with that strain of the virus, it will simply morph into a new form” in the second paragraph？

A.Islamist terrorism is a kind of infectious disease and can be explained medically.

B.Islamic terrorists is already deeply anchored in Europe and can hardly be identified beforehand.

C.Islamist terrorism is an evolving threat to human societies and will never be eradicated.

D.Islamist terrorism is very powerful and eradicating these groups is a lengthy process.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the author, when did Islamist terrorism became the main concern of western security services?

A.The Iranian revolution.

B.The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

C.The 9/11 attacks.

D.Terrorist attack at London Bridge.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following is a separatist terrorist organisation ?

A.Grand Mosque.

B.al-Qaeda.

C.al-Muhajiroun.

D.Eta.

答案⁽³⁾

4.The main purpose of this article is to ____.

A.introduce different types of terrorism in western world

B.introduce the emergence and development of terrorism

C.offer a permanent solution to the plague of global terrorism

D.introduce terrorist incidents in European and American history

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Islamist terrorism is very powerful and eradicating these groups is a lengthy process.
解释：Jonathan Evans相信，恐怖主义的问题还会困扰英国至少二十年。就像是我们攻克了一种病毒，它就会变种。

(2)答案：C.The 9/11 attacks.
解释：9/11事件改变了人们对恐怖主义的认知，一夜之间，伊斯兰恐怖主义成为了西方国家安全部门最关心的事。

(3)答案：D.Eta.
解释：分离主义恐怖组织曾在欧洲进行恐怖袭击，如IRA和Eta。

(4)答案：B.introduce the emergence and development of terrorism
解释：本篇文章介绍了恐怖主义的兴起和发展过程。

用意大利菜偷走法国人的胃

八月初的一个周日，当Big Mamma旗下的新餐厅Pizzeria Popolare开张营业时，本该在沙滩上晒太阳的巴黎人早早聚集在这家意大利餐厅门口排起了长队。专心于经营意餐餐馆的Big Mamma在法国市场一路高奏凯歌，是什么让他们偷走了法国人的胃？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

arrondissement法国的行政区[ɑːrəndɪ'səmənt]

cashmere开士，山羊绒['kæʃmɪə(r)]

fickle易变的，轻浮的['fɪkl/

eatery小餐馆['iːtəri]

liability债务，不利因素[ˌlaɪə'bɪləti]

truffle松露['trʌfl]

absinthe苦艾酒['æbsɪnθ]

ceramic陶器，陶瓷[sə'ræmɪk]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分18秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分46秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分7秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分26秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Paris entrepreneurs tap into millennials' taste for Italy（866 words）

By Harriet Agnew

It is a Sunday evening in early August and while most of Paris has decamped to the beach, outside Pizzeria Popolare in the city's trendy 2nd arrondissement, millennials are queueing up waiting for the Italian restaurant to open.

The establishment does not take bookings so they have come early to be sure of getting their hands on its trademark €5 Neapolitan margherita pizzas. It opened in April and each day 1,300 diners pass through its doors. Pizzeria Popolare is part of the Big Mamma food group, and since it opened its first restaurant in Paris two years ago it has shaken up the French capital's restaurant scene — typically associated with haute cuisine and bistronomie rather than homemade Italian street food.

The group has grown to six restaurants, employs more than 400 people, and this year will close a €20m fundraising round at a valuation of just over €100m, according to investors, to fund a European expansion. Last year it recorded revenues of €15m, which it expects to more than double this year.

Behind the Big Mamma group is Victor Lugger and Tigrane Seydoux, a pair of entrepreneurs in their early thirties who have been friends since they met at HEC Paris business school. Over rare beef and burrata (made 36 hours ago in Puglia) at Pink Mamma, their latest venture that opened in June, Mr Lugger reflects on how Big Mamma became the fastest-growing restaurant group in Paris.

“Our number-one obsession at the start was how can we have the best value for money,” he says. “The restaurant industry is not about margin, it's about volume. In France, no one seems to understand that.”

Mr Lugger likens Big Mamma's approach to fast fashion brands such as Zara and Uniqlo, which — by operating vast stores in prime locations and producing enormous quantities of products — are able to offer items like cashmere jumpers, once deemed luxury items, at mass market prices.

Big Mamma is seeking to do the same with Italian food. The restaurant world is a notoriously fickle business and the sheer size of its six Paris-based restaurants — a key asset — could easily turn into a liability if the brand falls out of favour and millennials opt to queue elsewhere.

For now this obsession with achieving volume seems to be paying off. The group feeds 3,600 people a day across its six eateries, which have a total of 850 seats between them. On average this means that each restaurant is receiving at least two sittings of guests a day for both lunch and dinner.

“One reason why we have succeeded so far is that we always made the ambitious choice,” says Mr Lugger. This meant persuading Martin Brudnizki, an interior designer known for creating the interiors of top London establishments, to design the inside of its first Big Mamma restaurant, and two subsequent ones. Well-priced food did not have to be at the expense of a high-end dining experience. All of the plates and bowls, for example, are hand-painted ceramics from Deruta in Italy — a deliberate choice since the bright colours Deruta is known for are perfect for Instagram (the group has 52,300 followers on the social-networking site).

Mr Lugger believes another important reason for Big Mamma's success is that the group always had access to capital. “There is no market for financing the food market in France,” he says. “Restaurants are a real business in France but until recently, very few people were willing to invest capital in [them]. Bistronomie is very linked to the fact that no one finances big restaurants.”

Mr Lugger and Mr Seydoux initially raised €1.5m in cash at the start of 2014. In a second round they received investment from telecoms billionaire Xavier Niel. In June Big Mamma did the catering for the launch party of Station F, Mr Niel's new campus, in a former railway depot, that will house 1,000 start-ups. There are plans to open a 1,000-cover Big Mamma restaurant there in the coming months, which would make it the largest restaurant in France.

French nouvelle cuisine emerged in the 1960s to rebel against the complexity of the haute cuisine that preceded it, only to be followed in the 1990s by the bistronomie movement that aimed to democratise gastronomie by making it cheaper and more accessible. Now there is a next wave of restaurateurs who want to make high-quality food available to everyone. “I believe that Big Mamma along with a few others are initiating a real change in the game. There are huge business opportunities in France for doing what we're doing with Italian food, but with other cuisines like Asian,” Mr Lugger says.

For Big Mamma, the focus is distinctly Italian. “Big Mamma is a place where you open the door and you're in Italy. We work very hard to make you feel like you're in Italy,” Mr Lugger adds.

The next stage for the group is to recreate Italy in the UK, Spain, and Italy itself. It has already started to scout potential sites in London, Madrid and Milan, and plans to open restaurants in at least one of these cities next year.

“Every time we make a restaurant it's all about breaking new ground,” Mr Lugger says. “But we must not forget why it's working. It's working because we're having fun.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The Big Mamma food group's revenue this year is expected to rise by ____.

A.more than 20%.

B.more than 50%.

C.more than 100%.

D.more than 200%.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the similarity between Big Mamma and fast fashion brands according to Mr Lugger?

A.They operate vast stores in prime locations across Europe.

B.They make high-quality items at mass market prices.

C.They originated in France and have gained popularity worldwide.

D.They emerged in the 1960s to rebel against haute cuisine.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following is not a reason for Big Mamma's success in France?

A/The Big Mamma food group always had access to capital.

B.Big Mamma restaurants create an atmosphere of distinctly Italian style.

C.Big Mamma restaurants attract people on social media with photos of their food.

D.Big Mamma's founders persuaded Martin Brudnizki to design the insides of six restaurants.

答案⁽³⁾

4.Big Mamma is planning to ____ in the coming months.

A.open a 1,000-cover Big Mamma restaurant in Paris

B.scout potential sites in London, Madrid and Milan

C.open at least one restaurant in London, Madrid or Milan

D.bring other cuisines like Asian to their restaurants

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.more than 100%.
解释：去年，Big Mamma食品集团的盈利达到了创纪录的1500万欧元，今年的利润预计将超出去年一倍以上。

(2)答案：B.They make high-quality items at mass market prices.
解释：Lugger先生将Big Mamma比作Zara、Uniqlo等快时尚品牌，他们都能以便宜的价格将一度被认为是奢侈品的商品提供给消费者。

(3)答案：D.Big Mamma's founders persuaded Martin Brudnizki to design the insides of six restaurants.
解释：他们说服了室内设计师Martin Brudnizki为他们的首家Big Mamma门店进行装潢设计，随后又请他设计了接下来的两家。

(4)答案：A.open a 1,000-cover Big Mamma restaurant in Paris
解释：接下来的几个月里，他们计划开设一家可容纳1000人的餐厅，它将成为法国最大的餐厅。

留欧之路尚存一线生机

英国脱欧已经是板上钉钉的事了吗？不，我们还可以抢救一下。随着脱欧可能造成的恶果一点点浮出水面，越来越多的人已经改变了当初对脱欧的看法。我们还有机会采取行动，亡羊补牢，及时止损。相信欧盟能够原谅我们，就像圣经里的父亲原谅回头的浪子。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

consolation安慰[ˌkɒnsə'leɪʃn]

jackpot头奖，累积赌注['dʒækpɒt]

quixotic不切实际的，狂想的[kwɪk'sɒtɪk]

brigade组队，编组[brɪ'ɡeɪd]

disarray无秩序，杂

乱[ˌdɪsə'reɪ]

scenario情节梗概，剧本[sə'nɑːriəʊ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分28秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分44秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分23秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分11秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

EU should welcome the UK back from Brexit like the prodigal son（712 words）

By Hugo Dixon

Pro-European Brits should put their heart into stopping Brexit rather than campaigning for a soft one. Mitigating the disaster of quitting the EU is a poor consolation prize. Staying in the EU, on the other hand, is the real jackpot — and, since Theresa May's disastrous general election, no longer a quixotic goal.

The soft Brexit brigade may gain comfort from the position papers the government will start publishing this week. These are expected to confirm that Mrs May is looking for a transitional deal to bridge the gap between quitting the EU and nailing down a new long-term relationship with our partners.

This shift is certainly welcome. But the government remains committed to leaving the EU's single market and customs union, so its policy will still damage our economy. We will also find ourselves marginalised on the world stage and so less able to influence things that really matter to our citizens such as fighting terrorism, combating climate change and preventing the worst side-effects of globalisation.

Anyone who campaigns for soft Brexit will be doing the government's dirty work for it. And, let us be clear, it is dirty work. The cabinet's disarray over what sort of Brexit they want is not just down to incompetence. They are trying to solve the impossible puzzle of getting a good Brexit. If the government wants to delay the pain, it will have to continue following the EU's rules and paying into its budget for that transitional period.

Rather than giving Mrs May a helping hand, pro-Europeans should exploit her problems in order to drive further changes in public opinion. People have lost confidence in the prime minister's ability to negotiate a good Brexit. Before the June general election, she seemed to walk on water; now she is drowning.

There has not been any noticeable change in the public's view about whether we were right to vote to leave the EU, on which opinion is still evenly split. However, an effective campaign to drive home the madness of Brexit would shift people's views on this, too.

Mrs May will hope her position papers will reassure the public that she has a plan. But the Brexit talks will get increasingly difficult. As voters realise that the EU has the whip hand and that the prime minister is having to eat her words, they are likely to get more worried, not less.

The public may become more concerned about damage to the economy. Inflation is up, car sales down, business confidence and consumer spending are down, businesses are putting off investment and a steady drip of companies are announcing plans to beef up operations in the rest of the EU before we have left. And the eurozone economy, which Brexiters said was a corpse, grew twice as fast as the UK in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, the voters understand that they were told a pack of lies in last year's referendum. Turkey is not scheduled to join the EU in 2020. The sunlit uplands of a trade deal with the US may come with chlorine-washed chicken. And we will not be getting £350m a week back from the EU. At some point, the government is going to have to fess up about writing a giant cheque to settle our past obligations.

Not surprisingly, voters are warming to the idea of a new referendum when we know what sort of Brexit comes out of the negotiations. According to the latest Survation survey, 46 per cent support this idea compared with 39 per cent against. Before the election, the figures were exactly the opposite.

Of course, a shift in public opinion will not be enough to stop Brexit. The politicians have to respond. But if the people really do want to think again, it would be undemocratic to deny them the chance.

The EU would also need to welcome a change of heart. Some suggest it would, in such a scenario, exploit our weakness by trying to remove our budget rebate or forcing us to join the euro. This would be silly. The EU has such a strong strategic and economic interest in keeping us in the club that it should help us come to our senses, say by changing how the principle of free movement is interpreted. Like the father in the biblical story of the prodigal son, it should kill a fatted calf, not punish us.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.According to the author, why would the Brexit talks become increasingly difficult ?

A.Because people realise a good Brexit is impossible and they have to pay a high price for leaving.

B.Because people have lost confidence in the prime minister's ability to negotiate a good Brexit.

C.Because the cabinet's disarray over what sort of Brexit they want has been down to incompetence.

D.Because the government has to pay into its budget for the transitional period for a long time.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.From the article we can conclude that the author believes ____.

A.May's disastrous general election give people a chance to stop Brexit.

B.Theresa May's incompetence makes a good Brexit impossible.

C.A soft Brexit can minimise its damage to our economy.

D.The shift in public opinion will probably stop Brexit.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following statements is FALSE?

A.Brexit will result in the worst side-effects of globalisation.

B.The eurozone economy grew twice as fast as the UK in the second quarter.

C.Over half the voters support the idea of a new referendum.

D.The EU would be pleased to keep the UK in the club.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the purpose of the article？

A.To persuade the government to change their Brexit talks strategies.

B.To compare the advantages and disadvantages of Brexit.

C.To urge a new referendum which could possibly stop Brexit.

D.To prove stopping Brexit is a better option for the UK.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Because people realise a good Brexit is impossible and they have to pay a high price for leaving.
解释：脱欧谈判将变得越发艰难，因为选民们意识到了欧盟的惩罚措施，他们知道首相注定会食言。

(2)答案：A.May's disastrous general election give people a chance to stop Brexit.
解释：特蕾莎·梅糟糕的大选结果让停止脱欧不再是不切实际的幻想。

(3)答案：C.Over half the voters support the idea of a new referendum.
解释：46%的人支持进行二次公投，39%的人反对。

(4)答案：C.To urge a new referendum which could possibly stop Brexit.
解释：作者在文章中呼吁应该举行二次公投，为停止脱欧做出努力。

单身潮重塑中国餐饮业

不断扩大的单身人群为中国的许多行业带来了新的良机，餐饮业就是其中之一。不愿开火做饭的众多单身者让中国的外卖行业在短短几年内大展拳脚。为了吸引单身人士前来就餐，连锁餐厅也绞尽了脑汁。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

cauldrons大锅，大汽锅['kɔːldrən]

broth肉汤，清汤[brɒθ]

stuffed塞满的[stʌft]

plush豪华的，长毛绒的[plʌʃ]

demographic人口的[ˌdemə'ɡræfɪk]

stigmatise使蒙上污名['stɪɡmətaɪz]

juggernaut强大力量，重型卡车['dʒʌɡənɔːt]

mundane世俗的，平凡的[mʌn'deɪn]

upscale高消费的，高端的[ˌʌp'skeɪl]

gamut 全部，整个范围['ɡæmət]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分37秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分16秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分2秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分4秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Food groups target China's surging single economy（640 words）

By Tom Hancock

With diners gathered around cauldrons of boiling soup, dropping meat and vegetables into the broth, hot pot is a quintessentially communal Chinese dish. But the country's dominant chain has a new weapon to attract single diners: stuffed bears.

The introduction of large plush toys to accompany solo diners in the some 200 outlets of the Haidilao chain highlights the efforts of businesses in China to take advantage of a demographic shift creating a rising number of single consumers.

“They help people feel less lonely,” said Wang Ping, a waitress at a Haidilao in Shanghai, suggesting the Financial Times choose between a large teddy bear and a stuffed yellow chicken.

China's population of adults living alone has grown by 16 per cent since 2012 to reach 77m, according to government statistics compiled by consultancy Euromonitor. By 2021 the number is set to rise to 92m.

The shift is driven by a trend towards later marriage in China, led by prosperous cities. In Shanghai, the average first marriage age for women has reached 30, up from 27 in 2011. Marriages are also shorter due to a doubling of the divorce rate in the past decade.

Demographers estimate that a gender imbalance created by China's one child policy means tens of millions of men may never marry. As a result, 16 per cent of China's urban population now lives alone, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

“The trend is accompanied by a profound change in people's perceptions of remaining single: the concept is no longer stigmatised,” the group said in a recent report, meaning singles “dine, travel and pursue activities by themselves”.

Companies have responded to the trend, which mirrors demographic shifts already experienced by China's east Asian neighbours South Korea and Japan. Japanese chain Muji has introduced smaller rice cookers, ovens and kettles aimed at Chinese singles.

Alibaba created Singles Day each November 11 as a celebration of the unattached lifestyle. It is now an annual consumer juggernaut, racking up Rmb120.7bn ($17.8bn) of sales in China in one day last year.

Asked on what they would most like to spend their time, China's singles chose watching films online and travelling “to make their plain and mundane lives more exciting”, according to a recent report by consultancy Mintel. They are “less likely to travel for the connection with their family or shopping compared to married people,” preferring sightseeing and experiencing local culture, the report adds.

Food delivery services have benefited from the trend. The sector saw 44 per cent sales growth in China last year, according to consultancy Bain. Yang Gengshen, a spokesman for Ele.me, one of China's largest delivery services, which reported sales growth of 127 per cent in the first half of this year, said: “In my experience, very few single people are willing to cook for themselves.”

Meituan-Dianping, a restaurant review and food delivery company, which was valued at $18bn in a funding round last week, said 65 per cent of its orders came from unmarried customers, with fast food the most popular order for single consumers.

“Single are the most important group of customers for us,” said Wang Pu Zhong, general manager of Meituan's on-demand delivery service. “Chinese food is quite complicated … it takes a lot of time, so single people will think it is a waste of time compared to ordering take-out,” he added.

Single eaters are a common sight in fast food restaurants and convenience stores, but more upscale restaurants have found it hard to attract singles because of a continued stigma about dining alone. “We only get a few single customers each day,” said Ms Wang, the waitress.

Shanghai singleton Chen Nie, 23, experienced a gamut of emotions when offered a teddy bear at Haidilao. "I was shocked at first. Then I felt warm,” she said. “But in the end I felt awkward because it reminded me of the fact that I'm single.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is Haidilao chain's new weapon to attract single diners?

A.Guide dogs.

B.Fluffy little cats.

C.Baby brown bear.

D.Large stuffed toys.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.China's population of adults living alone was around ____ in 2012.

A.66m.

B.77m.

C.89m.

D.92m.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why do most of single people in China prefer ordering take-out rather than cooking according to Wang Pu Zhong?

A.Because Chinese cuisine is too difficult to learn for many of them.

B.Because cooking Chinese food is complicated and time-consuming.

C.Because ordering take-out is more popular among young people.

D.Because they believe take-out food is more healthy and delicious.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the purpose of the article？

A.To discuss the pros and cons of cooking and ordering take-out.

B.To introduce the impact of China's surging single economy in food sector.

C.To introduce the fast-growing food delivery services in China.

D.To explain why single people in China tend to order take-out instead of cooking.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Large stuffed toys.
解释：海底捞吸引单身顾客的新武器是大毛绒玩具。

(2)答案：A.66m.
解释：自从2012年以来，中国的单身成年人口增加了16%，达到7700万。由此可知2012年的单身成年人口约为6600万。

(3)答案：B.Because cooking Chinese food is complicated and time-consuming.
解释：Wang Pu Zhong认为中国菜做起来十分复杂且耗时，年轻人觉得与点外卖相比，做饭是浪费时间。

(4)答案：B.To introduce the impact of China's surging single economy in food sector.
解释：本篇文章主要介绍了中国单身经济对食品行业的影响。

中国“奶奶黑帮”获刑

河南的十四名老年女性近日被法院判刑，她们被当地媒体称作“奶奶黑帮”。这十四人组成的团伙长期以来利用种种极端手段为当地的一家收债机构讨债。目前，中国正在加大力度整治民间借贷乱象。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

rove漂泊，漫游[rəʊv]

gang队，群，帮[ɡæŋ]

cajole哄骗[kə'dʒəʊl]

tactic战略，策略['tæktɪk]

harass扰乱，骚扰['hærəs]

collateral附属担保物[kə'lætərəl]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分21秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分0秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分8秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分45秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

China ‘granny gang’ jailed in lending clampdown（450 words）

By Emily Feng

A Chinese court has sentenced 14 members of a roving band of elderly female debt collectors to as many as 11 years in jail, in the latest sign of the country's clampdown on informal channels of lending.

A court in the mountainous province of Henan this week found that members of the “granny gang”, as local media dubbed them, used loudspeakers to publicly cajole and intimidate borrowers into paying up.

The women, aged 50 to 70, were found guilty of engaging in “provocative and disturbing behaviour” that resembled “participating in gangster-like organisations”.

The women were largely unemployed and looking for work when local debt-collection agencies recruited them at outdoor dancing classes in 2013. In return for helping secure loan repayments, the “grannies” received Rmb200 ($30) per day as well as meals.

“I had nothing to do every day. When I was asked to help, I did it as a kind of fun,” Gao Yun, one of the women, told a local newspaper.

The grannies employed a variety of tactics, including hitting and spitting at borrowers. A more common method was to give debtors an aggressive verbal dressing down until they handed over the money.

On their most recalcitrant targets, the women took more creative measures. In one 2015 incident, eight of the women began stripping to intimidate male borrowers to pay up, according to an interview that a debtor surnamed Zhao gave to local media.

“Loan sharks use these methods frequently: harassing a person, encircling them, going to their workplace and not leaving,” said Han Chuanhua, a lawyer at Beijing's Zhongzhi Law Office. “Using grannies or elderly people is just one of the ways I have seen loan sharks do this to collect debts.”

The case of the granny gang is the latest in a string of lurid incidents over debt collection in China.

Central bank statistics show that non-bank lending is one of the fastest-growing forms of credit in the country. Because China lacks a uniform credit system — making access to financing difficult — borrowers often turn to an informal network of shadow banks for loans that can carry interest rates as high as 10 to 15 per cent per month.

However, shadow lenders do not have legal recourse to recover loans, meaning collectors sometimes turn to unorthodox and even violent tactics to press borrowers into repaying. China's economic boom was in part financed by high-interest credit, but growing defaults on debt are now exposing the darker side of such financing.

In February, a 23-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison after killing a debt collector and wounding three others after they assaulted his mother. The case fuelled public outrage over the aggressive methods of loan sharks.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.According to the passage, the women were recruited ____.

A.in a nursing home in Henan.

B.by an illegal local private bank.

C.at outdoor dancing classes.

D.because they sorely needed money.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.The grannies employed a variety of tactics to collect debts, including ____.

A.using loudspeakers to publicly cajole.

B.kidnapping debtors until they handed over the money.

C.asking female borrowers to submit nude selfies as collateral.

D.giving debtors an aggressive verbal dressing down.

答案⁽²⁾

3.What makes non-bank lending become increasingly popular in China?

A.The lack of uniform credit system makes access to financing difficult.

B.The inadequate legal and business services in state-owned banks.

C.The relatively low interest rates in illegal private banks.

D.The pervasive financial crisis in small businesses.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is a “shadow lender”according to the article？

A.A person or body who offers loans without without holding relevant authorisation.

B.A person or group who collect debts by physical harassing and verbal dressing down.

C.A person or body who borrowed money from non-bank financial institutions.

D.A person who is forced to submit nude selfies to loan shark as collateral.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.at outdoor dancing classes.
解释：这些女性在室外舞蹈课程上被当地的一家收债机构聘用。

(2)答案：D.giving debtors an aggressive verbal dressing down.
解释：这群老奶奶会运用种种手段，包括对借贷者殴打和吐口水，更为常见的是言词猛烈地大骂他们一顿。

(3)答案：A.The lack of uniform credit system makes access to financing difficult.
解释：央行公布的数据显示非银行贷款是中国增长最快的信贷模式之一，因为中国缺少统一的信用制度，让借贷变得十分困难。

(4)答案：A.A person or body who offers loans without without holding relevant authorisation.
解释：影子贷款人并没有追回贷款的合法追索权。

内马尔转会背后的“人口贩卖”模式

内马尔高昂的转会费震惊了世人，却也提醒了我们：足球世界仍保留着“人口贩卖”模式，球员在违背俱乐部意愿的情况下转会，往往有着巨大的代价。这对于超级巨星来说也许算不上绊脚石，但它严重地伤害着小俱乐部球员的利益。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

volition自决，自主[və'lɪʃn]

barter物物交换，交换['bɑːtə(r)]

plight困境，境况[plaɪt]

stipulate规定，保证['stɪpjuleɪt]

harasse使……困扰，使……烦恼['hærəs]

exploit利用；剥削[ɪk'splɔɪt]

exemplary可做模范的[ɪɡ'zempləri]

exorbitant（价格）过高的[ɪɡ'zɔːbɪtənt]

bedrock根底，基础['bedrɒk]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分6秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分6秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分38秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分16秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Neymar transfer exposes football's modern-day trafficking scheme（765 words）

By Stefan Szymanski

The agreement by Barcelona to transfer the football player Neymar to Paris St Germain for €222m has provoked media outrage — but of the wrong kind. We should not be incensed by the pricetag, but by the fact that it remains legal for a business to sell an employee to another business.

Barcelona sold Neymar to PSG. That is the only reason he is allowed to move. He could not have sold himself, and had he sought to transfer to another club of his own volition, and without Barcelona's agreement, he could have been banished from professional football.

Most readers of this column will have a job — how would you feel if your current employer said you could not take up an opportunity at another company unless they received compensation equal to four or five times your annual salary? How would you feel if your employer said you could not even talk to another company interested in hiring you without their prior consent? You would almost certainly go to court to defend your rights — in the EU, you would almost certainly win. The free movement of labour clauses of EU law protect your autonomy in this regard. We accept this as right and good. Why, then, are we comfortable with the bartering of professional football players?

Consider further that this business transaction actually hurts Neymar financially — the money PSG pays to Barcelona could have been part of his individual compensation had he been allowed to bargain on his own behalf. Of course, he is already a multi-millionaire; few will have sympathy for his financial plight here. But FIFPro, the player's union which by its own account represents more than 60,000 professional players, does not speak just for the superstars and the mega-rich. I estimate, in fact, that the median salary of its members is less than $50,000.

For the vast majority of players, the restrictions imposed by the transfer system can create genuine hardship. For example, in many countries, players in the lesser leagues routinely do not get paid their wages. Yet the transfer regulations stipulate that they cannot even begin the process of finding another employer until they have gone without pay for a full six months. Imagine you are a middle-class employee, perhaps with a family. You have not seen a paycheck in four months, but you cannot leave or even try to find another job.

The transfer system as it currently stands was created in 2001, following the 1995 Bosman judgment of the European Court of Justice, which declared the old transfer system illegal — precisely because it did not respect the right of free movement. Astonishing as it may sound, the new system was agreed between Fifa (then headed by Sepp Blatter) and the European Commission, without the consent of the players' representatives. Unsurprisingly, it favours the employers.

Research by FIFPro has identified other forms of abuse in the transfer system. Players who ask to leave their club against owners' wishes are bullied, harassed, and at times even physically abused. No one would tolerate this state of affairs in any other business (with the possible exception of organised prostitution), but naive young professional players can be easily exploited.

To be sure, many clubs are exemplary employers and treat players well — but basic rights should not be a matter of your employer's goodwill. Consequently, FIFPro has now brought a complaint to the commission seeking to have the current system ruled illegal. In an economic analysis for the union, I found that the transfer system helps cement the dominance of the largest clubs: exorbitant transfer fees act as a barrier to smaller clubs. As a result, a large fraction of transfer fee revenue just circulates among the dominant clubs in Europe.

The idea of abolishing the transfer system makes many football fans weak at the knees; they fear that small clubs that rely on transfer fee income would collapse. There are two responses: first, small clubs depend on transfer revenue far less than fans believe, and the transfer market is of little help when it comes to financial crises because prices fall in a fire sale. Even if a small club occasionally does well out of the system, the second point is far more important: equality before the law is a bedrock principle of liberal democracies. We simply must not deprive one class of people of the rights that the rest of us enjoy just because the victims supply us with entertainment.

The transfer system is nothing less than a global trafficking scheme in human labour — shockingly, it represents an agreement between the representatives of national governments and employers to erase employees' rights.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.At what price did PSG bring Neymar to Paris？

A.€2222m.

B.€222m.

C.€22m.

D.€2m.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.From the fourth paragraph we can infer that the FIFPro ____.

A.serves for players in the lesser leagues whose salary are less than $50,000.

B.does not speak for Neymar because they have little sympathy for the mega-rich.

C.represents both superstar players and players in the lesser leagues.

D.should have pay part of Neymar's individual compensation to Barcelona.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following statements about the transfer system is true?

A.It was created in 1995 following the Bosman judgment.

B.It allows employers to physically abuse their players who ask to leave the club.

C.It favours Fifa and the European Commission over small football clubs.

D.It was established without the consent of the players' representatives.

答案⁽³⁾

4.The author believes that transfer fees____.

A.act as a barrier to players who ask to leave the club.

B.help small clubs get through financial crises .

C.protect the dominance of the largest clubs.

D.only circulates among the clubs in Europe.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.€222m.
解释：巴塞罗那以2.22亿欧元的价格将内马尔交易给巴黎圣日耳曼。

(2)答案：C.represents both superstar players and players in the lesser leagues.
解释：球员联合会FIFPro据称代表着六万多名职业球员的利益。我估计其成员的平均收入低于50000美元。

(3)答案：D.It was established without the consent of the players' representatives.
解释：令人震惊的是，这一新系统是由FIFA和欧盟委员会通过的，并没有经过球员代表的同意。

(4)答案：C.protect the dominance of the largest clubs.
解释：现有的转会系统维护了大俱乐部的统治地位。高昂的转会费成为小球会的阻碍，而大部分转会利润都在欧洲的几个顶级俱乐部之间流动。

“默克尔奶奶”深受德国年轻人欢迎

默克尔已经在德国总理的位置上坐了十二年，在她的任期内长大的年轻人对这位总理赞赏有加。默克尔在难民等问题上的自由主义立场让她在德国年轻人中的支持率居高不下。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

disgruntle使不满，使不高兴[dɪs'grʌntl]

bolster支持，鼓励['boʊlstər]

anarchistic 无政府主义的[ˌænə'kɪstɪk]

disparaging蔑视的，毁谤的[dɪ'spærɪdʒɪŋ]

sentiment感情，意见['sentɪmənt]

detrimental有害的[ˌdetrɪ'mentl]

austerity朴素，苦行[ɒ'sterəti]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分29秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分18秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分47秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分19秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Germany's young voters back ‘grandmother Merkel’（797 words）

By Stefan Wagstyl

Patrick Janota struggles to imagine Germany without Angela Merkel. The chancellor “has been there ever since I first had any idea about the world around me”, says the 25-year-old management student from Bavaria on a visit to Berlin's Reichstag, the imposing home of the German parliament.

Already in office for 12 years, Ms Merkel is campaigning for a fourth term in next month's parliamentary elections. But the 63-year-old's long tenure at the helm of German politics does not seem to be bringing any backlash from disgruntled younger voters worried about out-of-touch or ageing leadership.

Rather, the chancellor's Christian Democrat Union is banking on capturing a surge in the youth vote, seeing evidence that many young Germans see little alternative to the veteran chancellor.

Mr Janota says he has yet to decide how to vote — but he backed Ms Merkel's conservatives in 2013 and finds it hard to take any of her current challengers seriously, including the social democrat leader Martin Schulz. “It's hard to compare any of the others with her,” he says.

Ms Merkel's relative popularity with younger voters is another sign of her ability to build broad support for her centre-right platform. It is bolstered among young voters by some admiration for flashes of liberal leadership — as with her insistence on an “open doors” policy for refugees to Germany two years ago.

Even critics acknowledge her qualities. Joshua Schmidt, a 26-year-old student from Bonn, voted in 2013 for the anarchistic Party party and says disparagingly that Ms Merkel has impressive public relations. “People are naïve and follow her.” But even this self-confessed radical says: “She does her job well, and she sometimes goes against her own party. I would not say ‘Merkel must go’.”

In the decades after the second world war young Germans usually preferred the social democrats, and later the Greens, in common with a general post-1945 European tendency for the young to support progressive forces over conservative parties.

But in 2013, Ms Merkel's personal appeal helped the CDU take the largest share of votes among 18-24-year-olds — the first time it has done so without the contribution of the Christian Social Union, its Bavarian sister party.

Opinion polls this time suggest similarly strong support. A Forsa opinion poll in June showed that 57 per cent of 18-21 year-old Germans backed Ms Merkel as chancellor, compared to 53 per cent of all voters.

Ulrich Schneekloth, senior director at Kantar Public, an opinion research group, says: “Fundamentally, young people have been more likely to vote for the Greens or Social Democrats. But in the last couple of years, we have seen them backing Angela Merkel in a personal way. In the refugee crisis, her support among young people fell away much less than with the average voters. It seems young people supported her liberal approach.”

Worried about alienating conservative supporters, Ms Merkel has subsequently become tougher over refugees and migration, But significantly for young voters she has managed to retain much of her liberal aura. Donald Trump's arrival in the White House and his “America First” policy has further rallied liberal-minded young Germans around the chancellor.

The SPD, fighting pro-Merkel sentiment, argues that the chancellor's policies have been detrimental to young people across Europe. “I don't think Angela Merkel has done so well,” says Johanna Uekermann, who chairs the SPD's youth wing. “She has damaged Europe with her extreme austerity policy towards Greece and some other countries, where unemployment is now very high — especially among young people.”

The CDU itself does not want to over-emphasise Ms Merkel's liberalism. Paul Ziemiak, head of the party's youth movement, says “reliability and credibility” are at the heart of her popularity. And he says that since the 1980s the young have become more conservative. “Our generation seems to focus on more traditional values than their parents. Examples are marriage, education and cultural tradition,” he says.

Meanwhile, concerns about security, a classic conservative political issue, matter as much for the young as for older people, Mr Ziemiak says. “When I started going out at the age of 16 in 2001, nobody imagined there could be a terrorist attack in Germany, on the streets or in a disco … everything today is different.”

None of this means that the youth vote dominates CDU campaign planning. Older voters are simply more numerous: 21.6m people of voting age are under 40, compared to 47m who are older. Older people are also more likely to vote, and far more likely to vote conservative when they do. The CDU/CSU scored 32 per cent among those aged 18-24 in 2013. But it scored 52 per cent among those aged 70 and above.

Yet the CDU is confident that enough young voters will stick by a chancellor known to many Germans simply as “Mutti”. Professor Manfred Güllner, head of Forsa polling, says: “These young people have grown up with Merkel. She is like a grandmother to this generation.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.To which party does Angela Merkel belong？

A.Christian Democrat Union.

B.Christian Social Union.

C.Social Democratic Party.

D.Catholic Social Party.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How long is the office term of government in Germany？

A.Two years.

B.Four years.

C.Five years.

D.Eight years.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following is not a reason why Merkel is capturing a surge in the youth vote?

A.Merkel's insistence on her liberal approach to refugees in Germany.

B.Merkel's ability to build broad support for her centre-right platform.

C.Merkel's austerity policy towards Greece and some other European countries

D.Trump and his “America First” policy rallied young liberals around Merkel.

答案⁽³⁾

4.In the last paragraph, what does Professor Güllner mean by saying “she is like a grandmother to this generation”？

A.Merkel is popular among young people partly because of her charisma.

B.Young people in German have a tendency to support aged candidates.

C.Young people have grown up in Merkel's tenure and feel comfortable with her.

D.Young Germans believe extensive experience is one of Merkel's greatest strengths.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Christian Democrat Union.
解释：默克尔是基督教民主联盟主席。

(2)答案：B.Four years.
解释：默克尔已经在德国总理的位置上坐了12年，现在她正为自己的第四个任期展开竞选活动，由此可知德国总理任期为四年一任。

(3)答案：C.Merkel's austerity policy towards Greece and some other European countries
解释：默克尔针对希腊以及其他一些欧洲国家严苛的政策招致社会民主党人的批评。

(4)答案：C.Young people have grown up in Merkel's tenure and feel comfortable with her.
解释：Güllner教授称，这些年轻人是在默克尔担任总统的年代中长大的，默克尔对他们来说就像是祖母。

为什么Facebook应该给我们发钱？

数据是新时代的石油，Facebook最大的资产就是庞大的用户数据，既然如此，作为用户的我们理应得到回馈。如果科技发展在未来造成严重的失业问题，那么科技公司就应承担起提供全民基本收入的责任。阿拉斯加的案例可以给我们带来启发。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

enshrine奉祀，铭记[ɪn'ʃraɪn]

radical激进的，彻底的['rædɪkl]

utopian乌托邦的， 梦想的[juː'təʊpiən]

encapsulated封进内部，压缩[ɪn'kæpsjuleɪt]

incipient起初的，初期的[ɪn'sɪpiənt]

dividend红利，股息['dɪvɪdend]

bonanza富矿，富源[bə'nænzə]

philanthropic博爱的，慈善的[ˌfɪlən'θrɒpɪk]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分37秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分50秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分27秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分12秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why Facebook should pay us a basic income（725 words）

By John Thornhill

The idea of guaranteeing a basic income for everybody has many obvious flaws but one overwhelming virtue. It enshrines the principle that every citizen is a valued member of society and has a right to share in its collective wealth.

That conviction has animated radical thinkers for 500 years since the argument was first sketched out in Sir Thomas More's Utopia. The idea has gained renewed resonance in our own times as we fret about the erosion of living standards, the concentration of wealth and the possible threat of mass unemployment caused by technological change.

But for half a millennium universal basic income has remained little more than a utopian dream because it has always crashed up against the rocks of reality. The chief objections are ones of principle and practicality, encapsulated in two questions.

Why should people be paid to do nothing? And how could we possibly afford it?

Yet it is possible to design a basic income scheme that retains its main attractions while minimising its flaws. By default, a good working model has been operating in Alaska for more than 30 years.

In 1976 Alaska's voters approved a constitutional amendment to create a permanent investment fund, financed by revenues from the state's incipient oil boom. A few years later, the Alaska Permanent Fund began paying out a dividend to every registered resident. Depending on the fund's performance, the annual payout has ranged from $878 to $2,072 a head over the past decade.

The scheme has not led to mass indolence, as the critics of basic income fear. The clue lies in the adjective — basic. The scheme, which has commanded bipartisan support, has also proved increasingly popular and been described as the “third rail” of state politics because it electrocutes any politician who touches it. In a recent telephone survey, Alaskans described the fund's top three advantages as being its equality of treatment, its fairness of distribution and its assistance to struggling families. Some 58 per cent of respondents said they would even be prepared to pay more state taxes to preserve the fund, although Alaska has been knocked by lower oil prices.

Alaska does not rank among the richest of US states in terms of gross domestic product per head. Yet, partly as a result of its annual dividend, it is one of the most economically equal states and has one of the lowest poverty rates.

Last month, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, visited Alaska and praised the state's social programmes saying they provided “some good lessons for the rest of the country”.

Like other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Mr Zuckerberg believes that thousands of jobs are going to be swept away by new technologies, such as driverless cars. In such a world, he says, we need to invent a new social contract. Basic income could be part of the answer.

Some argue that Alaska is a special case as it has just distributed the fruits of an oil bonanza. But it may be possible to find other sources of revenue to fund similar schemes elsewhere. There is one other potential source of revenue that Mr Zuckerberg knows all about: data. If, as the saying goes, data are the new oil then we may have found a 21st-century revenue stream. Data could do for the world what oil has done for Alaska.

The most valuable asset that Facebook possesses is the data that its users, often unwittingly, hand over for free before they are in effect sold to advertisers. It seems only fair that Facebook makes a bigger social contribution for profiting from this massively valuable, collectively generated resource.

His shareholders would hate the idea. But from Facebook's earliest years, Mr Zuckerberg has said his purpose has been to make an impact rather than build a company. Besides, such a philanthropic gesture might even prove to be the marketing coup of the century. Facebook users could continue to swap cat pictures knowing that every click was contributing to a greater social good.

Such a data-for-basic income swap is simple and clear. It should appeal to the solutionist mindset of Silicon Valley. Many tech entrepreneurs are suspicious of government intervention. But there is no rule to say that only governments can be in the wealth redistribution business.

“We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things,” Mr Zuckerberg told Harvard graduates in his Commencement address in May.

Quite right, Mark. Give it a go.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What makes the idea of basic income become popular in our own times？

A.Because the progress of technology has taken thousands of jobs away.

B.Because tech companies like facebook is eroding our living standards.

C.Because the boost of economy has made us rich enough to afford universal basic income.

D.Because we are facing the threat of shrinking personal wealth and possible mass unemployment.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which of the following statements about Alaska Permanent Fund is FALSE？

A.It was financed by revenues from the state's incipient oil boom.

B.It pays out a dividend monthly to every registered resident in Alaska.

C.Alaska has one of the lowest poverty rates partly thanks to the fund.

D.It is increasingly popular in Alaska and no politician can touch it.

答案⁽²⁾

3.According to Mr Zuckerberg, why do we need to invent a new social contract?

A.Because technological advances could bring about the threat of mass unemployment.

B.Because data science is going to boost our economy to an unprecedented level.

C.Because the growing gulf between rich and poor is the biggest threat to our economy.

D.Because technology companies have the responsibility to make an impact on our society.

答案⁽³⁾

4.With which of the following statements would the author most likely agree？

A.It should be illegal for tech companies to collect user's data for free.

B.Data is the only usable sources of revenue to fund basic income scheme.

C.The user's data is the most valuable asset for many tech companies.

D.A Facebook Permanent Fund can eventually generate huge profit for Facebook.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Because we are facing the threat of shrinking personal wealth and possible mass unemployment.
解释：由于面对着生活水准下降、财富渐渐集中到少数人手中，以及科技发展可能造成的大规模失业的问题，社会基本收入的概念如今再次变得流行。

(2)答案：B.It pays out a dividend monthly to every registered resident in Alaska.
解释：阿拉斯加永久基金每年给都会给阿拉斯加的每个登记在案的居民分红。

(3)答案：A.Because technological advances could bring about the threat of mass unemployment.
解释：扎克伯格相信新科技将会导致成千上万的工作消失，我们需要创造新的社会契约来面对这一问题。

(4)答案：C.The user's data is the most valuable asset for many tech companies.
解释：作者相信，数据就是新时代的石油，用户的数据是Facebook等公司最大的资产。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集
Vol.12

东京的俄罗斯女仆咖啡厅

坐落于新宿区的ItaCafe是东京首家俄罗斯主题女仆咖啡厅，由日本人Omori和俄罗斯cosplay模特Reznikova创建。在这里，两种截然不同的文化以令人意外的方式交织在一起。俄式的风格和日本女仆咖啡厅文化的碰撞，究竟产生了怎样的火花？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

drab单调的，乏味的[dræb]

haphazard随意的，杂乱的[hæp'hæzərd]

jaundiced患黄疸病的，有偏见的['dʒɔːndɪst]

slurp啜食，饮食出声[slɜːp]

riotous放纵的，放荡的['raɪətəs]

animated栩栩如生的，动画片的['ænɪmeɪtɪd]

bashfully害羞的['bæʃfl]

borscht罗宋汤[bɔːʃ]

servile卑屈的，奴隶的['sɜːvaɪl]

flirtatious调情的[flɜːr'teɪʃəs]

slosh 泼，溅，搅动[slɒʃ]

furtive偷偷的['fɜːtɪv]

tipsy微醉的['tɪpsi]

zany滑稽的，愚蠢的['zeɪni]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分22秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分41秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分21秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分10秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Postcard from … Tokyo（704 words）

By Matthew Bremner

On first viewing, the ItaCafe, located in the Shinjuku neighbourhood of Tokyo, is a bit drab. Its haphazard decoration and jaundiced lighting give it the look of a school canteen. If you look a little more carefully, however, what seemed boring is, in fact, bizarre — the unlikeliest of cultural fusions.

On one wall, there is a large Vladimir Putin calendar, on another, a faux-fireplace adorned with Christmas decorations, and across from that, in the corner, a Soviet tank made of cardboard. The café is full — Japanese salarymen sit at tables, slurping vodka from shot glasses and laughing riotously at their companions' jokes. In between these tables, three young Russian women dressed in bright red maids costumes move gracefully, talking animatedly to the diners in Japanese, who smile bashfully from behind spoonfuls of borscht.

The café, which opened last October, is the first Russian-themed “maid café” (meido kissa in Japanese) in Tokyo. Maid cafés, which have become increasingly popular since the first opened in 2001, were originally aimed at fans of Japanese animation and manga comics, in which maids frequently feature. Customers come to be served by physical manifestations of these characters, who not only dress in provocative costumes but act in an innocent, servile manner, calling their clients “master” or “mistress” and serving them with compliments as well as food (there are male equivalents too, “butler cafés”). In some establishments, maids spoon-feed customers, flirt and cast love spells — although diners are strictly forbidden from physical contact, asking for maid's phone numbers or taking unauthorised photographs.

Anastasia Reznikova, ItaCafe's co-founder, however, is keen to stress that this café is different from a typical meido kissa. “Although maid-themed, we will not be preparing love potions nor treating customers in a particularly flirtatious manner,” she tells me. “We talk to our guests, but we will not be cleaning their ears!”

Reznikova, originally from Moscow, has long had a passion for anime and manga, becoming famous online as a cosplayer, a performance art in which she dresses up to represent specific characters from the films and comics. She tells me she had always wanted to live in Japan and was able to do so when her current business partner, Takuya Omori, visited Russia two years ago to recruit new cosplayer models.

Indeed, Reznikova enjoyed the following years in Tokyo so much that she began looking for ways to prolong her stay. “I talked with Omori-san about how I could extend my visa, and he came up with the idea of opening up a maid café,” she tells me. “That way I could get a working visa.” The pair set up a campaign on a crowdfunding website hoping to raise ¥250,000 (£1,800). However, the idea proved so popular they were able to raise more than ¥3m.

I watch while Reznikova and her team slosh dark purple borscht into bowls from a bubbling pot in the restaurant's kitchen. To accompany the soup, they serve up piroshki, Russian dumplings, and a traditional vinegarette salad. After a shaky start — none of the girls were experienced cooks or waitresses — business has begun to go well. “We only serve Russian food and drink in the café,” she tells me. “We wanted to create a place in which locals can come to sample classic home cooking and understand a little more of the culture.”

Some of the customers, of which all are men, seem initially unsure of the food, sniffing at it and making furtive glances at their dining companions before finally being charmed into trying it by the effusiveness of Reznikova and her team. “ I think we have been successful in getting people to sample dishes they had previously never tried or even heard of,” she says.

The young Muscovite is wearing a faux Russian military jacket and army boots. “ I always dress in character when at the café because part of our income comes from charging customers for photos.” At that moment, a group of tipsy Japanese businessmen asks Reznikova over for a photo. She agrees, lining the men up in front of the miniature tank. She pulls a variety of zany faces and hand gestures. The four fully grown men in suits do the same.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What makes the author feel bizarre in the first paragraph？

A.The unfamiliar manga culture in Japan.

B.The riotous behaviors of Japanese salarymen.

C.Its haphazard decoration and jaundiced lighting.

D.The strange culture fusion of Japan and Russia.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Waitresses in maid cafés can offer the following services except____？

A.sitting on their clients' laps and calling them “master”.

B.spoon-feeding their costumers and casting love spells.

C.serving them with compliments as well as food.

D.taking authorised photographs with their clients.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Anastasia Reznikova came to Japan two years ago as ____.

A.a waitress in a maid café.

B.a fashion model.

C.ItaCafe's co-founder.

D.a cosplayer model.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the purpose of this article？

A.To Introduce the interesting maid café culture in Japan.

B.To introduce Russian food culture's influence in Japan.

C.To introduce Reznikova's successful story of starting her own business.

D.To introduce the unique Russian-themed maid café in Tokyo.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.The strange culture fusion of Japan and Russia.
解释：但是，如果你仔细看，就会发现这家看似无趣的咖啡厅很怪异，它是两种文化最奇特的融合。

(2)答案：A.sitting on their clients' laps and calling them "master".
解释：在女仆咖啡厅，与服务员身体接触、要服务员的电话或在未经允许的情况下拍照是被严格禁止的。

(3)答案：D.a cosplayer model.
解释：两年前，Takuya Omori来到俄罗斯招募cosplay模特，Reznikova借此机会来到了日本。

(4)答案：D.To introduce the unique Russian-themed maid café in Tokyo.
解释：本篇文章介绍了东京的第一家俄罗斯主题的女仆咖啡馆。

中国游客海外“买买买”兴趣渐失

买遍全球的中国游客一直是海外零售商们眼中的香饽饽，但最新的调查显示，中国游客对购物的热情正在冷却。“买买买”不再是游客出境旅游的首要目的。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

lure饵，诱惑[lʊə(r)]

diminish减少，变小[dɪ'mɪnɪʃ]

plunge投入，骤降[plʌndʒ]

disposable可丢弃的，支配的[dɪ'spoʊzəbl]

duration持续时间，期间 [dju'reɪʃn]

typify是……的典型['tɪpɪfaɪ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分3秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分57秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分49秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分59秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Shopping no longer the priority for Chinese tourists（593 words）

By Tom Hancock

Chinese tourists flocking to European and Asian capitals in record numbers this summer will be spending less on shopping and more on dining and sightseeing as overseas travel becomes more mainstream and the lure of foreign prices diminishes.

Retailers across the world have come to rely on Chinese tourists but the proportion citing shopping as their main travel motivation plunged to one-third this year from more than two-thirds in 2016, according to an annual survey by booking site Hotels.com and Ipsos.

“For the first time in history, shopping is no longer the prime reason for [Chinese] international travel,” said Abhiram Chowdhry, Asia-Pacific vice-president for Hotels.com. “The cliché of Chinese travellers only being shoppers is reducing. It seems like they want more experiential travel.”

The latest annual survey of Chinese tourists by consultancy Oliver Wyman found that while the average amount spent on an overseas trip rose slightly last year to Rmb20,000 ($3,000), shopping expenditure per trip fell to roughly Rmb6,700, from Rmb8,050 in 2015.

The decline is a consequence of the growing number of Chinese travellers, analysts say. As overseas travel becomes more mainstream, the average disposable income of travellers has decreased.

“It's become mainstream to the point that there's lots of different Chinese travellers, as you have with other countries,” said Hunter Williams, a Shanghai-based partner at Oliver Wyman, adding: “This should be taken as a wake-up call. You need to be prepared for a Chinese traveller that is not only interested in shopping … They want experiences.”

The findings are echoed in a forthcoming FT Confidential Research survey that found that spending on shopping as a percentage of average trip expenditure fell to 37 per cent this year from 47 per cent in 2013. The amount spent on accommodation, food and entertainment rose from 31 per cent to 44 per cent.

Zhu Yingbo, a 24-year-old from Chongqing who recently travelled to Thailand with his partner, is typical of lower-income younger travellers who are increasingly heading abroad. “We barely spent money on shopping, either me or my girlfriend,” he said.

There are no official figures on the number of Chinese people travelling abroad, but Beijing says last year its citizens took 122m overseas trips, including to Hong Kong and Macau, an annual increase of 4 per cent.

While 82 per cent of overseas trips are to Asian destinations, long-haul trips to Europe and the US have increased 25 per cent and 12 per cent respectively in the past year, according to Hotels.com.

Higher prices for luxury goods in China once pushed shoppers overseas but companies are “harmonising” their prices globally, and border checks on tourists carrying multiple goods into the country have intensified, boosting domestic spending.

The rising proportion of spending on hotels is partly explained by the fact that Chinese people are extending the duration of long-haul trips. Chinese travellers to the US spent an average of 16 days there last year, up from nine in 2015, according to Oliver Wyman.

Tour groups — typified by long lines of tourists with matching hats following a flag-waving guide — have dominated China's travel industry for decades. But the popularity of the groups is diminishing as people travel abroad more often.

Young people in China's biggest cities have had more exposure to overseas culture, and many are choosing to travel without groups.

Jane Sun, chief executive of Chinese travel agency Ctrip, told the Financial Times that independent travel was the fastest-growing category in the largest cities.

“The young generation speaks English and they can go abroad on their own,” she said.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.unter Williams believes the reason why shopping expenditure of Chinese travellers decreased is____.

A.lower-income travellers increased as overseas travel becomes more mainstream.

B.Chinese travellers has to spend more spending on hotels and dining.

C.more and more travellers choose Asian capitals as their travel destination.

D.Chinese travellers want more experiential travel as the lure of foreign prices diminishes.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why does the lure of foreign prices diminishes?

A.Because Chinese official has intensified the restrictions on personal overseas spending.

B.Because Chinese people now prefer long-haul trips, which makes carrying multiple goods inconvenient.

C.Because Chinese official imposes extra tax on tourists carrying multiple goods into the country.

D.Because luxury companies are harmonising their prices globally and border checks have intensified.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following statements is true according to the article？

A.The average amount spent on an overseas trip fell slightly last year.

B.Long-haul trips to Europe is more popular than trips to the US.

C.Overseas trips to Hong Kong and Macau increased by 4 per cent last year.

D.Tour groups have dominated China's travel industry for decades.

答案⁽³⁾

4.According to Jane Sun, why do many young people are choosing to travel without groups？

A.Because independent travel enables them to have more exposure to overseas culture.

B.Because young generation speaks English, which makes travelling abroad easier.

C.Because most tour groups serves for tourists who shop a lot.

D.Because independent travel allows them to have more flexible travel schedule.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.lower-income travellers increased as overseas travel becomes more mainstream.
解释：Hunter Williams认为中国游客购物花销降低是因为出境游在中国越来越普遍，游客的平均可支配收入降低。

(2)答案：D.Because luxury companies are harmonising their prices globally and border checks have intensified.
解释：由于国内奢侈品价格较高，中国游客曾经涌向海外大肆购物，但现在奢侈品公司正在平衡其商品在世界各地的标价，并且中国海关对携带大量行李入境的游客的检查也变得更加严格。

(3)答案：D.Tour groups have dominated China's travel industry for decades.
解释：跟团游是几十年以来中国最流行的旅游方式，但现在现在渐渐不那么受欢迎了。

(4)答案：B.Because young generation speaks English, which makes travelling abroad easier.
解释：Jane Sun表示，年轻一代会说英语，可以独立出境旅游。

被科技行业遗忘的老员工

以平等为傲的科技公司常以员工中的女性或少数族裔的比例为傲，但另一方面，他们也总爱吹嘘自己的团队有多么年轻。这令人疑惑——科技行业中的老员工都去哪了？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

ageism对老年人的歧视[eɪdʒɪzəm]

hindrance妨碍， 障碍['hɪndrəns]

eminent著名的，卓越的['emɪnənt]

brewery啤酒厂['bruːəri]

resent愤恨，憎恶[rɪ'zent]

immune免除的，免疫的[ɪ'mjuːn]

brag吹牛，炫耀 [bræɡ]

derogatory毁谤的，贬损的[dɪ'rɒɡətri]

tightrope拉紧的绳索，危险的处境

['taɪtrəʊp]sanctimonious伪装虔诚的[ˌsæŋktɪ'məʊniəs]

bewilderment困惑，迷乱

[bɪ'wɪldəmənt] manifesto宣言， 声明[ˌmænɪ'festoʊ]

radicalise使激进['rædɪkəlaɪz]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分22秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分50秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分20秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Silicon Valley ageism: ‘They were, like, wow, you use Twitter?’（806 words）

By Hannah Kuchler

Bob Crum finally bailed out of the tech industry last year, after four decades working for Silicon Valley companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and Cisco. When his contract with Cisco ended, he tried to find a job elsewhere, but quickly discovered that, aged 62, his “richness of experience” was seen as a hindrance, not a help, in today's tech industry.

“I was told ‘we decided to give this job to someone earlier in their career, your experience was a long time ago'. Those were hurtful things to say to someone who was eminently qualified,” he says.

“After several months trying to get back into the tech world, I just threw up my hands and mentally told myself, I'm retired from high-tech and will move on to bigger and better things.”

Mr Crum is now working for a non-profit and preparing to open a craft brewery. But he still resents the way he was treated by an industry obsessed with youth — and apparently immune to age discrimination laws.

When tech workers reach the grand old age of 45, they see the number of jobs they are offered drop, according to research by Hired, the tech recruitment platform. Salaries begin to fall aged 45, with candidates in their fifties and sixties asking for the same pay as millennials with just two years' experience.

Laurie McCann, a senior attorney with the AARP, which advocates for older people's rights in the US, says ageism in the tech industry is a “very big problem”. Two-thirds of older tech workers say they have witnessed or experienced age discrimination at work, according to a 2013 survey by the organisation.

“People brag about how young the average age of their workforce is and say downright derogatory things to older people, almost like they are above the law,” she says. Silicon Valley has begun to face up to its gender and ethnic diversity issues, after scandals such as sexual harassment cases at Uber that contributed to the chief executive, Travis Kalanick, stepping aside in June.

But while many large tech companies publish reports on the proportion of their workforce that are women or minorities, hoping it will push them to improve their figures, they do not track age. Dan Lyons, who wrote a book, Disrupted, about his experience working at start-up HubSpot, says tech companies need to recognise the value of a “blended multi-generational workforce” and show how many older workers they employ in their diversity reports. When he joined the start-up, which boasted its average age was 26, he was 52 and surprised by the “weird stereotypes” some of his younger colleagues seemed to have of older people. One called him grandpa. “I had this really big blog, I was internet famous, I had developed a TV show and worked in Hollywood, and they were like, ‘wow, you can use Twitter?'” he recalls.

Experts have clear advice for tech companies looking to show they welcome older employees — or avoid future age discrimination lawsuits.

Recruiters should end the practice of specifying the years when a candidate should have graduated from college or the need for a university email address, in effect making it clear they only expect to hire younger people. Seeking “digital natives” in job ads is problematic, because it implies someone grew up with the internet.

Once in the door, companies should retrain older staff as new coding languages emerge, educate them to recognise “unconscious bias” against older people, and host social activities that everyone feels welcome to participate in.

When Mr Lyons was at HubSpot, he felt he was walking a tightrope with his clothes. “You want to look casual, but you don't want to look like a 50-year-old guy trying to dress like a 20-year-old,” he says.

He also urges older job hunters to delete everything on their resume before 2000, to avoid getting caught in automated filters that ignore applicants with that much experience.

At work, he believes older employees should avoid sounding “sanctimonious” and instead be humble and learn younger employees' habits and favourite acronyms, such as DRI (directly responsible individual).

Chip Conley, a strategic adviser at Airbnb, was 52 when he was approached for the job — despite never having used the accommodation app.

Having been chief executive of his own hotel chain for 24 years, he developed a role as a “Modern Elder”, serving as both mentor and intern.

“My best tactic was to reconceive my bewilderment as curiosity and give free rein to it,” he wrote in the Harvard Business Review.

Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, says one of the reasons few age discrimination lawsuits are brought is people are reluctant to identify themselves as older.

“Age discrimination is often the first kind of discrimination that white men encounter in the workplace,” she says. “I'm really looking forward to those guys getting radicalised and joining the movement.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why did Bob Crum fail to get a new job in the tech industry after leaving Cisco?

A.Because he was overqualified for this job.

B.Because his work experience didn't match this job.

C.Because his experience was a long time ago.

D.Because he was considered to be too aged for this job.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which of the following statements is FALSE?

A.When tech workers reach the grand old age of 45, the number of jobs they are offered will drop.

B.Two-thirds of older tech workers say they have witnessed or experienced age discrimination at work.

C.Silicon Valley has begun to face up to its ageism issues after several cases at Uber.

D.Seeking “digital natives” in job ads implies the recruiter expect to hire younger people.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Dan Lyons suggest older job hunters to delete everything on their resume before 2000 to ____.

A.falsify their ages and convince recruiters.

B.imply they are no worse than their younger counterparts.

C.avoid future age discrimination lawsuits.

D.avoid getting caught in automated filters.

答案⁽³⁾

4.The writer's purpose in writing this article is to____.

A.improve the public's perception of ageism in the tech industry.

B.show his compassion for older job hunters.

C.discuss the validity of ageism in Silicon Valley companies.

D.give publicity to Dan Lyons' book *Disrupted*.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Because he was considered to be too aged for this job.
解释：Bob Crum被告知他们更想要一个更年轻的员工。

(2)答案：C.Silicon Valley has begun to face up to its ageism issues after several cases at Uber.
解释：Uber公司的性骚扰案等丑闻让硅谷公司开始正式性别和种族歧视的问题，但年龄歧视问题仍然不能引起重视。

(3)答案：D.avoid getting caught in automated filters.
解释：Dan Lyons建议年纪大的求职者删掉简历中2000年以前的经历，以免被自动过滤掉。

(4)答案：A.improve the public's perception of ageism in the tech industry.
解释：作者写这篇文章的目的在于呼吁人们关注科技行业的年龄歧视问题。

长寿的高昂代价

人类究竟能活多久？这样一个老掉牙的问题却在近几年成了各国政府新的挑战。为了让每个人都能有尊严地度过人生的最后时光，我们要为长寿付出高昂的代价。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

strain拉紧；竭力[streɪn]

pricey昂贵的['praɪsi]

advent出现，到来['ædvent]

impetus动力，推动力['ɪmpɪtəs]

backdrop背景幕，背景['bækdrɒp]

actuary保险精算师['æktʃuəri]

underlying基本的，隐含的[ˌʌndə'laɪɪŋ]

successive接连的，连续的[sək'sesɪv]

club集合 [klʌb]

annuity年金，养老金[ə'njuːəti]

unwittingly不知不觉地，无意地[ʌn'wɪtɪŋli]

render提供，实施['rendə(r)]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分9秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分7秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分39秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分16秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How long can humans live? It's a pricey question（769 words）

By Norma Cohen

How long can human beings live, anyway? It is — no pun intended — an age-old question. But the answer has posed acute challenges for governments in recent years. Sharp extensions in longevity are straining social safety nets that were created to allow the old and frail to live their last days in dignity. The probable length of human life comes with a very specific price tag.

It was not ever thus. In the early years following the Enlightenment in the 17th century, people asked why we no longer live to the age of the sages as described in the Bible, according to David Boyd Haycock, a professor of medical history at Oxford university. Adam, after all, lived to be 930 while Methuselah topped him at 939 years. Only the advent of mortality tables in the 18th century limited the debate.

The question has been given renewed impetus by a series of recent studies suggesting that the rapid pace of improvement in British longevity is now slowing. The Continuous Mortality Investigations group, which produces longevity projections based on the experience of insured and pensioned lives, found that longevity for men at age 65 fell by six months to 22.2 years while that of women fell by eight months to 24.1 years. While longevity is still expected to be higher than it is today, it is by a smaller margin than earlier forecasts. PwC, the professional services firm, recently produced a study concluding that as much as £310bn could be wiped from the liabilities of UK defined benefit schemes. Although a respected group of actuaries hit back, describing the assumption as “extreme”, the entire debate has escalated to the political arena.

A backdrop to the discussion is the fact that increases in the age at which state pensions are payable is open for debate. In thinking about the rate at which state pension ages rise, the UK Government Actuary's Department assumes — as does the Office for National Statistics — that, in future, longevity will rise at the same pace it has for the past century; that is, 1.2 per cent each year. That could change with new data to be released in the autumn.

But history suggests there are good reasons to take a very long view when making longevity assumptions, rather than be distracted by short-term fluctuations. In the 60 years between 1911 and 1971, the life expectancy of men reaching 65 rose by 1.34 years before falling back. That is a rate of roughly 0.6 per cent annually, about half the rate built into the GAD forecast. But in the next 20 years to 1991, males of 65 years gained, on average, another two years, and from that point onwards, the rise was increasingly rapid.

Moreover, a look outside Britain's borders tells us that longevity will keep rising. Physiologically, all humans are pretty much the same, even if we look different. And while environmental and behavioural differences will affect longevity, there is no underlying biological reason why lifespans should differ by country. Data from the UN show that people in China, Italy, Spain, Japan and Sweden are already outliving the British.

The science behind human longevity suggests that forecasting the outer limits of lifespans is a wasted exercise. Professor Thomas Kirkwood of the Institute for Ageing at Newcastle University, rejects the notion that humans are “programmed” to die and says there is no evidence of this in evolutionary biology. Cells have the capacity to repair themselves, but successive damage, through illnesses, poor nutrition or accidents, eventually undermines their ability to self-repair. That provokes the process of ageing. But as large numbers of people enter old age with far less cellular damage than their parents and grandparents, they are better able to withstand shocks. This process has extended lifespans and made healthy lives at older ages possible.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, actuaries at insurance companies sought to find a “law of mortality” that would allow them to price the risk of death accurately. The industry clubbed its data together in 1847 and again in 1870 and found that, for its customer base, not much had changed. But a further review in 1893 produced a shock: the rate of death among women aged 60 — to whom the insurance industry had sold annuities — had fallen by over half since the previous investigation. Unwittingly, the industry had begun to swap mortality risk for longevity risk and at cost to itself.

Scientific intervention has thus rendered an uncomfortable answer to the question, “How long can human beings live, anyway?”. The answer is that we do not know.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The Continuous Mortality Investigations group is an organisation which____

A.explores the secret behind biblical characters' longevity.

B.discusses the rate at which state pension ages rise.

C.produces longevity projections based on the experience of insured and pensioned lives.

D.seeks to find a “law of mortality” that would allow them to price the risk of death accurately

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which of the following countries are already outliving the British?

A.Switzerland.

B.Sweden.

C.Denmark.

D.Norway.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why does Professor Thomas Kirkwood reject the notion that humans are “programmed” to die?

A.Because biotechnology can intervene the process of ageing.

B.Because nowadays people are better able to withstand shocks.

C.Because damages cannot undermine the ability to self-repair of human body.

D.Because cells have the capacity to repair themselves.

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which of the following statements is true according to the article?

A.There is no underlying biological reason can explain why lifespans should differ by country .

B.Office for National Statistics assumes £310bn could be wiped from the liabilities of defined benefit schemes.

C.UK Government Actuary's Department says longevity will rise at the same pace in the coming years.

D.The science behind human longevity can help us forecast the outer limits of lifespans accurately.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.produces longevity projections based on the experience of insured and pensioned lives.
解释：死亡率长期调查小组根据退休老人的情况来进行寿命预测。

(2)答案：B.Sweden.
解释：中国、意大利、西班牙、日本和瑞典人比英国人寿命更长。

(3)答案：D.Because cells have the capacity to repair themselves.
解释：Thomas Kirkwood教授不相信人类的死亡是必然的，他表示从进化生物学的角度讲并没有证据能证明这一点，人类的细胞能够自我修复。

(4)答案：A.There is no underlying biological reason can explain why lifespans should differ by country .
解释：环境和行为因素可以影响人的寿命，但生物学上无法解释为什么各个国家的人寿命不同。

肥胖——生命中不能承受之重

2015年，欧盟和美国的人均预期寿命均出现了轻微的倒退，这是十分反常的。长此以往，我们这一代人甚至可能比上一代人更短寿。我们该怎么面对日益严重的肥胖问题？也许禁烟措施可以给我们一点启发。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

assemble聚集，集合[ə'sembl]

eureka找到了！有了！[ju'riːkə]

conductor售票员[kən'dʌktə(r)]

hypothesis假设，猜测[haɪ'pɒθəsɪs]

tarring焦油，柏油[tɑː(r)]

lethal致命的，毁灭性的['liːθl]

premature过早的，不按时的['premətʃə(r)]

diabetes糖尿病[ˌdaɪə'biːtiːz]

dietary饭食的，饮食的['daɪətəri]

epidemic传染病，流行病[ˌepɪ'demɪk]

opioid类鸦片['əʊpiːəʊɪd]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分14秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分36秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分17秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分9秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How to solve the obesity epidemic（692 words）

By Simon Kuper

How long will we live? Just a year or two ago, it looked as if we forty-somethings would routinely reach 90, while most of our children would hit 100. Our growing bellies hardly seemed to affect our rising lifespans. But now scary news is coming in. Life expectancy in both the EU and the US fell slightly in 2015. The European decline (which went strangely unreported) was the first since Eurostat's data set was assembled in 2002; the US's was the first since 1993. Given that obesity usually kills with a time lag (sometimes of decades), people in obese western countries may soon start “dying younger than earlier generations”, says Professor Alan Dangour, nutrition expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

What to do? Doctors or medical researchers cannot solve this problem. It's up to advertising creatives, finance ministers and town planners.

The necessary medical breakthroughs were made long ago. Soon after the second world war, British researchers noticed a mysterious rise in heart attacks. In 1949, a researcher named Jerry Morris looked into rates in different occupations. When the first results came in, on London bus employees, he had a eureka moment. He told me in 2009, months before his death aged 99: “There was a striking difference in the heart-attack rate. The drivers of these double-decker buses had substantially more, age for age, than the conductors.” Morris immediately guessed the reason: drivers sat all day, while conductors climbed stairs. Soon afterwards, data from postal workers confirmed his hypothesis. Postmen who walked or cycled around delivering mail had fewer heart attacks than male telephonists and clerks who worked behind counters. Exercise protected against heart disease. Morris became possibly the first regular jogger on Hampstead Heath. “People thought I was bananas,” he reminisced.

Meanwhile, another British epidemiologist, Richard Doll, was examining the mysterious rise in lung cancer. He suspected it was due to the tarring of roads. But while checking diagnoses of lung cancer, he had his own eureka moment. He noticed that “if someone had been described as a non-smoker, the diagnosis always turned out to be wrong”. In 1950, Doll and Austin Bradford Hill published a paper proving smoking's link with lung cancer. Since then, smoking has turned out to cause many other diseases besides, while exercise has proved a magic bullet for almost everything, including lethal obesity.

Doll and Morris were part of a British golden age that transformed global health. Between the early 1940s and 1953, Oxford researchers helped develop penicillin, Nye Bevan created the National Health Service, and James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA. Probably no modern medical breakthrough matters as much.

We now know how to live longer. A third of American premature deaths could be prevented if people exercised more, ate healthily or didn't smoke, according to the US National Research Council and Institute of Medicine. That's about 867,000 lives a year. Saving just 10 per cent of them could significantly lengthen US lifespans.

In comparison, the country's opioid epidemic and the Republican assault on health insurance matter less. Yes, it's terrible that the US doesn't have universal healthcare. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine estimates that for every 300 to 800 adults who get coverage, about one life a year is saved. But boring old obesity kills far more. In England, too, obesity was an officially certified cause of mortality on one in four death certificates between 1979 and 2006.

Telling people to exercise and eat healthily doesn't work. We have all heard the message, yet 44 per cent of Brits don't even do moderate exercise. Medics need to hand over the issue to advertising agencies and other people who know how to change behaviour.

The long struggle against smoking is the model. What worked were scary messages on cigarette packets, plus taxation. The World Health Organization backs sugar taxes. The key group to reach are the under-18s, because most life-long dietary habits are set by adolescence.

Many people won't like the nanny state interfering in their lifestyles. That's a reasonable view. However, it entails the avoidable and expensive deaths of millions of people.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What can we know from Jerry Morris' research?

A.Double-decker bus drivers had higher heart-attack rate than those who drive single-deck vehicles.

B.Conductors were less likely to suffer from heart attack because they often climbed stairs.

C.Postmen who walked or cycled around delivering mail had fewer heart attacks than the conductors.

D.Telephonists and clerks had the highest heart-attack rate among all the occupations.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which of the following statements about the falling life expectancy is true according to the passage?

A.Inadequate healthcare matter less than lethal obesity in America.

B.Life expectancy in the EU had fallen before 2002.

C.Doctors or medical researchers hold the key to solving this problem.

D.Exercise is a magic bullet for almost everything except smoking.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who proved the link between smoking and lung cancer?

A.Alan Dangour and Nye Bevan.

B.James Watson and Francis Crick.

C.Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill.

D.Alan Dangour and Jerry Morris.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What does the author try to argue in the passage?

A.The Republican assault on healthcare doesn't really matter.

B.Obesity is much more lethal than smoking and lack of exercise.

C.Obesity is the biggest challenge for medical researchers.

D.Obesity is an increasingly serious problem for people's health.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Conductors were less likely to suffer from heart attack because they often climbed stairs.
解释：与整天坐着的司机相比，双层巴士的售票员常常要爬楼梯，因此心脏病发病率更低。

(2)答案：A.Inadequate healthcare matter less than lethal obesity in America.
解释：在美国，与医保费用不足导致的死亡相比，肥胖引起的死亡要多得多。

(3)答案：C.Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill.
解释：1950年，Richard Doll 和 Austin Bradford Hill发表了论文，证实了吸烟与肺癌的相关性。

(4)答案：D.Obesity is an increasingly serious problem for people's health.
解释：作者在文中介绍了肥胖对于公众健康的威胁。

我们需要多少种裸色？

或许，时尚产业终于开始认识到人们生来就有不同的肤色了。长期以来裸色系服饰有限的颜色选择让很多人找不到最适合自己的颜色，现在，许多品牌开始想办法填补色谱上的空缺。为何会有人喜欢穿裸色的衣物？我们究竟需要多少种裸色？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

hosiery袜类，针织品['həʊziəri]

conjunction结合，关联[kən'dʒʌŋkʃn]

palette调色板，颜料['pælət]

woeful悲伤的，悲哀的['woʊfl]

cursory草率的，粗略的['kɜːsəri]

beige米黄色的[beɪʒ]

lingerie女用内衣['lænʒəri]

contour轮廓['kɒntʊə(r)]

cashmere山羊绒，软毛织物['kæʃmɪə(r)]

balk阻止，退缩，拒绝[bɔːk]

scant不充分的，不足的[skænt]

sceptical怀疑的['skeptɪkl]

imperative诫命，需要[ɪm'perətɪv]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分8秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分40秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分3秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分25秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

In the nudes: why skin is in（852 words）

By Jo Ellison

Is the fashion industry finally waking up to the fact that humans come in all colours? Two companies have launched new initiatives with the specific aim of representing a broader range of skin tones. London hosiery brand Sheer Chemistry last month released a range of five new tights colours aimed to suit “women of all shades of brown” in conjunction with the hotel W London.

According to the company's founder Tahlia Gray, the hosiery will serve those who have been “confined to a cycle of disappointment and exclusion from the fashion and beauty industry”.

This month, London-based hosiery brand Heist Studios launched The Nude Project as part of a broader study on diversity, for which it is asking people to send in photographs of themselves to better understand the full spectrum of skin tones. The submissions will inform a “much larger range of nude tights” that will go on sale next year and the company will share its findings with the industry in the hope it will encourage brands “to open their product ranges and cater to a more ethnically diverse population”.

“Despite the fact that the hosiery industry is projected to be worth $25.9bn by 2018, there is no fabric-ready nude palette that body-wear brands like Heist can use to develop inclusive product ranges,” explains Heist founder Edzard van der Wyck. “Hosiery is woefully under-representative. General retailers sell roughly one-third of all tights purchased in the UK and they only offer, on average, four shades of nude. This gives us some indication of how poorly the 13 per cent of the UK population that are not ‘white British’, are currently catered for.”

Why anyone would require flesh-coloured tights in 2017 is another matter entirely; I had naively assumed the only woman still obligated to wear a garment that gives one's legs the eerily smooth artificiality of a prosthetic limb was the Duchess of Cambridge. But it transpires a great many people are excited by the prospect of skin-matched hosiery — especially those lawyers and women who work in the finance sector who remain self-conscious about baring their legs at work. Twelve thousand people had signed up to The Nude Project within three hours of its launch, on July 11, and tens of thousands have engaged with it on social media.

Like Sheer Chemistry, the people at Heist have identified a blind-spot in the industry (or should that be greige spot). While the Heist researchers generously suggest there typically exist about four to seven skin tones in “garments worn next to the skin”, a cursory examination of nudes on the high street reflects a more limited palette. Try and find a flesh-coloured knicker, for example.

Marks and Spencer's nude underwear extends only to white, black and a beige, which might otherwise be described as “pan stick”. Topshop's versions come in a very peachy shade of rose which, while they might suit most skin types, would only really match an unprotected white skin after a few too many hours in the sun. Hanro, the Swiss lingerie brand beloved for its contour fit and cashmere comfort, does offer a selection of six shades — from “powder” through “mocha” to “mahogany” — but many may balk at the prospect of paying about £15 for a single pair of undercrackers. In most instances, the choices are scant: no wonder niche lingerie lines such as the London-based Nubian Skin, launched in 2014 by Ade Hassan “to provide the essential underwear needs of women of colour”, are cleaning up.

But why wouldn't brands want to serve more people with its products? The imperative of diversity aside, it simply makes good business sense. (I am reminded of a recent article in the Financial Times, in which Ozohu Adoh, founder of the Epara skincare line for women of colour, was forced to point out to her financiers, sceptical of the “minority market” she intended to serve, that “Nigerian women spend more money in Harrods than women of any other country — one out of every three pounds in 2015”. The beauty industry is way ahead on diversity (Bobbi Brown offers 31 shades of foundation while MAC foundations come in 46 variations), but even fashion brands must now realise that colour blindness is as economically backward as it is bigoted.

Niche brands serving the needs of men and women of colour are now fast emerging. But it's especially cheering when a global fashion brand decides to offer a broader product range as part of its main line. When Christian Louboutin first introduced his Nudes Collection of classic shoes in 2013, he offered them in five shades, which he increased to seven last year. So successful has it been, that this year he introduced two new styles: the ballet-inspired Christeriva and the chunkier Cherrysandal.

Having shared an image of my phizog with The Nude Project, I eagerly await the spectrum of colours that will more accurately reflect my own skin colour when I shop for sheers next spring. I just hope that among all the coppers, mochas, Kardashians and cappuccinos they'll be some consideration for us poor specimens better suited to shades such as ashen, pallid or “a little bit blue looking”.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which of the following brands is not based in London?

A.Sheer Chemistry.

B.Heist Studios.

C.Nubian Skin.

D.Hanro.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the purpose of The Nude Project?

A.To encourage women to wear flesh-coloured tights in the workplace.

B.To engage with Heist Studios' costumers on social media.

C.To better understand the diversity of skin colours.

D.To gives one's legs the smooth artificiality of a prosthetic limb.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following statements about hosiery industry is true?

A.It is projected to be worth $25.9bn by 2018.

B.Most of the hosiery brands are based in Europe.

C.It serves those who have been excluded from the fashion industry.

D.It caters for lawyers and women who work in the finance sector.

答案⁽³⁾

4.How many shades did Christian Louboutin's Nudes Collection offer last year?

A.Two.

B.Five.

C.Seven.

D.Nine.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Hanro.
解释：Hanro是一家瑞士女性内衣品牌。

(2)答案：C.To better understand the diversity of skin colours.
解释：“裸色计划”邀请人们发来自己的照片以便更好地了解不同人群肤色的色谱。

(3)答案：A.It is projected to be worth $25.9bn by 2018.
解释：据估计，到2018年，袜类将会是一个价值259亿美元的产业。

(4)答案：C.Seven.
解释：当Christian Louboutin在2013年推出裸色系列时，它提供了五种颜色，又在去年增加到了七种。

智能电击手环——剁手党克星？

市面上有很多号称能帮助用户控制花销的理财app，但没有一个可以从根本上解决缺乏自制力的问题。如今，一种特殊的电击手环Pavlok出现了。电击真的能帮助你克制购物冲动吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

electrocute以电击处死，通电致死[ɪ'lektrəkjuːt]

vie竞争[vaɪ]

bracelet手镯['breɪslət]

stimulus刺激，激励，刺激品['stɪmjʊləs]

squander浪费，使……散开['skwɒndə(r)]

zap击溃，射杀[zæp]

array大批，一系列[ə'reɪ]

clamour喧闹['klæmə(r)]

antidote解毒剂，解['æntidəʊt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分24秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分42秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分21秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分10秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Can an electric shock help curb your spending?（706 words）

By Aime Williams

Tech companies believe that knowledge is power, and the digital banks vying for the world's savers are no exception. By offering colourful apps that promise users control over their finances, companies such as Atom, Monzo and Tandem think that giving people more information will help them make smarter decisions.

But a dark question stalks these ambitions: what if people have no self-control? What if, when told they spend a third of their monthly salary on takeaway coffee, they continue overspending? When it comes to money, sometimes people just don't want to know.

Enter a new breed of sneaky financial apps, which also collect information about your spending habits. They don't, however, bother telling you about them but quietly take action on your behalf. I'm thinking of apps such as Plum and Chip, which monitor your spending and move cash from your current account into your savings when you spend less than usual.

The problem is that they still don't actually stop you spending. While the digital banks try to horrify you by illustrating your monthly caffeine spend with a neatly drawn pie chart, the sneaky apps just accept that you're an idiot and get on with the job of saving you from yourself where they can.

For many, this undercover assistance will be helpful. But for anyone really serious about stopping their coffee habit, there's a new way. Pavlok — its name inspired by Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov — is a bracelet that gives you a mild electric shock if you do something you don't want to do. This method has no interest in your comfort and dignity, only in “allowing you to achieve 100 per cent of your goals 100 per cent of the time” (in the words of its creator).

Pavlok agrees with Chip and Plum's conclusion that you can't be trusted to make good decisions. More data cannot help you resist Pret coffees but what if someone electrocuted you every time you bought one? Might it work?

Maneesh Sethi, Pavlok's inventor, admits that people have been slow to catch on to the idea of negative stimuli instead of rewards — although he has sold about 50,000 Pavloks so far. Sethi invented this bracelet because he had what he described as “a severe addiction to Facebook”. In a neat circle, technology is rounding on itself, getting your attention to stop you squandering your attention. “The thing is, there are lots of positive stimuli in the world, and people get addicted to checking their phones,” says Sethi. “With this, your hand reaches in for your phone and it zaps you.”

Intelligent Environments, another tech company, which develops software for large banks, has linked the Pavlok bracelet directly to users' bank accounts. Tom Stinton, head of product at the company, says technologies such as contactless debit cards or Amazon buttons are helping people spend their money more swiftly. But our growing aversion to physical cash means people now find it harder to monitor their spending. For Intelligent Environments, the answer is not a digital bank but an “internet of things bank”.

The “internet of things” is the name given to the fast-growing array of day-to-day objects that can connect to the internet. The commonly used example is a fridge that orders its own milk when you're running low. The Pavlok fits right into this concept but instead of buying you milk, it electrocutes you.

Unfortunately, Intelligent Environment's clients (ie, large banks) have yet to be persuaded that electrocuting their customers is a good idea. Fear not, though, because Pavlok has found another way to tame your manic profligacy. Its new version can, somewhat worryingly, track your movements and electrocute you if you go anywhere you're not supposed to (like the coffee shop).

None of this is particularly sophisticated, of course. But perhaps it's the logical conclusion of the never-ending clamour for our attention and cash. Maybe our willpower is weaker than before, just as our attention spans are shorter, and the Pavlok is both the result of a tech-powered information overload and an antidote to it.

There is only one more problem but Sethi seems to have considered it already. What if I just decide to take off the bracelet? “We're developing a lock,” he replies.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What are the basic features of Plum and Chip?

A.They track your movements and electrocute you if you go anywhere you're not supposed to.

B.They help people spend their money more swiftly with contactless cards.

C.They monitor your spending and move cash into your savings when you spend less than usual.

D.They gives you a mild electric shock if you do something you don't want to do.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is “internet of things” according to the article?

A.Apps that give people more information to them make smarter decisions.

B.A neatly drawn pie chart that illustrates your monthly spending.

C.A fast-growing array of day-to-day objects that can connect to the internet.

D.Digital banks that automatically move cash from your current account into your savings.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following statements about Pavlok is true?

A.It can illustrate your monthly caffeine spend with a chart.

B.Its new version can electrocute you if you go anywhere you're not supposed to.

C.It is originally designed to stop people's coffee habit.

D.It has a lock in its bracelet which prevents people from taking it off.

答案⁽³⁾

4.From the article we can conclude that the author's attitude towards Pavlok?

A.Supportive.

B.Skeptical.

C.Negative.

D.Impartial.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.They monitor your spending and move cash into your savings when you spend less than usual.
解释：Plum和Chip这一类app可以监测你的花销，并在你花得比往常更少时把省下来的钱转入储蓄账户。

(2)答案：C.A fast-growing array of day-to-day objects that can connect to the internet.
解释：“物联网”指的是一系列快速发展的可以连接互联网的日常用品。

(3)答案：B.Its new version can electrocute you if you go anywhere you're not supposed to.
解释：新版本的Pavlok可以追踪人们的行动，并在你去了不该去的地方的时候电击你。

(4)答案：D.Impartial.
解释：作者在文中介绍了Pavlok的作用，并提出了自己的担忧。

阿玛尼的新烦恼

由于销售额下滑，奢侈品公司乔治·阿玛尼决定将其旗下的七个品牌合并为三个，以适应正在经历转型阵痛的奢侈品市场。随着数字化时代的到来，奢侈品行业也在经历着改变。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

eponymous使得名的，齐名的[ɪ'pɒnɪməs]

geopolitical地理政治学的[ˌdʒiːəʊpə'lɪtɪkl]

dilute冲淡，稀释[daɪ'luːt]

allure诱惑力，吸引力[ə'lʊə(r)]

consolidation巩固，合并[kənˌsɒlɪ'deɪʃən]

rationalization合理化[ˌræʃnəlaɪ'zeɪʃn]

throes剧痛[θrəʊz]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分31秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分39秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分36秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分54秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Giorgio Armani rationalises brands as revenues fall（548 words）

By Rachel Sanderson

Italian luxury group Giorgio Armani announced plans to slash the number of brands it sells and restructure its store network as it reported group sales fell 5 per cent in 2016.

The shake up sees Armani group's seven design lines reduced to three: high end Giorgio Armani, midmarket Emporio Armani and lower priced Armani Exchange. Haute couture Giorgio Armani Prive and interiors brand Armani/ Casa will be folded into Giorgio Armani, while mid market Armani Collezioni and Armani Jeans will be absorbed into Emporio Armani, the Milan-based group said.

Mr Armani, 83-year old founder and owner of the eponymous Milan-based luxury group, said in a statement that “2016 proved to be a difficult year for the fashion and luxury industry”.

Armani group revenues fell to €2.51bn in 2016, squeezing margins “compared to the previous three years”, the privately held group said. Net profit rose to €271m up from €241m in 2015 due to cost control, it added without providing further details.

Mr Armani put the company's revenue fall down to macro and geopolitical concerns and also “a general change in purchasing behaviours and attitudes”.

But luxury groups Kering, LVMH and Hermes all reported revenue increases for 2016 of 5 per cent or more, despite a tough first half.

Luxury analyst and executives have for several years questioned Armani Group's strategy of selling through several different lines, especially in the mid market, arguing it was diluting the allure of Armani as a luxury brand. Competitors such as LVMH's Louis Vuitton have successfully boosted revenues by pushing into more expensive luxury goods and cutting lines of lower priced items.

Former deputy chairman John Hooks said in an interview in 2012 that Armani's rapid expansion into the mid-range was one of reasons he left in 2011.

Mr Armani said the company was “continuing along the path of consolidation and rationalisation of the group, operating as always with a view to continuity and long term perspective,” Mr Armani said.

Armani, which was an early mover into luxury e-commerce in China but was slow to embrace social media, said from mid September it would have separate dedicated accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani and Armani Exchange.

Luca Solca, analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, argued Armani — similarly to Ralph Lauren — is confronting the structural challenge of being a fashion and ready to wear brand.

Mr Solca said there has been a “huge increase” in competition in the last decades from mid priced brands like Sandro, Maje, Pinko or Liu Jo.

Meanwhile, at the top end “designer brands are losing out in terms of brand appeal to accessories brands — like Louis Vuitton or Gucci — as they have much lower control of their distribution,” Mr Solca added.

Armani's restructuring comes as the global luxury industry is in the throes of adapting to epochal changes in shopping behaviour brought about by social media and the internet.

The luxury market is set to grow 2 per cent to 4 per cent in 2017 at constant exchange rates but the gap between winners and losers will widen, consultants Bain said in May.

The momentum of digital transformation continues to reshape the luxury industry and online sales will have the highest growth of any retail channel in the sector, Bain added.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is Giorgio Armani's plan to combat falling revenues?

A.To slash the number of design lines and move into e-commerce in China.

B.To slash the number of design lines and restructure its store network.

C.To slash the number of stores and move into e-commerce in China.

D.To slash the number of stores and rebuild its brand appeal in young people.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which brands will be folded into Giorgio Armani according to the article?

A.Armani Jeans and Armani/ Casa.

B.Emporio Armani and Armani Exchange.

C.Giorgio Armani Prive and Armani/ Casa.

D.Armani Collezioni and Armani Jeans.

答案⁽²⁾

3.How did Armani's competitor Louis Vuitton successfully boosted its revenues?

A.They pushed into more expensive luxury goods and cut lines of lower priced items.

B.They studied the general change in purchasing behaviours and attitudes.

C.They have separate dedicated accounts on social media for each brand.

D.They raise their net profit from €241m in 2015 to €271m by cost control.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is Giorgio Armani's main problem according to Bain?

A.Designer brands are losing out in terms of brand appeal to accessories brands.

B.Global luxury industry is in the throes of adapting to epochal changes in shopping behaviour.

C.Armani Group's strategy of selling through several different lines diluted the allure of Armani.

D.Armani was slow to embrace social media and luxury e-commerce.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.To slash the number of design lines and restructure its store network.
解释：2016年，乔治·阿玛尼的集团收入下降了5%，因此他们决定削减产品线，并重建门店网络。

(2)答案：C.Giorgio Armani Prive and Armani/ Casa.
解释：高级时装线Giorgio Armani Prive和家居品牌Armani/ Casa将被归入Giorgio Armani品牌。

(3)答案：A.They pushed into more expensive luxury goods and cut lines of lower priced items.
解释：阿玛尼的竞争对手路易·威登通过增加高端奢侈品产量和砍掉其较为低端的产品线成功实现了利润增长。

(4)答案：B.Global luxury industry is in the throes of adapting to epochal changes in shopping behaviour.
解释：咨询公司Bain认为，全球的奢侈品工业正在面临着购物方式的新变革所带来的阵痛。

抵制还是不抵制，这是一个问题

“抵制“这种行为真的有用吗？当双方都坚定不移地认为自己占据了道德的制高点时，我们怎么能说服对方自己才是对的？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

cannily精明的，机灵地['kænɪli]

thrall奴隶，束缚[θrɔːl]

recrimination反控告，反责[rɪˌkrɪmɪ'neɪʃn]

swanky爱出风头的，漂亮的['swæŋki]

redemptive赎回的，买回的[rɪ'demptɪv]

disruptive捣乱的，破坏性的[dɪs'rʌptɪv]

radical根本的，激进的/['rædɪkl]

rebuttal反驳，反证[rɪ'bʌtl]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分24秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分16秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分45秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分19秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

To boycott, or not to boycott?（790 words）

By Jan Dalley

It has been a bitterly angry week on the cultural front. The furore began when film-maker Ken Loach launched an attack on the band Radiohead for playing in Israel, breaching the cultural boycott of the country called for by the Palestinian-led movement BDS and supported by a large number of cultural luminaries.

“Radiohead need to decide if they stand with the oppressed or the oppressor. The choice is simple,” Loach stated. Radiohead singer Thom Yorke's rather well-composed defence countered that “playing in a country isn't the same as endorsing its government” (touring the US under Trump was easily evoked as a parallel) and more, to the effect that the band wanted to cross borders rather than erect them.

Pro-Palestinian voices pitched in, musicians contributed to the wordstorm, the Israelis let out an annoying cock-a-doodle-doo of triumph, and the giant gig in Tel Aviv duly went ahead on Wednesday night.

It had, I'm sad to say, an air of déjà vu. Rows about cultural boycotts come round Iike Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Or Eid. Barely two years ago, the letters page of The Guardian received a call for boycotting Israel signed by 700 figures working in the arts, and a rebuttal from others, including Hilary Mantel and JK Rowling, who argued that such a boycott was actively unhelpful because “cultural engagement builds bridges, nurtures freedom and positive movement for change”. The same argument as Yorke's.

Last week, too, the Arab-Israeli musician Nasreen Qadri, whom Radiohead had cannily chosen as their support act, wrote in US Newsweek that in her view “Those who call for boycott are only trying to divide us.”

So, pace Loach, the choice is far from simple. Whether or not Israel's policies deserve a boycott, it's an argument that no one can absolutely win. Camp A believes sanctions are an essential gesture of protest; Camp B holds that cultural bridge-building is a better route to change. Both sides can claim the moral high ground, but neither can be proved right because the effectiveness or undesirability of a boycott strategy is so hard to establish.

For musicians, though, there's a third option: you couldn't care less about the politics, only about the music. This was the basis on which Paul Simon, in thrall to the African music he had just discovered, landed himself in the mother of all boycott rows in 1986. By making his Graceland album with black musicians in apartheid South Africa, he flouted both the fierce UN boycott on cultural links with the country and South Africa's apartheid laws. He was accused of all sorts, from all sides, including de haut en bas colonial attitudes and unfair appropriation of other people's music.

Recriminations got even nastier when it transpired that singer Linda Ronstadt, a guest on the album, had played the (musically) notorious Sun City, a swanky whites-only resort within an area into which blacks were forcibly resettled. Outrage against big-money gigs at the resort, and the musicians who accepted them, had prompted the 1985 protest song “Sun City”, recorded by a line-up including such big names as Pete Townshend.

***

It's ironic, perhaps, that if a similar protest track were made now, it would have to go ahead without Madonna, Justin Bieber, Leonard Cohen, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Nick Cave and the dozens more who have recently played, or are about to play, Tel Aviv.

Graceland was a moral hornets' nest. But to me Paul Simon, though far from perfect, was a hero for reasons — social, political, human, musical — too numerous to explore here. In the same way, western bands who made it to the Soviet bloc at about the same time — Iron Maiden first, in 1984; three years later Billy Joel, then others — were seen as heroes. I never heard any of them accused of complicity with Soviet authorities: quite the opposite. But in those days we believed in the disruptive, even redemptive, power of rock music. As did the repressive regimes who tried so hard to ban it. Rock and pop were, let's face it, far less commercialised, globalised, co-opted into brand culture, tourism and fashion. Back then they were a weapon of dissent; now, a sticking plaster.

During all this mud-slinging, one brave attempt at dissolving borders has been in my mind. The West-Eastern Divan orchestra, set up 18 years ago by the late Edward Said (a Palestinian) and Daniel Barenboim (an Argentine-Israeli, also a citizen of Palestine and Spain), brings together Palestinian, Israeli and other Arab players in a deliberate cultural intervention.

One country where the orchestra has never played is Israel. Could it possibly be that a little bit of Ravel, if played by the “wrong” people, is now more disruptive and radical than the thundering of Radiohead?

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why did the band Radiohead cause a furore?

A.Because they were accused of complicity with Palestine authorities.

B.Because they floated Israel's apartheid laws.

C.Because they endorsed Israeli government.

D.Because they played in Israel.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the fourth paragraph, Hilary Mantel and JK Rowling believe____.

A.Boycotting Israel is a positive movement for change.

B.Such a boycott against Israel was actively unhelpful.

C.Calling for boycott are only trying to divide people.

D.Musicians couldn't care less about the politics.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following statements is true according to the article?

A.Iron Maiden became the first western band who made it to the Soviet bloc in 1984.

B.Western bands who made it to the Soviet bloc were accused of complicity with Soviet authorities.

C.The Soviet authorities tried so hard to ban rock music because it is far less commercialised.

D.The West-Eastern Divan orchestra was set up by the Arab-Israeli musician Nasreen Qadri.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What's the author's attitude towards boycott？

A.Supportive.

B.Skeptical.

C.Impartial.

D.Not clear.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Because they played in Israel.
解释：Radiohead因为在以色列演出而遭到以导演肯·洛奇为首的一群人抵制。

(2)答案：B.Such a boycott against Israel was actively unhelpful.
解释：希拉里·曼特尔和JK·罗琳认为呼吁抵制以色列没有什么用。

(3)答案：A.Iron Maiden became the first western band who made it to the Soviet bloc in 1984.
解释：同样，来自西方的乐队几乎在同一时间造访了苏联，最早的一支乐队是1984的Iron Maiden。

(4)答案：B.Skeptical.
解释：从文章中可以得知作者质疑抵制这一行为是否真的有积极作用。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集
Vol.13

我们的领导人怎么了？

近日，西蒙娜·薇依和赫尔穆特·科尔的相继去世令人不禁扼腕，这不免让我们想到，在如今这个空虚而愚蠢的年代里，我们似乎很难再找到令人敬佩的伟大领导人了。为什么会这样？我们的领导人究竟怎么了？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

reconciliation调和（和解，一致）[ˌrekənsɪli'eɪʃn]

sanitise消毒，使无害[ˌrekənsɪli'eɪʃn]

grotesque奇怪的，可笑的[ɡrəʊ'tesk]

lacerating被撕裂的，受伤的['læsəreɪt]

imbue灌输，使感染，使充满['læsəreɪt]

patronage赞助，任免权['pætrənɪdʒ/

apartheid种族隔离[ə'pɑːtaɪt]

arithmetic算术[ə'rɪθmətɪk]

vacuousness空虚，愚蠢[ə'rɪθmətɪk]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分27秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分44秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分22秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分11秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

What has happened to the quality of our leaders?（710 words）

By Michael Skapinker

Simone Veil, former French health minister, women's champion, social reformer and president of the European Parliament, passed away last week. Her death came shortly before the funeral of Helmut Kohl, the German chancellor who presided over the unification of his country.

Ms Veil survived Auschwitz. Mr Kohl could be insensitive to the Nazis' victims, pressing US president Ronald Reagan to visit a cemetery where SS members were buried. But he strove to ensure Germany's peaceful future in Europe and its reconciliation with old enemies. He helped reshape a continent.

Kohl succeeded two chancellors whose seriousness and stature remain vivid in the memories of those of us in the generation after theirs: Willy Brandt, who died in 1992, and Helmut Schmidt who passed away in 2015. All these leaders had their flaws, human and political. But they were a towering generation. Where do we find their like today?

History will probably view Angela Merkel, the present German chancellor, as a figure of substance. But the rest? The UK faces, in Brexit, its greatest challenge since the end of empire and the Suez crisis.

And who does the country of Winston Churchill have at its head? Theresa May, whose veneer of competence cracked on its first encounter with the electorate. Itching to take over from her is Labour's Jeremy Corbyn, whose approach to Brexit is as incoherent as hers.

France's new president, Emmanuel Macron, promises much, but is yet to be tested. He won the election after his Socialist predecessor François Hollande, in whose government he served, became a figure of ridicule. Mr Macron defeated Marine Le Pen, who won over a third of the votes cast. In spite of her attempts to sanitise it, her National Front has its roots in the political culture that persecuted Ms Veil.

In the US, President Donald Trump's increasingly grotesque behaviour last weekend included tweeting a doctored video of him wrestling a CNN journalist to the ground.

What has happened to the quality of our leaders? One answer is that, unlike the generation of Veil and Kohl, leaders today have had no lacerating experience, such as the second world war, to imbue them with an understanding of the consequences of institutional breakdown and ethnic and racial hatred.

But if lack of experience of hard times has produced today's inadequates, how do we explain South Africa? Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma both suffered under apartheid and spent years in prison for opposing it. Yet the former was a case study in integrity and leadership while the latter presides over a patronage-strewn embarrassment of a government.

Is the problem that today's leaders are exercising their skills outside politics, perhaps in business? Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and his wife started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is active in health, education and the empowerment of women and girls. Michael Bloomberg, founder of the eponymous financial information and news company, has served as mayor of New York. Paul Polman, chief executive of Unilever, has championed business as a force for social and environmental good.

But there are not enough business chiefs to compensate for the dearth of political leaders and, in any case, they do not run our countries.

Do we have such poor leaders because we deserve them? This is a common view, which says that we live in trivial, reality television-addled times and, as a result, elect unserious or incompetent leaders to represent us.

But there are plenty of signs that electorates are unhappy with the political choices on offer. In last month's UK general election, voters refused to entrust either the Conservatives or Labour with the task of ruling them, resulting in a hung parliament.

Although the arithmetic of the electoral college propelled him to the White House, Mr Trump won fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in last year's presidential poll. And in local elections last year, Mr Zuma's African National Congress saw its votes fall as it lost key cities such as Johannesburg and Pretoria to the opposition.

Possibly the problem is our archaic parties and that we need new political movements to enthuse able would-be leaders to enter politics. Mr Macron's République en Marche is one such movement. In an age of political vacuousness, there is a lot riding on his success.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who is Simone Veil according to the first paragraph?

A.France's first woman president and a feminist activist.

B.Former German chancellor who presided over the unification of his country..

C.Former French health minister and president of the European Parliament.

D.A famous feminism activist has published several influential books in sociology.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.In this article, the author criticizes several politicians except____.

A.Angela Merkel.

B.Theresa May.

C.Donald Trump.

D.François Hollande.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following statements is true according to the author?

A.Labour's Jeremy Corbyn can be a better Prime Minister than Theresa May.

B.Marine Le Pen won nearly half of the votes cast in the French election.

C.Jacob Zuma presided over the unification of his country.

D.Nelson Mandela was a case study in integrity and leadership.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What's the author's attitude towards République en Marche？

A.Positive.

B.Negative.

C.Indifferent.

D.Not clear.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Former French health minister and president of the European Parliament.
解释：前法国卫生部长、女性中的佼佼者、社会改革家和欧洲议会主席Simone Veil上周去世。

(2)答案：A.Angela Merkel.
解释：默克尔很可能成为历史上的重要人物。

(3)答案：D.Nelson Mandela was a case study in integrity and leadership.
解释：曼德拉是一位品格正直且富有领导才能的标志性人物。

(4)答案：A.Positive.
解释：我们需要新的政治运动来鼓动未来的领导者们踏入政坛，马克龙的République en Marche就是这样的运动。

Lucinda Chambers与被炒鱿鱼的艺术

丢了工作并不是什么不光彩的事，Lucinda Chambers就打破了两条被辞退员工的金科玉律，亲身向我们展示了被炒鱿鱼的艺术。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

glossy光滑的，有光泽的['ɡlɒsi]

cahoot合谋，同伙[kə'huːt]

disparagement轻蔑，贬低[dɪ'spærɪdʒmənt]

beholder旁观者[bɪ'həʊldə(r)]

disparage蔑视，贬损[dɪ'spærɪdʒ]

pragmatism实用主义['præɡmətɪzəm]

salutary有益的，有益健康的['sæljətri]

cahoot合谋，同伙[kə'huːt]

gag箝制言论，讨论终结[ɡæɡ]

menial适合仆人做的，卑微的['miːniəl]

hairdresser理发师，美容师['heədresə(r)]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分44秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分53秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分29秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分13秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Lucinda Chambers and the art of being sacked（734 words）

By Lucy Kellaway

Last week, Lucinda Chambers broke two golden rules on how to behave when you have just been sacked. The former fashion director of British Vogue gave an interview in which she refused to pretend the break-up had been mutual: “I didn't leave. I was fired.”

She then burnt all bridges by knocking the magazine where she had worked for 36 years and trashing the entire fashion industry.

According to her, fashion chews you up and spits you out. It makes people so insecure that every time they give a dinner party, they are in mortal dread of having the wrong napkins.

Glossy mags do not empower women but encourage them to buy ludicrously overpriced tat they do not need. Worst of all, they are in cahoots with advertisers, hence a “crap” cover shoot she did for the June issue of Vogue, featuring Alexa Chung in a black-and-white T-shirt designed by Michael Kors, a big advertiser.

We are supposed to disapprove of dirty laundry, but after reading Ms Chambers' interview in Vestoj, an obscure fashion journal, I am all for it.

The stains on the Vogue linen were salutary for us to see, even though they were in predictable places.

The only shame is that people do not do this more often. Almost everyone who leaves under a cloud — or even under no cloud at all — keeps their mouth shut, partly out of good breeding and a feeling that bridge-burning is not in their self-interest.

But even if pragmatism does not gag them the non-disparagement clause they will have almost certainly been forced to sign will do the trick.

These clauses should themselves be disparaged. They get in the way of freedom of speech and allow companies to persist in behaving badly.

Everyone should be able to say whatever they like when they leave — so long as they do not give away commercial secrets.

There is little chance that corporate reputations would be destroyed undeservedly because the public is pretty good at distinguishing sour grapes from regular ones.

When the axe fell on Carol Bartz, the former chief executive of Yahoo, she ranted in an interview: “These people fucked me over.” Her choice of words gave a pretty big clue as to just how angry she was, and warned the public to take her disparagement with a pinch of salt.

By comparison, Ms Chambers' tone was measured. She seemed merely to be speaking her mind.

Yet, even better than her truth-telling about one of the nastier industries was her proud use of the word fired. “I don't want to be the person who puts on a brave face and tells everyone, ‘Oh, I decided to leave the company,’ when everyone knows you were really fired,” she said. “There's too much smoke and mirrors in the industry as it is.”

This was delightfully frank. People hardly ever admit to having been sacked, partly for legal reasons and partly because we cling to the idea that it is a disgrace.

I have just looked for examples of successful people who have talked about being sacked, and what comes up is Steve Jobs — who does not count as he is (was) Steve Jobs — and a lot of celebs who were fired decades earlier from menial jobs.

People are sacked all the time. Sometimes they have done something disgraceful, but mostly they have not. The longer we work and the more we change jobs, the more likely all of us will get fired at least once. It is time the word was used in a less charged way.

There is only one thing in the interview that strikes a wrong note. “Truth be told,” Ms Chambers bragged, “I haven't read Vogue in years. The clothes are just irrelevant for most people.” I have not read Vogue in years, either. In my case, I have not read it for 57, though I sometimes give it a quick skim at the hairdresser and always reach the same conclusion — the clothes are irrelevant.

Yet there is a difference between us. She was employed by Vogue for her entire adult life, and I was not. If you cannot bring yourself to read the magazine that pays you to be its fashion director, there is true shame in being fired after all. Ms Chambers should not have waited to be sacked. She ought to have resigned years ago.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why does the author say Lucinda Chambers broke two golden rules on how to behave when you have just been sacked?

A.Because she admitted she had not read Vogue in years

B.Because she pretend her break-up with British Vogue had been mutual.

C.Because she told the truth about fashion industry.

D.Because she admit she had been fired and criticized her former employer.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the author's attitude towards fashion industry？

A.Supportive.

B.Critical.

C.Impartial.

D.Not clear.

答案⁽²⁾

3.According to the twelfth paragraph, ”take her disparagement with a pinch of salt” probably means____.

A.the public would probably believe Carol Bartz's words completely.

B.the public would listen to her words with doubt.

C.the public could find out that her complaint is completely fake.

D.the public might misunderstand her words.

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage？

A.People hardly ever admit to having been sacked partly because they believe it is a disgrace.

B.People who change jobs frequently will get fired at least once.

C.Most people get fired because they have done something disgraceful.

D.Everyone knows you actually get fired when you tell them you decided to leave the company.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Because she admit she had been fired and criticized her former employer.
解释：Lucinda Chambers打破了两条被炒鱿鱼的金科玉律，这位前Vogue主编承认自己是被辞退了，并大肆批评了自己曾经工作了36的杂志。

(2)答案：B.Critical.
解释：读完Chambers女士在不知名的时尚杂志Vestoj上抨击时尚行业的采访后，我感到无比赞同。

(3)答案：B.the public would listen to her words with doubt.
解释：她的措辞表明她已经极端愤怒，这会让公众对她的话产生怀疑。

(4)答案：A.People hardly ever admit to having been sacked partly because they believe it is a disgrace.
解释：人们几乎从不承认自己被辞退了，部分是出于法律原因，部分是由于我们觉得这很丢脸。

在极地的冰雪中，我找到了梦想中的工作

在我第一次来到北极旅行时，我与当地的导游Milos坠入爱河。几年前，我辞掉了在英国的公关经理工作，搬到瑞典北部定居。在这里，我找到了一份最理想的工作——训练哈士奇拉雪橇……

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

sled 雪撬，小雪撬[sled]

Arctic北极圈，北极地方['ɑːktɪk]

blissful极快乐的，有福的['blɪsfl]

sauna桑拿浴，蒸汽浴['sɔːnə]

snowmobile雪地车['snoʊmoʊməbiːl]

iridescent虹彩色的[ˌɪrɪ'desnt]

petrified使惊呆的['petrɪfaɪd]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分56秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分53秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分46秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分58秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Dream jobs … and how to get them: husky driving in the Arctic（583 words）

By Harriet Fitch Little

Gaynor Leeper, husky driver, northern Sweden

The first time I came to the Arctic it was like landing in Narnia. Kiruna is the northernmost airport in Sweden and the moment the plane doors opened this rush of -20C air came flooding in. I didn't know I was supposed to bring my winter coat on as hand luggage and I was freezing — a total rookie.

On that first trip I was taking a group of tourists to try sledding and Miloš, who is now my husband, was our local guide. I'd always been scared of dogs, I mean really scared, but he gave me some nice dogs to harness and I thought, “Right, show no fear.”

I totally fell in love with them. It was very soon after that I ended up going out for the whole winter, then Miloš and I decided to give our relationship a go.

I'd quit a successful job “going places” as a communications manager in London a few years previously to work in adventure tourism, and I think that was the biggest surprise for my family. When I decided to move to the Arctic to live with 40 dogs it was another leap, but because I'd done it before I felt I could worry about the problems later.

When I got here it was as if all the skills I'd spent my life gathering were absolutely useless. I had to learn how to build fires, chop wood, tie knots and fix the lines for the dogs. Now people look at me and say, “Wow, you're so easy in this environment.” I say, “You didn't see the journey.”

We built our own house recently. It's in the wilderness about 10km from Kiruna, and we've got all the modern facilities. Miloš finished our shower on Christmas Day and it was a blissful moment. Before that we'd been washing ourselves, and our clothes, in the sauna. There's very little in the way of socialising but we've got a small network of friends, mainly other dog mushers, who come over on a snowmobile. They'll have a sauna and a beer and go home in the morning.

The summer in Kiruna is really short, basically only the month of July. We let the dogs run loose and they get very lazy. In autumn we start training them pulling a quad bike, then we switch to the sleds. The dogs work with tourists from December to mid-April. It's a really long season but I like it.

The best days are when I'm out with the dogs and I get this sheer appreciation for the environment. In the depths of winter the sun doesn't rise above the horizon for a month but it means we get these incredible iridescent clouds — they're like rainbows. The moon is the size of a massive orange in the sky and when it comes up it looks like the sun rising. But the weather can be brutal and turn things very serious very quickly.

I've done some sled-dog racing for fun. My first race was 325km and I was lucky enough to win. I think I was on the sled 19 hours. I remember this one moment — it was 3am and I was going over a swamp. It was completely pitch black and I was alone with the dogs. I thought to myself, “Wow, if I were in London right now I would be petrified beyond belief, but here I am quite happy.” It just made sense.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where did the author go at the first time she came to the Arctic?

A.Canada.

B.Finland.

C.Sweden.

D.Norway.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which of the following statements is true according to the author？

A.She got married with Miloš soon after her first trip to the Arctic.

B.She moved to the Arctic because she wanted to live with 40 dogs.

C.She lives in Kiruna together with her husband now.

D.She lived in London before moved to the Arctic.

答案⁽²⁾

3.In the fifth paragraph, what does the author mean by saying "You didn't see the journey”？

A.To indicate that she made great efforts to adapt to the life in the Arctic.

B.To indicate that traveling in the Arctic is very interesting.

C.To explain why she have to learn to fix the lines for the dogs.

D.To show that she has achieved great success in the Arctic.

答案⁽³⁾

4.When do the author and her husband train their dogs to pull a quad bike？

A.In spring.

B.In summer.

C.In autumn.

D.In winter.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Sweden.
解释：我第一次来到北极就像是到了纳尼亚。基律纳是瑞典最靠北的机场，机舱门一开，零下20度的空气就涌了进来。

(2)答案：D.She lived in London before moved to the Arctic.
解释：几年前，我辞去了伦敦的公关经理工作投身于探险旅游业。

(3)答案：A.To indicate that she made great efforts to adapt to the life in the Arctic.
解释：我必须学着生火、砍柴、打结、为狗引路。现在人们看到我会说：“你对这里的环境适应得真好。”我会告诉他们：“你可没看到整个过程。”

(4)答案：C.In autumn.
解释：秋天我们会训练狗拉四轮车。

时尚和普通人无关吗？

本月早些时候，前任Vogue时尚总编Lucinda Chambers对她从事了36年的行业评价道：“时装与大多数人都无关，它们简直贵到荒唐。”她说的对吗？时尚是否真的与普通人无关？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

benefactor恩人，捐助者['benɪfæktə(r)]

daft愚笨的，癫狂的[dɑːft]

innermost内心的，最深处的['ɪnəməʊst]

backfire逆火，适得其反[ˌbæk'faɪə(r)]

ire忿怒['aɪə(r)]

insouciant漠不关心的[ɪn'suːsiənt]

denote象征，表示[dɪ'nəʊt]

subservience从属，奉承[səb'sɜːviəns]

demure严肃的，端庄的[dɪ'mjʊə(r)]

preposterous荒谬的，可笑的[prɪ'pɑːstərəs]

wager押注，打赌['weɪdʒə(r)]

pompous傲慢的，自大的['pɒmpəs]

blather说废话['blæðə(r)]

nascent发生中的，初期的['næsnt]

frock罩袍，女上装[frɒk]

barometer气压计，晴雨表[bə'rɒmɪtə(r)]

glean拾落穗，收集[ɡliːn]

groundbreaking创新的['ɡraʊndbreɪkɪŋ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分26秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分50秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分10秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分27秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why fashion isn't always as silly as it seems（877 words）

By Jo Ellison

Is fashion relevant? It's a discussion that has taken on new urgency in recent months. As consumers have moved online to shop on virtual boutiques, the need for fashion publications to offer an edit of the seasons's trends, or suggestions of which shoes to wear, is diminishing. How do big brands engage with their consumers? Is fashion inclusive? Do fashion magazines speak to real people with real lives? And isn't all fashion writing just a load of advertorial paid for by some billionaire fashion benefactor in the sky?

Each week, a number of readers feel compelled to write and tell me how daft it all is — and how silly I am. Even the industry's innermost circles are charged with the debate. In a scandalously thrilling interview in Vestoj earlier this month, the former Vogue fashion editor Lucinda Chambers denounced the value of the industry in which she has worked for 36 years. “The clothes are just irrelevant for most people,” she said. “So ridiculously expensive.”

On the flip side, when fashion tries to engage in the issues of the day, things can quickly backfire. In this month's US Vogue, the magazine suggested that its real-life couple cover stars Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik are “embracing gender fluidity” because they borrow each other's clothes. The article has so inflamed the ire of the transgender and non-binary community for trivialising the subject of gender identity that the magazine has since issued an apology for “missing the mark”. Not a good look.

It is true that when looked at from a certain point of view fashion may not be relevant. I'm certainly not going to argue with you that the new-season corduroy blazer from Prada — the one worn by Hadid and Malik, as it happens — is necessarily going to serve any bigger purpose or facilitate our greater good. Although I will say it would please me very greatly to wear it.

I would argue, however, that fashion is extremely relevant for the 23.6m people worldwide who work in the garment industry. And that the industry is worth an extremely relevant $2.4tn a year. But you'll no doubt counter that it matters not at all what we wear just so long as we are dressed. And then go on to tell me that you have been shuffling around in the same shoes since 1983, and are delightfully content to wear the slightly-too-small sweaters your wife picks up for you at Christmas.

The point is that clothes probably don't matter to those who find fashion irrelevant. But not everyone can afford to be so insouciant about the way they look. Some people have to consider far more carefully the way they negotiate the dress codes of the world in which they live, especially those who have found their social traction tied to their appearance, and when that advancement is tied to the decisions of people whose features do not mirror their own. In those situations, what we wear, and the fashions we adopt, become far more complicated.

Certainly, when I'm in a room full of senior male peers, I consider my clothes very carefully. Will a stiletto heel denote subservience? Or sauciness? Will the power-suit seem too aggressive? Should I dress as demure or demanding? You might argue that you never notice what people wear, but I don't believe you.

I'm assuming you are a man. I may be wrong. Many of fashion's harshest critics are women, sickened by the persistent objectification of their gender. Or livid about a sizeist fashion culture that forces women to aspire to unhealthy body shapes. Women often find fashion “very silly”.

And yes, fashion should be more diverse and representative in general. And some things do look a bit preposterous. But I still wager that everyone feels a warm fuzzy glow when a stylish stranger notices your new shoes. Or stops to ask you where you got that bag from. I can't tell you how many discussions I've had with a “fiercely intellectual” feminist insistent on her lack of interest in shopping, only to see them turn into a gushing fashionista at the first compliment you throw them. (Same for men, incidentally: the more pompously self-aggrandising they are, the more susceptible to sartorial flattery. Or, tell a fashion-phobic man that you like his tie and he'll soon be blathering away about his son's nascent career in online streetwear sales, or how his daughter wants to be a model.)

Fashion may not be relevant, but it's a bloody good opener to a normal conversation; a way to winkle out the human under the hair shirt. And, frankly, who doesn't love a bit of chat about a bad frock, or a footballer's silly Saturday get-up, or a fabulous bit of tailoring. I do.

Fashion is a business, a social barometer and a key to our identity. Like Sherlock Holmes, you can often glean more about a person from a five-second study of their ensemble than you'll learn over an hour-long chat. And that's why it's worth paying attention.

You probably disagree. You probably think it's still irrelevant. But no one's forcing you to read about or look at fashion. There are all sorts of other more important, groundbreaking, newsworthy subjects out there to occupy you. And yet you're still here. Nice shoes, by the way.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Costumers used to buy fashion publications to ____?

A.engage in the issues of the day.

B.engage with big fashion brands.

C.advertorial paid for by some billionaire fashion benefactor.

D.get an edit of the seasons's trends or fashion hints.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why did this month's US Vogue infuriate the transgender and non-binary community？

A.Because its cover picture vilified the image of transgender and non-binary group.

B.Because its article trivialised the subject of gender identity.

C.Because Gigi Hadid is unwelcome in transgender and non-binary community.

D.Because it mistook Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik for a transgender couple.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why do some women become the fashion's harshest critics？

A.Because fashion objectifies their gender and forces them to pursue unhealthy body shapes .

B.Because fashion is irrelevant for those who are insouciant about the way they look.

C.Because fashion clothes ridiculously expensive.

D.Because they have moved online to shop on virtual boutiques.

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which of the following statements is true according to the author？

A.Fashion is very diverse and representative in general.

B.Fashion is worth an extremely relevant $23.6m a year.

C.Fashion is a key to our identity.

D.Men tend to have more negative sentiments towards fashion than women.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.get an edit of the seasons's trends or fashion hints.
解释：如今消费者通过购买时尚刊物来了解时尚潮流和穿搭建议的需求因网购的出现而渐渐减少。

(2)答案：B.Because its article trivialised the subject of gender identity.
解释：本月的Vogue美国版因为将性别认同的问题简单化而激怒了跨性别者和非二元性别者群体。

(3)答案：A.Because fashion objectifies their gender and forces them to pursue unhealthy body shapes .
解释：很多对时尚最严厉的批评者都是女性，因为时尚物化了她们的性别，并让她们追求不健康的体型。

(4)答案：C.Fashion is a key to our identity.
解释：时尚是一门生意，是社交场合的晴雨表，是表明我们身份的关键。

如何穿得像个领导人？

“在一位密友的安排下，我得到机会在北京会见了金正恩。在这场简短的会面中，我问他能否把他的私人裁缝介绍给我，他同意了。到了平壤，金正恩的裁缝为我做了一套金正恩式的制服。”

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

corpulence肥胖，臃肿[ˈkɔːpjələns]

wig假发[wɪɡ]

oxymoron矛盾修饰法[ˌɒksɪ'mɔːrɒn]

abinitio从开始起；自始[ˌæb ɪˈnɪʃiəʊ]

rebuke斥责，指责[rɪ'bjuːk]

adamant强硬的，固执的['ædəmənt]

etiquette礼仪，礼节['etɪket]

bourgeois中产阶级的，追求名利的['bʊəʒwɑː]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分41秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分52秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分28秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分13秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How to dress like a Supreme Leader（730 words）

By David Tang

In a recent column you mentioned you briefly met Kim Jong Un. I have just returned from North Korea and would be fascinated to hear about your encounter with the Supreme Leader.

I was introduced to him in Beijing by a close friend of mine who buys a lot of vegetables from North Korea because he thinks they are the most uncontaminated vegetables in the world. Although the meeting was brief, I asked if the Supreme Leader could introduce me to his tailor. He did. When I subsequently went to Pyongyang, his tailor cut me a “Kim” suit: medium brown, with shirt sleeves and a centre zip, together with slightly flared trousers. The ensemble fitted quite well, and if I put a small pillow inside the jacket to create a prominent corpulence, I could look a bit like the man himself, with the help of a wig.

Timing and schedules are essential to any social occasion — “fashionably late” has always struck me as oxymoronic — but surely not sufficient to success? What are your essentials for hosting a successful dinner party?

It's inconsiderate of guests to arrive late especially for sit-down dinners, which really require being served together ab initio without any empty chairs. But we also know that on arrival there is always a lot of chit-chat and milling around. So if asked for 8pm, it is not too bad to arrive at 8.10pm or 8.15pm. I would often do that, not to be fashionable but sensible, because I find chit-chat tiresome before sitting down. Sometimes I know hosts who don't sit down until as late as 9pm and I tend to say no to those invitations.

In India, the Middle East or Spain, sit-down dinners don't really occur until 10.30pm or 11pm and I never formally accept them or I ask if I could attend in my pyjamas. I would certainly have some cup noodles before going because I find having to digest a large dinner late very uncomfortable.

The secret of a successful dinner is not to let it drag on. And make sure you always have one surprising guest: someone amusing such as Nigel Farage, Monica Lewinsky or Diane Abbott.

At a pub supper of some 20 people in a busy bar in Cornwall I was rebuked by a fellow lady diner for placing an empty wine bottle upside down in a wine cooler, this being deemed bad manners. She was adamant that I take it out, which I declined to do. This was a pub, not Claridge's; is she justified in her behaviour?

Bad manners involve being inconsiderate to others. I don't see how an upturned bottle could offend anyone. And why should there be a difference in behaviour between a pub and Claridge's? One could argue that the etiquette at Claridge's is unnecessarily bourgeois. Indeed, when the waiters there lay napkins over customers' thighs, they are doing something that is offensive to me. Or when they interrupt my conversation to ask if I want “still or sparkling” water, which is the most annoying question one could be asked. So tell your lady friend to grow up and stop pretending to be classy. And tell her, turning the bottle upside down sends a clear signal that the bottle is empty and saves the face of the host for not having ordered another bottle straightaway.

My half-century birthday is coming soon. What suggestions, on a more limited budget, do you have to bring fun and elegance to the day? Are there special pieces of music? What other ideas might you have?

On a budget, always go for “bring a bottle”. That's fair for everyone and you can top it up with whatever extra bottles you can buy. The main attention should be on providing a space with tables and chairs and not an empty space just for dancing. Seating on small round tables creates a cabaret atmosphere. Get some loud and familiar music going. I like DJs who are not too clever: the standard Beatles and even the Carpenters or Abba are always good. All the old hot tracks like “I Will Survive” or “YMCA” guarantee a flowing group of dancers, of all ages. And NO overhead lighting. All lights must come from sconces, up-lights or table lamps. Don't forget to bring in sausage rolls at about 10pm. That's when people begin to feel famished.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why did the author's friend buy a lot of vegetables from North Korea ?

A.Because he thinks vegetables from North Korea are very tasty.

B.Because vegetables from North Korea are pretty cheap.

C.Because he wants to study North Korea's model of modern agriculture.

D.Because he believes vegetables from North Korea are the most uncontaminated vegetables in the world.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What color is the “Kim” suit?

A.dark brown.

B.medium brown.

C.dark grey.

D.medium grey.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following statements about Spain sit-down dinners is true？

A.On arrival there is always a lot of chit-chat and milling around.

B.The hosts usually don't sit down until as late as 9pm.

C.They don't really occur until 10.30pm or 11pm.

D.There is always a surprising guest at a successful Spain sit-down dinner.

答案⁽³⁾

4.According to the author, turning the bottle upside down at a supper____.

A.is unnecessarily bourgeois.

B.is offensive to the host.

C.means the bottle is empty.

D.is forbidden at Claridge's.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Because he believes vegetables from North Korea are the most uncontaminated vegetables in the world.
解释：我的一位密友在朝鲜购买了大量蔬菜，因为他认为朝鲜的蔬菜是世界上污染最少的。

(2)答案：B.medium brown.
解释：我在平壤时，金正恩的裁缝为我做了一套金正恩式的制服：中等深的棕色、有着衬衫袖子、中间是拉链，还有一条有些阔口的裤子。

(3)答案：C.They don't really occur until 10.30pm or 11pm.
解释：在印度、中东和西班牙，晚宴常常在晚上10:30或11:00才开始。

(4)答案：C.means the bottle is empty.
解释：将瓶子倒置说明瓶子已经空了，这可以避免主人因为没及时点一瓶新的而丢了面子。

马克龙：一位与特朗普打交道的大师

在与特朗普打交道这件事上，法国总统马克龙可谓是得心应手。他如何面对这位棘手的美国伙伴呢？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

theatrical剧场的，夸张的[θi'ætrɪkl]

latitude纬度，界限，自由选择权['lætɪtjuːd]

cloying因过量而厌烦的['klɔɪɪŋ]

supplicant乞求者，恳求者['sʌplɪkənt]

ideology观念学，意识形态[ˌaɪdi'ɒlədʒi]

scourge灾难，祸患[skɜːdʒ]

geopolitical地理政治学的[ˌdʒiːəʊpə'lɪtɪkl]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分6秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分51秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分2秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分42秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Emmanuel Macron demonstrates fine art of handling Donald Trump（429 words）

By Gideon Rachman

Why is it OK for Donald Trump to visit Paris, but not OK for him to visit London? Despite the famed “special relationship” between Britain and the US, the American president's long-planned trip to the UK has been indefinitely postponed — largely because of the unstated fear that Mr Trump would be greeted by mass protests.

Instead, he has accepted an invitation to France — and could be seen happily reviewing the troops, alongside Emmanuel Macron, at the annual July 14 parade. The fact that the French president felt able to take a domestic political risk by inviting Mr Trump to Paris — despite the US president's 14 per cent approval rating in France — offers some insights into the fine art of handing Mr Trump.

Mr Macron issued his invitation to the US president from a position of strength. His first encounter with Mr Trump featured a theatrical bone-crushing handshake. To some this might have seemed like the diplomacy of the playground. But it sent a clear message. France was not going to be pushed around. By contrast, Theresa May's first visit to Washington featured the UK prime minister briefly holding hands with Mr Trump at the White House. To many in Britain, this looked like a cloying closeness with an unpopular US president.

The lesson seems to be that European leaders who first make it clear that they are willing to stand up to Mr Trump, then have more latitude to extend the hand of friendship. By contrast, leaders who seem to approach the Trump White House as supplicants are vulnerable to a domestic backlash.

This contrast is about much more than theatrical handshakes. It extends to policy and ideology. Mr Trump is a champion of nationalism and a scourge of globalism. Mr Macron, fresh from beating the nationalist Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election, is carrying the standard for internationalism in Europe — alongside Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

But the position of Mrs May is much more ambiguous. Her government insists that Britain continues to champion globalisation. But the Brexit vote has been widely interpreted across the world — including by Mr Trump and Mr Macron — as part of the backlash against globalism. Under these circumstances, a state visit by Mr Trump to the UK would raise all sorts of difficult questions about where Britain stands — in geopolitical and ideological terms.

Paradoxically, because Mr Macron is very clearly on the other side of an ideological divide from Mr Trump — he can risk standing next to him at a military parade.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why does Trump postpone his trip to the UK?

A.Because Trump is not welcomed by May's government.

B.Because Trump chose to attend the annual parade in France.

C.Because Trump could possibly be greeted by mass protests.

D.Because Trump and May represent different ideologies.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.When did Trump visit Paris and attend the annual parade？

A.On July 13.

B.On July 14.

C.On July 15.

D.On July 16.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following statements about Mr Trump is true？

A.He and Macron had a bone-crushing handshake when they met at the parade in Paris.

B.He is suffering from a domestic backlash currently.

C.He is carrying the standard for internationalism during his trip to France.

D.He has only 14 per cent approval rating in France.

答案⁽³⁾

4.Why does Mrs May worry about Trump's visit to the UK？

A.Because it would provoke a domestic backlash in the UK.

B.Because May and trump have conflicting political stands.

C.Because it would raise all sorts of difficult questions about Britain's ambiguous stands.

D.Because May doesn't want to extend the friendship with Trump.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Because Trump could possibly be greeted by mass protests.
解释：美国总统早就计划好的英国之旅被无限期推迟，这很大程度上是害怕遭到大规模抗议。

(2)答案：B.On July 14.
解释：特朗普接受法国的邀请参加了每年7月14日举行的游行。

(3)答案：D.He has only 14 per cent approval rating in France.
解释：法国总统冒着国内的政治风险邀请特朗普访问法国，尽管特朗普在法国的支持率只有14%。

(4)答案：C.Because it would raise all sorts of difficult questions about Britain's ambiguous stands.
解释：梅的政治立场非常模糊，特朗普访英可能对引发人们对英国地缘政治和意识形态两方面立场的质疑。

那天，我们一家成了法国人

宣传短片、演讲、马赛曲，走完这一系列流程后，我和我的家人变成了法国人。作为一个由英国人和美国人组建的家庭，入籍法国给我们带来了什么？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

restrain抑制，阻止，束缚[rɪ'streɪn]

drone单调低沉地说，过着无聊的日子[droʊn]

cosmopolitan世界性的[ˌkɑːzmə'pɑːlɪtən]

dowdy寒酸的，懒散的['daʊdi]

naturalise使加入国籍，使归化['nætʃrəlaɪz]

crypt地穴，（教堂的）地下室[krɪpt]

patrol巡逻，巡查

bureaucratic官僚的[bjʊrə'krætɪk]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分7秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分40秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分2秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分25秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The day my family became French（850 words）

By Simon Kuper

It was Marine Le Pen's nightmare: 221 people of all colours, sitting in the Panthéon in Paris, waiting to be made French. My American wife and children were among the new elect. When my wife began applying for Frenchness years ago, I didn't bother. After all, as a Brit, I was already European. Then came Brexit. Now I spend my leisure hours collecting the lifetime's worth of documents required to become French.

I grew up all over, and only moved to Paris in 2002 because flats there were cheap. Theresa May calls people like me “citizens of nowhere”. But in the Panthéon, the place where France buries its great, I saw that she was wrong.

The ceremony was unmistakably French. At 8.30am, we stood outside the Panthéon in the rain, everyone pushing to squeeze in first, restrained by officials eager to remind us that they were the State and we mere citizens. Then we sat waiting for nearly an hour, while an official tested the sound system by endlessly droning out the days of the week: “Lundi, mardi, mercredi … ” The 221 had clearly become Parisians, because they didn't speak to each other. I suspect that after an American citizenship ceremony, you go home with everybody's life story.

May was mocking a rootless cosmopolitan elite, but our crowd visibly wasn't that. Though they were wearing their finest, most looked dowdy and old. Many immigrants only naturalise decades after their arrival, once their French children are grown and they realise they will die here.

Finally, a speaker welcomed us to the Panthéon. He told us that everyone from Voltaire to Marie Curie was buried in the crypt beneath our feet. “Some of them, like you, were not born French,” he added encouragingly. The poet Guillaume Apollinaire, for instance, was originally the Polish-Italian Wilhelm Albert Wlodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, but he fought for France in the first world war.

We were shown a short film covering the key French themes: demonstrators, fighter jets, praying Muslims, vegetable shoppers in a market, armed soldiers patrolling train stations. Next, a bureaucrat made a bureaucratic speech, and then we sang the Marseillaise. My Parisian kids knew it by heart. They sometimes sing it at birthday parties with their mostly immigrant-origin friends.

The bureaucrat listed everyone's home nation: Argentina to Bangladesh, Russia to Senegal. “Two hundred and twenty one new French people,” she said, and the crowd applauded itself. Especially those from poor countries, who now owned a life-changing piece of paper.

The moment the ceremony ended, just as we began basking in the miracle of transformation, functionaries shooed us on to the street. I later learnt that though ours was the first-ever group to become French in the Panthéon, we were only the warm-up act. The next group got live music, and one of them, a 25-year-old Chilean named David, made a speech about being taken hostage by terrorists attacking the Bataclan nightclub in November 2015. One terrorist had asked, “What do you think of François Hollande?” and David replied, “I don't think anything, I'm not French.” When the terrorist discovered he was Chilean, recalled David, “I sensed a loss of interest, something that disconnected in his glance.” That saved his life. He decided to become French anyway.

By this time, my family was celebrating over croissants in a nearby café. They were now French-American dual citizens. I interviewed them about their feelings. My daughter said, “I don't feel different at all. I just feel that it's a waste of time while he's checking the sound system.” I told her that in a century, her great-grandchildren in Rio or Sofia would be desperately searching her papers for her certificate of naturalisation.

My wife hadn't noticed any extra Frenchness either: “I was hoping I'd be thinner.” But she was pleased she'd become French during the sales, because the shoes she had bought for the occasion were 40 per cent off. One son said he felt “normal”, and was disappointed President Macron hadn't come. The other son shrugged, “I was already French. No need to become any more French.”

That was it: they were all already French, but also American and British. The other people at the ceremony won't stop feeling Peruvian or Tunisian, but their faces were glistening after becoming French. These people aren't citizens of nowhere. Nor are they what the author David Goodhart calls “Anywheres”. They are attached to multiple specific places.

As a child I used to worry about belonging, until I read Judith Kerr's semi-autobiographical children's novel, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. It's about a German-Jewish family that flees Berlin for Paris and then London. At one point the daughter asks her father: “Do you think we'll ever really belong anywhere?”

“Not the way people belong who have lived in one place all their lives,” he says. “But we'll belong a little in lots of places, and I think that may be just as good.” Today Kerr, aged 94, is a great British author. I'm happy for people who belong in one place, but I think our way is fine too.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What does “citizens of nowhere” mean in the second paragraph?

A.Those who are attached to multiple specific places.

B.Those who live in cheap flats.

C.Those who give up their British citizenship.

D.Low-pressure tubes between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What does the author mean by saying “I suspect that after an American citizenship ceremony, you go home with everybody's life story” in the third paragraph？

A.Immigrants in America have different stories from those in France.

B.During an American citizenship ceremony， applicants will be asked to explain their purpose.

C.American people are much more talkative than Parisians.

D.American people are more interested in immigrant stories than Parisians.

答案⁽²⁾

3.When did the bureaucrat make a speech？

A.Right before they entered the Panthéon.

B.Right after they entered the Panthéon.

C.Right before they watched the short film.

D.Right after they watched the short film.

答案⁽³⁾

4.We can infer from the article that the author's attitude towards Britain leaving the EU is____.

A.unconcerned.

B.approving.

C.disapproving.

D.not clear.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Those who are attached to multiple specific places.
解释：我在英国长大，2002年搬去巴黎，因为那里的公寓更便宜。

(2)答案：C.American people are much more talkative than Parisians.
解释：这221个人显然已经成为了巴黎人，因为没有人在和别人讲话。我猜如果是在美国入籍仪式上，等到回家时你已经对每一个人的故事烂熟于心了。

(3)答案：D.Right after they watched the short film.
解释：在观看了一部讲述法国核心精神的短片后，一名官员发表了一篇充满官腔的演讲。

(4)答案：C.disapproving.
解释：从作者的亲欧立场和对特蕾莎·梅“无家可归的公民”言论的态度可推断出作者对英国脱欧持否定态度。

从巴士到眼镜：非科技类初创公司走红硅谷

在硅谷，越来越多聚焦于传统行业的初创公司受到了风险资本家的青睐。这些非科技类初创公司并不依赖于先进的科技，但却把早已为人所熟知的传统领域玩出了新花样，它们扩展了人们对“初创公司”的定义。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

deluxe豪华的，高级的[də'lʌks]

berth停泊处，卧铺[bɜːθ]

disruptive破坏性的，制造混乱的[dɪs'rʌptɪv]

venture风险，投机['ventʃə(r)]

mattress床垫['mætrəs]

optimize使……完美，使……完善['ɑːptɪmaɪz]

tardiness缓慢['tɑːdinəs]

lounge休闲室，长沙发[laʊndʒ]

differentiating识别，使差异[ˌdɪfə'renʃieɪt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分6秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分6秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分38秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分16秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

From buses to glasses: Silicon Valley's love of non-tech start-ups（765 words）

By Leslie Hook

I recently sat down with two bright-eyed entrepreneurs in San Francisco. They had just raised funding for their new start-up, Cabin, from some of the Valley's best-known investors. They had the kind of ambitious faces that light up when discussing “the future of cities” or “self-driving cars”.

So what is their multimillion-dollar start-up idea? It is a bus. This “technology” start-up will operate a deluxe overnight bus with sleeping berths, carrying passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The concept of an overnight bus will be familiar to any gap-year backpacker but is still considered somewhat novel on the West Coast, land of the passenger car and jet plane.

The 400-mile trip between San Francisco and LA has been a source of frustration for many techies. Elon Musk proposed boring an underground tunnel between the two cities, while others are working on a high-speed “hyperloop” system that would move pods of people through low-pressure tubes.

Useful as it may be to travel overnight in comfort at a relatively affordable cost (Cabin says it will charge $115 for the trip), it still begs the question: why are some of the Valley's finest minds trying to operate a bus company? Why is this a venture-backed start-up rather than just a regular company that sells bus tickets?

When I put this to Tom Currier and Gaetano Crupi, Cabin's founders, they point out that there are plenty of other start-ups focused on non-tech areas. “There is a new category of companies that are able to be well capitalised even though they are operating in more traditional industries,” says Crupi. In other words, tech start-ups can be disruptive to non-tech industries.

Some might argue that these start-ups — from mattress makers to eyeglass stores, juice companies to coffee roasters — strain the limits of what it means to be “tech” or a “start-up”. However, venture capital firms have been happy to support the trend. Take Casper, a mattress company that raised more than $100m from investors in May on the premise that it was revolutionising sleep (it sells foam mattresses, which are delivered in boxes). The company targets millennials with its advertising, and throws parties featuring lots of beds. There is also Warby Parker, which sells cheap eyeglasses online and raised more than $200m from investors.

Venture backers even tried to disrupt the grilled-cheese sandwich market, with the funding a few years ago of The Melt, a restaurant chain whose backers included Sequoia. Its founder was legendary entrepreneur Jonathan Kaplan, maker of the Flip video camera. But even he could not innovate the toastie, and was replaced as chief executive last year. (The Melt still has some 19 outlets.)

Part of the reason for the trend is that the role of venture capital in US business has changed dramatically. During the second half of the 20th century, venture funding helped to finance research-heavy tech companies — semiconductor manufacturers, for example. Today, it has become an alternative to bank loans for small, high-risk businesses whose strategy for “disruption” relies on access to cheap capital.

The areas where these businesses can do best are those where the incumbents have been slow to adapt. Take the mattress industry, where bricks-and-mortar stores have a vested interest in preventing people from buying mattresses online. Or the taxi industry in the US, which has been thoroughly disrupted by Uber and Lyft.

The founders of Cabin are hoping they can do the same thing for long-distance travel. Incumbents such as Greyhound have optimised for cost, resulting in a bare-bones service that is not quite enough to lure people away from the comfort of their cars. America's trains, after decades of under-investment, are nearly unusable because of their slowness and tardiness.

Cabin doesn't see itself as a bus company. “The first thing we need to do is have people not think about it as a bus,” Crupi insists. He calls it a “hotel on wheels”, with pressed sheets in its berths, an attendant and a lounge.

The pitch is that once cars and buses start driving themselves, the company will be well placed to offer the hospitality that will become a differentiating factor between competing autonomous transport providers, with passengers choosing their service based on the experience, as they would a hotel.

“Autonomous is going to be commoditised,” says Crupi. “People will pay for the guest experience.”

Autonomous cars and buses are not here yet, and it will be years before they are commonplace. But until then, Silicon Valley workers can try a deluxe version of a technology more than a century old, courtesy of the venture capitalists.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is new start-up Cabin's idea?

A.An underground tunnel between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

B.A high-speed “hyperloop” system between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

C.A deluxe overnight bus carrying passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

D.Low-pressure tubes between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which of the following statements about non-tech start-ups is true？

A.They can be well capitalised even though they are operating in more traditional industries.

B.Most non-tech start-ups are located in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

C.They are the new darlings of the venture capitalists after tech start-ups.

D.Most non-tech start-ups focus on transportation and catering industries.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which startup company focuses on the grilled-cheese sandwich market？

A.Take Casper.

B.Warby Parker.

C.Sequoia.

D.The Melt.

答案⁽³⁾

4.According to the article, the new start-up Carbin ____？

A.provides a bare-bones service that is enough to lure people away from their cars.

B.strains the limits of what it means to be a “start-up”.

C.will charge $115 for each trip.

D.is a housing company rather than a bus company.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.A deluxe overnight bus carrying passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
解释：这家“科技”初创公司将会经营一辆豪华的夜间巴士，车上装有睡床，接送旧金山和洛杉矶之间的旅客。

(2)答案：A.They can be well capitalised even though they are operating in more traditional industries.
解释：Crupi表示非科技类初创公司尽管关注的领域相对传统，但仍能融到足够的资金。

(3)答案：D.The Melt.
解释：风险资本家甚至尝试涉足烤奶酪三明治市场，几年前，连锁餐厅The Melt吸引了包括红杉资本在内的投资者。

(4)答案：C.will charge $115 for each trip.
解释：Carbin称他们每趟旅程的收费是115美元。

如何面对失去手机的危机？

对于十几岁的青少年来说，两天离开WhatsApp群聊、Snapchat和短信的生活如同被判处了两天的单独监禁。失去手机已经成为生命无法承受的痛。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

magnitude巨大，重大['mæɡnɪtjuːd]

spawn卵，产物，后代[spɔːn]

hefty重的，肌肉发达的['hefti]

calamity灾难，不幸事件[kə'læməti]

contaminated受污染的[kən'tæməneɪtɪd]

amputation切断手术[ˌæmpju'teɪʃn]

repartee机灵的回答[ˌrepɑːr'tiː]

destitution穷困，贫穷[ˌdestɪ'tjuːʃn]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分4秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分4秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分37秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分16秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How to deal with the phonelessness crisis（762 words）

By Robert Shrimsley

This is a story of phones and fraternity; of siblings and Snapchat. A trivial yet heartwarming tale of a favour that seemed above and beyond the call but which brought home — to me at least — the true nature of modern childhood.

Specifically, it is a story of how the boy went out of his way to spare his younger sister from something his parents saw as little more than a minor inconvenience because he understood otherwise.

Our saga began when the girl left her mobile phone with one of the boy's classmates after we bumped into him while on a trip out of town for a university open day. (I could explain the full absurd sequence of events but you wouldn't thank me.) By the time we realised the error, we were already in a taxi on the way to the station. It did not seem a big issue. The boy would retrieve the phone at school on Monday.

But this was Saturday afternoon. The girl was facing the prospect of two full phoneless days before the device would be returned to her. There was one chance to cut short her misery. Some of her brother's friends — including the one with her phone — were meeting up in London later that evening. The only problem was that he had said all day that he was not going to go. It was hot, he was tired and he did not want to go out again.

And yet, without hesitation or consultation, he immediately agreed to meet his friend at the event he'd been planning to duck. His sister did not even have to beg. He exacted no price for his effort. He could — and ordinarily would — have struck a hard deal. This was easily worth concessions of the magnitude of “clean my room for a week” or “sole use of the PlayStation” — or would be if we had a PlayStation or if he cared about the state of his room.

Then he discovered that the Tube had a restricted service. The journey into town would take him twice as long as usual. Still he did not waver. I was, frankly, astonished.

Now, he is a good kid, but the spawn will argue intensely over who gets the first bath. Hefty concessions will be extracted before one gives way over the choice of a takeaway. And as for chores, both have a policy of being extremely difficult about any unexpected requests, to ensure that we regard the transaction costs of seeking help as far higher than the price of simply doing the work ourselves.

I certainly would not have gone out of my way to help. I could have driven her to the friend's house but it was far enough to be a nuisance and two days without a phone hardly seemed a calamity. But this is where the boy and I diverged. He intuitively understood that two days without a phone was indeed a calamity, that it was to be cut adrift from your entire social sphere, from all arrangements, conversation and music.

He responded to his sister's phonelessness much as we might respond to TV charity appeals about children having to drink contaminated water. It was a crisis to which he could relate, which was too important to demand payback. It was a “Two Little Boys” moment: “Did you think I would leave you dialling … ”

(Since doing the good deed the boy has realised his error in failing to make upfront demands. Gratitude rarely lasts and retrospective terms are always harder to secure.)

We all know the feeling of leaving our phone at home — that faint sense of professional and social amputation that leaves us uneasy all day. But those of my age communicate by email for a day and we cope.

This is not how teenagers see things. Two days without access to the dazzling repartee that is a 14-year-old's WhatsApp group, to Snapchat and texts, is social solitary confinement. They do not use email. For them, no phone means dropping off the grid. Not only are they unable to organise their lives but they miss the conversations which might be the focal point of the week. Two days is a lifetime. The boy understood this and acted.

For us, the sight of the spawn coming to each other's aid bodes well for the future, when they will have to lean on each other in times of crisis, be it sickness, destitution or — God forbid — a lost phone.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.When did the girl mistakenly left her phone with his brother's classmate?

A.Friday morning.

B.Friday afternoon.

C.Saturday morning.

D.Saturday afternoon.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why does the boy immediately agreed to meet his friend at the event he'd been planning to duck？

A.Because his sister begged him to take her mobile phone back.

B.Because his sister made a commitment to clean his room once his took back her phone.

C.Because he intuitively understood that two days without a phone was indeed a calamity.

D.Because he would be cut adrift from his social sphere if he didn't take the phone back..

答案⁽²⁾

3.We can conclude from the article that the author____.

A.feels uneasy when he leave his phone home.

B.is worried about the growing phonelessness crisis.

C.eventually gave the boy a ride since the Tube had a restricted service.

D.is the parent of the boy and the girl.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the author's attitude towards the mobile phone dependence among teenagers？

A.Negative.

B.Positive.

C.Indifferent.

D.Sympathetic.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Saturday afternoon.
解释：但现在是周六下午，在拿回手机以前这个女孩可能要面对整整两天没有手机的生活。

(2)答案：C.Because he intuitively understood that two days without a phone was indeed a calamity.
解释：这个男孩凭直觉感受到没有手机的两天完全是个灾难。

(3)答案：A.feels uneasy when he leave his phone home.
解释：我们理解那种把手机丢在家里的感觉——那种与工作和社交圈隔离的孤独感会让我们整天都不自在。

(4)答案：C.Indifferent.
解释：作者在文中对比了年轻人与老一辈对手机不同的依赖程度，并没有明显的个人倾向。

脱欧之后，鱼该怎么办？

鱼是一种共享的资源。无论从经济还是环境的角度讲，渔业都应该合作管理。但脱欧却为英国乃至欧洲的渔业带来了令人担忧的不确定因素。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

salvo齐射，突然爆发['sælvəʊ]

regime政体；管理体制[reɪ'ʒiːm]

sovereign具有主权的，至高无上的['sɒvrɪn]

tailored特制的，合身的['teɪləd]

depletion消耗，罄尽，放血[dɪ'pliːʃn]

trawler拖捞船，拖网捕鱼者[dɪ'pliːʃn]

unilateral单方面的，单边的[ˌjuːnɪ'lætrəl]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分6秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分58秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分50秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分59秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The EU and UK need each other to manage fish（597 words）

FT View

A fish fight was bound to appeal to the psyche of Brexiters, who in the management of fisheries always saw much to gain from leaving the EU and little to lose. British fishing communities have long complained of being unfairly limited by EU quotas. They remember Europe's intervention in the cod wars, which in 1976 forced Britain to concede an exclusive 200-mile fishing zone to Iceland.

Brexit, they contend, should offer an opportunity to reclaim pre-eminence over the quintessential ingredient of fish and chips, at a time when cod stocks have shown promising signs of recovery from earlier battering in the north Atlantic.

For politicians like Michael Gove, the UK environment minister, there is also the temptation to seek quick victories in the battle to repatriate sovereign powers from the EU, which for nearly 50 years has determined where British fishermen can operate and how much they can catch.

Last week Mr Gove fired his opening salvo by announcing the government's decision to withdraw from the 1964 London Fisheries Convention, which allows vessels from six EU nations to fish within six and 12 miles of the UK coastline. This, he suggested, is a prelude to Britain withdrawing from the EU's Common Fisheries Policy that governs access to waters between 12 and 200 miles from coasts. In Mr Gove's view “taking back control” will enable the UK to “dramatically increase the amount of fish that we catch”.

Theoretically, at least, withdrawing from the CFP would give the UK an opportunity to develop a regime that is, in the words of a recent House of Lords report, “tailored to the conditions of UK waters and its fleet”. The UK would be able to set its own conservation rules, and would have an independent voice alongside Norway and the EU in setting quotas for allowable catches.

The reality may not be so simple. Fish for one, do not respect international boundaries. Fishermen often do so reluctantly. In the case of the former, there is the danger of a rapid depletion of stocks if agreements are torn up and replaced by a stand-off of the kind that fuelled the cod wars of old. Then there is the question of how the UK in practice will keep foreign vessels out. Will they shoot at Spanish and French trawlers?

As the Lords' report notes, most commercial fish stocks are shared between UK waters and those of other EU or European coastal states. Some species spend different stages of their lives in different nations' waters. This is true of cod. If Britain seeks exclusive fishing rights over adults of the species — which predominate in its waters — the temptation for other nations will be to catch them earlier in their life cycle. The net result would be to undo progress towards sustainable fishing.

Andy Lebrecht, a former director-general for food and farming at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, argues that such a stand-off could also quickly affect trading terms. He points out Britain's vulnerability to tariffs if EU nations retaliate against any unilateral UK action. Britain exported £921m of fish to the EU in 2015, whereas total imports were worth £775m.

It might be tempting to think we would be better on our own. But fish are a shared resource. For both economic and environmental reasons they require shared management. Going by precedent, any new agreements will be tortuous to negotiate and there is no guarantee that UK fishermen would end up better off, nor that the UK's dwindling fish stocks will be better conserved if we go it alone.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why does the idea of Brexit appeal to many people in the management of fisheries？

A.Because EU intervened in the cod wars between UK and Iceland.

B.Because EU determined where British fishermen can operate .

C.Because forced Britain to concede an exclusive 200-mile fishing zone.

D.Because they believe British fisheries are unfairly limited by EU quotas.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the content of the 1964 London Fisheries Convention?

A.It governs access to waters between 12 and 200 miles from coasts.

B.It enables UK to set its own conservation rules.

C.It allows vessels from six EU nations to fish within 6 and 12 miles of the UK coastline.

D.It sets quotas for allowable catches for vessels from six EU nations.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following is not the possible consequence if Britain withdraws from the EU's Common Fisheries Policy?

A.A rapid depletion of commercial fish stocks.

B.Retaliatory tariffs imposed by UK government.

C.An increased number of unsustainable fishing practices.

D.A sharp increase in British fishermen's catch.

答案⁽³⁾

4.Why does the author oppose UK's potential withdrawal from the EU's Common Fisheries Policy？

A.Because fishermen should not be limited by international boundaries.

B.Because most commercial fish stocks are shared between UK and other EU coastal states.

C.Because for both economic and environmental reasons fisheries require shared management.

D.Because practically UK cannot keep foreign vessels out of UK waters.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Because they believe British fisheries are unfairly limited by EU quotas.
解释：英国的渔业社区长期以来一直抱怨自己受到不公正的欧盟限额所约束。

(2)答案：C.It allows vessels from six EU nations to fish within 6 and 12 miles of the UK coastline.
解释：戈夫上任后的第一项举措是宣布政府决定退出1964年伦敦渔业公约，这项公约允许6个欧盟国家的渔船在距离英国海岸线6至12英里的海域内打鱼。

(3)答案：B.Retaliatory tariffs imposed by UK government.
解释：莱布雷希特指出，一旦其他欧盟国家针对英国的单边行为进行报复，英国将会因关税而受到重大影响。

(4)答案：C.Because for both economic and environmental reasons fisheries require shared management.
解释：鱼是一种共享的资源。无论从经济还是环境的角度讲，渔业都应该合作管理。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集
Vol.14

硅谷员工餐厅中的珍馐美味

为员工提供免费而优质的一日三餐在硅谷公司中已经成了司空见惯的事。在众多科技公司之间，一场没有硝烟的暗战已经打响。究竟谁才是员工餐厅界的美食之王？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

sprout使发芽，长芽[spraʊt]

risotto意大利烩饭 [rɪ'sɔːtoʊ]

credo 信条['kriːdəʊ]

garnish装饰，装饰品['ɡɑːrnɪʃ]

scallop扇贝壳，扇形饰边['skæləp]

plaudits鼓掌，喝彩['plɔːdɪts]

epicente震中，中心['epɪsentə(r)]

omelette煎蛋['ɒmlə]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分14秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分36秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分17秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分9秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How Silicon Valley brought haute cuisine to the office canteen（692 words）

By Leslie Hook

Standing in front of a cabinet at Dropbox, chef Brian Mattingly eyes the pork jowl inside. “We cure our own meats,” he explains. His kitchen also smokes its own salmon, makes its own ice-cream, bakes its own bread — and grows its own sunflower sprouts in a micro-grower. I sample one and it is crisp and delightful.

The lunch rush is approaching at the San Francisco-based software company, and Mattingly starts to sample the meals that will be served that day to more than 1,000 diners. “We have an ever-changing menu,” he explains, with a farro and bacon risotto in hand. “We never repeat a dish.”

With this ambitious credo, Mattingly has created a canteen known as one of the best in the tech world. Although he works in an office cafeteria, there is no ladling out of food on a tray here. Instead, each dish is fully plated and perfectly arranged. A cut of salmon is perched on a tower of panzanella salad with a watermelon garnish. On a sashimi plate, a head of shrimp arches over scallop and albacore tuna, decorated with red ginger and a bed of greens.

This elaborate cuisine is part of a secret rivalry among Silicon Valley tech companies — the fight for who has the tastiest meals. Dropbox has the best food at the moment, according to an informal survey of my tech friends, who say they invite themselves for lunch at its canteen whenever possible. The company's daily tea service and its coffee (roasted in-house, with a special blend named after Dropbox co-founder Drew Houston) have also received plaudits.

It's hard to pinpoint when exactly Silicon Valley became the epicentre for free gourmet food in the office, but most agree it began at Google. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin hired their first full-time chef when the start-up still had fewer than 100 employees, partly because the sleepy town of Mountain View has limited food options.

Google has subsequently set the standard for free food in the tech world, where the battle to attract engineering talent has led to a sort of arms race for office perks — and three free meals a day is considered normal. As each kitchen tries to outdo the other, some have even taken to brewing their own beer (as is the case with Zynga, the games company). At Airbnb, the accommodation company, a typical breakfast includes fresh smoothies, omelettes and, on Mondays, chia seed pudding.

The ability to attract top culinary talent is a key reason tech canteens have become so delicious. Traditionally, there has been a stigma attached to working with cafeteria food, but this has changed (Silicon Valley-sized pay cheques have helped). Chef Nate Keller, who was an executive chef at Google for three years, admits that at first he turned up his nose at the company. “I was convinced I was going to be in a restaurant, and live that life of artistry and hard work,” he says. He credits his mother with changing his mind, and he took the job of Google sous-chef in 2003.

For chefs and kitchen staff, a huge benefit is the civilised working hours. While most restaurant workers have anti-social hours, canteen workers get evenings and weekends off.

At Dropbox, which has 38 chefs, more than one has worked at a Michelin-starred restaurant in the past. Mattingly cut his teeth at London's Le Gavroche in the 1980s, before becoming a culinary teacher in San Francisco, and then leading the food programmes at Google, then Apple. “You have to experience the restaurant life to appreciate this life,” he says. “You can't do it the other way around.”

However, for the restaurateurs of Silicon Valley and San Francisco, the emergence of the gourmet office cafeteria is less welcome. Not only do office canteens dramatically reduce the market for selling food to tech workers, they also make it difficult to retain staff. Restaurants struggle to compete with the pay and the hours offered by tech companies, whether for top chefs or dishwashers.

Silicon Valley may have reinvented the office canteen but, outside the tech company campuses, that development has come at a price.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.According to the article, what is the main reason for companies in Silicon Valley competing to provide employees with gourmet food？

A.To attract engineering talent.

B.To keep employees working longer hours.

C.To set the standard for free food in the tech world.

D.To improve limited food options in Silicon Valley.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which company currently has the tastiest meals according to the author's tech friends ?

A.Google.

B.Airbnb.

C.Zynga.

D.Dropbox.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following statements about Google's canteen is true?

A.It is widely believed to be the first company to provide haute cuisine.

B.It is based on the local cuisine in Mountain View.

C.It provides roasted in-house coffee named after co-founder Sergey Brin.

D.It brews their own beer.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the benefit for chefs working in tech companies？

A.Anti-social working hours.

B.Better salaries and perks.

C.Civilised working hours.

D.Better working conditions.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.To attract engineering talent.
解释：科技公司之间的技术人才争夺战带来了如同军备竞赛一般的办公室福利——免费的一日三餐已经非常普遍。

(2)答案：D.Dropbox.
解释：根据我对从事技术工作的朋友们进行的非正式调查，目前餐饮水平最高的是Dropbox。

(3)答案：A.It is widely believed to be the first company to provide haute cuisine.
解释：很难说清硅谷是什么时候开始成为办公室免费美食的集中地，但大多数人认为这一潮流是从谷歌开始的。

(4)答案：D.Better working conditions.
解释：对于厨师和餐厅工作人员来说，在科技公司员工餐厅工作的一个巨大的福利是更加轻松的工作时间。

重出江湖的诺基亚经典手机能否再现辉煌？

这款简单而实用的手机面向那些可以离开电子世界生活的人。除了情怀，它还能带给我们什么呢？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

hipsters赶时髦的人['hɪpstər]

revam翻新，修改 [ˌriː'væmp]

workhorse做粗工者，重负荷机器/'wɜːrkhɔːrs/

reveler寻欢作乐者['revələr]

detox戒瘾诊所，戒瘾病房['diːtɑːks]

indestructibility不能破坏，不灭[ɪndɪstrʌktə'bɪlɪtɪ]

ostensibly表面上，外表上[ɒ'stensəbli]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分57秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分54秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分47秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分58秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Review: Nokia retunes 3310 for a new generation（585 words）

By Nic Fildes

The market for retrograde technology has two forms. One is demand for stylish old appliances. My father, who runs a vintage camera shop in Melbourne, has no problem selling old slide-projectors to café-owning hipsters. And I once met a man who made a respectable living buying old radios, no matter what condition they were in, to sell on to the White Company to decorate its shops.

The other is attempts by cherished brands such as Kodak, Polaroid and Atari to retune the things consumers once loved about their old products for a new generation.

The Nokia 3310 falls into the latter category. It sold 126m units in its heyday making it as ubiquitous as almost any product you care to remember, barring the Sony Walkman. And this latest model has already sold out in the UK, with more units on the way.

HMD, a company formed to revive Nokia's brand in the phone market, has enjoyed unprecedented publicity since it revealed it was bringing back the 3310. The ex-Nokians that run HMD have talked about the revamped 3310 as a “workhorse” phone for those who can live without data. With one eye on the hipster market, they say the new-old model is a “festival phone” for revellers who may want to trade off their Instagram account for a device with a battery life that lasts a week.

But how useful is the 3310? Nokia alone sold 35m basic phones last year, so those who really want a workhorse that can handle calls and texts and have a long battery life have plenty of options well below the £50 cost of the 3310.

I tried going down the “digital detox” route by using the Nokia 3310 for a week. However, my first problem was charging the phone because it did not seem to want to turn on. After an hour I realised I had not put the battery in, having spent a decade using sealed smartphones.

Once I had fired it up, I looked around the phone and played a few rounds of the now-colourful Snake game. After that, I could not find a reason to pick it up and found myself breaking my detox within an hour.

One of the main selling points of the 3310 is its indestructibility, an appealing prospect for anybody that has had to live with a smashed iPhone screen for months. The internet is already full of people dropping their “Newkias” to test how robust they are.

I decided to give mine to my two-year-old daughter. After two days of mashing and bashing, the only visible signs of infant wear and tear were scratches on the back shell, so it passed that test.

There is nothing ostensibly wrong with the new 3310, which has a nice colour screen and a much better camera than its forebears. It can connect to the internet if you really want to wait 10 or more seconds for it to load. But it is little more than an expensive burner phone — as they are often referred to — for people who are happy with 2G networks. Those worried about data privacy could happily revert to one.

There is a market for the glove box phones for people who cherish battery life and basic functions. But having used the handset for two weeks, the 3310 struggled to make a case for itself as an essential tool for modern life. I misplaced the phone for two days and, at one point, I did not even notice.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the difference between the new 3310 and its forebear?

A.The new 3310 has better indestructibility.

B.The new 3310 has a nice colour screen and a much better camera.

C.The new 3310 adopts retrograded technologies.

D.The new 3310 is more colourful and stylish.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which of the following statements about the new 3310 is true?

A.It is designed to secure stored data.

B.It is an essential tool for modern life.

C.Nokia alone sold 35m 3310 phones last year.

D.It is revived by a company named HMD.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following is not the target market of the new 3310?

A.Those cherish indestructibility and basic functions.

B.Those want a device with a battery life that lasts a week.

C.Those who live with a smashed iPhone screen.

D.Those worried about data privacy.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the author's attitude towards the new 3310？

A.Negative.

B.Positive.

C.Indifferent.

D.Not clear.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.The new 3310 has a nice colour screen and a much better camera.
答案解释：新款3310表面上看还不错，相比旧版，它有漂亮的彩色显示屏和好得多的相机。

(2)答案：D.It is revived by a company named HMD.
解释：HMD是一家致力于在手机市场复兴诺基亚品牌的公司，自从他们宣布将复活3310后，这家公司受到了媒体前所未有的关注。

(3)答案：C.Those who live with a smashed iPhone screen.
解释：新版3310面向那些重视续航、基础功能、隐私数据保护和机身质量的顾客。

(4)答案：A.Negative.
解释：除了彩色的贪吃蛇游戏以外，我找不到别的能让我拿起这个手机的理由。

黄瓜，想说爱你不容易

对于黄瓜这种索然无味的蔬菜，英国人从来没有抱怨过。我感到很奇怪。我们为何默默接受了这种乏味的蔬菜呢？黄瓜是否都是这么无味呢？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

mutter喃喃自语，出怨言['mʌtər]

travesty滑稽模仿，歪曲['trævəsti]

habituated习惯于……的[həˈbɪtʃueɪtɪd]

bendy易弯的；多弯的['bendi]

truncheons警棍，警棒 ['trʌntʃən]

allotment分配，配给的土地，命运[ə'lɑːtmənt]

edible可食用的

omnivores不偏食的人，杂食动物['ɑːmnɪvɔːr]

bland乏味的；温和的[blænd]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分21秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分40秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分20秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分10秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why don't we complain about cucumbers?（702 words）

By Bee Wilson

Slicing into a watery cucumber, it struck me that I have almost never heard anyone in Britain complain about the vegetable (or fruit). Every summer I can remember, people have been saying that tomatoes are not what they used to be. But cucumbers we just accept as they are: as insipid as watermelon without the sweetness. Like so many other foods, especially if they are cheap, cucumbers are something we don't even expect to be flavourful.

Tomatoes are unusual in that we still have a dim folk memory of something better. I've lost track of the times I've heard someone mutter that the average tomato — a squelchy red balloon bred for disease resistance not pleasure — is a travesty compared with the sun-ripe ones they remember from childhood or from holidays in Italy. This is true. And maybe our complaining has worked because tomatoes that actually taste of something — whether cherry ones on the vine or heirloom varieties from a farmers' market — are far easier to find than a few years ago.

Good mass-market cucumbers, on the other hand, are as rare as hen's teeth, yet even those of us who claim to be cucumber lovers seem unfussed by the situation. “We have forgotten the taste of a good cucumber,” writes Jessica Seaton in Gather Cook Feast: Recipes from Land and Water, a collection of recipes celebrating the connection between food and the land. Seaton notes that we have become “habituated” to the “hydroponically grown, ramrod-straight, selected-for-shelf-life versions”. Some years ago, Seaton visited Tusheti National Park in Georgia and tasted cucumbers that had been grown in “black, rich soil” and were “intensely cucumber-y, tasting like a memory of a cucumber I have never had”.

Our problem with cucumbers is that we have lost our knowledge of anything better. Gardeners are among the few who realise that those slightly bendy plastic-wrapped truncheons are not all that a cucumber can be. I have a friend who grows ridged cucumbers on her allotment that convinced me my previous notion of the vegetable was faulty. Her ones have a sweet-bitter flavour, subtle but noticeable, and the crunch is so loud it's as if you have suddenly turned up the volume. As for bought cucumbers, the most “cucumber-y” ones I have found are either the tiny ones in Asian grocers (which are more concentrated in taste, because they have less water) or the strong-tasting Italian ridge ones sold by Natoora (via Ocado). Yet the latter have very mixed reviews, with several unhappy shoppers finding them far too bitter. We are so brainwashed by watery hothouse cucumbers that a flavourful one can be shocking.

Does it matter if we have forgotten what certain foods should taste like if the not-good versions give us pleasure? Maybe not. But I can't shake the thought that keeping our senses awake to which foods are the most edible is a basic part of being human. This sensory awareness is how omnivores stay alive. A watery cucumber causes little damage, except to make a salad bland. But what happens when we stop recognising bad food when it is right in front of our noses?

It's not just cucumbers whose taste we have forgotten. Chef Dan Barber, in his 2014 book The Third Plate, argues that “we've lost the taste of wheat”. Ordinary consumers of bread a few centuries ago were so discerning they could tell when bread had been made from one type of wheat rather than another. To the average consumer now, wheat flour is not something that is even meant to have a taste. No wonder we can't always tell the difference between something dodgy marketed as a “health food” and something fresh and unpackaged that might actually do us good. Half the time, we don't have a clue what we are eating.

When we stop knowing what food should taste like and trust words on a label instead, we make ourselves easy prey. Cyrus Redding, an expert on wine fraud in the 19th century, said that the best protection against fraudulent wine was “a perfect acquaintance with that which is good”. The same is true of food. It's when we forget what we are even missing that we are in trouble.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Today tasteful tomatoes are far easy to find than a few years ago because____

A.it is easier to purchase sun-ripe tomatoes from Italy.

B.there are more tasty tomatoes on the market.

C.we haven't forgotten the taste of a good tomato.

D.now mass-market tomatoes are delicious.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.From the article we can learn that____

A.cucumbers in Italy are more flavourful, because they have less water.

B.cucumbers in Asian have very mixed reviews.

C.watery hothouse cucumbers are usually tasteless.

D.nowadays people can no longer tell the difference between a tasteful cucumber and a flavourless one.

答案⁽²⁾

3.The author complains about cucumbers because____?

A.mass-market cucumbers are not so delicious as they used to be.

B.shoppers finding them far too bitter.

C.cucumbers are neither flavourful nor sweet.

D.cucumbers are not something that is even meant to have a taste.

答案⁽³⁾

4.The writer's purpose in writing this story is___?

A.to explain why cucumbers are insipid.

B.to introduce the history of breeding cucumber.

C.to indicate that we have gradually lost the discerning taste of food.

D.to show that he has a perfect acquaintance with flavourful food.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.we haven't forgotten the taste of a good tomato.
解释：也许我们的抱怨有了效果，如今，无论是樱桃番茄还是原枝番茄，想买到美味的都比以前更容易。

(2)答案：C.watery hothouse cucumbers are usually tasteless.
解释：我们已经被潮湿的温室培育出的黄瓜完全洗脑，以至于在吃到美味的黄瓜时会深感震惊。

(3)答案：C.cucumbers are neither flavourful nor sweet.
解释：黄瓜像西瓜一样平淡无味，还没有西瓜的甜。

(4)答案：C.to indicate that we have gradually lost the discerning taste of food.
解释：我们已经失去了敏感的味觉，而是依靠标签上的文字来辨别食物的好坏。

为何当今的欧洲不会出现特朗普？

特朗普的当选反映了美国社会日趋两极分化。虽然相似的问题在欧洲也有出现，但严重程度远远无法与美国相比。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

polarisation两极化；分化 [ˌpoʊləraɪ'zeɪʃən]

dysfunction功能不良，机能障碍[dɪs'fʌŋkʃn]

whack重击，重打[wæk]

omnipresence遍在[ˌɒmnɪ'prezns]

reactionary反动的，反动主义的[ri'ækʃəneri]

messianic救世主的，救星似的[ˌmesi'ænɪk]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分6秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分39秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分2秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分24秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why there will never be a Trump in today's Europe（849 words）

By Simon Kuper

The cliché is that polarisation, extreme inequality and fake news et cetera are problems plaguing the west. In fact, they are, above all, problems plaguing the US. Whereas western Europe just has a bad cold, the US has caught influenza (with Donald Trump as a symptom, not the cause). The US now probably resembles Brazil or Argentina more than it does Germany or Spain. The one western European country that shares much of the US's dysfunction is the UK, but even it probably won't produce a Trump. Here's why the US is far more unstable than western Europe:

Inequality is much worse in the US. The country's Gini coefficient after taxes and transfers (a good measure of inequality) is 0.394, higher than anywhere in western Europe, according to the OECD. The only western European country that approaches US inequality is Britain, as witness the disaster at London's Grenfell tower block in wealthy Kensington. The UK also (unusually for Europe) has less social mobility than the US.

The Gini is the US's biggest single problem, says Paul McCulley, former chief economist of asset management group Pimco. Reduce that number, and all else will follow, he believes. The US has got so out of whack that McCulley told me both he and Bill Gross, Pimco's longtime “bond king”, now support self-described socialist Bernie Sanders.

The US is a plutocracy to a degree unimaginable in western Europe. One reason Republicans are trying to strip healthcare from about 22 million people despite a probable electoral backlash is to please Americans for Prosperity, the political vehicle of the billionaire Koch brothers.

Poor Americans live worse than poor Europeans. American life expectancy averages 79, against 81.5 in impoverished, heavy-smoking Greece, and 83 in Italy. This isn't only down to diet, though sugar's omnipresence in the US in itself represents a triumph of industry lobbying. Note also that European countries typically offer free or cheap university tuition. The state gives Europeans a lot, and most of them know it.

Political polarisation is worse in the US. Coalition systems such as Germany's discourage polarisation, because centrist parties usually wind up in government. But in France, too, Emmanuel Macron became president claiming to be “neither left nor right”. Even Britain's Brexit offers a potential middle ground absent in Trump's America: most Remainers are now pushing to stay in the European single market.

Western Europe's media landscape is also less polarised than America's, says the Reuters Institute's recent Digital News Report. Most European countries have major media that are trusted by both rightists and leftists. These can be boring state broadcasters, or the Ansa news agency in Italy, or Germany's centrist mass media, says the report. Consequently, few western Europeans inhabit ideological “filter bubbles”.

But US liberals and rightwingers alike consume only sources that they are predisposed to believe. Despite this, Americans have less trust in media than any western Europeans bar the French.

Fake news — “‘invented’ to make money or discredit others” — is especially pervasive in the US, says the same report. “Very few people can accurately recall having seen [such items], except in the US.” Fake news is so foreign to Germans and French people that they describe it using the English phrase. Europe's only major fake-news purveyors are the UK's tabloids. Indeed, mass-produced fake news is a British Victorian invention, like football or the railways. But most British tabloid readers also get information from the BBC. Most viewers of the partisan far-right Fox News have no such check on falsehood.

The US and UK, the countries that created the postwar international order, are now keenest to overturn it. Ian Buruma, new editor of The New York Review of Books, told the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad: “Precisely the fact that the Brits and Americans won the [second world] war made them vulnerable. Generation after generation grew up with national pride, the feeling of being special … British and American exceptionalism prepared the path in those countries for a reactionary nationalism.” By contrast, continental Europeans emerged from the war humbled, stripped of their go-it-alone fantasies.

The US president is both head of government and head of state. Many American voters therefore seek to elect a messianic figure who can supposedly embody the nation, no matter how bizarre his policies. The extreme personalisation of last year's US election campaign recalled the great-leader fixation in Russian or Arab politics.

The only western European country where the president has a similar role is France, but even there voters are more interested in policy: the Front National's Marine Le Pen lost votes after she appeared unable to explain her own plan to leave the euro. In most western European countries, the prime minister is an ejectable functionary who gets punished for incompetence.

Americans have guns. So the US's political mess could end horribly in a way unimaginable in Europe, especially if Trump is impeached or a Democrat is narrowly elected in 2020.

The delusion that American problems are western problems probably exists because global opinion-formers are clustered in the US. In truth, “the west” no longer exists, so Europe needs its own public sphere.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why do McCulley and Bill Gross support Bernie Sanders?

A.Because they want a centrist party to take charge.

B.Because America's politics has been polarised.

C.Because inequality is the US's biggest single problem.

D.Because Republicans are trying to strip healthcare from 22 million people.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What does “filter bubbles”mean in the seventh paragraph?

A.Misleading source of information.

B.Boring state broadcasters.

C.Fake news from far right media.

D.Polarised media landscape.

答案⁽²⁾

3.According to the passage, mass-produced fake news ____?

A.result from ideological bias.

B.is quite pervasive in Europe.

C.originates from far-right media.

D.is a British Victorian invention.

答案⁽³⁾

4.According to the article, which of the following statements is true?

A.The election of Donald Trump result in the political polarization in America.

B.America's Gini coefficient is higher than anywhere in Europe.

C.American life expectancy is shorter than most western European countries.

D.The US is a plutocracy to a degree that is unimaginable in western Europe.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Because inequality is the US's biggest single problem.
解释：太平洋投资管理公司前任首席经济学家麦卡利称基尼系数是美国最大的问题。美国不正常的贫富差距让他和格罗斯都支持自称为社会主义者的桑德斯。

(2)答案：A.Misleading source of information.
解释：大多数欧洲国家都有值得信任的主流媒体，几乎没有欧洲人习惯于相信误导人思想的信息。

(3)答案：D.is a British Victorian invention.
解释：大规模编造假新闻是英国维多利亚时代的产物。

(4)答案：D.The US is a plutocracy to a degree that is unimaginable in western Europe.
解释：美国的财阀统制导致的贫富差距在西欧国家难以想象。

为什么政府需要“电脑狂人”？

尽管有少数一些政府部门采用了最新的技术，但大部分联邦机构的科技水平还处在上个世纪，是时候让“电脑狂人”们来帮忙了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

nugget金属块，珍品，珍闻['nʌɡɪt]

finalise使结束['faɪnəˌlaɪz]

hitherto到目前为止，迄今[ˌhɪðər'tuː]

limbo丢弃废物的地方，过渡状态['lɪmboʊ]

digitisation数字化[dɪdʒaɪtaɪ'zeɪʃən]

archaic已不通用的， 古老的[ɑːr'keɪɪk]

streamline使……简化， 使……合理化['striːmlaɪn]

entourage随行人员，周围的事物['ɑːnturɑːʒ]

incendiary放火的，煽动的，教唆的[ɪn'sendieri]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分57秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分34秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分59秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分23秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why the government needs geeks（837 words）

By Gillian Tett

There has not been much good news coming out of Washington lately. But here is one nugget: a few weeks ago, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it had finalised plans to introduce a new integrated electronic health-record system.

This marks a big leap forward for the VA, which has hitherto kept its records in a fragmented manner. For the first time, it will be integrating its systems with those of the Department of Defence. This will ensure that, instead of sitting in limbo for months, records will be transferred as soon as servicemen and women leave the military.

“For almost two decades, Congress has been imploring the Department of Veterans Affairs not only to deliver on our promise to veterans, but also to innovate and modernise,” declared Jeff Dunham, a Republican congressman from California, writing in The Washington Examiner recently. “Now under new leadership, following years of frustration, corruption, scandal and abuse, the VA is taking the initiative to deliver the care and services that our veterans [need].”

I dare say some readers' eyes are glazing over at this point; the finer points of government digitisation don't normally provoke media headlines or voter passion. But it is worth pondering this story — or, more accurately, the fact that it wasn't much of a “story” at all for our current Trump-obsessed media.

That the VA announcement passed without much notice says a lot about what is wrong with our concept of what matters in government today, and the way we are increasingly treating Washington as an entertaining reality-TV show, without noticing the things that government actually could — or should — do.

In any rational world, it would seem entirely sensible for the VA to create integrated healthcare records. Many observers might consider it odd that the department has not already done so. After all, America is a place of cutting-edge technology and digital entrepreneurial skills — just think of what Amazon, Facebook and Google have done. It is also a place where companies have been using digital technology for years; where the healthcare system accounts for a sixth of all economic activity; and where there are some 21 million veterans (equivalent to the entire populations of Norway, Sweden and Denmark combined).

For the past two decades, however, the VA has repeatedly failed to implement an integrated record-keeping system (never mind that it has spent about $2bn on feasibility studies in recent years). While these delays can be blamed partly on mismanagement, the issues go well beyond that.

Much of the US's civilian healthcare system is fragmented too: while it is easy to transfer healthcare records between doctors in a country such as the UK, it is very difficult to do so in much of America. And the VA is certainly not the only one with archaic practices: although there are corners of the public sector that are using the latest technology — such as the City Halls in New York and Chicago — most federal agencies have been almost as slow as the VA to introduce 21st-century ideas.

The good news is that moves to change this are under way. Various private-sector entrepreneurs are launching innovations in healthcare IT, and there are campaigns to upgrade public-sector digital know-how. The non-profit “Code for America”, for example, is campaigning for computer geeks to volunteer to spend a couple of years working for government, in much the same way that the better-known “Teach for America” encourages graduates to work for a time in the country's public schools.

What's more, some White House officials, such as Gary Cohn and Jared Kushner, now seem keen to bring better management and tech skills into government. This week, for example, President Trump, Cohn and Kushner convened a meeting of tech CEOs to discuss how to launch a revolution in the way the federal government uses computers — and claimed this could deliver a trillion dollars in cost savings over 10 years.

“We are here to improve the day-to-day lives of the average citizen,” Kushner said, pointing out that the federal agencies are so fragmented they currently maintain no fewer than 6,100 data centres. These, he argues, could be streamlined to create a more efficient structure, just as the VA is now attempting to do.

This is sensible stuff — exactly the type of common-sense action that governments should take (and that businesses do take every day). But even at the best of times it is hard to get voters — or media consumers — particularly excited by this sort of basic but important reform. And right now it is doubly hard.

That is partly because the media are mesmerised by the investigations surrounding Trump and his entourage, including Kushner. But it is also because Trump himself keeps creating distractions with his own deliberately incendiary tweets, making it difficult for voters to pay any attention to the sensible reforms that advisers such as Kushner want to promote.

Therein lies a huge missed opportunity. It would be comic if it were not so tragic; we'd better just hope those VA reforms fly.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The new integrated electronic health-record system VA is planning to introduce aims at____

A.bring better management and tech skills into government.

B.making health care system in American as efficient as in the UK.

C.integrating the fragmented government departments.

D.making sure veterans' healthcare records will be transferred more easily.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why does the author mean by saying “I dare say some readers' eyes are glazing over at this point” in the fourth paragraph?

A.Some reader don't realize the importance of government digitisation.

B.The finer points of government digitisation don't normally catch people's attention.

C.They are worried about the consequences of government digitisation.

D.They are already tired of the unavailing digitisation exploration in the past two decades.

答案⁽²⁾

3.The non-profit “Code for America” is campaigning for computer geeks to volunteer to____

A.teach coding and programming in the country's public schools.

B.promote people's awareness of government digitisation.

C.spend a couple of years working for government.

D.support Kushner's revolution in the way the federal government uses computers.

答案⁽³⁾

4.According to the passage, the reasons why bring better tech skills into government is doubly hard do not include____

A.the media are Trump-obsessed.

B.the federal agencies are too fragmented to be integrated.

C.Trump's incendiary tweets distract the voters.

D.people will not pay much attention to Kushner's revolution.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.making sure veterans' healthcare records will be transferred more easily.
解释：新的数字化医疗记录集成系统可以确保老兵的医疗记录在他们退伍后立刻完成转接。

(2)答案：B.The finer points of government digitisation don't normally catch people's attention.
解释：一般来讲，政府管理数字化的新闻很难登上媒体头条，也不会引起选民们的热情。

(3)答案：C.spend a couple of years working for government.
解释：“为美国编程”旨在鼓励IT从业者自愿为政府工作几年。

(4)答案：B.the federal agencies are too fragmented to be integrated.
解释：如今，推动政府管理数字化比以往难上加难。部分原因是媒体都热衷于报道针对特朗普及其随行人员的调查，另外也是由于特朗普的推特吸引了人们的大量注意力。

“第三只手”频频作祟，共享单车公司如何应对？

在大量单车丢失后，重庆一家名为“悟空单车”的共享单车宣布停运。中国的共享单车市场在一片繁荣的背后也面临着诸多烦恼，盗窃无疑是最令共享单车公司头疼的问题。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

beset包围，困扰[bɪ'set]

encroachment侵蚀，侵犯[ɪn'krəʊtʃmənt]

unicorn独角兽，独角兽企业['juːnɪkɔːrn]

vandal破坏他人或公共财产者['vændl]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分7秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分14秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分46秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

China's booming bike-sharing sector beset by theft（469 words）

By Yuan Yang and Yingzhi Yang

China's booming bike-sharing sector has hit a road-bump: thievery. Last week one start-up folded after 90 per cent of its bikes were stolen, and another began ramping up the deposits of riders who were careless with locks.

The rise of the smartphone-driven economy has led to a resurgence in bicycles on China's streets — but unlike those of the Mao era, the new models come with a QR code on the frame. The bikes can only be unlocked after users scan the code using a proprietary app.

The Chinese craze for bike-sharing has spawned at least 10 start-ups with funding from international investors, plus dozens more copycats. The top two, Mobike and ofo, have built 11m bicycles — enough for every household in Beijing to have one — and raised over $2.1bn combined since launching a year ago.

Despite the thefts, the sector is going strong: Mobike raised an additional $600m earlier this month and announced it will launch in the UK this week.

The start-ups share a similar model: mass-produced cheap bicycles that can be unlocked with a smartphone app and, after use, left anywhere.

But the model has its problems. Wukong Bicycle, one of the first bike-sharing start-ups to fold, said 90 per cent of its bicycles were stolen. Its 12,000 bicycles had only been on the streets of Chongqing in western China for six-and-a-half months.

Wukong's mechanical locks, in contrast to market leader Mobike's Bluetooth-enabled locks, made it easy for thieves to take the bicycles.

Wukong also under-estimated the encroachment of competitors, founder Lei Houyi said.

“The speed that ofo could put out new bikes was too fast for us. We thought we had half a year before they came to Chongqing, but in fact they came after a month, and what's more gave away rides for free,” Mr Lei added, describing a land-grab fuelled by subsidies to users — echoing Uber's ride-sharing battle with Didi Chuxing.

Ofo, one of the world's first bike-sharing unicorns — a private company with a valuation of more than $1bn — is doubling its user deposit to Rmb199 ($29) as well as launching a “credit system”.

If users leave bicycles unlocked or parked incorrectly, that is noted against them in the company's individual scoring system, with repeat offenders required to pay a steeper deposit.

This credit system not only docks points based on bike-riding behaviour but also pulls in credit data from mobile payments provider Alipay, ofo's partner, to allow well-behaved customers to sign up deposit-free.

Many people converted ofo's bicycles from shared to private by scratching off the bicycle's QR code that riders scan to unlock the bike. This means no other riders can download a fresh unlock code, leaving the bike vandal with the only viable one.

To solve this problem, ofo has again looked to technology, making its bikes trackable by GPS.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.According to the article, what is the most distinctive feature of today's bike boom compared with that of the Mao era?

A.It is based on smart phones.

B.It is funded international investors.

C.It is mass-produced.

D.It can be left everywhere after use.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Approximately how many Wukong's bikes were stolen?

A.9800

B.10800

C.12000

D.12400

答案⁽²⁾

3.What makes Wukong Bicycle more frequently targeted by thieves?

A.Wukong's mechanical locks are insecure.

B.Wukong under-estimated the encroachment of competitors.

C.Wukong's credit system failed to stop.

D.Wukong does not charge their users deposits.

答案⁽³⁾

4.According to the author, which of the following statements about Ofo's credit system is true?

A.The system docks points based solely on bike-riding behavior.

B.Only repeat offenders will be required to pay a steeper deposit.

C.The system is based on Alipay's individual scoring system.

D.Ofo is the first bike-sharing company to launch its credit system.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.It is based on smart phones.
解释：与毛泽东时代不同，单车在中国的重新兴起是由智能手机驱动的。

(2)答案：B.10800
解释：悟空单车称，在正式运营六个半月后，其所投放的12000辆单车中90%已经被窃。

(3)答案：A.Wukong's mechanical locks are insecure.
解释：与摩拜单车的蓝牙解锁相比，悟空单车的机械锁更容易让窃贼得手。

(4)答案：B.Only repeat offenders will be required to pay a steeper deposit.
解释：文章中提到反复出现不恰当行为的用户将被征收更高的押金。

特蕾莎·梅与马克龙的英法“双国记”

同样经历过大选的英国和法国走上了两条截然不同的道路。当英国还在脱欧的困局中挣扎时，乐观的情绪已经在法国蔓延开来。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

engulf吞没[ɪn'ɡʌlf]

self-styled自称的，自任的 ['selfstaild]

pillion后部座位['pɪliən]

effervescent冒泡的，兴奋的[efər'vesnt]

regal帝王的，适于帝王的['riːɡl]

temporise因循，拖延，应付['tempəraɪz]

buttress扶墙；支持['bʌtrəs]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分36秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分56秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分14秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分29秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Emmanuel Macron and Theresa May tell the tale of two nations（891 words）

By Philip Stephens

A government left paralysed by a botched election; a faltering economy; a spate of ugly terrorist attacks; a London tower block engulfed by an appalling fire. There are no visible connections here. The impact, though, is cumulative.

A year ago Britain voted to leave the EU. A vibrant nation, the Brexiters promised, would unshackle itself from a sinking continent. How fast the wheel can turn. The promised adventure — “global Britain”, Theresa May, the now badly wounded prime minister, calls it — is suddenly freighted with risk. Politics could yet render Brexitimpossible.

Across the channel, the winds are blowing in the other direction. Optimism now belongs to the continent's capitals. Growth is picking up, populists are in retreat. In Paris this week Emmanuel Macron, France's new president, put the finishing touches to his La République en Marche administration. The party did not exist two years ago. Now it has the “strong and stable” mandate denied to Mrs May's Conservatives.

Mrs May's joyless election campaign was rooted in hostility to Europe. Mr Macron declares that more Europe means more France. Last summer France was drowning in its habitual morosité. Paris now feels like London used to. Mood matters. You can find plenty in France, on the left and the right, who challenge the president's self-styled radical centrism. But you are left still with the sense that the French people are willing him to succeed.

Take back control, the Brexiters urged British voters a year ago. Now they confront the supreme irony. After a decade and more of dangerous drift France looks to have taken charge of its destiny. Britain is the nation that has lost its compass. Mrs May promised a “hard Brexit” — throwing up the barricades against EU workers and banishing all trace of the European Court of Justice. The voters, unsure of what they meant by last year's decision to leave, denied her in the general election the authority to negotiate such a brutal rupture.

Young and inexperienced as he is, Mr Macron behaves like a president. France has long been a monarchy masquerading as a republic. The last two occupants of the Elysée Palace disappointed. François Hollande, a Parisian friend once told me, never really recovered from being photographed riding pillion on a motorcycle to visit his mistress. It might have been different had he had his hands on the controls. For his part, the effervescent Nicolas Sarkozy mistook bling for regal grandeur. Mr Macron has set about restoring the dignity of the office.

Cynics will tell you that the bubble will burst. Remember Barack Obama and all that hopey-changey stuff? And it is true that expectations of the 39-year-old president are so extravagant that he is bound to disappoint. But by the account of those who know him well, Mr Macron should not be underestimated. Sure, he has had his share of luck. The important thing is that he has never hesitated to seize his chances.

Three years working for Mr Hollande in the Elysée makes up for the absence of political experience. The new president learned about how to use power and, more importantly, saw how easily it can be squandered by those who temporise. The rapid timetable for the first batch of his proposed economic reforms — he wants liberalising changes to labour laws passed by the end of September — reflects a resolve to hold on to the initiative.

For the future of the EU, what counts is that Germany's Angela Merkel trusts the new president. Berlin will be watching closely the progress of reforms and the Ordoliberals advising the chancellor will doubtless also want to see cuts in the prospective budget deficit for 2018. Otherwise, France is set to find itself the only nation still in breach of the eurozone's “excessive deficit” rules. Such cautions apart, the organising assumption in Berlin is that Ms Merkel at last has a French partner she can do business with.

Loose talk of grand new structures of economic governance to buttress the eurozone's monetary union overstate the willingness — not least of France — to surrender national control over tax and spending decisions. Yet if German voters give her a fourth, and presumably, final term in September's election, Ms Merkel, as much as Mr Macron, will want to create the architecture for deeper European integration. And however much they protest otherwise, the Germans know they will have to pay.

Britain, of course, expects to be on the outside looking in. But no one in London quite knows how to open the exit. Mrs May's plan “A” subordinated everything to closing the door to migrants from eastern and central Europe. Now her chancellor says the priority must be safeguarding the economy. Others in the cabinet seem to think cutting the flows of goods and people with Britain's neighbours can somehow be rebranded as an exercise in openness. In any event, as things stand there does not seem to be a majority in parliament for any of the many versions of Brexit. Perhaps Britain will just fall out; perhaps it will withdraw its application to leave.

I had expected the French to be relishing the spectacle. How many times have they been lectured by the Anglo-Saxons these past few years? Mr Macron's compatriots, though, seem more intent on redrawing their own future. What was it someone once wrote about seasons of darkness and springs of hope?

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a factor that troubles the British government?

A.A spate of ugly terrorist attacks

B.Economic weakness

C.Excessive deficits

D.A disappointing outcome of the election

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the author, Macron's liberalising changes to labour laws show that

A.His La République en Marche administration is strong and stable.

B.His resolve to hold on to the initiative.

C.His support for France's continued participation in European integration.

D.A sense of optimism in France.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which would be the priority of Brexit?

A.Closing the door to migrants from eastern and central Europe.

B.Safeguarding the economy.

C.Cutting the flows of goods.

D.Still unclear.

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A.Populism in continental Europe is on the wane.

B.The election of Macron indicates that France is no longer a monarchy masquerading as a republic.

C.British voters are not satisfied with the “hard Brexit” May has promised.

D.Britain can still opt to withdraw its Brexit application now.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Excessive deficits
解释：一场搞砸了的大选、蹒跚不前的经济、一连串骇人的恐怖袭击和令人震惊的伦敦公寓楼大火已经拖垮了政府。

(2)答案：B.His resolve to hold on to the initiative.
解释：马克龙将迅速推动第一批经济改革计划——他希望针对劳动法的自由化改革能在九月底前获得通过——这反映出了他极力争取主动权的决心。

(3)答案：D.Still unclear.
解释：在伦敦，没有人真正知道该如何启动脱欧。

(4)答案：B.The election of Macron indicates that France is no longer a monarchy masquerading as a republic.
解释：文章中提到法国长期以来一直是一个伪装成共和国的君主制国家，但并没有提及这一情况在马克龙上台后发生改变。

大有来头的“川普式握手”？

特朗普的出访宣告结束，而他在本次出访中的几次握手得到人们的关注，事实上强健有力的握手并不是他的原创，握手常常是政客们用以斡旋的工具之一。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

whiten漂白；刷白['waɪt(ə)n]

superior上级的；优秀的[suːˈpɪərɪə]

snub冷落；严厉斥责[snʌb]

truce停战；休战 [truːs]

preamble序文；作序文[priː'æmb(ə)l]

barbaric野蛮的，粗野的[bɑː'bærɪk]

threshold入口；门槛['θreʃəʊld]

etiquette礼节，礼仪['etɪket]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分26秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分17秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分46秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分19秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why Donald Trump's weird handshake matters（793 words）

By Andrew Hill

It was the handshake felt around the world. Two presidents, Emmanuel Macron of France and Donald Trump of the US, locked hands for barely five seconds for the cameras, but with a force that whitened their knuckles.

Applying the zero-sum logic that the US president likes to use for everything from property deals to peace negotiations, analysts focused on the question of “who won?”. Some reckoned Mr Macron's aggressive approach had forced Mr Trump to release first, giving the younger man first blood.

In previous summit-level encounters, Mr Trump has visibly disconcerted Shinzo Abe of Japan with a 19-second shake (including a patronising pat on the hand), been outsmarted by Justin Trudeau of Canada — who asserted his superior grip at their sit-down photocall — and allegedly snubbed Germany's Angela Merkel by not shaking her hand at all.

Handshakes combine the ritual of the truce (the hand-clasp first emerged as a signal that a right-hander was not about to draw his weapon) with the preamble of battle. Strong handshake equals strong leader seems to be Mr Trump's calculation, though as a self-confessed “germaphobe” who once said handshakes were “barbaric” perhaps he is simply overcompensating to conquer his deepest fear.

Mr Trump is not the first to consider the handshake important. When anthropologist Chet Creider examined the gestures of east African tribes in the 1970s, he identified seven distinct handshakes, which differed according to age, respect and friendliness.

Similarly, a colleague recalls how a Mexican politician once demonstrated five distinctive abrazos (hugs) used in the 1980s within the ruling PRI party and government, “gradated by rank and proximity to the seat of power”.

Not all US presidents are forceful handshakers. Another senior colleague, who has met a few, recalls George HW Bush's shake as “very soft … barely half his hand engaging”.

Other expert handshakers use a combination of gestures. A novel, Primary Colors, based on Bill Clinton's presidential campaigns, begins by describing the handshake as “the threshold act, the beginning of politics”, one that Mr Clinton refined into an irresistible combination of hand-clasp and left-hand touch on the arm or shoulder.

While Mr Trump's fear of germs may be extreme, he is right about the hazards of handshaking. One chief executive, who has to shake 100s of hands a week as he tours his retail empire, told me he had developed a sore spot on the side of his hand where most people grip, giving him a fear of forceful shakers.

Glenn Gould, the pianist, seeing hands extended, would pass well-wishers a card, reading: “A pianist's hands are sometimes injured in ways which cannot be predicted. Needless to say, this could be quite serious. Therefore I will very much appreciate it if handshaking can be avoided. Rest assured that there is no intent to be discourteous.”

First-hand accounts from FT reporters reveal a variety of greeting styles. Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue, “bats your hand away after the merest of intentions to shake it”.

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader, is another forceful shaker, as is Vladimir Putin, who combines a “very, very firm” grip with a piercing stare.

Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has “the world's limpest handshake”, according to another colleague, while Italian executives such as Vittorio Colao, chief executive of Vodafone, often favour “a half shoulder-clasp with handshake combo … a sort of step towards the bro hug”.

That almost all these examples are man-to-man greetings is a reflection of the continuing dominance of men at the top of politics and business. But the rise of women leaders poses a challenge to the male old guard's approach.

George W Bush's frat-boy backrub-greeting to Ms Merkel at a G8 meeting in 2006was an early signpost to the etiquette minefield that exists for summiteers and conference-goers. For example, when, if ever, should a man greet a woman with a kiss at a professional meeting? (Jean-Claude Juncker, a singularly touchy-feely world leader, has overcome this dilemma by seemingly embracing everyone, regardless of gender).

In geopolitics, though, the handshake is likely to remain the weapon of choice — as useful as a tool of revenge as of assault. Mr Trump got his own back on Mr Macron later during the Nato summit by giving him a shoulder-dislocating handshake when he met him on the red carpet.

That reminded another colleague of a 1986 reporting assignment to Kabul to meet Soviet-backed dictator Najibullah, a former secret police chief who specialised in torture.

“He came up to me after an Afghan translator mistranslated my question to him. I had asked: ‘How would you like to go down in history?’ My question was mistranslated as: ‘How do you compare yourself with Hitler?’”.

“There are no grounds for such a comparison,” Najibullah responded icily — as he enveloped the correspondent's hand in a bone-crushing handshake.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who had been disconcerted by Mr. Trump in a 19-second shake?

A.Shinzo Abe

B.Emmanuel Macron

C.George HW Bush

D.Vladimir Putin

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who has been considered as the US president without strong handshakes?

A.Theodore Roosevelt

B.George Washington

C.Bill Clinton

D.George HW Bush

答案⁽²⁾

3.What do man-to-man greetings reflect?

A.Social inequality and income imbalance

B.Male gestures are important in greetings

C.Dominance of men at the top of politics and business

D.Discriminations towards female leaders

答案⁽³⁾

4.What does the handshake mean in Geopolitics?

A way to show friendness

B.A tool of revenge as of assault

C.A tool to demonstrate power

D.A standard procedure

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Shinzo Abe
解释：在此前与日本首相安倍晋三的会面中，特朗普与安倍长达19秒的有力握手使得安倍略感不安。

(2)答案：D.George HW Bush
解释：老布什与大部分的美国总统不同，据回忆，他的握手非常的轻柔，且只有手的一部分与对方接触。

(3)答案：C.Dominance of men at the top of politics and business
解释：文章中提到的领导人和商业的会面实例大多都是男性之间发生的，这反映出了在政治和商业领域男性对领导权的统治地位。

(4)答案：B.A tool of revenge as of assault
解释：从地缘政治的角度来看，有时握手可以成为反击“骚扰”的武器。

“共享经济”不应是人类的未来

Uber和各种共享平台的兴起让许多认为共享经济是未来经济发展的趋势之一，然而这种雇员权益和收入得不到保障的经济模式，并不是人们所期盼的未来。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

propaganda宣传；传道总会[prɒpə'gændə]

refocused再聚焦的

casualization雇用临时工制

exploitative剥削的；利用的[ɪk'splɒɪtətɪv]

algorithm算法，运算法则['ælgərɪð(ə)m]

inexorable无情的；不屈不挠的[ɪn'eks(ə)rəb(ə)l]

dodgen躲闪；躲避，避开[dɒdʒ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分34秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分40秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分37秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分55秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The “gig economy” is not an innovation（552 words）

By Kadhim Shubber

One of the few successes of truth against propaganda in recent years has been the rebranding of the “sharing economy” as the “gig economy”.

Marketing geniuses from Silicon Valley want us to believe the ad-hoc sale of labour is a form of utopian paradise, where capitalistic relations are replaced by egalitarianism and “sharing”. The phrase “gig economy” has rightly refocused the debate on to the implications for jobs and labour rights.

But the victory has only been half-won. Too many people still talk about the casualisation of work as an innovation, as an impersonal, technological and irresistible force to which we must adapt if humanity is to continue its march into the future. Instead of a reversion to more exploitative form of labour relations, driven by the wealthy people who own and operate companies, we are told the “gig economy” is merely the inevitable outcome of inventions like the smartphone.

The two main flag-bearers for the “gig economy” in the UK are Uber, a taxi company, and Deliveroo, a food delivery startup. Both use mobile technology to control their workers and careful legal arrangements to avoid giving them the rights and protections due to employees. Uber is older. It was founded in 2009 and launched in the UK in 2012. Deliveroo, a British business, has only been around for four years. Both were born after the financial crisis and great recession, which put millions of people out of work and depressed real wages for more than a decade.

These services rely on a number of things: the existence of smartphones that enable the requests to be made and responded to; digital mapping technology so people know where to go; algorithims that make the most efficient matching and routing choices; and buckets of cash to grease the wheels until there is sufficient self-sustaining supply and demand. Most importantly, Uber, Deliveroo, and other on-demand service providers rely on an ample supply of drivers/couriers to respond to requests quickly.

The key question for any discussion about the gig economy, therefore, is whether the scarcity of well-paid, stable jobs is a bigger factor in its rise than the emergence of mobile phones with precision mapping technology.

If we are to have a conversation about how society must adapt to the inexorable “rise of the gig economy”, we will also have to ask what exactly has been invented and what is simply a conscious choice by investors and entrepreneurs to dodge laws that exist to protect workers.

We also have to question whether something fundamental about the nature of life has changed in the 21st century. Set wages and hours, along with sick pay and holiday, have a simple purpose: they provide people with the predictability and stability they need to live and plan their lives. Workers with “flexible” pay are just as exposed to the inflexible costs of food and rent as they were before the “gig economy” was dreamt up.

It may be that this new form of work is superior, that the old world of regular pay cheques is a cruel restraint on human ingenuity and creativity. But until that can be shown, we shouldn't have a conversation about how we can adjust to this change in our economy. We should have a conversation about whether we want the change in the first place.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which company is one of the main flag-bearers for the “gig economy” in UK?

A.Uber

B.Google

C.Unilever

D.Amazon

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is not one of the factors that constitute the foundation of these services?

A.Existence of smartphones

B.Digital mapping technology

C.Algorithims

D.Legal regulations

答案⁽²⁾

3.What can a stable job provide people with?

A.Bright future

B.Stability and predictability

C.High payment

D.Long holidays

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the author's attitude towards the development of “gig economy”?

A.He supports it.

B.He doubts it .

C.He didn't say anything.

D.He is unsure about that.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Uber
解释：在英国，共享经济的两大代表是Uber和Deliveroo。

(2)答案：D.Legal regulations
解释：使共享经济模式成为可能的因素包括智能手机的出现、电子定位技术的发展、将用户问题与最佳解决方案匹配的计算机算法等。

(3)答案：B.Stability and predictability
解释：一份稳定的工作能够带给人们的是对未来的可预知感以及生活的稳定性。
选择正确答案

(4)答案：B.He doubts it .
解释：作者认为，这种共享经济的出现在投资者眼中可能是未来经济发展方向，但从社会和个人的角度而言，我们应当考虑这种经济模式出现的根本是否是人们对于未来的理想描绘。

“行万里路”的品格塑造都是扯

“随着我对世界的了解不断加深，我愈发对旅行能带来的教育意义感到怀疑。”

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

calves小牛；小腿[kɑːvz]

exquisitely精致地；精巧地

innately天赋地；与生俱来的[ɪ'netli]

anecdote轶事；奇闻['ænɪkdəʊt]

bereavement丧友，丧亲；丧失[bɪ'riːvm(ə)nt]

pretension自负；要求[prɪ'tenʃ(ə)n]

synonym同义词；同义字['sɪnənɪm]

hangover宿醉['hæŋəʊvə]

spurious假的；伪造的['spjʊərɪəs]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分37秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分23秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分50秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分20秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

No, travelling isn't character-building — it's just fun（808 words）

By Janan Ganesh

A long weekend in Lisbon, for the southern European weather and northern European dynamism. From a base in the old town, I test my calves on uphill walks to districts that qualify the Portuguese capital as Europe's “in” city, according to the people who decide these things. I eat poorly in tourist traps and exquisitely at the hands of genius chefs. I take in the central monuments and the hidden wonders at the industrial end of the Lisbon shoreline. I put in the hard yards.

Lisbon is a great city that became more not less open to outsiders after the crash. I like it enough to return soon. But did I learn much or emerge an improved person? No. On my travels, I seldom do, and I am not sure that anyone does.

The more of the world I see, the less confident I am that there is anything innately or even generally educational about travel. It is worth doing because it is fun. Travel is for the senses, not the character. Fun is a good enough reason to do anything, as long as we do not kid ourselves that something more profound is at work.

The most prolific travellers I know are not deeper or smarter than anyone else and, if they are, there is more of correlation than of causation in the fact. At worst, travel can make them complacent. They tend to fall on personal anecdote: whatever they saw of a place constitutes the truth. They tend to under-rate the character formation that takes place at home: the break-ups, the bereavements, the mistakes. And our culture tends to flatter their pretensions.

Imagine you are an employer staring at two job applications that are identical in all respects save one. Candidate A spent a year between school and university seeing the world, like a Regency fop on his Grand Tour. Candidate B spent the same year stacking shelves in a local supermarket. One of the hopefuls showed self-reliance, practical nous and a certain grown-upness. The other is Candidate A. Yet ours is still a world that rewards the gap-year itinerant — often funded or backstopped by parents — with the job, where “well-travelled” is still a synonym for “clever”, where sophisticates still cite that snide statistic about the percentage of Americans who have no passport, as though nothing could damn the global superpower more.

Travel has intellectual associations it no longer deserves. It is a hangover from a time when so few went abroad, and so little knowledge about the outside world was accessible to those who did not, that people with a few international excursions under their belt could claim a genuine cultural edge. As late as the 1990s, in school playgrounds across Britain, any kid back from a trip to SeaWorld in Orlando would shimmer with Vasco da Gama levels of intrepid erudition. That innocent time ended when the internet was born. We can now not just read in granular detail about anywhere on earth, but see videos of it in 1,080-pixel definition. Our potential to be surprised — to be educated — by a visit to a place has diminished. I would go as far as to say that anyone who is consistently “discovering” things on their travels is uncurious when at home, not perceptive when abroad.

In the modern world, the only way to learn much more about a place than you could remotely is to live there for a sustained period, paying taxes and using local services. Mere travel is no great source of insight, which leaves just one reason to do it: fun. It is more than enough.

The writer Matthew Parris once told Margaret Thatcher that he planned to visit an island in the Southern Ocean to see the moon and the stars. “Don't bother, dear,” she said. “You can see the moon and the stars from Spalding.” That stick-in-the-mud line, however funny, is not my argument here. I enjoy travel, including the bits you are meant to hate. I savour the clinical atmosphere of airports, the anonymity of hotels, the productive isolation of long-haul flights. If money were no object, I would go on regular London-to-Sydney trips just to nail big books in one sitting. As my British passport did not come through until my late teens, I could not venture abroad much as a child. I make up for it now.

But precisely because I take so much pleasure from travel, I can see through any attempt to cloak it in virtue. It would be like passing off an enthusiasm for casual sex as an anthropological research project to prove the essential oneness of all strangers. If I tried that line on you, you would laugh me out of town. But if I told you that my Lisbon weekend, a sensory joy, was something deeper, you might entertain the spurious idea.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where did the author spend his weekend?

A.Porto

B.London

C.Paris

D.Lisbon

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is a good enough reason for anything?

A.Fun

B.Money

C.Improvement

D.Social status

答案⁽²⁾

3.How would we consider “well-travelled” person in nowadays society?

A.Old-fashioned

B.Experienced

C.Rich

D.Clever

答案⁽³⁾

4.What makes travel has not so many intellectual associations?

A.Declining travel expenses

B.Fewer historical tours

C.Boom of Internet

D.More introductions of world

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Lisbon
解释：作者刚刚从在里斯本的假期回归工作。

(2)答案：A.Fun
解释：作者认为，追求乐趣可以成为人做任何事情的理由，旅行也只是为了感官上的享受而非心灵的提升。

(3)答案：D.Clever
解释：在当代社会，我们常常会认为那些旅行各地的人见多识广，聪慧过人。

(4)答案：A.Declining travel expenses
解释：互联网的繁荣使得我们能够足不出户了解天下，旅行与知识储备之间不再存在必然的联系了。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集
Vol.15

为了房租，拼了！

高昂的房价让普通上班族无家可归，他们从城市搬到了郊区，更甚者，在租金昂贵的伦敦、旧金山，越来越多人住在了帐篷或者拖车里。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

amplify放大；增强['æmplɪfaɪ]

ventilation通风设备；空气流通[,ventɪ'leɪʃ(ə)n]

forgiveness宽恕；宽仁之心[fə'gɪvnɪs]

splurge挥霍；卖弄；挥霍[splɜːdʒ]

recreational娱乐的，消遣的[rekrɪ'eɪʃənl]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分58秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分1秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分35秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分15秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Unusual homes for young professionals, from yurts to horseboxes（754 words）

Horseboxes are prison cells on wheels. So says Joe, a 26-year-old press officer who lived in one for six months in south-east London. The flimsy fibreglass walls are punctuated by too few windows, he says, and sounds from outside seem to get amplified by the narrow ventilation slits. Horses hate them too, apparently.

Joe — who doesn't want to give his surname — describes how London's high rents forced him to take up residency in the trailer, which was parked on a patch of concrete in Bermondsey beside a mechanic's workshop. The horsebox is still there today, he says, but Joe, a Cambridge graduate, has since moved to Berlin in search of a more affordable life.

“My job changed from four days a week to one day a week without any warning at all,” he says. “I thought I could [use] my savings for a bit but there's no forgiveness in London.”

Joe first moved into the home of a family friend, hoping his work would pick up. When it didn't, he was offered the horsebox. So began six months of showering at friends' houses, dodging rats and having no access to WiFi. “The final straw was when the roof started to leak right on to the bed,” he says.

Joe is one of a growing number of young professionals in major world cities who have been pushed out of “normal” accommodation by rising rents.

In Greater London, the average price of a single room in a shared house — the most common way young professionals rent in the capital — stood at £563 a month in January, according to the UK Valuation Office Agency. In inner London the figure is higher: £710 for Islington and £724 in Camden, the latter of which is more than 42 per cent of the median take-home pay of Londoners aged 22 to 29, based on figures from the Office for National Statistics. Renting a one-bedroom flat in Shoreditch would be impossible for such a person: it would cost 115 per cent of net median income.

The problem is not limited to the UK capital. American Pete D'Andrea was 28 when he worked as a contractor for Google as a technician in the company's self-driving car unit in Silicon Valley.

Yet for the first two years after moving to the west coast, Pete and his wife Kara had to live in a Winnebago motor home in Google's car park. He used to shower using a bottle of soapy water while his wife splurged on a membership at a nearby gym (with a shower).

“I was a temp earning $15 an hour working 80 to 90 hours a week,” he says. “When I realised I couldn't afford anywhere, my manager said: ‘Oh that's OK, you can bring your RV [recreational vehicle] and park it in the parking lot’.”

In San Francisco — where a lot of tech workers live — the cost of renting has risen sharply in the past five years, pricing out many people. While growth slowed last year, the median monthly rent was $3,371 in December 2016, equivalent to 44 per cent of monthly income in the area, according to real estate website Trulia.

Nested, the property agency, ranks San Francisco as the most expensive city in the world in which to rent, calculating that the average single resident will need to earn $86,000 a year to afford a place of their own. In March last year, one man in the city made national news when it emerged he was paying $400 a month to live in a wooden box in a friend's sitting room.

Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist at Trulia, points to the relatively small increase in median annual incomes compared with median rents. A look at Craigslist, a popular website for finding accommodation, turns up multiple listings for bunk beds in shared rooms at more than $800 a month.

“On the supply side, the Bay Area has done little to meet demand with new construction adequately,” says McLaughlin.

Back in the UK, Vivian Le Vavasseur, a 26-year-old Oxford graduate, works as a musician and tutor. He lives in a yurt (a large round tent) in his friend's garden in south-west London.

He moved into the yurt in February in order to sub-let his room and reduce his rent from £550 a month to £200.

“Living in a house [in London] you just accept that your rent is going to be this much and energy this much … it ends up being more than half your income,” he says.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where did Joe use to live?

A.Tent

B.Horsebox

C.Shared house

D.Friend's house

答案⁽¹⁾

3.Which city has the most expensive rent in the world?

A.San Francisco

B.London

C.New York

D.Beijing

答案⁽²⁾

2.How much the rent would cost for median-income professionals in Camden?

A.Half of their income

B.115% of their income

C.Over 42% of their income

D.All of their income

答案⁽³⁾

4.Why did Vivian Le Vavasseur live in a yurt?

A.To enjoy different lives

B.To save money from re-renting his room

C.He couldn't afford the rent in London

D.His friend invite him to live there Vivian Le Vavasseur

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Over 42% of their income
解释：如果住在伦敦的Camden地区，对一个22-29岁的中等收入者来说，房租超过了他们收入的42%。

(2)答案：B.Horsebox
解释：由于无法支付伦敦高额的房租，Joe曾在一辆运马的拖车里住了六个月。

(3)答案：A.San Francisco
解释：根据Nested的排名，旧金山是全球房租最贵的城市。

(4)答案：B.To save money from re-renting his room
解释：搬进帐篷的原因是为了将他自己原有的房间出租以节省开支。

人们越来越不喜欢喝酒了

最新统计结果显示2016年酒类销量下滑了近1.3%，这与世界经济的复苏趋势不相符合，现在的人难道越来越不喜欢喝酒了吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

youngster年轻人；少年['jʌŋstə]

alcoholic酒精的；酒鬼[ælkə'hɒlɪk]

recession衰退；不景气[rɪ'seʃ(ə)n]

extravagant奢侈的；浪费的[ɪk'strævəg(ə)nt]

augur预言；是……的预兆['ɔːgə]

lager贮藏啤酒['lɑːgə]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分54秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分52秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分45秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分58秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Beer sales slide as global alcohol consumption falls（580 words）

By Scheherazade Daneshkhu, Consumer Industries Editor

People are drinking less, according to industry figures that make sobering reading for brewers and distillers banking on growth from rising numbers of youngsters reaching legal drinking age.

The global market for alcoholic drinks contracted 1.3 per cent last year, which was steeper than the average fall of 0.3 per cent in the previous five years, according to figures from the International Wine and Spirits Research, the London-based industry group.

Alexander Smith, editor of IWSR magazine, said the drop was surprising given an improving global economy and the usually close correlation between global growth rates and drinking alcohol.

Global gross domestic product rose 3.1 per cent last year, according to the International Monetary Fund, which forecasts a further improvement to 3.6 per cent this year.

“That, allied with the growing global population of legal drinking age consumers, should, theoretically, have led to growing global alcohol consumption, but it didn't,” said Mr Smith.

He cited continued economic weakness in some emerging markets and an increase in regulation as the most likely reasons for the fall, which was driven by beer, while spirits held reasonably steady with growth of 0.3 per cent.

Beer sales fell 1.8 per cent, compared with a five-year average decline of 0.6 per cent. This was mainly because of weakness in China, the world's biggest beer market by volumes, though sales in other large beer markets, such as Brazil and Russia which have both been in recession, were down.

According to FT Confidential Research, China has passed peak beer. While the spirits industry has bounced back from the Beijing's crackdown on extravagant consumption, beer volumes continue to fall and attempts by domestic brewers to encourage consumers to trade up have so far proved largely unsuccessful.

In the US, “2017 is shaping up to be the worst year for beer volumes since 2009, when total industry volumes were down 2 per cent”, according to Trevor Stirling, analyst at Bernstein.

The trend does not augur well for Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer which derives 30 per cent of its operating profits in North America, where it has been unable to reverse falling sales of its flagship Budweiser and Bud Light brands.

Beer volumes fell 5 per cent in the three months from February to April, according to figures last month by the Beer Institute, the US trade association representing larger brewers.

Mainstream lager in the US has been losing out to more expensive craft beer but beer generally has been losing share to spirits, especially Irish and US whiskies.

The gin revival, mainly centred in Europe, was reflected in a 4 per cent rise in global volumes but vodka's fall from fashion with millennial drinkers continued with a 4 per cent global drop — though volumes recovered in the US.

Diageo, the world's largest distiller and owner of brands such as Johnnie Walker scotch and Tanqueray gin, said: “Per capita consumption of alcohol in the developed world has been dropping for 30 years. However, there is a clear and sustained trend of consumers drinking better — not more. This is supported in the IWSR data with the growth of global spirits, particularly whisky, gin and tequila.”

The IWSR said it expected the alcohol industry to return to growth this year, predicting a rise in consumption of 0.8 per cent until 2021, driven by whisky. Plato Logic, the beer market consultancy, forecast growth of 1.3 per cent in the beer industry this year, “assuming some modest recovery in China”, it said.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is Alexander Smith's reaction towards the drop of beer sales?

A.He successfully predicted it

B.He thinks it is fake news

C.He is surprised

D.He thinks it is possible

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is one of the most likely reasons for the fall?

A.Rising prices of beer ingredients

B.Economic weakness in emerging markets

C.Rising beer prices

D.New types of drinks

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which country is the biggest beer market?

A.US

B.China

C.UK

D.Australia

答案⁽³⁾

4.What kind of spirits has no increasing sales these years?

A.Vodka

B.Gin

C.Tequila

D.Whisky

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.He is surprised
解释：Alexander Smith认为啤酒销量的下降是令人吃惊的，因为在2016年全球经济都有了复苏的迹象。

(2)答案：B.Economic weakness in emerging markets
解释：新兴国家的经济萎靡以及对酒精制品的约束可能是导致啤酒销量下降的主要原因。

(3)答案：B.China
解释：中国是世界上最大的啤酒消费国。

(4)答案：A.Vodka
解释：近年来，金酒、龙舌兰和威士忌的销量都与所上升，而伏特加一类的酒在逐渐被千禧一代遗忘。

在中国，肥胖不再是富贵病

大腹便便曾被人们认为是福气和富贵的象征，然而城市低收入人群正在成为肥胖的主力。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

prone to有……倾向的

proxy代理人；委托书['prɒksɪ]

trauma创伤['trɔːmə]

unprecedented空前的；无前例的[ʌn'presɪdentɪd]

waistline腰围；腰身部分['weɪs(t)laɪn ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分7秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分14秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分46秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Obesity in China loses link with affluence（469 words）

By Tom Hancock in Shanghai

Exposing their bellies to a television audience while their weight is displayed on screen, obese contestants on a hit Chinese reality show compete to slim the fastest, with a midriff-baring weigh-in a weekly highlight.

Thirty percent of Chinese adults — roughly 320m people — are overweight and about 12 per cent obese, China's health watchdog said last week, creating an eager audience for Jiangsu Television's Changing My Life.

As China escaped from decades of poverty, obesity was connected with higher incomes. But there is mounting evidence that, as has occurred in western countries, the link with affluence is breaking, with lower-income urban residents more prone to the problem.

Using education levels as a proxy for socioeconomic status, Chinese and Australian researchers have found that while the better-educated in China's less-educated areas are more likely to be overweight, the reverse relationship holds in areas with a better-educated population, which tend to be urban.

“Received wisdom that obesity is a ‘disease of the affluent’ in China is simply not good enough,” the researchers write in a paper to be published this month in the medical journal Health and Place. Data for the study was obtained from some 98,000 adults in 2010.

Changing My Life's 10 contestants, chosen from urban areas, are put through a military-style fitness regime while hosts scrutinise their snack-filled diets and probe their family histories for emotional traumas in an attempt to figure out the root cause of their overeating. Every week the one who has lost the least weight is eliminated in an often tearful public ordeal.

The majority of the contenders are far from wealthy. The champion of the show's first series, broadcast last year, was low-paid prison guard Zhan Changguan, who shed 66 kilograms over the course of the series. His main rival Gao Chilin was a school dropout from the central city of Wuhan, who lost 61kg.

Chinese newspapers have picked up on the changes in distribution of obesity.

“The rich becoming thin while the poor become fat should not be a trend,” the state-run China Youth Daily declared in November. It called for more public sports facilities rather than the fee-paying gyms that the increasingly health-conscious urban middle classes are joining at unprecedented rates, while working-class urban residents say they have little time to exercise.

China's growing weight problem — the country in 2014 overtook the US to boast the world's largest obese population, while the average waistline expanded by 2.7cm among men and 2.1cm among women in the decade up to 2012 — has fuelled an explosion in obesity-related diseases such as diabetes.

The ruling Communist party vowed last year to boost the number of people “frequently participating in physical exercise”, targeting an increase to 530m by 2030 from 360m in 2014. The research suggests investments in facilities for lower-income urban residents will be crucial.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What percentage of people in China is obese?

A.10%

B.12%

C.15%

D.18%

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What better-educated people in China are tend to be?

A.Fat

B.Healthy

C.Rich

D.Slim

答案⁽²⁾

3.What China Youth Daily has called on to set up?

A.Public sports facilities

B.Fee-paying gyms

C.Healthy food standards

D.Higher worker payments

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which country has the largest obese population in 2014？

A.US

B.UK

C.China

D.Japan

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.12%
解释：据统计，在中国有近12%的人属于肥胖人群。

(2)答案：D.Slim
解释：在中国，受过良好教育的人往往身形苗条，而教育水平较低的人则更容易肥胖。

(3)答案：A.Public sports facilities
解释：中青报等媒体呼吁建立更多的公共体育场所而不是为那些有健康意识的人建立的付费健身房。

(4)答案：C.China
解释：2014年，中国超过美国，拥有世界上最多的肥胖人口。

毕业生的工资又变少了？

就业难每年都在困扰着毕业生们，然而最大的问题不在于工作机会，而在于这份工作的工资是否能满足毕业生们的期待。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

glut（商品）供过于求；大量[glʌt]

daunting使人畏缩的['dɔ:ntɪŋ]

cohort 一群；步兵大队['kəʊhɔːt]

mantra 咒语['mæntrə]

cull from从……中采集

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分56秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分14秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分29秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

China's new graduates hit by falling wages（890 words）

By Tom Hancock

Chinese graduates' salaries have fallen for the second year in a row, according to a large-scale survey, as a glut of degree-holders grows thanks to a massive expansion of higher education.

A record 8m Chinese graduates are due to join the labour force this year, just under half of all workforce entrants and up from about 4m just a decade ago. China has opened hundreds of new universities over the period, while a growing number of parents expect their children to attend university.

But as China's economy has slowed, average monthly salaries for new graduates fell 16 per cent to Rmb4,014 ($590) this year, the second consecutive year of declines, according to a survey by recruitment website Zhaopin.com.

“With such a large graduating class this year, new jobseekers still face a daunting challenge, especially those from less well-known universities outside the top tier,” the survey said.

Xiaoyu Zhang, who will graduate in accounting this year from the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, said she had submitted 17 applications before securing an accountancy job at a state-owned technology company — with a monthly salary of Rmb4,500.

“I feel unsatisfied with my salary,” she said, adding that she had been attracted by added benefits such as a subsidised accommodation, common in Chinese state-owned companies. “I don't enjoy accounting but I am not competitive in any other area.”

The prospect of a large cohort of university-educated yet unemployed young people worries China's Communist party, which fears the potential for social unrest. In what has become an annual mantra, China's Premier Li Keqiang called last month for “more efforts” in helping graduates find jobs or start businesses.

The government says 3.34m jobs were created in the first quarter of this year, and the Zhaopin data, culled from about 93,000 students who will graduate this year, suggest the quantity of jobs for graduates is less of a problem than their quality.

Although a growing number of students say securing employment is difficult, more than 70 per cent of students set to graduate this year have already received at least one job offer, according to the survey.

Concerns over the low quality of graduate jobs have been highlighted in recent years by the expanding ranks of students enrolled in “internship” schemes in the manufacturing and service sectors, often involving low-paid and menial work such as assembling phones or moving boxes in e-commerce warehouses.

The gap between graduates' expected and actual wages is widening, the survey said, with more than three-quarters of those surveyed paid less than their expectations. Female graduates are worst off: they are paid Rmb750 less than men per month on average, according to the survey.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How many graduates are about to work this year?

A.4m

B.8m

C.10m

D.11m

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How long has the wages of graduate been declining?

A.Two years

B.Three years

C.Five years

D.Ten years

答案⁽²⁾

3.What percentage of graduates has received at least one job offer?

A.30%

B.50%

C.70%

D.80%

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the biggest concern over job-seeking?

A.The gap between graduates'expected and actual wages

B.Worried graduates'quality

C.Worse working environment

D.Bad behavior during work

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.8m
解释：据统计，今年参加工作的大学毕业生人数大约在800万左右。

(2)答案：A.Two years
解释：2016年已是中国大学生薪资连续下降的第二年。

(3)答案：C.70%
解释：尽管面临着工作难的状况，仍有70%的毕业生表示他们得到不止一份的工作机会。

(4)答案：A.The gap between graduates'expected and actual wages
解释：对于就业的最大问题在于，毕业生对于薪资的期待往往与他们实际获得的不符。

世界银行的“语言战争”

经济发展报告中各种并列的发展目标常常让阅读者不得其解，而世界银行的首席经济学家Paul Romer将要对这种冗词现象宣战。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

endogenous内生的；内因性的[en'dɒdʒɪnəs]

cramm with挤满

pious虔诚的；尽责的['paɪəs]

angst焦虑；担心[æŋst]

incensed愤怒的，激怒了的[in'senst]

impenetrable不能通过的；顽固的[ɪm'penɪtrəb(ə)l]

turgid肿胀的；浮夸的['tɜːdʒɪd]

philanthropist慈善家，博爱主义者[fɪ'lænθrəpɪst]

gobbledygook官样文章

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分47秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分55秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分31秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分13秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

War of words at the World Bank（739 words）

By Gillian Tett

Until last month, Paul Romer, chief economist at the World Bank, was best known for his brilliant research in the field known as “endogenous growth theory” — the idea that growth comes from the decisions made within an economic system rather than as a result of external factors.

Now, however, Romer is creating waves for a very different reason: he is waging war on how economists use the word “and”. Yes, you read that right. Last month, Romer sent an email to World Bank staff demanding that they tighten up their writing skills. In particular, he implored them to be more concise and clear when compiling reports, and to avoid creating hopelessly long, confusing documents crammed with lists of pious goals linked by that offending word “and”.

“Because of … pressure to say that our message is ‘this, and this, and this too, and that … ’ the word ‘and’ has become the most frequently used word in Bank prose,” Romer complained. “To drive home the importance of focus,” he added, “I've told the authors that I will not clear [a] final report if the frequency of ‘and’ exceeds 2.6 per cent.” The 2.6 per cent goal came about because that was the pattern found in World Bank reports a few decades ago (though Romer says it was merely a symbolic threshold). In contrast, “and” has recently accounted for 7 per cent of all words used in the organisation's reports.

Is Romer's request reasonable? Not if you talk to many World Bank staff. Romer is not the first chief economist to create angst, but his demands have left some colleagues so incensed that he has been stripped of management control of the research division (Jim Yong Kim, World Bank president, wrote in a note to staff that another senior official would lead the Development Economics Group in order to create a stronger link between the Bank's research and operational divisions, but that Romer would continue to provide “timely thought leadership on trends directly affecting our client countries”).

Personally, I am inclined to applaud what Romer has done. That 2.6 per cent threshold might seem bizarre; and perhaps it is a little unfair to focus on a single word. But speaking as someone who, in my work as a journalist, has been forced to read numerous official reports from bodies like the World Bank, I fully share Romer's frustration with the impenetrable jargon that is bandied about.

It is not only multilateral organisations that fail in this respect. Last month, the veteran British journalist and editor Harold Evans published a guide to good writing, entitled Do I Make Myself Clear?, which identifies numerous examples of turgid and impenetrable prose from politicians, philanthropists, company executives and so on.

***

The kind of writing that Evans highlights is not merely irritating — it has serious, albeit subtle, implications. If official statements and documents are wrapped in layers of jargon, it becomes difficult for ordinary citizens to have any idea what is going on. And if voters are surrounded by baffling gobbledygook, they find it hard to trust what politicians are saying, or to take their utterances literally. One of the reasons for Donald Trump's success as a politician is his blunt, no-holds-barred style of speech, which cuts through what Evans describes as the “endless fog” of linguistic complication. And while Trump's words often seem contradictory, many voters simply ignore this fact — precisely because they have become so cynical about language.

Romer was not the first person to complain about the World Bank's reports; a couple of years ago, academics at the Stanford University Literary Lab declared the Bank's communications so “codified, self-referential and detached from everyday language” that they were in effect a “technical code”, dubbed “Bankspeak”.

But it was not until Romer arrived there last October that anybody tried to reform the language. And I suspect he only acted because he was new to the job and knew he could return to a tenured post as an economics professor if his war on “and” went awry.

Either way, Romer has no intention of abandoning his campaign. “There are many reasons why we must write clearly … it is a commitment to integrity,” he says. Indeed, he hopes this campaign will gather traction thanks to people such as Evans. “I can't say enough about how much I admire Harry Evans and how important his new book is,” Romer told me. All eyes on the World Bank's next Development Report.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.In “endogenous growth theory”, where the growth come from?

A.External factors

B.Adequate corruptions

C.Effective government

D.Within an economic system

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the frequency of using “and” in World Bank's report a few decades ago?

A.2.6%

B.7%

C.12.6%

D.26%

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the author's attitude towards the reform?

A.She thinks it is unreasonable

B.She supports the reform

C.She is doubtful about it

D.She doesn't say about her opinions

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who succeed because of his no-holds-barred style of speech?

A.Donald Trump

B.Barack Obama

C.George W. Bush

D.Shinzo Abe

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Within an economic system
解释：内生增长理论认为，国家的经济增长是由一个经济系统内部运作产生而非外部因素影响的。

(2)答案：A.2.6%
解释：对世界银行几十年以前的报告模式研究表明，使用“以及”一词的频率大约是2.6%。

(3)答案：B.She supports the reform
解释：对于世行的这次改革，作为记者的作者表示十分赞同。

(4)答案：A.Donald Trump
解释：作者认为，特朗普的成功当选和他直接明了的演讲风格有很大的关系。

“文化精英”有什么错？

名牌大学毕业，热爱健身，追求生活品格的知识精英们，这一阶级的生活方式往往与他们所提倡的价值观念背道而驰。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

aspirational有雄心壮志的[,æspə'reʃənl]

anatomise解剖；解析[ə'nætəmaiz]

despised受轻视的[dɪ'spaɪzd]

antithesis对立面；对照；对仗[æn'tɪθəsɪs]

antidote解药['æntɪdəʊt]

scorn轻蔑；嘲笑[skɔːn]

fetish恋物；迷信；偶像['fetɪʃ]

splurge挥霍；卖弄[splɜːdʒ]

inconspicuous不显眼的；不引人注意的[ɪnkən'spɪkjʊəs]

meritocracy英才教育（制度）[,merɪ'tɒkrəsɪ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分50秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分23秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分8秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分5秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

What's wrong with the cultural elite?（659 words）

By Simon Kuper

Picture a coffee shop in a big city almost anywhere on earth. It is filled with stylish, firm-bodied people aged under 50 drinking $5 coffees. Fresh from yoga class, they are reading New Yorker magazine articles about inequality before returning to their tiny $1.5m apartments. This is the cultural elite — or what Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, professor of public policy at the University of Southern California, calls the “aspirational class”. Her book The Sum of Small Things anatomises it using fascinating American consumption data. Currid-Halkett herself is a class member (as are some of my best friends), and yet she helps explain why the cultural elite is so despised as to have generated a global political movement against it. Though Trump is the unmentioned elephant in the room in her book, you think of him on almost every page as the antithesis of this class — indeed, in the minds of his supporters, as the antidote to it.

Trump likes to tag the cultural elite as “the elite” but not all class members are rich. Adjunct professors, NGO workers and unemployed screenwriters belong alongside Mark Zuckerberg. Rather, what defines the cultural elite is education. Most of its members went to brand-name universities, and consider themselves deserving rather than entitled. They believe in facts and experts. Most grew up comfortably off in the post-1970s boom. Their education is their insurance policy and, so almost whatever their income, they suffer less economic anxiety than older or lesser educated people. Their political utopia is high-tax, egalitarian, feminist and green. They aim to be “better humans” rather than simply rich, writes Currid-Halkett. Though often too busy to be happy, they feel good about themselves. The inequality they see everywhere is never their fault.

When it comes to consumption, the cultural elite's core belief is a scorn for stuff. Branded goods no longer convey status now that any old oaf can buy them. The top 10 per cent of American earners (which includes most of the cultural elite) spends a shrinking slice of its income on cars, TVs and household items, things that the middle class still values. With the sharing economy taking off, hipsters barely own anything at all. Forget shared bikes — Americans can now rent designer dresses.

What stuff the cultural elite does buy is used to adorn their bodies. Living in dense cities where everyone is on display, they need expensive clothes. New Yorkers in particular also have watch fetishes. In 2010 they “spent about 27 times more on watches as a share of total expenditures than everyone else — no city even compares”, writes Currid-Halkett in a typically delicious titbit.

The cultural elite spends relatively little on beauty products, but splurges on exercise, because it thinks that bodies (like food) should look natural. The thin, toned body expresses this class's worldview: even leisure must be productive. Instead of trawling shopping malls, class members narrate their family hikes on Facebook.

These people maximise what Currid-Halkett calls “inconspicuous consumption”: things you cannot see. They buy nannies to save time, elite magazines to feed their brains and status, and education to propel their children upwards. “The top 1-5 per cent [of American earners] spend on average 5 percent of their total expenditures on education, while the middle class barely spends 1 per cent,” writes Currid-Halkett. Her intellectual ancestor Thorstein Veblen, in his 1899 study The Theory of the Leisure Class, portrayed Wasps frittering away money, but today's cultural elite is engaged in a ruthless project to reproduce its social position. Barring some huge economic shift, today's breastfed elite toddlers will be the elite of 2050. The meritocracy is becoming hereditary.

This is where the cultural elite's self-image diverges from the view held by its critics. Trump voters see a class that talks equality while living privilege and exuding contempt. Here are Greenpeace members who are always on planes, proclaiming their goodness instead of improving the world. Maybe if everyone shopped at Whole Foods (the upscale grocery chain nicknamed “Whole Paycheck”) the world would improve, suggests Currid-Halkett. But there's a counterargument: if everyone shopped at Whole Foods, it would lose its status, and the cultural elite would have to shop elsewhere.

These people live in places and ways that hardly anyone else can afford. The only poor people they know are their nannies. Their New Yorker subscriptions might cost just $90, but are usually premised on expensive educations.

Though Currid-Halkett is too polite to do more than hint at this, class members regard outsiders with either scorn or pity. Overproductive themselves, they look down on iPad parents, the obese and the uninformed. Many even mock their own parents as kitsch provincials. There's an element of this in the relationship between Ivanka Trump (raised in Manhattan) and her father (from Queens). In fact, long before Trump became president, he was the exemplar of everything the cultural elite abhors. His hair and orange skin scream artificiality. He loves buying stuff. He is fat and ignorant. He thinks exercise depletes the body. He gets his information from cable TV.

No wonder the key rite of cultural-elite conversation has become Trump-dissing (see previous paragraph). And so the cultural wars that got him elected rage on.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is not of the characteristics of cultural elites?

A.High-educated

B.Love shopping

C.Keen on exercise

D.Promote social equality

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the thing that cultural elites will spend most on?

A.Expensive clothes and accessories

B.Electronical products

C.Furniture

D.Books

答案⁽²⁾

3.What percentage would cultural elites spend on education?

A.1%

B.2%

C.3%

D.5%

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the attitude of cultural elites towards those outsiders?

A.Friendly

B.Respectful

C.Arrogant

D.Ignorance

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Love shopping
知识精英们往往受过良好教育，注意健康管理，相比他们的父辈在购物上支出小但追求独特和环保，并倡导社会的平等。

(2)答案：A.Expensive clothes and accessories
解释：除了在教育上的大额支出外，生活在大城市里的知识精英们对自己的打扮也十分讲究。

(3)答案：D.5%
解释：知识精英们大约会将他们收入的5%用于教育支出，而中产阶级的教育支出只相当于大约1%的收入。

(4)答案：C.Arrogant
解释：对于那些非知识精英阶级的“外来者”，他们往往带着同情或轻蔑的态度。

传真机的乐趣

现代文件传输设备的发展使得传真逐渐淡出人们的视野，但仍有部分企业始终使用着传真，传真的魅力究竟在哪？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

snippet小片；片断['snɪpɪt]

equivalent等价物，相等物[ɪ'kwɪv(ə)l(ə)nt]

entrenched根深蒂固的；确立的 [ɪn'tren(t)ʃt]

baffling令人困惑的；阻碍的['bæf(ə)lɪŋ]

optician眼镜商；光学仪器商[ɒp'tɪʃ(ə)n]

spam刷屏[spæm]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分44秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分27秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分53秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分21秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The joy of fax（818 words）

By Jonathan Margolis

A snippet of tech news you are unlikely to read elsewhere: next month, Premier Inn, one of the UK's biggest hotel chains, will remove the fax machines from the back offices of its more than 750 sites.

Fax is the technological equivalent of tinned carrots. Just as canned vegetables of all kinds amaze by their very existence, it is surprising that any business still has a fax machine.

With email, document sharing services, digital signatures and scanning apps on smartphones, it is hard to see what this venerable technology brings to the office party. Yet Premier Inn could come to regret its decision to dump this technology, which still plays a bit-part in the hotel trade.

I know the owner of a company with a thriving business who is installing fax servers — office systems that integrate fax into computer networks. He tells me one client, the Swedish clothing retailer H&M, has returned to using fax after spending four years trying to ditch it.

“It was so entrenched in what they do, they couldn't get rid of it,” says Dennis Buller of AMS, a company in Bournemouth on the English south coast. His business has fax installations in 2,000 companies, including Honda, Aldi supermarkets and the Bank of Portugal — whose system, Mr Buller says, can handle thousands of faxes simultaneously.

This survival against the odds seems baffling. A hatful of tech products came and went during fax's reign, from dial-up internet to pagers; personal digital assistants; CD Rom, MiniDisc, VHS and its successor DVD; and even MP3s, which officially died this month.

So what does fax offer the law firms, financial institutions, government offices, health systems, retailers and others that still use it?

The Fax Authority, a website that promotes the joys of fax (although does not list its own fax number), makes the point that fax can be quicker than newer technology.

“Drop a piece of paper into the document feeder, press 10 digits and a green button and your information is transmitted,” it says. “No need to scan to a computer, realise the document is upside down, then go back and re-scan it, go back to your computer, look up someone's email address and then send the document.”

It is also, they point out, an easy way to send signatures without these precious pen-flourishes touching the internet.

Advocates point out the way faxes give you a confirmation sheet — a hard document proving that you have sent a fax and that it has been received.

Then there is security. “This is what makes it essential for some businesses,” says AMS's Mr Buller, who argues that while email can be hacked, it is highly unlikely to happen with fax. “You have a full audit trail on the server of everything coming in and out,” he adds.

Indeed, after a major hack of Sony Pictures' IT system last year, the company's outgoing chief executive, Michael Lynton, announced that he had gone back to faxing handwritten notes to ensure privacy.

Cultural factors have helped. In Japan, fax remains popular for sending notes, largely because handwriting is valued.

Even so, fax is not a big part of most people's working lives. New machines, made mostly by Japan's Brother, are available only on special order from stationery stores. Not surprising considering they are almost given away on eBay.

Brother, which made typewriters in the UK up to 2012, would not tell me how many fax machines it sells, but said its data indicate UK fax sales across all brands in 2016 totalled just over 15,000 machines.

A quick poll of friends and colleagues similarly suggests fax is surviving — just about.

“I think we have the capability in our multi-function printer devices but wouldn't know if they've actually been connected,” reported a City lawyer.

A friend at a government regulatory body wrote: “I have been here five years and I have never heard any reference to a fax machine. If there is one it is part of another machine that is still relevant or in a cupboard.”

“We dumped the fax machine years ago, but we receive them directly into the server, but only from German, Swiss and US businesses,” reported an optician.

A Premier League football club lawyer said fax was used in soccer transfers until as recently as two years ago, but no longer.

A marketing director at a Swiss company said: “Our business cards have a fax number, our legal documents include it, but we neither send nor receive faxes. The machine sits connected year after year but nothing ever comes through.”

A farmer said he receives crop reports by fax. Oddest of all, a contact at an electronics company said his office fax mostly receives spam, this principally for car leasing deals.

A spammer who uses fax surely either needs to go back to spamming school — or has discovered a gap in the nuisance mail market.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is not one of the inventions that are threatening fax?

A.Social networks

B.Smartphones

C.Email

D.Document sharing services

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which company has returned to using fax recently?

A. A.Honda

B. B.Sony

C. C.Premier Inn

D. D.H&M

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is one thing that concerns digital service but not fax?

A.Cost

B.Security

C.Efficiency

D.Professional training

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which is not one of regions that still use fax in business contact?

A.UK

B.US

C.German

D.Swiss

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Social networks
解释：电子邮件、文件分享服务和智能手机扫描功能的兴起使得传真岌岌可危。

(2)答案：D.H&M
解释：瑞典的服装零售商H&M在多年试图淘汰传真机的斗争之后仍然选择保留传真机的使用。

(3)答案：B.Security
解释：相较于其他现代文件传输方式，传真的安全性更高。

(4)答案：A.UK
解释：英国使用传真机的公司企业已经很少，目前仍在使用的区域一般是德国、瑞士和美国。

NASA的“逐日”计划

NASA宣布明年将发射探测器进入日冕“接触”太阳，这将使得人类近距离观测太阳活动成为可能。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

corona日冕[kə'rəʊnə]

particle颗粒['pɑːtɪk(ə)l]

heroic英雄的；英勇的[hɪ'rəʊɪk]

radiation辐射；发光[reɪdɪ'eɪʃ(ə)n]

thermal热的；热量的['θɜːm(ə)l]

ejection喷出；排出物[ɪ'dʒɛkʃən]

terrestrial地球的；陆地的[tə'restrɪəl]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分50秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分23秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分8秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分5秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Nasa unveils pathfinding mission to ‘touch the Sun’（659 words）

By Clive Cookson

A US spacecraft will swoop inside the Sun's corona, its superheated outer atmosphere, on a pathfinding mission to learn more about how stars work.

Nasa's $1.5bn Parker Solar Probe, which will be protected by a shield that can withstand temperatures of 1,400C, will journey within 6m km of the Sun's surface, seven times closer than any previous spacecraft.

“We will finally touch the Sun,” Nicola Fox, senior mission scientist, told a conference in Chicago at which Nasa gave a progress report on the spacecraft planned to launch next year.

The spacecraft is named in honour of Eugene Parker, a solar physics pioneer from the University of Chicago who in 1958 predicted the solar wind — the stream of energy and electrically-charged particles that flow from the Sun into space at more than 1m miles per hour.

“I am greatly honoured to have been associated with this heroic space mission,” said Professor Parker, the first living individual to have a Nasa spacecraft named after him. He turns 90 next week.

Nasa and the European Space Agency have launched several satellites in the past to observe the Sun but they have operated from further away, where the heat and radiation are less intense.

Advances in thermal engineering and materials technology make the closer approach of the Parker Probe possible, in particular a carbon-composite shield 11.4cm thick that protects its payload. The four scientific instruments will remain at around terrestrial room temperature. Their main goal is to trace the origin of the solar wind and how it gathers speed through the corona.

“Until we go there and touch the Sun, we can't answer basic questions like ‘Why is the corona much hotter than the Sun itself?’,” said Ms Fox of Johns Hopkins University.

Instabilities in the corona lead to solar flares and mass ejections of highly magnetised material. When these reach Earth's atmosphere, they cause “space weather” — changes in the terrestrial magnetic field and radiation levels.

Scientists say solar super-storms might destroy vulnerable infrastructure such as electric grids and communications satellites, though operators could take emergency action to reduce the damage if they receive advance warning.

Nasa plans to launch the 685kg craft from Kennedy Space Center in Florida next summer on its Delta IV-Heavy rocket, the most powerful available. It will take almost seven years to reach the Sun via a series of fly-bys of the planet Venus.

The European Space Agency is also preparing a mission to the Sun, though it will not get as close as the Parker Solar Probe. Esa's Solar Orbiter is due to launch no earlier than October 2018, also from Kennedy Space Center. The two missions will be co-ordinated to make complementary observations of the same events in the corona from different positions.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the main contribution of Eugene Parker?

A.He calculated the orbit of sun

B.He predicted the solar wind in 1958

C.He found sunspots

D.He help the launch of the newest spacecraft

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the difference between the mission of the new spacecraft and previous satellites?

A.The new spacecraft will land on Sun

B.The new spacecraft will explore Mars as well

C.The new spacecraft will get closer to the Sun

D.The new spacecraft will carry pilots

答案⁽²⁾

3.What makes the Parker Probe possible?

A.New telescopes and detective technology

B.Advances in thermal engineering and materials technology

C.New theories about temperatures around Sun

D.Special equipment for space explorations

答案⁽³⁾

4.What would be affected by solar super-storms?

A.Vulnerable infrastructure

B.Air pollution

C.Terrestrial temperature

D.Water resources and forests

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.He predicted the solar wind in 1958
解释：Eugene Parker对于天文学中太阳研究的贡献在于他在1958年成功预测了太阳风的存在。

(2)答案：C.The new spacecraft will get closer to the Sun
解释：这艘新的宇宙飞船将在距离太阳仅6公里的地方对太阳进行观察，这是以往所有的卫星都没能做到的。

(3)答案：B.Advances in thermal engineering and materials technology
解释：在热能工程和材料科学领域的突破使得近距离对太阳进行探测成为可能。

(4)答案：A.Vulnerable infrastructure
解释：太阳风爆发时释放大量带电粒子所形成的高速粒子流，严重影响地球的空间环境，破坏臭氧层，干扰无线通信，对人体健康也有一定的危害。

如何培养员工的凝聚力？

不少新兴企业都在使用员工评价机制来激励员工工作，在现代社会中，对一家科技企业发展最为重要的就是职员的向心力，培养这种凝聚力不能单靠评价体系。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

virtual实质上的，事实上的[ˈvɜ:tʃuəl]

indoctrinate灌输；教导[ɪn'dɒktrɪneɪt]

portrayal描绘；画像，肖像[pɔː'treɪəl]

mundane世俗的，平凡的['mʌndeɪn]

proliferate增殖；扩散[prə'lɪfəreɪt]

coalesce合并；结合[,kəʊə'les]

embodiment体现；化身[ɪm'bɒdɪmənt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分50秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分23秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分8秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分5秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Tech World: The value of a virtual high five（659 words）

By Hannah Kuchler

In Dave Eggers' novel The Circle, tech employees at a Google-like company are ranked by “zings”, public displays of appreciation. How much they “zing” colleagues and how much others “zing” them is compiled into a score that the company uses to value employees — and which, when fully indoctrinated, employees use to value themselves.

Eggers may be mocking such internal propaganda but his portrayal comes eerily close to the truth. Friends who work at tech companies are encouraged to use online programmes to give and receive digital pats on the back. These link tasks, however mundane, to the company's oft-repeated core values. Values range from “fun” (at Salesforce) to “embrace the adventure” (at Airbnb) and being “superpumped” (at Uber).

The tech world pays its workers well, handing out stacks of equity in some of the most successful public companies and private start-ups. But money is not enough. Companies have turned to mission statements, mottos — and their own “zings” — to retain young “type A” workers in a tight talent market.

Software such as “You Earned It” gives employees points to award to colleagues so they “get in the habit of gratitude”. This is accompanied by harassing emails if workers do not fully appreciate their office mates, and charts that track what percentage of the company has used the site. Peeking into one employee-only site, I see workers giving each other points for things such as “pushing for great each and every day” and “putting so much effort and time into preserving our team identity”. Hashtags and virtual high fives proliferate. Although points can be redeemed for actual rewards such as vouchers, for wealthy tech employees it is the cheering that counts.

Tech companies also hope such programmes will influence behaviour. Good Ripple is a software application that can be used to advise employees on how to be kind to colleagues, compiling scores for goodness and happiness. Rama Veeraragoo, Good Ripple's co-founder, says it helps companies if employees feel they are good people. Some companies are already using similar systems, with Yelp giving out teddy bears as prizes for being nice.

Employers go the extra mile because their workers are their wobbliest constituency. Customers have become dependent on products like Google for their work, and Facebook for their social lives. The first major consumer protest against a tech company earlier this year did not hurt Uber's business. Shareholders have even less influence, generally turning a blind eye to extensive spending on the pet projects of founders. In many companies, their shares come with few votes for them to voice opinions.

So tech companies are left with just one group to worry about: employees. Keeping them invested in a corporate “mission” is essential. In the weeks after the inauguration of Donald Trump, I realised that employees really believe in these missions. It was pressure from employees that pushed tech CEOs to speak out against Trump's immigration ban. Workers badgered leaders, coalescing in online groups, speaking to the media and holding a protest on Google's campus. One after another, tech leaders expressed their horror out loud.

The identity of employees is often tied to their workplace. Watching the Gay Pride march in San Francisco, you see people wearing T-shirts on which the rainbow flag adorns the logos of Apple, Facebook and Google. Since the immigration ban protests, companies are trying harder to show they represent their employees: Facebook, a $432bn company, told staff they could take time off on International Workers' Day.

Internal propaganda is one way to create true believers. Missions are repeated like chants, offices wallpapered in slogans, and branded T-shirts bring corporate identity to the bar. Programmes that make praising peers almost obligatory complete the circle. Employees see their CEO not as the person who pays their wages but as the living embodiment of their values. Now, these leaders have a challenge that can't be solved by high fives and zings: how to live up to employees' expectations in darker times.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What do “zings” mean in Dave Eggers' novel?

A.A prize that every employee want to get

B.Rating system for employees

C.Degree of teamwork

D.Public displays of appreciation

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What can be influenced by using these programs in tech companies?

A.Employees' behavior and attitude

B.Teamwork level

C.Work efficiency

D.Working styles

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which company wasn't hurt despite of a major consumer protest?

A.Amazon

B.Apple

C.Uber

D.Google

答案⁽³⁾

4.What group is the most important one for tech companies?

A.Shareholders

B.Employees

C.Suppliers

D.Consumers

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Public displays of appreciation
解释：在Dave Eggers的小说里，他以“zing”一词指代大众对于一个员工的评价，同事对自己的评价将作为企业对与员工评估的参考标准。

(2)答案：A.Employees' behavior and attitude
解释：通过应用这些员工评价体系，科技公司希望员工们懂得感激以及改变他们对同事和工作的行为。

(3)答案：C.Uber
解释：尽管今年出现了大规模的消费者抗议事件，但Uber的公司经营和股东没有受到任何的影响。

(4)答案：B.Employees
解释：对科技公司来说，股东对公司实际发展的影响很小，而只要有优秀的产品，消费者也不会受到影响，因此那些对公司业务和产品开发有着实际作用的员工就至关重要了。

气候变化会给我们造成多大影响？

虽然应对环境污染已是老生常谈，但对于千禧一代而言，现在对环境的保护是对未来的一项投资。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

mitigate使缓和，使减轻['mɪtɪgeɪt]

predecessor前任，前辈['priːdɪsesə]

renewable可再生的；可更新的[rɪ'njuːəbəl]

hydropower水力发电['haɪdrə(ʊ)paʊə]

spur激励，鞭策[spɜː]

divestment剥夺（财产）；转让部分投资[dɪ'vɛstmənt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分26秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分43秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分22秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分10秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Climate change will affect millennials' pension prospects（709 words）

By Mark Fawcett

Millennials aren't thinking much about retirement, but climate change is something many of them care deeply about. That's smart, because by the time they retire, climate change and whatever humans do in the next 30 years to mitigate its effects will almost certainly have transformed the way we live; a transformation that could also have a big impact on their prospects for retirement.

Donald Trump, the US president, signed an executive order in March rolling back his predecessor's Clean Power Plan, rejecting with a stroke of the pen what one commentator called “the most important thing any nation had ever done to reduce carbon emissions”. Will that alter the long-term picture? We don't think so. It is not clear what impact it may have, but we believe the long-term future of the global economy is green.

The reasons are political, technological and financial. The cost of generating solar and wind power is becoming cheaper than fossil fuels in many parts of the world. Renewable capacity overtook coal-fired generation for the first time in 2016. China and India, respectively the world's biggest and third-biggest polluters, have been investing heavily in green energy at home. China is planning to spend £292bn on its domestic green-energy market in the next three years and India's Central Electricity Authority recently said that no coal-fired power stations will be built over the coming decade beyond those already in the pipeline. It is predicted that renewable-energy capacity in India will overtake that of new fossil fuel plants from 2018.

The energy infrastructure market appears to be heading in the same direction. Once again, where the US appears to be pulling back, China is stepping forward. Not only has it invested in more clean power at home, it is pouring money into developing economies' energy infrastructure, spending $165bn since 2000. And the focus of that money, while fossil fuels still dominate, may be starting to shift to cleaner sources such as nuclear, hydropower and renewables. China outspent any other country in the world on overseas investments in green technology in 2016.

Closer to home, commitments made in Paris at the global climate talks in 2015 have spurred many businesses into action. Utility companies in almost every EU country pledged in March to phase out coal-fired plants from 2020. These companies are not waiting around for governments to shift the ground under their feet. Those that are not thinking about how to diversify away from heavily polluting fossil fuels will probably face future losses as markets leave them behind and policies penalise them.

For institutional investors with long-term horizons, the debate is not whether there will be a transition to a lower-carbon economy, it is about how quickly it occurs. Pension fund trustees in the UK have spent some time pondering the legalities of climate-related de-risking strategies, and some still are. Now these strategies are becoming an investment imperative. Short-term policy shifts may well have short-term effects. But for millennials saving into pensions for the next 40 to 50 years, the global transition to a low-carbon economy, which appears highly likely, is a more significant trend.

Among the world's largest institutional investors, whose ranks Nest will join in the coming decade, that long-term picture is guiding our thinking. The smart money is being used to signal to businesses that a profound economic change in the way power is generated is happening. This is not about divestment. It is not in our members' interests for companies to make losses or become unprofitable. But we do need to plan ahead and prepare their portfolios for the evident investment risks and opportunities that climate change and the transition to low carbon represent. That means finding scaleable, cost-effective ways to invest more in those companies that are well positioned for the low-carbon future, investing less in those that are not and engaging where progress can be encouraged.

Over the next 15 years or so, £1.7tn is due to flow into defined contribution pensions in the UK. We believe a significant proportion of those assets will be channelled towards a greener global economy. There may be mixed messages coming from the US at the moment, but the signals from the rest of the world, including the world of finance, are clear.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who had signed an executive order to overthrow the Clean Power Plan?

A.Shinzo Abe

B.Donald Trump

C.George HW Bush

D.Vladimir Putin

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which country is the world's biggest polluter?

A.India

B.US

C.UK

D.China

答案⁽²⁾

3.Where did the global climate talks take place in 2015?

A.Beijing

B.London

C.Paris

D.New York

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the author's attitude towards future?

A.Doubtful

B.Positive

C.Negative

D.Uncertain

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Donald Trump
解释：北京时间3月29日凌晨，美国总统特朗普在美国环保署正式签署名为“促进能源独立和经济增长”的行政命令，撤销奥巴马政府为抑制气候变化而发布的一系列法案。

(2)答案：D.China
解释：中国和印度分别是全球第一和第三大污染排放国家，而这两个国家也正尽其所能改善污染排放状况。

(3)答案：C.Paris
解释：第21届联合国气候变化大会全称是“《联合国气候变化框架公约》第21次缔约方大会暨《京都议定书》第11次缔约方大会”，大会于2015年11月30日至12月11日在巴黎北郊的布尔歇展览中心举行。

(4)答案：B.Positive
解释：尽管面临着重重困难，作者仍然认为世界环保的未来是光明而充满希望的。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集
Vol.16

外卖小哥的健康是件大事？

网络平台和Uber的兴起让零工经济的劳动者成为关注的焦点，工作与收入的不稳定性也影响着他们的健康，在经济发展模式转变的今天，他们的健康至关重要。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

precarious危险的；不确定的[prɪ'keərɪəs]

contingent因情况而异的；不一定的[kən'tɪndʒ(ə)nt]

fatigue疲劳，疲乏[fə'tiːg]

toil辛苦工作[tɒɪl]

cardiovascular disease心血管疾病；冠心病

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分20秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分47秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分8秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分26秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why ‘gig health’ matters（868 words）

By Anjana Ahuja

The closer one studies the gig economy, the less fun it sounds. Those who make their living this way, generally working for app-based platforms that match consumer needs with workers who can fulfil them, are regarded as being in precarious or contingent employment.

Bodies such as the International Labour Organisation characterise this kind of employment as mostly low paid and insecure, in which workers enjoy very few social, organisational and legal rights and protections.

Attention is turning to the health and wellbeing of this fast-growing workforce, which numbers about 1.3m in the UK. One academic is even calling for a “Gighall” study — akin to the landmark Whitehall studies into the health of civil servants.

Those studies, conducted over three decades by Sir Michael Marmot, demonstrated the link between socio-economic status and health, a correlation that became known as “status syndrome”. Senior civil servants enjoyed lower rates of death and heart disease than lowlier employees, a difference partly ascribed to autonomy at work.

The sense of powerlessness that afflicts many in the gig economy — according to one survey, only four out of 10 gig workers feel like they are their own boss — suggests that health problems may be brewing in this sizeable slice of the workforce.

One study on the Italian workforce, published last year in Social Science and Medicine, suggests that those on temporary contracts are more likely to use prescription medication for mental health conditions such as depression (although the reverse is also likely to be true, that pre-existing ill health leads to more irregular employment).

While not specifically about the gig economy, the authors, from the universities of Brunel and Milan, conclude that the drive to make labour markets more flexible might bode ill for the psychological wellbeing of workers.

Gig work is often conducted privately, in cars and homes, from bicycles and motorbikes, instead of from a shared workplace, so basic hazards, such as fatigue associated with long hours, can go unnoticed.

Gig workers, who tend to be classified as independent contractors, are also not generally eligible for sick pay or compensation for injury. This may change: a recent ruling in the UK courts has forced Uber to reclassify its drivers as employees, rather than self-employed contractors. (Uber will appeal the ruling in court this autumn.) Companies such as Deliveroo and Amazon have also come in for criticism.

In the meantime, Molly Tran, assistant professor of public health at the State University of New York, recently urged professional organisations, such as the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, to take notice of the potential dangers to workers' health associated with the gig economy.

“As occupational medicine specialists, we have a fundamental ethical responsibility to promote social justice,” she says in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The gig economy is a “toxic combination” of low pay, low support and high demand, meaning that workers need to toil long hours to earn a basic income, wrote psychologist Joanna Wilde from the UK's Council on Work and Health in the magazine Health and Safety at Work.

Such precarious work, Ms Wilde says, is known to be hazardous to physical and mental health with an added “lack of access to occupational health support and the inability to afford any form of health insurance that could cover being unable to work”.

Gig workers, Ms Wilde points out, are left with little time to engage in positive activities, such as spending time with family, eating well and exercising. The result is a rise in stress, a factor that is implicated in cardiovascular disease and even cancer.

Chris Yuill, a lecturer in medical sociology at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, has researched workplace health and believes there may be a pattern of “gig health”.

“It's an illusion that these people can work when they want,” he says.

“In Aberdeen I walk past a spot in the city where young men hang out, just waiting to get a call. There are the usual health and safety concerns, such as having to make a certain number of deliveries in a certain time, but what's the psycho-social effect of waiting for that message to come up, telling you you've got your next job?

“We need to understand the effects, because we associate being in control with good health,” he says. “And there are good indications that workers [in the gig economy] do not have high levels of control.”

Mr Yuill praises the Whitehall studies but points out that its subjects enjoyed steady jobs with clear career progression. “We need a ‘Gighall’ study. There's been a change in the way that work is organised in our economies. People are working quite long shifts to make a basic income. People are also spending their wages in order to work.” Delivery couriers and taxi drivers often supply and maintain their own vehicles.

“We need to ask: what is happening and, also, what is it good for? Does it produce a way of life that we think is acceptable in our society?” he asks. “British society has a long history of making sure work has meaning. How this happens in new forms of work is a debate we need to have.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is not one of the characteristics of gig employment?

A.Few legal rights

B.Low paid

C.Few health protections

D.high payment

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What kind of subject did Sir Michael Marmot's studied?

A.CEOs

B.Gig economy employees

C.Civil servants

D.Journalists

答案⁽²⁾

3.What kind of diseases gig workers are more likely to get?

A.Diabete

B.Cardiovascular disease

C.Flu

D.Depression

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is needed for the future?

A. “Gighall” study

B.Standardized hiring regulations

C.Educational programs for gig workers

D.Free medications

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.high payment
解释：“零工经济”的工作常常是薪资低廉，且雇员往往没有正式员工所享有的法律、健康保障。

(2)答案：C.Civil servants
解释：Michael Marmot解释了年长的公务员中经济社会地位与他们的健康水平之间的关系。

(3)答案：B.Cardiovascular disease
解释：研究表明，零工的劳动者更容易患上心脑血管疾病甚至是癌症。

(4)答案：A.“Gighall” study
解释：学者认为，对零工经济的专门性研究是非常重要的，这对研究经济中出现的变化发展有重要意义。

如何从“Smart casual”着装风格中拯救自己？

相比女性，男士在衣着上往往倾向于那些休闲的装扮，而这样近乎一致的打扮，是对自己的衣着缺乏想象力的表现。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

fume烟；愤怒[fjuːm]

prestigious有名望的；享有声望的[pre'stɪdʒəs]

pretension自负[prɪ'tenʃ(ə)n]

satanic邪恶的；魔鬼的[sə'tænɪk]

garment衣服，服装 ['gɑːm(ə)nt]

bristle发怒['brɪs(ə)l]

philistine俗气的；无教养的['fɪlɪstin]

sartorial裁缝的[sɑː'tɔːrɪəl]

dope笨蛋[dəʊp]

eccentric古怪的，反常的[ɪk'sentrɪk]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分1秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分3秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分36秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分15秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Save us from this smart-casual hell（758 words）

By Robert Armstrong

I am a member of the worst-dressed demographic in the world: caught between the last fumes of youth and the heaviness of late middle age; of an acceptably well-paid (or at least prestigious) profession; city-dwelling, with the pretensions of cultural sophistication that entails; and a man.

Clothing-wise, my tribe has lost the plot. And there is a single outfit that proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt: the sports jacket (or blazer) worn over jeans. Here is the very face of smart-casual hell.

The problem is widespread. On a recent five-minute walk down Piccadilly, a stone's throw from the temples of Savile Row and Jermyn Street, I counted five men dressed in this satanic hybrid.

Nor is the disaster confined to a single combination of garments. The FT's fashion editor, in a transparent but successful effort to provoke me, has sent me a file full of pictures taken at the Cannes Film Festival. This is just the kind of place where smart casual should have its best expression: Hollywood and Europe, business and pleasure, the Riviera and high art. If the clothes in the pictures were a movie, though, the genre would be horror and the budget would be low. Here, an ageing action star (Arnold Schwarzenegger, pictured above) paired his jeans with a seersucker jacket. There, an actor in a black suit and black shirt, with green suede trainers. This in a setting where aesthetics are at a premium and money is plentiful. If male movie stars cannot manage smart casual, the rest of us are doomed.

The problem is not the lack of conventionality — it is the lack of imagination or sense of what works, of which rules might be fun to follow and which it might be fun to break.

Some readers will bristle here. Why should a man not dress as he pleases at the weekend or of an evening? But this attitude, far from resolving the problem, diagnoses it. It expresses the motto of philistines everywhere: “I know what I like.” With this dull-witted refrain, ignorance and insensitivity about food, books, movies, visual arts and clothing are elevated. No, men, you do not know what you like. That is how you ended up wearing a blazer with jeans.

The reason this brand of aesthetic failure is characteristically male is obvious enough. The second world war generation could rely on a more or less rigid set of conventions that protected them (without any guarantee that they looked good) from sartorial depravity. One wore a suit and tie at work; when socialising, one could switch to a sports jacket, perhaps even take off the tie (this last step was not to be taken lightly — I remember my wife's grandfather growling, only about one-third joking, at an underdressed young guest: “For my party, you put on a tie”).

In the intervening generations, the rules have fallen away, a process that has accelerated in the past two decades. With the disappearance of the tie, and with nothing to indicate informality, men have begun to flop around like fish on a boat deck. The poor dope got up in this blazer-and-jeans jumble has the vague intuition that a T-shirt or jumper and jeans no longer fits his station in life. At the same time, he is haunted by the fear that wearing a suit makes him look like the stiff that he almost certainly is. He responds by splitting the difference. Each half of the outfit brings out the incongruity of the other; the whole reads as a cry for help.

(Women, meanwhile, have long had to manage a lack of hard-and-fast rules — and been told, all along, to pay attention to clothes. This is unfair. The result, however, is that the women of my tribe dress better than the men.)

Can we be saved from the smart-casual shipwreck? Perhaps not. We must live in the world we have unmade. My solution is to embrace my inner square. When there is the slightest ambiguity about what to wear, at work or away from it, I overdress. Having picked a strategy, I know what to buy: dark suits; English shirts and shoes; expensive European ties. The problem is, I cannot pretend that my approach is anything but a personal choice and as eccentric as anyone else's. I may be protected from looking like an absolute fool, but I have to absorb a lot of puzzled looks, too.

Clothing is like religion: once the old rules are gone, there is no bringing them back, even when we miss them.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is typical for smart-casual outfits?

A.Hip-hop styles

B.Sports jacket over jeans

C.Black suits

D.Wearing sneakers everywhere

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the problem of smart-casual outfits?

A.Expensive cost

B.Uncomfortable wearing experience

C.Too informal for work

D.Lack of imagination

答案⁽²⁾

3.What were the examples FT fashion editors gave the author from?

A.New York Film Festival

B.Venice Film Festival

C.Cannes Film Festival

D.London Film Festival

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the rule of the author for dressing?

A.Follow the trend

B.Overdress

C.Learn from professionals

D.Try different styles

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Sports jacket over jeans
解释：“简约休闲装”指的是运动外套和牛仔裤的搭配。

(2)答案：D.Lack of imagination
解释：作者认为，这种简约休闲着装的最大问题在于每个人都在穿，而这样的着装使得人们的服饰缺乏想象力和美感。

(3)答案：C.Cannes Film Festival
解释：FT的时尚编辑给了作者许多男明星在戛纳电影节上穿着这样简约休闲装的照片。

(4)答案：B.Overdress
解释：作者自己解决这一问题的方法在于让自己过度打扮，虽然会收到很多人的注目，但这比一味地追随大流好多了。

VPN使用指南

人们常常使用VPN来进行信息加密和查看外国网站，但选择不具备完全隐私保护政策的VPN，无疑给个人数据安全增添隐患。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

looming隐隐约约的；正在逼近的['luːmɪŋ]

rein控制；缰绳；驾驭[reɪn]

hijack抢劫；揩油['haɪdʒæk]

repressive镇压的；压抑的[rɪ'presɪv]

tweak扭；用力拉[twiːk]

encryption加密；加密术[ɪn'krɪpʃən]

futile无用的；无效的['fjuːtaɪl]

caveat警告['kævɪæt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

7分10秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

4分49秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分52秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

1分42秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Want to stop online snoopers? Here's how to use a VPN（1023 words）

By Tim Bradshaw

Internet activists sounded the alarm this week over the Trump administration's looming rollback of online privacy protections. These rules were brought in by Barack Obama's administration last year to prevent broadband companies from selling the extensive array of data they collect on customers' online activity and communications.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a US campaigner for consumer protection online, warned the move would give internet service providers, such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, “free rein to hijack your searches, sell your data and hammer you with unwanted advertisements”.

The US outcry follows a similarly fierce reaction against the passage of the UK's Investigatory Powers Bill, known as the “Snooper's Charter”, last year.

So what is a privacy-minded, law-abiding citizen to do to protect themselves online?

A common recommendation is to use a virtual private network — a system that lets you mask your personal web browsing, app usage and messaging from an ISP.

While VPNs are often used by companies to let their employees access internal networks from outside the office, a large number of providers sell the same kind of services to regular consumers too. VPNs have also long been used by human rights activists and journalists in repressive regimes, and countries with limitations on internet usage such as China.

Using one can be as simple as installing an app on your iPhone or Android smartphone and following its instructions to tweak your settings; Apple and Google have baked-in support for VPNs.

The VPN can then route all your traffic to another country entirely, bypassing your local network provider altogether. The system's end-to-end encryption can protect your internet activity from the big broadband providers or local hackers looking to hijack your phone's WiFi connection in the local coffee shop.

However, VPNs are somewhat controversial in the privacy and security community. While many claim to offer total protection at just a flip of a switch, the reality is that hiding from snoopers is not that simple. At the very least, using one will most likely slow down your internet connection; at worst it could cause more problems than it solves.

Getting security experts to recommend the “best” VPN turns out to be near impossible. Many say that they can cause as much data leakage as they prevent, while others say that in a world when Google and Facebook's cookies track us all over the web, it is futile to try to protect yourself from ISPs without changing the way you use the internet much more fundamentally.

“A VPN protects your internet traffic from surveillance on the public network, but it does not protect your data from people on the private network you're using,” says the EFF in its online guide. “If you are using a commercial VPN, whoever runs the service will be able to see your traffic.”

If they can see it, they can collect it and sell it too. That could be an even bigger concern if the outfit hawking your data is a small, obscure company — as many VPN providers are — rather than a publicly listed and regulated ISP.

“Choose a reputable, established VPN because you are choosing a company that you need to trust more than your ISP,” says the Open Rights Group, a UK-based internet privacy campaigner.

Many people use VPNs to evade country-by-country content restrictions, such as watching the BBC's iPlayer video service from outside the UK or accessing Facebook and Twitter from China. These people may not even realise they are trading their privacy for a free episode of Doctor Who or a cat video.

Sorting the fine, upstanding VPNs from the creeps is, as they say in geek circles, non-trivial. It usually involves checking the fine print of their privacy policies — and trusting that they will stick to them. Torrentfreak, a news site that covers copyright and privacy for the online file-sharing community, regularly asks leading VPNs about their handling of personal information and collates the answers in a handy (if lengthy) list. Reddit also has a good thread for VPN recommendations if you really want to get into the details.

Without going into too much depth, one easy filter is to avoid the free providers whose only way to make money will be trading on your data.

“If you're going to use a VPN, expect it to cost money,” says Peter Eckersley, EFF's chief computer scientist. Prices can range widely from a few bucks a month to about $100 a year. Some experts recommend paying in bitcoin for true anonymity, lest your credit card be used to tie your real-world identity to your online activity.

Another reference point for quality is finding out in which country the VPN is hosted — although this too can be a mixed bag. If you are primarily worried about government surveillance, picking a VPN that is outside the US or UK may seem logical. Go too far afield, though, and the jurisdiction may have few data protection rules to enforce good behaviour. If the VPN provider itself does not have strong security protections, it could become a “honeypot” target for hackers.

The only way to avoid these issues is to host your own VPN, which requires a degree of technical know-how that exceeds most people, including me — those in the know seem to recommend Algo by Trail of Bits.

Verdict

If, after reading those lengthy caveats, you still wish to use a VPN — whether in a café, in another country or all the time — I have a few tentative recommendations. Private Internet Access, which is US-based, and NordVPN, which is run from Panama, both get generally good reviews for their privacy policies, speed and value for money. I have also had good experiences trying Switzerland's VyprVPN and Tunnelbear of Canada, although I am unclear on some of the finer details of their data handling. For those who just want a hacker-deterring connection in a café, US-based Cloak is easy to set up and use.

However, it is hard to guarantee that any of these will provide bulletproof protection from online snoopers. For that, the solution is not technical but something even more complicated and nuanced: changing the law.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the common recommendation for citizens to do to protect themselves online?

A.Set passwords for private Internet

B.Get latest operating system

C.Use VPN

D.Learn computer science knowledge

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What VPN could be in the privacy and security community?

A.Controversial

B.Appreciated

C.Useless

D.Disapproved

答案⁽²⁾

3.What may help if you really want to use a VPN?

A.Set passwords for your VPN

B.Use it only when necessary

C.Pay for security protection

D.Check information on website like Torrentfreak

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the best way to protect your data while using VPN?

A.Use paid VPN

B.Set up your own VPN

C.Use VPN that located in other countries

D.sk expert to choose one for you

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Use VPN
解释：对于那些想要上网时保护自己的个人信息的居民，最常规的建议是使用VPN上网。

(2)答案：A.Controversial
解释：在保护用户信息和隐私安全上，VPN的作用是存在争议的。

(3)答案：D.Check information on website like Torrentfreak
解释：在Torrentfreak这样的新闻网站上，有许多对VPN的隐私政策和信息保护措施的评价和新闻，是值得参考的。

(4)答案：B.Set up your own VPN
解释：最好的避免信息泄露的方式，就是自己搭建一个VPN，但这需要丰富的电脑知识。

被未来拒之门外的千禧一代

日益高涨的房价，膨胀的人口，越来越少的工作机会——千禧一代的未来令人担忧。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

millennials千禧世代；千禧之子

upward mobility上进心

cohort一群；同生群['kəʊhɔːt]

trifecta（赛马赌博的）三连胜式[traɪ'fektə]

ramification衍生物；分枝[,ræmɪfɪ'keɪʃ(ə)n]

bode预示[bəʊd]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分8秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分14秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分47秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Millennials have been blocked from a prosperous future（470 words）

By Rana Foroohar

One of the key ideas behind the success (at least thus far) of liberal, free market, democratic societies was that children would do better than their parents. A raft of new data show this assumption is no longer true on either side of the Atlantic.

According to new data by the US Census bureau, millennials are moving back in with mum and dad at record rates. A third of young people aged 18-34 now live at home, and of those, a quarter are neither working nor going to school. They hold nearly triple the amount of student debt as the previous generation and as a result are less likely to own a home, be married, or have children. Economics has put adulthood — and upward mobility — on hold for these young people.

The same is true in the UK; a new piece of research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that the millennial generation has only about half of the typical net household wealth that the cohort that is 10 years older had at the same age. As the report puts it, “not only have they suffered from lower wages, but the two main types of assets which people accumulate during their lives, housing and pensions, have both become much less affordable over the last couple of decades”.

Globally, millennials were hit by the post-2008 trifecta of higher youth unemployment, rising student fees and higher housing prices. All of which means that they are debt-rich and asset-poor. The ramifications of this are worrisome for growth in both the short and long term. In the US, Bill Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has cited the high debt levels among young people as a reason for slower interest rates, which have reflected in part a lack of demand in the economy, particularly for things like housing.

The cycle is compounded by the fact that real estate prices and rents are higher than average in college towns (where an increasing number of rich parents buy investment properties for their children to live in while they study, driving up prices) and in places where the job market is hotter. Unable to buy in such cities, millennials opt to rent. But rental rates are rising, and the upshot is that they are unable to asset build in their youth.

All this makes them less prepared for retirement (pension savings rates are far lower than in past generations) and less likely to own the assets crucial for upward economic mobility; returns on assets always outweigh income, which has been flat in real terms for decades. If you think about the fact that most rich-country economies are based 60-70 per cent on consumer spending, the downward mobility of the millennials — which will undoubtedly continue to grow — doesn't bode well for anyone's future.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the trend in terms of housing for millennials?

A.More people are moving back to live with their parents

B.They have to pay more for owing a house than their parents

C.They tend to move more

D.Smaller houses are popular

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What haven't become lower for millennials?

A.Wages

B.Housing affordability

C.Pensions

D.Health rate

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is one of the reasons for slower interest rates?

A.High unemployment rate

B.High rent rate

C.High currency exchange rate

D.High debt levels among young people

答案⁽³⁾

4.What makes young people more willing to rent?

A.High city development rates

B.High housing price

C.Frequently changing jobs

D.Different housing attitude

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.More people are moving back to live with their parents
解释：对于千禧年一代来说，越来越多的人开始搬回家和父母一起居住。

(2)答案：D.Health rate
解释：与父母一代相比，千禧年一代的学生贷款更高，薪水水平更低，购买房屋和支付养老金的能力也在下降。

(3)答案：D.High debt levels among young people
解释：Bill Dudley指出，导致目前较低的利率的原因之一是年轻人的高债务现象。

(4)答案：B.High housing price
解释：年轻人由于城市房价的高涨，越来越多地选择租房而非买房。

iPhone的“商业”成功

虽然拥有昂贵的定价，iPhone依然取得了巨大的市场份额，而iPhone被商务人士广泛使用更是一个奇迹——在过去，商务手机仅仅只是一个用于沟通业务的工具。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

portray描绘；扮演[pɔː'treɪ]

extravagance奢侈，浪费[ɪk'strævəg(ə)ns]

incumbent现任的；在职者[ɪn'kʌmb(ə)nt]

predominate支配，主宰[prɪ'dɒmɪneɪt]

faff忙乱[fæf]

nonconformity不一致[nɒnkən'fɔːmɪtɪ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分31秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分20秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分48秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分20秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How the iPhone triumphed in business（800 words）

By Jonathan Margolis

Billions, the television series about a hedge fund manager, played by Damian Lewis, is typical of US entertainment shows, in that Apple iPhones and MacBook computers feature so heavily they almost deserve their own credit.

This Apple-heavy world portrayed on television and in films is often put down to the brand's popularity among the creative and media types who make them. It simply reflects their normal.

In the real world, Apple computers are not particularly popular, last year hitting 7.4 per cent market share against Windows PCs — and that was a record.

But the iPhone's success since its introduction 10 years ago next month has been a different story.

In recent years, iPhone sales made up 40 per cent of the US smartphone market. Because they work for years and their looks do not age, most of the billion-plus iPhones sold over the past decade are likely to be still in use — one for every seven people on the planet. Not bad.

It is the first case I can recall of a premium priced, luxury product becoming mass market. My cleaner has one, even though she would regard a Mac computer as an extravagance.

The iPhone, while remaining expensive, has become the phone to own across class and national boundaries. How has this happened?

Its success as a business phone is particularly unexpected. The device has few advantages over rivals as a work phone, but it has become a badge of office for the upscale — or aspiring — executive, even more than the Motorola bricks of the 1980s or BlackBerry at its height in 2006.

Back in June 2007, it looked like a colourful Fisher-Price toy next to the rugged, sensible Canadian-ness of the BlackBerry.

A fun smartphone was a sweet idea, but surely serious people would be turned off by the device they used to conduct business-critical communications also being able also to show pictures of their children, videos of their cat and play music?

But the iPhone soon destroyed the incumbent, and has survived the challenge of devices operating on Google's rival Android system.

I tried to find out how many employers give their staff iPhones over rival devices. Many companies operate a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy rather than hand out company phones, so a meaningful number is hard to pin down. So I carried out an informal poll of company executives instead.

One contact who has worked in the UK for two of the biggest US-based internet companies said both were “99 per cent iPhone” — even though, he added: “They are really bad at making phone calls and the battery life is terrible.”

A BBC manager said iPhones were standard issue. A director of a high street retail company said the same thing. A contact at a global consulting business said it operated BYOD, “but practically every desk has an iPhone on it”. And the iPhone is handed out to staff at the FT.

IT managers have told me that they think iPhones are overrated, and not ideal in businesses where Microsoft Office software predominates. But they are overwhelmingly the BYOD phone staff insist on.

The reasons why the iPhone triumphed über alles in business is not complicated.

First, the Apple ecosystem for music, movies and the rest sucks you in. It works well and changing to Android is a faff. So it is not quite a question of consumers taking delight in their iPhones, but of simplicity.

The second element of the device's appeal is its image.

In the workplace, an iPhone is a way of demonstrating your nonconformity. Forget that the norm you are not conforming to, the BlackBerry, barely even exists any more. But whereas parking a Harley-Davidson outside the office, turning up in a hoodie or bringing a dog to work may be frowned upon, an iPhone is acceptable.

Mass-scale non-conformity may seem a paradox par excellence — yet denim jeans are worn by billions to project the very same different-but-safe impression.

Could the iPhone's seemingly unassailable position continue for another 10 years? Or will it inevitably do a BlackBerry?

The iPhone 8 is expected in the autumn and it is difficult to imagine how the new model will keep momentum going.

The Galaxy S8, regarded by many as the best phone ever, makes the current iPhones look rather conservative. But the last thing Apple would want is for their 8 to resemble a me-too Samsung.

Whether Apple will be brave — or foolish — enough, to start over on the iPhone's 10th anniversary with something as radical as the original is anyone's bet.

My guess is that they will stay safe and the iPhone 8 will still be recognisably an iPhone. As the iPhone 18 may be in another 10 years.

But for it to still be the market leader then, that would be something truly remarkable.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the percentage iPhone make up in the US market?

A.20%

B.30%

C.40%

D.50%

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is particularly unexpected?

A.iPhone's popularity

B.iPhone's success as a business phone

C.iPhone's high price

D.iPhone's amazing quality

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the first reason for iPhone's popularity?

A.Its unique ecosystem

B.Its perfect design

C.Its outstanding user experience

D.Its cheap price

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the second reason for iPhone's wide use in business?

A.Its advertising

B.Its portable size

C.Its special designed functions for business people

D.Its image of nonconformity

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.40%
解释：最近几年，美国智能手机市场上iPhone的占有率达到40%。

(2)答案：B.iPhone's success as a business phone
解释：对作者来说十分意外的是，iPhone在许多企业中也被广泛使用，尽管它的性能比起对手也差不了多少。

(3)答案：A.Its unique ecosystem
解释：IOS独特的操作系统，将音乐、视频等娱乐活动集为一体，这样的系统性优势是安卓系统无可比拟的。

(4)答案：D.Its image of nonconformity
解释：在工作中使用iPhone，使得商务人士与那些使用黑莓或者其他商用手机的人相比，显得独特却在可以接受的范围内。

医生才是社会地位最高的人？

接受了高等教育的社会精英们，更愿意从事金融、咨询行业的工作，可当人类危机产生的时候，受到保护的可能是医生和科学家。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

lavish丰富的；浪费['lævɪʃ]

remunerative有利可图的[rɪ'mjuːn(ə)rətɪv]

comet彗星['kɒmɪt]

carnage大屠杀；残杀['kɑːnɪdʒ]

malingerer装病逃差者[mə'lɪŋgərɚ]

nebulous 朦胧的；星云的['nebjʊləs]

squall暴风；麻烦；尖叫[skwɔːl]

agile敏捷的；机敏的['ædʒaɪl]

banishment流放，充军['bænɪʃmənt]

frivolity轻浮；轻薄[frɪ'vɒlɪtɪ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分20秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分14秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分44秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分18秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why be a doctor when you can have real status?（785 words）

By Janan Ganesh

These are the jobs of my dozen or so closest friends: foreign-exchange trader, strategic consultant, political consultant, advertiser, something in a hedge fund, property entrepreneur, tech entrepreneur, broadcast journalist, print journalist, data scientist, public relations man, diplomat, central bank official and one that escapes simple description but appears to be another species of consultant.

All of us have nice lives — nicer than most of us were brought up to expect — and feel central to the action. The more stressful of these jobs have lavish financial compensations while the less remunerative ones, which still pay several multiples of the average income, come with travel opportunities, intellectual stimulus, private club memberships and social invitations.

Such a handsome return on work that does not matter all that much. With one exception (an intelligence agent), I am not close to anyone who toils in the realm of life and death. Just one of us knows his way around a hard science. Faced with a comet that promises human extinction, the government in Deep Impact builds a bunker for people with vital skills so that civilisation might revive once the carnage is over. No one I know would make the cut. We would be squished with the other malingerers and non-essentials. Outside of disaster-movie plot lines, though, we have a cushier time of it than doctors, engineers and research scientists, despite our shallower learning, our nebulous job titles, our inferior contribution to the advancement of the species.

Since the populist squall of 2016, so much has been said about the inequities between rich and poor, the material rewards for higher education against those for manual labour. Less is said about the inequities between educated people — the internal hierarchy of the graduate world. One of the stories of my lifetime has been the de-glamorisation of traditional careers to the advantage of looser, vaguer lines of work. The new elite do jobs that require agile intellect rather than deep, specific knowledge. They tend to handle ideas or the flow of money. And — the defining characteristic, this — their jobs are hard to explain to anyone over a certain age. Try telling your parents, as a few of my friends have to, that you earn many times their combined peak income for advice to corporate clients that can never be provably right or wrong.

You can see the change play out within immigrant families. The first generation tells its children to enter the established professions for reasons of security and respectability. Those children, wiser to the ways of their new homeland, then encourage their own to load up on generalist education and improvise a career from there. The point is not just to survive the rise of automation but also to have fun and influence, to sense where social status lies in highly evolved, service-based economies and to hoard it.

***

I was brought up to view a doctor as a kind of secular god. I now see a Stakhanovite soul who must train for seven years, work epic hours, accept postings where they arise, get to know human suffering from the inside out and observe a strict code on pain of eternal banishment from the profession — all for material comforts, calculated on a pay-per-hour basis, that kick in not much earlier than middle age. The job commands as much respect as it ever did, but some of the perceived lustre has gone. Friends who had the academic potential to pursue medicine sensed early on that the real fun, the highest social status and the best money-to-work ratio can now be found in frothier careers.

And as these jobs proliferate, people who do work of existential importance become creatures of fascination. Consider the boom in memoirs from the heavyweight professions. Henry Marsh has just published his second account of life as a neurosurgeon. Mark Owen has written two books on his time as a Navy Seal, including one that majors on the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Even Skyfaring, by commercial airline pilot Mark Vanhoenacker, fits the trend. He has hard knowledge, after all, and a technical skill without which the world as we know it could not function.

The success of these books hinges on the authorial talent of their creators — their way with quotidian detail, in particular — but there is as much of demand as of supply in this literary phenomenon. Readers want to know about “proper jobs” precisely because there are so few of them around now. A surgeon or soldier is all the more interesting in a society where most people — whether in call centres or trading floors — do nothing tangible for their income. It is the compliment that frivolity pays to seriousness, and the present pays to the past.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who is less likely to be a closest friend of the author?

A.A journalist

B.A scientist

C.A politician

D.A consultant

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who would probably be seen as a person with vital skills?

A.A politician

B.A journalist

C.A doctor

D.A manager

答案⁽²⁾

3.What kind of jobs would new elites like to do?

A.Jobs that require agile intellect

B.Jobs with specific knowledge

C.Labor jobs

D.Jobs that is creative and inspiring

答案⁽³⁾

4.What did Henry Marsh and Mark Owen have in common?

A.They believes in the same religion

B.They have same interests

C.They are both rich because of the jobs they have

D.They do work of existential importance

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.A scientist
解释：作者周围关系较好的朋友，大多是和金融、政治领域相关的人士，比如证券基金从业人员，政策咨询师等等，而鲜有涉及科学和医药领域的人。

(2)答案：C.A doctor
解释：如果世界末日来临，而那些被送进避难所以保存人类文明的人往往是科学家、医生这些被认为至关重要的人。

(3)答案：A.Jobs that require agile intellect
在接受了高等教育的人群内，新一代的精英们更倾向于从事那些需要机敏思维而非特殊知识的工作。

(4)答案：D.They do work of existential importance
解释：Henry Marsh和Mark Owen之间的共同点在于，两个人所从事的工作都是具有重要的社会意义，为人们所感兴趣的。

怎样让“父母双忙”的孩子茁壮成长？

在许多家庭中父母因工作不能常常陪伴孩子，这种长时间的分离往往会造成幼儿心理发展的缺陷。然而心理学家认为，这种工作与生活的矛盾是可以解决的。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

solicitor律师；法务官[sə'lɪsɪtə]

instil逐渐灌输[ɪn'stɪl]

neuroscience神经系统科学['njuːrəʊsaɪəns]

attune to习惯于

clingy紧贴的；粘住的['klɪŋɪ]

succession连续；继位[sək'seʃ(ə)n]

binary二元的['baɪnərɪ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分5秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分12秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分26秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分33秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How the children of working parents can thrive？（932 words）

By Naomi Shragai

Sarah, a 36-year-old solicitor, was shocked when her three-year-old daughter called out her nanny's name during the night. “You think: ‘My child loves the nanny more than me.’”

On the other hand, the overwhelming anxiety Sarah felt when her daughter was ill left her relieved to hand over responsibility. She soon realised that she was never going to love caring for her children round the clock. She explains: “I wouldn't say that I looked forward to going back to work, but I looked forward to having an activity that involved being away from them.”

Sarah hoped that by providing her with affection and a routine, her daughter would not suffer the sense of “I don't matter” that she says her own mother had instilled in her.

According to psychotherapists, Sarah was right to be concerned about unintentionally repeating a pattern of neglectful parenting. Infants and young children need sensitive care from adults — a process called “attachment”.

This accepted theory in psychology, neuroscience and biochemistry explains how early interaction between a parent and infant has lasting consequences for a child's emotional wellbeing.

The first few years of a life are crucial in shaping and developing a child's “social brain”, where emotional resources are established. Having adults around who can attune to an infant's feelings and experiences provides the basis for regulating feelings, relating to others and coping with stress.

Children can become aggressive, shy or clingy if their early attachment needs are not met. In extreme cases, inadequate early care can lead to antisocial behaviour, addictions and personality disorders.

Employers could do more to support working parents. Sarah, the solicitor, believes many managers pay only lip service to flexible working policies. “They'll let you go to the school play, but secretly they'll always remember that you missed that meeting,” she says.

Leena Kothari-Seward, a psychotherapist and founder of Mosaic Executive Coaching, believes technology and the need to retain good staff have led to employers offering greater flexibility than in the past. But she suggests employers go further by measuring employees' performance against goals, rather than time spent in the office.

Ms Kothari-Seward recommends employers offer coaching to parents during pregnancy and on returning to work. Managers and parents need to have the difficult conversations about what the company can realistically offer.

Professor Peter Fonagy, a leading child psychoanalyst and chief executive of the Anna Freud Centre in London, reassures working parents that multiple carers need not harm a child's development.

Good attachment depends on the quality of attention rather than the quantity, he says. Although parents and extended family members are likely to be more motivated, other carers can provide the attachment experiences babies require and this need not disrupt bonds with parents.

Research shows that the best bonding occurs at night, between the baby and the person who is present when the child awakes.

Prof Fonagy says that “even if there is an exchange of persons, as long as they know the infant well enough to respond sensitively … it is the quality that counts”.

He believes one person cannot be expected to provide everything a baby's brain needs. An understanding social network is also required. “It's not the quality of the bond, it's the quality of the environment that actually promotes the infant's development.”

Attachment requires much more than physical care and protection, he says. “It becomes about supporting the development of the human mind — to be able to describe one's inner experience, to be able to anticipate what others feel and think, and to have social collaboration — these things are dependent on attachment relationships.”

Whereas in the past there may have been four adults to care for one infant, these days the opposite is expected. He says: “Biologically we're not designed to take time off to look after children. [Historically] you are expecting a whole village to look after children.”

When a baby is born, it can often trigger feelings from the parents' own infancy. If parents suffered attachment disorders, they are more at risk of misinterpreting their baby's cries to mean the infant is upset with them. If the response from the parent is negative, the infant can be left feeling distressed and insecure — and so the cycle is repeated down a generation.

A man who came to me for psychotherapy described feelings of inadequacy and fear of rejection as a result of his mother returning to work when he was six weeks old, leaving him with inadequate care from a succession of nannies.

As a consequence, throughout his life he fought hard for the affection of others, frequently choosing personal and professional relationships that were easy, but ultimately unsatisfying, because he feared being rejected.

He says: “I worked very hard — not to do with career success — but through fears that I might be rejected by the organisation in the same way I unconsciously felt rejected by my mother.”

When his daughter was born, his buried feelings towards his mother resurfaced. He then understood how work could be a way for parents to flee from difficult feelings that a child's arrival might provoke.

“When I go to work in the morning and ask for a hug [and] she goes to my wife and not to me I can still feel hurt, and I need to be careful not to feel rejected. Otherwise you're making an 18-month-old baby responsible for adult emotions.”

Prof Fonagy believes work and family life should be much less binary, and that remote working and technology can play a part. “Generating wealth is not the only thing that will take care of the next generation,” he says.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the name of the process that Infants and young children need sensitive care from adults?

A.Attachment

B.Fulfillment

C.Development

D.Movement

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How would children become if early attachment needs are not met?

A.Wordless

B.Joyful

C.Aggressive

D.Cynical

答案⁽²⁾

3.When will the best bonding occur?

A.In the morning

B.In the night

C.In the afternoon

D.In the weekend

答案⁽³⁾

4.What could help parents to balance work and family life

A.A helpful nanny

B.Remote working and technology

C.Less working hours

D.More paid vacations

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Attachment
解释：婴儿和年纪小的孩子需要得到成年人细微照顾的这一成长过程，被称为“依恋”。

(2)答案：C.Aggressive
解释：如果孩子的早期依恋需求没能够得到满足，他们往往会变得好斗，害羞甚至粘人。

(3)答案：B.In the night
解释：晚上是建立这种依恋关系的最佳时间，即使是照顾孩子的人发生了改变，只要父母了解孩子并恰当地照顾他，这种关系的建立就是有效的。

(4)答案：B.Remote working and technology
解释：Fonagy教授相信，工作和生活之间的平衡是可以做到的，而远程办公以及科技的发展能够有所帮助。

新时代送礼准则

盲目重复的礼物往往造成资源的浪费，而人们也记不住是谁给自己送了香烛、香水和衣服，当抛开送礼的目的性之后，新时代的最佳礼物是让人大快朵颐的美食。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

newbie网络新手；新兵['njuːbɪ]

metric公制的；米制的['metrɪk]

staggering惊人的['stæɡərɪŋ]

tchotchke小玩意['tʃɒtʃkə]

netsuke悬锤；坠子['netskɪ]

appease使平息[ə'piːz]

reciprocity相互作用[,resɪ'prɒsɪtɪ]

chronicle编年史，年代记['krɒnɪk(ə)l]

antelope羚羊['æntɪləʊp]

carnivorous食肉的[kɑː'nɪv(ə)rəs]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分6秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分6秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分38秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分16秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Mangoes, and the changing rules of buying presents（765 words）

By Nilanjana Roy

I used to love everything about presents — until I read the Global Candle Market Report 2017. Like every newbie to this fiercely competitive, hygge-fuelled world, I was blown away by the figures. Candle-makers, including new entrants from China, produced 1,676,540 metric tons of candles in 2016, which is a lot of money to spend on scented wax.

For a moment, picture the world lit up in flaming candles, the US and the UK burning a little more brightly and fragrantly than the rest. It won't be very long before we've blanketed Planet Earth in scents ranging from Baked Goods to Floral, Spicy, Oriental Tea, Apple Blossom and Log Fire.

Those who buy scented candles, and I confess my own complicity, don't see themselves as part of these staggering numbers, the billion pounds of wax poured into the industry. You buy candles, or any other gift, in the hope of adding something bright, and new, even individual, to your life, even though you're only one of thousands or millions buying Tuberose Rouge Red for the home.

But this business of buying and receiving gifts, this chain of objects representing practically every shade of human need from affection to lust, guilt to bribery, and concern to love, is such a tangle. Many of my friends rebel against the cycle of gift-giving, for reasons varying from environmental — never give presents that will end up in landfill — to a kind of modern fatigue, a wearing of things in themselves.

One friend simply refuses to give or receive tchotchkes, arguing that we all have too much stuff; another gives only her own (brilliant) photographs and artworks. A third, also an artist, prefers not to be given art or ceramics because she has no room for more art, thereby eschewing the secondary gifting economy created by talented people who give their own creations or their children's art as gifts. Some of these are breathtaking — I will treasure a hand-carved netsuke piece, for instance, or something beautiful chosen by a friend on their travels.

Many hand out IOUs for services instead of gifts, though few of us would be demanding enough to cash those in. Food, from salamis and cheeses to Kachampuli Coorg vinegar or special spice mixes, remains universally popular. There's much to be said for the pleasure of the thoughtfully selected, unusual gift that happens to be exactly what you wanted — though gifting an experience (a trip to Paris, skydiving sessions, a meeting with a favourite performer) might even be more memorable.

Are we over-gifting? Under-gifting? How many scented candles circulate from giver to recipient and back again, never to be unwrapped? According to research by the Dutch financial institution ING in 2016, one in seven Europeans were unhappy with gifts they had received. About 25 per cent of those surveyed across 14 countries reported that they had re-gifted their presents, while 14 per cent sold them. Millennials tended to throw away unwanted gifts. Perhaps you should give only what establishes trust, or creates welcome surprise, though this is utopian — much of gift-giving is driven by the impulse to flatter, to bribe or to appease a guilty conscience.

Old manuscripts — Indian, Chinese and medieval Italian — are a reminder that gift-giving has always been a complicated business, pocked with cultural pitfalls, often trapping givers into an endless cycle of reciprocity. A classic dilemma: what to give the man or woman who already had an empire at their disposal?

The Emperor Jahangir's Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri, his personal memoir, pauses often to chronicle gifts received, exchanged and re-gifted. Jahangir's interest in the natural world created opportunities for those eager to please the emperor — they sent him turkeys, a rare dodo, a female antelope who beguiled him greatly, a zebra that he generously passed on to the Shah of Iran, the favoured elephant Futeh that was bestowed on a fortunate writer.

As for me: one of the few recipes I can claim to make well is Jacques Pépin's simple but glorious duck liver pâté. Carnivorous friends get pâté; vegetarian friends get mangoes, and the reaction confirms my belief that people remember what they eat far more than what they wear.

You might sometimes forget who gave you silver bracelets or neckties or perfume, but you always remember a honey-fleshed Dussehri mango, and the rich, melting flavour of pâté spread on slices of baguette. As presents, mangoes leave only a good taste in the mouth — no one in their right mind would return or regift a plump Alphonso. Nilanjana Roy is the author of ‘The Wildings’ and ‘The Hundred Names of Darkness’ and lives in Delhi.

@nilanjanaroy

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What makes the author changes her mind about gift-giving?

A.Talking to her friends about gift-giving

B.Reading the data from ING

C.Reading the Global Candle Market Report 2017

D.Reading the stories of gift-giving in ancient China

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is an example of secondary gifting economy ?

A.Art or ceramics gifts

B.Different scented candles

C.Using children's art as gifts

D.Recycling received gifts

答案⁽²⁾

3.What would be considered by the author as an unusual gift?

A.A special scented candle

B.A artistic work

C.A pair of hand-made socks

D.A trip to Paris

答案⁽³⁾

4.What kind of gifts you would probably always remember?

A.Nice dress

B.Delicious food

C.Silver bracelets

D.Good-smell perfume

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Reading the Global Candle Market Report 2017
解释：作者本来是一个喜欢接受礼物的人，但在读了2017年全球蜡烛市场报告之后，对送礼这件事情发生了改观。

(2)答案：C.Using children's art as gifts
解释：所谓的二手礼物经济，是指人们将手边的物品再利用以送礼，将自己孩子的美术作品当做礼物就是例子之一。

(3)答案：D.A trip to Paris
解释：作者认为，往往那些意想不到的礼物正是你想要的，而这样的礼物可能是一次去巴黎的旅行、一次高空跳伞或者一次和喜欢的演员的见面会。

(4)答案：B.Delicious food
解释：在作者看来，你可能会忘记送你手镯、项链和香水的人，但你永远都不会忘记给你美味食物造福味蕾的人。

聊天软件如何改变工作方式？

计算机和相应软件的使用使得工作效率大大提高，却也导致了工作的孤立化。然而即时聊天软件让工作重新回到团队之中。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

aphorism格言；警句['æfərɪz(ə)m]

artefact工艺品['ɑːtɪfækt]

mount增加[maʊnt]

hypertext超文本['haɪpətekst]

consciousness意识；知觉['kɒnʃəsnɪs]

sheer绝对的；透明的[ʃɪə]

fluid流动的；流体；液体['fluːɪd]

hierarchical分层的[haɪə'rɑːkɪk(ə)l]

entail使需要；引起；需要[ɪn'teɪl]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

7分40秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分32秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分40秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分38秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How communication tools change the way we work together（981 words）

By Richard Waters

One of the best descriptions of the impact of modern technology on its users dates from 50 years ago. It was coined by John Culkin, a friend of media theorist Marshall McLuhan. Writing about the great man's ideas, Culkin came up with this suitably McLuhan-sounding aphorism: “We shape our tools and thereafter, our tools shape us.”

His point was that humans develop new tools to meet the needs of the moment, but then the ways of working embodied by these artefacts become ingrained. The tools end up defining how their users think about the problems they face — at least, until either mounting frustrations with the inadequacy of the tools, or a different set of problems, causes a whole new set of tools to be invented and the process begins again.

By coincidence, next year will also mark the 50th anniversary of the moment the world got its first glimpse of the tools that would completely change working life. At a public demonstration in San Francisco, Doug Engelbart, an inventor and technology visionary working for the Stanford Research Institute, showed off a computer embodying ideas that were years ahead of their time. These included a mouse, a graphical user interface and hypertext.

Engelbart's presentation is known in the tech world as the Mother of All Demos. It was a glimpse into a future where computers would become flexible platforms on which people would be able to elaborate and communicate their thoughts, rather than just a blinking command line interface.

But the ways of working represented by the software tools that became familiar on the PC have their own limitations. Stewart Butterfield, chief executive of group messaging service Slack, says that computing horsepower increased exponentially to make the software more useful, but the methods of work this enabled were still limited.

“Someone in the finance team today using Excel is super-powered compared to this demo in 1968,” he says. But that person is still tied to a way of working — and thinking — that is baked into the architecture of the technology. The PC applications create a degree of isolation; only after the fact is the product of their work sent to others — often as an email attachment.

By contrast, “most real work gets done in groups,” says Butterfield. “The challenges around communication, co-ordination, alignment are no more solved than they were 50 years ago.”

Anyone entering working life today will find the tools of the job in a state of extreme flux. Spreadsheets, documents, PowerPoint presentations have all been changed by the cloud — sharing and group editing are the norm.

Meanwhile, new collaboration tools are spreading virally, as workers take up new internet services that make their own lives easier. These include the stream of group consciousness represented by a Slack messaging channel, the open-ended discussion around a project supported by Dropbox's Paper, or the list-centric collaboration tool developed by Quip, which was recently acquired by Salesforce.

If these and similar services have been shaped to make work more effective, then it is fair to ask how they, in turn, will shape their users — and what effect will they have on the organisations where they are being adopted.

At their worst — as anyone who uses them can attest — apps like Slack make big demands. They create an expectation that users maintain an almost constant “presence” and respond in real time. The sheer volume of communication they support can be all-consuming. Future workers could end up looking like today's most addicted smartphone users: constantly distracted, unable to think deeply about any particular task, restless for new stimulation.

But it need not turn out that way. The techniques for managing real-time collaboration tools — and the social mores around how they are used — are still evolving. Also, they exist alongside other tools that also demand attention: that creates tension for workers, who may find themselves pulled between email apps, message streams and other communication networks. Over time, as work flows to the most suitable channel, that could change.

The rapid viral adoption of tools like Slack (it was teams of workers who took up the service, after all, not their corporate IT departments) certainly shows they fill a gap. Microsoft has also seen the writing on the wall and has come up with an alternative service, called Teams.

The kind of work that tools like these are designed to enable is group-based, more fluid and geared to specific projects. They make it easier for people to move between ad hoc groups, which can form and disband as needed. They are suited to short, intensive bursts of communication among small groups that need to deal with problems in real time, not save them up for some future meeting.

If the optimists are right, this will liberate workers. They will become better communicators, more willing collaborators. For many, it will sound like a more fulfilling working life than the more static, hierarchical processes that have often determined how companies operate.

Of course, today's new tools will not change office culture overnight or end the compliance straitjacket that determines how many aspects of work are conducted. Just because the internet — and, now, cloud computing — have handed entrepreneurs like Slack's Butterfield the power to invent new tools for work, it does not mean the software they come up with will represent the final answer. It will shape its users just as surely as the software that came before did, instilling certain ways of working and thinking — with all the drawbacks that entails.

At the Mother of All Demos nearly half a century ago, Doug Engelbart showed what life in a more connected workplace might look like. His presentation included videoconferencing, as well as a way for workers in different places to jointly edit the same document at the same time. More fluid forms of communication and collaboration are finally here. Work — and workers — may never be the same again.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What Engelbart's presentation is called in the tech world?

A.Atlas

B.ASIMO

C.the Mother of All Demos

D.Schrödinger's Cat

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to Stewart Butterfield, what did PC applications create?

A.A degree of isolation

B.A sense of collaboration

C.A different working mode

D.A faster working pace

答案⁽²⁾

3.Communication tools like Slack make sure what?

A.Work efficiency

B.Employee morale

C.Peer relationship

D.Work is group-based

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the author's attitude towards future?

A.Disappointed

B.Optimistic

C.Doubtful

D.Worried

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.the Mother of All Demos
解释：50年前Doug Engelbart在旧金山的展示被科技界称为“计算机之母”。

(2)答案：A.A degree of isolation
解释：Stewart Butterfield认为，电脑等现代科技设备的广泛使用，使得每个人的工作变得孤立起来。

(3)答案：D.Work is group-based
解释：像Slack这样的即时聊天工具，为同事之间提供了交流的平台，确保了任何工作的完成都是团队内的。

(4)答案：B.Optimistic
解释：作者更倾向于支持乐观者的观点，认为未来的工作模式仍然会是团队式的，而新兴的聊天工具也会有所帮助。

线上直播——网络时代的新型隐患？

线上直播在丰富人们的娱乐生活的同时，也来带了更大的社会问题：当直播的内容变成了暴力犯罪时，网络监管者们往往无能为力。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

indulge满足；纵容[ɪn'dʌldʒ]

snippet小片；片断['snɪpɪt]

proposition命题；提议[prɒpə'zɪʃ(ə)n]

disquieting令人不安的[dɪs'kwaɪətɪŋ]

maven内行，专家['meɪv(ə)n]

moderator仲裁人；调解人['mɒdəreɪtə]

dissident持不同政见者['dɪsɪd(ə)nt]

futile无用的；无效的['fjuːtaɪl]

derelict玩忽职守的；无主的；遗弃物['derəlɪkt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分19秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分20秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分31秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分35秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why livestreaming means danger on a different scale （951 words）

By Nilanjana Roy

When livestreaming first became a mainstream craze in China and South Korea a couple of years ago, it didn't seem either that scary or that much of a game-changer. I thought of it as an extension of webcams, and indulged my inner geek binge-watching popular noodle-eating stars from Seoul and smart-mouthed tattoo artists from Yunan turning themselves into internet celebrities.

The growing popularity of broadcasting live snippets from your life online, on platforms such as Tencent, Periscope and Twitch, is inevitable — and, at its most basic, not so different from sharing status updates on Facebook or uploading photos to Instagram. For businesses, too, livestream platforms and apps can be an attractive commercial proposition.

But there is also something hugely disquieting about it. As Facebook has discovered since introducing its Live feature, the difficulty of value-neutral technology is that in granting access to the giggling teen idols and the make-up advice mavens, the same applies to those with grimmer impulses. And when acts unfold on the internet as they actually occur, the results are both compelling, and often a lot less containable.

Recently this has had disturbing results: a rash of murders, rapes and other violent crimes have since been streamed in real time. One of the most prominent and horrific occurred last month, when a man named Wuttisan Wongtalay livestreamed a video on Facebook of himself murdering his 11-month-old daughter on a hotel rooftop in Phuket, before killing himself.

Just over a week previously, a man in Ohio recorded a video of himself murdering 74-year-old Robert Godwin Sr and then posted it on to Facebook. As the social network's vice-president Justin Osofsky wrote in a blog post the next day: “It was a horrific crime — one that has no place on Facebook, and goes against our policies and everything we stand for.”

Yet the video of Godwin's shooting stayed live for more than an hour and 45 minutes after it had been posted, while the clips that Wongtalay uploaded stayed live for roughly 24 hours, until they were removed following a request by the Thai police. Last week, Facebook announced that it would add 3,000 more moderators over the next year to combat the problem. “Over the last few weeks,” wrote the network's founder Mark Zuckerberg, “we've seen people hurting themselves and others on Facebook — either live or in video posted later. It's heartbreaking, and I've been reflecting on how we can do better for our community.”

Along with many others, and as we've seen over and over again with new technologies, I believe that there's no way to shove genies back into bottles. No amount of regulation is going to prevent humans from taking to livestreaming, and that means all humans — even psychopaths, even murderers. It's also true that many technological innovations come with a full set of evil possibilities included. So I'm trying to understand why the downside to livestreaming has set off such a strong alarm bell for me.

In part my fears about this type of broadcasting are to do with the fact that this is the most extreme, transparent internet medium so far — and the dangers seem correspondingly extreme. But it's also to do with scale. Livestreaming is essentially democratic, in that it hands power, control and massive platforms over to everyone — excellent news for dissidents in oppressive regimes, for example. But it's dangerous because it empowers everyone, irrespective of their intent, or their capacity for evil.

What's more, the live component will render most attempts to regulate or moderate these streams futile. The sanity of the first version of the internet depended to a great extent on the ability of moderators to clean child pornography and beheading videos off such disparate places as crossword-solvers' forums, chess-playing sites and an old-web hangout called Hot Tub. Unmoderated or poorly moderated sites went the way of derelict building sites — someone would swing by to smash the one remaining lightbulb, and soon these places went under, covered in piles of rubble.

But the scale of livestreaming today makes this seem impossible. As a medium grows larger, moderators can no longer screen original content, since they are limited to screening complaints, which also grow in number. This might be called the Eco Map Problem, after Umberto Eco's essay on the impossibility of mapping a constantly changing territory on an exact 1:1 scale.

In any case, as India and the US, among other countries, have discovered, it's almost impossible to keep the violence down — misinformation and false news spread very quickly via WhatsApp and other networks and, increasingly, so do clips from videos showing riots, lynchings and rapes.

If a solution is to be found it is still, ironically, far more likely to be technological rather than behavioural. Might the next wave of change on the internet see the rise of gated communities, where “residents” are protected by a clever filter from the growing violence and high crime in the stream?

This is not a Doomsday prediction. The net has generated other challenges and, to some extent, evolved solutions, and livestreaming also brings immense possibility in its wake. But it feels, too, like we're heading into a wave of massive behaviour change online, without our life-jackets on or adequate preparation for the many levels of turbulence and disruption ahead.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What posted on the livestream platform make livestreaming controversial?

A.Make-up lessons

B.Violent crimes

C.Playing games

D.Food-eating video

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which company announced that it would be stricter about livestreaming?

A.Google

B.Micrsoft

C.Facebook

D.Snapchat

答案⁽²⁾

3.What makes the moderation of livestreaming impossible?

A.Public passion

B.Huge profits behind it

C.Fake news

D.Its large scale

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the name for the incapability of moderators in terms of large scale of livestreaming?

A.Middle Income Trap

B.Eco Map Problem

C.Demographic Dividend

D.Lewis Turning-Point

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Violent crimes
解释：由于某些博主直播暴力犯罪（如杀人、强奸）的过程，使得直播平台受到了较大的争议。

(2)答案：C.Facebook
解释：脸书近日宣布将在明年增加3000名审核人以更好地应对直播所带来的社会效应。

(3)答案：D.Its large scale
解释：作者认为，互联网直播庞大的规模使得对其监管和审核十分地困难。

(4)答案：B.Eco Map Problem
解释：由于直播规模的庞大，监管者只能通过用户举报来进行审查，这被称为“生态地图问题”。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集
Vol.17

父母的年龄影响孩子的健康？

著名的摇滚歌星Mick Jagger在73岁高龄时迎来了他的第八个孩子，可科学研究表明，父亲生育的年龄与孩子的健康之间存在着密不可分的联系。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

fertility生育力[fə'tɪlɪtɪ]

autism spectrum disorder自闭症谱系障碍

schizophrenia精神分裂症

hyperactivity极度活跃[,haɪpəræk'tɪvəti]

precursor先驱，前导[prɪ'kɜːsə]

psychiatric精神病学的[,saɪkɪ'ætrɪk]

immaterial无形的[ɪmə'tɪərɪəl]

procreate生育（子女）；产生['prəʊkrɪeɪt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分19秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分20秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分31秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分35秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why paternal age matters to children's health （951 words）

By Anjana Ahuja

Sir Mick Jagger embodies what one writer has called paleo-fatherhood, or the trend of becoming a dad in later life. He was 73 when Deveraux, his eighth child, was born to his 29-year-old partner, ballerina Melanie Hamrick.

The Rolling Stone is an extreme example but there has been a shift to older parenthood in recent decades. In 2015, first-time dads in the UK were 33 and first-time mothers were 30, on average four years older than was the case 40 years ago.

Discussion has tended to focus on women's declining fertility, but paternal age seems to matter too.

There is fairly robust evidence that fathers who conceive in their forties or older have children who run two to three times the usual risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. Other studies have implicated advanced paternal age (usually defined as over 40, though different studies use different thresholds) in low academic achievement. This matters: in 2015, 15 per cent of new fathers in the UK were aged 40 or over.

A paper out this month suggests that the children of both a typically young and old fathers are more likely to show unusual patterns of social development, and to end up more socially challenged than their peers.

The reasons for this are unclear but the findings highlight the emerging association between delayed fatherhood and higher health risks for offspring.

The big question is whether this association stems from age-related genetic changes in sperm, or whether the men who become fathers later in life already have social difficulties that delay conception, and which then get passed on to the next generation.

The new research was led by Dr Magdalena Janecka, from the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. It looked at data collected on 15,000 pairs of twins between the ages of four and 16, including social development, conduct with peers, and hyperactivity, and ruled out those already diagnosed with autism.

It found that children born to fathers aged either under 25 or over 51 were more socially skilled than their peers in their early development. By adolescence, however, the same children had fallen behind socially.

Their findings, published this month in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, were independent of the mother's age.

Dr Janecka concludes that “social skills are a key domain affected by paternal age … in extreme cases, these effects may contribute to clinical disorders”.

The researchers theorise that paternal age influences how a child's brain matures, with further study possibly shedding light on how autism and schizophrenia develop.

Scientists suggest that random genetic mutations during sperm production might explain the association. The precursors to sperm cells are continually dividing, with each division representing the opportunity for a genetic typo, or copying mistake.

The rate of these so-called de novo mutations has been estimated to double roughly every 16 years, meaning older men shoulder many more mutations than younger men.

Others have suggested that the rate of such mutations is simply not high enough to account fully for the higher risk of psychiatric illness in the children of older fathers.

A 2016 paper in Nature by scientists from the Queensland Brain Institute concluded that “genetic risk factors shared by older fathers and their offspring are a credible alternative explanation” to the mutated sperm theory.

In other words, men who are at greater risk of psychiatric illness tend to become fathers later in life — and their kids simply inherit that greater risk.

If this is the case, the biological clock does not tick as urgently for men as for women. But the science is by no means settled, partly because there are so many other factors aside from parental age — such as childhood neglect and drug use — that influence mental health.

One major study, which supports the link between paternal age, psychiatric risk and academic outcome, involved combing the data of 2.6m Swedes. It was able to compare siblings born to the same father. If the siblings were simply inheriting risk, paternal age would be immaterial. In fact, as paternal age rises, so does the risk of psychiatric illness and lower school grades.

“It would make sense that the effect lies in the integrity of the sperm line,” says Professor Frances Happé, an autism expert at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and a co-author of the JAACAP paper.

Men, she adds, make sperm throughout life. The production process may be vulnerable to environmental effects as well as random mutations.

Professor Adam Balen, chair of the British Fertility Society, says the study “doesn't give a definitive answer about the biological or social causes of autism in the children of older men”.

He adds: “As people in more developed economies are choosing to have children later in life, we need to understand what that might mean for the overall health and wellbeing of future generations.”

Prof Happé also warns that, since it is impossible to predict which men are affected, couples should not plan families around this research.

In the meantime, silver-haired dads are on the rise, thanks to a collision of social trends. Many men and women want to taste career success — and the financial stability that accompanies it — before procreating. Relatively high divorce rates are producing second broods, and reproductive science is extending the age limits to parenting that were previously set by nature. Celebrity fathers are removing the stigma of late parenthood: Sir Paul McCartney and Clint Eastwood became sixty something dads.

There might even be advantages amid the (hypothetical) genetic gloom: work might not compete as much; finances might be less strained.

Perhaps Sir Mick had thought it through, after all.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the average age of first-time dads in UK in 2013?

A.30

B.33

C.43

D.50

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What will not be affected by advanced paternal age?

A.Social development

B.Health situation

C.Weight and height

D.Academic achievement

答案⁽²⁾

3.The research led by Dr Magdalena Janecka are mainly related to what?

A.Father's age

B.Mother's age

C.Parental education levels

D.Parental cares

答案⁽³⁾

4.What could explain the association between father's age and children's health?

A.Environmental problems related to fathers' heath

B.Genetic mutations during sperm production

C.Quality of male sperm production

D.Aging process of male's organs

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.33
解释：据报道2013年英国男性第一次成为父亲的平均年龄是33岁，而女性则是30岁。

(2)答案：C.Weight and height
解释：研究结果表明，孩子的健康状况、在学校的课业表现和社会关系都多多少少与父母的生育年龄有联系。

(3)答案：D.Parental cares
解释：由Magdalena Janecka博士所领导的研究主要揭露了父亲的年龄和孩子的社会活动状况之间的关系，而母亲年龄的影响被忽略不计。

(4)答案：B.Genetic mutations during sperm production
解释：专家指出，精子的基因变异对于解释父亲年龄和孩子健康之间存在的联系十分重要，对男性而言，每16年这种变异可能性就会翻倍。

将你打倒的“踌躇满志”？

年轻的毕业生们往往想要在职位上一展拳脚，但是远大的抱负可能会导致不间断的加班，最终使人精神崩溃。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

prestigious有名望的；享有声望的[pre'stɪdʒəs]

coroner验尸官['kɒr(ə)nə]

enthusiastic热情的；热心的[ɪn,θjuːzɪ'æstɪk]

euthanasia安乐死[,juːθə'neɪzɪə]

lamenting悲伤的；悲哀的[lə'mentiŋ]

pinnacle高峰；极点['pɪnək(ə)l]

dietitian营养学家；饮食学家[daɪə'tɪʃ(ə)n]

zest 强烈的兴趣；给…调味[zest]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分59秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分2秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分35秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分15秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Unrealistic expectations put millennials at risk of burnout（755 words）

By Andrew Hill

Like share options, a corner office and a company car, burnout used to be something executives had to work for years to achieve. But, as in so many other areas, millennials are getting there sooner than their parents did.

Dreaming of fulfilment, autonomy and progress at work, graduates are putting themselves under immense pressure to succeed and be content — often in junior roles that are, by definition, sometimes bound to be dull and unrewarding. Such pressures are surfacing even during the race to accumulate internships, increasingly a springboard to formal offers of the most prestigious jobs in consulting, banking and accounting.

The death of Moritz Erhardt in 2013, while working as a summer intern at Bank of America in London, prompted soul-searching among some of these employers. Erhardt suffered an epileptic seizure. But a coroner's inquest found that working a long nonstop shift could have triggered the fit.

BofA and others tightened their rules about interns' weekend and evening working in an attempt to force them to rebalance their priorities. A more profound adjustment is needed, though. Clearly, employers should ensure enthusiastic would-be masters of the universe do not overdo it in their zeal to impress. But they also need to stop promoting unrealistically lofty expectations of what work may involve.

In 2012, Bogdan Costea of Lancaster University Management School and colleagues analysed recruitment advertisements in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, an annual guide. Employers urged students to “invest in yourself” (Herbert Smith, the law firm), “See more, be more” (Barclays) or “Be the one who never stands still” (PwC). In a later paper, Prof Costea set Erhardt's tragedy in the context of this “culture of work focused intensely and unremittingly on the self, a culture which becomes obligatory from the very early stage of careers, so much so that internships themselves become a kind of testing ground for the mettle of individuals”.

Pursuing a similar line of inquiry, Kira Schabram of the University of Washington and Sally Maitlis of Oxford university interviewed current and former workers at animal shelters for a new study in the Academy of Management Journal. Burnout and dropout were real threats for those who saw their work as an intense calling. For instance, these employees struggled to cope with being forced to witness and carry out animal euthanasia (“Kittens were being, you know, put down,” recalled one, lamenting “the sheer numbers” of animals involved).

When I was a graduate trainee, I remember telling my parents I would never be that colleague who seemed to work late into every night. But youthful ambition, peer pressure and accepted work practice have a way of shaping recruits, however much they may think they are carving their own path. Within months, I was on a similar schedule to my colleague, driven by an urge to get on and the sheer excitement of the new job.

You may also say that if people are more engaged with their work, that can only be a good thing, and I agree — up to a point. For every advertisement seeking “passionate” and “committed” employees, there are new hires wondering why they aren't feeling the sense of self-realisation and contentment they signed up to.

This is a version of what new chief executives sometimes experience when they finally reach the pinnacle of their careers. Globetrotting consultant Ram Charan, whose latest book is The High Potential Leader, told me such people are usually “very good at selecting what to devote their time to and very good at saying no”. Some of these high-flyers still crack, even so, and companies are starting to recognise the value of supporting their high-potential managers to avoid breakdown. Johnson & Johnson surrounds its leading executives with a team, described by Bloomberg as “like the medical crew around an astronaut after splashdown”, that includes an executive coach and a dietitian.

Employers should take similar care with high-potentials at the start of their careers. Young workers are aware of stress and how to offset it with exercise, meditation and proper sleep, according to surveys, but they, too, should step back and consider how an all-or-nothing devotion to workplace success can be a shortcut to ruin.

That study of animal shelter staff found that the workers who avoided burnout tended to be those with more modest aspirations. These realists did not put work at the centre of their identity, or treat their job as a world-changing mission. As a result, they kept their zest for the job alight long after others had had their spark snuffed out.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.In Moritz Erhardt's case, what had been the trigger of his death?

A.Working a long nonstop shift

B.His own illness

C.Peers pressure

D.Breaking up with his girlfriend

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What has been the subjects of Professor Costea?

A.Average wages in The Times Top 100

B.Working years in The Times Top 100

C.Recruitment advertisements in The Times Top 100

D.Average Age in The Times Top 100

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is not one of the factors that forced the author to work late into the night when he is graduate trainee?

A.Youthful ambition

B.Peer pressure

C.Accepted work practice

D.His less-efficient working pace

答案⁽³⁾

4.That study of animal shelter shows who are less likely to break down?

A.Workers who do more meditation practice

B.Those with more modest aspirations

C.Those who love and appreciate their jobs

D.Workers that are more efficient than others

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Working a long nonstop shift
解释：Moritz Erhardt在美国银行进行暑期实习期间，尽管本身患有癫痫，但验尸官的检验结果表明是长期不间断的工作使其最后发病死亡。

(2)答案：C.Recruitment advertisements in The Times Top 100
解释：Costea教授对时代周刊排名前100受毕业生青睐的企业的招聘启事进行了研究。

(3)答案：D.His less-efficient working pace
解释：作者刚刚毕业入职时，尽管发誓不会变成那些经常加班至深夜的同事那样，但年轻时对成功的渴望、同行压力和默认的工作惯例使得他最后也常常加班。

(4)答案：B.Those with more modest aspirations
解释：对动物保护站的研究表明，那些不容易精神崩溃的人往往是那些职业期望较低的人。

“天资”的现代定义

不断涌现的网络红人使得人们对于“天赋”的定义发生天翻复地的转变，在这个时代，名人们受追捧的理由可能只是因为他们坚持“做自己”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

prevailing流行的[prɪ'veɪlɪŋ]

tangible有形的；切实的['tæn(d)ʒɪb(ə)l]

paradigm范例['pærədaɪm]

deride嘲笑；嘲弄[dɪ'raɪd]

savvy悟性；理解能力['sævɪ]

authenticity真实性，确实性[ɔːθen'tɪsɪtɪ]

posterior其次的；较后的[pɒ'stɪərɪə]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分30秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分12秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分0秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分3秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Fame in its modern form has redefined talent（630 words）

By Jeetendr Sehdev

The need to conform is human. Some of us do it to fit a pre-approved mould or to be accepted by those around us. Others conform because it's just easier to do what everyone else is doing. But what happens when audiences decide they've had enough of the prevailing type? When the blue-eyed golden boy is out and the hot black guy is in? When the Latina promotes herself from toilet cleaner to wedding planner? What happens when there is so much uncertainty that the Hollywood casting director doesn't know any better?

The power of celebrity and the potential to profit have never been greater. Millennials, with their $200bn in annual buying power, are desperate to be famous because fame is now so tangible and attainable.

Today, everyone can be a star and can engage, inspire and monetise millions. No longer do we need a certain eye colour, cheekbones or body shape to become the next box office draw.

We just need to be ourselves, promoting our virtues and insecurities alike, and feel safe in knowing that we will be both celebrated and shunned for doing so.

This is nothing less than a paradigm shift. Stars of leaked sex tapes that were once freely derided are now lauded for being clever strategists who have launched themselves into mainstream success. Talent was a term reserved for the chosen few who attended British drama school Rada; now we prize anyone who knows how to grab an audience and cultivate a following. Why? Because millennials are the most colour-blind, gender-blind and fame-seeking generation in history. They are redefining what it means to be sexy, talented and appealing, and what we look for in our stars today are representations of each of us in our many manifestations. Think less Marilyn Monroe, more Lena Dunham.

This is in large part because of social media, especially YouTube. Stars on this platform engage global audiences simply by being themselves and promoting their often peculiar passions. Nobody tells them how to dress, sound or behave. They are who they are, and millions worship and adore them for it. Take YouTube megastar Zoella. She is now the head of a multimillion-dollar empire, and has more clout than fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld and more influence than many of the most hyped Hollywood A-listers.

Old-school marketing tactics that once generated millions in the world of consumer goods no longer hit the spot. Savvy millennials respond neither to contrived marketing statements nor promises of the perfect life. Fantasy is out. Modern marketing needs to focus on the pursuit of the real. Authenticity is the only way to start a conversation, establish trust and to build your brand. And in 2017, authenticity is big business.

Kim Kardashian has sky-rocketed to fame by following what I identify as the six factors of S.E.L.F.I.E. — Surprise, Expose, Lead, Flaws, Intimate and Execute. This means that you should be unique and innovative — and never apologise.

Remember that it is better to be overexposed than edited. Don't tap into the existing culture — create it in your own image. Make sure your ideas are you-centric not audience-centric. Celebrate your flaws; we all have them. And don't sit around waiting for things to happen — go out and make them happen yourself.

Millennials are inspired by Kim Kardashian because she fits nobody's mould but her own. Her pronounced posterior doesn't conform to media standards of “ideal” beauty; her Armenian roots don't exactly put her on the Hollywood hot list.

In owning it — on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat — she has redefined what it means to be a sex symbol. Ideas, products, services and people that follow the Kim Kardashian principle are the ones that will break through against all odds, at all costs, and come out on top — just like Kim.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How much is the annual buying power of millennials?

A.$400bn

B.$300bn

C.$200bn

D.$500bn

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the most important thing for those who are eager to gain fame?

A.Being yourself

B.Being talented

C.Working hard

D.Background package

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the biggest contributor for those celebrities?

A.Tolerant social atmosphere

B.Unique talents

C.Large fortune they have

D.Wide spread of social media

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who has sky-rocketed to fame?

A.Lena Dunham

B.Kim Kardashian

C.Zoella

D.Marilyn Monroe

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.$200bn
解释：对于千禧世代而言，每年拥有近20亿购买能力的他们急切地渴望获得名利。

(2)答案：A.Being yourself
解释：在这个时代，成名的方式其实非常简单：我们只需要彰显自我，推销自己就行。

(3)答案：D.Wide spread of social media
解释：许许多多的名人的功成名就都源于社交媒体的广泛发展，特别是像Youtube这样的平台。

(4)答案：B.Kim Kardashian
解释：金·卡戴珊可谓是迅速成名的代表人物，她的成名具有显著的时代特征。

用人工智能“私人订制”的新闻，靠谱吗？

作为一家近年来发展迅速的新闻平台，今日头条一直标榜运用智能后台为用户挑选符合其偏好的新闻内容。而针对近来引起话题的虚假新闻的问题，他们称拥有人工团队对新闻信息来源进行筛查。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

aggregation聚合，聚集[,æɡrɪ'ɡeɪʃən]

triumvirate 三头统治[traɪ'ʌmvɪrət]

voracious贪婪的；贪吃的[və'reɪʃəs]

portal大门，入口 ['pɔːt(ə)l]

beef up加强（增援，充实）

algorithm算法，运算法则['ælgərɪð(ə)m]

prominent突出的，显著的['prɒmɪnənt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分26秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分17秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分46秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分19秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Toutiao touts AI for individual news in vast China market（793 words）

By Emily Feng in Beijing

Every day, in a former Beijing aeroplane factory that is now the headquarters of Jinri Toutiao, servers sort and tag some 200,000 articles and videos that the mobile app's users will consume that day.

With nearly 600m users, five-year-old Toutiao has overtaken traditional and state-owned media to become a significant channel through which the world's most populous country gets its news. Meaning “Today's Headlines”, Jinri Toutiao is also one of China's most valuable tech start-ups, valued at $11bn after its latest Series D funding round led by Sequoia Capital last month. That is more than 20 times its $500m valuation in 2014, sparking a debate over the worth of what is essentially a news aggregation app.

While Toutiao hosts content but does not produce it, it maintains it has a key selling point in its “intelligent news feed”, where artificial intelligence and machine learning software tailor content.

“We strive to become the information platform that knows each individual best,” Tina Zhao, vice-president, said in an interview. “No two users' feed lists are alike.”

It is betting that a personalised user experience will give it an edge over its competitors — the tech triumvirate of Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

“Back in the days when Toutiao was born, the Chinese information market was dominated by web portals like Sina and Sohu. Their mobile products were simply moving content from web to mobile, and user experience … was not good enough,” said Ms Zhao.

Founded in 2012 by Zhang Yiming, a former software engineer, Toutiao has grown rapidly in the past year. Its number of daily active users rose from 30m to 78m in 2016 — making it the tenth most-used app in China — as it capitalised on voracious demand for interesting content, in a country still dominated by state-owned media.

“We are not like other news portals which provide news with a certain position. Rather, we are a neutral platform, providing news to every person depending on what they are interested in,” said Mr Zhang, in a 2015 interview with Chinese media.

Toutiao's readers can browse Chinese-language news, commentary and video sourced from 4,000 partnerships, which the company says it has forged with both state-owned and independent media organisations, including Xinhua and Caixin.

Sina Weibo, one of China's largest social media platforms, invested $100m in Toutiao in 2014 and now publishes non-news content by verified bloggers directly to Toutiao's app.

To beef up its news-sorting algorithms, Toutiao has aggressively poached engineering talent. In February, it hired Ma Wei-Ying, the former assistant managing director of Microsoft Research Asia, to lead its AI Lab.

Yet some of Toutiao's investors have expressed concern over how solely providing content can sustain long-term growth.

“We are still undecided about ‘new media’ firms. They build audience and popularity through third-party mega-platforms but are not really building something on their own. They are dependent on the mega-platform,” said Anita Huang, a managing partner at Beijing-based Sinovation Ventures.

Nearly all of Toutiao's revenue comes from advertising. The company said it earned Rmb6bn ($869m) last year from in-app advertisements and aims to increase that to Rmb10bn by 2020.

“The value of Toutiao is indeed overestimated for a platform without original content,” wrote Zhang Luoyang, a prominent online tech commentator. “Toutiao's 600m user base has pretty much found all of China's 680m internet users. To make only Rmb6bn in advertisements, despite having so many users, means its margins are extremely low and dependent on one source, so it must create more value within its own services.

That has prompted Toutiao to seek additional sources of revenue abroad and to explore other service areas.

In February, it bought Los Angeles-based video app Flipagram, an Instagram rival, for an undisclosed amount, and has taken controlling stakes in several Indonesian and Indian media apps. A partnership with Chinese ecommerce platform JD.com enables users to browse and purchase directly JD.com products featured within the Toutiao app.

Toutiao also has made a big push into hosting user-created content. Last year, it said it would invest $1bn in video streaming and now allows anyone to set up a channel on Toutiao to post non-news content.

Meanwhile, media professionals and investors worry that Toutiao could encounter the problems of algorithm bias and fake news that have entangled social media platforms such as Facebook. Toutiao employs “human intelligence” teams to screen for dubious content and refine its algorithms but analysts say a personalised news source runs the danger of becoming too narrow.

Lou Meijing, an analyst at iiMedia, a Beijing media consultancy group, said: “There is this problem of creating a filter bubble from a news source based on an algorithm and what our friends recommend, so that what we read further creates an even more subjective, more biased stream of information.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.When Toutiao was founded?

A.2011

B.2012

C.2013

D.2014

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why did Toutiao hire Ma Wei-Ying ?

A.To better organize its app

B.To develop new news-related service

C.To lead its AI lab

D.To better conduct market research

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is an example that Toutiao is seeking additional sources of revenue abroad ？

A.Setting up overseas office

B.Conducting overseas market research

C.Investing more aboard

D.Buying Flipagram

答案⁽³⁾

4.What did Toutiao do in order to deal with fake news problem?

A.They use the latest technology as filters

B.They use “human intelligence” as filters

C.They make sure every report is original

D.They don't any solutions for it right now

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.2012
解释：今日头条于2012年由张一鸣创立，在过去一年内得到了迅速的发展。

(2)答案：D.To better conduct market research
解释：今日头条聘用了前微软亚洲开发部门的副总监来统领其人工智能实验室的开发工作。

(3)答案：C.Investing more aboard
解释：在今年二月，今日头条宣布收购了instagram的竞争对手Flipagram，此举可视为其向海外进军的举措。

(4)答案：B.They use “human intelligence” as filters
解释：针对近来引起话题的虚假新闻的问题，今日头条称他们拥有人工团队对新闻信息来源进行筛查。

液体午餐成为现实？

我们经常在科幻电影看到未来人的食物是药丸或者液体，近来在年轻工薪族里流行的冲泡型代餐制品证明这并不是异想天开。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

obsolete废弃的；老式的['ɒbsəliːt]

sawdust|adj. 撒木屑的['sɔːdʌst]

chug down喝

faff小题大作；忙乱[fæf]

sordid肮脏的；卑鄙的['sɔːdɪd]

regimen养生法；生活规则['redʒɪmən]

gastronomy烹饪法，美食法；享乐主义[gæ'strɒnəmɪ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分22秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分50秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分20秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Liquid lunches — with pea protein（806 words）

By Jonathan Margolis

Of all the cartoonish future predictions — flying cars, humanoid robots — surely the silliest is that food will become obsolete because it will be replaced by pills.

I have a 1950 edition of Popular Mechanics magazine featuring a preview of life in 2000. “Cooking as an art is only a memory in the minds of old people,” it says, adding that sawdust and wood pulp will, by the 21st century, be converted into food.

In the age of Whole Foods Market, celebrity chefs and artisan edibles in every store, this seems wide of the mark. Yet the curiously old-fashioned food pill — or potion — notion is finally starting to catch on, especially among young men working in the technology sector.

There has been coverage of Soylent, the Californian nutrition drink conceived by techies for techies too busy to eat. There are now almost 100 rival, mostly liquid, products globally, aimed at the same demographic. They are compared and contrasted on a Slovakian website, Blendrunner.

Most are based in the US, Holland, Poland and the UK. But many of the great foodie cultures now have one or more start-ups claiming to produce nutritionally complete lunches, which can be chugged down by a young coder in 30 seconds. Companies in France, Italy, Spain, Australia and India are in on the trend. Even China has one, called Ruffood.

A 35-year-old tech entrepreneur told me he finds lunch “too much of a faff”, and has taken to consuming two liquid meals a day made by Huel, a UK start-up.

“Otherwise lunch would be a Tesco ham sandwich, crisps, a Coke and a Mars,” he says, “which isn't very healthy, plus I find it a bit sordid eating at my desk.”

Huel, he points out, comes as a powder, is pleasant to drink and is cheaper at little more than £1 a meal. “I do it in a NutriBullet with a double espresso and ice. It tastes like digestive biscuits and keeps me really energised until supper.”

He has bumped into other Huel-users, he said, in pubs and on the street, recognisable by their Huel T-shirts — yes, they have those.

The only thing is, this particular young guy has been weird about eating since he started on solids. I happen to know this, because I am his father and have less than fond memories of getting him to eat anything beyond Smarties.

And while a few odd young men may comprise a gap in the market, I wonder if there is a market in the gap.

But Huel, it turns out, based in Aylesbury, in south-east England, and producing in Devon, in the south-west, has sold more than 5m meals in 55 countries in less than two years.

Its customers are mostly educated men aged 24 to 35. The product is versioned like software: Huel 1.2, 1.3 and so on.

The product is a blend of vegan protein made from brown rice and peas, among other ingredients. The company says its nutritionist planned the product to replace between 50 and 80 per cent of users' daily food intake.

It is not sold as a weight-loss product. It has about 500 calories, similar to those found in a well-filled British sandwich.

The company is aiming at another industry, with its fair share of quirky, workaholic young dudes, the finance sector. Here, the old-style liquid lunch is on the way out — often replaced by a run or a workout at the gym.

Huel co-founder Julian Hearn, who started the business with £250,000 of his own money, expected techies to be early adopters of the food.

“They're more progressive, more open to new ideas, more willing to accept science,” Mr Hearn says.

I tried the product over the past weekend. Sunday lunch consisted of a 600ml glass of plain Huel with a shot of pineapple and coconut flavouring.

It was pleasant and quite satisfying. I did not feel remotely hungry again until evening. Supper was a Huel bar, which was OK, but quite dry and kind of righteous.

I am now on the verge of becoming a fan of Huel and its like. In a way, it is a brilliant reimagining of what would once have been called “invalid food”. A relative with Crohn's disease, who has lived mostly on medically prescribed liquid food for 40 years, is baffled by my son's regimen.

It does seem a little sad for healthy people to reduce food to refuelling. Meals make a punctuation point and social focus.

But when we look at the drawn-out, physically debilitating and largely non-productive procedure that is the classic business lunch, there is an advantage to just swallowing a glass of gloop and getting on with work.

As part of what might be called a mixed economy gastronomy, these foods could be the lunch of the future for more of us.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What has been popular among young men working in the technology sector?

A.Regular lunch

B.Food pills

C.Normal ham sandwiches

D.Weight-loss product

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is Huel?

A.A kind of powder that contains protein for one meal

B.A new healthy food

C.A famous English gym

D.A start-up UK based technological company

答案⁽²⁾

3.What percentage of food intake Huel planned its product to replace?

A.50-80%

B.80-100%

C.90%

D.100%

答案⁽³⁾

4.How did the author feel about the product?

A.Disappointing and hungry

B.Pleasant and quite satisfying

C.Acceptable

D.Worth to try but not that satisfied

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Food pills
解释：近来，一些号称可以代替午餐的代餐胶囊在信息行业的年轻男性中受到欢迎。

(2)答案：A.A kind of powder that contains protein for one meal
解释：Huel是英国公司推出的代餐粉状制品，它受到了许多年轻人的欢迎，据食用者称它口感很好且价格低廉。

(3)答案：A.50-80%
解释：Huel称，其营养师计划其商品可替代50%-80%人体每日需摄入的营养量。

(4)答案：B.Pleasant and quite satisfying
解释：在亲自尝试了这种冲剂之后，作者认为食用感受是令人满意的，直至晚上他都没有感到饥饿。

你有多久没好好说过“再见”了？

在这个交流愈发便捷的世界，当距离不再成为问题，名为“离别”的情绪已是明日黄花。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

blubber又哭又闹；哭['blʌbə]

compress受压缩小；压缩；精简[kəm'pres]

venture off冒险

considerable相当大的；重要的[kən'sɪd(ə)rəb(ə)l]

jaunt远足；短途旅游[dʒɔːnt]

forecourt前院；前场['fɔːkɔːt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分42秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分26秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分52秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分21秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The Fast Lane: when did you last have a proper, blubbering farewell?（815 words）

By Anjana Ahuja

Here's a little conversation-starter for the Saturday morning breakfast table: when was the last time you bid someone a proper, emotional farewell?

I'm not talking about a simple hug at a departure gate or a wave from a railway platform — I'm thinking proper blubbering, handkerchiefs and a sense of sudden separation. Was it 30 years ago, following a reunion with your college mate from Harare? Or was it more recently? Perhaps 20 years ago, when you said farewell to some relatives who were packing up and heading off to New Zealand to live out their retirement? Or is it hard to remember because the emotional farewell has become a thing of the past in a world of nonstop connections, cheaper airfares, video connectivity and constant communication?

Even though the grandchildren were carted off to live in Buenos Aires by your free-spirited daughter and your under-employed son-in-law, do low-cost fares, more economical Boeings, jumbo phone screens and a steady stream of updates make you feel any closer than you might have done a decade ago? Or is it a somewhat false sense of presence? Or is it that distances have been compressed and work patterns have changed so that nothing is quite as far away or as permanent as it once was?

In some corners of the world you still get a sense that people do venture off for long periods from their friends and family and they may not meet again for a considerable stretch. The welcome committees at Manila airport are a reminder that many Filipinos are at sea for years, not months. Likewise, the families waiting at Melbourne airport in the wee hours hint at the fact that young Aussies still go on grand tours, and that mamas still wait for their sons and daughters, no matter how much time they might spend on Skype.

For the past four years I've had a travel companion who, despite a somewhat awkward introduction, became a firm friend of the family. We were introduced in Zurich by friends from Tokyo and at various periods over the past few years we've done some of the better road trips I can remember. Indeed many were recounted on this very page. You might recall a winter jaunt from South Tyrol across to Trieste, where we enjoyed the moody Adriatic coast shortly after the Christmas break and found some proper treasure troves bursting with modernist antiques from the 1950s and 1960s, including all manner of paraphernalia recalling the city's glory days as a key port for the former Austrian Empire.

That trip also introduced us to Udine and its smart shops, excellent cafés and strong design heritage. Just the other day, I was looking through pictures from that brief visit and was reminded of the excellent graphics that adorn vintage storefronts and the feeling that this was a city with a work ethic more closely aligned to Munich's than to that of Naples.

On that same trip we also found ourselves in one of the more forgotten corners of Italy. It was a place where the villages had died, the infrastructure was collapsing and you had the creepy feeling that you could be writing your way into the gruesome opening scene of some Italian noir thriller that might be picked up by BBC4, one in which the happy road-trippers are run off the road by some haggard forester in a 4WD Fiat Panda and then locked up in some basement tethered to hooks once used for drying locally produced speck.

Last summer we did our longest-ever road trip, which took us from the heart of Mitteleuropa all the way up to the west coast of Sweden and back again. On this journey the drive up was punctuated by the Brexit vote and a very depressing morning spent in a damp, grey Hamburg — but our dear travel companion kept the mood buoyant with the right tunes and generally sunny outlook on life. I'm not sure if it was his Japanese-Canadian roots that made him such good company (his generally easy manner mixed with good style) or the fact that he was up for most adventures and rarely made much of a fuss.

Two weeks ago it was time to say our farewells and for a variety of reasons I knew it was going to be permanent. Just as we'd met in Zurich, it was also the place where we said our goodbyes — this time in the forecourt of the Baur au Lac rather than a parking lot near the airport hotel. I had had a good run with my muscular, well-behaved Lexus and as I pulled away in a distant cousin of his (a Toyota Prius) I gave him a little wave and even felt a bit teary.

The hunt's now on for a new companion for another chapter of road trips but this time I'm thinking he might be German.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What didn't make communication easier for us?

A.Cheaper airfares

B.Diverse culture

C.Video connectivity

D.Nonstop connections of airlines

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What did the author do in the last four years with his friends?

A.Studying modern communication

B.Living like those people in the past

C.Road trips

D.Practicing saying formal farewell

答案⁽²⁾

3.How would the author describe the farewell happened two weeks ago?

A.Temporary

B.Emotional

C.Unforgotten

D.Permanent

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who would probably become next companion of the author?

A.A French

B.A German

C.A Dutch

D.A English

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Diverse culture
解释：在这个时代，全世界范围内的航班覆盖、更为低廉的机票以及视频通话的普及使得交流对我们而言更为轻松便捷。

(2)答案：C.Road trips
解释：作者在过去的四年里和来自五湖四海的朋友们一起在欧洲各地进行公路旅行（自驾旅行）。

(3)答案：D.Permanent
解释：作者隐隐地感觉到，两周之前他与朋友们的分别，将会是永久的。

(4)答案：B.A German
解释：作者觉得，他的下一位同伴很可能是一个德国人。

给家长的开学“妙方”

德克萨斯一位女教师去年宣布她的班级里从此不会再有任何的作业，这样大胆的教育尝试引起了人们对于不同教育模式的探讨。究竟哪种方式最有效？家长们在盲目尝试之前还需三思。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

viral病毒性的['vaɪr(ə)l]

plaudit喝彩；赞美['plɔːdɪt]

dictatorial独裁的，专政的[dɪktə'tɔːrɪəl]

advantageous有利的；有益的[ædvən'teɪdʒəs]

dosage剂量，用量['dəʊsɪdʒ]

mantra咒语['mæntrə]

deprivation剥夺；损失；免职[deprɪ'veɪʃ(ə)n]

shoehorn鞋拔['ʃʊ'hɔrn]

stamina毅力；精力['stæmɪnə]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分4秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分38秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分1秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分24秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The best advice for parents at the start of term（846 words）

By Anjana Ahuja

At the start of the summer term, let us hail Brandy Young. The elementary school teacher from Texas announced last year that her class would no longer receive homework.

“Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside and get your child to bed early,” ran her advice.

An approving parent posted Mrs Young's message on Facebook, and it went viral. The letter won plaudits and prompted a public debate about whether homework and other school strategies, such as making class sizes smaller and enforcing uniforms, really do lead to better academic results.

One London primary school, for example, was reported to have insisted that pupils walked with their hands clasped behind their backs in order to “raise aspirations” (the so-called “university walk”, condemned as dictatorial by parents, was later dropped).

The stream of bright ideas can be dizzying, and the dividends are hard to pin down. The Sutton Trust, a UK think-tank, has long recognised this. I first came across its pioneering research about six years ago when I was a school governor in London. Being an evidence junkie, I was struck by the trust's finding that many supposedly advantageous practices, such as school uniforms and smaller class sizes, made little difference to academic outcomes.

In 2011, the trust set up the Education Endowment Foundation, a charity funded with £125m from the UK government. It runs randomised controlled trials to uncover which schemes, such as breakfast clubs, actually work.

In fact, says James Turner, EEF's deputy chief executive, it is as much about pinpointing what does not work. On this, Mrs Young had it about right: homework does not always make the grade.

Mr Turner explains: “Primary homework can add an extra month's progress over a year but given the time and effort involved [in setting and marking], is it really the best use of teachers' time?” By contrast, giving pupils feedback can add five months' progress over the same period.

Homework's continued existence owes much to parental expectation. It does, though, help secondary school pupils to do better, perhaps because it teaches them how to learn independently.

As for secondary schools, they should rethink the “dosage” mantra: that if a child struggles with maths, say, she should do more of it. Mr Turner asks: “If the teaching isn't working, then why deliver more of the same?”

That is why, on every measure, high-quality teaching really matters: the best teachers get the best results.

Brilliant educators will wow a class of 30 as easily as a class of 25 or even 20. Studies consistently show that, of itself, smaller class sizes make no difference (classes have to shrink to about 15 or below before a benefit appears).

Streaming or setting is a dubious practice: any benefits for top students are always outweighed by the disadvantages for those who are struggling. On the other hand, giving pupils continual feedback produces dramatic improvements.

Breakfast clubs are effective, especially in areas of deprivation. Steve Higgins, professor of education at Durham University, points out that schools that host them see benefits for both the children who attend and their non-breakfasting classmates: “It's not the case that simply feeding children makes them learn better. There may be a social mechanism at work: perhaps breakfast clubs get kids into school, quickly settled and more prepared, making the day run better.”

Focusing on what happens during lessons does not mean that learning should start and stop at the school gates. The pay-offs of initiatives pale next to parental influence. “Parental engagement can without doubt compensate for poor schooling,” Mr Turner says. “Good schools matter more to those who don't get the support at home.”

That support should include reading to young children, and, when they are old enough, your children reading to you. Widening vocabulary helps, too.

Parental engagement can tail off in the teen years, as pupils become more independent — and increasingly welded to smartphones.

The EEF is conducting a fascinating trial to shoehorn secondary school parents back into the engagement loop. Selected secondary schools are sending regular text messages to parents, such as prompts about homework.

The SMS updates give parents an opportunity that may not otherwise arise to discuss school with their child.

Those discussions can be tricky at this time of year, when children are revising for end-of-year exams. It is dangerously easy to find yourself nagging your teenager to get off their phone, and into work mode. In fact, Prof Higgins says, haranguing can make things worse by making a child feel isolated or rebellious.

So, here are his top revision tips. There is no magic bullet except hard work. It's how you do the work that makes the difference.

Revise in blocks of content, and keep returning to the blocks to test yourself honestly. Highlighting text and writing summaries is not that effective. Instead, practise the test format.

If essays are on the horizon, practise writing to develop handwriting stamina, and on the big day, try to get into the just-right “Goldilocks” — focused enough but not too keyed up.

It's time to text my teenager.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What Brandy Young decided to do in her class?

A.Her students are not required to wear uniforms

B.No more homework for students

C.They are going to have a breakfast club

D.They will have more homework to do

答案⁽¹⁾

2.When Education Endowment Foundation was founded?

A.2010

B.2011

C.2012

D.2013

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is one of the measures that proved to be effective?

A.Wearing uniforms

B.Having homework

C.Breakfast clubs

D.Smaller class size

答案⁽³⁾

4.Good school education matters more to whom?

A.Children that lack parental engagement

B.Pupils who learn slower than others

C.Naughty students

D.Children with good parental engagement

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.No more homework for students
解释：Brandy Young，一位来自德克萨斯州的女教师，在夏季学期开始时宣布自己班里的学生之后将没有任何的家庭作业。

(2)答案：B.2011
解释：2011年由英国政府出资建立了EEF，这个慈善机构对许多创新教育模式进行了实验。

(3)答案：C.Breakfast clubs
解释：早餐俱乐部使得儿童更快地适应学校生活，从而帮助他们学习和生活，被认为是有效的教育措施。

(4)答案：A.Children that lack parental engagement
解释：良好的学校教育对于那些缺少家庭教育的孩子而言更为重要，他们在学校能够更快地学会独立并得到所需要的帮助。

怎样让黑客为你服务？

黑客在人们的印象中往往是一个贬义词，可是最近几年黑客们也开始“做好事”了：谷歌、微软等一系列科技公司正利用奖金让黑客帮他们找出软件的漏洞。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

upshot结果；要点['ʌpʃɒt]

breach违背；缺口；违反[briːtʃ]

vulnerability易损性；弱点 [,vʌlnərə'bɪlətɪ]

trailblazing开拓性的['treɪl,bleɪzɪŋ]

gig economy零工经济

empirical经验主义的[em'pɪrɪk(ə)l]

immune system免疫系统

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分14秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分3秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分54秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分0秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How hackers can be a force for corporate good（609 words）

By Keren Elazari

The upshot of the information age is that “software is eating the world”. In a rush to create digital code and services, companies competing to be the first to market do not prioritise cyber security — even though security problems and software bugs are a known certainty. When even secure organisations experience data breaches and security incidents, it is clear they need all the help they can get.

Surprisingly, software giants now encourage hackers to hack them. Companies such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook have been doing this since 2010, in what are called “vulnerability reward programmes”, or more commonly “bug bounty programmes”. In an echo of the American wild west, companies offer independent security researchers the chance to win rewards and recognition for identifying critical security problems — software vulnerabilities that could put us all at risk.

While 2016 may have been “the year of the hack”, including the huge denial-of-service internet outage in the US in October, 2017 could be “the year of the friendly hack”. There are more bug bounty programmes in traditional industries, outside Silicon Valley. MasterCard, Johnson & Johnson and even the Pentagon are inviting hackers to work with them and test their systems for vulnerabilities. By rewarding hackers for their discoveries, these organisations can learn from their findings, prevent security breaches, and even recruit top cyber security talent.

This explains why leading companies are willing to pay out millions of dollars in rewards. According to Bugcrowd, which manages many programmes for other companies, in the past few years Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft and Mozilla paid friendly hackers a total of more than $13m in bounties.

The idea of a bug bounty is not new: in 1995 Netscape offered rewards to users who found bugs in the trailblazing Navigator 2.0 web browser. Now, thousands of ethical hackers help hundreds of organisations find software bugs, using the power of many to make us all safer. Rewards range from T-shirts to 1m airline miles or a $200,000 single reward that Apple offers for certain discoveries.

Bug bounties are becoming more widely accepted because the benefits they provide can greatly outweigh the risks: never before has it been so easy for hackers to legitimately report findings to the companies affected by them and get rewarded without breaking the law — a hacker-specific take on the “gig economy”, if you will. It is also a cost-effective way to find security bugs for the companies in question, as empirical economic research has proven.

Some of the best bug hunters end up being offered full-time corporate positions. These are hackers from all over the world, whose location, access to college education or finances may never have afforded them the chance of an interview — with the result that companies would have missed out on their incredible talent.

The latest corporate benefit, one suggested by the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, is that bug bounty programmes can become a corporate governance “best practice” mechanism. Having such programmes in place can help directors exercise their “duty to monitor” digital assets.

Finally, you might ask: won't criminals take advantage of these programmes? The truth is they seldom require an incentive to hack. They are already at it, making millions illegally. These programmes allow individuals who spot a problem to do the right thing and give companies a chance to sort it out, while getting legitimate payment and recognition. The process represents a practical way to harness the impact of thousands of security researchers who are helping to build a much-needed “immune system” for our connected age. That gives me hope.

The writer is a senior researcher at Tel Aviv University Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Centre and a strategic analyst.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who had not taken part in the“vulnerability reward programmes”?

A.Google

B.Microsoft

C.Snapchat

D.Facebook

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How much did software giants pay hackers according to Bugcrowd?

A.$13m

B.$14m

C.$15m

D.$20m

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which company is the first one in the industry to offer bug bounty?

A.Netscape

B.Google

C.Facebook

D.Microsoft

答案⁽³⁾

4.Why won't criminals take advantage of these programmes?

A.Government has strict regulations on these programmes.

B.Companies have enough measures to prevent it happen.

C.They all want a job at these large companies.

D.They don't have an incentive to do it.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Snapchat
解释：一些信息网络界的巨头：谷歌、微软和脸书在2010年开展了被称为“找漏洞奖励”的悬赏项目。

(2)答案：A.$13m
解释：根据Bugcrowd的统计，谷歌等科技公司总计向黑客们支付了约1300万美元的“奖金”。

(3)答案：A.Netscape
解释：早在1995年，美国网景公司就对用户找到其网页浏览器Navigator 2.0的漏洞实施奖励。

(4)答案：D.They don't have an incentive to do it.
解释：对于黑客们来说，这些项目使得他们能够通过合法的方式得到报酬，他们也就不至于铤而走险利用他们发现的这些漏洞。

现代垄断将为竞争下新定义

互联网企业的“四巨头”：苹果、脸书、亚马逊和谷歌几乎垄断了整个行业。虽然这样的垄断让我们略感不安，但不可否认“四巨头”的存在使绝大多数人受益。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

gouge凿；乱要价[gaʊdʒ]

stifling令人窒息的['staɪf(ə)lɪŋ]

incremental增加的，增值的[,ɪnkrɪ'mentəl]

adjacent邻近的，毗连的[ə'dʒeɪs(ə)nt]

aghast吓呆的，惊骇的[ə'gɑːst]

predatory pricing掠夺性订价；掠夺性价格

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分51秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分50秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分44秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分57秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Modern monopolists are redefining competition（576 words）

By FT View

It is odd to accuse a company of price gouging when its product is free, or to allege that a company is unfairly stifling competitors when its products are obviously superior. So while the dominance of the “four horsemen” of internet technology — Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google — can feel unsettling, it is not easy to pin down why.

It has been understood for decades that technology companies often enjoy increasing rather than diminishing returns over time. Initial investment requirements are high but incremental costs are minimal. Once a software company reaches scale, its product becomes a standard that adjacent products must build around. Even with better products, new competitors struggle.

Internet companies have another source of increasing returns: network effects. Search engines, social networks, and retail websites get better as their user bases grow. Customers want to be where the others customers are. One might argue, then, that the horsemen — and eventually aspirants from Netflix to Uber — are to varying degrees natural monopolies. The industrial-era response to this would be regulation of returns or even nationalisation. But who would benefit if Facebook or Google were treated this way?

Still, there are risks to competition. One is that the companies with the biggest customer networks can simply copy their rivals' ideas, and depend on their existing customer base to win the ensuing battle. This would decrease the incentive to innovate. At Facebook's developer conference this week, the company talked up camera-based products and strategies that were strikingly similar to those of upstart rival Snap. Many observers were aghast.

Next, it may be that suppliers or advertisers, rather than customers, are the ones getting gouged. This would decrease the incentive to invest in adjacent industries. As a producer of journalism that appears across social networks, this newspaper is of course one of those suppliers and is keen to capture as much of its content's value as possible. But a dominant social network like Facebook, or dominant mobile device/software maker such as Apple, could extract painful rents not just in journalism but in music, film, and elsewhere. That Amazon has arrived at an uneasy peace with book publishers, or that music streaming has helped music publishers to see past iTunes, does not resolve the issue.

Google is considering including an ad-blocker in its popular Chrome web browser. Depending on how it, it could tilt the field in favour of Google's own advertising efforts. Facebook often talks about limiting the advertisements that appear on its users' timelines. Could this turn into an effort to raise prices and profits by limiting supply — a standard monopolists' gambit?

Finally, there is the question of predatory pricing. Traditionally, undercutting less-capitalised rivals with price has been an unstable strategy because it harms profits. But investors in internet ventures care little for profit if growth is strong. Amazon, which flirts with losses two decades into its life, is just the most famous example of this. Amazon's low prices are great for customers. Those customers may be less happy if they are living in a retail monoculture a decade or two hence.

Keeping customers happy is how all of the big four got where they are. They will not stop trying to do so. It may be, however, that the identification of healthy markets with satisfied customers needs to be reconsidered. What we stand to lose is all the excellent products we will never enjoy, if trying to knock the four horsemen off their mounts becomes pointless.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which company is not one of the “four horsemen” of Internet technology?

A.Apple

B.Uber

C.Google

D.Facebook

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is internet companies' another source of increasing returns?

A.Advanced technology

B.Network effects

C.Other investments

D.Human resources

答案⁽²⁾

3.Whose new camera-based products and strategies seem similar to snapchat?

A.Facebook

B.Instagram

C.Twitter

D.Weibo

答案⁽³⁾

4.What strategy did Amazon use in order to satisfy its customers?

A.Low-priced strategy

B.Customized service

C.Door-to-door delivery

D.24/7 complaint service

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Uber
解释：网络科技行业的“四巨头”分别是脸书、谷歌、苹果和亚马逊。

(2)答案：B.Network effects
解释：网络集聚效应：搜索引擎、社会关系的复合效应使得科技企业的收入翻倍。

(3)答案：A.Facebook
解释：在最近一次的内部会议上，脸书新的照相功能和营销方法与其对手snapchat十分相似。

(4)答案：A.Low-priced strategy
解释：亚马逊的低价销售使其消费者感到非常满意，这些顾客觉得即使亚马逊成为行业垄断也无所谓。

牛油果如何走红？

健康逐渐成为许多人的生活目标，而来自拉美的鳄梨受到了中国健康人士的热情追捧，这样的热情也促使鳄梨进口迅速飙升。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

burgeoning增长迅速的；生机勃勃的['bə:dʒəniŋ]

affluent富裕的；丰富的['æflʊənt]

slather大量；厚厚地涂['slæðə]

guacamole鳄梨色拉酱 [,gwɑːkə'məʊleɪ]

premium额外费用；高价的['priːmɪəm]

cultivation培养[kʌltɪ'veɪʃn]

glitzy眩目的['glɪtsɪ]

conglomerate凝聚成团[kən'glɒm(ə)rət]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

2分53秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分44秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分57秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分41秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Avocado imports soar as Chinese develop taste for ‘butter fruit’（411 words）

By Tom Hancock in Shanghai

China's soaring appetite for avocados, driven by demand from its burgeoning health-conscious middle-class, has made the “butter fruit” — unheard of a few years ago — the country's star performer in the imported fruit market.

Exports from Latin American nations such as Mexico and Chile are growing by about 250 per cent a year, leaping from just 154 tonnes in 2012 to more than 25,000 tonnes in 2016.

“More people are paying attention to healthy lifestyles and avocados meet that need,” said Zhang Hui, a sales manager at Fruitday, an online food delivery company.

Even western fast food brands such as KFC and McDonald's are being forced to address the changing tastes of their affluent consumers. Yum China, which operates 5,000 KFC stores in the country, last month launched an “avocado series” of chicken burgers and wraps slathered with guacamole to help upgrade the image of its fried chicken chain, sourcing the fruit from Mexico.

“It's viewed as something quite premium and healthy,” said Joey Wat, Yum China's chief operations officer. A planned three-week avocado promotion ended early due to high demand.

China has almost no experience in commercial avocado cultivation, meaning imports are likely to dominate the market for years. Mexico began exports to China in 2011, with increased supply lowering prices from more than Rmb20 a fruit then to about Rmb15 today.

“It was a very rare fruit [in China],” said Alejandro Salas, a Mexican trade commissioner in Shanghai, who predicts that Chinese demand can help his country diversify away from the US, its top market. “This market will be the second largest, in terms of the middle class and people's acceptance of avocado,” he added.

Mexican officials have held glitzy events to promote the fruit, teaching chefs about avocado and tofu smoothies — but last year the country was overtaken by Chile as the dominant exporter to China. Chile has the advantage of a free-trade agreement with China, while Mexico faces a 10 per cent tariff on fruit imports.

Peru also has a free-trade agreement with China and Chinese companies are expanding sourcing there — Fruitday this month flew in China's first batch of Peruvian “Big Mac” avocados — so called because they are heavier than the average variety.

There are signs that Chinese companies are searching overseas for production assets. Animal feed conglomerate Shenzhen Kondarl told the Shenzhen stock exchange last month it was close to finalising the purchase of Australia's biggest avocado farm for as much as Rmb1bn ($192m).

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the percentage of import increase per year from Latin America?

A.100%

B.250%

C.25%

D.300%

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the symbolic meaning of avocados in China?

A.Exclusive and rare

B.Premium and healthy

C.Exclusive and rare

D.Cheap and prevailing

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which country is the top market for avocado export right now?

A.US

B.China

C.EU

D.UK

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which country have free-trade agreements with China?

A.Chile

B.Mexico

C.US

D.Argentina

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.250%
解释：2012至2016年，从拉丁美洲的牛油果进口年均增长达到了250%。

(2)答案：B.Premium and healthy
解释：对许多中国富裕人士来说，牛油果有着珍奇和健康的象征意义。

(3)答案：A.US
解释：目前而言，美国仍然是进口牛油果的第一大市场，中国位居第二，但其增长势头迅猛。

(4)答案：A.Chile
解释：智利和秘鲁都和中国政府签订了自由贸易协定，而墨西哥却面临着高达10%的进口关税。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集
Vol.18

如何让信息革命造福每个人？

人们就科技对社会的影响的争论似乎是永无止境的，科技带来新的就业和经济增长，也带来了许多社会问题。或许通过使用这四种方法，企业能够使每个人在信息变革时代受益。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

artificialintelligence人工智能

dilemma困境 [dɪ'lemə]

conundrum难题；谜语[kə'nʌndrəm]

empower授权，允许；使能够[ɪm'paʊə]

augmented增广的；扩张的[ɔːɡ'mentɪd]

spoilage损坏['spɒɪlɪdʒ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分15秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分56秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分6秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分44秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Four ways business can help everyone in the digital revolution（441 words）

By Amanda Mackenzie

There seems to be an endless and anxious debate under way about the effects of technology on society — whether the topic is brick-laying robots, stockpicking computer programs, unevenly distributed benefits or privacy concerns. Yet, at the same time, some estimates suggest the digital economy is creating jobs faster than any other sector, and that artificial intelligence could greatly boost productivity.

Even as technology transforms how we work and live, it is clear that not everyone is equipped to benefit.

Society faces a dilemma: how to reap the economic and social benefits of digital transformation while mitigating the unintended harmful consequences.

Business is uniquely placed to address this conundrum. For the past year, the UK charity Business in the Community, helped by Accenture Strategy, the consultancy, has been assessing how to ensure people can participate more equally in the digital revolution.

We have identified four priorities for businesses wanting to help make the transformation inclusive.

1.Businesses should protect, support and empower ever-growing numbers of online customers. Few people want to do business with companies that do not protect their privacy, so one way to build trust might be to give customers greater control over their data.

Making services accessible to the 16 per cent of UK adults without the skills to buy goods online would ensure all customers benefit from the digital economy. Barclays Bank, for instance, has trained 16,000 “digital eagles”, who help customers improve their digital skills and their confidence.

2.Employers must address the changing nature of work. They will need a skilled yet adaptable workforce ready to be retrained several times.

Companies will also need to anticipate automation and not fear it. Instead, responsible businesses will use tech to complement their workers' activities. Rio Tinto, the miner, gives its truck drivers caps with sensors that detect a wearer's alertness, reducing the rate of accidents caused by fatigue. Airbus is triallingsmartglasses that use augmented reality to improve productivity and safety.

3.Responsible businesses will use technology to develop products that serve society. This can help us use and reuse resources more sustainably, through shared platforms. It is also creating new collaborations: for example, the National Health Service's partnership with Tinder, the online dating app, is raising awareness about organ donation among young people.

4.Technology can create more efficient, transparent and ethical supply chains. Walmart is trialling how blockchain technology can help to improve supply chain logistics by getting food into stores faster, thereby reducing spoilage and waste.

The digital revolution has potential to make things better for everyone. Business can take a lead in this charge.

The writer is chief executive of Business in the Community

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the social dilemma in digital revolution?

A.How to use the new technology wisely

B.How to gain both economic and social benefits without much harm

C.How to come up with new ideas that benefit everyone

D.How to make data available for everyone

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What kind of customers should the company protect in the first priority?

A.New customers

B.Online customers

C.Old customers

D.Big customers

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which company is triallingsmartglasses?

A.Airbus

B.Rio Tinto

C.Barclays Bank

D.Children Boeing

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which is not one of the things you should do in order to keep a good family finance?

A.Keep family income in a relatively high level

B.Nominate each other on your pension documents

C.Start a proper rainy day fund

D.Keep some money in cash and invest the rest

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.How to come up with new ideas that benefit everyone
解释：在信息变革时代，社会面临着如何在伤害最小化的情况将经济和社会效益最大的问题。

(2)答案：B.Online customers
解释：在信息时代，企业首当其冲的是应保护和支持不断增长的在线用户。

(3)答案：A.Airbus
解释：空客公司正在测试智能眼镜以期提高生产力和安全性。

(4)答案：A.Keep family income in a relatively high level
解释：为了使家庭的财政状况保持在一个健康的水平，作者认为夫妻二人应当将彼此作为自己退休金的受益人、建立一个应急基金、留存足够的现金并将其他的资金用来投资等。

男女码农收入差多少？

提到科技行业本该代表着多元化和未来感，然而程序员的性别收入差异却成为问题。据调查，男性程序员竟然比女性多挣28%的工资。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

transparency透明；幻灯片[træn'spær(ə)nsɪ]

controversial有争议的[kɒntrə'vɜːʃ(ə)l]

discrepancy不符；矛盾；相差[dɪs'krep(ə)nsɪ]

equitable公平的，公正的['ekwɪtəb(ə)l]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

2分46秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分40秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分54秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分40秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Gender pay gap between computer programmers revealed（401 words）

By Leslie Hook in San Francisco

As tech companies have moved towards more transparency around diversity figures, a growing number have also lifted the lid on an even more sensitive subject — the pay gap.

Those figures can be controversial because the biggest pay gap between men and women is found in the role of computer programmer, a job that dominates many tech companies.

Male computer programmers make 28 per cent more than their female counterparts, after adjusting for differences between jobs and workers. That gap is four times larger than the US national average, according to a recent study from Glassdoor.

Despite, or perhaps because of, these differences, an increasing number of tech companies have started to conduct pay-gap audits, ranging from industry giants like Microsoft and Intel, to newer companies like Facebook and Airbnb.

Some of them, such as Salesforce and Cisco, have publicly committed to spending millions of dollars to adjust pay discrepancies uncovered during their audits. Last year, Salesforce said it had spent $3m on adjustments, and the company expected to spend a similar amount in a new review this year, following several acquisitions.

One of the reasons that companies have recently starting publishing their pay analysis data is not only to attract women and to be more equitable — but also in response to shareholder activism. A number of sustainable investment companies have filed shareholder resolutions demanding pay audits at large tech groups, including Apple, Amazon, eBay and Qualcomm.

“A lot of times this is sort of the first time that it has been brought to their attention, that this is an area that investors are interested in,” says Heather Smith, analyst at Pax World Management, a mutual fund focused on sustainable investment strategies.

Pax led a shareholder resolution in 2015 asking Apple to conduct a pay audit, a request that the company agreed to. It has filed or co-filed half a dozen similar requests with other tech companies. When this happens, most companies agree to conduct a pay audit before the matter comes to a vote.

In the tech industry overall, the gender pay gap is about 6 per cent, once adjusted for different types of jobs and experience levels, a level that is similar to the US overall, according to Glassdoor.

However, the tech companies that have published the results of their pay-gap data report very small gaps of 0.1 per cent of 0.2 per cent, or no gap at all.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.In which job the biggest pay gap between men and women is found?

A.Journalist

B.Mutual found analyct

C.Computer programmer

D.Senior manager

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What did a lot of tech companies start to do?

A.Hire more female workers

B.Conduct pay-gap audits

C.Pay more to their female workers

D.Give more benefits to female workers

答案⁽²⁾

3.How much did Salesforce spend on adjustments last year?

A.$3m

B.$4m

C.$5m

D.$6m

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the gender pay gap in the tech industry overall?

A.6%

B.8%

C.16%

D.28%

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Computer programmer
解释：随着许多科技公司的内部透明化，男性与女性程序员在收入方面的巨大差距浮出水面。

(2)答案：B.Conduct pay-gap audits
解释：男女程序员之间巨大的收入差异，使得许多包括谷歌这样行业巨头的科技公司开始了对企业内部的收入差距核实。

(3)答案：A.$3m
解释：Salesforce在去年一年花费了近300百万美元，用于调节男女程序员之间的收入差异。

(4)答案：A.6%
解释：就整个科技行业而言，性别收入差异大约为6%。

如何读懂CEO的“言外之意”？

尽管CEO们的致股东书大多大同小异，但是厉害的来了！最新的科学研究通过分析这些信件的用词，人们竟然也能从中对企业未来发展布局略知一二。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

toil辛苦；辛苦工作[tɒɪl]

burrow探索，寻找['bʌrəʊ]

ominous预兆的；不吉利的['ɒmɪnəs]

surfeit 过度；饮食过度['sɜːfɪt]

psycholinguistic心理语言学[,psaikəuliŋ'ɡwistik]

sarcasm讽刺；挖苦；嘲笑['sɑːkæz(ə)m]

intrusive侵入的；打扰的[ɪn'truːsɪv]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分50秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分30秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分56秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分22秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The academic who believes he can predict CEO departures（826 words）

By Jonathan Margolis

There is some heartening news for British chief executives toiling over their annual letter to shareholders. A senior academic may be analysing your words for tell-tale signs of your psychological state — and to predict when you might have to quit.

By burrowing into your emotions, he will try to assess whether you are about to be fired, or are feeling under pressure to leave voluntarily. He claims a 73 per cent success rate in correctly predicting CEO exits.

Your impending sacking — or your permanent move to golf course or garden — will supposedly be given away by two key indicators: an ominous lack of future-focus in your writing; a surfeit of negative emotion; or both.

The academic behind the research is DrQingan Huang, senior lecturer in strategic management at the University of East London's School of Business and Law.

Dr Huang is a native of Guangzhou, China, who adopted the name Angus in Glasgow while doing one of five university degrees. He gained his initial psychology qualification in China and the rest from UK universities.

His work on CEO sackings won him a PhD last year from London's Cass Business School, and is under review for publication in the Chicago-based Strategic Management Journal.

He examined shareholder letters from most of the 600-plus companies listed on the FTSE All-Share index, over six years from 2002. The decoding and analysing work was aided by software called Linguistic Inquiry Word Count, developed at the University of Texas.

The psycholinguistic variables thrown up by LIWC back in London were then analysed using the popular Stata statistical software package to match CEO turnover type (dismissal or voluntary step down) with future focus and negative phrasing.

It was after this number-crunching that the 73 per cent-accurate link emerged between 268 CEO exits examined and the language the executive used. Typically, according to his research, departures followed within a year of the shareholder letter in question.

“Emotion takes an important role in CEOs' decision making. Even taking into account irony, sarcasm and unusual sentence structure in texts, LIWC is a reliable method of gauging the emotional expression and cognition of the writers,” Dr Huang said when I spoke to him recently at his office, close to London's Olympic Park.

The software's negative emotion dictionary comprises 345 words, such as “hate”, “worthless”, “enemy”, “fear”, “unfair”, “anger” and “sadness”, that reflect the intensity of CEOs' negative feelings and emotion. And it hunts for the good stuff — future-focused emotion — by seeking 48 words including “will”, “might” and “shall”.

For evidence of CEOs getting things emotionally right and wrong in their shareholder letters, Dr Huang cites two examples.

The first is the final shareholder communication from Ray Webster, CEO of easyJet from 1996 to 2005, who Dr Huang says demonstrated strong future focus and subsequently stepped down at a time of his choosing.

He had grown easyJet's revenues by showing shareholders that he was thinking about the next step, according to Dr Huang, with a statement that exemplified his future focus: “Despite the tangible progress, there is still more to do to provide an improvement to the underlying performance,” wrote Mr Webster.

By contrast, Brendan O'Neill, CEO of ICI from 1999 until a profit warning in 2003 prompted his departure, ended his last letter to shareholders with the statement: “When the tide turns, I know we will be ready” — a case of what Dr Huang calls “optimism without strategy”.

Dr Huang's study is the only one I have found into the emotions of CEOs, and is relatively small scale as data-mining exercises go.

But it is part of an increasing vogue for using scientific method to assess, exploit and perhaps ultimately engineer emotion for commercial benefit.

In December, I wrote about CrowdEmotion, a London start-up that supplies facial expression-reading technology to clients such as Honda, the BBC and Harvard Medical School. Among the emotion-tracking technologies on offer from others are voice analysis, and bio-sensors.

Company HR departments have been known to sense from employees' sick day patterns when they are close to quitting their jobs. Retailers, meanwhile, use big data analytics to work out what is happening in customers' lives based on their purchases.

All this is fascinating. Thinkers from Aristotle have tried to rationalise emotion. But the result in the big data age is either too creepy and intrusive — or an over-complex attempt to systematise what Basil Fawlty would call “the bleeding obvious”.

Now the cat is out of Dr Huang's bag, would sensible CEOs not simply dodge bullets by checking their writing for the wrong kinds of words? He says they could avoid the sack by improving their language skills — the corporate equivalent, perhaps, of faking an orgasm.

But then my reaction was probably a prime case of mistaking emotion for expertise. For while current thinking by Dr Huang and other researchers holds that raw emotions are a superb data point, the evidence suggests that they are not always the best basis for action.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the basis of DrQingan Huang's predict?

A.CEO's facial expression

B.CEO's past behaviors

C.CEO's words used in shareholder letter

D.Comments made by employees

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What word below could express negative emotion?

A.Positive

B.Worthless

C.Confident

D.Optimism

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which company is the positive example?

A.EasyJet

B.Vueling

C.Ryanair

D.KLM

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the author's attitude towards this academic research?

A.Negative

B.Positive

C.Indifferent

D.Skeptical

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.CEO's words used in shareholder letter
解释：DrQingan Huang的研究是根据CEO在致股东书内所使用的词语来推断他们对公司未来发展的设想。

(2)答案：B.Worthless
解释：在研究中，例如“无价值的”之类的词语会被归类为消极词汇。

(3)答案：A.EasyJet
解释：EasyJet是典型的CEO对未来有规划的代表，其CEO在致股东书中提到“在未来我们要进一步地提高”。

(4)答案：D.Skeptical
解释：虽然作者肯定了这些新研究对于研究公司发展的贡献，但也对这些项目的发展前景表示怀疑。

“大材小用”可能会更好

许多企业招聘的原则是：物尽其用，于是那些对于工作而言资历过高的人就悲催地被拒绝，可是最新的研究表明，适当的能力高于工作需求才能更好地激发员工的创造性。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

superfluous多余的；不必要的；奢侈的[suː'pɜːflʊəs]

snooty 傲慢的，自大的；目中无人的['snuːtɪ]

grovelling奴颜婢膝的；卑下的；卑躬屈节的['ɡrɔvəliŋ]

slack松弛的；疏忽的；不流畅的[slæk]

optimal最佳的；最理想的['ɒptɪm(ə)l]

anecdote轶事；奇闻；秘史['ænɪkdəʊt]

supersede取代；紧接着……而到来；推迟行动[,suːpə'siːd]

surfeit饮食过度；使饮食过度；饮食过度['sɜːfɪt]

stultifying单调乏味的；使人变迟钝的['stʌltifaiiŋ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分14秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分10秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分41秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

Overqualified applicants will be your best hires（776 words）

By Andrew Hill

“You're overqualified” may be the worst of many bad reasons for not getting the job. The message to the candidate is plain: not only have you failed, you have also wasted time and effort building up redundant diplomas, superfluous career experience and unnecessary technical skills.

The glib rejection hides a range of concerns including the fear that such applicants will be too costly (even if they protest they are ready to work for below their market rate); too snooty (despite their grovelling displays of humility), or too hard to please (notwithstanding their desire for one thing and one thing only: that job).

Meanwhile, at the highest levels of most organisations, the cult of busyness prevails. The assumption that it is almost always great to be stretched, and terrible to be slack, encourages the idea that relentless striving, up to the brink of chronic overwork, is optimal. Downtime, on the other hand, has become a sin.

It turns out, though, that the joke is on the recruiters. A new study for the Academy of Management Journal suggests that once well-qualified employees have breezed through what they were hired to do, they often put the rest of their time to highly productive use.

This is a useful finding. Plenty of people find themselves in jobs they can do all too easily. Across the OECD, the Paris-based club of mostly rich nations, a quarter of workers report a mismatch between their skills and their job specification, with over-skilling more common than under-skilling. As automata advance up the professional payroll and well-qualified humans are driven to apply for lower-spec work, this gap will get wider. Knowing how to manage these people will become more important.

Fears that the overqualified will become demotivated are well-founded. Anecdotes abound about the fate of the extravagantly underworked. There was the French manager who last year sued the perfume distributor where he worked because he had become so bored that he had a breakdown. Or the Spanish civil servant accused of simply not turning up for at least six years after he was pushed into a dead-end job. People who knew him said he did in fact drop in at the office — but spent much of his time reading the work of Baruch Spinoza, the Dutch philosopher who is himself said to have been overqualified for his day job as a lens grinder.

The new study confirms the threat of boredom — but only when the distance between an employee's qualifications and the tasks he or she is carrying out becomes too great. Otherwise, Bilian Lin and Kenneth Law of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Jing Zhou of Rice University observed something different, and more positive. Staff with a bit of slack use their spare time to rethink how they do their jobs — a practice known as “task-crafting” — carry out more creative activities and contribute to the smooth running of their organisations.

The academics looked, for instance, at teachers who concentrated on making their classroom activities more stimulating, and factory technicians who used their surplus skills to come up with innovative new products.

The phenomenon made me think about the three women in the recent book and film Hidden Figures, who worked as part of a racially segregated group of “human computers” at Nasa during the early years of the space race in the 1950s and 1960s.

When early electronic computers threatened to supersede them, one of these women, Dorothy Vaughan, taught herself the Fortran programming language. She then transformed her team of skilled mathematicians and scientists, initially hired as “subprofessionals”, into experts in the new technology.

Some people will prefer to apply their surfeit of unused skills beyond the office (Spinoza being one striking example). But many of those trapped in a skills mismatch would be happier if they could make more of their working day, to their and their employers' mutual benefit.

One important unanswered question, though, is how managers can pinpoint where a team member is on the curve between useful underwork and stultifying boredom. There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution, says one of the new study's authors.

But there are examples of how it may pay to run a surplus of knowledge workers. Asked on Quora.com about the negative aspects of working at Google, one contributor responded: “The worst part is … that [workers are] overqualified for the job … When it's standard to be awesome, and the work isn't particularly tough to begin with, it's hard to differentiate.”

That may be true. But companies that can afford to hire awesome staff for less awesome tasks tend to stay ahead of the pack — provided they can stop useful underworkers succumbing to unproductive ennui.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is not one of the reasons overqualified applicants are rejected?

A.Hiring them would be too costly

B.They will be too arrogant during work

C.They will soon leave the firm because of boredom

D.They might be hard to please

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many workers in OECD countries believe they are overqualified for their jobs?

A.20%

B.25%

C.30%

D.50%

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why a small distance between employee's qualifications and job requirements is beneficial?

A.They may rethink how they do their jobs and carry out creative ideas

B.There would be less pressure on them

C.There would be less mistakes during work

D.It creates a good working environment

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the question in terms of solving the skills mismatch?

A.Employees might be unaware of the benefits of useful underwork

B.There is no universal solution to turn boredom into useful underwork

C.It would too costly to do that

D.It would cause employees' inefficiency

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.They will soon leave the firm because of boredom
解释：许多资历过高的应聘者受拒的原因包括雇佣他们可能费用过高、在工作时态度傲慢难以取悦等等。

(2)答案：B.25%
解释：四分之一的（a quarter）世界经济合作与发展组织成员国的员工认为他们自身能力比所从事工作所要求的要高。

(3)答案：A.They may rethink how they do their jobs and carry out creative ideas
解释：研究表明，如果员工在工作时有些许的空闲会有助于他们反思自己的工作水平，并能够促使他们提出创新的观点为企业发展做贡献。

(4)答案：B.There is no universal solution to turn boredom into useful underwork
解释：解决这一问题目前的瓶颈是雇主如何让员工的工作强度处于恰好的平衡而非无用的空闲，对于这一问题是没有通用的答案的。

约会应该吃什么？

莎士比亚笔下的爱情总让我们艳羡，可是他从未教过我们约会时该吃什么：“不论是对或错，当你遇到那个希望陷入爱河的人时，我总认为三文鱼是这个人生难题之一的最佳答案”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

problematic问题的；有疑问的[prɒblə'mætɪk]

anchovy凤尾鱼，鳀鱼；小银鱼['æntʃəvɪ]

culinary厨房的；烹调用的['kʌlɪn(ə)rɪ]

splatter结结巴巴地讲；使水等飞溅['splætə]

gastrointestinal胃肠的[,gæstrəʊɪn'testɪn(ə)l]

infernal恶魔的；可憎的[ɪn'fɜːn(ə)l]

incineration焚化；烧成灰[ɪn,sɪnə'reɪʃn]

queasy 呕吐的；催吐的['kwiːzɪ]

pamphlet小册子[ˈpæmflɪt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分44秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分12秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分17秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分48秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Salmon and the single man（482 words）

By Gary Silverman

After 20 years of marriage, I get a funny feeling when I eat salmon.

I'm not allergic to the fish, nor do I dislike its flavour. Grilled, broiled, served raw over sushi rice or smoked, sliced thin and piled atop a schmear of cream cheese on a bagel, salmon almost always works for me. Even the dried-out version they serve at diners in the US isn't half bad if you squeeze enough lemon on it.

My issue with the dish is purely a by-product of my psychosexual development. So central was this particular food to my life as a young man that I toyed with the idea of writing a book about my dating experiences titled I'll Have the Salmon (a companion piece to my as-yet-unwritten but exhaustively researched self-help guide: Stop While You're Behind — Learning to Live Without Reaching Your Potential).

Rightly or wrongly, I came to see salmon as the answer to one of life's more difficult questions — what to eat when one is attempting to fall in love and might have sex. The issue is rarely addressed in the traditional romantic literature, I suspect, because it is so problematic. Even a Shakespeare would have been hard-pressed to render a Juliet reeking of the anchovies in her Caesar salad or a Romeo weighed down by the slab of porterhouse he downed at dinner.

Although courtship often involves meetings over meals, culinary obstacles to intimacy abound. There are oily sauces that splatter and stain, the cloves of garlic that linger in the gastrointestinal tract long after the linguine has been eaten, and those infernal chilli peppers that lurk in Thai dishes, threatening the tongues of would-be lovers with outright incineration if they dare to look up from their food to gaze into the eyes of their beloved.

My digestive problems as a dater were compounded by my taste in romantic partners. As a young man of somewhat literary sensibilities, I was drawn to women who were characters — the kind I knew from 19th-century novels, French New Wave films and the popular songs of my youth (hello, “Ruby Tuesday”!). A queasy nervousness goes with this particular territory; after Tony meets Maria in West Side Story, they dance, they sing, they embrace, but they never call Domino's and order a pepperoni pizza.

I began to understand that for someone like me, looking for love demanded sound menu decisions. On general blandness grounds, the obvious solution would have been to stick to chicken. But there was a rub. Chicken is often the least expensive dish at a restaurant and no man wants to look like a cheapskate to the woman who was going to make his life worth living — at least not right away.

Salmon, like so many aspects of relationships, represented a compromise. It cost more than chicken but less, say, than lobster. There was always the odd chance of biting into a bone, but the dish could be consumed without picking anything up with your hands or making any unfortunate slurping sounds. I even came to like the fact that salmon is often served in small portions and without significant adornment; it helped me focus on the matter at hand.

Salmon became such a regular companion during my romantic pursuits that I started waxing on the subject while drowning my sorrows on dateless nights, giving rise to the I'll Have the Salmon concept.

Looking back on it, I would say the book failed to materialise for two reasons. Given the author's record of accomplishment in the field, there was a serious possibility that the tome would have come in at pamphlet length. It was also the case that the role of food in my life evolved. Somehow my internal organs began to operate more independently as I made my way in the world, enabling me to follow my heart without upsetting my stomach.

***

I met the woman who became my wife at a party where dinner was served. The strange thing was that on the way over, I had stopped at a store to buy a bottle of wine, saw her and a friend doing the same, and wondered why I never seemed to go to parties attended by women like them.

They were there when I walked in. Although it's politically incorrect to admit this, I started flirting with her friend first. I only met my wife when we both went back to the buffet for second helpings. She didn't make me nauseous then, nor did she a few days later when we met at an Italian restaurant, where I skipped the salmon.

Two decades on, my wife handles nearly all of the serious cooking in our house. Although our children prefer their salmon raw or smoked, she grills a fillet from time to time. I tend to eat my portion after it has been reheated in the microwave, one of the consequences of working fairly late and having to commute back to the New York suburbs.

Dining in front of my television set, the salmon tastes like it used to. But now, it's just fish, no more, no less.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the problem of having Thai food during a date?

A.It is too oily

B.It usually contains many bones

C.It has strong smell that stays a long time

D.It is too spicy and makes it difficult to talk

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What kind of women may be attractive to the author?

A.Women like those heroines in novels or dramas he read

B.Women with special temper and character

C.Women who are particular strict with food

D.Women who like to have salmon as dinner

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why can't chicken but salmon?

A.Chicken looks plain and boring

B.Chicken is too cheap and a man don't want to look like a cheapskate

C.Many men don't like chicken

D.Salmon has bigger portion

答案⁽³⁾

4.Where did the author meet his wife?

A.In a restaurant that served salmon

B.At a party where dinner was served

C.In a theater

D.In the supermarket nearby his house

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.It is too spicy and makes it difficult to talk
解释：作者认为，泰式料理太辣，会使你的舌头麻痹甚至满身大汗，很可能你就没能有机会和约会对象好好聊天。

(2)答案：A.Women like those heroines in novels or dramas he read
解释：作为一个文学敏感的人，作者觉得吸引他的女性往往都和小说或者戏剧里的主人公相似，但这些艺术作品里男女主人公爱情从未谈及他们约会时吃了什么。

(3)答案：B.Chicken is too cheap and a man don't want to look like a cheapskate
解释：虽然鸡肉也是一个安全的选择，但是它们往往是一个餐厅最便宜的菜品，当男人们在约会时并不想要让女方认为自己是一个吝啬的人。

(4)答案：B.At a party where dinner was served
解释：作者和他的妻子是在一个晚餐聚会上认识的，但最开始他是与妻子的朋友调情。

BBC能办好艺术节吗？

BBC宣布将在一年内举办三场艺术展览，主题包括诗歌、歌剧以及女性斗争，他们表示希望通过这样的方式转变BBC展现艺术和表演的方式。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

commission委任；使服役；委托制作[kə'mɪʃ(ə)n]

playwright剧作家['pleɪraɪt]

centenary百年纪念；一百年的[sen'tiːnərɪ]

suffrage选举权；参政权['sʌfrɪdʒ]

piggyback背着的；肩扛；背负式运输['pɪgɪbæk]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分44秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分12秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分17秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分48秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

BBC to launch three arts ‘festivals’ a year（482 words）

By James Pickford

The BBC is to launch three arts “festivals” a year under plans to transform the way it commissions art and live performance.

In a partnership with the four regional arts councils — the UK's main arts funding bodies — the BBC will open up its commissioning process and digital resources to showcase new work from dancers, poets, artists and playwrights.

Using the Cultural Olympiad of 2012 and Shakespeare's 400th anniversary as models, the first of its three annual themes will be poetry and opera in 2017, followed by the centenary of women's suffrage next year. The corporation is creating an Artists' Fund — with £4m in its first year — to commission artists to make new work for broadcast and online.

Announcing the Culture UK initiative in London on Tuesday morning, Tony Hall, BBC director-general, said the “unprecedented” collaboration with national funding bodies and arts organisations had been driven partly by “serious challenges” to the cultural sector in terms of money and access.

“Far too few of us have access to the arts,” said Lord Hall. “There are communities we simply don't engage with. That has to change. For those arts organisations serving communities, times have never been harder. If we do nothing there will be places closing the door for good.”

The BBC is under pressure to show its activities benefit all parts of the UK, not just London and the south-east. Last week Sharon White, chief executive of Ofcom, the media regulator, said the broadcaster had “slipped back” recently after making progress on spending and programming hours outside London. In a speech, she proposed quotas for spending in each UK region and called for more original BBC productions in the regions.

Lord Hall said the Culture UK scheme would not only change the way the BBC worked but help to project the country's creative sector internationally. “It's going to have an impact at a really local level and it's going to amplify the UK's creative voice at a time the country is redefining its relationship with the world.”

Commissions include a television adaptation of the National Theatre's My Country: A Work in Progress, a show exposing the polarising effects of the Brexit referendum using interviews conducted across the UK. Danny Boyle will direct hip-hop dance company Boy Blue in a new film, while Carol Ann Duffy, the poet laureate, will work with Newcastle's BalletLorent on an adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin.

Digital technology will play a central part in many of the new works. The Barbican Theatre will livestream Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale in three languages. Derry Playhouse is staging Playcraft, which will take place simultaneously on stage and within the computer game Minecraft.

The BBC also said it would allow festivals such as Edinburgh, Hay-on-Wye and Manchester to piggyback on its online technology for live events, previously used for primetime occasions such as the Olympic Games, the Glastonbury music festival and the US elections.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What are the models of the three arts “festivals”?

A.Cultural Olympiad of 2012 and Shakespeare's 400th anniversary

B.Four regional arts councils

C.Past events held by BBC

D.Artists' Fund

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the initiative for these events?

A.BBC wants to pay more attention on forgotten arts

B.It's a response to the government's policy

C.Artists' Fund's strong request

D.They didn't give a reason for that

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is Culture UK scheme trying to benefit?

A.London

B.The south-east

C.Artists from all over the world

D.All parts of the UK

答案⁽³⁾

4.What will play a central part in new works?

A.Traditional painting skills

B.Digital technology

C.Handmade products

D.Foreign arts

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Cultural Olympiad of 2012 and Shakespeare's 400th anniversary
解释：据悉，BBC举办的艺术节将参照莎士比亚400周年诞辰庆祝活动和2012年文化奥运会的举办方式。

(2)答案：A.BBC wants to pay more attention on forgotten arts
解释：BBC表示，举办这些活动的目的在于宣传那些几乎被人们遗忘的艺术，同时Tony Hall也表示包括他在内的许多工作人员都对艺术知之甚少。

(3)答案：D.All parts of the UK
解释：文化英国活动旨在使全英国范围内的艺术家们受益，而非仅限于伦敦及东南部地区。

(4)答案：B.Digital technology
解释：在为艺术节创作的众多新作品当中，电子技术得到了广泛的应用。

“她”真的不如“他”果断吗？

不论是在职场还是在生活中，人们对女性都存在着譬如决策力或执行力不如男性的印象，而最新的研究表明认为对女性的这些观点可能都只是偏见。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

astute机敏的；狡猾的，诡计多端的[ə'stjuːt]

scrutinize作仔细检查；细致观察['skruːtɪnaɪz]

obsessive-compulsive disorder强迫症

quasi-magical近似玄幻的

instantaneous瞬间的；即时的[,ɪnst(ə)n'teɪnɪəs]

dithering抖动 ['dɪðɚɪŋ]

contentious诉讼的，引起争论的；爱争论的[kən'tenʃəs]

conspicuous显著的；显而易见的[kən'spɪkjʊəs]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分45秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分20秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分6秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分5秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How to avoid criticism over decision making（652 words）

By Miranda Green

Could examining the stereotypical ideas we all hold about leadership qualities, particularly decisiveness and appetite for risk, help correct the gender imbalance at the top of organisations?

One US academic suggests it arises partly because of the way we perceive women as decision makers.

In her book How Women Decide, Therese Huston, a cognitive psychologist, examines the evidence about whether men and women make decisions differently and — crucially — how they are perceived by employees, colleagues and the world in general.

“Society has been underestimating women's abilities to make astute choices for years,” she writes, “and this doubting, this routine questioning of a woman's judgment, drives many of the gender differences we see.”

In research published in 2015 by US think-tank Pew Research Centre, participants were asked to assess whether leadership characteristics were more applicable to men or women. More than twice as many respondents saw decisiveness as a masculine rather than feminine trait. Both sexes were awarded equal capacity for intelligence and innovation, while three quarters in the poll saw women as more compassionate. However, unfortunately for women, decisiveness was ranked joint second with intelligence as the most important quality for leadership, while honesty was the number one essential.

Based on these and similar findings, Ms Huston argues that women are combating a set of strongly and widely held assumptions when they take a difficult decision or seek out a decision-making role. This can lead both to unwarranted negative assessment by others and an unhelpful degree of self-consciousness on the part of the women themselves. Doubt and self-doubt creep in: “We are quick to accept a man's decisions, even the hard, unpleasant ones, as being what must be done,” writes Ms Huston, a researcher at Seattle University. “When a woman announces the same difficult decision, we scrutinise it with twice the vigour. We may not mean to, but we doubt the quality of her choices.”

Ms Huston firmly dismisses what she calls “pink-brain/blue-brain” theories — which claim there are fixed essential differences between men's and women's characters and abilities — as an explanation. Research shows, she says, that the only two categories of female who find it more difficult to make decisions than male counterparts are teenage girls and those with obsessive compulsive disorder. But she insists that the experience of decision making — because it includes awareness of the perceptions of others — differs for men and women. She says society and recruiters need to be aware of preconceptions that affect both the judgments women make and how they are judged.

Take the quasi-magical power known as “feminine intuition”. Research by management professors at the University of Leeds cited by Ms Huston shows that women are more likely to draw on data, evidence and research before making a choice. But even the women themselves will describe that choice as driven by instinct rather than analysis.

Other gender assumptions include condemning anything other than instantaneous decisions as peculiarly female dithering, and inclusiveness as “being too nice”. According to Ms Huston, the research data show that people should “stop misinterpreting a desire to collaborate as an inability to decide”.

Such arguments are contentious: men are also subject to negative judgments that are hedged with stereotypical assumptions. But even women at the very top make similar complaints.

In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Theresa May, UK prime minister since July and one of the most conspicuous female leaders today, said of objections that she is hesitant: “I'm still the same prime minister I've always been from the moment I came into office.” She went on to argue that people have simultaneously accused her of being a control freak and indecisive.

As Ms Huston observes, organisations may be robbing themselves of potential leaders by failing to recognise women's choices as valid: “If we can start recognising that ‘her’ judgment is just as good as ‘his’, women leaders won't feel like such risky bets in top positions.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which characteristic was ranked as the number one essential for women leadership?

A.Honesty

B.Decisiveness

C.Intelligence

D.Innovation

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What are “pink-brain/blue-brain” theories?

A.There are fixed essential differences between men's and women's characters and abilities

B.Women are combating a set of strongly and widely held assumptions when they take a difficult decision

C.Women are more likely to draw on data, evidence and research before making a choice

D.Both men and women are equal qualified in terms of decision-making

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which answer below does NOT belong to one of the gender assumptions?

A.Both sexes have equal capacity for intelligence and innovation

B.Take inclusiveness as “being too nice”

C.Take instantaneous decisions as peculiarly female dithering

D.Women's decisions are more based on data, evidence and research

答案⁽³⁾

4.What Ms Huston suggest we should do?

A.Recognize her decisions as the same as his decisions

B.Hire more females as senior managers

C.Pay more to female employees

D.Focus on education in order to change the stereotype

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Honesty
解释：2015年的调查研究表明，人们认为女性领导所具有的特点的首位是诚信，而果断与智慧并列排在第二。

(2)答案：A.There are fixed essential differences between men's and women's characters and abilities
解释：“粉色大脑/蓝色大脑”理论指的是男性和女性在性格与能力上存在着不可改变的既有差异，女性思维被称为“粉色大脑”，男性思维被称为“蓝色大脑”。

(3)答案：A.Both sexes have equal capacity for intelligence and innovation
解释：人人对于女性决策常常存在这些偏见：认为女性决策时是基于对数据的分析研究；认为女性的包容是过度宽容；认为即时决策是典型的女性领导风格，而男女性都有同等的智力和创造力并非是偏见。

(4)答案：A.Recognize her decisions as the same as his decisions
解释：Ms Huston呼吁人们改变对女性决策的偏见，接受女性决策和男性决策同样有效的事实，从而使得身居高位的女性领导者们无须那么战战兢兢小心行事。

线上宣传：OUT！？

不少商家和企业都开始在各大网络平台进行广告宣传，可是这些电子广告的效果究竟如何？宝洁公司的品牌总监Marc Pritchard向线上广告提出了质疑——网络宣传可能只是一个吃力不讨好的营销方式。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

obfuscation困惑；模糊；昏迷[,ɑbfʌs'keʃən]

watershed流域；分水岭；集水区；转折点['wɔːtəʃed]

gumption进取心；气概；精力['gʌm(p)ʃ(ə)n]

perpetrate犯（罪）；做（恶）['pɜːpɪtreɪt]

exponential指数的[,ekspə'nenʃ(ə)l]

baffling迷惑人的；阻碍的；挫败的；变幻的['bæfliŋ]

contempt轻视，蔑视；耻辱[kən'tem(p)t]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分9秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分0秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分51秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分0秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Advertisers trapped in an age of online obfuscation（601 words）

By Ian Leslie

This year is a watershed for the advertising industry: for the first time, marketers will spend more online than on television. Nevertheless, 2017 may end up being remembered for advertisers finally finding the gumption to ask technology companies they have made rich what exactly they are paying for.

Ever since it became an article of faith that online marketing is vastly more efficient than conventional methods, clients have shifted dollars out of TV and print and into digital media. The biggest advertiser of all, Procter & Gamble (P&G) led the way. In 2012, it announced to Wall Street that it would make $1bn in savings by targeting consumers through digital and social media. Unfortunately, it didn't translate into sales growth; since then, P&G has become increasingly sceptical of the promises of online advertising platforms. The creeping doubts are not confined to P&G. In a survey conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) over 70 per cent of marketing executives expressed dissatisfaction with the state of digital marketing. Clients are finding it increasingly hard to tell how their marketing budgets are being spent and some are beginning to smell a rat.

In January, P&G's chief brand officer, Marc Pritchard, went further than any senior client has yet done in articulating the concerns. In a speech to the IAB's annual conference, he came close to accusing the digital industry of perpetrating a massive con.

Mr Pritchard began by noting that the age of online advertising had brought with it an “exponential increase in crap”. No wonder consumers are resorting to ad blockers, he said, with so many bad ads interrupting their feeds and slowing down page loads. Mr Pritchard then observed that it is not even clear if consumers are seeing the online ads they don't block. An ad can flash up on a screen for a fraction of a second and be counted as a view, or “impression”, at which point the media owner and agency take their cut.

But the client cannot be sure if it registered in a consumer's consciousness, nor indeed if a consumer was present at all: a recent investigation by the Association of National Advertisers found that up to 37 per cent of online impressions are made by bots — fake consumers.

The bots are allowed to flourish because the business of buying and placing ads has been handed to machines and made bafflingly complex. Media buying and selling is increasingly run by software that delivers hyper-targeted ads across multiple platforms, supposedly to make every ad dollar count more.

But there seems to be no real evidence of it being good for any business except that of the software vendors, agencies and social media platforms. Without mentioning either by name, Mr Pritchard took aim at Facebook and Google, who have sucked in ad dollars while failing to get serious about measuring the effectiveness of ads that run on their platforms. So far, they refuse to publish their data or agree to an industry-wide standard for measurement, verified by a third party, as TV companies did years ago.

The digital age of transparency is just as often an age of obfuscation. Mr Pritchard recalled putting the case for third party verification to a senior executive at an unnamed digital platform, only to be told: “You should know that your competitors are spending billions with us without that.” As he relayed this response, Mr Pritchard made his contempt for it crystal clear. “Frankly,” he told his audience, “the jig is up.”

Facebook's explosive growth has depended in part on exploiting the naivety of advertisers. That may be about to change.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What cause P&G doubt the promises of online advertising platforms?

A.The investments on digital advertising didn't translate into sales growth

B.There were plenty of competitors in the field

C.Its marketing researchs didn't give positive feedbacks

D.They didn't find suitable platforms

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What percentage of marketing executives are not satisfied with digital advertising?

A.40%

B.50%

C.60%

D.70%

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why does Mr Pritchard believe the age of online advertising create “exponential increase in crap”?

A.Online advertising lacks attractiveness and may not be seen by real consumers

B.Companies put less money than before

C.There weren't enough market research to backup online commercials

D.Customers are paying more attention to print and TV ads

答案⁽³⁾

4.Mr Pritchard accused Facebook and Google for what?

A.They charge a lot for putting ads on their platforms but fell to make them effective to their users

B.They didn't make full use of the money they receive from clients

C.They put ads on the bottom of their pages

D.They make negative comments on P&G's products

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.The investments on digital advertising didn't translate into sales growth
解释：2012年宝洁公司对外宣称，该公司将因在网络和社交媒体上的广告宣传获得高达十亿销售收入，但是事实是巨大的资金投入没能转化为现实的销售增长，宝洁公司此后对于线上平台的广告宣传效果存在疑虑。

(2)答案：D.70%
解释：根据IAB的调查，超过七成的市场总监对于线上广告的宣传效果表示怀疑。

(3)答案：A.Online advertising lacks attractiveness and may not be seen by real consumers
解释：Mr Pritchard认为在进行线上营销时很多企业都没有弄清消费者的真正需求而设计了许多“坏广告”，而更为致命的是许多广告的浏览量存在造假成为，更多的消费者根本没有看到这些广告。

(4)答案：A.They charge a lot for putting ads on their platforms but fell to make them effective to their users
解释：Mr Pritchard虽然没有直接点名道姓，但他暗示Facebook和Google这两家企业虽然收取的广告费用极高，但却从没对其广告服务的有效性进行考量。

未来谁是职场抢手人才

美国学者格斯特林表示，5年内所有软件应用都将内置智能，这样一来，谁会成为市场上炙手可热的关键人才？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

mint铸造，铸币[mɪnt]

inbuilt内置的；内藏的；嵌入的['ɪnbɪlt]

ubiquity普遍存在；到处存在[juː'bɪkwətɪ]

analogue类似情况；对等的人['ænəlɒg]

wholesale批发的；大规模的['həʊlseɪl]

truism众所周知；真实性['truːɪz(ə)m]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分8秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分33秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分15秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分8秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Data scientists at forefront of changes in technology businesses（684 words）

By Richard Waters

For a field supposedly starved of talent, data science seems to have been minting a lot of new experts in a hurry.

The depth of interest was on display this week in San Francisco, where 1,600 people turned up for a data science summit organised by Turi, a company run by University of Washington machine learning professor Carlos Guestrin.

Mr Guestrin argues that all software applications will need inbuilt intelligence within five years, making data scientists — people trained to analyse large bodies of information — key workers in this emerging “cognitive” technology economy. Whether or not he is right about the coming ubiquity, there is already a core of critical applications that depend on machine learning, led by recommendation programmes, fraud detection systems, forecasting tools and applications for predicting customer behaviour.

The adaptation of what was until recently the preserve of research scientists into production-grade business applications could point to a profound change in corporate competitiveness. The companies showing off their skills in data science and machine learning at the Turi event — including Uber, Pinterest and Quora — were all born in the digital era.

Some companies that grew up in the analogue world, such as Walmart, are also investing massively in this field, says Anthony Goldbloom, chief executive of Kaggle, a company that runs online data science competitions. But he predicts that they are unlikely ever to catch up with Amazon and its ilk, which have a head start and are moving fast. Repeated across different sectors, that could point to wholesale change in industry leadership as intelligent systems take a more central role.

One factor weighing on many traditional companies will be the high cost of mounting a serious machine-learning operation. Netflix is estimated to spend $150m a year on a single application — its movie recommendation system — and the total bill is probably four times that once all its uses of the technology are taken into account, says a person familiar with its applications.

Many companies that were born digital — particularly internet outfits that have a deluge of real-time customer interactions to mine — are all-in when it comes to data science. Pinterest, for instance, maintains more than 100 machine learning models that could be applied to different classes of problems, and it constantly fields requests from managers eager to use this resource to tackle their business problems, says Jure Leskovec, its chief scientist.

Another problem for many non-technology companies is talent. Despite the surging ranks of data scientists, some skills are in very short supply, particularly in deep learning — the most advanced form of machine learning. Of the freelance computer science experts who use Kaggle, only about 1,000 have deep learning skills, compared to 100,000 who can apply other machine learning techniques, says MrGoldbloom. He adds that big companies are often reluctant to bend their pay scales to hire the top talent in this field, even if the algorithms developed by a single high-paid expert can have a disproportionately large effect on their business.

The biggest barrier to adapting to the coming era of “smart” applications, however, is likely to be cultural. Some companies, such as General Electric, have been building their own Silicon Valley presence to attract and develop the digital skills they will need. But they will have to push their new data scientists and machine-learning experts out into operating divisions and bring them closer to line managers to reap the full benefits.

This confluence, between the science and the business practice is critical. It has become a truism to say that all managers will need to let their decision-making be led by the data from now on. But that requires a complete change in mindset that is easier said than done. The challenge is made even harder, says MrGoldbloom, by the fact that managers are required to redesign their work processes around the new “smart” applications, in ways that effectively design themselves partly out of a job.

Despite the obstacles, some may master this difficult transition. But companies that were built, from the beginning, with data science and machine learning at their core, are likely to represent serious competition.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What will be needed in the software applications within five years as mentioned?

A.Inbuilt intelligence

B.big data

C.linguistics

D.virtual reality

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What are most recommendation programmes and fraud detection systems depended on now?

A.machine learning

B.linguistics

C.manual labour

D.positioning system

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one is obstacle for many traditional companies to popularize learning operation?

A.high cost

B.technological problem

C.difference of opinion

D.talent crisis

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the biggest barrier to adapting to the coming era of “smart” applications?

A.cultural

B.money

C.time

D.talent

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Inbuilt intelligence
解释：文章提到所有软件应用在5年内都将需要内置的智能，从而使数据科学家——经过培训，能够对海量数据进行分析的人员——成为这一新兴“认知”技术经济中的关键工作者。

(2)答案：A.high cost
解释：目前已有一些核心的关键应用依赖机器学习，最主要的是推荐程序、欺诈探测系统、预报工具和旨在预测顾客行为的应用。

(3)答案：A.high cost
解释：拖累许多传统公司的一个因素，是开展真正的机器学习运作的高成本。

(4)答案：A.cultural
解释：适应即将到来的“智能”应用时代的最大障碍，可能是文化上的。

向假新闻开战，你准备好了吗？

科技的发展使得我们获取资讯更为快捷，可是这也助长了虚假消息的传播，它们开始入侵我们生活的方方面面。在信息混杂的这个时代，我们比以往更希望青年人拥有明辨真伪的能力。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

propaganda宣传[prɒpə'gændə]

subjugation征服；镇压[,sʌbdʒʊ'ɡeɪʃən]

intrude into|侵入intrigued|好奇的[ɪn'triɡd]

fabricated组合的；伪造的['fæbrɪ,ket]

revamp改进[riː'væmp]

insidious隐伏的[ɪn'sɪdɪəs]

conspiracy阴谋；共谋[kən'spɪrəsɪ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分24秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分42秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分21秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分10秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Taking the fight against fake news to the classroom（706 words）

By RoulaKhalaf

We may like to think otherwise but fake news is not a new trick. In the old days, we referred to it simply as propaganda, one of the many tools of subjugation used by authoritarian regimes. What has changed in the digital age is the ease with which fake news can spread, and its range.

You no longer have to live in a repressed society to be a victim of misinformation. It can intrude into your home and into your smartphone, play with your mind and muddle your reality. It doesn't always need Machiavellian spooks to make it up or twisted schemes to embed it into the collective consciousness. It can be created by a bored youth in a bar or terrorists on the battlefield.

Which is why our defences against fake news can no longer be confined to encouraging people to listen to the BBC, as it once often was. Now societies have to develop ways of immunising young minds. That's where education comes in.

I was intrigued to learn of a new initiative by journalists from Le Monde, the French daily that has developed a readers' tool to weed out fake news. A few weeks ago, they started volunteering at schools, teaching teenagers how to distinguish between responsible journalism and fabricated news. Other newsrooms in France are doing the same.

Alexandre Pouchard, one of the Le Monde journalists involved, tells me the objective is to raise awareness about sourcing and promote simple tools (such as Google reverse image search) to check the origin of photographs or memes. “It's about getting some reflexes, like wondering where a story or image is from,” he says. “On the one hand, young people are more vulnerable to this phenomenon and less used to identifying unreliable sources and, on the other hand, they are not our usual readers, so we have to get in touch with them.”

The French, of course, feel particularly exposed during this presidential election. A leading candidate, Emmanuel Macron, has accused Russia and its news outlets of hacking, and of spreading false stories.

The extent to which fake news swayed voter preferences in the US, however, is arguable. A new study by Hunt Allcott of New York University and Matthew Gentzkow of Stanford University concludes that social media was not the most important source of US presidential election news, and that the most widely circulated fake news stories were seen by only a small fraction of Americans. But according to a Pew Research poll, 88 per cent of Americans felt that fake news contributed to confusion over facts. “There could be an indirect effect,” argues Tom Boll, an instructor at Syracuse University's Newhouse school of journalism. “I wouldn't say that fake news would necessarily have to change a person's mind or vote to be effective. If it fires up the base to be more involved or definitely go out and vote, that would be an effect. And if someone is leaning one way and this cements their belief, that could be an effect.”

The US debate about fake news is well advanced, and more heated than in Europe. Many US schools are teaching students about credible sourcing on social media. In California, a Democratic lawmaker has introduced a bill in the state senate to include digital literacy into the school curriculum.

Mr Boll argues that a literacy effort that warns against falling for fake news should become part of a civics course and every citizen should take it. “I'd want (students') brains and minds to be a fact-checking tool.”

That may be what the OECD has in mind with the revamp of its Pisa test, which compiles global rankings of national school systems, to assess online skills. A new reading element will in future take into account how pupils deal with the digital environment and online documents.

Fake news may not have won Donald Trump the White House. It has, however, stimulated much-needed action over its insidious influence. Once upon a time, dictatorships targeted young minds with manipulated tales in history books and daily songs in praise of the leader. Now propaganda and conspiracy theories are beamed into many more minds through their social media feeds. The earlier youngsters learn to fight it, the better.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why the author says “you no longer have to live in a repressed society to be a victim of misinformation”?

A.Fake news has invade into every aspect of our daily life

B.It is hard to be a victim of misinformation nowadays

C.Fake news has specific targets now

D.Misinformation is actually good for us

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What are journalists from Le Monde doing at school?

A.Developing a reader tool

B.Protesting against fake news

C.Teaching teenagers to recognize fake news

D.Doing a research about fake news

答案⁽²⁾

3.What percentage of Americans felt that fake news contributed to confusion over facts?

A.50%

B.60%

C.88%

D.90%

答案⁽³⁾

4.What will be included in the Pisa test in the future?

A.The ability to deal with the digital environment and online documents

B.How to read news

C.Analyise news

D.How to correct fake news

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Fake news has invade into every aspect of our daily life
解释：作者认为，在当下这个科技快速发展的社会里，虚假信息通过智能手机等等现代的传播方式传播，人们比从前更容易接触到这些假消息，它们几乎侵占了我们生活的方方面面。

(2)答案：C.Teaching teenagers to recognize fake news
解释：Le Monde的新闻记者们作为志愿者进入校园，教会青少年们如何识别严肃的新闻和虚假报道，法国的其他新闻机构也纷纷相仿。

(3)答案：C.88%
解释：根据研究，有88%的美国人都认为虚假报道使得事实被假象所掩埋。

(4)答案：A.The ability to deal with the digital environment and online documents
解释：由经济合作与发展组织主导的PISA测试正在考虑将学生对网络信息的认知能力列入其考核范围。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集
Vol.19

招聘启事的秘密

招聘启事上的用语将会影响应征者的性别？经济学家和语言学家最近的研究让这个惊人的事实浮出水面。当企业拟定招聘广告时，一些不经意的用词倾向将决定男性和女性愿意应征这个职位的比例。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

prosaic平凡的，乏味的；散文体的[prə(ʊ)'zeɪɪk]

inadvertently非故意地，无心地[,ɪnəd'vɜːt(ə)ntlɪ]

c-suite最高管理层

randomise使随机化['rændəmaiz]

assertive肯定的；独断的；坚定而自信的[ə'sɜːtɪv]

dearth缺乏；饥馑；粮食不足[dɜːθ]

notoriou声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的[nə(ʊ)'tɔːrɪəs]

referral参照；提及；被推举的人；转诊病人[rɪ'fɜːr(ə)l]

linguistics语言学 [lɪŋ'gwɪstɪks]

conundrum难题；谜语[kə'nʌndrəm]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分19秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分39秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分19秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分9秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Wanted — a way with words in recruitment ads（699 words）

By Jane Wild

Type “ninja” into popular job search sites and the term is likely to produce pages of listings that are nothing to do with Japanese martial art, referring instead to more prosaic roles such as manager, programmer and strategist. Like “rock star”, a term that is similarly common in job postings, “ninja” is a description that experts say discourages women from applying.

How employers describe a vacant role matters, because they can inadvertently deprive their company of talented workers at all levels. In the US, 75 per cent of big employers list diversity as a priority, yet women are consistently under-represented, from entry level to C-suite, according to a report by McKinsey, the management consultancy, and Lean In, which was set up to help women with their careers.

Iris Bohnet, a behavioural economist at Harvard University and author of What Works: Gender Equality by Design, is working on experiments that explore how job adverts can be designed to attract interest from both sexes. Using randomised control trials examining government and private sector job advertisements, Professor Bohnet will measure numbers of men and women applying in relation to the use of words that tend to appeal to different genders.

“Words such as ‘leader’, ‘assertive’, and ‘competitive’ are adjectives coded in our heads as typically male,” she says, in contrast to words seen as “typically female, such as ‘co-operative’, and ‘compassionate’.” She adds: “Based on a limited number of studies we know women are less likely to apply when there are more male-coded words … we have to do more with field experiments and get employers to try different strategies.”

The area has also attracted the attention of entrepreneurs, who want to apply science to the job ads board.

Kieran Snyder, an expert in linguistics, founded Textio, which provides software analysis of recruitment ads. Its database references millions of previous recruitment ads, including details of who was appointed to the role so the software can make suggestions on how HR managers can phrase descriptions to attract more candidates, including using more gender-neutral language.

Textio has worked with large companies including Credit Suisse, Vodafone and Swiss Re, Ms Snyder says. She claims that using the software will result in a 17 per cent faster time to hire a candidate, with 12 per cent more candidates from under-represented groups.

“People's intuition about what constitutes bias is not very good. The important component to Textio is the real world,” she says, referring to its database of documents.

Tweaking the words used to describe roles is only part of ensuring a balanced slate of candidates. Where companies hunt for recruits is equally important.

“Employers assume if they post the ad on LinkedIn that is fair. But that's not the case,” says Joelle Emerson of Paradigm, a diversity consultancy that has worked with companies, including in the technology sector where the dearth of women is notorious. “The way you target your job search affects who applies.” She advises seeking out places or events, such as conferences, that are attractive to groups of people who are under-represented in the company, in order to bring employers into contact with a fresh pool of candidates.

Think twice too before turning to informal networks of existing staff. “Our own networks can be homogenous,” she cautions. “Most referrals don't represent diversity.” The solution can be as simple as reminding contacts that you want to hire a diverse workforce when prompting them to ask around their own networks.

Once potential candidates are found, employers should ensure that communication continues to be unbiased, which includes making sure their workplace looks representative.

Pictures on the corporate website might be unthinkingly selected by website designers, but there is a conundrum here: in industries, such as engineering, where most workers are men, the pictures might accurately reflect the lack of women, but images of women are necessary to encourage them to apply, research shows.

Ms Emerson says one large organisation she recently worked with had a careers website where more than 70 per cent of the images were of white men, and the women tended to be carrying out administrative roles. Even icons were masculine: a symbol for the company gym was a man's muscled arm.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What does Iris Bohnet's experiment mainly about?

A.How to make job advertisements attractive to both men and women

B.What kind of jobs are more suitable for females

C.How female executives work

D.Why some jobs are more attractive to men than women

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which word we will probably link it with woman?

A.Leader

B.Assertive

C.Co-operative

D.Competitive

答案⁽²⁾

3.How much faster the software will make if it is used during hiring?

A.12%

B.13%

C.15%

D.17%

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is another thing that will affect job seekers?

A.Pictures on the company website

B.Company images

C.public activities

D.website designing style

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.How to make job advertisements attractive to both men and women
解释：Iris Bohnet正在进行的实验是研究招聘广告的用语会如何影响求职者的性别，也就是不同的词语的选用可能会吸引不同性别的求职者。

(2)答案：C.Co-operative
解释：当职位描述中出现“合作”“富有同情心”等词语时，人们常常会联想到女性的形象，而与此相反“领导力”“有进取心”等词语则会让人想到男性。

(3)答案：A.12%
解释：根据Ms Snyder，如果企业在招聘时使用他们研发的这一款分析软件，将会把招聘效率提高12%。

(4)答案：A.Pictures on the company website
解释：一个企业网站图片的选择也可能会影响求职者的意愿，如果一个企业网站上有大量白人男性的图片，那么很可能女性求职者就不会选择这家企业。

人们眼中的女性难道只有“美腿”吗？

英国首相特蕾莎·梅最近在与苏格兰首席部长会面时，虽然她只是身着普通职业女性的服装，却因露出双腿而被《每日邮报》头版调侃为“美腿”。面对女性公众人物，人们的关注点往往“跑偏”，女性的衣着打扮总是受到过分的评论——即使她们穿的并无任何不妥之处。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

tabloid小报['tæblɔɪd]

garment衣服，服装['gɑːm(ə)nt]

pageant盛会；游行['pædʒ(ə)nt]

patriarchal家长的；族长的[peɪtrɪ'ɑːk(ə)l]

ensemble全体；全套服装[ɒn'sɒmb(ə)l]

transpire发生；使蒸发[træn'spaɪə]

tangential离题的，扯远的

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分42秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分26秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分53秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分21秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

‘Legs-it’ and the naked truth about women in the public eye（816 words）

By Jo Ellison

The great tragedy of the “Legs-it” front page published by British tabloid paper The Daily Mail this week was not that the prime minister Theresa May and Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon were judged by their clothes. But that their clothes only provided punctuation to a far more abusive judgment in which their garments were discarded so they could be pitted against each other in a battle of the “shapely shanks”. The politicians were undressed, like lumps of meat, and subjected to a scrutiny a judge might offer contestants participating in a local beauty pageant.

Bizarrely both were dressed according to the ancient patriarchal code of what is deemed appropriate for women in public office — smart tailored suits, modest jewellery, professional hair and sheer tights. Exactly the sort of ensembles tabloid papers like to fawn over, because they are womanly and attractive (not like those other female politicians, such as the matronly Angela Merkel, for example, who insists on wearing dowdy trouser suits that won't even allow us a gawk at her ankles). Otherwise they were unremarkable. The outfits were singled out both for their similarity — an observation made by people who have clearly never been in a room of professional women — and for their comparative costs. Nicola Sturgeon wore Hobbs, while Theresa May wore a more expensive £595 jacket by Amanda Wakeley. Quite how anyone can still think this an extravagance, when one considers the eye-bleedingly high price tags of those €12,000 Arnys suits favoured by French presidential candidate François Fillon, is stupefying.

Anyway, who cares? They may as well have both worn bathing suits for all the seriousness the meeting was accorded. The clothes mattered not at all. It was the legs that clinched it.

Don't get me wrong — I'm a big fan of Theresa May's legs. Likewise Nicola Sturgeon's. I just despair of a culture in which all discussion of female appearance and clothing transpires to be a way in which to reduce her to her natural state. Our queasy obsession with the female body has not evolved one jot. Amal Clooney “showed off her baby bump” while wearing a black suit on her way to a meeting at the UN. Did she? Or is she just a pregnant woman heading to an office where elasticated pants might be frowned on? An actress “flaunts her enviable” curves while holidaying on a private island where she believes herself to be out of range of the paparazzi lenses.

Woman has body. This shouldn't be interesting. Clothes, on the other hand, are completely fascinating. I could talk about Theresa May's style all day. I applaud the way she “shrobed” her jacket for a portrait taken by the eminent celebrity portraitist Annie Leibovitz for US Vogue this month. Likewise, the way she played the scarlet woman in a jaunty red overcoat while gambolling about the gardens at Chequers. Of course her clothes merit attention, although not necessarily on the front pages, and not in lieu of any other discussion surrounding the circumstances of her being photographed in the first place, such as the future of the UK.

As a way to offer another, slightly tangential perspective on a person's personality, however, clothes are an excellent study. And I love a public figure — female or male — who embraces fashion. Just look at Barack Obama's post-presidential style since leaving the White House. The man who told Vanity Fair that as president he only wore blue or grey suits in order to “pare down decisions … because I have too many other decisions to make” appears to have taken all the time in the world over the details of his wardrobe in recent weeks. Everything from the mirrored, wraparound shades he wore to go kitesurfing with Richard Branson in the British Virgin Islands, to the newly relaxed fit of his open-necked shirts, to the conker-brown leather aviator jacket he wore on a visit to the National Gallery of Art in Washington on March 5, has suggested a highly curated approach to the act of looking casual. From Potus to Relaxed Man, his new look seems to be channelling a stylish secret agent.

The physical transformation has not been without comment. But were Obama a woman, one would presumably have expected to read about him “flaunting” his abs on the beach while engaged in some sort of brawl with his peer as to who looked better in their swimmers. We might have enjoyed a few lines about Obama's “long extremities”, or how his feet were arranged in a “flattering diagonal” line.

Instead, comment has focused largely on his emotional happiness: his new casual wardrobe used to characterise the outward manifestation of his intellectual fufilment. No one would dare undress him. And that's the naked truth. Even when women dress the part, even when they wear all the right things, and conform to every boring stereotype, they still get stripped bare in the end.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What has been the front page of The Daily Mail this week?

A.The prime minister and Scottish first minister were judged by their clothes

B.Obama's post-president clothes was judged

C.Angela Merkel's clothes were discarded

D.Different Leaders of the state were judged by the prices of clothes they wear

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What would in the news if an actress is on holiday on a private island?

A.She is “totally relax and enjoys herself”

B.She “showed off her baby bump”

C.She “flaunts her enviable” curves

D.She is “happy and refreshing”

答案⁽²⁾

3.What did Obama wear when he was the president of the United States?

A.Only blue or grey suits

B.Open-necked shirts

C.Leather aviator jacket

D.Sports clothes

答案⁽³⁾

4.What would happen to the judgments of women even if they dress all the right things?

A.They will still be judged by their appearances

B.They will be recognize equally as men

C.There is nothing will happen

D.Their ways of dressing will be praised

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.The prime minister and Scottish first minister were judged by their clothes
解释：这周的《每日邮报》上，英国首相在苏格兰首席部长进行会面时的服装受到了极大的关注，《每日邮报》进行该报道时所用的大标题为《别管英国脱欧，看看谁的腿美》。

(2)答案：C.She “flaunts her enviable” curves
解释：当女明星们在私家海滩享受假日时，狗仔队的报道往往是：她骄傲地向人展示她令人艳羡的身体曲线。

(3)答案：A.Only blue or grey suits
解释：奥巴马接受采访时表示，在任职美国总统期间，他只能穿蓝色或者灰色的西装。

(4)答案：A.They will still be judged by their appearances
解释：在作者看来，即时女性按照规范穿对了衣服，她们依然会受到世人的指指点点。

外派：女性晋升的捷径？

当企业想要争取更多的优秀人才的今天，支持并帮助女性员工前往海外工作才不至于与竞争对手在招聘时争得头破血流。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

trailingspouse随迁配偶

expat逐出国外；移居国外[ˌɛksˈpæt]

endorsement认可，背书；签注[ɪn'dɔːsm(ə)nt]

hurdle障碍；栏；跳栏；克服；克服；跳过['hɜːd(ə)l]

millennial 一千年的；千禧年的[mɪ'lɛnɪəl]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分49秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分22秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分7秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分5秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Should I stay or should I go? Overseas jobs demand the extra mile（657 words）

By Sarah Murray

For Andrea Huggard-Caine, being sent to Italy as part of a team that was handling a Citibank acquisition in the 1980s was life-changing.

“It broadens your vision,” says MsHuggard-Caine, who was born in Argentina and brought up in Brazil, where she was educated at an American school. “I'm multicultural and speak five languages. But until I actually lived abroad, I did not have it all figured out from a multicultural perspective,” says MsHuggard-Caine, who now has her own consulting business.

In a corporate setting, an overseas posting can be a way for women to achieve a breakthrough in their careers. More than 80 per cent of the women that Stacie Berdan, an author and consultant, interviewed for her book Get Ahead by Going Abroad said their international posting had helped them secure more senior positions.

In a globalised economy, international experience benefits everyone's career. However, MsBerdan says that for women trying to stand out in a male-dominated business world, overseas experience is particularly helpful.

“The women I interviewed said there were opportunities they did not have in their home market that they could tap into somewhere else, and that they could use [the experience] to differentiate themselves,” she says.

However, while overseas postings provide benefits, they also come with particular challenges for women. These range from the practical, such as navigating unfamiliar childcare and school systems, to the question of the “trailing spouse” or working in cultures where male suspicion of women in business persists.

“A major concern is the role of the husband,” says Mara Swan, executive vice-president of global strategy and talent at ManpowerGroup, the recruitment company. “In certain countries, it's not as accepted if they're not working and they're taking over the role of the woman.”

While many international cities and organisations have well-established social opportunities for expat wives, the needs of accompanying husbands have until recently been overlooked.

Similarly, executives in some countries can be reluctant to accept women as business leaders. In that case, says Ms Swan, “the most important thing is to establish that she's a decision maker, and often that has to come from the top,” says Ms Swan. “The endorsement is very important.”

Such problems can be overcome. “I was late-20s and blonde and in Asia, and I was not taken seriously at first,” says MsBerdan, who worked for several years in Hong Kong at Burson-Marsteller, the communications firm. “But once you deliver, that's all people care about.”

For some women, the first hurdle may be winning the overseas posting in the first place. “The vast majority of the world is open to women, yet companies are unsure and see it as high risk,” says MsBerdan. “A lot of it has to do with the fact that HR departments are not global and make assumptions.”

This may help explain why the proportion of women expats working in business remains small. While the 2016 Global Mobility Trends Survey — from BGRS, the global relocation services firm — recorded the highest proportion of female expats in the survey's 21-year history, they still made up just 25 per cent of the total.

Nevertheless, demand from women for overseas postings is rising. In a recent survey by PwC, the professional services firm, more than 70 per cent of millennial women — born between 1980 and 1995 — said they wanted to work outside their home country.

In competitive labour markets, therefore, companies that want to attract the best employees need to be ready to support and encourage their female executives to work abroad. MsBerdan argues that HR departments have a key role in this: they can both challenge any resistance towards women seeking overseas positions and encourage those who have not yet considered the advantages of an overseas posting.

All expats have to excel at what they do — “and that's gender neutral,” she says. The further question for employers is “about making sure opportunities are open to everybody”.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the percentage of women Stacie Berdan interviewed said international posting had helped them with promotion?

A.50%

B.60%

C.70%

D.80%

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the major challenge that women who work aboard need to face?

A.Navigating unfamiliar childcare and school systems

B.Working in cultures where male suspicion of women in business persists

C.Family, especially the role of the husband

D.Unfamiliar colleagues and working environment

答案⁽²⁾

3.For some women, what is the first obstacle?

A.Winning the overseas posting in the first place

B.Having enough working experience at home

C.Maintaining a good relationship with husband

D.Keeping a balance between family and work

答案⁽³⁾

4.What should companies do in order to attract the best employees?

A.Be ready to support and encourage their female executives to work abroad

B.Be willing to give female executives more salaries

C.Give promotions to those female employees who had worked aboard

D.Help female executives overcome the problems they would face

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.80%
解释：在Stacie Berdan为其所著书籍所采访的女性之中，80%的受访者都表示海外的工作经历为他们升职中高层提供了帮助。

(2)答案：C.Family, especially the role of the husband
解释：考虑从事海外工作的女性面临着种种问题，有孩子的她们需要适应不熟悉的教育体系，甚至要面对在一些外国文化中男性对于职场女性的歧视和地址，但最为重要的问题就是在女性远赴海外后家庭中丈夫的角色变换。

(3)答案：A.Winning the overseas posting in the first place
解释：对一些女性而言，由于用人单位认为派遣女性管理人员赴海外工作充满风险，因此对她们来说得到海外工作的职位就是一件十分困难的事情。

(4)答案：A.Be ready to support and encourage their female executives to work abroad
解释：MsBerdan强调，如果企业想要为公司争取最优秀的人才，那么它们应当支持和鼓励女性高管们到海外工作。

“川普医保”：美国人的灾难？

特朗普在竞选时就宣称一上任就要让前任总统奥巴马提出的《可担负医疗法》卷铺盖走人，但在国会和共和党内等多方压力的影响下，这位新总统提出的替代法案也没能得到众议院的批准。美国国会预算办公室估计：如果新法案通过，近千万美国人将失去医疗保障。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

predicament窘况；状态[prɪ'dɪkəm(ə)nt]

commissioned受委任的，受任命的[kə'mɪʃənd]

comprehensive综合的；广泛的[kɒmprɪ'hensɪv]

deliberation审议；考虑；从容 [dɪ,lɪbə'reɪʃ(ə)n]

electorate选民；选区[ɪ'lekt(ə)rət]

slapdash草率的；马虎的 ['slæpdæʃ]

decency正派；体面；庄重['diːs(ə)nsɪ]

aversion厌恶；讨厌的人[ə'vɜːʃ(ə)n]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分14秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分44秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分5秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分26秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Rushed healthcare reform will deliver an unholy mess（860words）

By Evelyn Rothschild

It is a shame that Donald Trump is so proud of not reading, for he could learn a great deal about his present predicament over healthcare by consulting the history books. The most important lesson of the past is that sound public health policy is not devised overnight.

Take the UK's National Health Service, which is funded by the taxpayer and is free at-point-of-need to the patient. The NHS did not spring fully formed in the blink of an eye. In fact, the first investigation into such a system was undertaken in 1919 by Lord Dawson, the first British minister of health, who was commissioned to examine schemes for the “systematised provision” of health services. But it was not until 1941 that Ernest Brown, health minister in Winston Churchill's wartime government, proposed that comprehensive hospital care should be available to everyone who needed it.

Three years later, after much debate and intellectual heavy lifting, a legislative plan for the NHS was finally published. Considerably amended, and under a different (Labour) government, the National Health Service Act became law in 1946, and the NHS formally launched in July 1948.

It is precisely because the NHS was constructed with patience and deliberation that it remains so dear to the British electorate. Though its structure has changed over the years, politicians dare not undermine its central principles.

Contrast the floundering efforts of President Trump and Republican congressional leaders to “repeal and replace” Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. As a candidate, Mr Trump made foolish claims that he would repeal Obamacare on “day one” of his new administration.

After the election, he met the outgoing president and confused matters by conceding that the existing system might only need to be “amended”. Once in office, however, he reverted to his campaign promise that Obamacare would have to go.

Confused? The president certainly is. Yet, instead of drawing breath and weighing his options, he has insisted on steaming ahead as if speed were the principal criterion in such an important reform. The consequence — predictable to anyone who knows the first thing about healthcare — is an unholy mess. Mr Trump has now given his full backing to the American Health Care Act drawn up by Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and other senior Republicans. One only has to see the president discuss this slapdash plan to grasp that his only priority is to pass it into law. But his haste is a great disservice to Americans.

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, 14m people will lose insurance coverage next year under the new proposals, rising to 24m by 2026. This alone drives a coach and horses through Mr Trump's repeated pledge on the campaign trail that nobody would find themselves uninsured as a result of his reforms.

The plan would also eliminate the cost-sharing subsidies available under Obamacare. The existing measures reduce co-payments for those earning between 100 and 250 per cent of the federal poverty level. The Republican plan shifts the fiscal benefit available to patients from subsidy to tax credits. But analysis of the plan suggests that the average enrollee would pay $1,542 a year more if the bill were implemented now, and $2,409 more by 2020. The impact would be greatest on the elderly — scarcely sensible or fair in an age of dramatically increased longevity.

Mr Trump is caught in a political pincer movement. On the one hand, he stands accused of forcing Americans to pay more for healthcare, and breaking campaign promises. On the other, he faces the dissatisfaction of Republican fiscal hawks who want the cost of the new plan to be reduced significantly. At the moment, the president looks like a man running on a treadmill while trying to play Jenga.

Healthcare has long presented the US with a philosophical dilemma. More than Europeans, Americans are suspicious of state intervention, and fear that a huge health bureaucracy would introduce socialism through the back door.

At the same time, the American people have a strong sense of decency, and an awareness that the medical-industrial complex favours insurers and pharmaceutical companies rather than patients. It is an embarrassment to a country of the US's prosperity that so many of its citizens have no health cover at all — a number that is set to increase dramatically.

Instead of rushing towards failure, Mr Trump should present a strategy for success. He should appoint a commission of the best and the brightest to study systems that operate well in Canada, the UK, Australia and elsewhere, adapt their findings to the specific US context and design a system that caters for all citizens. America's federal structure and its aversion to big government probably rules out a scheme like the NHS. But that does not mean that a hybrid approach cannot be devised that is genuinely universal in its reach, and puts patients first.

Such a task should not be beyond the nation of the New Deal and the moon landing. But it will require diligence and political patience. Mr Trump's instinct to press the reset button may be justified. But that should be the last step of the process, not the first.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.When did UK government undertake the first investigation into healthcare system?

A.1919

B.1941

C.1946

D.1948

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What did Trump promise in his speeches during election?

A.He will amend some part of the healthcare plan

B.He will continue to use the original healthcare plan

C.He will repeal and replace Obamcare plan at once

D.He didn't make it clear what he will do

答案⁽²⁾

3.What would be the effect if the new proposal was approved?

A.14m people will lose insurance coverage

B.More people would benefit from the provision

C.Government expense will grow

D.Poor people are benefit from the plan instead of the rich

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the problem Trump facing within Republicans?

A.The dissatisfaction of Republican fiscal hawks

B.Most Republicans want to keep the old plan

C.Some Republicans have personal conflicts with Trump

D.There are no consensus within the Party

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.1919
解释：在1919年时，第一位英国医疗部长Thomas Dawson被委任制定一个系统的医疗法案，这是对医保体系的首次探索。

(2)答案：C.He will repeal and replace Obamcare plan at once
解释：特朗普在其竞选宣言中称在上任的第一天他就会向国会提出推翻“奥式医疗法”的申请，而在上任后改口为对其中的部分条款进行修正。

(3)答案：A.14m people will lose insurance coverage
解释：据统计，如果特朗普提出的新医保计划得到国会的通过，将有1400万人失去医疗保障。

(4)答案：A.The dissatisfaction of Republican fiscal hawks
解释：在共和党党内，特朗普提出的新的医保法案收到了共和党内经济上的鹰派人士的反对，他们认为新的法案应当大幅度地削减财政支出。

你们共享婚姻，但你们共享财富秘密吗？

谁说谈钱伤感情？夫妻聊起经济计划，可能远比想象的要浪漫。而事实上，还能带来减税和收入增加等经济收益。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

smooch接吻；污迹；接吻；弄脏；接吻[smuːtʃ]

oppression压抑；镇压；压迫手段；沉闷；苦恼[ə'preʃ(ə)n]

tie the knot结婚

dividend红利；股息；被除数；奖金['dɪvɪdend]

bereavement丧友，丧亲；丧失[bɪ'riːvm(ə)nt]

cohabitee (未婚)同居者,同栖者 [kəu,hæbi'ti:]

disentangle解决；松开；解决（纠纷）；解开；松开[dɪsɪn'tæŋg(ə)l]

despise轻视，鄙视[dɪ'spaɪz]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

8分35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

4分36秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

3分26秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

1分54秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

You share a marriage — but do you share financial secrets?（1141 words）

By Merryn Somerset Webb

Not everyone is keen on other people finding true love. In Tokyo the arrival of Valentine's Day this week was marked not just by millions of gifts of chocolate passing from women to men (Japan is different), but also by some enthusiastic protesting against public displays of affection from a group calling themselves Kakuhido (the Revolutionary Alliance of Men that Women Find Unattractive)*.

All this smooching and showing off hurts the feelings of those who just aren't that into it, Takayuki Akimoto, a spokesman for the group, told the press: “People like us who don't find value in love are being oppressed by society.”

Sounds silly doesn't it? But look at the way the UK treats the married and the unmarried and while you might not use the word “oppression” you might think, that when it comes to money at least, he has a point.

Tie the knot in the UK and your path to riches is rather smoother than if you do not. There is the marriage allowance — which allows spouses earning less than £11,000 a year to transfer £1,100 of their income tax allowance to the other spouse as long as he or she doesn't earn more than £43,000. But, with the top potential savings coming in at £220, this is pretty small beer next to the rest of the tax benefits on offer to the hitched.

The married can move assets around between them free of capital gains tax (CGT) to minimise tax bills: shares can be passed over before sale to use up two CGT allowances and income-producing assets can be moved into the names of the spouse in the lowest income tax bracket to cut income and dividend taxes.

Over a lifetime, the savings you can make by using these benefits can be huge. But nothing perhaps on the potential savings at the end of a lifetime. The married pay no inheritance tax (IHT) on each other's assets and can also take on the unused bits of each other's nil-rate bands.

So when the first half of a couple dies, his full estate (you'll see I'm assuming the man dies first) can pass to his spouse tax free. She then adds his IHT allowance to hers making £650,000 (£325,000 plus £325,000) and their heirs can receive up to that tax free. Had they not been married, she would have paid 40 per cent tax on anything over £325,000 from him, and her heirs on anything over the same amount from her.

So on a £1m inheritance, the kids of the married couple could end up with £860,000 (assuming the second spouse to die isn't a big spender). Those of the unmarried?Just £568,000. Ouch.

There's also the matter of what happens if you don't make a will (as I've just assumed that you have).

If you are married, your spouse doesn't automatically get the lot — but they do at least get everything up to £250,000 and half of anything over that (in England and Wales — the rules are different in Scotland and Northern Ireland). If you are not married, she gets nothing — it all goes directly to the kids. Maybe they'll do the right thing by her. Maybe they won't. It is also worth remembering that the married are entitled to bereavement benefits on a partner's death (again, cohabitees are not) and that they automatically take on part of their spouse's defined benefit pension scheme on his death (there is movement on this for cohabitees with some schemes as long as they are nominated as the heir, but it is most definitely not automatic).

It's all good. And it all adds up. Study after study in the west shows that the married tend to be significantly better off than the unmarried (for those in any doubt, Aviva has just put out a helpful survey noting that the average monthly income of a cohabiting couple is about 14 per cent lower than that of a married couple). It is hard to disentangle cause and effect, but over the long term, the tax advantages of being married can't exactly hurt.

Financial types will have noted a problem here. All studies on whether being married somehow makes you better off or not suffer from survival bias. Failed marriages don't make the numbers. And a million other studies show that one of the main things that brings a marriage to its end is financial trouble: arguments over bills, spending and debt always turn up in the top two in lists of the things that cause marital strife.

So if someone proposed to you on Valentine's Day and you said yes, what can you do to keep those fights to a minimum, so as to live the long life together you need to make it into the “richer than the average cohabitee” category?

The answer (as with everything in relationships) comes down to communicating and sharing. Don't even think about making a date for the big day until you've talked about money. How much have you each got? How much do you each earn? How much do you spend? What do you want out of your money (a house deposit or a round-the-world trip?) Who has a pension and who has debt?

It is amazing how many people commit to spending forever with someone before they find out how much credit card debt he has. Then set up a joint account. Figure out how much cash you need in it every month to meet all family expenses and then contribute to that sum pro rata to each of your incomes (it is only fair to do it this way).

Do the same to Isa and pension accounts — making sure you contribute to two pensions (assuming you are in the same tax band) is the best way to avoid hitting the £1m lifetime allowance on either later in life. In an ideal world of love and sharing I would then have the higher earner contribute to the lower earner's personal account so as to equalise personal spending power.

Make wills. Nominate each other on your pension documents. Start a proper rainy day fund. Keep some in cash and invest the rest so that it isn't eroded by inflation (now on the up all over the world). That way, when financial crisis comes you won't have to fight about whose fault it was: you can just pay for it. And finally, sit down together every six months (phones down) and talk about where you are with your finances. Fewer surprises tend to mean fewer rows. So there you go. A plan.Kakuhido members will despise you for it as it represents an obvious embrace of “love capitalism.” But get it right and my guess is that you won't mind.

*Thanks to Jonathan Allum of SMBC Nikko for pointing this one out to me!

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How much income tax allowance you can transfer to you sponse if you earn less than £11,000?

A.£1,000

B.£1,100

C.£1,500

D.£2,200

答案⁽¹⁾

2.If the first half of a couple dies and they are unmarried, how much inheritance tax the other person need to pay?

A.35%

B.40%

C.45%

D.50%

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is one of the main things that make a marriage fail?

A.Financial trouble

B.Family relationships

C.Housing problems

D.Children education

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which is not one of the things you should do in order to keep a good family finance?

A.Keep family income in a relatively high level

B.Nominate each other on your pension documents

C.Start a proper rainy day fund

D.Keep some money in cash and invest the rest

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.£1,100
解释：英国法律规定，如果婚姻双方一方的收入在11000英镑一下而另一方收入不超过43000英镑的情况下，收入低的一方可以将1100英镑的所得税津贴转给自己的配偶。

(2)答案：B.40%
解释：如果二人只是同居关系而未登记结婚，那么当其中一方去世时，另一方需要缴纳40%的遗产税，而合法夫妇的遗产不需要纳税。

(3)答案：A.Financial trouble
解释：根据调查，家庭财政问题是导致婚姻失败的几大主要原因之一。

(4)答案：A.Keep family income in a relatively high level
解释：为了使家庭的财政状况保持在一个健康的水平，作者认为夫妻二人应当将彼此作为自己退休金的受益人、建立一个应急基金、留存足够的现金并将其他的资金用来投资等。

家庭智能：科技的进步=人类的倒退？

人工智能和远程控制在电子时代让我们的家变得更“聪明”：你可以通过控制系统在千里之外调节家里的温度和灯光，甚至你可以在衣柜里装一个“衬衫大炮”让干净的衣服随叫随到。可是当每一件小事都有人为你服务，我们的生活就会变味——有些事情亲历亲为所带来的体验是家庭智能无法比拟的。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

gadgetry小配件；小玩意['ɡædʒɪtrɪ]

disembodied空洞的；无实质的[,dɪsɪm'bɑdɪd]

gizmo小发明 ['gɪzməʊ] priggish|adj. 一本正经的；自负的['prigiʃ]

nuisance讨厌的人；麻烦事['njuːs(ə)ns]

nobler高贵的；华丽的['nəublə]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分27秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分10秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分58秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分2秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Home automation is a childish misuse of technology（626 words）

By Jonathan Margolis

Mark Zuckerberg published a video on Facebook a few months ago, showing off the artificially intelligent gadgetry he has installed in his family home in Palo Alto.

The highlight comes when Mr Zuckerberg asks his smart home, whose robot assistant talks to him in the disembodied voice of Morgan Freeman, for a fresh T-shirt. This is duly fired from an air cannon in the wardrobe.

It is tempting to think this may be healthy self-parody. But I have been talking to a VP of Crestron, one of the big names in the growing home automation market, which worked on Mr Zuckerberg's system. It seems it is mostly for real — although he conceded the T-shirt cannon may be a joke.

“Mark was talking with us for more than a year about the installation,” says John Clancy, Crestron's head of residential installations at the company's headquarters in Rockleigh, New Jersey.

“Now he can see which lights are on in the house and to what level, or what the temperature is and adjust each to the level he wants by executing a command using the API [application programming interface].”

Mr Zuckerberg has posted on Facebook extensive notes on his domestic electronics, and invited suggestions for other automated home gizmos he might install. Seventeen-thousand have been posted to date, suggesting that crowdsourcing creative thinking works.

“Home technology” was once the province of extreme gadget lovers, such as Sir Stirling Moss, the British former racing driver, who in the 1960s turned his Mayfair home into a whirring cornucopia of motors, control panels and sensors that would lower his dining table into place while running his bath to the correct depth and temperature.

In the 1990s, stories about Bill Gates's tech-filled home described visitors being tagged so their preferred music and lighting could accompany them everywhere.

But today it is everywhere. According to Cedia, the umbrella organisation for these matters, custom installation — or home integration as this technology is also sometimes known — is a $14bn industry.

Last year I made a video for the FT about a man cave in Manchester with a rotating, spotlit platform for the owner's McLaren sports car.

I love technology, and my home is full of it. But without wanting to seem priggish, I am beginning to find obsessive home automation of the T-shirt cannon/rotating McLaren type yawn-inducing.

It strikes me as a childish misuse of technology — unless, of course, you are disabled, in which case, all power to it.

Home automation is stress-inducing. At almost every installation I look at, there is to be found a frowning male stabbing at an iPad muttering about why the system is not working — and a female partner rolling her eyes.

Switching lights and heating on manually, opening your own curtains and turning on the TV yourself is really very easy and never goes wrong.

And the home automation must-have of your music following you from room to room via hidden ceiling speakers is, for me, simply horrible. Music should be listened to, not used as audible wallpaper.

What is surprising is that Crestron's Mr Clancy agrees with me up to a point.

“I experiment with all this stuff. I had a Nest system in one zone of my home and I wasn't happy with it, until I actually turned off the artificial intelligence aspect of it because it was making changes I didn't want.”

Mr Clancy's system decided he would like the heating to come on every morning in summer, the same as in winter.

“It's important not to let the smart house take over your home and become a nuisance,” he says. I agree. I will keep my home reassuringly stupid, thanks all the same. There are nobler — and more convenient — ways to deploy technology.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What was the highlight when Mark Zuckerberg was showing his smart home?

A.He used voice to control the heating temperature

B.He used remote control to adjust the lights

C.He asked his robot assistant to give him a fresh T-shirt

D.He used gestures to control the curtains

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who was described to have his guests tagged?

A.Sir Stirling Moss

B.Mark Zuckerberg

C.Bill Gates

D.Warren Buffett

答案⁽²⁾

3.How large is the custom installation industry?

A.$10bn

B.$13bn

C.$14bn

D.$15bn

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the attitude of the author for home automation like T-shirt cannon?

A.He thinks it is stress-reducing

B.He thinks it is smart

C.He thinks it is a misuse of technology

D.He thinks it is unpromising

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.He asked his robot assistant to give him a fresh T-shirt
解释：在扎克伯格的演示中，最为引人注目的是他让他的机器人管家拿一件干净的衬衫给他。

(2)答案：C.$14bn
解释：上个世纪九十年代，据称比尔盖茨给到访者分类，在智能判断下在他们来访过程中将灯光和音乐都调整成最让他们感到舒适的状态。

(3)答案：C.$14bn
解释：对于像扎克伯格家里所有的智能控制系统，这些科技的市场竟达到了1400万美元。

(4)答案：C.He thinks it is a misuse of technology
解释：作者觉得科技的进步的确使我们的生活收益，但是这并不代表着科技要替人类做所有的事情，人类和科技之间应当找到一个平衡点而非滥用。

儿童肥胖，巧克力要背锅？

英国政府出台的一项规定让巧克力生产商们着急了：在这项方案中他们必须逐步将巧克力中的糖分减少20%，其中还包括在八月之前减少5%的硬性指标。这样强硬的要求很大程度上导致生产商们不得不减小巧克力的大小。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

shrinkage收缩；减低['ʃrɪŋkɪdʒ]

backlash反冲；强烈抵制；强烈反对['bæklæʃ]

rip off偷窃；欺诈；剥削

minefield布雷区['maɪnfiːld]

confectionery糕点糖果；糖果店[kən'fekʃ(ə)n(ə)rɪ]

custard奶油冻['kʌstəd]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分0秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分28秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分12秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分7秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

UK health targets threaten size of chocolate bars（672 words）

By Scheherazade Daneshkhu

The size of chocolate bars and packs of sweets in the UK is set to get smaller if manufacturers are to meet government-set targets to cut sugar by 20 per cent, according to a report published on Thursday.

Public Health England, which published the report on how to achieve the targets, said that manufacturers could choose to reformulate their products with less sugar; shift sales towards lower sugar alternatives; or cut portion sizes.

However, a table in the technical report, highlighted only portion control as the most effective way to reduce the sugar content in chocolate bars and sweets.

Large chocolate manufacturers, including Mondelez, manufacturer of Toblerone and Mars, have already been shrinking the size of their chocolates, while leaving the price unaltered to protect profit margins as the weak pound has pushed up commodity prices.

Mars cut the size of packets of Maltesers chocolates by 15 per cent this week, for the second time in four months.

Tim Rycroft, head of corporate affairs at the Food and Drink Federation, the industry group, said that further shrinkage risked a consumer backlash. “When manufacturers have reduced portion sizes, they have been portrayed as ripping off the consumer,” he said.

He said it was “very unlikely” that all companies would achieve the 20 per cent sugar reduction target, including the 5 per cent reduction set for this August, across the nine categories of food identified by the government as contributing the most sugar to children's diets.

These are chocolate, sweets, yoghurts, cereals, biscuits, cakes, puddings, spreads and ice cream. “I'd say tone down the 20 per cent by 2020 — say it's a direction of travel,” he added.

While the industry wants softer measures, MPs have criticised the government for failing to detail what action it will take if manufacturers fail to meet the targets.

In a report published on Monday, the Commons health committee said it was “extremely disappointed” that the government's childhood obesity plan, published in August last year, had not included stronger measures.

Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, the government agency, rejected this on Thursday, saying: “This is the most ambitious childhood obesity plan in the world.”

He said he believed that the voluntary measures would succeed, citing a similar salt reduction programme that has seen the amount of salt in a loaf of bread in the UK fall by 50 per cent compared to a decade ago.

Alison Tedstone, chief nutritionist at the government agency, added that mandatory targets represented a legal minefield. “It would tie us up in knots for years because we'd have to define everything,” she said.

Nestlé said it would be launching a new version of its KitKat wafer bars next week, with less sugar but extra milk and cocoa, as part of its initiative to reduce sugar in its confectionery brands by 10 per cent by 2018.

The Swiss food group has already downsized KitKat, having reduced its weight to 41.5g from 45g in January.

Mr Selbie said that Public Health England would judge the success of the sugar reduction programmeon a sales-weighted basis by taking into account both the amount of sugar in a product and the volume of that product sold.

This would mean that manufacturers would not be able to say they had met the target if they cut sugar by 20 per cent from a “niche” product, while selling “huge custard cakes”, he added.

Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Queen Mary University of London and chairman of Action on Sugar, the pressure group, said: “We congratulate PHE's tremendous achievement on setting coherent and achievable sugar reduction targets in such a short space of time. However, the missing factor in this report is how these targets will be enforced.”

One in every five five-year-olds and one in every three 11-year-olds is overweight or obese, representing an “urgent crisis in childhood obesity”, MrSelbie said.

The government's sugar levy on soft drinks, which comes into force in April next year, is also aimed at tackling childhood obesity.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1．What is the government-set target for sugar cutting?

A.10%

B.15%

C.20%

D.25%

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which company cut its product size by 15 percent this week?

A.Toblerone

B.Mars

C.Nestlé

D.The Swiss food group

答案⁽²⁾

3.What did the industry think about the sugar-cutting plan?

A.They believe softer measures would be better

B.They think it is a good idea

C.They want it to be stricter

D.They are strongly against it

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the chance that five-year-old child is obese in England?

A.1/3

B.1/4

C.1/5

D.1/10

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.20%
解释：为了改善国内儿童的肥胖问题，英国政府要求各巧克力生产商将巧克力中的糖分含量逐渐减少20%。

(2)答案：B.Mars
解释：玛氏公司这周宣布将其产品麦丽素的大小减少15%以满足减糖要求，这已经是近四个月来的第二次。

(3)答案：A.They believe softer measures would be better
解释：巧克力行业普遍认为这一计划过于严苛，柔和宽松的政策例如企业自愿减少糖分含量会使得政策效果更好。

(4)答案：C.1/5
解释：据统计，每五个五岁孩子中就有一个肥胖儿童，而十一岁儿童则是每三个里就有一个。

一天“十苹果”，疾病远离我？

健康饮食越来越受到人们的重视，最近的科学研究表明如果每人每天吃重量相当于十个苹果左右的水果蔬菜，患心血管疾病和癌症的几率将大大下降。可是问题是吃什么，该怎么吃——毕竟不是每个人都能持之以恒的每天吃“十个苹果”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

epidemiology流行病学；传染病学[,epɪdiːmɪ'ɒlədʒɪ]

optimum最适宜的['ɒptɪməm]

incredulit怀疑；不轻信[ɪnkrə'djuːlətɪ]

increment增量；增加['ɪŋkrɪm(ə)nt]

cardiovascular心血管的[,kɑːdɪəʊ'væskjʊlə]

cruciferous十字花科的[kru:'sifərəs]

therapeutic治疗的[,θerə'pjuːtɪk]

harangue长篇大论；高谈阔论；慷慨陈词[hə'ræŋ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分23秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分1秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分9秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分45秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

London's share of global IPOs lowest since 2012（453 words）

By Thomas Hale and ZosiaWasik

I have just eaten a delicious conference pear weighing about 180g. I do not normally weigh snacks, but the recently reported health benefits of eating more fruit and vegetables has inspired me to dig out the scales.

A study published last month showed that, as expected, people who eat fruit and vegetables regularly cut their risk of dying from several diseases such as stroke, cancer and heart disease. Generally, the higher the intake of fruit and vegetables, the lower the risk.

Here's the new bit, according to the paper in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the optimum intake was about 800g per day. Since 80g counts as one serving — roughly one small banana or pear, or three heaped tablespoons of cooked veg — this equates to 10 portions. Given that two out of three Britons struggle to hit the recommended target of five a day, the news that we should now be aiming for 10 was greeted with incredulity.

Researchers from Norway, the UK and US pooled data from 95 separate studies, involving a total of about 2m people. Each of those studies had one thing in common: they asked participants about their dietary intake and measured health outcomes, such as rates of cancer, stroke or heart disease.

What works

A meta-analysis of that pooled data suggested that, compared with eating no fruits and vegetables, overall health outcomes improve with every 200g increment, up to 800g (up to 600g for those with cancer). Unsurprisingly, few people manage to eat more than 800g, meaning that scientists are unable to reliably investigate the benefits of higher intakes (which, I assume, accrue mainly to toilet-roll manufacturers).

Even so, modest amounts seem to make a difference. Eating 200g of fresh produce (about two-and-a-half portions) appeared to cut the risk of cardiovascular disease by 13 per cent; the risk of dying from cancer by 4 per cent; and the risk of premature death by 15 per cent.

Upping daily intakes to 800g brings even better news: a 28 per cent reduction in risk of cardiovascular disease; a 13 per cent reduction in total cancer risk; and a 31 per cent cut in the risk of premature death. Dr DagfinnAune from Imperial College's School of Public Health, who led the analysis, estimated that about 7.8m deaths worldwide per year could be prevented if people ate 10 a day.

What to eat?

Some fruits and vegetables seemed especially protective for certain conditions. Those wanting to fend off early death, particularly from stroke or heart disease, could add the following to their plates: apples, pears, citrus fruits, spinach, lettuce, chicory, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower. For cancer, the researchers suggested a possible benefit from green and yellow vegetables, such as peppers and green beans and, again, cruciferous vegetables.

This study shows a correlation rather than causation. The researchers have not proved that dining on fresh produce fends off death and disease; it could be that people who eat more healthily also exercise more and are less likely to smoke, with these confounding behaviours really responsible for their rude health. The fact, however, that incrementally higher intakes were associated with incrementally lower risks, though, adds weight to the idea that a healthy diet plays a role.

Other research points to mechanisms by which fruits and vegetables work their therapeutic magic. They are known to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, and to contain antioxidants that help to repair DNA damage. This last factor is thought to have a bearing on cancer risk. Tumours usually begin with rogue cells whose growth can't be kept in check.

Dr Aune said that, even though further research was needed to pin down the details, “a high intake of fruit and vegetables holds tremendous health benefits, and we should try to increase their intake in our diet”.

Whole plant foods beat processed versions such as smoothies, which can be high in sugar. Nutritional supplements are no substitute; DrAune said there was no evidence they cut the risk of disease.

The verdict

Headlines might have suggested otherwise but the new paper, persuasive though it is, did not prompt a change in the official five-a-day message. This is pragmatic: those already managing five are health-conscious and self-motivated enough to raise their cruciferous-munching ambitions without official haranguing. Those who are not yet heeding the message would risk becoming disheartened at the sudden shifting of the nutritional goalposts.

Anyway, back to the scales. With each pear clocking in at nearly 200g, I did fleetingly wonder whether I could tick off my 800g with three more ripe beauties from the fruit bowl, currently sitting atop two wrinkly apples and an unappealing banana. Alas not — the biggest benefits come from eating a variety of fruits and vegetables, with their corresponding panoply of nutrients. My ugly fruit friends: your time has come.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which is the best amount of fruits and vegetables we should take everyday?

A.800g a day

B.600g a day

C.400g a day

D.200g a day

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What did researches do in their studies?

A.They asked participants to take a lot of fruits and vegetables

B.They asked participants their dietary intake and measured health outcomes'

C.They asked those people with cancer to eat large amount of fruits

D.They analyze nutrients contained in the fruits and vegetables

答案⁽²⁾

3.What kind of food can help to prevent heart disease?

A.Fruits like apples and cruciferous vegetables

B.Green and yellow vegetables

C.Red meat

D.Chills and spicy food

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which is the best way to have fruits and vegetables?

A.Mix them with milk

B.Make fruits and vegetables smoothies

C.Eat them as the whole plant

D.Eat them with other nutritional supplements

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.800g a day
解释：研究表明，每人每天摄入800克的水果和蔬菜能够大大降低重大疾病例如癌症和心血管疾病的发病率，800克的摄入量大致相当于10个苹果。

(2)答案：B.They asked participants their dietary intake and measured health outcomes'
解释：在研究中，研究者询问了参加调查者的饮食习惯并检测了他们的健康水平。

(3)答案：A.Fruits like apples and cruciferous vegetables
解释：对那些想要防范心血管疾病的人来说，食用苹果、梨这样的水果以及十字花科的蔬菜有助于保持健康。

(4)答案：C.Eat them as the whole plant
解释：DrAune建议，水果蔬菜最好的食用方法就是整个吃，而把它们榨成果汁或者蔬菜汁可能会产生过多的糖分，而因为其他的营养品其实对身体并没有任何额外的好处，把它们和水果混起来吃也无法达到更好的效果。

IPO市场萎靡，伦敦还好吗？

作为自由市场的先导者，伦敦曾见证了世界经济的发展，而这个历史悠久的交易市场却在最近的IPO交易中出现自2012年以来最低额交易额。分析人士指出，脱欧可能是造成这一情况的重要原因，但新兴市场企业的入市渴望可能会带来转机。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

initial public offering初始公开发行

overhang悬垂；逼近[əʊvə'hæŋ]

referendum公民投票权[,refə'rendəm]

pipeline管道；输油管['paɪplaɪn]

resilient弹回的；能复原的[rɪ'zɪlɪənt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分23秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分1秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分9秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分45秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

London's share of global IPOs lowest since 2012（453 words）

By Thomas Hale and ZosiaWasik

London has started the year with its lowest share of global initial public offerings since 2012, even as the number of IPOs around the world has jumped sharply.

There have been $2.2bn of new listings across 16 deals in the UK so far this year, according to Dealogic data, making up only 6.4 per cent of global activity.

Over the same period in 2016, UK volumes, which were flat at just over $2bn, accounted for 16 per cent of global volumes. In 2015 by this stage, more than $5.5bn had been raised, making up 14 per cent of the global total.

A total of $34.6bn has been raised in IPOs around the world this year, compared to $13.8bn over the same period last year. But UK volumes have failed to rise, with analysts pointing to the “political overhang” of the Brexit vote and investor caution.

“It [Brexit] has had an impact,” said Lucy Tarleton, a director at PwC. “We had a slow start to 2016 partly because of the uncertainty over the actual result of the referendum, and we then had the Brexit result which has continued to cause some uncertainty,” she added. “The IPO markets don't really like uncertainty”.

The UK is the third-largest global venue for IPOs in 2017, but is dwarfed by the US and China, which have hosted more than $20bn of deals between them. The weak relative performance comes after a difficult full year in 2016, in which UK volumes came to just 5 per cent of the global total, according to Dealogic.

Alongside political concerns, several other factors have contributed to lower volumes.

“The pipeline of private-equity backed IPOs has certainly reduced, which would explain partly why we haven't seen a significant number of IPOs to date,” said Ms Tarleton.

The London Stock Exchange said in a statement to the Financial Times that UK markets were “resilient and open to investors around the world”. Bankers and lawyers suggested that while UK IPO markets have been quiet, there is a “healthy pipeline” for new deals this summer, in part because of timing related to the disclosure of company results.

“Most of the deals that I've seen in pipelines are businesses that aren't as eurozone focused,” said Edward Bibko, Emea head of capital markets at Baker & McKenzie, the law firm. “We're seeing a lot of emerging market issuers that are looking to list into London right now — I do think we're going to see an uptick in cross border”.

“I think most people have come to the logical conclusion — Article 50 or not, London still has all the attributes that make it one of the greatest places to list in the world,” he added.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the percentage of London accounts for this year's global IPO?

A.6.4%

B.14%

C.16%

D.64%

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What could be one of the reasons for London's failing?

A.Weak economy

B.Changeable government policy

C.Wrong estimation about London market

D.Brexit

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which counties are in front of UK in terms of IPO shares?

A.China and US

B.US and Japan

C.US and Hong Kong

D.US and Germany

答案⁽³⁾

4.What kind of issuers may want to list into London market?

A.European companies

B.Local companies

C.Emerging market companies

D.American companies

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.6.4%
解释：截止目前，在伦敦上市的IPO仅占全球份额的6.4%，而2016年和2015年同时期分别为16%和14%。

(2)答案：D.Brexit
解释：普华永道的总监在接受采访时表示，由于英国脱欧所导致的的政策不确定性是导致在伦敦上市的IPO份额减少。

(3)答案：A.China and US
解释：最新的数据表明，伦敦目前IPO总量位居第三，中国和美国在英国之前。

(4)答案：C.Emerging market companies
解释：尽管伦敦IPO交易出现颓势，但相关人士表明在下一季度这一情况很可能将得到改善，因为许多新兴国家企业希望能够在伦敦市场进行募股投资。

有多少中国人愿意为内容付费？

新兴网络知识平台的兴起，带动了内容付费的新兴热潮。信息爆炸的当下，越来越多的中国人愿意为优质的内容付钱。在不久的将来我们或许将不能再免费使用许多应用软件，但付费可能将为内容带来质的提升。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

burgeoning增长迅速的['bə:dʒəniŋ]

cohort一群；支持者['kəʊhɔːt]

vacuum真空；真空的['vækjʊəm]

oligarchy寡头['ɒlɪgɑːkɪ]

monetizing商业化

subscriber订户；签署者[səb'skraɪbə(r)]

curator馆长；监护人；管理者[kjʊ(ə)'reɪtə]

shell out还账；为……提供

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分55秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分7秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分22秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分31秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Chinese tech apps trade knowledge for cash（918 words）

By Emily Feng in Beijing

Each morning when James Lu drives to work, he streams economics podcasts that he purchased through iGet, a mobile app launched by Luo Zhenyu, one of China's most recognisable media personalities.

“In big cities, people are too busy to read books and watch movies. Famous personalities can teach you knowledge that let you seem as if you have read the book or watched the movie yourself,” he explains.

iGet is just one of a burgeoning cohort of new media start-ups that trade branded knowledge for money that China's tech groups are betting on, as a country infamous for pirating demonstrates an increasing willingness to pay for content.

“People trust the personal brand, and there's this vacuum there for real information. Everyone knows the media is bought and paid for. Having these people who can speak to you in a real way and who have built large followings through providing information that is real is obviously going to attract a lot of people here [in China],” says Matthew Brennan, co-founder of China Channel, a digital marketing agency.

China's tech oligarchy — Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent — have made monetising digital content a priority as the number of new users slows.

Social media group Tencent now runs the country's biggest music streaming service after merging QQ Music with China Music Corp. Baidu has more than doubled what it spends on content creation and fees to acquire streaming and broadcast rights, from Rmb914.5m ($133m) in 2015 to Rmb2.21bn in 2016.

However, the number of digital entertainment subscribers is just a sliver of the hundreds of millions of users registered on China's most prolific social media apps. Tech companies are exploring new ways to cash in on the user-generated content and expert analysis they host that until now has been largely distributed for free.

“People are time poor and money rich in China now, and it's a very good thing for content,” says Mr Brennan. “Now there are lots of successful case studies of people monetising knowledge and the beginnings of a much healthier ecosystem for content creators than in the US.”

A January survey of internet users conducted by Guokr.com, a Chinese science news and education website, and Netease, one of China's oldest internet companies, found that 75 per cent of users said they were willing to pay for quality content, while 52 per cent believed high-quality content providers deserve payment.

“In the early stages of the internet, tech companies relied more on a free consumer model. But as the volume of content has increased, quality has not kept up, and users have to spend more time and effort screening. They are willing to pay more for content curators that can promise high-quality content,” says Lou Meijing, analyst with the Beijing-based consultancy iiMedia Research.

The biggest knowledge platforms have leveraged the personal reputation of speakers to charge fees.

There is Fenda, based on Reddit's “Ask Me Anything” format, in which users pay to hear celebrities and industry experts answer user-submitted questions. Created by Guokr.com, Fendaattracted early investment from Tencent last November as well as the founders of Xiaomi and Lenovo. The more popular the answer, the higher the payout for both the respondent and the asker.

Last May, investor Wang Sicong, the son of the founder of Dalian Wanda, attracted a media firestorm when answers about everything from financial advice to his sex life reached a price of nearly Rmb5,000 apiece ($750). JD.com, the ecommerce platform, and search engine group Baidu have launched similar question-and-answer apps.

Tencent-run WeChat jumped into the fray this month when founder Pony Ma announced a beta test with invited users that would test out payment models for WeChat public accounts.

WeChat's base of 856m active users means it commands a huge audience of potential paying readers already linked up to WeChat Wallet, Tencent's mobile payments platform, yet it has delayed in rolling out a concrete payment model.

“WeChat is behind in this respect, because content subscription is not the heart of WeChat's business model. They are payment and finance driven, not content driven,” says Thomas Graziani, founder of WalktheChat, a privately owned, independent tech company.

With more than 65m users, the most successful knowledge platform is Zhihu, a free Quora-like platform backed by Tencent and Chinese internet group Sohu and the first knowledge platform to achieve a valuation of more than $1bn. It launched Zhihu Live last year through which users can pay for one-on-one sessions with an expert live-streamed to the user's device. The average speaker earns about Rmb8,300 ($1,200) per session.

“In a community-driven model for knowledge, there are a lot of options and choices for content that are more appealing to consumers, whereas the traditional media is a lot more controlled,” says Anita Huang, an operating partner for Sinovation Ventures, an early investor in Zhihu.

This month, popular culture website Douban launched its own live-streaming feature, banking on its core audience — well-educated, culturally-attuned millennials — will shell out money to hear their favourite public intellectuals and artists discuss topics ranging from current affairs to trends in music and poetry at a starting price of Rmb128 ($20).

“Chinese consumers are notably interested in not only owning information but also owning perspective,” says Min Jiang, a professor of communications at University of North Carolina Charlotte, who studies Chinese popular media. “You can read the newspaper, but how you interpret that story can be quite different … and that second part is more important sometimes than the first of just getting the facts straight.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which company did not consider digital content as a priority as mentioned?

A.Baidu

B.Wangyi

C.Alibaba

D.Tencent

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the percentage of people researched are willing to pay for quality content?

A.50%

B.52%

C.60%

D.75%

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who had attracted a media firestorm for answering questions online?

A.Sicong Wang

B.Pony Ma

C.Jack Ma

D.Richard Liu

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which is the most successful knowledge platform?

A.Douban

B.WeChat

C.Zhihu

D.Renren

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Wangyi
解释：随着电子付费服务的不断发展，百度、阿里巴巴、腾讯等中国科技寡头把数字内容变现列为了优先任务。

(2)答案：D.75%
解释：果壳网和网易今年1月针对互联网用户的调查发现，75%的用户表示他们愿意为优质内容付费，52%的用户认为优质内容提供者是值得付费的。

(3)答案：A.Sicong Wang
解释：大连万达创始人王健林之子王思聪，在分答上对从财务建议到其性生活等各种问题进行了回答，引发媒体关注。

(4)答案：C.Zhihu
解释：最为成功的平台是知乎，它拥有逾6500万用户，它是第一家估值逾10亿美元的知识平台。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集
Vol.20

外国房价上涨，中国买房团的锅？

过去的几年里，中国“买房团”的热情从国内延伸到了国外。然而最近包括加拿大在内的许多国家都宣布了对外国买房者的限制政策，他们将本地房价上涨归结为外国人买的房子太多。可是外国购房者真的是房价上涨的罪魁祸首吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

footloose自由自在的，不受束缚的['fʊtluːs]

surcharge超载；额外费['sɜːtʃɑːdʒ]

inundate淹没；泛滥['ɪnʌndeɪt]

dire可怕的；悲惨的['daɪə]

ravage毁坏；破坏['rævɪdʒ]

abate减轻；减少；废除[ə'beɪt]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分41秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分18秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分4秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分4秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Are foreign buyers responsible for skyrocketing property prices?（646 words）

By Judith Evans

In recent years a flood of footloose international capital, much of it from China, has been searching for homes in which to invest. In parts of the world, however, that cash has become rather less welcome.

Over the past year, regional authorities in British Columbia in Canada and Australia's New South Wales have both introduced surcharges aimed at overseas buyers of homes. They joined Hong Kong and Singapore, which already penalised foreign buyers. Switzerland, meanwhile, bans non-residents from outside Europe from buying altogether. In the UK, the stamp duty system has been overhauled to raise charges at the top end and add a surcharge for buyers of second and additional homes.

In most cases, such charges are aimed at cooling overheated markets and keeping homes affordable for domestic buyers.

Christy Clark, premier of British Columbia, which includes Vancouver, until last year one of the world's fastest-rising property markets, said the administration would “make sure that we do everything that we can to try and keep houses affordable and to try and make sure that those very wealthy foreign buyers find it a little bit harder to buy a house in the Greater Vancouver area”.

Her 15 per cent surcharge for overseas buyers duly sent the market into reverse.

Are foreign buyers really responsible for skyrocketing property prices? The case of Vancouver suggests they play a role. Chinese buyers who inundated that market accounted for a third of property purchases by value, according to a study carried out by the National Bank of Canada.

In London, buyers who live outside the country make up only a fraction of the total but have aided market distortions in other ways. For example, there are now an estimated 10,000 surplus luxury flats in a city with a dire shortfall of affordable housing.

Globally, hostile measures aimed at foreign buyers helped to push the luxury housing market downwards in 2016 for the first time in five years, according to research company Wealth-X.

Still, there are countries, especially in southern Europe, that continue to welcome the cash and the broader involvement that goes with it. “Golden visa” schemes became popular as countries ravaged by the euro crisis sought rapid overseas investment; in countries such as Spain, Malta and Greece, a property purchase can still be used as a route to residency or even citizenship.

The case of Portugal demonstrates how countries can blow hot and cold on international property buyers. In 2012, it introduced a “golden visa” residency scheme that brought in thousands of buyers. But by last year, the system had come to a virtual standstill after legislative changes resulting from a corruption inquiry. Now, the country is planning to introduce a “wealth tax” on properties worth more than €600,000. Buyers there could be forgiven for feeling as if they are in a tricky, on-off relationship.

When it comes to Chinese cash, though, governments do recognise the relationship is not one way. Despite the stereotype of Chinese buyers as absentee landlords of often uninhabited homes, in Vancouver, London and other cities, they also represent a growing number of immigrants, students and businesses. Overseas property owners who do not live full time in a city might still consider themselves involved in local life, while large-scale investment helps to fuel property development.

Indeed, some Canadian commentators have linked the hostility to Chinese property buyers to a history of racism in the region, for which Clark recently issued an apology on behalf of her province. In any case, the flow of Chinese money may abate. The Chinese administration has imposed new curbs on outbound capital, specifically targeting property purchases.

If the flow of Chinese cash slows down, national and local governments will be left pondering whether they struck the right balance between inviting global capital and appeasing local sentiment.

This is a tough call to make, and not only when it comes to property.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which country bans non-residents from outside Europe from buying altogether?

A.Germany

B.Switherland

C.UK

D.Netherlands

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What percentage of Chinese people have make up of property purchases by value in Canada?

A.1/2

B.1/3

C.1/4

D.1/5

答案⁽²⁾

3.In country like which still welcome foreign house buyers?

A.Sweden

B.Germany

C.France

D.Spain

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the other reason that may cause the flow of Chinese cash slows down?

A.Chinese people are no more willing to invest abroad

B.Chinese government's new curbs on outbound capital

C.Few people can really fit into local life

D.Weak national economy

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Switherland
解释：相较于其他几个仅是对外国人购买房屋进行额外收取费用的国家而言，瑞士在法律中禁止所有非欧盟居民在瑞典购买房屋。

(2)答案：B.1/3
解释：在加拿大，来自中国的购房者占据了房屋市场近三分之一的购买额。

(3)答案：D.Spain
解释：在南欧的一些国家，比如西班牙、马耳他和希腊，购买房屋依然是获得居民身份的途径之一。这些国家仍然欢迎外国的投资者来购买房屋刺激经济发展。

(4)答案：B.Chinese government's new curbs on outbound capital
解释：除了各国对于外国居民购买房屋的限制政策意外，中国政府的限制资本外流政策也在一定程度上减缓了中国人对外卖房的热情。

中国纸尿裤企业的未来在何方？

作为中国本土最大的纸尿裤生产商，恒安集团曾经凭借安尔乐这一品牌在中国市场内占据一席地位。然而去年以来，放宽二胎政策和种种利好的消息却没能让这个企业在婴儿用品市场内实现新的增长，面临这外来竞争者和自身市场营销不足的双重挑战，恒安作为本土生产商任重而道远。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

patron 赞助人；主顾['peɪtr(ə)n]

nascent开始存在的，发生中的['næs(ə)nt]

incontinence失禁；无节制[ɪn'kɑntɪnəns]

eke out竭力维持；弥补……的不足

single-digit单位数

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

2分59秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分14秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

0分35秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分33秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Chinese nappy market: end-to-end solutions （335 words）

By Lex

David Attenborough, patron of sustainability charity Population Matters, has previously praised China's one-child policy, if not the means used to enforce it. Chinese nappy makers and their investors, on the other hand, were delighted by the lifting of the limit to two children in early 2016.

Yet earnings have failed to receive a boost from any nascent baby boom. This week, Hong Kong-listed shares in Hengan, a Chinese producer of paper sanitary products, fell as much as one-tenth after it delivered profits that missed forecasts. Even at a discount to the five-year average, its 18 times current-year earnings multiple looks steep, though.

Hengan should benefit from multiple trends. A rising birth rate is at one end of the age spectrum. At the other is higher demand for incontinence nappies as the population ages. The Chinese baby nappy market is already the largest in the world, at more than $7bn, notes CLSA. The broker expects mid teens sales increases to compound annually between 2015 and 2020.

The problem is that new entrants are absorbing all the growth. Hengan's top line has suffered from the rivalry of manufacturers such as Kimberly-Clark and P&G. In 2016 revenues from disposable diapers, which account for just over one-tenth of the total, fell 12 per cent. Wealthier Chinese parents favour foreign products, with some going as far as Japan to stock up on softer offerings for their babies' bottoms.

Hengan has not only been facing pressure on its nappy sales; the company has also had to increase spending on marketing and promotions. Margins have held stable only as a result of lower raw materials costs. This cannot be relied upon to persist. A push into premium products might have helped but rivals are making a similar shift.

The situation is less dire for Hengan's other products but overcapacity in those segments is also a problem. Sanitary napkins and tissue-paper products eked out single-digit revenue growth. There is little scope for a pull-up in Hengan's price, so investors cannot expect much pampering.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Chinese nappy makers and their investors were delighted by what?

A.The rising stock price of some Chinese nappy makers

B.The lifting of the limit to two children

C.The growing need in the Chinese nappy market

D.More restrictions on foreign nappy makers

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why did Hengan fail to benefit from multiple trends of Chinese nappy market?

A.The management and product quality were not so good as before

B.The company had moved its sales into overseas market

C.Wrong judgements upon Chinese market

D.Growing competitors also take advantage of these trends

答案⁽²⁾

3.In 2016, how much did Hengan's revenues from disposable diapers has declined?

A.10%

B.11%

C.12%

D.13%

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the problem with other Hengan's segments?

A.Overcapacity of products

B.Too many companies are now in the industry

C.Fewer industrial innovations

D.Demands exceed supplies

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.The lifting of the limit to two children
解释：尿片生产商和他们的投资者对中国放宽生育政策的消息感到振奋，这可能意味着新生儿尿布销售收入将会增长。

(2)答案：D.Growing competitors also take advantage of these trends
解释：在众多有利市场发展的趋势下，恒安集团没能够抓住机遇的重要原因之一是因为众多有力竞争者的存在，比如金佰利和宝洁公司。

(3)答案：C.12%
解释：2016年，恒安集团纸尿裤方面的营业收入同比下降了12%

(4)答案：A.Overcapacity of products
解释：对于恒安其他的产品而言，缺乏更多的增长空间也成为了问题。纸巾和湿巾营业收入的确是在保持单位数的增长，但却没有任何的提价空间，投资者也不应对其抱有较大的期待。

拿什么拯救中国的医疗应用？

跟随着互联网+的发展潮流，中国的医疗应用市场曾一度出现欣欣向荣的局面，然而近年来对于这一行业的投资却日渐减少，各行业巨头纷纷宣布退出市场，隐藏在萧条的移动医疗终端市场背后的“罪魁祸首”究竟是谁？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

encompass包含；包围，环绕；完成[ɪn'kʌmpəs]

straddle跨坐['stræd(ə)l]

private equity私募股权；私人股本

venture capital风险资本，风险投资

chronic慢性的；长期的；习惯性的['krɒnɪk]

sceptical怀疑的；怀疑论的['skeptɪk(ə)l]

spook 鬼；幽灵；惊吓；受惊[spuːk]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分37秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分50秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分27秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分12秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Investors begin to sour on Chinese health apps（725 words）

By Tom Hancock in Shanghai and Don Weinland in Hong Kong

Valued at $3bn in a funding round last year, Chinese healthcare app Ping An Good Doctor rode a wave of investment flooding the country's mobile medical sector. But investors are beginning to lose confidence in the ability of these companies to turn a profit.

China's more than 2,000 mobile healthcare apps encompassing medical advice, appointment booking and niche services are tapping into demand by offering convenience in a country where widespread distrust of clinics creates overcrowded hospitals.

Good Doctor, backed by insurance group Ping An, claims 27m active monthly users who receive up to 400,000 diagnoses in a day, although some analysts estimate users at closer to 20m. “Digital healthcare services are releasing some of the pressure on China's creaking healthcare system,” says founder Oliver Wang.

Straddling the healthcare and technology sectors, two of the hottest investment areas in China, hundreds of medical apps attracted private equity and venture capital funding last year.

While user numbers pale in comparison with the more than 800m of China's most frequently used mobile app, Tencent's WeChat, Good Doctor's rivals WeDoctor and Spring Rain Doctor joined the ranks of “unicorn” start-ups valued at more than $1bn.

Digital health start-ups in China have homed in on consumers long underserved by government-run facilities, in contrast with a focus by such start-ups in the US on developing technology for hospitals.

Chinese consumer demand for online health services is driven by a lack of trust in the lower levels of the public health system and sparse access to doctors particularly in rural areas. Lines at urban hospitals often stretch around the block as people come from poor areas to be seen by a physician, with places in the queue sometimes illegally scalped.

But regulations prevent companies from charging for booking hospital appointments, and limit apps to health advice rather than full consultations.

To make money, WeDoctor, founded by Tencent, has relied on advertising and referring patients to doctors, a service for which it can charge. It focuses on helping patients avoid queues by making appointments online. It claims more than 100m such bookings over the past two years and Rmb1.2bn ($175m) in revenue last year.

“It's much more convenient than visiting a hospital,” says Mr Mu, a supermarket owner from Zhejiang province near Shanghai, who used an app to find a specialist to treat his chronic stomach pain. “If not for the app, I would have no way of finding that doctor.”

However, investment in China's digital health industry dropped 10 per cent year on year in the last quarter of 2016 to $520m, after a 41 per cent decline in the previous three months, according to consultancy VC Beat.

“If you look at the user numbers it looks great, but if you ask who's paying it doesn't look so great,” says Florian Then, a Shanghai-based partner at McKinsey's healthcare practice.

Nisa Leung, managing partner at Qiming Venture Partners, which has backed WeDoctor, says: “We've invested in several of these companies but are still generally very sceptical of how most of the sector will generate revenues. Sustainability will be a big question mark.”

Last year, investors were spooked as a list circulated online of 27 medical apps that had closed after burning through their funding. Sentiment was further dented in recent weeks when internet giant Baidu said it was shutting down its mobile health unit and flagship app Baidu Doctor.

“In the current environment, it's increasingly advantageous to have a strong presence already in some part of the healthcare ecosystem,” says Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting.

Health start-ups have also pushed into consumer services, offering over-the-counter medicines or paid-for services such as Botox injections. “Online to offline sales … these things appear to work quite well,” adds McKinsey's Mr Then.

Regulatory risk is a further concern. There is some fear that officials could move to restrict medical apps if local interests are being harmed. The health sector is particularly sensitive: last year, Baidu recorded its worst quarterly earnings performance since 2007 after an investigation into advertisements on its search engine for private hospitals offering unnecessary treatments.

“There is not a regulator system telling you what you can and can't do in mobile health and that makes the market a big mystery,” says Ping An Good Doctor's Mr Wang. “You couldn't know when the government [is going to say] ‘no’.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How many active monthly users Good Doctor claim it has?

A.20million

B.25million

C.27million

D.40million

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which app is not one of Good Doctor's competitors?

A.WeDoctor

B.Wangyi Doctor

C.Spring Rain Doctor

D.Baidu Doctor

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the main reason for the shutting down of some medical apps last year?

A.Sudden change of government regulations

B.They used up all their funding with no revenue came in

C.Lack of proper management

D.A lot of customer complaints

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is a further concern for Chinese medical apps?

A.Regulatory risk

B.Giant research expenses

C.Fierce competition between companies

D.Ethical problems

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：答案：
解释：平安好医生自称每月拥有270万用户，而有关分析人士认为可能只有200万。

(2)答案：B.Wangyi Doctor
解释：除了平安好医生之外，市场还存在着由腾讯运营的微信一生，百度运营的百度一生和春雨医生，它们都是平安好医生的对手。

(3)答案：B.They used up all their funding with no revenue came in
解释：去年27款医疗应用宣布下架，其原因在于资金耗尽而入不敷出。

(4)答案：A.Regulatory risk
解释：对于中国的医疗应用，潜在的威胁就是政策风险，有人担心当地方利益受到损害时政府将对医疗应用行业进行限制。

黑客入侵还有好处？

信息时代，企业的信息安全受到了严峻挑战。许多高管在听到被黑客入侵的消息的第一反应是如何自保，但是对CEO而言，黑客的袭击或许是发现公司“内鬼”的绝佳时机——因为往往出漏洞的不是公司系统，而是员工的忠诚。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

dossier档案，卷宗['dɒsɪə]

malicious恶意的；蓄意的 [mə'lɪʃəs]

cyber security网络安全

gullible易受骗的；轻信的['gʌlɪb(ə)l]

burglary盗窃；入室行窃 ['bɜːglərɪ]

malevolent恶毒的；坏心肠的[mə'lev(ə)l(ə)nt]

succumb屈服；被压 [sə'kʌm]

perplexed 困惑的；不知所措的 [pə'plekst]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分14秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分10秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分41秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分17秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How to turn cyber attacks to your advantage（776 words）

By Andrew Hill

Tax inspectors, the fraud squad, the regulator's enforcement director. Latterly, chief executives have had to add a new group to the list of people they would rather not hear are waiting in the lobby: secret agents.

When MI5 or the Federal Bureau of Investigation tells a company that hackers have attacked, it does not surprise me to learn that the boss's first reaction is self-preservation. Chief executives figure they need not worry about the theft of valuable intellectual property, because the repercussions may not hit until their successor is in charge, if they hit at all. So law enforcers sometimes include a few of the chief executive's stolen personal emails in their dossier for him or her: it tends to concentrate their minds.

Their tactic points to two factors that are increasingly vital in handling malicious hacking. First, the main weaknesses in most organisations are not technological — flammable firewalls, shaky software — but human. Second, the quest to improve cyber security will unearth management defects: in this case, the extreme short-termism and self-interest of the CEO.

Since a villain pressed send on the first phishing email, the human factor has played a part in cyber plots.

So-called Nigerian scams — where the widow of a general promises you money to help transfer their fortune — are crude for a reason: the gullible few who believe the first letter are most likely to swallow the whole tale.

More recently, criminals have started fabricating attacks, to extort money from a company or destabilise its share price. Again, the approach exploits basic human frailty. As a senior executive, you may well not know whether the hack is real or not (it still takes at least 99 days for companies to discover a breach, says consultancy Mandiant), so are you prepared to risk denouncing the news as fake?

You may by now be hunched in your office, gibbering in helpless paranoia. But on the assumption all big companies are under hostile cyber fire all the time — Volkswagen said last year it was facing 6,000 attacks a week — you would be better recasting the threat as an opportunity.

As Amitava Dutta and Kevin McCrohan of George Mason University wrote presciently in 2002, in the early days of cyber risk, “information security is not a technical issue; it is a management issue”. Leadership, culture and structure (or lack of them) have a “significant impact” on what happens in an attack. So reassess your company's priorities. The theft of research data may not hurt in the way a cyber-burglary of your private emails does, but it is far more material to the long-term health of the company.

Spring-clean your structure. Finding out what information you hold, and where, is an excuse to declutter subsidiaries as well as servers.

Update lines of communication, internal and external, and re-examine what your response will say about your attitude to different interests. Yahoo failed for two years to disclose a huge security breach as it sought to sell its core business, inviting criticism from users, investors and watchdogs.

Make sure your staff are engaged. Carelessness about security may suggest waning loyalty and lead to recklessness and, worse, malevolent attacks from the inside.

Review your network. Suppliers' lax controls could easily spread infection to your company.

Finally, get ready. Executives' first reaction to a breach is often “Who did this to me?”, followed by a search for the “guilty”, Dave Palmer of Darktrace, a cyber technology group, told a recent FT125 debate. Others succumb to what one lawyer called “decisive inertia”, or default to the wrong response, a bit like the mayor of Amity, the fictional seaside resort in Jaws, who kept the beach open for the good of the city while ignoring growing evidence of lethal shark activity.

By contrast, when San Francisco's public transit system was held hostage by cyber attackers last year, managers could decide quickly to open the gates and allow free travel. But if hackers had compromised safety rather than payments, the correct decision would have been to close the network.

Elizabeth Corley, vice-chair of Allianz Global Investors, told the same FT125 delegates that boards were going through “a revolution”. Good cyber security, like worker health and safety, is becoming obligatory, she said.

Her comment reminded me of how, as new chief executive of Alcoa, Paul O'Neill focused the aluminium manufacturer on improving worker safety in the 1980s. Investors were perplexed. But Charles Duhigg recounts in The Power of Habit that the policy triggered “a chain reaction … that lifted profits”.

In the same way, hackers may be inadvertently performing a useful service: prompting executives to patch the human weaknesses at the heart of their organisations.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What would be boss's first reaction when hacker attacks?

A.Think about self-preservation

B.Try to find out why they get attacked

C.Stay calm and be organized

D.Hunch in the office and gibber in helpless paranoia

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the main weaknesses in most organisations?

A.Technology

B.Human

C.Finance

D.Management

答案⁽²⁾

3.How often will Volkswagen get attack?

A.6,000 a day

B.6,000 a week

C.6,000 a month

D.6,000 a year

答案⁽³⁾

4.Why could hackers perform as a useful service?

A.It could help to improve company's software

B.It could change the way of management

C.It can be used as a marketing strategy

D.It's an opportunity to find out the human weaknesses in the organisations

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Think about self-preservation
解释：对大多数的老板而言，当他们听到公司网络遭到入侵的消息时，第一反应是想办法如何自保，因为他们深知即时这些攻击会对公司造成影响，也会发生在他的继任者上任之后。

(2)答案：B.Human
解释：对绝大多数企业来说，最大的弱点不在于科技方面的，而在于员工，员工的忠诚度存在问题，于是导致了信息安全的漏洞。

(3)答案：B.6,000 a week
解释：大众汽车公司平均每周就要受到6000次的黑客攻击，因此对企业来说遭到网络攻击并不是一件什么不得了的事情。

(4)答案：D.It's an opportunity to find out the human weaknesses in the organisations
解释：对聪明的管理者来说，网络攻击可以被当做一个找到公司内部间谍的绝佳时机。

英国企业没了外国人能行吗？

随着本周脱欧谈判的开始，许多英国公司开始着急了：离开欧盟可能意味着他们现有的欧盟员工将无法继续工作，而这些企业常常需要说法语或德语的员工进行沟通。在英国本土学习外语人数不断下降的情况下，这些企业可能要为留住外籍员工向政府支付额外费用或者不得不把办公室搬进“欧洲大陆”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

panel座谈小组，全体陪审员['pæn(ə)l]

census实施统计调查；人口普查['sensəs]

compensate补偿；抵消['kɒmpenseɪt]

unobtainable难获得的[ʌnəb'teɪnəb(ə)l]

rhetoric花言巧语的；修辞['retərɪk]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分52秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分58秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分33秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分14秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

British business will need its foreign language speakers（746 words）

By Michael Skapinker

Theresa May will trigger Article 50 on March 29, but much of UK business has no idea what Brexit will mean for them. During discussions in the past few weeks, I have heard of financial services companies applying for licences in EU countries in case they need to move some of their operations there. But most businesses are watching and waiting to assess what comes out of the negotiations. There is one thing many companies are sure of: they cannot manage without their EU staff. It is not just the numbers of EU nationals working in many industries. Some companies are also desperate to hold on to the languages those citizens speak.

The head of training at a fashion company, speaking on a panel I recently chaired, said it is not true that all business is now done in English. Some retailers and distributors in Spain, France and Italy did not speak English well enough to do business in it, and some probably did not see why they should.

You buy in your own language and you sell in your customer's, the old saying goes. We can update the second half of this: you sell in your customer's choice of language. These days, that is often English, but not always. If customers insist on speaking their own language, you had better have people who can talk to them.

Many in the UK do speak another language. The 2011 census showed that 4.2m people — 7.7 per cent of the population in England and Wales — spoke a language other than English at home. The most widely spoken of those languages was Polish, used by 546,000 people, followed by Panjabi, Urdu and Bengali.

But the languages most in demand by UK business are French, German and Spanish, according to a survey last year by the CBI employersorganisation and Pearson, the education group.

There are fewer speakers of those languages in England and Wales. The 2011 census showed that 147,000 spoke French as their main language; 77,000 spoke German and 120,000 Spanish. Not all of those people are available for recruitment by UK companies who need their languages skills. Many are already working, in English, in banking, information technology or the hotel and restaurant industries, and not all are adults.

The census includes all language speakers aged three and over. And the UK residency status of EU citizens post-Brexit is still unclear.

So where, post-Brexit, will UK companies find their foreign language speakers? Probably not among young Britons learning foreign languages.

It is true that the UK government has made efforts to improve language teaching in schools. Almost all English primary schools were doing at least some foreign language teaching in 2015-16, according to a report by the British Council.

The government is pushing the teaching of languages in secondary schools too, but the report said that since 2002, the number of students taking French A-levels, the school-leaving examination, had fallen by a third. Those studying German had fallen by nearly half. More students were studying Spanish and other languages, this was not enough to compensate for the falls in French and German.

Teachers said one of the reasons pupils did not want to learn languages was that it was hard. It is. Mastering another language requires huge motivation.

For non-English speakers, learning English yields a wealth of opportunities. Most senior jobs are unobtainable without the language. For native English speakers, the employment rewards are less obvious. You can get along in most jobs in the UK without another language. Not everyone wants to work for a fashion company with business on the continent.

What else can UK companies do to recruit foreign language speakers post-Brexit? If the outcome of the negotiations means these employees need work permits, companies can apply for them. But that adds to the cost. Another speaker on the panel I chaired said it cost £4,000 to get permits for each of his company's Indian IT specialists.

Companies could also move departments that need foreign language speakers to one of the remaining 27 EU countries.

Best of all would be a Brexit agreement that allows EU workers to come and go as freely as they have done until now. That would be a relief to UK business of all sorts, not just those recruiting speakers of other languages.

But British prime minister Theresa May's rhetoric suggests that is an unlikely outcome. In the meantime, employers worry and wait, and so do their foreign-language speaking staff.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why are some financial services companies applying for licences in EU countries?

A.They need the technology of EU countries

B.In case they need to move some of their operations there

C.Some companies are considering leaving UK after Brexit

D.There are fewer business restrictions in EU

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the proportion of people in England speak foreign languages?

A.7%

B.7.7%

C.8.7%

D.9%

答案⁽²⁾

3.The students of which language are declining?

A.German

B.Spanish

C.Mandarin

D.Dutch

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is one of the reasons that pupils are less willing to learn foreign languages?

A.There were less languages courses in school

B.They have to pay more in order to learn other languages

C.The negative influence of Brexit

D.It is too hard to master them

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.In case they need to move some of their operations there
解释：在英国宣布启动程序之后，许多的英国公司都开始申请在欧盟的经营许可，是为了防止之后由于需要在当地建立分支机构，招聘当地员工。

(2)答案：B.7.7%
解释：根据调查，在英国有7.7%的人不使用英语，在英国境内使用最多的外国语言是波兰语，有546,000人都在使用这种语言。

(3)答案：A.German
解释：自2002年以来，学习德语的人数已经下降了近一半，与之相对的是学习西班牙语和其他语言的人数在上升，但增长的幅度远远不及下降。

(4)答案：D.It is too hard to master them
解释：中小学生学习外语比例呈下降趋势的原因其中之一就在于学习这些语言对他们来说过于困难，将一门外语学好需要极大的信心和勇气。

自动驾驶汽车将如何改变我们的生活？

作为一种文明的产物，我们还没有考虑即将来临的自动驾驶汽车革命可能带来的影响——丑陋的道路标识和标志线将成为过去；我们将会有更多的空闲时间，以及，万能的“堵车”将不再是开会迟到的借口。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

legislator立法者['ledʒɪsleɪtə]

eyesore眼中钉；难看的东西['aɪsɔː]

diminish减少，缩小[dɪ'mɪnɪʃ]

sober冷静的，清醒的；未醉的['səʊbə]

swerve突然转向；背离[swɜːv]

negligible微不足道的['neglɪdʒɪb(ə)l]

go nuts发疯；失去理智

brownfield sites棕色地带，棕色地带因受到污染而被废弃或闲置的前工业和商业用地

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分31秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分46秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分24秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分11秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Our utopian, dystopian future with self-driving cars（716 words）

By Jonathan Margolis

As a civilisation, we have not taken on board the implications of the coming revolution in self-driving cars.

Auto manufacturers, technology companies including Google, and legislators predict that by 2020, self-driving cars will be navigating public roads in countries such as the US, UK and Finland. Most autonomous vehicles will not be owned by individuals but by companies, then rented out to travellers by the hour.

Self-driving is heralded as a way of improving traffic flows and decreasing road accidents. But what about the secondary effects of autonomous cars on public transport, the property market and health?

As with most techno-disruptions, opinion is divided into the utopian and dystopian.

Let's look at the upsides

• Removing fallible, emotional, inattentive humans from behind the steering wheel, where they really have no place, could free up ambulances and hospital accident and emergency departments. Stephen Hamilton, a lawyer in Cambridge who is working on the legality of autonomous cars, says one manufacturer is expecting 99.7 per cent of road accident injuries to be eliminated. It has a team working on ways to prevent the remaining 0.3 per cent of deaths and injuries on the roads.

• Car parks are an urban eyesore but their days are numbered if car ownership diminishes. Self-driving cars will rarely park. Instead, they will circulate in cities between passengers. Multi-storey car parks could be turned into homes. Domestic garages and driveways may be turned into green space or living rooms.

• Out-of-town pubs and restaurants could enjoy a boom. No need for a sober designated driver if the car is doing the driving.

• City and suburban streets will be reclaimed. Over half of their width is taken up with cars parked for days on end. Children could use the liberated space to play and their parents to socialise.

• Ugly road signs and lines will become a thing of the past. Autonomous cars do not need them. The cityscape and rural views will be improved.

• We will have more spare time — an extra 50 minutes a day typically, according to a McKinsey study.

• Autonomous car operators will be imaginative. Cars could come equipped as a gym, cinema or bedroom.

• The cost of personal transport will plummet, according to Barclays, from between $1 and $1.60 a mile to as little as 8 cents a mile.

• Transport could even be free. When you book a ride in a self-driving taxi and accept ads played at you, the cost could reduce to zero.

• The tipping point, says Mr Hamilton, will come when there is a 70 per cent take-up of self-driving vehicles.

But there will be downsides

• Hacking will be a menace. Individuals will try to dismantle their cars' software, causing accidents. Organised hackers and terrorists will seek to cause large accidents. ·Chaos will ensue when autonomous car operators fail to charge their cars sufficiently and run out of power on busy roads. But self-driving cars will be better at negotiating their way around stalled vehicles.

• Thrill-seekers could play an updated game of chicken, in which they run in front of a self-driving car to see if it uses its superhuman reaction time to swerve into a lamp post. ·If the cost of going a block or two by car is negligible — or zero — fitness and health could decline.

• With travellers free to drink and be driven, alcohol and drug consumption could soar. ·Local councils and national government, stung by diminishing parking and traffic fine revenues, will try to make transport expensive again with taxes per mile travelled.

• The media will go nuts for the first 20 or so years about every accident, however minor, involving a self-driving car, even if they currently ignore the global 1.25m deaths and 20-50m injuries on the roads.

The grey areas

• Trains could be doomed. What is the point when cars and lorries can combine to make what is effectively a train on virtual tracks, with each driver enjoying their own space?

• While city car parks will be more productively re-purposed, unattractive out-of-town brownfield sites could become vast recharging parks where autonomous cars go for power and servicing through the night.

• There will be a boom in out-of-town racetracks for people to drive fast and take risks in manually driven cars.

• Being late to a meeting “because of traffic” will be over as an excuse.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.When will the self-driving cars be navigating public roads in US, UK and Finland according to Google's prediction?

A.2018

B.2020

C.2022

D.2025

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which one is not right about car parks and self-driving cars in the future?

A.They are an urban eyesore

B.Domestic garages and driveways may be turned into government land

C.Self-driving cars will rarely park

D.Multi-storey car parks may be turned into homes

答案⁽²⁾

3.How much is the cost of personal transport per mile with autonomous cars according to Barclays?

A.8 cents

B.$1

C.$1.60

D.$8

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one of the following is not belong to the grey areas?

A.Trains could be doomed.

B.There will be a boom in out-of-town racetracks for people to drive fast and take risks in manually driven cars.

C.The media will go nuts for the first 20 or so years about every accident.

D.Being late to a meeting “because of traffic” will be over as an excuse.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.2020
解释：汽车制造商、包括谷歌(Google)在内的技术公司以及议员们预测，到2020年，自动驾驶汽车将会在美国、英国和芬兰等国家的公共道路上行驶。

(2)答案：B.Domestic garages and driveways may be turned into government land
解释：停车场在城市中显得碍眼，但如果拥有汽车的人逐渐减少，它们存在的日子将屈指可数。自动驾驶汽车很少会停车。相反，它们将会巡游在城市里接送乘客。多层停车场可能转变为住宅。家里车库和私家车道可能转变为绿地或起居室。

(3)答案：A.8 cents
解释：巴克莱(Barclays)表示，个人交通成本将会大幅下降，从每英里1美元至1.60美元降至微不足道的每英里8美分。

(4)答案：C.The media will go nuts for the first 20 or so years about every accident.
解释：媒体将会发疯似的报道头20年左右与自动驾驶汽车有关的每一起事故，无论事故多小，这是属于不利的一面。

压力之下，谷歌：我们改！

谷歌在多家公司拒绝再使用其广告平台的压力下，于这周公开向其广告客户道歉。此前谷歌称由于上传视频量过大无法对广告投放进行，但似乎各大品牌对这个辩解并不接受。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

proactive有前瞻性的，先行一步的；积极主动的[prəʊ'æktɪv]

pledge保证；抵押；保证，许诺[pledʒ]

incendiary煽动的；放火的，纵火的[ɪn'sendɪərɪ]

commentary评论；注释；评注；说明['kɒmənt(ə)rɪ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

2分50秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分42秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分56秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分40秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Google apologises to advertisers for extremist content on YouTube（407 words）

By Madhumita Murgia and David Bond

Google's European operations boss has publicly apologised to its advertisers after a growing crisis over extremist content on YouTube led big companies such as Marks and Spencer and Havas to freeze their Google ads.

Speaking at the Advertising Week Europe conference in London, Matt Brittin, Google's president of business and operations in the region, said: “We apologise. Whenever anything like that happens, we don't want it to happen and we take responsibility for it.”

Despite the public apology, he repeatedly refused to answer questions on whether Google would start proactively policing content on its platforms.

Last week, a Times investigation revealed that ads sponsored by the UK government, as well as companies such as Sainsbury's and L'Oréal, were displayed alongside inappropriate content on YouTube.

These included videos filmed by American white nationalist David Duke, banned Egyptian preacher Wagdy Ghoneim and fundamentalist Christian pastor Steven Anderson, who has praised the murder of gay people.

Mr Brittin was sharing the stage on Monday with Keith Weed, chief marketing officer of Unilever, one of Google's biggest ad spenders globally.

Mr Weed said that while it was right that technology groups such as Google and Facebook were being held to account, the whole advertising industry needed to take action. “We need to smarten up,” he said.

Google said it would make changes to its ad policies, as well as how it controls and enforces appropriate advertising on its platforms.

Specifically, Google pledged it would exercise more control over where ads were placed and be better at reviewing questionable content. Further details were expected later this week.

Currently, Google only reviews content that is flagged as inappropriate by its users. It cites the huge volume of video uploaded on to YouTube — 400 hours every minute — as the reason why it does not police all the content on its platforms proactively.

About 98 per cent of content flagged on YouTube is reviewed within 24 hours, according to Google. “We know we can do even more here,” Mr Brittin said, adding that Google was investing in new ways to handle complaints faster.

Mr Brittin also said Google was looking to modify the controls it gave to advertisers and agencies, making it easier and simpler for companies to control exactly where their ads appeared.

Google also plans to rewrite its policies on videos and sites allowed for advertising, for example by raising the bar for videos considered to contain incendiary commentary and hate speech.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Whose video uploaded on Youtube is not recogised as inappropriate content?

A.American white nationalist David Duke

B.American president Donald Trump

C.Egyptian preacher Wagdy Ghoneim

D.Christian pastor Steven Anderson

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who also need to take action besides Google?

A.The clients of Google and Facebook

B.Youtube viewers

C.Youtubers

D.The whole advertising industry

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the reason Google claims that they couldn't police all the content on Youtube?

A.They don't have a standard to police the content

B.They have huge volume of video uploaded everyday

C.They don't have a standard to police the content

D.They hope these videos would attract more viewers

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is not Google planning to do next?

A.Modify the controls it gave to advertisers and agencies

B.Rewrite its advertising policies on videos and sites

C.Invest in new ways to handle complaints faster

D.Stay the same

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.American president Donald Trump
解释：被认为是不适宜内容包括由美国白人种族主义者David Duke，受到英国政府禁令的埃及传教士Wagdy Ghoneim和极端天主教牧师Steven Anderson（他认为杀死同性恋者是正确的）等人上传的视频。

(2)答案：D.The whole advertising industry
解释：Mr Weed指出，除了像谷歌和脸书这样提供广告平台服务的科技公司需要采取行动之外，整个广告行业也应有所举措。他说：“我们要变得聪明一些”。

(3)答案：B.They have huge volume of video uploaded everyday
解释：对于为何只审查用户举报的视频，谷歌方面表示，由于youtube平台上的视频上传量太大——每分钟就有总计400小时长的视频上传，他们没有办法对所有的内容都进行检视。

(4)答案：D.Stay the same
解释：谷歌表示他们正在开发更快处理举报的方法，也同时考虑修改在其网站上投放广告的相关政策同时对其广告客户对广告投放的控制方法给予改善。

饮食app真的有用吗？

越来越崇尚健康饮食的今天，不少人手机上都有监控饮食习惯和食物热量摄取的应用软件。然而这些app真的有用吗？会不会在将来某一天会成为孩子们提高智力、老人们抵抗衰老的小帮手？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

correlation相关[,kɒrə'leɪʃ(ə)n]

disciplinary规律的；训练的；训诫的['dɪsɪplɪn(ə)rɪ] altercation争执[ɒltə'keɪʃ(ə)n]

sodium [化学] 钠（11号元素，符号 Na）['səʊdɪəm]

neuroscience神经系统科学（指神经病学、 神经化学等）['njuːrəʊsaɪəns]

cognitive flexibility认知灵活性

alzheimer老年痴呆症['ælz'ɛmɚ]

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

8分23秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

4分3秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

3分45秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

1分0秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Wanted: dietary research for apps to beat dementia and make us smarter（1209 words）

By Sarah Murray

Many apps exist to monitor fitness and food intake — but might they one day be used to help us choose foods that can help to combat mental decline in old age or improve children's academic performance?

The amount of study in these areas has increased in recent years, says Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, professor in the departments of neurosurgery and integrative biology and physiology at University of California, Los Angeles. “We can now pinpoint very specific effects.”

When it comes to children, for example, strong links emerge between nutrition and academic performance.

“There's a pretty high correlation with having breakfast and being able to perform cognitively during the school day,” says David Just, co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics in Child Nutrition Programs at Cornell University.

He says studies have found that students participating in the United States Department of Agriculture's school breakfast programme achieved better grades and standardised test scores than those who did not.

Having enough to eat also affects children's behaviour, says Prof Just: “Being hungry is highly associated with disciplinary problems, suspension and altercations with other students.”

In addition, certain behavioural problems in children, including fighting and decreased concentration spans, are associated with specific foods, such as caffeinated products or sugary drinks.

“A lot of the snacking policies, particularly for pre-school and younger grades, are being designed to curb behavioural problems,” says Prof Just. This usually means removing snacks high in sugar, saturated fats and sodium from vending machines.

Work is also being carried out to find links between different types of foods and brain performance at an older age. Researchers at the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, for example, are studying links between nutritional intake and cognition and brain health in older adults.

“Ageing isn't uniform and you have different rates of decline of cognitive function, but we think you can use particular nutrients to mitigate some of those [ageing] effects,” says Marta Zamroziewicz, a researcher at the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory.

Ms Zamroziewicz says her team's work includes research on how combinations of nutrients — as opposed to individual ones — affect the brain, and sees a potential role for more advanced uses of technology.

One of the laboratory's findings is that certain nutrients — including omega 3, polyunsaturated fats and phosphatidylcholine, a combination of nutrients found in foods such as egg yolk and some red meats — are linked to a slower decline in “cognitive flexibility”, the ability to switch between tasks.

“Groups of nutrients might have more impact on the brain,” she says. “So if you could have an application that tells you which foods have certain patterns of nutrients, that would be great.”

UCLA's Prof Gomez-Pinilla adds that research is also providing insights into what not to eat. “We found that fructose [the form of sugar commonly used in processed foods] enhances many pathways that are related to diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's,” he says. “So the idea is that consuming too much of this in the long term can increase the risk of many of these disorders.”

Prof Just believes that a logical step would be to design apps that, like those that already exist to help people make healthier dietary choices, would direct them towards foods that improve brain function. However, apps need underlying data to support them and more research needs to be done to identify the effects of specific foods on the brain before they can be developed.

Prof Just says: “We need to understand better what's needed in a diet for academic performance.”

And Ms Zamroziewicz says: “It's very, very, early stages of this work and the idea that particular nutrients might influence specific features of brain ageing is relatively new.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the effect of food intake on children?

A.Nutrition taken from food may affect their academic performance and behavior

B.The more they eat, the smarter they are

C.Some ingredients may cause diseases

D.High sugary food is better for their health

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What kind of food is NOT associated with behavioral problems?

A.Saturated fats

B.High sugary food

C.Caffeinated products

D.Red meat

答案⁽²⁾

3.Nutrients found in egg yolk and some red meats are linked to what?

A.Alzheimer's

B.The ability to switch between tasks

C.Aging problems

D.Parkinson's

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the problem health apps are facing if they want to help people improve brain function?

A.Technical problems related to software developments

B.More research are needed to identify the effects of specific foods on the brain

C.More investments are needed for design

D.User attractiveness

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Nutrition taken from food may affect their academic performance and behavior
解释：David Just的研究表明，早餐和儿童的成绩有直接的练习，而食物中的特定营养成分会影响孩子们的在校表现。

(2)答案：B.The ability to switch between tasks
解释：高脂肪，高糖和含咖啡因的饮食都可能对儿童平时的表现产生影响，打架和注意力不集中都可能是饮食不正确的表现。

(3)答案：B.The ability to switch between tasks
解释：蛋黄和一些红肉含有的omega 3等成分有助于减缓老年人认知灵活性的衰退。

(4)答案：B.More research are needed to identify the effects of specific foods on the brain
解释：Just教授指出，要想设计能够知道人们健康饮食提高大脑机能的应用需要大量的数据支持和更多对于营养摄取和大脑机能之间关联的研究成果。

The End

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Table of Contents

书名页

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目　录

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.11

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用意大利菜偷走法国人的胃

留欧之路尚存一线生机

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中国“奶奶黑帮”获刑

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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.12

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长寿的高昂代价

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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.13

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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.14

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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.15

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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.16

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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.17

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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.19

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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.20

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