英国《金融时报》

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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集（七）

英国《金融时报》 出品

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目　录

1. 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.61

1. 谷歌被指控“反向歧视”

2. 黑客盯上平昌冬奥会

3. 被政治正确抛弃的工人阶级白人

4. 不爱机器人的旧金山

5. “精灵宝可梦”即将登陆中国

6. 100岁的人生意味着什么？

7. 什么是“文化精英病”？

8. 面对性骚扰，你该怎么办？

9. 新时代的防灾指南

10. 令人纠结的爷爷奶奶

2. 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.62

1. 假新闻催生新商机

2. “用脚投票”拯救Twitter

3. 阿片类药物致美国预期寿命下降

4. 当他们遭遇特朗普

5. 陷入困境的H&M

6. 该不该信任用户评分？

7. 性骚扰者：一句道歉有多难？

8. 不知所云的年度流行色

9. 日本公司的招聘战争

10. 藏在房间里的DNA黑客

3. 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.63

1. 政客对我们隐瞒了什么？

2. 夸张的“俄罗斯威胁论”

3. 职场上的“秘密妈妈”

4. 梅根·马克尔：改写故事的灰姑娘

5. 勾人的算法和脆弱的孩子

6. 星巴克在上海开设烘焙工坊

7. 泰姬陵陷入“身份危机”

8. 留学生成为英国的新财富

9. 俄罗斯世界杯——普京的乌龙球？

10. 枪支问题惹怒美国年轻人

4. 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.64

1. 不太宜居的“智慧城市”

2. 谁能证明自动驾驶汽车的安全？

3. 机器人去哪了？

4. 不再时髦的塑料瓶

5. 欢迎来到未来的学校

6. 为什么时装这么丑？

7. 如何成为办公桌艺术家？

8. 金钱买得来好形象吗？

9. “双十一”：购物狂欢与消费革命

10. 《弗兰肯斯坦》与现代人的恐惧

5. 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.65

1. 泰勒·斯威夫特的声誉管理课堂

2. 基因才是精英学校的真相

3. 解决垃圾邮件的绝招

4. Uber车祸带来的反思

5. 数字时代的我们需要拉丁语

6. 城市需要富人和穷人

7. 外语让人更明智？

8. 不再独特的年轻人

9. 被遗忘的互联网清洁工

10. 离心离德的科技巨头

6. 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.66

1. 纪梵希的小黑裙传奇

2. 男人进化论

3. 你的学历价值几何？

4. 电子游戏的性别问题

5. 花样滑冰丑闻与特朗普的崛起

6. 自动驾驶的愿景与现实

7. 握手就好，别来吻我

8. 另类右派赢得美国“表情包战争”

9. 呼之欲出的30小时工作周

10. 不安的年轻人改变英国经济

7. 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.67

1. 武装教师——特朗普式狂想

2. 寻找真正的硅谷

3. 该向拖延说再见了

4. 美式橄榄球的种族分裂

5. 费德勒还是罗纳尔迪尼奥

6. 全民基本收入为何行不通？

7. 索尼机器狗Aibo重出江湖

8. 向“义理巧克力”宣战

9. 超级碗收视率继续下跌

10. Spotify是否重塑了流行音乐？

8. 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.68

1. 行将就木的美国特色医保

2. 京东进军欧洲挑战亚马逊

3. 被忽视的致命疾病

4. 硅谷的流水线创业家

5. 硅谷初创公司的无人快递竞赛

6. 巨星公司的崛起

7. 不堪一击的网络红人

8. 戒掉手机，就像戒烟那样

9. 为了工作而“洗白”？

10. 扎克伯格的Facebook是如何失控的？

9. 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.69

1. 癌症早诊断的代价

2. 科技公司面临信任危机

3. 自动驾驶汽车：交通工具还是武器？

4. 失落的男性时尚偶像

5. 德国“仇恨言论”禁令引争议

6. 日本少女组合为虚拟货币发声

7. 网红狗成为广告界新星

8. 北京“雾霾战争”成效显著

9. 朝鲜的“隐士经济”

10. 办公室放音乐，你准备好了吗？

10. 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.70

1. “数据天后”的雅虎之路

2. 缅甸崛起？

3. “经济价值”是个什么玩意儿？

4. 高盛之“罪”

5. 俾斯麦的教训

6. 死不认账的CEO

7. 比财政紧缩更好的选择

8. 怎样避免危机循环？

9. 领导们的恐吓战术

10. 像亚洲人一样爱机器人

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集

Vol.61

谷歌被指控“反向歧视”

2017年8月，谷歌员工James Damore因质疑公司优待女性和少数群体的政策而遭解雇，一时引起轩然大波。当此事逐渐淡出人们视野之时，James Damore和另一名前谷歌工程师声称自己因身份和政治观点受到谷歌歧视，一纸诉状将谷歌告上法庭。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

bout [baʊt] n. 来回（一次）

engulf [ɪn'ɡʌlf] v. 吞没

rally ['ræli] n. 集会，示威运动

ostracise ['ɒstrəsaɪz] vt. 放逐，排斥

belittle [bɪ'lɪtl] vt. 轻视，贬低

chamber ['tʃeɪmbə（r）] n. 房间，会所

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54秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分37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24秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Google accused of discriminating against white male conservatives （407 words）

By Richard Waters

Google has been hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging discrimination against conservative-minded white men, in a legal case that threatens a fresh bout of the culture wars that engulfed the internet company last summer.

The suit has been brought by James Damore, an engineer who was sacked in August after his questioning of Google policies to increase the hiring of women and minorities caused an outcry inside the company. It also names a second engineer, David Gudeman, who has also claimed wrongful termination after leaving the company in 2016. The company did not immediately have a response to the suit.

Since leaving Google, Mr Damore has spoken out widely against the company, attacking it for what he calls “groupthink” over gender and other diversity issues. His case became a rallying point for conservatives last year at a time when cultural battles stirred by President Donald Trump were intensifying nationally.

The class action lawsuit, filed in superior court in California on Monday, was brought on behalf of all employees whom Google is alleged to have discriminated against either because of “their perceived conservative political views… their male gender… [or] their Caucasian race”.

The lawsuit claims that there is “open hostility for conservative thought” at the company and that people who diverge from the mainstream are singled out for expressing views on subjects such as diversity hiring policies, bias sensitivity and social justice.

Employees are “ostracised, belittled and punished for their heterodox political views, and for the added sin of their birth circumstances of being Caucasians and/or males”, the suit alleges. It accuses Google of being an “ideological echo chamber” that is hostile to some workers, and of maintaining illegal hiring quotas for women and minorities. The suit will move forward only if a judge certifies it as a valid action on behalf of an entire class of workers.

Mr Damore was dismissed by Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive, after writing an internal memo questioning the company's diversity policies. His paper was widely circulated and aroused a backlash inside Google. But his treatment brought an outcry from conservatives who saw Mr Pichai's reaction as an attack on open discussion of an important social issue.

Among the allegations, the lawsuit claims that “the presence of Caucasians and males was mocked with ‘boos' during company-wide weekly meetings” at Google.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why did James Damore get sacked by Google in August?

A.Because he criticised heterodox political views in an memo.

B.Because he openly criticised Google's recruitment policy.

C.Because he made negative comment on female colleagues.

D.Because he questioned Google's diversity policies.

答案(1)

2.What did Mr Damore do after leaving Google?

A.He stirred a cultural battles over diversity issues.

B.He attacked Google's stance on gender and diversity.

C.He joined in President Donald Trump's rally.

D.He became an activist in favour of Donald Trump.

答案(2)

3.Google is alleged to have discriminated against employees based on the following factors except ____.

A.Christian beliefs.

B.Caucasian race.

C.Conservative thought.

D.male gender.

答案(3)

4.According to the article, Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai ____.

A.Tries to stifle debate over diversity issue in the campany.

B.Mocks Caucasians and males during weekly meetings.

C.Expressed open hostility for conservative political views.

D.Keeps silent over Mr Damore's law suit against the company.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.Because he questioned Google's diversity policies.

解释：八月，James Damore在一份内部备忘录中质疑谷歌增加雇用女性和少数族裔的政策，引起轩然大波，并因此被解雇。

(2) 答案：B.He attacked Google's stance on gender and diversity.

解释：离开谷歌之后，Damore广泛地发表了批评谷歌的言论，抨击谷歌在性别及其他多元化问题上的“群体审议”。

(3) 答案：A.Christian beliefs.

解释：谷歌被指控歧视白人、男性以及持保守观点者。

(4) 答案：D.Keeps silent over Mr Damore's law suit against the company.

解释：目前谷歌并没有立即对此诉讼作出回应。

黑客盯上平昌冬奥会

将于下个月召开的平昌冬奥会已经成为了黑客组织的目标。有迹象表明，这场来势汹汹的网络攻击很可能与朝鲜有关。朝韩板门店会谈在即，平昌冬奥会将会成为这次会谈的核心话题。这一届冬奥会能逃过一劫吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

hallmark ['hɔːlmɑːk] n. 特征，特点

détente [deɪ'tɑːnt] n. 缓和，缓和期间

generic [dʒə'nerɪk] adj. 一般的，普通的

myriad ['mɪriəd] adj. 无数的

wreak [riːk] vt. 发泄；报仇

havoc ['hævək] n. 大破坏，混乱

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14秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分48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27秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Winter Olympics targeted by hackers, McAfee says （453 words）

By Hannah Kuchler

Hackers have targeted an attack at organisations involved in the Winter Olympics next month and tried to access sensitive information about the upcoming games in South Korea, according to a report by a cyber security company.

McAfee discovered a hacking campaign that ran from December 22 that it believes has the hallmarks of “a nation state adversary that speaks Korean”. But the company would not attribute the attack, as it is continuing its investigation.

The report comes as North Korea agreed to hold high-level talks with South Korea as part of an emerging detente. The talks next week will be the first between the two nations for two years and will focus on the North's potential participation in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Targets from ice hockey teams to ski suppliers were sent an email purporting to be from South Korea's national counter-terrorism council. It contained a malicious document that if enabled would create a hidden back channel inside their computer for hackers to exploit.

Ryan Sherstobitoff, a senior analyst at McAfee, said the hackers cast a wide net, including emailing generic addresses such as those beginning “info@” and it appeared that at least one of the recipients was infected by the malicious document. Once inside the network, a hacker may be able to gather more information.

“Theoretically, if they get into the network hosting the Pyeongchang email network for the Olympics, they have any number of possibilities moving inside. It depends where the networks are connected — to specific teams, committees, planners at a high level,” he said.

Mr Sherstobitoff warned the Olympics may suffer from more cyber attacks, as major events attract hackers from nation states and cyber criminals.

The Berkeley Center for Long Term Cyber Security issued a report last year on the myriad ways hackers could try to undermine future Olympic Games, including adjusting automatic scoring, interfering with the care of athletes and disrupting events.

The US blamed North Korea for last year's WannaCry cyber attack that wreaked havoc across organisations worldwide including the UK National Health Service and delivery company FedEx. The country's hackers were also accused of being behind the destructive attack on Sony Pictures in 2014, as the studio prepared to release The Interview, a movie that mocked the North Korean leader.

McAfee said the hackers used a more sophisticated method than your average spearphishing attack, installing malicious software without making the victim download a file which would often be flagged to a security programme.

These fileless malware attacks using Microsoft Powershell are becoming an increasingly popular tactic, with the number of attacks more than doubling in the third quarter of last year, McAfee said.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is McAfee according to the article?

A.A criminal investigation against cyber attack.

B.South Korea's counter-terrorism council.

C. A computer security software company.

D.National Cybersecurity Institute of the US.

答案(1)

2.How did the hackers get into computer systems?

A.They sent malicious document to their targets by emails.

B.They sent malware to counter-terrorism council by emails.

C.They created a fake web page of counter-terrorism council.

D.They created a hidden back channel inside their emails.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following events has no relation to North Korea?

A.WannaCry cyber attack.

B.The Sony Pictures hack.

C.Attack on Olympics email network.

D.2017 Petya cyberattack.

答案(3)

4.According to McAfee, the hackers ____.

A.are commissioned by South Korean government.

B.used a entirely new method to attack its targets.

C.are more imperceptible than average attackers.

D.have agreed to negotiate with olympic committee.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.A computer security software company.

解释：McAfee是一家网络安全公司。

(2) 答案：A.They sent malicious document to their targets by emails.

解释：他们的目标包括冰球队到滑雪用具供应商等。他们以韩国国家反恐委员会的身份给目标发邮件，邮件中包含恶意文件。

(3) 答案：D.2017 Petya cyberattack.

解释：McAfee认为针对平昌冬奥会电子邮件网络的袭击带有“一个说韩语的对手国家”的特点；美国指责朝鲜应为去年的WannaCry网络攻击负责。2014年，朝鲜黑客被指责攻击索尼电影。

(4) 答案：C.are more imperceptible than average attackers.

解释：McAfee说，黑客使用的方法比一般的网络钓鱼攻击更复杂，他们的恶意软件无需通过下载文件来安装，通常会被标记为安全程序。

被政治正确抛弃的工人阶级白人

工人阶级白人之所以会投靠民粹主义者，是因为民粹主义者给了他们久违的尊重。既然政治正确最基本的诉求是平等地尊重所有群体，那么我们就不该遗忘工人阶级白人。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

chasten ['tʃeɪsn] vt. 改正、磨炼

anodyne ['ænədaɪn] n. 止痛药，安慰物

pummel ['pʌml] v. 接连地打，打击

visceral ['vɪsərəl] adj. 内脏的，发自肺腑的

apartheid [ə'pɑːtaɪt] n. 种族隔离

denizen ['denɪzn] n. 居民，栖息者

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59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44秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

We need to start being PC about the white working class （749 words）

By Simon Kuper

When I started university in Britain in 1988, political correctness didn't exist. If a woman tried to speak at a students' meeting, the cry would go up, “Get your tits out for the lads!” The ritual climax of bar conversations was a double entendre about homosexuality. But, in 1993, I went to study in the US and discovered PC.The American students I met didn't make racist, sexist or homophobic jokes. When I returned home and told British friends about this strange new world, they explained that it was because Americans were humourless. This wasn't actually true. The Americans were much funnier than the Brits with their eternal gay jokes.

The attempt to shut out any views deemed undesirable has since got out of hand on some US campuses. On recent visits I have found the policing of speech chastening. One liberal, male, feminist professor told me of a fairly anodyne analysis that he didn't dare publish for fear of being hounded as sexist. Even many liberals now want to roll back PC speech codes.

But, in fact, PC's basic demand — respect all groups — needs to be rolled out more widely. We now have PC for women, and racial and sexual minorities. If we had it for the working classes, too, that could change the political climate.

TV programmes in western countries rightly don't make fun of blacks, gays or Jews any more, but the white working class （WWC） enjoys no such protection. A genre of “poverty porn” TV mocks the WWC as wasters enjoying their morning beers on the sofa.

The WWC are known as chavs in Britain, canis in Spain and “white trash” in the US. Chav-based fancy-dress parties — a distant relative of “blackface parties” — enjoyed a brief fad among British students. Prince William attended one while at his military academy, Sandhurst, as Owen Jones recounts in Chavs, his 2011 book on the demonisation of the working class in Britain.

But the WWC are excluded more often than they are insulteD.They get screened out of elite settings based on their accents, first names, clothing, diet, schools, geographical origins （“flyover states”） and sometimes even their body weight. “Diversity” — a PC mantra of American and British elites — doesn't seem to include WWC people. If they do get recruited, they often get paid less.

Many in the WWC feel that the elite pays respect to every minority except theirs. The fuss made on Fox News and in the Daily Mail over an imagined “war on Christmas” is, in part, a demand for respect for the WWC's cultural traditions. For years, when the WWC was recognised as a group pre-Trump and pre-Brexit, it was often just to be accused of enjoying “white privilege” — not something they feel they've had much of lately.

Many WWC people now vote populist not because they are racists, nor because they imagine the populists will magically solve their problems, but because populists give them respect while simultaneously dissing the snobs. When Trump goes on about the virtues of steelworkers, he sounds like a Russian revolutionary in 1917. Meanwhile he pummels the PC non-WWC media.

Trump won't bring back the old steel jobs. But he knows that winning elections nowadays isn't about “the economy, stupid”. It's about language. This is one thing liberals can learn from him. Hillary Clinton's pro-WWC policies counted for nothing after she called some of Trump's voters “deplorables”.

Respect matters. Mandela understood this viscerally, because respect was one thing apartheid denied to black people. He built a political strategy on respecting his opponents. While jailed for 27 years by Afrikaners, he learnt their language, studied their history and ended up persuading them to give him the keys to South Africa.

Mandela also showed us what a realistic, modern, working-class PC could look like. Hardly any working-class people today are steelworkers. Far more of them work as carers, cleaners and cashiers. Mandela grasped that. As South African president, he would stand up if the tea lady walked into his room, and remain standing until she left. In jail, he had shown equal courtesy to his WWC guards: Mandela's respect was race-blind.

Once, in London, he visited the offices of the PR firm handling South Africa's account. He said a cheery hello to the firm's directors, who were lined up at the front door to receive him, but he then continued down the corridor, walked into the porters' room and greeted the surprised denizens like long-lost friends. It will take a politician like that to win back the WWC.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is political correctness according to the article?

A.The racist, sexist or homophobic jokes which are deemed undesirable.

B.The attempt to avoid offensive views on particular social groups.

C.The policing of speech chastening in on some American campuses.

D.The social taboo against women, and racial and sexual minorities.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following is not an offensive term for white working class ?

A.Chavs.

B.Canis.

C.White trash.

D.Flyover class.

答案(2)

3.Many WWC people vote for populist because ____ ?

A.they believe populists can solve their economic problems.

B.they think populists would respect their cultural traditions.

C.they feel respected by populists while liberals disparage them.

D.they believe populists can bring their white privilege back.

答案(3)

4.Why did Hillary Clinton fail to win WWC's support ?

A.Because her pro-WWC policies cannot earn WWC's trust.

B.Because she used offensive term as an affront to WWC's dignity.

C.Because she mocked the WWC as wasters in TV programme.

D.Because she showed unequal courtesies to WWC and liberals.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.The attempt to avoid offensive views on particular social groups.

解释：我在1993年前往美国求学，并了解到了政治正确。

(2) 答案：D.Flyover class

解释：工人阶级白人在英国被称为chavs，在西班牙被叫做canis，美国人称他们为“白色垃圾”。

(3) 答案：C.they feel respected by populists while liberals disparage them.

解释：很多工人阶级白人投票给民粹主义者，因为民粹主义者在给予他们尊重的同时羞辱了那些自命不凡者。

(4) 答案：B.Because she used offensive term as an affront to WWC's dignity.

解释：如今，赢得大选与经济无关，但与言辞有关。当希拉里将特朗普的支持者称作“可悲的人”时，她那些针对工人阶级白人的政策已经不重要了。

不爱机器人的旧金山

作为众多科技巨头和创业公司的所在地，旧金山常常被视为科技创新的圣地。但近年来，在旧金山，无论是官方还是民间对新兴科技的敌意都在不断增加，其中首当其冲的便是机器人。为什么旧金山不爱机器人？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

antipathy [æn'tɪpəθi] n. 憎恶，反感

innocuous [ɪ'nɒkjuəs] adj. 无害的，无毒的

droid [drɔɪd] n. 人形机器人

deploy [dɪ'plɔɪ] vt./vi. 展开，配置，部署

roam [rəʊm] vi. 漫游，闲逛

encampment [ɪn'kæmpmənt] n. 设营，野营

vandalism ['vændəlɪzəm] n. 故意破坏，破坏行为

squalor ['skwɒlə（r）] n. 肮脏，脏污

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40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52秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How San Francisco turned against robots （654 words）

By Leslie Hook

San Francisco's anti-tech backlash has a new target: robots. This is a place that ought to love artificial intelligence. After all, Silicon Valley is home to some of the most advanced robotics labs in the worlD.But when it comes to sharing its sidewalks with these technological wonders, San Francisco has said, “Forget it.”

The city recently cracked down on delivery robots — autonomous devices such as those tested by Yelp's Eat24 service last year, that travel on the sidewalk to distribute food and other essentials to customers. New rules limit them to a speed of 3mph, and require a human operator nearby. Moreover, only nine delivery robots can be tested in the city at any time, dashing the hopes of start-ups that had envisioned fleets of self-driving bots taking hot pizza to hungry millennials.

Like many Silicon Valley innovations, the robots have found their least welcoming audience at home. In fact, several of the city's most prominent start-ups have faced some of their toughest opposition here.

Take Airbnb, the accommodation company. In 2016, San Francisco passed a law on home-sharing that was so restrictive, Airbnb sued the city over it. （That lawsuit has been settled, but all Airbnb hosts in SF must still obtain a business licence and registration before they can let their homes.） The same goes for Uber and Lyft: city leaders routinely lambast them for causing congestion and double parking. More than half of all traffic violations in the downtown area are attributable to Uber and Lyft drivers, according to a police study.

Amid this broader antipathy towards tech, robots have come to occupy a special place of loathing in San Francisco. An incident in December highlighted the depths of the city's dislike.

It began innocuously, with an animal shelter in a high-crime area paying for a robot “security guard” to help monitor its campus and the surrounding streets. The 5ft, 400lb droid takes photographs and records video footage, and has the ability to summon human help when it detects unusual activity. Made by Knightscope, a start-up based in the Valley, this autonomous device is most commonly deployed to roam parking lots and malls. （One even fell into a mall fountain earlier this year, prompting an internet outpouring over the robot who “drowned himself”.）

The pet shelter initially reported good results from the security robot, with fewer car break-ins. However, controversy arose over its powers of surveillance, and at one point it was kidnappeD.Unknown assailants covered the robot with a tarp and smeared barbecue sauce on its sensors to block them. The president of the pet shelter at first alleged the perpetrators came from a nearby homeless encampment but later said she wasn't sure.

News of the kidnapped robot spread, and the town quickly took aim at the pet shelter, accusing it of deploying a robot to keep its homeless neighbours away. The shelter received “hundreds of messages inciting violence and vandalism against our facility”, it said in a statement. The city of San Francisco weighed in too, threatening to fine the shelter for operating the robot on public sidewalks without a licence. To quell the outrage, the shelter sent the machine back to its manufacturer.

There are several lessons to draw from this tale. First, the issue of homelessness never fails to spark controversy in San Francisco, where the squalor of the public streets is in stark contrast to the wealth that exists behind closed doors.

The second is that it is easier to blame the robot. Instead of asking why the neighbourhood has become so dangerous that a pet shelter should need protection, it's more convenient to target a machine.

The third lesson is that robots do not have a home-court advantage in San Francisco. The opposite is true. After the crackdown, robots will not be delivering pizza, and security droids will become scarcer. The robots will still serve one purpose, though — as a scapegoat for problems whose roots are all too human.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.According to the new rules, delivery robots in San Francisco ____.

A.can be tested in the city at fixed times.

B.are not allowed to deliver food.

C.can only travel on the sidewalk.

D.must work with a human operator.

答案(1)

2.Why does the author mention Airbnb in the fourth paragraph?

A.To explain why delivery robots are not welcomed in San Francisco.

B.To prove San Francisco is an unfriendly place for technical innovations.

C.To argue robot start-ups should obtain a business licence and registration.

D.To suggest robot companies sue San Francisco over the strict regulations.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following statements about the robot security guard is true ?

A.They can alert the manager automatically in an emergency.

B.They are made by the self-driving start-up Yelp in 2016.

C.The pet shelter use the security robot to keep tramps away.

D.The shelter gave up security robot under pressure from the public.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards robots ?

A.Optimistic.

B.Skeptical.

C.Supportive.

D.Restrained.

答案(4)

(1) 答案： D.must work with a human operator.

解释：新的规定将他们的速度限制在每小时3英里以下，并且必须有操作人员在旁边。

(2) 答案：B.To prove San Francisco is an unfriendly place for technical innovations.

解释：事实上，旧金山一些最着名的创业公司都在本土遇到了最强硬的反对，比如Airbnb。

(3) 答案：D.The shelter gave up security robot under pressure from the public.

解释：为了平息愤怒，救助站把机器送还了制造商。

(4) 答案：C.Supportive.

解释：作者批评旧金山对技术创新的消极态度，认为机器人成了人类问题的替罪羊。

“精灵宝可梦”即将登陆中国

通过与网易公司的合作，Niantic终于能将他们的重磅之作“精灵宝可梦”带到中国市场。但这只是他们野心的一小部分。未来，他们将会继续为中国玩家带来更多作品，甚至是为中国量身定做的作品。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

orbit ['ɔːbɪt] n. 势力范围，轨迹

acquisition [ˌækwɪ'zɪʃn] n. 获得；购置物

franchise ['fræntʃaɪz] n. 特权，特许经销权

gimmick ['gɪmɪk] n. 暗机关，小发明

secretive ['siːkrətɪv] adj. 秘密的；偷偷摸摸的

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

4分45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54秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

‘Pokémon Go’ finally set to land in China （665 words）

By Tim Bradshaw

Pokémon Go is finally set to make its debut in China after its developer Niantic struck a partnership with local games company NetEase.

Alongside a new Harry Potter game, the company says launching in the world's largest mobile market will help it return to growth after revenues dropped in 2017, compared with the Nintendo-backed game's blockbuster debut a year earlier.

“In 2016, our hair was blown back by the launch and the after-effects of the [Pokémon Go] launch,” John Hanke, Niantic's chief executive, told the Financial Times in an interview.

“Revenues [in 2017] were not as high as they were in 2016 for the year but they were very strong.”

Pokémon Go's sudden surge in popularity in the summer of 2016, when hundreds of millions of people downloaded the app, “really felt like a SpaceX launch”, he said, referring to Elon Musk's rocket company.

But, Mr Hanke added, many of those users had stopped playing by the end of the year, leaving a smaller but “solid” community of Pokémon Go gamers who saw more regular updates and new features in 2017. These included real-world weather affecting the virtual gameplay.

“I would say 2017 was about firing the second stage and getting into a stable orbit,” he said, continuing the rocket metaphor. “2018 is about the journey to Mars.”

Niantic's fuel for that voyage is a new $200m funding round from investors including NetEase, providing the partner that the US company needed to launch legally under Chinese internet regulations.

“We absolutely intend to bring our existing games into China,” Mr Hanke said, without disclosing a launch date. “Beyond that, there are opportunities to build games in China, both for China and for the world.”

The next big game Niantic has announced is based on the Harry Potter franchise. Mr Hanke said Niantic teamed up with Warner Bros to develop a title for the series because — like Pokémon Go — it is a “real rarity” that has the potential to appeal “across generations”, to women as much as men and to players all over the world.

Harry Potter also lends itself well to the augmented reality format that Niantic popularised with its original hit game, by inserting virtual objects into the real world as seen through the lens of a smartphone camera.

“The ‘muggle’ world and the wizarding world are only separated by this thin veil,” Mr Hanke saiD.“It's very easy for us to imagine bringing that kind of magic into our everyday lives… It would be much harder to bring a convincing Star Wars game into AR in any way that is not just a gimmick.”

The Harry Potter game is scheduled for release in the second half of 2018. Since Pokémon Go's sometimes chaotic debut — during which servers were overloaded by demand, causing recurring service outages — Niantic is “so much better positioned” now, Mr Hanke said.

The lessons from Pokémon Go were not just technical, though.

“In terms of dealing with public locations, government policy, regulations and public reaction to people being out in the real world [playing its games], we have built up our expertise there,” he said, so that in-game hotspots that cause real-world problems can be removed or changed.

Many analysts tip 2018 to be a turning point for the augmented reality industry. Apple, Google, Facebook and Snap have all released new platforms for developers to create AR experiences in recent months.

Magic Leap, the secretive Google and Alibaba-backed start-up, also plans to release a “creator edition” of its long-awaited AR goggles in 2018.

Apple's ARkit technology was added to Pokémon Go in late December, allowing for more realistic positioning of its monsters on the street around the player and adding new gameplay features, such as having to sneak up on characters in order to catch them.

“We wished we had been able to do that at the very beginning of Pokémon Go,” Mr Hanke saiD.“That was always the vision but it wasn't as convincing as we would have liked it to be — it didn't really feel like they were part of your world.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.When did Niantic launched its blockbuster game Pokémon Go worldwide?

A.In 2014.

B.In 2015.

C.In 2016.

D.In 2017.

答案(1)

2.Why does Niantic's revenues stop growing in 2017 ?

A.Many users no longer play Pokémon Go in 2017.

B.Pokémon Go's user community is not solid enough.

C.Real-world weather affects Pokémon Go's performance.

D.Niantic adds few new features in Pokémon Go.

答案(2)

3.Niantic has struck a partnership with ____ to release the Harry Potter game in 2018.

A.NetEase.

B.Nintendo.

C.Warner Bros.

D.Magic Leap.

答案(3)

4.Which new element has been added to Pokémon Go recently ?

A.Magic Leap's AR goggles.

B.Apple's ARkit Technology.

C.Facebook's AR platform.

D.Real-world weather effect.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.In 2016.

解释：Niantic与任天堂合作的重磅游戏首发一年后，公司2017年的利润下滑。

(2) 答案：A.Many users no longer play Pokémon Go in 2017.

解释：Hanke先生表示，2016年夏天Pokémon Go的突然走红就像是SpaceX 的火箭发射，但他又说，很多用户在年底之前就不再玩了。

(3) 答案：C.Warner Bros.

解释：Niantic宣布他们的下一个大制作是与华纳兄弟公司合作的哈利波特游戏。

(4) 答案：B.Apple's ARkit Technology.

解释：12月底，Pokémon Go加入了苹果公司的ARkit技术。

100岁的人生意味着什么？

如果预期寿命继续增长，越来越多的人会活到一百岁以上。一百岁的人生意味着什么？我们会有不同的生命阶段，不同的教育体系，不同的职业生涯，也会在退休后面临更多挑战。事实上，这些改变已经开始了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

tedium ['tiːdiəm] n. 单调乏味，沉闷

conscious ['kɒnʃəs] adj. 自觉的，有意的

grumble ['grʌmbl] v. 发牢骚，抱怨

vocational [voʊ'keɪʃənl] adj. 职业的

brutish ['bruːtɪʃ] adj. 残忍的，野蛮的

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40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16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

How to live to 100 and be happy （794 words）

By SIMON KUPER

A baby born in the west today will more likely than not live to be 105, write Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott of London Business School in their crucial new book, The 100-Year Life. That may sound like science fiction. In fact, it's only cautiously optimistiC.It's what will happen if life expectancy continues to rise by two to three years a decade, its rate of the past two centuries. Some scientific optimists project steeper rises to come.

If turning 100 becomes normal, then the authors predict “a fundamental redesign of life”. This book shows what that might look like.

We currently live what Gratton and Scott call “the three-stage life”: education, career, then retirement. That will change. The book calculates that if today's children want to retire on liveable pensions, they will need to work until about age 80. That would be a return to the past: in 1880, nearly half of 80-year-old Americans did some kind of work.

But few people will be able to bear the exhaustion and tedium of a 55-year career in a single sector. Anyway, technological changes would make their education obsolete long before they reached 80. The new life-path will therefore have more than three stages. Many people today are already shuffling in that direction.

Two new life-stages appeared in the past century: teenagers and retirees. Now another stage is emerging, say Gratton and Scott: the years from 18 to 30, which people increasingly spend transitioning from education to full-time work. Of course, many of today's young have no choice: they simply cannot find good jobs. But the 18-to-30s have also been quickest to understand the gift of extra years, say the authors. Many young people are now consciously searching and experimenting, working out how they want to spend the next seven or so decades. They don't want to let life just happen, as it tended to for previous generations. Today's parents, who grew up expecting shorter lives, should stop grumbling that 18-to-30s won't “commit”.

Already the young are studying longer. The authors predict that more will do two degrees: first a general undergraduate course, which teaches thinking skills with lifelong value, and then a more specific vocational degree that teaches a specific sector's current needs. After studying, the young will spend time travelling, exploring different sectors, and assembling a “posse” of friends and acquaintances who can sustain them at work and outside for 70 years. Instead of building old-fashioned CVs, people will build reputations on social media.

Future careers will contain many transformations. Lives will have fourth, fifth, even sixth acts. People will have to make more choices: next year, should you work flat-out in your job, return to education to learn new skills, or transition to an entirely new sector? There will be time to achieve mastery in multiple domains. No longer will women be denied careers because they took five or 10 years out to raise kids. That will still leave them 50-plus working years. Older people, especially, will develop portfolio careers. The trick will be to keep finding work that robots cannot do.

And people will change their use of leisure. When you could expect a 40-year career followed by fat state or corporate pensions, you could spend your free time chilling and buying stuff. But the 100-year life requires more saving. You might also need to spend much of your non-working time reskilling or exercising to maintain your body and brain for those extra decades. If that doesn't come naturally, the authors have a tip: picture your 80-year-old self sitting by your side, tut-tutting each time you scarf a doughnut or book an expensive holiday.

Longer life can come as a shock, especially to those of us in midlife. We started work thinking we'd be done by about 60, and dead at 75. But now my generation can expect to retire at perhaps 75, and live to 90. The thought of having to do your current job for another 30 years can be daunting. In any case, many of us will be pushed out in our fifties. Some people （not me obviously!） may also need second or third marriages to take them through to 90.

In the 100-year life, age groups will mix much more than they do now. There will be more old people taking undergraduate degrees, or doing junior jobs as they descend rather than climb the corporate ladder. Many kids will grow close to their great-grandparents.

Most of this is to the gooD.Crucially, most of the years of life gained in recent decades have been healthy ones. But the book warns that the 100-year life could become the preserve of the well-off. Already the rich outlive the poor, and they will be better equipped to reskill and change careers. Poor people could face 60 years of dead-end jobs in the gig economy, followed by death at 80 without a pension. A life like that, say the authors, is “nasty, brutish and long”.

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 statements is true about our life expectancy?

A.Most babies born in the west today will be more likely to live to 105.

B.Some scientific optimists predict our life expectancy will rise sharply.

C.Our life expectancy will continue to rise by two to three years a decade.

D.Turning 100 will become normal and people will develop new life-path.

答案(1)

2.People will develop a new life stage to ____.

A.take extra five or 10 years out to raise kids.

B.achieve mastery in multiple domains.

C.complete a more specific vocational degree.

D.transition from education to full-time work.

答案(2)

3.According to the author, which of the following will probably not happen in the future?

A.Young people find it diffcult to find good jobs.

B.Women give up their career to look after thier children.

C.People transition to entirely new sectors frequently.

D.People can spend more time on expensive holidays.

答案(3)

4.This passage appears to be a digest of ____.

A.A book review.

B.A news report.

C.A science fiction.

D.A research paper.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.Some scientific optimists predict our life expectancy will rise sharply.

解释：如果人们的预期寿命保持每十年增加两年至三年的速度，就像过去的两个世纪一样，这样的事就会发生。而一些科学乐观主义者预测我们的寿命会增长得更快。

(2) 答案：D.transition from education to full-time work.

解释：过去的一个世纪，人们有了两个新的生命阶段：青春期和退休后。如今，18到30岁之间的新生命阶段正在出现。越来越多人在这段时间里完成从教育到全职工作的过度。

(3) 答案：B.Women give up their career to look after thier children.

解释：人们将会有时间精通多个领域。女性不会因为花费五到十年养育孩子而告别职场。

(4) 答案：A.A book review.

解释：本篇文章围绕《The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity》一书展开。

什么是“文化精英病”？

文化精英眼中的自己是受过高等教育，愿意为一个更美好的新世界而奋斗的人。但在其他人看来，这些精英们总是一边把平等挂在嘴边，一边享受着奢侈的生活方式、炫耀自己的地位，并坚信社会上无处不在的不平等绝对不是自己的错。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

despise [dɪ'spaɪz] vt. 轻视

antithesis [æn'tɪθəsɪs] n. 对照, 正相反

fetish ['fetɪʃ] n. 神物，护身符

titbit ['tɪtbɪt] n. 珍品,趣闻

meritocracy [ˌmerɪ'tɒkrəsi] n. 精英制度

hereditary [hə'redɪtri] adj. 世袭的, 遗传的

abhor [əb'hɔː（r）] vt. 憎恶, 厌恶, 痛恨

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11秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分16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

Sexual harassment at work: a practical guide for victims （798 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, 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 per cent 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. 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. 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 Professor Currid-Halkett's book The Sum of Small Things about?

A.Using consumption data to introduce the life style of cultural elite.

B.Describing how consumerism has influenced the aspirational class.

C.Criticizing the extravagant life style of American cultural elite.

D.Introducing the restructuring of the pattern of consumption in the US.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about the cultural elite is true?

A.Most cultural elites are among the top 10 per cent of American earners.

B.They spend 27 times more on clothes and fitness than less educated people.

C.Not all cultural elites are rich, but they they suffer less economic anxiety.

D.They have strong sense of responsibility to fight the omnipresent inequality.

答案(2)

3.According to Currid-Halkett, which of the following can be seen as inconspicuous consumption?

A.Hiring nannies to care for babies.

B.Going on an African Safari.

C.Purchasing luxury handbags.

D.Renting luxurious houses.

答案(3)

4.Trump voters think the cultural elite are people who ____.

A.subscribe New Yorker to feed their brains and status.

B.spend much money to propel their children upwards.

C.proclaim their goodness instead of improving the world.

D.live a life of privilege but love to talk about equality.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.Using consumption data to introduce the life style of cultural elite.

解释：南加大公共政策教授Currid-Halkett将这些文化精英称为“有志阶层”，她在《The Sum of Small Things》中用迷人的美国消费数据来进行分析。

(2) 答案：C.Not all cultural elites are rich, but they they suffer less economic anxiety.

解释：并不是所有的“精英”成员都富有。他们所受的教育是他们的保险，无论收入如何，与年长者或受教育程度较低的人相比，他们更少感到经济焦虑。

(3) 答案：A.Hiring nannies to care for babies.

解释：文化精英最擅长Currid-Halkett所说的“低调消费”——钱花在看不见的地方。

(4) 答案：D.live a life of privilege but love to talk about equality.

解释：文化精英眼中的自己与批评者眼里了截然不同。在特朗普支持者眼里，这些人总是谈论着平等，却同时享受着特权并不断流露出鄙视。

面对性骚扰，你该怎么办？

遇到职场性骚扰，你该怎么办？忍气吞声并不能解决问题，向上司报告又存在潜在的风险。怎样才能最大化地保护自己的利益？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

demarcation [ˌdiːmɑː'keɪʃn] n. 划界，限界

banter ['bæntə（r）] n. 戏谑，嘲弄

litigation [ˌlɪtɪ'ɡeɪʃn] n. 诉讼，起诉

perpetrator ['pɜːpətreɪtə（r）] n. 犯人，作恶之人

intimidate [ɪn'tɪmɪdeɪt] vt. 威胁，恐吓

tribunal [traɪ'bjuːnl] n. 法院，法庭

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33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49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

Sexual harassment at work: a practical guide for victims （639 words）

By Financial Times

What is sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment is a broad term that may include a range of offensive language and conduct, such as nasty or demeaning jokes and comments; sexually suggestive pictures on display; unwelcome touching, and/or demands for sexual favours.

In the US, says Nina Frank of Outten & Golden's sexual harassment and sex discrimination practice group, there are two categories of sexual harassment: “Quid pro quo （‘Sleep with me and I'll promote you’） and hostile work environment （general sexual comments/touching/jokes）. It is not uncommon for both to be present.”

There is no such demarcation in the UK, says Kiran Daurka, a partner at Leigh Day. “The legal definition according to the Equality Act 2010 is any unwanted conduct of a sexual nature or related to sex, which has the purpose or the effect of violating dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.”

She adds: “Harassment need not be targeted at an individual — so a sexist discussion between colleagues may be offensive [or] intimidating for someone who overhears it and may amount to harassment. It is also unlawful to treat someone less favourably because they rejected or submitted to the unwanted conduct. Calling comments ‘banter’ is not a defence to harassment.”

What should I do if I am being harassed?

Ms Daurka suggests four steps:

• Talk to someone outside work whom you trust to provide you with support. You may also wish to consider making a report to the police.

• Make a note of what happened as soon as possible after the event — if you can email it to yourself from your private email account, that provides you with a date of the note.

• Review your employer's harassment policy and contact HR or an appropriate manager to report the incident as soon as possible.

• Consider seeking legal advice within three months of the incident in case matters are not resolved within work.

Reporting sexual harassment has risks and benefits, says Kathleen Peratis, a partner at Outten & Golden. “Ignoring it usually doesn't end well. Reporting triggers your employer's duty to investigate, and can protect you later if you experience retaliation for complaining.”

She advises consulting a lawyer to discuss your options. “Except in rare circumstances, don't resign — and certainly not without advice of counsel. Resignation can negatively affect your rights.”

What will happen?

The ideal outcome is for the grievance to be thoroughly and fairly investigated, and the harasser dealt with through disciplinary procedures. “Ideally the solution needs to be found outside litigation, and this requires robust harassment policies, trained staff to deal with complaints, and action taken to address the complaint that doesn't result in the victim being gagged and removed from the workplace,” says Ms Daurka.

She adds: “Some employers may seek to sweep matters under the carpet by separating the person who has reported the harassment into a different part of the workplace, without proper action against the perpetrator.”

An alternative might be to offer the victim a settlement with a confidentiality agreement, which would prevent claims from being brought and would probably end the employment relationship, Ms Daurka notes.

Make sure you are not intimidated into signing a draconian agreement that does not protect or serve your best interests. Seek legal advice before signing one.

Retaliation from your employer is illegal but common, according to Ms Frank. “Sometimes a retaliation claim is stronger and easier to prove — and settle — than the original sexual harassment claim.”

The harasser is probably not going to be fired, says Ms Peratis. “Many employers say they have a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment but, in our experience, very few employers walk the walk.”

In the UK, a claim for sexual harassment at an employment tribunal is possible if started within three months of the harassment. The claimant can keep their anonymity.

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 can be seen as sexual harassment?

A.Aggressive yelling or shouting.

B.Recruitment discrimination.

C.Spreading misinformation.

D.Unwarranted physical contact.

答案(1)

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

A.Quid pro quo is the most common sexual harassment in the US.

B.There is no clear classification of sexual harassment in the UK.

C.In the UK, sexual harassment is often targeted at an individual.

D.Quid pro quo refers to general sexual comments and jokes.

答案(2)

3.Kathleen Peratis advises victims of sexual harassment to ____.

A.contact HR to report the incident as soon as possible.

B.make a report to the police and seek legal advice.

C.talk to someone you trust to provide you with support.

D.consult a lawyer about how to tackle the situation.

答案(3)

4.According to Mr Daurka, what is the ideal outcome of a sexual harassment?

A.The victim settles with the harasser by signing a draconian agreement.

B.The harasser is retaliated by the employer and get fired immediately.

C.The incident is dealt outside litigation with disciplinary procedures.

D.The employer separates the victim into a different part of the workplace

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.Unwarranted physical contact.

解释：性骚扰是一个广泛的术语，可能包括一系列冒犯的语言和行为，比如低俗或贬低的玩笑和评论，展示带有性暗示的图片，未经允许的肢体接触，或要求性服务。

(2) 答案：B.There is no clear classification of sexual harassment in the UK.

解释：在美国，性骚扰分为两类，一类为有偿骚扰，另一类为恶劣的工作环境，但英国没有这种分类。

(3) 答案：D.consult a lawyer about how to tackle the situation.

解释：Kathleen Peratis称，报告性骚扰既有风险也有好处。她建议咨询律师来讨论可能的选择。

(4) 答案：C.The incident is dealt outside litigation with disciplinary procedures.

解释：解决这种不满最理想的方法是进行彻底而公平的调查，并按照纪律程序处理骚扰者。Daurka表示：“理想的情况下，这种事件无需诉讼便可解决。”

新时代的防灾指南

历史证明，人类总是无法预见近在眼前的浩劫。当我们认为自己生活在平安、稳定的天堂时，灾难就会突然不期而至。在黑天鹅事件蠢蠢欲动的当下，我们该如何学习过去的教训，预测即将到来的灾难？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

ethnic ['eθnɪk] adj. 民族的，种族的

fallible ['fæləbl] adj. 易错的，可能犯错的

forestal [fɔː'stɔːl]l vt. 领先，先发制人

banality [bə'næləti] n. 平凡，陈腐

exploit [ɪk'splɔɪt] v. 开发；利用

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5秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分51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42秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How to avert catastrophe （714 words）

By SIMON KUPER

When Nassim Nicholas Taleb was a teenager in Lebanon in 1975, an ethnic civil war broke out. Locals were baffleD.They had thought they lived in a “stable paradise”. Once the unforeseen catastrophe began, even Taleb's grandfather, the deputy prime minister, “did not seem to know what was going to happen any more than his driver, Mikhail”, wrote Taleb in his 2007 classic, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.

In 1940, when Daniel Kahneman was a Jewish boy living in Paris, the Germans invaded France. Kahneman's family decided to stay put. Then came the Holocaust. While the family was in hiding, Kahneman's father could not get treatment for his diabetes, and dieD.Kahneman was left wondering why humans fail to foresee catastrophe.

Black Swan has just been reissueD.Almost simultaneously, Michael Lewis has published The Undoing Project, about Kahneman's intellectual collaboration with fellow psychologist Amos Tversky. Both books share an argument: people make bad judgments and terrible predictions. It's a timely point. The risk of some kind of catastrophe — armed conflict, natural disaster, and/or democratic collapse — appears to have risen. The incoming US president has talked about first use of nuclear weapons, and seems happy to let Russia invade nearby countries. Most other big states are led by militant nationalists. Meanwhile, the polar ice caps are melting fast. How can we fallible humans avert catastrophe?

Today's elites are often mocked for failing to foresee the financial crisis of 2008 but, in fact, such blindness is standarD.In 1914, few people expected the first world war: the historian Niall Ferguson has shown that bond prices held up that summer, meaning that investors didn't foresee higher government borrowing. Forecasters also missed the Holocaust, China's Cultural Revolution and September 11.

Our western generation is particularly ill-equipped to foresee catastrophes, because our countries have hardly experienced any since 1945. （We tend to forget our various close shaves with nuclear war, accidental and otherwise.） Now we are like Taleb's famous turkey. Every day, he gets fed by a nice farmer. The turkey's risk analysts make a forecast: based on past trends, he will keep getting fatter. Then, just before Thanksgiving…

How not to be that turkey? Taleb has some tips:

• You can't know which catastrophe will happen, but expect that any day some catastrophe coulD.In Tversky's words: “Surprises are expected.” Better to worry than die blasé. Mobilise politically to forestall catastrophe.

• Don't presume that future catastrophes will repeat the forms of past catastrophes. The only catastrophes we seem able to imagine are ones that have happened before. After September 11, the US re-engineered itself to prevent another September 11.Now the cliché is that we're back in the 1930s. Even Donald Trump, complaining about US intelligence agencies, asked, “Are we living in Nazi Germany?” However, we need to expand our imaginations. The next catastrophe may take an unprecedented form.

• Don't follow the noise. Terrorist attacks and Trump's tweets are spectacular. But some catastrophes unfold silently: climate change, or people dying after they lose their jobs or their health insurance. （The financial crisis was associated with about 260,000 extra deaths from cancer in developed countries alone, estimated a study in The Lancet.）

• Ignore banalities. Most westerners instinctively tune out serious news because they have learnt that it rarely affects their lives. In the US in particular, so-called “TV news” is, in fact, entertainment. It fixates on “stories” such as Trump's spat with the actor Meryl Streep. But these distractions have become dangerous. We now need to stretch and bore ourselves with important stuff.

• Strengthen democratic institutions. The only western state designed specifically to ward off catastrophe is the Federal Republic of Germany. Unelected German judges are charged with defending the constitution against the people, if necessary. By contrast, France now exists under an endless state of emergency. If Marine Le Pen becomes president in May, she'll have a fairly free hand.

• Listen to older people who have experienced catastrophes. Taleb notes that elephant tribes often rely on elderly females to assess threats.

• Be conservative. Many Americans hope Trump will “shake things up”. As Noam Chomsky says, the risk is that he will. Often it's smarter to maintain a flawed status quo. In Taleb's words: “Don't mess with complex systems, because we don't understand them.”

Stock markets hit all-time highs after Trump's election. What could possibly go wrong?

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What does the term Black Swan refer to according to the article?

A.Human's inability to foresee catastrophe.

B.The Holocaust during World War II.

C.The unforeseen catastrophes.

D.Michael Lewis's biography.

答案(1)

2.According to the author, which of the following events increases the risk of catastrophe?

A.Many large countries are led by militant nationalists.

B.US president talked about invading nearby countries.

C.North Korea threatened to use nuclear weapons.

D.The polar ice caps have been gradually collapsing.

答案(2)

3.The western generation is particularly incapable of foreseeing catastrophes because ____.

A.they often mock elites for for failing to foresee the financial crisis.

B.they are used to tuning out serious news and ignoring its danger.

C.they have hardly experienced any catastrophes in their life.

D.they are firmly convinced that they are living in a stable paradise.

答案(3)

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

A.We can foresee future catastrophes by studying past catastrophes.

B.Serious news are boring but we have to pay much attention to it.

C.We need to give special attention to prevent terrorist attacks.

D.German is the only country which is fully equipped for catastrophes.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.The unforeseen catastrophes.

解释：Taleb在他2007年出版了著作《黑天鹅：不可能事件的影响》。

(2) 答案：A.Many large countries are led by militant nationalists.

解释：出现某些灾难的风险正在增加。美国总统已经提起过使用核武器，并对俄罗斯入侵邻国无动于衷。世界上其他大国大多被好战的民族主义者领导着，同时，极地的冰川正在迅速融化。

(3) 答案：C.they have hardly experienced any catastrophes in their life.

解释：我们这一代西方人预见灾难的能力尤其不足，因为我们的国家自1945年以来几乎没有经历过大的灾难。

(4) 答案：B.Serious news are boring but we have to pay much attention to it.

解释：大多数西方人会本能地忽视严肃新闻，因为它们很少影响到我们的生活。这种漠视变得很危险。

令人纠结的爷爷奶奶

研究显示，溺爱的老人往往会给孩子带来许多额外的健康风险。但另一方面，老人的参与不仅能帮家里省下一大笔育儿经费，对儿童的心理健康也有正面作用。要不要让老人照顾孩子？这是一个难以抉择的问题。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Misdemeanour n. 坏事，轻罪 /ˌmɪsdɪ'miːnə（r）/

indulgentadj. 纵容的，任性的 /ɪn'dʌldʒənt/

synthesise v. 合成 /'sɪnθəsaɪz/

tailspin n. 失控，不景气 /'teɪlspɪn/

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52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

1分57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

In defence of the ‘killer grannies’（683 words）

By Emma Jacobs

When a friend came downstairs one morning to discover his son dressed for school and tucking into breakfast, only one thing soured the scene of domestic bliss: the boy was breakfasting on crisps.

Why was his child munching from a pack of cheese and onion at 7.30am, he asked his father-in-law, who lives with the family. The question was batted away. “Because he asked,” came the reply.

My friend sees these transgressions as a glitch in an otherwise brilliant deal: free childcare on tap. Such grandparental misdemeanours are far from unique.

Another friend turns a blind eye to the telly-watching marathons and the block of butter in every meal because she's “so grateful for the help”.

A report published this week found that indulgent grandparents who are involved in their grandchildren's care may be having a negative effect on their health.

The University of Glasgow study, which synthesised research on grandparents' influence, found there is an increase in the risk factors linked with cancer — diet, obesity, lack of activity and exposure to tobacco.

Researchers also noted that there was conflict within families because parents felt unable to raise objections to the grandparents' care as they needed the support. Parents did not know how to discuss the issue. Keeping a grandparent in line is far harder than dealing with an underperforming paid employee.

The subsequent headlines that suggested “killer grannies” were force-feeding their sofa-bound grandkids sent Gransnet, the community forum for grandparents, into a tailspin.

“We baby-boomers are being blamed for something else,” one complaineD.“Last time it was our fault that houses were so expensive. Rise up Grannies and Grandpas and fight back!”

They have a point. Only this week, Sajid Javid, the UK communities minister, ticked off selfish “baby-boomers who have long since paid off their mortgage” with “no understanding” of the modern housing market.

Mess with the grandparent army at your peril. The grey-haired footsoldiers are everywhere — wheeling toddlers around supermarkets, pitching up at playgroups, congregating at the school gates. Without their help the global economy would grind to a halt. In recognition of their role, the UK government plans to change the rules on shared parental leave to include grandparents.

But all too often, says Maeve Thompson of Grandparents Plus, a UK charity, policy tends to focus on formal childcare and overlooks the influence grandparents can have on children's lives.

One grandmother I know arrives every morning before the kids wake up to get them ready for school so their parents can do a two-hour commute to the office. A grandfather of a neighbour used to travel down from the north of England to London every week to look after his toddler grandchild for two days. He did this for his scientist son and daughter-in-law to be able to continue their careers.

Such grandparents enable parents to shave much-needed money off astronomical childcare bills. This is something I know all too well. When I totted up how much my own mother saves us in childminder fees, it came to more than £2,000 a year.

I am hardly alone. A report this year found that grandmothers and grandfathers save parents £16.1bn each year in formal childcare costs, about £1,786 per family.

The toll on the grandparents of all this extra work might be too much. As one person who works with the retirees confided: “A lot of grandparents have planned retirement without predicting they would look after a two-year-old.”

In the BBC2 comedy Motherland, one grandmother is so sick of nannying she hides behind the sofa to escape the school pick-ups.

Yet if it works, these grandchildcare arrangements can be great. The friend who wilfully ignores her daughter's binge-telly sessions does so not just because she is grateful for the childcare, but because her mother and daughter have such an easy, loving relationship. Her daughter can tell her grandmother things that she would prefer not to tell my friend.

Ann Buchanan, senior research associate at the University of Oxford, points out “the key issue is that grandparent involvement is associated with better mental health in grandchildren”. This may translate to better outcomes at school and resilience that can stretch into adolescence.

Let's not panic just yet. The grandkids are all right. Even if their cornflakes are occasionally served with a side order of ice-cream.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why do many parents turn a blind eye to grandparental misdemeanours?

A.Because they are unable to bear the cost of formal childcare.

B.Because they feel unable to raise objections to their children' demand.

C.Because they are unaware of the negative influence of grandparents.

D.Because they feel utterly grateful for grandparents' childcare.

答案(1)

2.University of Glasgow's research found that ____.

A.Grandparents can bring children many risk factors linked with cancer.

B.Parents did not know how to discuss health issue with their children.

C.Grandparents who are involved in childcare may led to conflict within family.

D.Children brought up by grandparents are more likely to suffer from cancer.Because they are unable to bear the cost of formal childcare.

答案(2)

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

A.Baby-boomers have no understanding of modern childcare practices.

B.Grandparents help to save over £2,000 in formal childcare costs per family.

C.The UK government plans to place a higher value on grandparents' childcare.

D.A majority of grandparents have grown so sick of nannying their gradchildren.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards grandparents' childcare?

A.Cautionary.

B.Ambivalent.

C.Critical.

D.Approving.

答案(4)

(1) 答案 D.Because they feel utterly grateful for grandparents' childcare.

解释：另一位朋友选择对孩子边看电视边吃饭和饭里的黄油块视而不见，因为她“非常感谢他们的帮助”。

(2) 答案 A.Grandparents can bring children many risk factors linked with cancer.

解释：格拉斯哥大学的综合研究考察了对祖父母的影响，发现祖父母照顾的儿童出现癌症相关的风险因素 ——饮食，肥胖，缺乏活动和吸烟的风险增加。

(3) 答案C.The UK government plans to place a higher value on grandparents' childcare.

解释：英国政府计划修改规定，将祖父母包括在共享育儿假之内。

(4) 答案D.Approving.

解释：不必惊慌。孙子孙女们都没事。即使他们吃的玉米片偶尔还带着冰淇淋。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集

Vol.62

假新闻催生新商机

Facebook和Twitter等大型社交媒体公司往往不愿放弃现有的算法和商业模式，因此难以对肆虐的假新闻痛下杀手。这给了创业公司新的机会。一批专门监控、检测虚假信息和不良内容的科技创业公司各显身手，誓与假新闻一较高下。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

nuance ['njuːɑːns] n. 细微差别

phoney ['fəʊni] adj. 假的，伪造的

breach [briːtʃ] n. 裂口，违背

amplify ['æmplɪfaɪ] v. 扩大，详述

trawl [trɔːl] v. 用拖网捕鱼，搜罗

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16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

2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

Start-ups scent opportunity in tackling fake news （738 words）

By Hannah Kuchler

When Adam Hildreth started Dubit, an early social network for children during the last tech boom, he never imagined that he would end up at the forefront of fighting fake news influencing elections.

The teen entrepreneur of 1999 has grown up to become the chief executive of Crisp, trying to apply what he learnt moderating cyberbullying to stop the spread of terrorist content online, and now experimenting with how to combat misinformation campaigns.

Crisp helps brands protect their reputation on social media, using an algorithm to trawl the internet, including the dark web, to understand who is distributing content online.

While large internet companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter struggle to find ways to stop the spread of misinformation online without abandoning their algorithms or business models, smaller start-ups are looking for ways to help clients willing to pay for extra help fighting fake news.

Some such as Crisp or New Knowledge started out fighting terrorism. Others such as Cisco and Digital Shadows are seeing the parallels with cyber security, using tactics developed to defend against hackers to battle against fake news.

“The big challenge is that so much is uploaded every minute,” Mr Hildreth says.

Crisp also helps brands look for anything that could damage their reputation, including real or fake news.

Jonathon Morgan, chief executive of New Knowledge, a start-up based in Austin, Texas, was a professional blogger who became an expert on Isis's use of social mediA.Now he is trying to help companies, political campaigns and social justice organisations understand how online communities can be manipulated.

New Knowledge has seen revenues double in the past six months since it started focusing on misinformation. It uses machine learning technology to identify bots and break down different topics of conversation to spot where people are able to change the language used to discuss a topic, a sign that a community may be changing its beliefs.

Cisco, the networking equipment company with a large cyber security arm, won a Fake News Challenge to design technologies that can help people detect the “stance” of a news article.

Researchers used natural language processing, whereby a computer is taught to understand the nuances of human speech, to detect whether a headline is related to the body of the text because many fake news stories copy the model of clickbait to lure people to visit a website. The team won by combining machine learning techniques, which are inspired by biological processes, including decision trees, a predictive modelling approach.

Digital Shadows, a San Francisco and London-based cyber security company, specialises in understanding what hackers are doing on the dark weB.Companies often turn to the company to monitor if, for example, large databases full of their customer data were for sale, evidence that they have experienced a security breach. It combines technology with threat intelligence analysts, some with military backgrounds and many of whom speak foreign languages.

Alastair Paterson, chief executive of Digital Shadows, says the fake news that was spread during the US election used similar techniques as hacking groups.

“There's an interesting crossover between social media and cyber security right now more than ever before,” he says. “Social networks have so far been very impotent in doing anything about it.”

Digital Shadows counts broadcasters among its clients. For some of the largest organisations, it has identified and issued takedown notices for fake websites and social media accounts in more than 100 separate incidents.

For other companies, it also finds fake domains and social media profiles. It once found an entire phoney arm of a Dutch company that had been set up online.

Distil Networks is another cyber security company with skills that could help solve the problems faced by social mediA.The company specialises in detecting bots, often used to amplify a message in the hope that it trends online.

Edward Roberts, director of product marketing at Distil Networks, says bots are becoming increasingly clever as they learn to evade detection by mimicking human behaviour. “They are pausing on pages for random periods of time, they are clicking through at different rates, they are moving their mouse in less automated ways.”

But he says, it is good that social media platforms have realised they have a problem because they can find ways to identify bots in the same way they tag rogue messages and emails as spam.

“Now today, we rarely see spam, it all goes to the spam folder,” he says. “It is probably not an existential threat they are dealing with.”

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, Adam Hildreth set up ____ in 1999.

A.a social network site for children.

B.an online brand management company.

C.a social media app for children.

D.a London-based cyber security company.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about Crisp is true?

A.Crisp is an Austin-based tech start-up founded by Adam Hildreth.

B.Crisp uses machine learning technology to identify misinformation.

C.Crisp was originally a brand management company based in London.

D.Crisp has started out fighting terrorist content and misinformation.

答案(2)

3.Which company has designed technologies that help people identify a news article's political slant?

A.Digital Shadows.

B.Cisco.

C.Distil Networks.

D.New Knowledge.

答案(3)

4.How does bots manage to evade detection according to Edward Roberts?

A.They learn and imitate human behaviour.

B.They use machine learning technologies.

C.They combine technology with intelligence analysts.

D.They study biological processes to create fake news.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.a social network site for children.

解释：Adam Hildreth在上一次互联网泡沫时创办了儿童社交网络Dubit。如今这位1999年的青少年创业家已经成为了Crisp的首席执行官。

(2) 答案：D.Crisp has started out fighting terrorist content and misinformation.

解释：Crisp试图用缓解网络欺凌的手段来阻止网上恐怖主义信息的传播，现在也在试验如何打击假新闻宣传。

(3) 答案：B.Cisco.

解释：拥有大型网络安全部门的软件公司Cisco设计了一种帮助人检测新闻文章立场的技术，并赢得了“假新闻挑战”。

(4) 答案：A.They learn and imitate human behaviour.

解释：Edward Roberts称假新闻机器人正在变得越来越聪明，他们通过模仿人类行为来逃避检测。

“用脚投票”拯救Twitter

不知从什么时候开始，Twitter变成了一个充满仇恨言论的平台，反犹主义、厌女症、仇穆的言论层出不穷，但Twitter对此置之不理，任其兴风作浪。我们是时候想想办法来解决这种问题了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

hassle ['hæsl] vt. 与…争辩，不断骚扰

repellent [rɪ'pelənt] adj. 排斥的

vicious ['vɪʃəs] adj. 恶毒的，恶意的

misogyny [məˈsäjənē] n. 厌女症

bigotry ['bɪgətri] n. 固执，顽固

impregnable [ɪm'pregnəbl] adj. 无法攻取的

aggregate ['ægrɪgət] v. 聚集，集合

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5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

Become a Qwitter to salvage Twitter （712 words）

By ROBERT SHRIMSLEY

Picture the scene. You walk into a café, a favoured haunt where you often bump into people you know. Perhaps it is on your way to work and where you get your morning coffee and a Danish. It has a great selection of homemade pastries or bacon sandwiches — whatever it is that gets you motoring in the morning.

The café has always attracted a mix of people but you've started to notice a rougher crowD.There's a bit of low grade racial abuse and the women get hassled a bit. A table in the corner is always taken by a few guys mouthing off hardline political views — but it's nothing you wouldn't hear in a taxi.

One day you realise it has become a hang-out for people keen to share their repellent views. The abuse is targeted and vicious. You say something to the manager but he shrugs. Business is business and they are buying cooked breakfasts. “Just ignore them,” he says.

All of which brings me to Twitter. There is so much about it that I love beyond its narcissistic pleasures. Twitter is where I get my coffee and Danish and find out what is going on.

But increasingly I'm aware that the guys at the corner table now occupy half the café. I am most sensitive to the anti-Semitism — the controlling Jewish banker tropes are just everywhere — but the Islamophobia and misogyny is at least as awful.

This week Twitter announced a tightening of its rules — on the day it was savaged by MPs over its failure to remove the most vile posts. On the same day I reported two hateful anti-Semitic posts. Twitter replied that it did not “violate its rules on abusive behaviour”. It suggested I make use of its tools to block, mute and filter.

I could, of course, do this. I could mute and block and filter but this is to make Twitter's problems mine. And Twitter's problems are not mine; they are everyone's. Twitter has become a cancerous cell in society, a place where the most appalling hatred is aired, shared, normalised and cultivateD.A place for bigotry, intimidation and conspiracy theorists, a place where Islamophobic hate can reach and be recirculated by a president; and where decency and restraint is dismissed as snowflakery. So yes, I could mute and block and filter, but then I could go back to my café with a blindfold and earphones.

Even if I were prepared to mute and block, there is still no avoiding the toxic ocean. Decent people share the hate-posts to expose them seemingly unconcerned that this is what the bigots want. On Thursday, a Labour MP tweeted out a nauseating, racist Christmas card sent to Jeremy Corbyn by the British National party. His motives were benign, but when the BNP sends a card to the Labour party leader it does so to get a reaction.

Twitter's response so far has been forced by political pressure and amounts to little more than a cull of some high-profile offenders. It needs users to vote with their feet.

So, I have resolved to step back, to become a Qwitter. It isn't because I cannot cope but because when a company puts the bigots' needs before mine, it loses my business.

The platform — and its advertisers — need to see users disengaging. I am under no illusions. Twitter will cope without me. But if users — especially those with far higher profiles than me — take a stand then Twitter will face its own Gresham's law. The bad will have driven out the good and Twitter will find that advertisers are less keen on its audience profile dominated by angry bigots and political activists. Silicon Valley is littered with the corpses of once impregnable sites.

But how does an addict do this? How does one become a Qwitter without impoverishing oneself. There are sites that aggregate Twitter, but they pay for access to its feeds. The answer, I think, is to become a non-participant. I know myself well enough to believe I will not stop visiting outright, but I can stop tweeting, become an inactive user.

For many addicts this is too high a price to pay, but in the war with the bigots it is them or us. The challenge is to force Twitter to choose.

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 mention the café in the first three paragraphs ?

A.To give an example of targeted and vicious abuse on Twitter.

B.To share his opinion on the regulation of internet abuse.

C.To explain why people like to express their views on Twitter.

D.To indicate how Twitter has become a place for abusive message.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about Twitter's problems is true?

A.Twitter's problems are caused by the lack of rules about abusive behaviour.

B.Twitter's problems will disappear if we use its tools to block hateful posts.

C.Twitter's tools to block hateful posts cannot help to solve its problems.

D.Twitter's response to its problems has irritated some high-profile offenders.

答案(2)

3.What does the author mean by saying “it needs users to vote with their feet”?

A.Twitter needs to see users disengaging.

B.He has decide not to visit Twitter any longer.

C.Twitter needs to set up its Gresham's law.

D.Bad users on Twitter has driven out the good.

答案(3)

4.What does the author intend to do by stopping tweeting?

A.To protect Twitter's users from hateful posts and abusive behaviour.

B.To drive Twitter into bankruptcy by calling on people to boycott it.

C.To declare a war between Twitter and its high-profile users.

D.To ask Twitter to take more effective measures to cope with bigots.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.To indicate how Twitter has become a place for abusive message.

解释：作者在前三段用咖啡店的例子来说明Twitter是怎样被仇恨言论所占据的。

(2) 答案：C.Twitter's tools to block hateful posts cannot help to solve its problems.

解释：我可以用Twitter的工具来阻止并过滤这些信息，但我无法避开整片有毒的海洋。

(3) 答案：A.Twitter needs to see users disengaging.

解释：Twitter和它的广告商需要用户用脚投票。如果用户——尤其是高级用户——也采取这样的方式，Twitter将面临自己的格雷沙姆法则。

(4) 答案：D.To ask Twitter to take more effective measures to cope with bigots.

解释：对于许多对Twitter上瘾的人来说，这么做的代价太过高昂，但这是一场你死我活的战争，我们要迫使Twitter做出选择。

阿片类药物致美国预期寿命下降

在保持了十几年的上升后，美国人均预期寿命近两年连续下降，其罪魁祸首是阿片类药物滥用危机。2016年，美国有近6万4千人死于过量用药。特朗普称阿片类药物滥用是美国人“意外死亡的首要原因”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

prescription [prɪ'skrɪpʃn] n. 药方，对策

morgue [mɔːg] n. 太平间，停尸房

rehabilitation [ˌriːəˌbɪlɪ'teɪʃn] n. 复原

fentanyl ['fentənɪl] n. [药]芬太奴

methadone ['meθədoʊn] n. [药]美沙酮

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39秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分2秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分27秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分30秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

US opioid crisis leads to fall in life expectancy （512 words）

By David Crow

Life expectancy in the US fell for the second year in a row in 2016, fuelled by an opioid epidemic that claimed almost 64,000 lives, according to new government statistics.

It comes as the US is gripped by a drug addiction crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of Americans turn to heroin after first becoming hooked on prescription opioids for pain.

A child born last year is expected to live 78.6 years compared with 78.7 in 2015 and 78.9 in 2014, according to figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention （CDC）.

The declines follow more than a decade of rising life expectancy in the US, and have been caused in large part by a sharp rise in the number of people dying from drug overdoses.

“Deaths from drug overdose are an increasing public health burden in the US,” the CDC said in a set of key findings published alongside the statistics.

The number of drug overdose deaths has soared in recent years, the figures show, climbing to 63,632 last year, compared with 52,404 in 2015. In 1999, the number was 16,849.

The rate of drug overdose deaths in 2016, adjusted for age, was 19.8 per 100,000, a 21 per cent increase on the prior year, according to the statistics.

Policymakers have struggled to cope with the epidemic, which was declared a public health emergency by President Donald Trump earlier this year, with local authorities scrambling to set up addiction and rehabilitation centres, and to expand their morgue capacity to account for a rise in deaths.

The CDC figures paint a bleak picture of a divided country where a person's chance of dying from a drug overdose is closely linked to their gender and where they live.

Rates of overdose deaths are significantly higher for males than females. For men, the rate was 26.2 per 100,000 versus 13.4 for women.

The states with the highest rates of overdose deaths were West Virginia with 52 per 100,000, Ohio with 39.1 and New Hampshire with 39, while Nebraska and South Dakota had rates of 6.4 and 8.4, respectively.

The CDC was particularly concerned by the rate of overdose deaths involving a synthetic opioid such as fentanyl, an extremely potent substance that is often mixed with heroin by drug dealers.

In 2016, the rate of deaths involving synthetic opioids, excluding methadone, was 6.2 per 100,000, compared with 3.1 in the prior year and 0.3 in 1999.

Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration said it was working on a joint proposal with the US Customs and Border Patrol, which would see the agencies ask the Trump administration and Congress for extra funding to combat imports of fentanyl.

Scott Gottlieb, FDA commissioner, said the agency had “taken some steps” to stop fentanyl entering the US through international mail facilities, but it still lacked the resources to cope with the influx.

“We've only brought the number of inspectors up from eight to 21 and the number of packages we inspect from 10,000 to 40,000,” said Dr GottlieB.“Our footprint's still relatively small.”

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 statements is true according to the article?

A.The rate of drug overdose deaths increased by 19.8% in 2016.

B.Life expectancy in the US has been rising for decades until 2016.

C.US life expectancy drops for the second consecutive year in 2016.

D.The number of drug overdose deaths has doubled since 1999.

答案(1)

2.The drug addiction crisis in the US is mainly caused by ____.

A.illegal drug trade.

B.prescription opioids overdoses.

C.medical malpractice.

D.lack of public health services.

答案(2)

3.What measures has President Trump taken to tackle with opioid crisis?

A.He has approved extra funding to combat drug trade.

B.He has expanded morgue capacity in the US.

C.He has set up addiction and rehabilitation centres.

D.He has declared a public health emergency.

答案(3)

4.Which group of people are most likely to be affected by drug overdose deaths?

A.Women in New Hampshire.

B.Children in South Dakota.

C.Males in West Virginia.

D.Patients in Nebraska.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.US life expectancy drops for the second consecutive year in 2016.

解释：2016年美国人均寿命连续第二年下降。

(2) 答案：B.prescription opioids overdoses.

解释：美国正被毒瘾危机所笼罩，成百上千的美国人最初因为阿片类处方药物上瘾，继而转向海洛因。

(3) 答案：D.He has declared a public health emergency.

解释：政策制定者正在努力应对这场毒品危机。今年早些时候，特朗普宣布进入全国公共卫生紧急状态。

(4) 答案：C.Males in West Virginia.

解释：一个人死于服药过量的概率和性别、居住地极为相关。男性服药过量死亡的概率远高于女性。服药过量致死率最高的州是西弗吉尼亚州。

当他们遭遇特朗普

如何与特朗普相处？对于世界各国的领导人来说，和这位喜怒无常、捉摸不透的美国总统打交道都是一个难题。哪些领导人能在和特朗普的交锋中占据上风？又有哪些败下阵来？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

lackey ['læki] n. 仆人，侍从

garrulous ['ɡærələs] adj. 饶舌的，多嘴的

neocon [ni'ːəʊkɒn] n. 新保守主义者

condescension [ˌkɒndɪ'senʃn] n. 屈尊俯就

berate [bɪ'reɪt] vt. 严责

benign [bɪ'naɪn]adj. 仁慈的，温和的

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2秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分49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42秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The world leaders' dilemma: how to reach Donald Trump （707 words）

By SIMON KUPER

Normally, personal relationships between elected leaders scarcely matter. Most leaders follow the briefing books written by their bureaucracy. They pursue long-established national policies. Any talk of personal “chemistry” is usually just gossip.

But it's different with Donald Trump. After a career running a small family company without a board, he doesn't do bureaucracy. He surrounds himself with trusted lackeys. Anyone who manages to get a word in his ear therefore has a good chance of shaping the world's fate.

So far, Trump hasn't bothered much with foreign policy. Moving the US embassy to Jerusalem and leaving the Paris climate accords were chiefly symbolic acts. But that could soon change. His tax bill may prove his last big domestic legislation, especially given his shrunken Senate majority. That will free up more head space to get worked up about foreign issues, from North Korea to Iran. Other western countries therefore face an urgent question — how to influence this man?

After his unexpected election, ambassadors in Washington hastily invited his associates to dinner. But soon after these meals, many of the associates vanisheD.（Remember Rudy Giuliani?）

Foreign officials quickly grasped that Trump's White House is structured like a small family company: only relatives （excluding wives） are unsackable. Justin Trudeau, Canada's prime minister, took Trump's daughter Ivanka to a Canadaphile Broadway play, and Angela Merkel brought her to Berlin for a panel. But the biggest prize for western diplomats is Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband, the so-called “shadow secretary of state”. A French official who was garrulous on all subjects suddenly fell silent when asked to assess Kushner. The subject was too sensitive.

Allies have also staked out Trump's Floridian retreat, Mar-a-Lago. Canada's special asset is former premier Brian Mulroney, who knows Trump from the Florida vacation-home circuit, but everyone can play this game. “Any foreign intel service that doesn't have an agent as a member or employee of Mar-a-Lago is guilty of rank incompetence,” says American neocon writer Max Boot.

Yet western allies still feel out of the Trumpian loop. Talking to the administration's “grown-ups” — defence secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser HR McMaster — only gets them so far: Trump apparently overruled the grown-ups on Jerusalem, for instance. More than in previous US administrations, reaching the president is essential. And the Europeans must reach him without being able to put forward many of the generals, billionaires and autocrats whom Trump admires.

Perhaps Europe's leading Trump-whisperer is Emmanuel Macron, the French president. The best actor-politician since Ronald Reagan, Macron first demonstrated his toughness towards Trump with the famous white-knuckle handshake. Then came France's diplomatic coup: Trump's visit to Paris for July's Bastille Day parade. Macron hosted him without showing a hint of the intellectual condescension to which Trump is so sensitive. When the two men met again in September, Trump spent the first 10 minutes reliving the parade, which he hopes to replicate in Washington next July 4.“And I want horses!” he told his entourage.

The French aren't sure how much this helps them. Trump still dropped out of the Paris accords. At least, they say, Macron can make his case to Trump and be heard.

Merkel and Theresa May wish they coulD.Uncharismatic women who don't live in bling-laden palaces, they can't meet Trump king to king, and they don't play golf. Merkel also suffers, notes Constanze Stelzenmüller of the Brookings Institution, from Trump's disapproval of “bad, very bad Germany” — a phrase he once used in Brussels when complaining to European leaders about the German trade surplus.

Merkel and May are also constrained by their domestic audiences. Whereas French voters tend to have little emotional investment in US politics, most Germans and Brits want their leaders to berate Trump. May has characteristically mishandled this. Days after his inauguration, she visited Washington to hold his hand and ask for a trade deal. She offered him a state visit, which if it ever happens, will prompt a historic demonstration. Her efforts were both pointless and irresponsible. Trump probably won't ever give the UK his advertised “very big & exciting” deal.

Now, with Trump apparently planning to bomb North Korea in the last months before it can hit the US, Europeans are mere spectators. Their best hope of influencing him might be buying commercials on Fox News's morning shows. They can only hope 2018 will be as benign as 2017.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The author believes Trump will start to work on foreign affairs because ____.

A.he is struggling to retain his Senate majority.

B.he failed to push his domestic reform forward.

C.he probably has no further domestic legislation.

D.other western countries are facing urgent questions.

答案(1)

2.According to the article, Jared Kushner is ____.

A.Trump's unsackable Foreign Secretary.

B.Trump's shadow secretary of state.

C.a key role in Trump's family company.

D.an agent and a member of Mar-a-Lago.

答案(2)

3.Who managed to have the upper hand over Trump?

A.Theresa May.

B.Justin Trudeau.

C.Angela Merkel.

D.Emmanuel Macron.

答案(3)

4.In this passage the author mainly argues that ____.

A.Macron is the only European leader who entered the Trumpian loop.

B.uncharismatic female leaders find it hard to get along with Trump.

C.western countries still can't figure out how to get on with Trump.

D.The secret of reaching Donald Trump is to start with his relatives.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.he probably has no further domestic legislation.

解释：税改可能是他最后一项重要的国内立法，尤其是在参议院多数席位不断萎缩的情况下。因此他将有足够多的脑力来关注外交领域。

(2) 答案：B.Trump's shadow secretary of state.

解释：西方政治家收到的最大礼物是贾里德·库什纳，伊万卡的丈夫，所谓的“影子国务卿”。

(3) 答案：D.Emmanuel Macron.

解释：作为自罗纳德·里根以来最好的演员兼政治家，马克龙先是靠着那次著名的握手向特朗普展示了他的韧性。

(4) 答案：C.western countries still can't figure out how to get on with Trump.

解释：他们影响特朗普的最大的可能是在福克斯新闻的早间节目中购买广告。他们只能希望2018年和2017年一样风平浪静。

陷入困境的H&M

曾经世界最大的服装零售商H&M正经历着艰难的时期。销售业绩下滑、营业利润率不断缩水，让这家创立于1947年的家族企业吃尽苦头。该怎样走出困境？或许H&M需要从其他家族企业的管理中获取灵感。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

peril ['perəl] n. 危险，冒险

exploit [ɪk'splɔɪt] v. 开发；利用

disdain [dɪs'deɪn] v. 蔑视

purveyor [pə'veɪə（r）] n. 承办者，散播者

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46秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分59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

The long and short of H&M's travails （695 words）

By RICHARD MILNE

Talk to family-controlled companies and two words are likely to be uttered more than any other: long term. Family businesses like to portray themselves as an antidote to the supposedly short-termist tendencies of listed groups. They say they focus on the future and the mythical long term.

Clothing retailer H&M illustrates the perils of such a claim. The favourite phrase of chief executive Karl-Johan Persson — whose grandfather founded the purveyor of fast fashion and whose father is chairman of H&M — is “healthy, long-term growth”.

Sadly, that is the last thing the Swedish company has been providing recently. Sales in the fourth quarter of its year — until the end of November — fell by 4 per cent, the first such decline in decades. Its share price is half the level of its 2015 peak. H&M's operating profit margin, which was 23.5 per cent in 2007, is now just 9.6 per cent. That is roughly half the level of Inditex, the Spanish owner of the Zara brand which overtook H&M six years ago as the world's largest fashion retailer.

The Swedish group is being squeezed from all sides. The biggest and best-known threat is the internet. Fewer customers are visiting H&M stores. Even though the company became an early provider of online shopping in 1998, it failed to exploit its advantage and has since been outflanked by internet-only retailers.

H&M is also being hit by cheaper clothes retailers. Société Générale analysts estimate that a basket of nine standard products costs half as much at the British chain Primark as at H&M. Some investors now fear that the Swedish retailer is stuck in an “in-between” position, and needs radical change.

That is where the family and long term come in again. Stefan Persson, Karl-Johan's father, owns 71 per cent of H&M's voting rights and his sister is the next biggest shareholder, with 3 per cent.

“We have the right chief executive,” Stefan Persson told a Swedish newspaper last week after the sales decline pushed the share price to an eight-year low.

Much now hangs on H&M's first ever investor day, in February. Previously, the group had disdained such meetings. But with questions swirling over the company's strategy and whether it will have to cut its dividend — its profits this year are all but certain not to cover it — the company is being forced to be more open.

In the background lurks the question over whether the Persson family's long-term focus is stopping it from taking the necessary short-term decisions. H&M has started closing down stores but many high streets the world over boast several of its shops within spitting distance of one another. As Karl-Johan Persson told the Financial Times earlier this year: “For us, even though we are listed with all the pressures we have — it's important to do well in the short term as well — we have always prioritised the long term if the two are in conflict.”

If the Perssons look across Stockholm, they can see one of Europe's most successful and long-term family business empires: the Wallenbergs. Owners of stakes in businesses as varied as Ericsson, SEB, Electrolux and Nasdaq, the Wallenbergs also like to talk about the long term. But they have also shown they are not afraid of making radical decisions. In recent decades, they have sold truckmaker Scania to Volkswagen and stock exchange OMX to Nasdaq. They helped create AstraZeneca and ABB through mergers. Furthermore, they have tried to anticipate threats to their businesses and invested — through their foundations — billions of krone in general research into artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and quantum technology.

Jacob Wallenberg, part of the family's fifth generation, said in a recent interview that the family relied on outsiders: “Maybe people are the single most important ingredient in what we're working with. We can't do everything ourselves. We're dependent on a great group of people that we work very closely with — CEOs, chairmen, board members, etc”.

As the Perssons plot H&M's next step, it is a message worth pondering. Outside investors will be hoping the family not only considers the long term but also makes the necessary tough decisions to shore up the business in the short term as well.

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 statements about H&M is true?

A.H&M's operating profit margin is half the level of its 2015 peak.

B.H&M was the world's largest fashion retailer until six years ago.

C.H&M's sales in the fourth quarter fell for the first time in decades.

D.H&M's operating profit margin is half the level of its opponent Zara.

答案(1)

2.H&M was challenged by internet-only retailers because ____.

A.H&M failed to exploit its advantage in online retailing.

B.Customers largely prefer to visit H&M stores.

C.H&M doesn't prepare itself for the internet age.

D.Internet-only products costs half as much as H&M.

答案(2)

3.What did H&M do to tackle with its problem?

A.They decided to cut its dividend.

B.They held a investor day meeting.

C.They started closing down stores.

D.They started taking short-term decisions.

答案(3)

4.According to the author, what has made the Wallenbergs successful?

A.The right chief executive.

B.The courage to make radical decisions.

C.The fixation on the the long term.

D.A great group of board members.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.H&M was the world's largest fashion retailer until six years ago.

解释：H＆M的营业利润率几乎只有Inditex的一半。Inditex旗下的品牌Zara六年前超越H&M成为世界上最大的时尚零售商。

(2) 答案：A.H&M failed to exploit its advantage in online retailing.

解释：尽管H＆M早在1998年就开始提供线上购物服务，但他们并没能发挥自己的优势，以至于被线上零售商抢走风头。

(3) 答案：C.They started closing down stores.

解释：H＆M已经开始减少门店，但世界各地的许多街道上，H&M的门店依然比邻而居。

(4) 答案：B.The courage to make radical decisions.

解释：瓦伦贝格也喜欢强调长远的利益，但他们同样敢于做出激进的决定。

该不该信任用户评分？

现代社会正在经历信任危机。调查显示，大部分人已对政府、企业、NGO、媒体、银行失去信任。但人们却出奇地相信网上的用户评分。是什么让人们看了Uber、Airbnb等App上的用户评分，就敢大胆地坐上别人的车，进入陌生人家？这种信任机制可靠吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

frenzied ['frenzid] adj. 疯狂的，激怒的

egalitarian [iˌɡælɪ'teəriən] adj. 平等主义的

oversight ['əʊvəsaɪt] n. 监督，照管

roam [rəʊm] vi. 漫游，闲逛，徜徉

implicit [ɪm'plɪsɪt] adj. 含蓄的；内含的

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39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15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

Should we trust our fellow app users more than politicians? （792 words）

By GILLIAN TETT

Last week, I organised a transatlantic trip for the holiday season to visit family and friends. I clicked on Airbnb's website to book a place for a couple of nights （having learnt that it is easier to have a joyous time during the frenzied Christmas season if you have the odd night of privacy）.

Nothing unusual about that, you might think; smartphones are embedded in our lives now, and the use of websites and apps such as Amazon, Airbnb and Uber are, for many of us, habits that have become ingraineD.But reflect for a moment on the cultural patterns that have been created by these apps and you can see that something rather peculiar is happening.

These days we are constantly being told that public trust in institutions is fast eroding, if not collapsing. Since the 2008 financial crisis, for example, trust in banks has slumped, while respect for other types of business leadership has declined, along with confidence in government. A survey of 28 countries by the public relations group Edelman suggests that only 29 per cent of people trust government leaders and only 37 percent trust CEOs.

Even non-governmental institutions are suffering: globally, only 53 per cent trust NGOs, according to Edelman. And as a journalist, there's no room for Schadenfreude: a Pew survey shows that, in the US, 63 per cent of the public have a negative view of the national news media — a higher figure even than the 46 per cent that disapprove of banks.

But not all types of faith have erodeD.One area of our life where trust is high — and rising — is in relation to what sociologists describe as “distributed” trust; processes that require people to trust in their peer group or community, rather than put blind faith in a big institution or somebody of a supposedly superior status.

The numbers from the Edelman survey reflect this: globally, some 60 per cent of respondents said they trusted their peers as a source of advice — far higher percentages than those cited for government officials or corporate executives.

You can see the rise of distributed trust in the popularity of services such as Airbnb and Uber. These work on the basis of community control: people enter a stranger's car or home partly because there is group oversight, peer ratings and an exchange of personal pictures. Bitcoin is similar in some ways, since its value rests on faith in computer code that has been created not in a central bank but by peers — as have the reviews on sites such as Amazon or Expedia.

It's tempting to see this as just one more aspect of the digital economy. But another way to understand this cultural pattern is to use the intellectual framework offered by the business consultant and social analyst Rachel Botsman in her fascinating recent book, Who Can You Trust?

Botsman argues that the rise of sites such as Airbnb means there are now essentially three patterns of trust in the modern worlD.The first of these — the trust that is forged on the basis of face-to-face contact between individuals — is as old as humankinD.This （relatively） egalitarian, or “horizontal”, pattern has predominated in most communities, during most periods of history, gluing together villages, clans and families.

The second type of trust is vertical rather than horizontal, and emerges when a society has institutions such as a royal family, a government or a church that hold it together. This type of trust enables huge groups to collaborate even when they do not know each other.

For Botsman, what makes the digital distributed economy fascinating is that it presents a third category of social glue. This new type of trust relies on peer-to-peer contact, in a fairly egalitarian manner, and on group oversight, which is powerful, since a breach of trust can be punished by creating a sense of shame or exclusion. Yet there is no face-to-face contact, and membership of any community is voluntary.

A cynic might point out that cyber-distributed trust only “works” if there is also some implicit institutional back-up: if something goes wrong with Uber, Airbnb or Expedia, we tend to assume that regulators or the police will step in. We also trust that the cyber technology will work. If that is ever called into question, the pattern of distributed trust might crumble.

So far, this has not happened, despite all the recent cyber attacks, the growing political controversy around digital privacy, and the failure of social media sites such as Facebook to prevent fake news. Maybe that will change in 2018. But unless it does, our economy will be partly driven by rising levels of distributed trust or, as Botsman says, “people trusting other people through technology”. It is a powerful sign of the unpredictable cultural contradiction created by the internet. Happy digital holidays.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which of the followings is the least trusted institution in the US according to the article ?

A.National news media.

B.NGOs.

C.Banks.

D.Tech companies.

答案(1)

2.What is distributed trust？

A.Processes that require people to trust somebody of a superior status.

B.Processes that require people to trust government as a source of advice.

C.Processes that require people to trust in computer code created by peers.

D.Processes that require people to trust their peers as a source of advice.

答案(2)

3.According to Botsman, the digital distributed economy relies on ____.

A.horizontal trust pattern.

B.face-to-face contact.

C.vertical trust pattern.

D.authoritative groups.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards cyber-distributed trust?

A.Incredulous.

B.Dismissive.

C.Laudatory.

D.Impartial.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.National news media.

解释：全世界范围内，只有53%的人信任NGO，在美国，63%的公众对国家通讯社抱有负面看法，这一数字比银行的46%更高

(2) 答案：D.Processes that require people to trust their peers as a source of advice.

解释：“分布式”信任指要求人们信任他们的同等群体或社群的过程。

(3) 答案：A.horizontal trust pattern.

解释：数字分布式经济最令人着迷的是它体现出了第三类社会粘合剂，这种新型信任模式是基于对等联系，是非常平等的。

(4) 答案：D.Impartial.

解释：反对者指出这种基于网络的分布式信任是依靠隐含的制度支持建立的，如果失去这一前提，它将会颠覆。但至少目前为止，这种情况并未发生。

性骚扰者：一句道歉有多难？

热门话题#MeToo让无数伪君子现了原形，也让我们见识到了许多奇奇怪怪的“道歉”。性骚扰者的道歉甚少提起受害者，反而通篇充斥着浓浓的自恋，仿佛被指控性骚扰是他们走上启蒙之路的第一步。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

onslaught ['ɒnslɔːt] n. 突击，猛攻

acumen ['ækjəmən] n. 锐敏，聪明

trope [trəʊp] n. 比喻，借喻

denominator [dɪ'nɒmɪneɪtə（r）] n. 分母，平均水平

surreptitious [ˌsʌrəp'tɪʃəs] adj. 鬼鬼祟祟的，保密的

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

4分49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

1分55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

Sorry is the hardest word for sexual harassers （676 words）

By Emma Jacobs

#MeToo ripped through 2017. Women — and men — broke their silence and out poured a volcanic rage engulfing Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the media, restaurant industry and politics. They told stories, so many stories, about sexual harassment.

In their wake came statements of regret from the accuseD.Upon scrutiny these crumbled into dust.

And so 2017 was marked by a series of terrible apologies by Goliaths who had been exposed, this time unwillingly, as harassers. This year has shown that there is no perfect way to apologise for inappropriate requests, gropes or assaults. But there are plenty of wrong ways.

Harvey Weinstein produced a model of the bad apology. His opening declaration set the tone for an onslaught of wrongness.

“I came of age in the ‘60s and’ 70s when all the rules about behaviour and workplaces were different. That was the culture then.” This is a common line of defence by men who claim to be hopeless dinosaurs, out of touch with changing sensibilities. First, that excuse only works if all men of the same age think it is OK to ruin a woman's career if she refuses their advances. Second, while some women might have put up with it in the past, that does not mean they liked or wanted it. Quite the opposite.

Yet there is also a kind of selective evolution at play here. Harassers, particularly ones who are proud of their professional acumen, manage to stay attuned to so many developments in the business world — the arrival of disruptive technologies, say, or of new overseas markets. Yet they are blind to changes in workplace behaviour. Such blindness seems wilful.

Mr Weinstein's apology also included the pledge that he was embarking on therapy. This is a trope that has been reiterated by numerous other apologists. Being caught becomes “a voyage of self-discovery”, as if lunging at a colleague is the first step on the path to enlightenment.

Charlie Rose, the journalist and talk show host, who lost his job in November after he was accused of harassment, said he had “learnt a great deal as a result of these events”. Then he turned it into a generous gift — a teachable moment for everybody else, as he wrote that he hoped that “others will [learn] too”. He continued: “All of us, including me, are coming to a newer and deeper recognition of the pain caused by conduct in the past, and have come to a profound new respect for women and their lives.”

The common denominator in all these apologies is narcissism. That these men were so entitled that they thought they could behave as they wished was always the problem. These apologies are self-indulgent me-pologies: all about the perpetrator not about the victims.

I picked a few me-pologies to see how many times they used the word “I”. Harvey Weinstein's count was 37 times in 26 sentences; Charlie Rose used the word 14 times in eight sentences, and Louis CK, the comedian who was accused of harassment in November, 36 times in 26 sentences （although one was in the title of his new film, I Love You, Daddy, which is now shelved）.

I talked to a friend about her most recent experience of harassment, at a small company that employed no newsworthy stars. It was not a headline-grabbing assault. It was a drip, drip, drip of unwanted emails about her appearance, sent to her work and personal accounts, supplemented by texts at weekends.

She caught her harasser surreptitiously taking pictures of her. Colleagues joked about his shrine to her at home. When she told the human resources department, they just warned her to be careful. In the end, she left the company.

A few months later, her former employer got back in touch — inevitably her harasser had started on other women.

After she heard that he had left, I asked whether she wanted him to apologise. No. She had heard enough from him — she just wanted to be heard herself.

That made me think of two bright spots in Louis CK's apology. These were simply: “These stories are true” and “I will… take a long time to listen.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is #MeToo according to the article?

A.A hashtag which encouraged people accused with sexual harassment to explain themselves.

B.A hashtag which encouraged sexual harassers to make apologies to their female victims.

C.A hashtag which encouraged women to share their experience about domestic violence.

D.A hashtag which encouraged people to publicize their stories about sexual harassment.

答案(1)

2.Harvey Weinstein claimed that he sexually harassed women because ____.

A.he is a sex addict and he doesn't have control over his behaviour.

B.some women have put up with his improper advances in the past.

C.he has been out of touch with changing workplace behaviour.

D.he thinks it's OK to ruin a woman's career if she refuses his advances.

答案(2)

3.According to the author, the sexual harassers' apologies ____.

A.are mostly narcissistic and self-centered.

B.use disease as a strategy to evoke empathy.

C.refuse to admit they have made big mistakes.

D.are the first step on the path to enlightenment.

答案(3)

4.What did the author's friend do to cope with sexual harassment?

A.She reported to her employer.

B.She informed the police.

C.She left the company.

D.She learned to be more careful.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.A hashtag which encouraged people to publicize their stories about sexual harassment.

解释：#MeToo在2017年掀起话题。女性——还有男性——讲出了他们关于性骚扰的许多故事。

(2) 答案：C.he has been out of touch with changing workplace behaviour.

解释：那些自称无可救药的男人常常这样为自己辩护，称他们自己与不断发展的文化脱节了。

(3) 答案：A.are mostly narcissistic and self-centered.

解释：所有这些道歉的共同点是自恋，他们都围绕着行为人而不是受害者。

(4) 答案：C.She left the company.

解释：当她向人力部门投诉时，他们只是让她当心一点。最终，她离开了那家公司。

不知所云的年度流行色

去年此时，Pantone将生机勃勃的草木绿定为2017年流行色，随之而来的是特朗普退出《巴黎协定》以及接踵而至的气象灾难。如今，他们又选择了70年代嬉皮士的代表色来代表2018年的时代精神。Pantone的流行色选得太过随便，完全不知所云。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

decree [dɪ'kriː] vt. 判决，裁定

zeitgeist ['zaɪtgaɪst] n. 时代精神，时代思潮

jolly ['dʒɒli] adj. 愉快的，高兴的

conformity [kən'fɔːmɪtɪ] n. 一致，相似

arbitrary ['aːbɪtrəri] adj. 任意的，武断的

congregate ['kɒŋgrɪgeɪt]vi. 集合

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3秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分49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42秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Purple haze: can a colour really capture the zeitgeist? （708 words）

By Jo Ellison

The future is “ultra violet”. Or, at least, that is what the Pantone Colour Institute has decreed: it is their colour of 2018. The concept of nominating a colour every year “connected with the zeitgeist” was dreamt up by the New Jersey-based manufacturers in 1999, and it has proven to be a jolly good wheeze. The decision is reached by a secret committee of advisers and consultants “who forecast global colour trends”, and is intended to help brands and businesses “leverage the power, psychology and emotion of colour” in their design strategy. It also helps to shift paint.

Quite how colour can be used to “leverage power” or as a “strategic asset” （which they also claim） is unclear. But one assumes the colour of the year is designed to encourage corporate bodies and institutions away from decorative schemes in Death Grey or Boardroom Bland, in favour of jazzier, bolder colours. Why not bathe your staff in Psychotic Cerulean or Migraine Yellow instead? Because colour is, you know, mood-enhancing and symbolic.

According to Pantone, ultra violet “symbolises experimentation and non-conformity, spurring individuals to imagine their unique mark on the world, and push boundaries through creative outlets”. It should not, of course, be confused with the eerily similar shade Blue Iris, which took the title in 2008.

Since the announcement last week, I've received a blizzard of emails from public relations companies promoting products in appropriately purple shades. Even the Queen is in on it. Shortly after the committee revealed its choice, she was photographed at a naval ceremony in Portsmouth wearing a vivid ultra violet coat and hat.

But the Pantone choices are so arbitrary as to be meaningless. Sometimes, they even seem cruel. Last year's selection, Greenery — symbolising “new beginnings” — was announced with the arrival of Trump in the White House and his subsequent withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. The year went on to see some of the most violent storms ever recorded and a terrifying California wildfire; it was many things, but green it was not. Surely, if these people had copped on to the zeitgeist, they would have made the colour of 2017 Bully Boy Blue or Netflix Red.

Now we have ultra violet, which seems equally out of touch. It's the colour of 1970s, hippie-tinged psychedeliA.Quite apart from anything else, I hate it. It's supposed to be deep and mystical — the Pantone people like its “cosmic” overtones — but it makes me think of wizards and wacky shed-dwelling craftspeople and the type of people with gnarly toenails who congregate at sunrise to take part in ancient ceremonies involving runic stones. It's the colour adored by “open-minded” people who move out of London to give their children better educational opportunities, and end up whittling nose whistles in Brighton.

Colours do have power. There's something quite magical about seeing a group of sports fans all massed on the terraces in their tribal stripes. And one only needed to see the sea of fuchsia pussycat hats gathered at the Women's Marches in January to witness the collective power of a single hue.

But the colour of the zeitgeist? It's probably Space Gray or Aerospace Aluminium — the colours of the iPhone 8. Fashion offers even fewer clues: for spring, the catwalks were a shimmer of silver and sequin, which suggests we're either off to live on Mars, or hitting the disco. The only colour that has really emerged as a phenomenon this year is Millennial Pink, a Barbie-lite shade which has become a shorthand for a sort of snowflakey femininity, and owes its origins to the Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel released in 2014.

With this in mind, I've had a think about an alternative option that might suffice as a more fitting shade for the future. Maybe Arctic Melt, an ice-cap blue recalling the majesty of a fast-eroding glacier, or Coral Wash, a dazzling white as seen in the last, highly depressing episode of Blue Planet 2.Or what about Lonely, a contemplative shade of grey befitting the UK's attempt to negotiate its bloody awful Brexit. Too grim? I offer you Armageddon Sunset; it's a yellow-white bright, perfect for day rooms, which symbolises power, strength, warmth — and the certainty of human extinction.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the color of 2018?

A.Ultra violet.

B.Light purple.

C.Greenery.

D.Ultra green.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about Pantone is true ?

A.Pantone is a New Jersey-based fashion company founded in 1999.

B.Pantone's Color of the Year summerizes fashion trends in the past year.

C.Pantone believes its color of 2018 symbolises new beginnings.

D.Pantone chose Blue Iris as its Color of the Year ten years ago.

答案(2)

3.Why does the author hate ultra violet as the color of 2018 ?

A.Because it is eerily similar to the color of 2008.

B.Because she believes Pantone failed to grasp future trends.

C.Because it is arbitrary and has nothing to do with zeitgeist.

D.Because it's the colour of 1970s, hippie-tinged psychedelia.

答案(3)

4.According to the author, which is the only phenomenal color this year ?

A.Arctic Melt.

B.Millennial Pink.

C.Space Gray.

D.Armageddon Sunset.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.Ultra violet.

解释：未来是紫外光色的。或者，至少这是Pantone色彩研究所指定的2018年的颜色。

(2) 答案：D.Pantone chose Blue Iris as its Color of the Year ten years ago.

解释：不要把紫外光色和与其很相似的蓝色鸢尾搞混。蓝色鸢尾是2008年的年度流行色。

(3) 答案：C.Because it is arbitrary and has nothing to do with zeitgeist.

解释：但是Pantone的年度颜色选择过于武断以至于毫无意义。如今的紫外光色也同样不知所云。它是70年代的颜色，代表着嬉皮士式的迷幻。

(4) 答案：B.Millennial Pink.

解释：今年唯一一个形成现象的颜色是千禧粉，一种代表了女性的颜色。

日本公司的招聘战争

在经济日渐向好的大背景下，日本企业却在发愁。随着日本劳动力人口不断下降，很多公司都面临着日渐严峻的招工难题。如今，50%以上的日本中小企业招不到足够的毕业生。招聘成了决定很多公司生死存亡的关键点。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

demographic [ˌdemə'ɡræfɪk] adj. 人口的

cyclical ['saɪklɪkl] adj. 循环的，周期的

increment ['ɪŋkrəmənt] n. 增加，增加物

prestige [pre'stiːʒ] n. 威望，声望

cohort ['kəʊhɔːt] n. 一群；同生群

grind ['kəʊhɔːt] vi. 磨碎，用功

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39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39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Japan bosses face life-and-death struggle （665 words）

By Robin Harding

Every year, Mitsuhiro Wada has to recruit up to 900 new graduates in a country with an ultra-low unemployment rate of 2.8 per cent and a declining pool of young people at university.

“The market is very tough. There's a huge amount of competition,” says Mr Wada, head of recruitment at Daiwa House, one of Japan's biggest construction companies and a leading hirer of graduates. “It's even tougher than it was in 2007 or 2008.”

After five years of economic stimulus under prime minister Shinzo Abe, and with the working age population in steep demographic decline, Japan's big companies are engaged in a ferocious contest for talent.

Given that lifetime employment is still the norm for many graduates, failure to hire new blood can doom even established corporations to long-term decline, as they will struggle to bring in good staff who are at later stages of their career.

“The construction industry is cyclical and there were periods when recruitment was limited,” says Mr WadA.“As a result, we have relatively few staff in their 30s and we want to maintain balance.” The outlook for Japan's construction sector has improved since Tokyo won its bid to host the Olympic Games in 2020. Daiwa House is targeting rapid growth in sales and has recruitment targets to match. “We intend to be a winner and see the opportunity to expand market share,” Mr Wada says.

Hiring in Japan is still dominated by the annual graduation season, with companies following a set of voluntary rules that govern when they can interview and make offers. Once a graduate joins, they will enjoy steady progression and annual pay increments until they reach a fixed retirement age — normally 60, although this is rising.

While the country's broader labour market is booming, with the overall jobs-to-applicants ratio at its highest level since the mid-1970s, the ratio for graduates is still below its 2007-08 peak and well below the levels of the 1980s bubble economy.

That is partly because companies have grown more disciplined about hiring through the economic cycle, says Akihito Toda, chief analyst at the Recruit Works Institute, a research group. “Recently the pattern has been not to boost hiring so much because the economy has got better,” he says.

That, though, hides a gulf between prestige recruiters such as government, automakers and the big banks on one hand versus less popular sectors such as retail, social care and construction on the other.

“Those that can hire easily don't see recruitment as a big issue. On the other hand, companies that are already struggling aren't thinking ahead, they're trying to compete right now,” says Mr Toda.

Smaller companies face a particular struggle. “According to our survey this year, more than 50 per cent of small and medium-sized companies couldn't recruit the number of graduates they wanted,” says Tomonori Sugisaki at the Japan Chamber of Commerce.

Companies are responding in a variety of ways but not, in general, by raising pay. Since Japanese graduates expect a job for life, the starting salary is not very salient; they choose based on the perceived stability, reputation and comfort of an employer.

At Daiwa House, Mr Wada is trying to support a greater diversity of working styles, including making life easier for working mothers. It is also dropping a traditional Japanese requirement: that the employee move to wherever the employer assigns them. “We've started a system where you can designate a region in which you want to work,” he says. “We're trying to provide a custom-made way of working for new staff.”

One thing Japanese companies have not yet done, apart from a very few globalised manufacturers, is look abroaD.Even though Daiwa House's overseas business is growing fast, “at present, we still just think in terms of recruitment in Japan,” says Mr Wada.

The outlook for recruitment only becomes harder. From next year, the number of students entering Japanese universities will start to fall steadily, as the last demographic echoes of the baby boomers fade away. From 2022, those smaller classes will start to graduate.

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, Daiwa House is ____.

A.one of Japan's biggest real estate firms.

B.Japan's biggest construction company.

C.the main beneficiary of 2020 Olympic Games.

D.a leading recruiter of graduates in Japan.

答案(1)

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

A.Japan's overall jobs-to-applicants ratio at its highest level in history.

B.Construction companies are among the most popular recruiters in Japan.

C.Over half of small and medium-sized firms couldn't recruit enough graduates.

D.Once a graduate joins a company, they are not allowed to resign before age 60.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following is not a reason why Daiwa House finds it difficult to recruit ?

A.The company is targeting rapid growth in sales.

B.Working age population in Japan has been declining rapidly.

C.Hiring in Japan is dominated by the annual graduation season.

D.Lifetime employment makes it difficult to hire experienced talent.

答案(3)

4.In order to attract young talents, Daiwa House is trying to ____.

A.provide salient starting salary as well as stability to new graduates.

B.encourage more female graduates to join the construction industry.

C.mindfully balance the diversity of working styles in the company.

D.learn to be more disciplined about hiring through economic cycle.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.a leading recruiter of graduates in Japan.

解释：大和建筑公司是日本最大的建筑公司之一，也是毕业生主要的招聘公司之一。

(2) 答案：C.Over half of small and medium-sized firms couldn't recruit enough graduates.

解释：“根据我们今年的调查，超过50%的中小型企业招聘的毕业生数量未达预期”。

(3) 答案：C.Hiring in Japan is dominated by the annual graduation season.

解释：日本的工作年龄人口急剧下降。大和建筑公司的目标是快速提高销售额，因此必须招聘到足够的人手。

(4) 答案：C.mindfully balance the diversity of working styles in the company.

解释：在大和建筑公司，和田先生努力支持员工们多样化的工作方式，包括为职场妈妈提供更加便利的条件。

藏在房间里的DNA黑客

基因工程的迅速发展让简单、廉价的基因编辑实验成为可能。以自己的身体为实验品的基因黑客因此不断涌现。这些大胆的实验者引起了专业人士的担忧……

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Bespectacledadj. 戴眼镜的 /bɪ'spektəkld/

encompassvt. 围绕；包含，包括 /ɪn'kʌmpəs/

faecaladj. 排泄物的，渣滓的 /'fiːkl/

eugenicsn. 优生学 /juː'dʒenɪks/

scoffv. 嘲笑，愚弄，狼吞虎咽 /skɒf/

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39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39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The biohackers trying to alter their DNA at home（653 words）

By Chloe Cornish

Justin Atkin, bearded and bespectacled, holds three white pills. These capsules, he says, contain a cure for lactose intolerance that he has made himself. I'm watching Atkin's YouTube video through my fingers. He is not wearing a white coat in a sterile laboratory. The Canadian, 22, sits cross-legged, sharing the floor with two louche cats. I cannot see how this ends well.

“Well, bottoms up,” Atkin says as he swigs water from a Mason jar and down go the capsules of home-grown virus, into which he has inserted genetic information coding a dairy-digesting protein his body fails to produce. The virus will, he hopes, infect his intestinal lining and set about producing the lactase enzyme, curing his painful milk-related gas. Or, I think to myself, this turns into a horror movie and Atkin's guts fall out.

This is biohacking — submitting your body to untested procedures in a quest for physical perfection. The label encompasses simple lifestyle cheats that I tried when living in San Francisco, such as fasting to improve concentration, but it extends to more extreme self-experimentation, such as faecal transplants to boost gut bacteria and DIY genetic modification.

Atkin's gene-editing experiment is actually a relatively mild case of self-produced, self-administered therapy. At a body hacking convention in Texas in February, one man injected himself with an experimental treatment for herpes live on stage. Another, a friend of Atkin's, subjected himself to an untested, genetically engineered HIV treatment, and livestreamed it on Facebook.

The rush of stunts, and growing trade in kits to help you engineer your own DNA, prompted a warning from the US Food and Drug Administration late last year — and a reminder that selling such products is illegal.

This is all happening because of quantum leaps in the affordability and ease of manipulating DNA.Gene editing holds huge promise in helping tackle disease and conditions that resist existing medicines and treatments. But given how complex and sensitive the code for life is — not to mention ethical concerns about eugenics — clinical trials on people have been slow.

Atkin didn't want to wait for someone else to solve his dairy problems. “I went to a well-renowned gastroenterologist and he asked me if I'd tried turmeric and smoking weed,” he tells me, adding that he's tried eight different types of stomach medication. His attitude was: “The medical field is doing exactly dick for me, so I'm going to have to do something myself.”

Scientists warn that powerful DNA editing technologies could have startling unintended consequences. Mutations in DNA are what cause cancer, for example. Atkin assures me he can handle the risks. Am I wrong to be unnerved by 22-year-olds altering their own DNA, practically unsupervised, while broadcasting the methodology?

For just $159, you can legally buy a DIY Bacterial Gene Engineering kit （not specifically for human use） from The Odin, an outfit run by Josiah Zayner, a former Nasa biologist who advocates that science should be unleashed outside traditional academic settings （although one of The Odin's advisers is George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School.）

“This is the first time in the history of the Earth that humans are no longer slaves to the genetics they are born with,” wrote Zayner in 2017. He publicly injected himself with an enzyme that would delete the gene from his DNA that stops muscles over-developing. The idea was that this would make him extremely buff （it didn't work）.

Under the YouTube video portraying Atkin's experiment, culminating in him scoffing quadruple-cheese pizza and reporting no ill effects, comments swing from congratulations to criticism. “This is how the zombie apocalypse starts cuz some dude wanted to eat cheese,” reads one.

Atkin says the only individuals who contacted him to object were “people who've been professors for 40 years”. He brushes off their concerns. “The world is changing. There's access to new technology and it freaks some people out.” Count me as one of them.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why did Justin Atkin conduct the self-experiment ?

A.Because he wants a fast relief for lactose intolerance.(1)

B.Because he needs faecal transplants to boost gut bacteria.

C.Because he is a disciple of NASA biologist Josiah Zayner.

D.Because he wants to figure out an easy way to edit DNA.

答案

2.What is biohacking according to the article?

A.Using nutritional genomics to change and take control of other people's genome.

B.Conducting untested gene therapies on your own in pursuit of physical perfection.

C.Trying to improve human body functions with do-it-yourself cybernetic devices.

D.Conducting self-experiments to avoid interventions from a formal organisation.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following statements about gene-editing is true?

A.Manipulating DNA is still unaffordable for most of people.

B.Quantum leaps in gene editing accelerate clinical trials on people.

C.There is no evidence that gene editing can help tackle disease.

D.Gene editing faces a multitude of ethical and safety concerns.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards self-experiment with gene-editing?

A.Disapproving.

B.Ambivalent.

C.Objective.

D.Cautionary.

答案(4)

(1) 答案A.Because he wants a fast relief for lactose intolerance.

他说，这些自制的胶囊可以治愈他的乳糖不耐症。

(2) 答案B.Conducting untested gene therapies on your own in pursuit of physical perfection.

这是生物入侵——将你的身体提供给未经测试的治疗程序以获得完美的身体。

(3) 答案D.Gene editing faces a multitude of ethical and safety concerns.

但考虑到生命密码的复杂性和敏感性——更不用说对优生学在伦理上的担忧——临床人体试验进展缓慢。

(4) 答案A.Disapproving.

Atkin称：“世界在变化。很多新兴技术的出现让很多人难以接受。”我就是其中之一。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集

Vol.63

政客对我们隐瞒了什么？

如今的政客们已经精于避重就轻之道。他们总是喜欢大谈特谈身份政治，以种族和性别等等身份话题吸引眼球，制造话题，并让我们忽视了最迫在眉睫的问题……

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

squabble ['skwɒbl] v. 争论，口角

uninsurable [ˌʌnɪn'ʃʊərəbl] adj. 不可予以保险的

bogeymen ['bəʊɡimæn] n. 可怕的人，鬼怪

patrol [pə'trəʊl] vt./vi. 巡逻，巡查

coveted ['kʌvɪtɪd] adj. 人人向往的

strife [straɪf] n. 争吵，冲突

newsy ['njuːzi] adj. 多新闻的，成话题的

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

4分59秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分47秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分59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

From climate change to robots: what politicians aren't telling us （698 words）

By Simon Kuper

On US television news this autumn, wildfires and hurricanes have replaced terrorism and — mostly — even mass shootings as primetime content. Climate change is making natural disasters more frequent, and more Americans now live in at-risk areas. But meanwhile, Donald Trump argues on Twitter about what he supposedly said to a soldier's widow. So far, Trump is dangerous less because of what he says （hot air） or does （little） than because of the issues he ignores.

He's not alone: politics in many western countries has become a displacement activity. Most politicians bang on about identity while ignoring automation, climate change and the imminent revolution in medicine. They talk more about the 1950s than the 2020s. This is partly because they want to distract voters from real problems, and partly because today's politicians tend to be lawyers, entertainers and ex-journalists who know less about tech than the average 14-year-olD.But the new forces are already transforming politics.

Ironically, given the volume of American climate denial, the US looks like becoming the first western country to be hit by climate change. Each new natural disaster will prompt political squabbles over whether Washington should bail out the stricken region. At-risk cities such as Miami and New Orleans will gradually lose appeal as the risks become uninsurable. If you buy an apartment on Miami Beach now, are you confident it will survive another 30 years undamaged? And who will want to buy it from you in 2047? Miami could fade as Detroit did.

American climate denial may fade too, as tech companies displace Big Oil as the country's chief lobbyists. Already in the first half of this year, Amazon outspent Exxon and Walmart on lobbying. Facebook, now taking a kicking over fake news, will lobby its way back. Meanwhile, northern Europe, for some years at least, will benefit from its historical unique selling point: its mild and rainy climate. Its problem will be that millions of Africans will try to move there.

On the upside, many Africans will soon, for the first time ever, have access to energy （thanks to solar panels） and medical care （as apps monitor everything from blood pressure to sugar levels, and instantly prescribe treatment）. But as Africa gets hotter, drier and overpopulated, people will struggle to feed themselves, says the United Nations University. So they will head north, in much greater numbers than Syrians have, becoming the new bogeymen for European populists. Patrolling robots — possibly with attack capabilities — will guard Fortress Europe.

Everywhere, automation will continue to eat low-skilled jobs. That will keep people angry. Carl Benedikt Frey of Oxford university's Martin School recalls workers smashing up machines during the British industrial revolution, and says: “There was a machinery riot last year: it was the US presidential election.” American workers hit by automation overwhelmingly voted Trump, even though he doesn't talk about robots.

Soon, working-class men will lose driving jobs to autonomous vehicles. They could find new jobs servicing rich people as cleaners （a profession that's surprisingly hard to automate）, carers or yoga teachers. Young men will develop new notions of masculinity and embrace this traditionally feminine work. But older working-class men will probably embrace politicians like Trump.

The most coveted good of all — years of life — will become even more unfairly distributeD.The lifespans of poor westerners will continue to stagnate or shorten, following the worldwide surge in obesity since the 1980s. Many poorer people will work into their seventies, then die, skipping the now standard phase of retirement. Meanwhile, from the 2020s the rich will live ever longer as they start buying precision medicine. They will fix their faulty DNA and edit their embryos, predicts Vivek Wadhwa, thinker on technology. Even if governments want to redress inequality, they won't be able to, given that paying tax has become almost voluntary for global companies.

Troubled regimes will ratchet up surveillance. Now they merely know what you say. In 10 years, thanks to your devices, they will know your next move even before you do. Already, satellites are monitoring Egypt's wheat fields, so as to predict the harvest, which predicts the chance of social strife. Meanwhile, western politicians will probably keep obsessing over newsy identity issues. My prediction for the 2020s: moral panics over virtual-reality sex.

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 topics would Politicians in western countries most likely to care about ?

A.Natural disasters.

B.Mass shootings.

C.Identity issues.

D.Terrorism.

答案(1)

2.Why does the author aver the US will no longer denies climate change?

A.Because tech companies can help to persuade the public.

B.Because tech companies outspend Big Oil on lobbying.

C.Because Big Oil has lost their power in American politics.

D.Because Facebook is fighting fake news on climate change.

答案(2)

3.What will be the biggest problem facing Africa according to the author ?

A.Angry workers whose jobs are taken away by automation.

B.Patrolling robots with attack capabilities in Fortress Europe.

C.Political squabbles prompted by new natural disasters.

D.Famines caused by climate change and overpopulation.

答案(3)

4.According to the author, who will suffer most in the upcoming automation revolution?

A.younger working-class men.

B.older working-class men.

C.females in traditional jobs.

D.poor westerners.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.Identity issues.

解释：大多数政客在身份问题上喋喋不休，却忽视了自动化和即将发生的医学革命。

(2) 答案：B.Because tech companies outspend Big Oil on lobbying.

解释：随着科技公司取代石油巨头成为美国最大的游说群体，美国将不再否认气候变化。

(3) 答案：D.Famines caused by climate change and overpopulation.

解释：但随着非洲变得更加酷热、干燥，人口过密，人们会很难获得足够的食物。

(4) 答案：B.older working-class men.

解释：年轻男性将对男子气概产生新的理解，并乐于从事传统上属于女性的工作。但年长的工人很可能会用户像特朗普一样的政客。

夸张的“俄罗斯威胁论”

2012年，当共和党候选人罗姆尼将俄罗斯称为美国“首要地缘政治敌人”时，他收到的是民主党的攻击。但如今，大肆鼓吹俄罗斯威胁的却成了民主党。民主党人对俄罗斯的过分关注并非基于事实，而是为了掩饰大选的失败，并借此攻击特朗普。但这是不明智的。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

minnow ['mɪnəʊ] n. 小淡水鱼

barometer [bə'rɒmɪtə（r）] n. 晴雨表

menace ['menəs] n. 威胁，胁迫

brazen ['breɪzn] adj. 厚颜无耻的

paraffin ['pærəfɪn] n. 石蜡

epitome [ɪ'pɪtəmi] n. 摘要，缩影

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25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10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

Liberal America's unhealthy fixation on Russia （759 words）

By Edward Luce

Ronald Reagan once joked that he had signed a bill to outlaw RussiA.“The bombing begins in five minutes,” he saiD.Because the Soviet Union posed a mortal threat, his joke was in poor taste. Today's Russia is a minnow by comparison. It offers no ideological challenge to democracy — and its economy is smaller than Italy's. Yet liberal America has worked itself up into a moral paniC.If it were not for Vladimir Putin, we are asked to believe, western democracy would be in reasonable shape. Without Russia, there would be no Donald Trump.

At best, such claims are an exaggeration. At worst, they are a red herring. The latest to join the fray is Joe Biden, the former vice-president. As a potential White House candidate, Mr Biden is a good barometer of Democratic thinking. In a co-authored article for Foreign Affairs, Mr Biden calls for the creation of a 9/11-style commission “to examine Russia's assault on American democracy”. The body would identify tools to fight the Russian menace. “Americans need a thorough, detailed inquest into how Russia's strike on their democratic institutions was carried out and how another one might be prevented,” he writes.

In sum, Mr Biden is calling for a new Cold War. But his reasons had little to do with foreign policy. The aim is to explain how Hillary Clinton could have lost to Mr Trump. Since the US electorate could not possibly have wanted him, it follows that the election was hijackeD.The same kinds of argument are being made in the UK. Our minds were manipulateD.Brexit was tipped by Russia, argue some Remainers. “Today, the Russian government is brazenly assaulting the foundations of western democracy around the world,” Mr Biden concludes.

There are three problems with this line. The first is that it absolves Democrats of their own mistakes. Mr Putin did indeed throw all the bots and trolls he could muster against Mrs Clinton's campaign. Moscow also helped hack and leak the email accounts of key figures in Mrs Clinton's orbit. But to conclude that Russia threw the election is a stretch.

There are any number of reasons Mr Trump scraped the 77,000 margin in the three key Midwestern states that clinched him the electoral college. Jill Stein, the Green party candidate, was one of them. She received more votes in Wisconsin and Michigan than Mr Trump's winning tally. Mrs Clinton's refusal to campaign in Wisconsin was another. The former FBI director James Comey's last-minute bombshell about reopening the investigation into Mrs Clinton's emails was a thirD.And so on. None of these explain why Mr Trump's support came within distance of victory in the first place.

Mr Putin is an opportunist who wishes to tarnish the west. But America was already doing that by itself. He was only throwing paraffin on to the fire. The market for fake news predated Mr Putin. As the UK's Sun newspaper would say: it was the west wot lost it.

The second problem is that it looks nakedly partisan. Last year, Democrats accused the FBI of being a damaged outfit. Today they hold the agency up as the epitome of public virtue. In 2012, Democrats attacked Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, for saying Russia was America's “number one geopolitical foe”. Today that is the Democratic position. Mr Trump is clearly a fan of RussiA.His behaviour also fits with the theory that Mr Putin has kompromat on him. In due course, we are likely to find out which parts of the Russian dossier on Mr Trump are true.

Which leads on to the third problem. Democrats want to see Mr Trump impeacheD.Anyone who cares about the west's future should want to see the back of Mr Trump. But it is unwise for Democrats to will that outcome by judicial means. Mr Trump was elected at the ballot box. He must also be ejected there. Anything else risks being seen as an elite coup — like Britain's parliament overturning Brexit without another referendum. Most Americans are clearly bored with the details of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and RussiA.Perhaps they will take notice if Robert Mueller unearths something dramatiC.Until then, the Democratic obsession with Russia looks rash.

It is also a boost to Mr Putin's ego. The idea that a struggling petro-state thousands of miles away could manipulate the world's greatest democracy is beyond flattering. It is empowering. As The New York Times reported, blaming Mr Trump's victory on Moscow has tightened Mr Putin's domestic grip. There is no need for staged pictures of a bare-chested Mr Putin on horseback. Just sit back and listen to the Democratic party.

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, liberals in America see Putin as ____.

A.the barometer of Democratic thinking.

B.the destroyer of western democracy.

C.a menace to American's hegemony.

D.the winner of a new Cold War.

答案(1)

2.What is Joe Biden's intention to call for a new Cold War against the Russian menace?

A.To explain how the Democratic could have lost the election.

B.To indicate Americans' minds were manipulated by the Russians.

C.To give Donald Trump a piece of advice on his foreign policy.

D.To suggest US electorate could not possibly have wanted Trump.

答案(2)

3.The author believes the Democratic obsession with Russia has ____.

A.threatened democratic institutions of the US.

B.tightened Mr Trump's domestic grip.

C.strengthened Putin's approval rating in Russia.

D.got Trump impeached by judicial means.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards Russia?

A.He believes Russia lacks the power to challenge America's democracy.

B.He believes Russia never attempts to interfere in America's election.

C.He is convinced that Russia is America's number one geopolitical foe.

D.He thinks Russia exaggerates its influence on American politics deliberately.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.the destroyer of western democracy.

解释：美国的自由主义者自行制造了一种道德恐慌。他们要人们相信，如果不是普京，西方民主制一定还完好无损。

(2) 答案：A.To explain how the Democratic could have lost the election.

解释：拜登呼吁开始一场新的冷战。但他的理由与外交政策无关，真正的目的是解释希拉里是怎么输给特朗普的。

(3) 答案：C.strengthened Putin's approval rating in RussiA.

解释：就像《纽约时报》所报道的那样，把特朗普的胜选怪罪到俄罗斯上巩固了普京在国内的势力。

(4) 答案：A.He believes Russia lacks the power to challenge America's democracy.

解释：相比之下，如今的俄罗斯就是一条小鱼，他们对民主意识形态构不成挑战——他们的经济体量比意大利还小。

职场上的“秘密妈妈”

十几年前的一项研究发现，有孩子的女性往往会在面试中遭遇薪酬歧视，而有孩子的男性却恰恰相反。这也是为什么很多女性会刻意在工作场合对孩子的事闭口不谈。幸运的是，随着职场环境的改善，这种奇怪的缄默正在日益减少。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

gobsmacked ['ɡɒbsmækt] adj. <英口>大吃一惊的

blather ['blæðə（r）] n. 废话，胡说

maternity [mə'tɜːnəti] adj. 孕妇的，母性的

irksome ['ɜːksəm] adj. 厌恶的，讨厌的

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27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10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

Why working women keep quiet about their children （763 words）

By Pilita Clark

At a dinner in London not long ago, the chief executive of a very respectable organisation told a story that left her end of the table gobsmacked.

It went like this: she was in such a rush to leave work to pick up her children from school recently that she had to ask an underling for help on a minor chore. The underling was stunned, she said, because it turned out no one in the office knew she actually had children, even though she had been running the place for years. Then she said something I found more dismaying. She was thrilled to learn no one knew. She had made it a rule to never talk about her children at work on the grounds that being a mother was irrelevant and she never wanted people to think her family affected how she did her job.

The first reason I found this astonishing was because, even though I am childless, I doubt I would ever have the willpower to shut up about such a central bit of home life. I have bored my colleagues senseless with far less vital domestic news: the soul-sapping apartment move, The Great Kitchen Renovation Disaster, the bloke down the road who kept pinching our Sunday papers and returning them with the crosswords filled in. I cannot imagine censoring children from such blather and as I look around the office at mothers I have worked with for years, I am glad I cannot see one who has kept noticeably quiet about her offspring.

Yet none of us was trying to be a top executive, as far as I know. If we were, we might have thought again, because what really floored me about the story from that dinner was what it said about women in today's workforce.

On the one hand, there has rarely been another time when so much is being done by so many governments and companies to improve the lot of working women. In the UK, businesses with 250 or more employees will be legally required to publish gender pay gap figures from April next year and the Aviva insurance group has just introduced six months of fully paid parental leave for its 16,000 UK workers, men and women.

The US may still be the only OECD country with no nationally guaranteed paid maternity leave, but it is also home to companies such as Salesforce, the $75bn online software group that measures its gender pay gap and has spent nearly $3m a year to close it.

There are signs that sexist hiring practices blamed for blocking female academics in the sciences have waned, as research suggests that US universities prefer women to identically qualified men in some fields. On top of this, women are running everything from the International Monetary Fund to General Motors and Germany. Do they really need to worry whether anyone knows if they are mothers? Maybe not. Yet it is obvious why some still do.

One of the most arresting studies I have seen on this topic was done more than a decade ago in the US, where Cornell University researchers concocted fake resumes for equally qualified men and women, with and without children. They found mothers were not just a lot less likely to be hired than childless women, they could also expect $11,000 less in an average starting salary. Yet fathers were likely to be offered $6,000 more than non-fathers, who were thought less committed to their jobs than dads. In other words, it literally paid to have kids if you were a man and cost if you were a woman. I doubt this irksome motherhood penalty has completely vanished since then. But it is clear that things are changing.

Last week I spoke to Haruno Yoshida, the president of BT in Japan, a country with a woeful gender equality recorD.A few years ago, not long after she started at BT, she missed her daughter's high school graduation because it fell on the same day as a big reception for top executives at the telecoms group. When she later told her British boss, expecting praise for putting work first, she got a “purple and screaming” reaction. “He said, ‘How dare you? You did something you can never take back’.” That is partly a story of cultural differences. But it also suggests the world is moving on. Ms Yoshida says she would never let a female employee do what she did, and as more companies are run by people like her, I like to think there will be a lot fewer workers who still feel the need to keep mum about being a mum.

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 keep quiet about her children at workplace?

A.Because she never wanted people to think children distracted her from work.

B.Because she was afraid that she would got fired if her boss knew she had children.

C.Because she would have to take a pay cut if her colleagues knew she had children.

D.Because she believed being a mother was contradictory to what she did at work.

答案(1)

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

A.In the UK, big companies are required to publish gender pay gap figures.

B.Women who tries to be top executives tend to avoid talking about children.

C.Salesforce introduced six months of fully paid parental leave for its workers.

D.Most of the OECD countries have nationally guaranteed paid maternity leave.

答案(2)

3.What did researchers of Cornell University found according to the eighth paragraph?

A.Women were likely to take pay cut if they had children.

B.Having kids usually offered a pecuniary advantage to men.

C.Childless women were more likely to be hired as top executives.

D.Sexist hiring practices were to blame for gender pay gap.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards censoring children at workplace?

A.Accusatory.

B.Encouraging.

C.Empathetic.

D.Disapproving.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.Because she never wanted people to think children distracted her from work.

解释：她曾经规定自己不要在工作中谈论孩子们，因为做母亲与工作无关，她不希望人们认为家庭会影响她的工作。

(2) 答案：D.Most of the OECD countries have nationally guaranteed paid maternity leave.

解释：美国可能仍然是唯一一个没有国家规定带薪产假的经合组织国家。

(3) 答案：B.Having kids usually offered a pecuniary advantage to men.

解释：有孩子能给男人带来经济利益，却会给女人带来损失。

(4) 答案：D.Disapproving.

解释：我无法想象在日常闲聊中把孩子完全过滤掉。当我环顾哪些与我工作了多年的母亲们时，我很高兴地发现她们没有一个人刻意对孩子的事保持沉默。

梅根·马克尔：改写故事的灰姑娘

英国王室周一宣布，哈里王子与交往已久的女友梅根·马克尔订婚。未来的王子妃立刻吸引了全英国的目光。梅根·马克尔，这位来自美国、言行大胆、曾经有过一段婚姻的黑白混血演员，或许会成为最与众不同的一位王室成员。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

aphorism ['æfərɪzəm] n. 格言，警语

aptitude ['æptɪtjuːd] n. 才能，资质

tutelage ['tjuːtəlɪdʒ] n. 监护，指导

thrust [θrʌst] vt./vi. 插入，推挤

exhort [ɪɡ'zɔːt] v. 劝诫，忠告

eschew [ɪs'tʃuː] v. 避开，戒绝

matrimonial [ˌmætrɪ'məʊniəl] adj. 婚姻的

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26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10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

Can Meghan Markle rewrite the royal fairytale? （761 words）

By Jo Ellison

In the Disney adaptation of the real-life romance starring Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle, we have now reached the point in the script where we find our princess-in-waiting looking soulfully in the mirror.

Standing there in her favoured vegan leather trousers and California casual Pilates gear, our heroine realises she cuts an unusual figure in the palace. She's American, she's mixed race, she was once a part-time freelance calligrapher — and she's chatty. Her free-spirited beliefs and self-affirming aphorisms clang along the corridors of the house she now inhabits. She has some understanding of the ways of the Windsors but yet, she realises, there are many more codes to learn. What she needs is a well-meaning confidante who will share with her the secrets of royal élan.

In the movie, here would follow a long makeover scene, an extended musical montage describing her re-education as a “proper” royal. We would see her learning how to wear a fascinator, or distinguishing different species of grouse or clan tartans. We would definitely see her practising her royal wave. Each scene would affirm her aptitude for public duty, and her natural warmth and radiance.

Ever since the fairy godmother summoned up a pair of glass slippers for Cinderella, the magic of metamorphosis has become a favourite cultural motif. From storybook heroine to reality show star, the wonder of transformation seduces us all. Often, the makeover precedes some meet-cute plot line — girl uses eyeliner; girl gets boy. But in more ambitious stories the makeover proposes something even more alluring: the certainty of social mobility and advancement. Under the tutelage of Professor Higgins, the cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle can pass through court society. With the help of a kindly hotel concierge, Pretty Woman's Vivienne can quit prostitution for a sweet hereafter of polo matches and platinum-coloured credit with her property tycoon prince.

Markle is now poised to undertake the same real-life transformation that attended the royal weddings of Grace Kelly, Kate Middleton and Charlene Wittstock. Already, she has been thrust into a narrative that is insisting on her metamorphosis with fetishistic glee. “See Markle's style transformation” exhort the fashion sites. Witness her “ladylike touch” as she eschews the bandeau dresses and opts for a calf-length skirt. Relish how Markle has “married royal sophistication with trendy pieces since meeting Harry”. One tabloid even offered her a “cheat sheet” on how she could “master the rules” and “truly become a member of the firm”. They included always walking behind her future husband, ditching the ripped jeans, and — yes — working on her royal wave.

And things are changing. She's already dropped the acting career. She's shut down her blog. For her first public engagement she swapped her leather biker jacket for a demure knee-length navy coat that matched her fiancé's; a small but subtle act of mirroring that suggests the Windsor assimilation is well under way. The world has murmured approvingly.

But the Markle makeover may not run so smooth. As the daughter of a social worker and a lighting designer, she has a different perspective on the worlD.She's older than her groom-to-be, she's divorced, and she's had a successful career. More importantly, she has a voice. Watching her being interviewed on television last week, her easy confidence was almost startling. Where the Windsors flinch before the cameras as though being subjected to an especially gruesome medical examination, Markle shimmers on screen.

Her cool telegenic manner is refreshing, as is her candour. She described the Queen as Harry's “granny”. She was strangely comfortable discussing how she felt about DianA.While the Duchess of Cambridge has always offered a more simpering line in matrimonial duty, Markle is calm and self-assured.

How wonderful would it be if, instead of following the same predictable storyline, Markle were to turn it upside down? Makeovers may be the stuff of fairy tales, but they also acknowledge a world still obsessed with codes and uniforms and the act of “fitting in”. Surely no one, in 2017, should really need to look the part. And what is the part anyway?

Rather than conform to a list of barren protocols, I'd like to see a royal makeover in which the Windsors become a bit more Markle instead: yoga-loving, articulate, quinoa-munching members of a modern establishment. I want to see a movie montage in which Markle shows the Duke of Edinburgh how to meditate, encourages the Duchess of Cambridge to dump the nude-coloured shoes and teaches calligraphy to the Queen. Let her wear ripped jeans. Let them all eat banana cake. And as for the matching his'n’hers wardrobe — I for one am praying to see Prince Harry in a pair of vegan leather trousers.

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 statements about Meghan Markle is true?

A.She was a part-time freelance calligrapher before engaged to Prince Harry.

B.She began to learn about royal codes after her engagement to Prince Harry.

C.She need to be re-educated to become a proper royal before the wedding.

D.She dropped the acting career to adapt to her new role in the royal family.

答案(1)

2.Why does the author mention Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle in the fourth paragraph ?

A.To prove the magic of metamorphosis is a popular cultural motif.

B.To explain why real-life transformation stories fascinate us all.

C.To give an example of the more ambitious transformation stories.

D.To compare Meghan Markle's transformation with Eliza Doolittle.

答案(2)

3.According to the tabloid's cheat sheet, Meghan Markle should ____?

A.always walk behind Prince Harry.

B.eschew the bandeau dresses.

C.opt for trendy calf-length skirt.

D.discard her glass slippers.

答案(3)

4.What the author believes Meghan Markle will be an unique duchess because ____.

A.she will be the first mixed race member in the British royal family.

B.she has a more successful career than her fiance Prince Harry.

C.she behaves in an unconventional way differs from the old royal codes.

D.she has learned to conform to a list of royal protocols very quickly.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.She dropped the acting career to adapt to her new role in the royal family.

解释：事情正在变化。她已经放弃了演艺生涯，关闭了博客。

(2) 答案：C.To give an example of the more ambitious transformation stories.

解释：在更加野心勃勃的故事中，改造的结果更加诱人：它可以保证人提高社会阶层。在希金斯教授的指导下，伦敦东区的卖花女孩Eliza Doolittle可以来往于宫廷社会。

(3) 答案：A.always walk behind Prince Harry.

解释：一家小报甚至向她提供了一张“小抄”，包括一直走在未来丈夫的身后，抛弃破洞牛仔裤，还有练习皇家式挥手。

(4) 答案：C.she behaves in an unconventional way differs from the old royal codes.

解释：她并没有向一大堆荒唐的行事规则屈服，而是把王室变得更像她自己的风格了.

勾人的算法和脆弱的孩子

YouTube有一套独特的视频推荐算法来吸引用户持续观看视频，孩子们尤其易受其影响。但YouTube并没有有效的算法来查找并排除对儿童不利的内容。有用户发现，YouTube上的儿童视频节目中也含有大量暴力、恐怖等不良内容。我们该怎样保护孩子们？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

hillock ['hɪlək] n. 小丘，土堆

mallet ['mælɪt] n. 木槌，球棍

susceptible [sə'septəbl] adj. 易受影响的

complicit [kəm'plɪsɪt] adj. 同谋的

pester ['pestə（r）] v. 使烦恼

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32秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分32秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分48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

The algorithms that seduce our children （635 words）

By Hannah Kuchler

This holiday season, a seven-year-old called Ryan could be compiling your child's Christmas list. By piling toys into a kid-sized hillock of consumerism, this YouTube sensation has attracted 9.7 million subscribers. “Ryan ToysReview”, started by his parents when Ryan was just three and a half, enjoys one of the largest followings on YouTube, on a par with popular influencers such as ZoellA.Ryan now has his own Android app and has signed a deal with Pocket.Watch, a kid's entertainment company, to create books and merchandise.

In his most famous video, which has almost 800 million views, his mum wakes Ryan from a red car-shaped bed, merchandise from the Disney movie Cars. She presents him with a Cars-branded egg the size of a pilates ball. Emerging from under a blanket with a Cars motif, he picks up an inflatable Cars-themed mallet and breaks the egg open to reveal toys. Behind the camera, his mother whoops and commentates.

Ryan ToysReview is one of a new youthful YouTube genre — others are EvanTubeHD and Hailey's Magical Playhouse. Ryan himself makes the most of the memes that you only know if you have a small YouTube-watcher: the “surprise egg” with a grand reveal, the bad kid/bad baby joke, or the finger family, where he pretends his fingers are people. These memes help children to discover his channel. And once they have watched one surprise egg video, YouTube's algorithm serves up more in the “Up Next” sidebar, where “surprise egg” has more than 10 million results.

The tech industry is under scrutiny for how its algorithms manipulate adults but little attention has been paid to how algorithms seduce children, who are far more susceptible than their parents. Children often lack the self-control or even the means to change the channel.

Ryan's channel is innocent but the algorithms that deliver it have encouraged what appear to be almost automated videos, in which favourite characters, key words and memes are combined in a haphazard way designed to game YouTube's rankings, rather than teach through coherent stories.

More worryingly, some videos include adult content, disguised with all the trimmings of a kids' show. James Bridle, a British artist and writer, recently delved into the world of YouTube content aimed at children. Disturbingly, he found familiar characters committing violence — in one, cheery music plays while clowns hit Spiderman and the Hulk, and Death creeps up behind Spiderwoman as she sits on the sofa.

Bridle was horrified, accusing YouTube and Google of being complicit in this system. “The architecture they have built to extract maximum revenue from online video is being hacked by persons unknown, to abuse children, perhaps not deliberately, but at a massive scale,” he wrote in a blog post.

Other videos include people using their kids as props. YouTube recently terminated the channel ToyFreaks, where a father posted videos of his daughters screaming in fear and being force-fed food, but not before it had eight million followers. Last week, BuzzFeed found a host of videos featuring kids being pushed into washing machines or mock-tortured by men in clown masks.

YouTube says it has taken steps recently to tackle such challenges, including ensuring that creators that use family entertainment characters in scenarios involving inappropriate behaviour cannot make money from their videos.

The company encourages parents to only allow children to watch through the YouTube Kids app, which has more rules and controls. But even YouTube Kids does not have its own team of human reviewers, instead relying on parents to flag inappropriate content for removal.

Ryan's brand of consumerism may put off those who dream of a Christmas where children read books and build model railways. But compared to the videos uncovered by Bridle, he is just showcasing good old-fashioned pester power. The effect YouTube's algorithm could have on what else children watch is much more sinister.

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 statements about Ryan ToysReview is true?

A.It has 9.7 million subscribers, which is the largest on YouTube.

B.It is a channel of a three and a half years old boy and his parents.

C.The most popular video in this channel has nearly 800 million views.

D.The channel is sponsored by entertainment company Pocket.Watch.

答案(1)

2.Why children are more susceptible to seductive algorithms than adults ?

A.YouTube has a special algorithms for children to make them addicted to videos.

B.It's difficult for children to take full control of themselves or change the channel.

C.Adults can flag inappropriate content and ask YouTube to remove the videos.

D.YouTube has been taking steps recently to tackle with inappropriate adult content.

答案(2)

3.Why does Mr Bridle accused YouTube and Google?

A.Because he found many videos featuring kids being pushed in washing machines.

B.Because he found the channel ToyFreaks, where a father used his kids as props.

C.Because he found YouTube's algorithms recommend violent videos deliberately.

D.Because he found inappropriate content in videos aimed at kids on YouTube.

答案(3)

4.What it the author's attitude towards the YouTube Kids app?

A.Supportive. Because it has flagged and removed illegal content for children.

B.SatisfieD.Because it introduces a better censorship system to protect children.

C.Incredulous. Because it lacks effective measure to spot inappropriate content.

D.Sceptical. Because it allows parents to flag inappropriate videos and delete them.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.The most popular video in this channel has nearly 800 million views.

解释：这个频道中最著名的视频有将近970次播放。其中Ryan的妈妈将他从一个红色汽车造型的床上叫起来。

(2) 答案：B.It's difficult for children to take full control of themselves or change the channel.

解释：相比父母们，儿童更容易受到这种算法的影响。孩子往往缺乏自制力，甚至不知道该如何换频道。

(3) 答案：D.Because he found inappropriate content in videos aimed at kids on YouTube.

解释：James Bridle最近深入研究了YouTube上针对儿童的内容，令人不安的是，他发现了很多熟悉的角色实施暴力的视频。他指责YouTube和Google是这些不良视频的共谋。

(4) 答案：C.Incredulous. Because it lacks effective measure to spot inappropriate content.

解释：YouTube Kids应用有更详细的规则和更严格的控制，但即使是这个应用也没有人工审核团队，而是靠父母将不良内容标记出来再删除。

星巴克在上海开设烘焙工坊

星巴克在上海开设了海外首家烘焙工坊，董事长舒尔茨表示，中国将在星巴克的财务业绩中占据更为重要的地位：“这是星巴克发展的一个拐点。”当肯德基、麦当劳等洋快餐品牌纷纷在华遭遇瓶颈之时，星巴克为何能在中国高歌猛进？这种成功能够持续下去吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

upmarket [ˌʌp'maːkɪt] adj. 高档的，高级的

artisanal ['a:tɪzənəl] adj. 手艺性的

ubiquity [juː'bɪkwəti] n. 到处存在，遍在

blaze [bleɪz] vt. 燃烧，宣布，开拓

sparse [spaːs] adj. 稀少的，稀疏的

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

4分34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49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

Starbucks makes super-sized China bet as it looks beyond US （641 words）

By Tom Hancock

Starbucks is making a super-sized bet on China, where it is opening a premium roastery that will be its largest outlet in the world as part of efforts to maintain its upscale reputation in an increasingly important market.

The 30,000 sq ft roastery — approximately half the size of a football pitch — in Shanghai is the first for Starbucks outside the US. The outlet, which will open on Wednesday, allows customers to watch beans being roasted and brewed in Bunsen-burner style tubes and is positioned as “super premium”, the company said.

As white-collar Chinese consumers with rising incomes switch to pricier premium goods, Starbucks is betting that thirst will extend to coffee.

China could become Starbucks' biggest market within a decade, executive chairman Howard Schultz told the Financial Times in Shanghai on Tuesday.

Starbucks outlets in China have been seen as an upmarket destination for business meetings or dates, and so are able to charge more for a coffee than in the US. But other US brands such as McDonald's and KFC that expanded rapidly in China have struggled in recent years as consumers in large cities began to desert them in favour of higher-end options.

Starbucks has 600 stores in Shanghai — more than in New York or London — but faces competition from an increasing number of artisanal outlets. Li Chaoxiang, 23, who works in an investment bank, said: “Starbucks is not a premium brand any more, as when it first came. Now in Shanghai you can see Starbucks anywhere.”

Starbucks dominates China's $3.8bn specialist coffee shop sector with a 55 per cent market share last year, according to consultancy Euromonitor, well ahead of its closest rival McDonald's, which had a 7 per cent share. Sales at such stores have nearly tripled in value since 2012 as more Chinese people drink coffee.

The Asia-Pacific region, including China, accounted for almost 15 per cent of Starbucks' revenue for the fiscal year ended in October, up from 5.5 per cent five years earlier. Same-store sales grew 8 per cent in China in the most recent quarter, compared with 2 per cent globally.

Jeffrey Towson, a business professor at Peking University, said Starbucks had “positioned themselves as affordable luxury” adding: “The amazing thing is, they really don't have any major competitor in China at the moment.”

Starbucks opens a store about every 15 hours in China, including in a growing number of smaller cities, Mr Schultz saiD.“We're seeing fantastic returns in those cities which are consistent with the early days of Shanghai and Beijing,” he added.

To some extent Starbucks, which is targeting 5,000 outlets in China by 2021, is following a trail blazed by the fast-food chains into smaller Chinese cities, where incomes are rising faster than China's largest cities.

“Starbucks stands for American lifestyle,” said Terence Tsai, a professor at the China Europe International Business School. “It's allied with status. People in lower-tier cities would aspire to this kind of leisure lifestyle. Lower tier cities are ready for this kind of thing.”

But Starbucks was unlikely to be able to spread itself as widely as brands such as KFC, analysts said, especially in western regions of China, which are poorer with sparser populations. “The urbanisation rate is a problem, for a Starbucks it's a particular problem because they need high-visibility and high-traffic locations,” said Mr Towson.

While Starbucks has been under fire for its tax arrangements in Europe, Mr Schultz, who stepped down as chief executive this year, has been an outspoken critic of US president Donald Trump and the recent tax reform bill passed by the US Senate.

“I have a policy of not speaking about American politics on foreign soil,” he saiD.“I'll just say this: I would like to see a tax policy that is more compassionate and serves all people not just corporate America.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who are Starbucks's target customers in China?

A.Young people in first-tier cities.

B.White-collar workers in cities.

C.High-end consumers in low-tier cities.

D.Residents in high-traffic locations.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about Starbucks in China is true?

A.Starbucks stores are seen as an upmarket destination in China.

B.China becomes Starbucks' biggest market within a decade.

C.Starbucks has opened around 600 stores in China's first-tier cities.

D.Starbucks lost its appeal as costumers now favour artisan coffee.

答案(2)

3.How does Starbucks manage to dominate China's specialist coffee shop sector according to Professor Towson?

A.Starbucks stores positioned themselves as artisanal bars.

B.Starbucks outlets located in high-visibility and high-traffic places.

C.Starbucks positioned themselves as affordable luxury.

D.Starbucks represents American lifestyle in smaller Chinese cities.

答案(3)

4.According to Mr Towson, the major problem facing Starbucks in western regions is ____.

A.economic conditions.

B.urbanisation rate.

C.social customs and beliefs.

D.tax arrangements.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.White-collar workers in cities.

解释：随着收入日益增高的中国白领消费者转向更昂贵的商品，星巴克认为这种需求也会出现在咖啡领域。

(2) 答案：A.Starbucks stores are seen as an upmarket destination in China.

解释：星巴克门店在中国被视为进行商务会面和约会的高端场所。

(3) 答案：C.Starbucks positioned themselves as affordable luxury.

解释：北大商学院教授Jeffrey Towson称，星巴克“将自己定位为买得起的奢侈品”并称，“令人吃惊的是，他们目前在中国并没有任何主要的竞争对手”。

(4) 答案：B.urbanisation rate.

解释：但分析师指出，星巴克的品牌不太可能像肯德基一样广泛传播，特别是在相对贫困且人口稀少的西部地区。“城市化比率是一个问题。”Towson称。

泰姬陵陷入“身份危机”

不久前，印度北方邦发行了一本官方旅游指南，介绍了北方邦的风景名胜，却刻意忽略了最负盛名的泰姬陵，这在印度舆论界掀起了轩然大波。外国游客眼中代表了印度文化精华的泰姬陵，如今却成了部分印度人眼中异族征服者的残留和伊斯兰历史的象征……

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

kerfuffle [kə'fʌfl] n. 混乱，动乱

mausoleum [ˌmɔːsə'liːəm] n. 陵墓

itinerary [aɪ'tɪnərəri] n. 旅程，旅行指南

benign [bɪ'naɪn] adj. 仁慈的，温和的

animus ['ænɪməs] n. 敌意，恶意

indigenous [ɪn'dɪdʒənəs] adj. 土著的

mutiny ['mjuːtəni] n. 兵变，反抗

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

The Taj Mahal is caught in a tug of war over Indian identity （679 words）

By Amy Kazmin

The Taj Mahal is India's best-known, most internationally recognisable monument, as indelibly linked to the country as the Great Wall is to China.

Commissioned in 1632 by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife, the graceful marble mausoleum draws millions of visitors annually, including most foreign dignitaries and tourists passing through Delhi.

It was described by the Nobel Prize-winning writer Rabindranath Tagore as “a teardrop on the cheek of time”, and was where Diana, Princess of Wales posed alone in 1992 on a visit to India with Prince Charles — an image that hinted at her loneliness shortly before their formal separation.

I first glimpsed the Taj in a high school slideshow, and my first visit — the day after I arrived in India in 1994 — was as stunning as I imagineD.So I did not think much of it when India's largest state, Uttar Pradesh — now governed by the rabble-rousing Hindu priest Yogi Adityanath and the Bharatiya Janata party — left the Taj out of an official brochure to promote its tourist sites.

While a media kerfuffle erupted over the omission in October, just ahead of the peak tourist season, I figured it hardly mattered, as the mausoleum is on the itinerary of nearly every foreign tour group visiting north IndiA.The idea that one of the country's most backward states might try to boost tourist traffic to less famous sites seemed reasonable, too.

Yet my interpretation of the exclusion as a surprising but benign oversight was naive.

A few weeks later, Sangeet Som, a controversial BJP state legislator, made clear what really lay behind the Taj's omission: rightwing Hindu nationalists' deep antipathy towards a monument built by India's erstwhile Muslim rulers.

At a rally, Mr Som called the Taj “a blot on Indian culture” saying it was “built by traitors” who persecuted Hindus and whose memories should be erased from history. Mr Adityanath had expressed similar sentiments, criticising previous Indian governments for presenting Taj replicas to foreign dignitaries.

Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a history professor at Ashoka University, told me rightwing animus towards the Taj stems from the view that India's Mughal rulers were as alien to the subcontinent as the British colonisers who followeD.“The issue over the Taj is symptomatic of the wider issue of India's Muslim past, and whether India's Muslim past is Indian, or the remnants of a foreign occupation,” Mr Mahmudabad saiD.“It is about what is Indian and what is not.”

The Mughal dynasty was founded in 1526 by Babur, from central AsiA.His descendants intermarried with local notables, including other high-caste Hindus. Highly influenced by Persian culture, the Mughal court was also shaped by subcontinental beliefs and customs, and drew talented individuals from many faiths.

When the last Mughal was deposed by the British East India Company in 1857, he was seen as an indigenous ruler, and the rallying point for the failed anti-British mutiny by an army that included many Hindus. Since India's independence movement, the Mughals have been widely extolled as symbols of religious harmony and tolerance — whose approach to diversity offers a template for a contemporary, secular India.

But Hindu nationalists see history differently. They characterise the Mughals as invaders, who interrupted a Hindu golden age and suppressed indigenous culture. They want the Mughals scrubbed from school history books. Some claim the Taj was originally a Shiva temple stolen by the Mughals, though historians — and the Archaeological Survey of India — say there is no credible evidence. But the idea of a cover-up is being propagated in internet videos.

By challenging the “Indian-ness” of the Mughals and their monuments, Hindu nationalists challenge the claim of India's 180m Muslims to a say in the country's future. To them, Muslims are “at best guests and at worst foreigners”, says Mr Mahmudabad.

For now, Mr Adityanath has tried to draw a line under the Taj furore. Visiting the monument for the first time, he declared all controversy was unwarranted, as the structure had been “built by the labourers of India”. But the debate over what constitutes Indian-ness — and who is a genuine Indian — is unlikely to end so quickly.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The Taj Mahal was commissioned by Shah Jahan as ____.

A.a tomb for his wife.

B.an imperial garden.

C.a complex of palaces.

D.a triumphal arch.

答案(1)

2.The author originally thought Uttar Pradesh neglected the Taj in the tourism brochure because ____.

A.they wanted to attract tourists to less famous sites.

B.they believed the Taj was a blot on Indian culture.

C.they believed Mughal emperor had persecuted Hindus.

D.they wanted to boost tourist traffic in backward states.

答案(2)

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

A.Evidence shows the Taj was originally a Shiva temple stolen by the Mughals.

B.Hindu nationalists characterise the Mughals as symbols of religious tolerance.

C.The last Mughal emperor was deposed in India's independence movement.

D.The Mughal court was shaped by both Persian culture and Indian customs.

答案(3)

4.Professor Mahmudabad thinks debates over the Taj reflect ____.

A.the conflict between Persian culture and Indian faiths and customs.

B.the animus towards India's Muslim past and the Muslims in India today.

C.the increasingly acute regional imbalances in Indian society.

D.the identity crisis facing Hindu nationalists and Muslims in India.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.a tomb for his wife.

解释：莫卧儿统治者沙贾汗与1632年下令建造泰姬陵作为他妻子的坟墓。

(2) 答案：A.they wanted to attract tourists to less famous sites.

解释：起初我觉得这不重要，也许这个印度最落后的邦是希望将游客吸引到其他不那么有名的景点去。

(3) 答案：D.The Mughal court was shaped by both Persian culture and Indian customs.

解释：莫卧儿宫廷深受波斯文化的影响，同时也被印度次大陆的信仰与风俗影响。

(4) 答案：B.the animus towards India's Muslim past and the Muslims in India today.

解释：“关于泰姬陵的事反映了一个更大的问题，事关印度的伊斯兰历史，以及这段历史究竟是属于印度人，还是异族占领留下的残余”。

留学生成为英国的新财富

出国求学曾是贵族公子的专利。但如今，每年都有成千上万家庭一掷千金，送子女出国接受更好的教育。以中国学生为首的海外留学生已经成为了英国的新财富，他们不仅支持了英国的贸易，更能在未来成为英国与各个国家交流的桥梁。留学生成为了英国经济与政治的双重财富。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

trench [trentʃ] n. 沟，沟渠

redemption [rɪ'dempʃn] n. 补救

resentment [rɪ'zentmənt] n. 怨恨，愤恨

scrimp [skrɪmp] v. 节省，吝啬

creed [kriːd] n. 信条，教义

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

2分53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43秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Welcoming foreign students to the UK builds trade and allies （722 words）

By Keith Burnett

In H G Wells' wartime bestseller Mr Britling Sees It Through, published in 1916, the author tells the story of the middle-class family of a scholar in Edwardian England ripped apart by the horrors of the first world war.

In the final chapter of the book, Mr Britling, whose beloved son Hugh has been lost in the trenches, writes to the parents of the young German man, also now lost, who had worked as his research assistant before the Great War.

His letter is a desperate plea for sanity and redemption, a letter of hope from suffering parent to suffering parent, written while England felt brutal despair.

Praised at the time for its humanity, the novel shatters the myth of a Jingoistic nation. The “war to end all wars” did not prevent other conflicts. Since the end of the second world war, there have been 250 conflicts in which more than 50m people have been killed in total. But here is a source of hope. The navy of the British empire carried the flower of British and Asian youth to die at the front. Today, young people travel across the oceans not to fight but to study.

Once, only the very rich had the good fortune to taste the peacetime possibilities of living in other lands. Today, hundreds of thousands of families invest in a far better sacrifice: education. Their young will return stronger, with productive and competitive skills.

What would HG Wells think of our times? Perhaps he, like me, would imagine that lost generation of young men — not dead and buried in the mud of Flanders but living and learning in colleges across the world.

Never before in human history have so many travelled to learn and research across the worlD.Chinese students walk the streets of London, learning English and buying English goods. Young people travel between nations who once viewed each other as enemies. Students sit side by side from Greece and Cyprus, Serbia and Kosovo, Turkey and AlbaniA.Students from throughout the world find a new identity as they mix with peers from other lands.

We know that globalisation will not guarantee world peace. Some believed the first world war was impossible because of the international connections made through trade; they believed that doux commerce would bind people together. Others warned that trade could lead to envy, from which resentment could grow.

Educational bonds can ensure we trade on good terms. In India, where half the population is under 25, there is huge demand for higher education, not met by the domestic universities. If the UK wants to trade with India, it must be ready to open its borders to India's ambitious students. The freedom to trade and the movement of people are two sides of the same coin.

Students are not immigrants, they are temporary visitors who make considerable annual investments in the UK. But the decrease in applications from EU students this year confirms our worst fears: Brexit, and Theresa May's refusal, both as prime minister and as home secretary, to exclude students from migration calculations, will have a substantial impact on the economy's vital cities. Why cause additional financial damage in these places when we could do good?

And Chinese parents pay billions of pounds towards degree courses in the UK for their children — the largest proportion of international students in the UK. Their spending amounts to about 20 per cent of staff salaries and the investment in new teaching facilities and scholarships, not to mention the cash spent on food, taxi rides and rent. A large part of that cash was earned manufacturing the goods China has sold to the west.

Without these international students, inward investment would shrink. Shops in university towns and cities would fall to the Plimsoll line of viability. Assuming the UK government would not replace the loss in these fees from overseas, universities would face a devastating cut in funding. Our most talented global research teams would be cruelly diminished, leaving to base themselves elsewhere.

The UK benefits from others' years of hard work, scrimping and saving so that a child can study in another land, expand their horizons, learn another language, make friends and find colleagues of every creed and colour.

That is why we want those students to study here and to take their affectionate memories back to their own countries, becoming the UK's friends and allies.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who is Mr Britling ?

A.Author of the best selling book during the first world war.

B.A British scholar who was lost in the trenches in the Great War.

C.A fictional character who lost his beloved son in wartime.

D.A young German man who had worked in England before war.

答案(1)

2.What is the best way to increase trade between the UK and India according to the author?

A.Investing in India's domestic universities.

B.Sending more British students to Indian universities.

C.Exclude Indian students from migration calculations.

D.Opening its borders to Indian students.

答案(2)

3.The largest proportion of international students in the UK comes from ____.

A.EU.

B.India.

C.China.

D.Turkey.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards international students in the UK?

A.Encouraging.

B.Cautionary.

C.Dispassionate.

D.Incredulous.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.A fictional character who lost his beloved son in wartime.

解释：Britling的心爱的儿子Hugh在战壕中失踪。在书的最后一章，Britling给一个德国年轻人的父母写了一封信。

(2) 答案：D.Opening its borders to Indian students.

解释：印度有一半以上的人口都在25岁以下，国内的大学无法满足他们对高等教育的巨大需求。如果英国想与印度进行贸易，他们必须欢迎印度野心勃勃的学生们。

(3) 答案：C.ChinA.

解释：中国父母们为了孩子们的英国学位花费了几十亿英镑，中国学生是英国最大的留学生群体。

(4) 答案：A.Encouraging.

解释：我们希望学生来这里学习，并将深情的回忆带回祖国，成为英国的朋友和同盟。

俄罗斯世界杯——普京的乌龙球？

2010年，当俄罗斯成为2018年世界杯主办国时，普京信心满满，誓要将其办成像北京奥运会一样的国家广告。但如今，俄罗斯政府只盼望着这届世界杯赶快过去，社交网站也被俄罗斯人的抱怨充满。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

renovate ['renəveɪt] vt. 更新，革新

contingent [kən'tɪndʒənt] n. 代表团；小分队

prestige [pre'stiːʒ] n. 威望，声望

coax [kəʊks] v. 哄，诱骗

grumble ['grʌmbl]n. 怨言，牢骚

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8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3秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分43秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Russia's World Cup: a Putin own goal? （720 words）

By Simon Kuper

Like most Russians, Vladimir Putin isn't a football fan, but in 2009 he decided that Russia should bid to host the 2018 World Cup. This Friday, when the draw for next summer's tournament is made in Moscow, he may be wishing he hadn't. “The general feeling I get from the authorities is, ‘Let's get this over with,’” says Sven Daniel Wolfe, expert on Russian sporting politics at Lausanne University.

When Russia began bidding for the tournament, it was a different country. In 2008 I flew to Moscow for the Chelsea v Manchester United Champions League final. Anyone holding a match ticket could enter Russia without a visA.I whizzed through customs at renovated Domodedovo airport in minutes; much smoother than entering the US. Moscow's restaurants were packed, and that week the Russian stock market hit a record high. The match was beautifully organiseD.The bloke in the hotel room opposite mine was Putin's chum Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president.

Two months later, Russia reached the semi-finals of the European Championship, prompting Moscow's largest spontaneous street celebrations since 1945. Weeks later, Russia's army invaded GeorgiA.The west barely pushed back. In March 2009, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton gave her Russian counterpart a ceremonial red button marked “reset” in English and “peregruzka” in Russian. Putin must have imagined the 2018 World Cup as his version of China's 2008 Beijing Olympics: a coming-out party for a well-off, confident, modern power.

Before Fifa's executive committee voted on the host of the World Cup, he met about six of its 22 members. On December 2 2010, Fifa chose RussiA.For Putin, that day may prove the peak of the whole nine-year project. Since then his country's image in the west has collapsed following Russia's wars in Ukraine and Syria, its economic decline, an Olympic doping scandal, and meddling in western elections. Anyway, the US — the country against which Russia obsessively measures itself, according to Wolfe — will largely ignore the World Cup, having failed to qualify. Few European viewers will believe Russia's self-presentation. The thousands of visiting journalists （surely the largest foreign press contingent ever to spend a month in Russia） are likely to pump out the negative coverage that Russians call zloradstvo （evil-revelling）.

Russia will presumably host a smooth World Cup, but that feat carries little prestige since even Jacob Zuma's South Africa managed it in 2010. And though western countries don't boycott World Cups, few of their politicians, sponsors and fans will come.

Still, Putin's core audience is always Russians, not foreigners. “The World Cup is to tell Russians, ‘Look how great we are,’” says Manuel Veth, editor of the Futbolgrad website, which covers the former USSR. Putin aims to use sport to coax Russians into healthier lifestyles, says Constantin Gurdgiev, economist at Trinity College Dublin. The fading out of the heavy-drinking older generation helps. He also hopes to woo young people who have detached from the state, adds Gurdgiev.

However, the Russians who will enjoy it most are the well-connected businesspeople who built the infrastructure. St Petersburg's stadium alone cost Rbs44bn （£560m）, which is seven times the original estimate. Putin needs to keep enriching his cronies. In return, he'll get to show off lots of swish new buildings, even in poor host cities such as Volgograd and Kaliningrad, says Sylvain Dufraisse of Nantes University.

But Russians may not buy his nation-building story. Social media is full of grumbles about overpriced stadiums, says Olga Chepurnaya, an independent scholar. This is especially damaging given that half of Russians now consider themselves poor, according to a recent poll by Moscow's Higher School of Economics. People want bread, not just games. When the party ends, the grumbles will continue.

And whereas Russia topped the medals table at the Sochi winter Olympics of 2014, its football team, the Sbornaya, is hopeless. Russia's current Fifa ranking of 65th — lowest of all 32 countries at the World Cup — is its worst ever. If the team flops, “ordinary Russians will be embarrassed”, says Marc Bennetts, author of Football Dynamo.

No wonder Putin is keeping his distance from the Sbornaya, while Russian media play down the World Cup. There's no equivalent of the “One Nation — One Team” PR campaign rolled out for Sochi. “Probably the authorities have already lost interest,” says ChepurnayA.“But they cannot say, ‘Oh, we don't want to go through with it any more.’”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which event prompted Moscow's largest spontaneous street celebrations since 1945 ?

A.Chelsea v Manchester United Champions League final.

B.Russia reached semi-finals in European Championship.

C.Russia was chosen as 2018 World Cup host.

D.Russia's army invaded Ukraine and Syria.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following did not contribute to Russia's collapsed image in the west?

A.Russia's wars in Ukraine and Syria.

B.Olympic doping scandal.

C.Overpriced football stadiums.

D.Meddling in western elections.

答案(2)

3.Why the 2018 World Cup is doomed to be ignored in the US ?

A.Because the US will probably boycott the 2018 World Cup.

B.Because the US failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

C.Because Russia's image in western countries has collapsed.

D.Because Americans have been playing down the World Cup.

答案(3)

4.According to Constantin Gurdgiev, what is Putin's major purpose of hosting the 2018 World Cup ?

A.To keep enriching his cronies who built the infrastructure.

B.To restore Russia's creditworthiness in western world.

C.To show off Russia's well-off, confident, modern power.

D.To promote healthy lifestyles and patriotic belief in Russia.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.Russia reached semi-finals in European Championship.

解释：俄罗斯球队闯入欧冠半决赛，这引发了自1945年以来莫斯科最大的街头自发庆祝活动。

(2) 答案：C.Overpriced football stadiums.

解释：2010年以后，乌克兰和叙利亚的战争、奥运禁药丑闻、干涉西方选举让俄罗斯在西方的形象倒塌了。

(3) 答案：B.Because the US failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

解释：俄罗斯一直痴迷于通过和美国的比较来衡量自己，但这次世界杯将在很大程度上被美国忽视，因为他们的球队没能入围。

(4) 答案：D.To promote healthy lifestyles and patriotic belief in Russia.

解释：都柏林大学三一学院的经济学家Constantin Gurdgiev称，普京希望用体育来向俄罗斯人推广更健康的生活方式，并吸引那些不再关注本国的年轻人。

枪支问题惹怒美国年轻人

在一场黑帮主题的校园音乐剧表演上，学生们弃用了枪支道具，并以慷慨激昂的控枪演讲作为开场。很多人为这无孔不入的政治正确皱眉头，但美国的年轻人们有权利愤怒。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

ghastadj. 鬼一样的，可怕的 /gɑːst/

smackn. 风味，滋味；少量 /smæk/

enmeshvt. 使绊住，使陷入 /ɪn'meʃ/

detonatevt. 使爆炸，使爆裂 /'detəneɪt/

proximateadj. 最接近的，直接的 /'prɒksɪmət/

faddishadj. 流行一时的，时尚的 /'fædɪʃ/

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38秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分9秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分15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

US teenagers are right to be fired up about gun control（789 words）

By Gillian Tett

Last weekend, I watched a New York school play with a twist. My daughters' drama teachers had chosen to stage Bugsy Malone – a vibrant musical with catchy songs and enough chorus parts to accommodate flocks of kids.

However, it also has a heap of guns. The plot revolves around rival gangsters who spend much of their time shooting at each other. So, following last month's ghastly events at a high school in Florida, the teachers decided to do Bugsy Malone with a few 2018-style modifications. They replaced the toy guns with non-gun-shaped “splurge machines”, and the students insisted on starting the show with a long speech declaring their support for gun control.

A cynic might say this smacks of political correctness; personally, I would have preferred to retain the toy guns, alongside the speech, for tradition's sake. But as I listened to the students talk, I was also tempted to cheer.

What is striking about the gun debate in the US today is not simply the strength of protest following that tragic Florida attack, nor the powerful public stance of the survivors. What is also notable – and was true long before the Florida shooting – is how deeply enmeshed American teen and tween culture has become in the twin issues of guns and gun control.

For somebody who grew up in 1980s Britain, this feels completely alien. My own childhood was not without threats: I was keenly aware of the IRA detonating bombs in my hometown of London, and I was haunted by fears of nuclear war. But I never pondered guns, since they were not part of my life in any way. Indeed, the only time I ever saw them being fired was in movies such as Bugsy Malone.

In modern New York, however, my daughters seem to talk about guns quite a lot with their friends. Thankfully, they do not know anyone who has been involved in a school shooting. But social media makes distant crowds feel personal and proximate: whenever a school shooting occurs, the details quickly ripple out, along with haunting videos from survivors. And even without the internet, the issue of guns is thrust into my daughters' classroom every term, as their school regularly stages so-called Code Red drills to teach students and teachers how to respond.

The official advice is simply to shut the doors and crouch under desks. However, my elder daughter and her friends have drawn up their own plans: they have scoured the school for hiding places, decided to scatter, not huddle, if a shooter arrives （to present a harder target）, and pledged to put their mobile phones into “sleep” mode （to avoid attracting attention）. “Everyone thinks about it,” my daughter observes. And this is not just a teen matter: there are even stories about much younger kids refusing to wear flashing trainers in case a shooter enters their school.

The subject has spawned some black humour. When Donald Trump suggested that teachers should be armed, my daughter and her friends started sharing Photoshopped images of their teachers clutching weapons. “It's a joke!” the eldest one explained, in fits of giggles, as she revealed her favourite “meme”, an elderly Latin teacher doctored to resemble Rambo.

Again, a cynic might suggest that this is faddish fearmongering: statistics show that teenagers are far more likely to die in a car accident than in a school shooting. They might also point out that the American gun lobby – thanks to high-profile organisations such as the National Rifle Association – remains extremely powerful, irrespective of the protests, and may yet crush all demands for gun control. There have been numerous calls for regulation before; none has really worked.

But a world where teenagers are furiously posting and tweeting about guns, and making speeches alongside performances of Bugsy Malone, is also a world of shifting cultural norms. Today, according to a poll from Fox News, 53 per cent of Americans consider it more important to protect against gun violence than to protect gun rights; a decade ago, polls used to show the reverse. And history demonstrates that when cultural norms shift, unexpected changes often follow. Think, for example, how much attitudes towards gay marriage have been transformed over recent years. Or ponder cigarettes, once completely commonplace, yet now so taboo around kids that smoking was also removed from my daughters' version of Bugsy Malone, with nobody even feeling the need to explain why.

So the next time my daughter shows me a “joke” meme of one of her teachers holding a gun, I will recoil in horror. But I will also offer a prayer of thanks for how the internet has given teenagers a collective voice. Let's just hope this turns into votes when they grow up. Then nobody will need to fuss about “splurge machines” at a school performance of a much-loved musical.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The drama teachers and students decided to ____ in their school play after the Florida attack ?

A.edit the plot revolves around rival gangsters shooting at each other in gunfire.

B.deliver a gun control speech and replace the toy guns with splurge machines.

C.replace the songs with a long speech declaring their support for gun control.

D.retain the non-gun-shaped toy splurge machines as props for tradition's sake.

答案(1)

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

A.The author has some friends on social media who has came across mass shootings.

B.The author's daughters don't know anyone who has been involved in Code Red drills.

C.Social media gives rise to the increasing popularity of gun control debate in school.

D.The author was never haunted by fears of violence and cruelty in her childhood.

答案(2)

3.What is the official advice for surviving a school shooting?

A.To close the doors and hide under the desks.

B.To scour the school for hiding places in advance.

C.To put their mobile phones into silent mode.

D.To take off flashing trainers to avoid attention.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards the future of gun control?

A.Ambivalent.

B.Optimistic.

C.Objective.

D.Cautionary.

答案(4)

(1) 答案B.deliver a gun control speech and replace the toy guns with splurge machines.

他们用非枪形的“喷洒机”取代了玩具枪，学生们坚持以支持枪支管制的长篇演讲作为演出的开始。

(2) 答案 C.Social media gives rise to the increasing popularity of gun control debate in school.

但是社交媒体让人们对遥远的人群产生亲近感：每当发生校园枪击时，案件细节很快会随着幸存者的视频传播开来。

(3) 答案A.To close the doors and hide under the desks.

官方的建议仅仅是关上门，蹲在桌子下面。

(4) 答案B.OptimistiC.历史表明，当主流文化转变时，往往会出现意想不到的变化。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集

Vol.64

不太宜居的“智慧城市”

曾经存在于科幻电影中的后现代城市如今不再是幻想，很多政府和科技公司都在计划建立信息化的“智慧城市”。但他们都忽视了城市中最重要的因素——人。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

glitzy [ˈglitsē] adj. 闪光的，耀眼的

stinging ['stɪŋɪŋ] adj. 刺人的，激烈的

nascent ['næsnt] adj. 发生中的，初期的

inadvertent [ˌɪnəd'vɜːtənt] adj. 不注意的，疏忽的

lamppost ['læmppəʊst] n. 路灯柱

laden ['leɪdn] adj. 充满的，负载的

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

4分34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49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

Smart cities might not be such a bright idea （641 words）

By Anjana Ahuja

The future is not just bright but blindingly illuminated, if one buys into the buzz around “smart cities”. Bill Gates is rumoured to be building one from the ground up in Arizona, complete with autonomous vehicles. Google is giving urban planning a shot in a Toronto suburb.

Smart cities are being rolled out across the globe, particularly where populations are rising quickly, in countries such as India, China and parts of AfricA.On paper at least, these urban fantasies share the same Fritz Lang aesthetic: metallic skyscrapers, pleasingly empty highways, attractive landscaping, lighting schemes to make eco-warriors weep — and very few people.

The mysterious lack of residents amid the glitzy imagery was noted by a sharp-eyed civil rights group in New Delhi. Earlier this year, the Housing and Land Rights Network published a report assessing how India was faring with its 2015 pledge to build 100 such cities by 2020.

Among its stinging observations are that “none of the images seem to portray mixed-income neighbourhoods, social housing, street vendors, women's and children's security…” Not even a stray cow, that most blessed of Indian roadblocks. If there is no room for the poor, the campaign group notes, then who are smart cities for?

The term refers to a networked city in which technology is ubiquitous and interconnected; real-time data are continuously collected and fed back in order to help authorities run things more smoothly and sustainably. For example, it might mean highway lanes switching direction to accommodate rush hour. Public lighting schemes could be dimmed when sensors detect empty streets. Monitoring the demographics of different neighbourhoods could help determine where new schools and surgeries should be built. Smart cities are imagined gems of modernity, where technological prowess meets aspirational living, smoothly spurring economic growth.

The nascent city of Dholera, while not technically one of India's envisaged 100 smart cities, offers a flavour of this future. Dholera, in Gujurat, should theoretically benefit from the country's vision of an industrial corridor running between the capital and Mumbai.

Unfortunately, the flavour is mostly bitter: its development threatens to displace around 40,000 residents, many of them farmers and fishermen with low levels of education. It is unclear where or how they would fit into a brand new DholerA.As a review of these techno-developments in Scientific American concludes, truly smart cities need to “find a satisfactory balance between the present and the future”.

Without factoring in such civic intangibles as social justice and privacy, smart cities may end up being dumb places to live. A shiny metropolis that has mastered the art of adaptive traffic flow might, in other ways, be inadvertently wired for unhappiness. If only data from connected residents are factored into city life, will this magnify the inequality between the digital haves and have-nots? If every lamppost and street sign is laden with sensors, what does this mean for privacy and anonymity?

More data, of itself, cannot automatically make life better. Some urban challenges are social or political in nature, and not necessarily in the gift of technology to solve. Narendra Modi may dream of new economic hubs but an estimated 84 per cent of India's existing city dwellers do not have access to a toilet.

Even today, citizens are still drawn magnetically to old communities, or to new civic centres within reach of old ones. Why is it that some of the most desirable places to live are layered with centuries, even millennia, of human history? Historic cities like London and Delhi have expanded organically, somehow finding space for both grime and glitz, the rich and poor. Outsiders still flock to the cities to make their reputations and fortunes.

It may be overpriced, dirty and occasionally interrupted by stray cows — but, unlike the high-tech cities springing up today, the metropolis of old also seems to offer a connectivity that people actually want.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the Housing and Land Rights Network ?

A.A civil rights group in New Delhi.

B.The urban planning unit of Google.

C.The smart city programme of Bill Gates.

D.An intelligence unit in Indian government.

答案(1)

2.According to Housing and Land Rights Network, which important factor is neglected in the blueprint for smart cities?

A.Security system for women and children.

B.Living space for the vulnerable group.

C.Personal privacy and anonymity protection.

D.The accommodation for farmers and fishermen.

答案(2)

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

A.Around 40,000 uneducated residents of Dholera has been displaced.

B.Dholera is an Indian city located between the capital and Mumbai.

C.Most of the dwellers in Dholera are uneducated farmers and fishermen.

D.Dholera is one of the 100 envisaged smart cities in India's future plan.

答案(3)

4.According to the author, why more data cannot automatically make people's life better ?

A.Because the smart cities plans are only feasible when poverty was eradicated.

B.Because all of the current blueprints of smart cities are fundamentally flawed.

C.Because technology cannot not be a panacea for social or political problems.

D.Because smart cities cannot offer the connectivity that people actually want.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.A civil rights group in New Delhi.

解释：新德里的一家目光敏锐的民权组织发现，在这些令人炫目的图像中，人却少得离奇。今年早些时候，住房和土地权利网，评估印度如何能够实现到2020年建成100个智慧城市的承诺。

(2) 答案：B.Living space for the vulnerable group.

解释：“没有任何一幅图片关系到混合收入社区，公益性住房，小摊贩，女性和儿童安全……”

(3) 答案：B.Dholera is an Indian city located between the capital and Mumbai.

解释：印度计划在首都和孟买之间建设工业走廊，理论上，古吉拉特邦的托莱拉会从该计划中受益。

(4) 答案：C.Because technology cannot not be a panacea for social or political problems.

解释：单单是更多的数据并不能自然而然地让生活变得更美好。城市面临的挑战中有很多都是社会或政治问题，技术并不能解决一切。

谁能证明自动驾驶汽车的安全？

在亲身经历了惊悚的自动驾驶汽车失控后，我对自动驾驶的安全性感到怀疑。对于自动驾驶汽车，我们没有标准的检验程序，要怎样判定一辆自动驾驶汽车是否出了问题呢？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

spook [spuːk] vt. 吓唬，恐吓

wrench [rentʃ] vt. 猛扭，扭伤

epiphany [ɪ'pɪfəni] n. 顿悟

careen [kə'riːn] vi. 倾斜;猛冲

berserk [bə'zɜːk] adj. 狂暴的

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

4分45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54秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Can autonomous cars pass their driving test? （665 words）

By Leslie Hook

My most terrifying assignment in a decade of journalism was riding in a self-driving car — one that was totally out of control. The setting was a sunny afternoon at a racetrack near Napa in California，where a group of students on a self-driving car course offered to take a colleague and me for a spin. Sensing it might be more interesting than the ultra-controlled “test” rides offered by most autonomous car developers, we agreed.

“It might get a little squirrelly,” warned the student safety driver Anthony Navarro. A classmate sat in the passenger seat, laptop open, running through the code one last time. The group had spent only six weeks building the software as part of a class run by Udacity, the online school for software engineers, and were excited to show it off.

But as soon as we started driving, it was clear they had a long way to go. The car acted like a spooked horse: it would shy one way, then the other, before veering towards a ditch. Approaching a large gate, it drove directly towards an adjoining stone wall and accelerateD.The driver waited until the last moment to wrench the wheel in the opposite direction, and my stomach dropped.

The near-miss prompted an epiphany for the engineer: he had forgotten a minus sign somewhere, meaning the car had reversed its steering instructions. “Let me fix this,” he said, rewriting the code. Two minutes later, we were on our way again but the vehicle continued to careen violently. It felt like being on a roller coaster, one that could end up killing you. Most self-driving cars do not act like this, of course. All the other autonomous cars I've been in were perfectly behaveD.And a student project is no proxy for a sophisticated industry. But after experiencing the sphincter-clenching terror of sitting inside a 3,000lb steel machine that is acting berserk, I have never looked at them in quite the same way.

I thought back on that ride when Waymo, the self-driving unit of Alphabet, announced this month that it was removing the drivers from its cars in Phoenix. These cars are truly driverless, with no one to turn the wheel if the machine veers off course. Whether it is Waymo's advanced vehicles or a student project, both face the same question — who gets to decide when they are safe enough to drive themselves?

Driving tests for humans are highly standardiseD.But for robots there is no industry-wide test. Right now the rules are highly permissive, which is great for research: states such as Arizona don't require a driver behind the wheel during testing. As long as companies fill out the paperwork, they can launch driverless cars. Waymo drove millions of miles before it felt confident it had reached that point.

Weighing the safety of the new technology is tricky because we must measure it against a rather flawed system, human drivers. Driving kills more than 37,000 people annually in the United States. Driverless cars have killed no one — yet. Self-driving advocates argue that as soon as self-driving cars have a better safety record than humans, they should be deployed widely to save lives. Even if the cars do kill some people, it will be fewer than would have died otherwise.

But that cold logic will be hard to accept when a terrible accident happens. So far, autonomous cars have an admirable safety recorD.But when tragedy inevitably strikes, the mood will shift. Robot mistakes may prove much harder to forgive than human errors. Policy makers will have to decide whether there is any level at which they can permit human deaths caused by driverless cars.

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have agreed to ride in an untested student vehicle. But to some extent we are all riding in a car that's never been tested, to a destination that's unknown. Part of this journey will involve answering tough questions about what level of human risk is acceptable. That's a debate that needs to happen sooner rather than later.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The self-driving software mentioned in the first paragraph is designed by ____.

A.A self-driving company called Udacity.

B.A research group from Phoenix.

C.A group of mechanical engineers.

D.A group of online students.

答案(1)

2.What did the engineer do after he found the problem with his car?

A.He rewrote the code but it failed to make any difference.

B.He managed to fix the code and improved its performance.

C.He measured his software against a flawed human driver.

D.He removed the passengers from his self-driving car.

答案(2)

3.What is Waymo according to the article ?

A.the first self-driving car developed by Alphabet.

B.the autonomous car development unit of Alphabet.

C.the self-driving car programme offered by Udacity.

D.the driving test designed for driverless cars in Arizona.

答案(3)

4.According to the author, what is the essential question all self-driving vehicles are facing ?

A.What can we do to prevent accidents caused by driverless cars.

B.How to identify the flaws of self-driving software in advance.

C.How to assess the safety and reliability of self-driving cars.

D.What level of robot mistakes are acceptable to human being.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.A group of online students.

解释：这个团队花了仅六周时间做成了这个自动驾驶软件，这是在线软件工程学校Udacity课程的一部分。

(2) 答案：A.He rewrote the code but it failed to make any difference.

解释：险些酿成的大祸让他顿悟，他重写了代码。两分钟后，我们又上路了，但车仍然四处猛冲。

(3) 答案：B.He rewrote the code but it failed to make any difference.

解释：Alphabet 的无人驾驶部门 Waymo本月宣布将在亚利桑那测试完全无人驾驶的汽车。

(4) 答案：C.How to assess the safety and reliability of self-driving cars.

解释：无论是Waymo先进的汽车，还是学生项目，都面对着相同的问题：谁能够判断它们什么时候可以安全地自主驾驶？

机器人去哪了？

人类已经在科技上取得了巨大的进步，革命性的人工智能在众多领域都获得了炫目的成果。但全球生产率增速却连年放缓，就业率也接近历史新高。为什么“机器人”并没能带来预料中的生产力增长？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

apocalypse [ə'pɒkəlɪps] n. 启示，天启

punchline ['pʌntʃlaɪn] n. 妙语，笑柄

hype [haɪp] n. 不实宣传

scramble ['skræmbl] n. 攀爬，混乱

plausible ['plɔːzəbl] adj. 似真实的，似合理的

contradiction [ˌkɒntrə'dɪkʃn] n. 矛盾，不一致

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18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7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

Why the robot boost is yet to arrive （742 words）

By Tim Harford

To adapt a 30-year-old quip from the great economist Robert Solow: you can see the robots everywhere except in the productivity statistics. This fact has been puzzling me for a few years now. Productivity growth is disappointing — especially but not only in the UK — and it has been for years. Unemployment is near record lows, and employment is high. All this is the opposite of what one would expect if the robot job apocalypse was upon us.

Yet there is no denying the remarkable advances in various branches of artificial intelligence. The most talked-about example is the self-driving car. This technology has come a long way in a short time, which is more than one can say for the original participants in the 2004 Darpa Grand Challenge, a race sponsored by the US military. With large cash prizes for the first autonomous vehicle to complete a 150-mile course in the Mojave desert, the best effort foundered after just seven miles. The contest became a punchline. Just 13 years later, nobody is laughing about autonomous vehicles.

Then there are deep-learning technologies such as AlphaGo Zero, which took just 72 hours to teach itself to become seemingly invincible at the formidable board game, Go. Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant and Siri have made voice recognition an everyday miracle. Strides are being made in image recognition, medical diagnosis and translation. There are behind-the-scenes triumphs: deep learning is optimising power-hungry cooling in server farms.

All of this makes the puzzle of high employment and low productivity even more puzzling. Yet there are several ways to resolve it.

A simple explanation is that the robot talk is all hype. Computer scientists have been over-optimistic before. Nobel laureate Herbert Simon predicted in 1957 that a computer would beat the world chess champion within 10 years; it took 40. In 1970 Marvin Minksy predicted that computers would have human-like general intelligence “within three to eight years”, a prediction even more inaccurate than Mr Simon's.

A more encouraging story is that we are understating productivity, for example, by undervaluing the output of services in general and the digital economy in particular, much of which is free and therefore invisible to normal measures of economic output.

A third possibility is that — to borrow an idea from the writer William Gibson — the future has already arrived, but it is unevenly distributeD.Perhaps the zero-sum scramble to dominate winner-takes-all markets is simply squandering most of the potential gains.

To tease apart these accounts, a research paper by a team including both sides: Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist well known for his writings on “the new machine age”, and Chad Syverson, one of the leading experts on economic productivity.

The researchers argue that the productivity slowdown is real. It may feel plausible to suggest our data simply are not good enough to recognise that productivity is growing strongly, but the story seems off in a number of ways — most obviously that the productivity shortfall is just too large to be a statistical illusion. Something similar can be said for the zero-sum fight for corporate dominance: it may well be happening, but is it really so wasteful that huge productivity gains simply evaporate?

How, then, to resolve the puzzle? In the simplest way possible: to say, “just wait”. There is no contradiction between disappointing productivity growth now and spectacular productivity growth in the near future.

It is true that there tends to be a delay between a technical breakthrough and a productivity surge. The most famous case in point is the electric motor, which seemed poised to transform American manufacturing in the 1890s, but did not realise that potential until the 1920s. To take advantage of the new technology, factory owners had to turn their organisations upside down, with new architecture, processes and training.

If the benefits of today's new ideas are real but delayed, that may also explain the productivity slowdown itself. Consider the self-driving car: right now it is a research expense, all cost and no benefit. Later, it will start to displace traditional cars, the traditional car industry, and many related businesses from parking garages to automotive repair. Finally, perhaps decades after a self-driving car becomes feasible, the full benefits are likely to be apparent. One does not simply invent a new machine: economic progress requires much more than that.

Perhaps, then, this is a brief lull before an explosion of new technology that will radically reshape the world around us. Or perhaps we are due for another decade or two of disappointment. Either scenario seems possible — and both of them promise an uncomfortable ride.

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 quote Robert Solow's words in the first paragraph ?

A.To give an example of the remarkable advances in various branches of AI.

B.To explain why measures of economic gains underestimates productivity.

C.To prove technology advances make no contribution to productivity growth.

D.To suggest a possible explanation to the disappointing productivity shortfall.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about the advances in technologies is true?

A.Self-driving car is the most cutting-edge technology advance.

B.AlphaGo makes deep-learning technology an everyday miracle.

C.Much of technology services is free and therefore invisible.

D.Great technical progress are being made in medical diagnosis.

答案(2)

3.The research paper by Erik Brynjolfsson and Chad Syverson argues that ____.

A.the productivity slowdown is too sharp to be considered a statistical illusion.

B.the normal measures of economic output fails to fit in the digital economy.

C.companies saw little benefit from technologies unless they are reorganised.

D.productivity progress requires much more than a technical breakthrough.

答案(3)

4.According to the author, what is the solution to the puzzle of technical advances and productivity growth?

A.Investing more money in various branches of deep-learning technologies.

B.Simply waiting for the spectacular productivity growth in the near future.

C.Building up new architecture, processes and training system in companies.

D.Trying to avoid the zero-sum scramble to dominate winner-takes-all markets.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.To prove technology advances make no contribution to productivity growth.

解释：作者在第一段引用Robert Solow是为了说明科技进步并没有反应在生产率数据上。

(2) 答案：D.Great technical progress are being made in medical diagnosis.

解释：在图像识别、医疗诊断和翻译领域，科技正在实现跨越式发展。

(3) 答案：A.the productivity slowdown is too sharp to be considered a statistical illusion.

解释：经济学家Erik Brynjolfsson和最权威的经济生产力专家之一Chad Syverson合作的一份研究论文称，生产率增速减缓非常明显，不可能只是统计错觉。

(4) 答案：B.Simply waiting for the spectacular productivity growth in the near future.

解释：解决这一困境的办法是什么呢？最简单的办法——等。如今令人失望的生产力增速和未来惊人的生产力增长并不矛盾。

不再时髦的塑料瓶

瓶装水的兴起是上世纪的事了。在那个炫耀性消费风行的时代，人们坚信世上任何东西都可以被做成商品，新奇的瓶装水甚至成为了一种身份的代表。现在，瓶装水已经无处不在，年轻人却重新爱上了传统的水杯，并在其基础上进行创新。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

stretchy ['stretʃi] adj. 伸长的，有弹性的

bellwether ['belweðə（r）] n. 前导，领导者

cachet ['kæʃeɪ] n. 优良标志

conspicuous [kən'spɪkjuəs] adj. 显著的

confer [kən'fɜː（r）] vt. 赠予，授予

earmark ['ɪəmaːk] n. 特徵，记号

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8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47秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why plastic is no longer fantastic （787 words）

By Gillian Tett

A few months ago, Carlos Ferrando, a Spanish engineer-turned-entrepreneur, saw a piece of art that profoundly affected him. “What Lies Under”, a photorealistic montage by Indonesia-based digital artist Ferdi Rizkiyanto, shows a child crouching by the edge of the ocean and “lifting up” a wave, to reveal a cluster of assorted plastic detritus, from polyethylene bags to water bottles.

The artwork left Ferrando angry — and fuelled by entrepreneurial zeal. He runs a Spain-based design company, Closca, that produces a clever foldable bicycle helmet （I use one, and love it）. But he has now designed a stylish glass water bottle with a stretchy silicone strap and magnetic-closure mechanism that means it can be attached to almost anything, from a bike to a bag to a pushchair handle.

The product comes with an app that tells people where they can fill their bottles with water for free. Ferrando's aim is to persuade people to stop buying water in plastic bottles, thus saving consumers money — and reducing the plastic waste piling up in our oceans. “Bottled water is now a $100bn business, and 81 per cent of the bottles are not recycleD.It's a complete waste — water is only 1.5 per cent of the price of the bottle!” Ferrando tells me. Indeed, environmentalists estimate that by 2050 there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish — and that's mainly down to such bottles.

“We are trying to create a sense that being environmentally sophisticated is a status symbol,” he adds. “We want people to clip their bottles on to what they are wearing, to show that they are recycling water — and to look cool.”

Ferrando's story fascinates me since it seems like a bellwether of our times, a symbol of millennial culture. For one thing, it shows how the cultural concept of cachet is changing. Three decades ago, conspicuous consumption — of handbags, shoes, cars etc — conferred social status. Indeed, the closing decades of the 20th century were a time when it seemed that anything could be turned into a commodity. Hence the fact that water became a consumer item, sold in plastic bottles, instead of just emerging （for free） from a tap.

Today, though, conspicuous extravagance no longer seems cool — or not, at least, for millennials. Recycling is fashionable. So is real bicycling. Plastic water bottles are so ubiquitous that they do not command status; instead, what many millennials and teenagers prefer to post on social media are “real” （refillable） bottles or even retro Thermos bottles. My teen daughters currently think that stainless-steel vacuum-insulated water bottles made by the company s'well, for example, are ultra “cool”; never mind the fact that they feel oddly retro to me （when I was a teenager in 1970s Britain, we thought that Thermos flasks were incredibly uncool）.

The way these products come to market is also fascinating. If an engineer-turned-entrepreneur had wanted to fund a smart invention a few decades ago, he or she would have either raised a bank loan, begged for money from friends, or （during the 2002-2007 credit boom） maxed out on a credit card.

Entrepreneurs are still using the last two options. But some （lucky） ventures are also tapping into the ever-swelling pot of money that is being earmarked in the asset management world for “corporate social responsibility” （CSR） investments. Indeed, the idea of investing in CSR-friendly start-ups is becoming so popular that even the Vatican is now getting on board.

For of-the-moment innovations there is the of-the-moment option. A few weeks ago, Ferrando posted details about his water-bottle venture on Kickstarter, appealing for people to donate $30,000 of seed money, and promising to give a bottle to anyone who provides more than $39 of “donations”. If he gets the funds, the company will produce bottles in grey and white; if $60,000 is raised, a multicoloured one will be made.

This cannot be accurately described as equity finance, since none of the donors has a stake. Nor is it debt. Instead, it is almost a pre-sale of prod-cuts — in a manner that tests demand in advance, and creates a potential crowd of enthusiasts. Either way, this old-fashioned community funding with a digital twist is supporting a growing array of projects ranging from films to ventures to card games, videos, watches and so on. And, at last count, Closca had raised some $52,838 from 803 backers.

Now, I dare say some cynics may dismiss this as just another fad — or argue that humans are far too lazy to keep refilling their bottles. Perhaps. But the next time you grab a plastic bottle of water, it is worth thinking about how our concept of a consumer commodity can subtly change over time, without us even noticing. Maybe, 20 years from now, it will be the now-ubiquitous plastic bottle that seems peculiarly retro.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Ferrando's company Closca originally focused on ____.

A.a stylish silicone bicycle helmet.

B.a clever foldable bicycle helmet.

C.a magnetic-closure water bottle.

D.a stretchy silicone strap.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about bottled water is true?

A.Only 1.5 per cent of used plastic bottles are recycled.

B.81 per cent of plastic bottles are eligible to be recycled.

C.The total value of bottled water industry is around $100bn.

D.By 2050 there will be more plastic bottles in our oceans than fish.

答案(2)

3.Why millennials deem refillable bottles fashionable?

A.Because conspicuous consumption like bottled water has fallen out of fashion.

B.Because refillable bottles has became a symbol of millennial culture.

C.Because teenagers prefer to post retro Thermos bottles on social media .

D.Because the ubiquitous plastic bottles are no longer conferred social status .

答案(3)

4.How did Ferrando raised money for his water bottle?

A.He set up a crowd funding campaign.

B.He managed to get a venture capital investment.

C.He got investment from a CSR-friendly foundation.

D.He maxed out on his credit cards.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.a clever foldable bicycle helmet.

解释：Carlos Ferrando经营一家西班牙设计公司Closca，这家公司生产一种巧妙的可折叠自行车头盔。

(2) 答案：C.The total value of bottled water industry is around $100bn.

解释：“如今，瓶装水是一个价值1000亿美元的生意，其中81%的水瓶都没能得到回收。这完全是浪费——水的价格只有瓶子价格的1.5%。”

(3) 答案：D.Because the ubiquitous plastic bottles are no longer conferred social status .

解释：塑料水瓶无处不在，它们不再代表任何社会地位。

(4) 答案：A.He set up a crowd funding campaign.

解释：Ferrando将水瓶项目的细节发在Kickstarter上，呼吁人们捐献3万美元的启动基金。

欢迎来到未来的学校

在飞速变化的世界中，越来越多的人意识到现行的教育体系已很难适应时代的发展。甲骨文公司建立的首个“公司校园”就是一个试图颠覆教育体制的大胆创新。这个听起来很强大的“教育乌托邦”究竟是什么样子？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

circuitry ['sɜːkɪtri] n. 电路，电路元件

denomination [dɪˌnɒmɪ'neɪʃn] n. 名称，面额

constraint [kən'streɪnt] n. 约束，强制

tedium ['tiːdiəm] n. 单调乏味，沉闷

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48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

1分55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

Welcome to the school of the future （674 words）

By Hannah Kuchler

I had low expectations last month when I donned a hard hat for a tour of the Design Tech High School （d.tech）: the first school built on a tech company campus. Once construction is finished, a three-year-old local public high school will move in and educate 500 pupils aged 14 to 18 on Oracle's Silicon Valley site in a building paid for by the software maker.

From “ed-tech” start-ups to billionaire philanthropists, many digital entrepreneurs are funding education projects in an attempt to better equip the next generation for a changed worlD.Technology is moving so fast that we don't know what jobs will be available in the future but most agree that the current education system, designed in the 19th century, will not help students thrive in the 21st.

The d.tech school is unique: students will spend their days in a tech company office park. From January, the high-schoolers will share a conference centre with Oracle staff. This is not an extended version of bring-your-child-to-work day: Oracle workers' children will not be prioritised and, in fact, the school, which is free to attend, is trying to get permission to select students from poorer backgrounds.

My experience of the company's cloud application software — a monthly misery tackling its iExpenses process — had not particularly convinced me that Oracle had the potential to inspire a new generation. Nor did the building's grey and glass façade make it seem a fun place to learn.

But I entered to find a light-filled, flexible space, designed in collaboration with children, teachers and Oracle employees. I was impressed by how the building has creativity at its centre. Instead of a large lecture hall, there is a “design realisation garage”. The garage, so-called because all the best start-ups were founded in them, has a large floor for metalwork, woodwork and circuitry, while, upstairs, students can design and code.

What intrigued me the most, however, was that Oracle believes its staff will learn just as much from the schoolkids as students will from the workers. Instead of finding the noisy teenagers a disturbance, Colleen Cassity, executive director of the Oracle Education Foundation, believes they could help disrupt working practices in a good way. “Instead of [our employees] going back to school, the school is coming to them,” she says.

Oracle and the students are already working together to create an internship programme and the teens could even end up leading design challenges for the company. Eventually, Oracle wants to connect each of its campuses with a school.

D.tech follows a theory pioneered by Stanford's design school. The method focuses on solving problems and building empathy for your users, thinking always of how to design for their needs. Ken Montgomery, co-founder of d.tech, tells me that at Stanford, where he did his PhD, MBA students often start with “constraints in their head” and need to be shaken up to encourage “wild ideas”. Teaching high-schoolers, he has to do the opposite. “Working with kids, we have to get [them] to think about the constraints, because they believe everything is possible.” For example, the school did not agree to the kids' wish to install a zip line and a rooftop pool on the campus.

One example of balancing kid-like instincts with adult-like constraints is a wearables project that a group worked on at the high school. A 14-year-old girl presented a problem: her partially sighted grandmother couldn't distinguish between denominations of dollar bills. Her team created a wearable device that scanned the notes for their underlying colour — and played a different song for each one. Now her grandmother can hear the Mario Kart tune every time she grasps a $5 note.

As an employee, I'm unsure that I would want my serene shuttle to work turned into a school bus. But as an Oracle user, I would welcome a kid's fresh approach. Perhaps the company can ease the tedium of filing expenses by playing a Mario Kart tune each time I enter a claim for a taxi ride. I can only hope Oracle's adult minds will be opened by the children on campus.

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 statements is true about Oracle's d.tech school ?

A.It is based on a theory pioneered by Stanford's design school.

B.It was originally designed to provide better education to poor students.

C.It was funded by a philanthropist to improve the education system.

D.It will enroll 500 pupils aged 14 to 18 from three public schools.

答案(1)

2.Oracle believes that teaching schoolkids on the company's campus ____.

A.helps the employees to build empathy for their users.

B.can help its employees learn a lot from the schoolkids.

C.is an extended version of bring-your-child-to-work day.

D.can better equip the next generation for a changed world.

答案(2)

3.What is the biggest benefit of working with kids according to Ken Montgomery?

A.The kids keep remind the workers always to design for their needs.

B.The kids could help disrupt working practices in a beneficial way.

C.The kids help employees free from the constraints and think wildly.

D.The kids can get a better understanding of adult-like constraints.

答案(3)

4.Why does the author mention a wearables project in the ninth paragraph ?

A.To compare kid-like instincts to adult-like constraints.

B.To present a practical case of d.tech's education theory.

C.To introduce a successful student programme in Oracle.

D.To explain how to balance instincts with constraints.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.It is based on a theory pioneered by Stanford's design school.

解释：D.tech学校是基于斯坦福设计学院的理论创建的。

(2) 答案：B.can help its employees learn a lot from the schoolkids.

解释：甲骨文公司相信他们的员工会从学生身上学到许多东西，就像学生向他们学习一样。

(3) 答案：C.The kids help employees free from the constraints and think wildly.

解释：Ken Montgomery告诉我，再斯坦福，MBA学生常常需要改变大脑中根深蒂固的约束并鼓励疯狂的想法。而与孩子们一起工作，我们则要教会他们种种限制，因为他们相信一切皆有可能。

(4) 答案：D.To explain how to balance instincts with constraints.

解释：关于儿童式的本能和成人式的规范相平衡，一个很好的例子是一个小组在高中开展的可穿戴设备项目。

为什么时装这么丑？

在前不久的春夏时装周上，大部分时装都丑的吓人——堆在脚踝的裤子、肿瘤一样的装饰、塑料质感的超大外套、拖把一样的鞋……为何顶级时装品牌的设计如此丑陋？来听听时尚大师们怎样解读“丑陋”的独特魅力。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

provocation [ˌprɒvə'keɪʃn] n. 激怒，刺激

insipid [ɪn'sɪpɪd] adj. 乏味的，枯燥的

kitsch [kɪtʃ] n. 庸俗艺术

luxe [lʊks] adj. 豪华的，奢侈的

shackle ['ʃækl] v. 加枷锁，束缚

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48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

1分55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

Why is fashion so ugly? （672 words）

By Lou Stoppard

For someone who writes about fashion, I own some really ugly clothes. Currently I'm wearing a giant egg-shaped shirt that swamps the body and comes pre-disheveled — very Worzel Gummidge. I've matched it with a suit jacket with Herman Munster shoulders. My jeans are some strange hybrid, fashioned, like Frankenstein, from various different cast-offs.

Is it me or has fashion become incredibly ugly? “Definitely, definitely,” says the 74-year-old shoe designer Manolo Blahnik. He blames big business. “I think these very big organisations put huge pressure on a designer to produce something of the moment rather than focusing on something that is beautifully eternal. My definition or opinion of elegance is completely different to the version of elegance today. Elegance should be enduring. It should transcend fashion and trends.”

Much of the clothing on display at the SS18 shows was deliciously horriD.It was warped and awkwarD.Every catwalk seemed to offer a giant, clumpy trainer, oversized fleeces or coats wrapped in plastic like wipe-clean sofas. Menswear is equally difficult. It's becoming incredibly difficult to tell if a man is really, really geeky, perhaps an IT support worker, or just exceptionally fashionable.

Paul Surridge, the newly appointed creative director at Roberto Cavalli, thinks the trend for ugly clothes is a reaction to a glut of artifice and “perfection” projected through advertising and social mediA.“Fashion thrives on provocation,” says the designer. “It thrives on novelty. This epidemic of deliberately ugly or awkward pieces is about challenging this obsession with the artificial lifestyle. It's a sign of the time that what feels current is something that isn't so perfect and isn't so insipid.”

Surridge isn't following suit with Cavalli, the Italian house known for sensual gowns and flesh-baring frocks, for which he showed his first collection in September. “I'm working for a brand whose ideas of a woman are very traditional — it's celebrated for the femininity, the beauty and the body,” he explains. “I have a creative responsibility to respect those codes. Cavalli is a very sensual brand and ugly doesn't feel sensual.” Moreover, he says: “I think the Cavalli woman wants to feel beautiful.”

Don't we all? Maybe not. Beautiful is boring, say many of today's designers. There's a long-held theory that ugliness and innovation go hand in hanD.As Miuccia Prada said in 2012: “Ugly is attractive, ugly is exciting. Maybe because it is newer.”

Dries Van Noten works the same way, often starting a collection with a colour he loathes as inspiration. “I'm more inspired by things I don't like,” he told the Financial Times earlier this year. “Nothing is so boring as something beautiful. I prefer ugly things, I prefer things which are surprising. It forces you to ask yourself questions.”

“Whenever you have designers who are exploring something that's significantly new, it's going to look, for the most part, strange and possibly ugly at first,” says the academic and fashion historian Valerie Steele. “When Poiret started doing his early designs at the beginning of the 20th century for the House of Worth, people were horrified by them. They thought, ‘What are these ugly experiments?’”

And shoppers do come round to more challenging looks. Let's not forget that skinny jeans were once considered outré. “Our eye adjusts quite quickly to what might first appear ugly,” says Natalie Kingham, buying director of MatchesFashion.com. “Often it's about comfort. Take the pool-slide phenomenon. The plastic slip-on shoe that was originally considered ugly is now seen as very luxe and wearable — and they sell well.”

In contrast to many, Kane thinks fashion is too shackled by good taste. “Prada's collections are great because she takes things that are ugly, and that she hates, and she finds a way to fall in love with it,” he says. “If we dumbed everything down to traditional ideas of beauty then we wouldn't be where we are today. Nothing would move forward.”

Fashion should challenge conventions of beauty. And, as Kane points out: “It's far more horrible to lift things from other people's work or go to a vintage shop and make something exactly the same. Now, that's ugly.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.According to Manolo Blahnik, what has made fashion become incredibly ugly ?

A.The varied opinions of eternal beauty and elegance.

B.The designers who only seek short-term successes.

C.The increasing convergence of aesthetic standards.

D.The huge pressure from big business organisations.

答案(1)

2.From the article we can conclude that Paul Surridge ____.

A.believes ugly fashion acts against artificial aesthetic conceptions.

B.strongly opposes to Roberto Cavalli's traditional ideas of a woman.

C.thinks advertising and social media have made ugliness popular.

D.is best known for designing sensual gowns and flesh-baring frocks.

答案(2)

3.Why does Natalie Kingham mention the plastic slip-on shoe in the ninth paragraph?

A.To provide evidence that ugly shoes often sell better than expected.

B.To give an example of ugly designs that turn out to be bestsellers.

C.To explain why people adjust quite quickly to what first appears ugly.

D.To urge that challenging aesthetic is essential to a successful design.

答案(3)

4.Why does Christopher Kane design mop shoes ?

A.Because it forces people to think about good or bad taste.

B.Because controversial design can attract people's attention.

C.Because he admire the smart people who wear mop shoes.

D.Because he has a special affection for cleaning up and mops.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.The huge pressure from big business organisations.

解释：74岁的鞋履设计师莫罗·伯拉尼克指责大企业：“那些大的组织给设计师施加了巨大的压力，让他们的设计只关注当下，而忽略了永恒的美。”

(2) 答案：A.believes ugly fashion acts against artificial aesthetic conceptions.

解释：Roberto Cavalli的新任创意总监Paul Surridge认为，广告和社交媒体所营造了过多虚伪的“完美”，而丑衣服的潮流是对此的反击。

(3) 答案：B.To give an example of ugly designs that turn out to be bestsellers.

解释：“我们的眼睛对一眼看上去很丑的东西适应得很快。”Natalie Kingham说道，“人们原本觉得塑料板鞋很丑，但现在人们觉得它奢华且简便易穿。”

(4) 答案：D.Because he has a special affection for cleaning up and mops.

解释：关于这一季的拖把鞋，Christopher Kane的设计灵感更加简单：“我喜欢清扫，我喜欢拖把！”

如何成为办公桌艺术家？

如何在办公室不露声色地展示自己的权威？只需要一张办公桌就足够了。用桌子上的方寸之地展示权力是一种微妙的艺术，我们该在桌上摆些什么来低调地炫耀自己的个性和身份？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

stationery ['steɪʃənri] n. 文具，信笺

colossal [kə'lɒsl] adj. 巨大的，异常的

asphyxiate [əs'fɪksieɪt] v. （使）窒息

shorthand ['ʃɔːthænd] n. 速记，缩写

flamboyant [flæm'bɔɪənt] adj. 艳丽的，炫耀的

insinuate [ɪn'sɪnjueɪt] vt. 暗示，迂回进入

conspicuous [kən'spɪkjuəs] adj. 显著的，显眼的

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13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5秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分43秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How to build the perfect power desk （732 words）

By Jo Ellison

You know how it goes. There you are, flipping through the pages of the office stationery catalogue wondering whether the administrative budget will stretch to a six-pack of Pilot V5 Hi-Tecpoint Rollerball （extra fine）, when your mind is violently distracted by a strange and curious temptation towards the back of the book: the Habisphere Lifestyle Desktop Terrarium.

Never mind the feint-ruled yellow notebooks and lever-arch files. You require a more potent symbol to accessorise your office. Something that reflects your appetite for the battle. What you need, is this very terrarium and a lethally poisonous arachnid to house within it…

Or something like that.

One can only imagine the internal dialogue that persuaded the former chief whip — now defence minister — Gavin Williamson to raise a tarantula while tending to the ministries of government. Presumably he thought it would act as an appropriate and possibly humorous metaphor. Or at least keep people away. After all, few things say “I'm a colossal weirdo” like a colleague who keeps a pet spider named after the Greek god Cronos, the all-devouring King of the Titans, next to his computer mouse.

Williamson's decision to share his workspace with a creature poised to asphyxiate its enemies with a lethal venom might act as a handy shorthand for a don't-mess-with-me attitude. But his acquisition of such a bald accoutrement of power seems a bit Dr No in its ambition, far too flamboyant to be genuinely representative of real authority. While possession of an office pet does usually signify an elevated status, there are subtler ways in which to signal one's superiority.

To convey power with one's desk space is a fine and nuanced art — especially in the modern office, where open-plan desk spaces are the norm, and the spectre of hot-desking is becoming a daily reality.

Communicating one's impressiveness should be whittled down to a few talismanic details. Desktop accessories, meanwhile, should be displayed as artlessly as possible. To make a lasting impact, one's authority should be slowly insinuated rather than thrust in others' faces. Save the silver-plated snapshots of yourself negotiating world peace with the leaders of the free world for your bathroom, and litter the desk instead with cryptic souvenirs: a loveworn softball signed by a much admired statesman should roll aimlessly about the table top. A stack of handwritten notes from the leaders of your industry thanking you for your “kind words” and shared wisdoms should be collecting in a clearly visible yet insouciant pile.

Obviously, a few copies of your latest book should be loitering about the place. Only a few, though. You mustn't give the impression of having written a book that no one wants to buy. You should also make sure to furnish yourself with a copy of whatever is currently stimulating an entirely different field of industry than your own — to demonstrate your breadth of interest and towering intellect.

Fleeting insights into your former glories should also be conspicuous. A yellowing press cutting detailing an early-life triumph, like your success as a rowing blue or world Sudoku champion, are all excellent materials for display. Ideally this information should be accompanied by an image of you looking excruciatingly geeky. You may have achieved the highest placing in the world's 400m hurdles championship, but you're not vain.

Women, especially, will do much to convince others of their unassailable magnificence with a crude illustration or birthday message from a small dependent. Screensavers of your family safari holiday to Botswana are unacceptable — too showy. Ideally the note should be small and say something like “Mummy, you work an 80-hour week and we're so proud of you”. If this is not forthcoming, then you should at least be rendered in a superhero's cape.

But the absolute masters and mistresses of the workplace are those who reveal much by revealing almost nothing at all. By far the most impressive and influential colleague I worked with was also one of the most stubbornly inscrutable. As such, he acquired an intriguing mythology among us. Who was he really? Where did he go each night? Was he actually a foreign spy?

Tucked away in the corner of his desk he kept a blurry snapshot in a tiny frame. One day, when he went on one of his daily wanders to who knows where, we snuck over for closer inspection only to discover it was a picture of him — wrestling a bear. Take that, incey wincey.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The former chief whip Gavin Williamson raised a ____ on his desk.

A.pet mouse.

B.pet snake.

C.pet spider.

D.pet lizard.

答案(1)

2.What is the author's opinion on Gavin Williamson's desktop accessory?

A.It was a piece of fine and nuanced art in the modern office.

B.It was a subtle way to signify his superiority and authority.

C.It was a genuine symbol of an elevated status and authority.

D.It perfectly mirrored his personality but was too flamboyant.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following is not a favourable way to display one's authority?

A.A screensaver of your family safari holiday.

B.A birthday message from children.

C.A few copies of your latest book.

D.A world Sudoku champion trophy.

答案(3)

4.In the last two paragraph，the author was impressed by her colleague because ____.

A.he displayed his power on desktop secretly.

B.he revealed almost nothing to his workmates.

C.he had a picture of himself wrestling a bear.

D.he was widely suspected to be a foreign spy.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.pet spider.

解释：Gavin Williamson在担任总督导期间养了一只狼蛛。

(2) 答案：D.It perfectly mirrored his personality but was too flamboyant.

解释：Williamson的选择很好地概括了他“别来烦我”的态度，但这种赤裸裸的权利展示太过浮夸。

(3) 答案：A screensaver of your family safari holiday.

解释：用一张全家在博茨瓦纳游猎旅行的照片做屏保是不合适的——太炫耀了。

(4) 答案：B.he revealed almost nothing to his workmates.

解释：真正的办公室大师是那些以深藏不漏的神秘感来自我表现的人。

金钱买得来好形象吗？

富人总是花大价钱购买奢侈品牌服装，但这些昂贵的衣服真的能让他们更有魅力吗？如果答案是肯定的，为什么很多有钱人看起来依然穿得那么糟糕？我们该如何看待服装的美学价值呢？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

grotesque [grəʊ'tesk] adj. 奇怪的，可笑的

extravagance [ɪk'strævəgəns] n. 奢侈，浪费

connoisseur [ˌkɒnɪ'sɜː] n. 鉴定家，内行

analogue ['ænəlɒg] n. 类似物

suede [sweɪd] n. 绒面革，小山羊皮

emblem ['embləm] n. 象徵，徽章

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0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0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

Really extreme spending is rarely a good look （702 words）

By Robert Armstrong

How much is too much? The question comes up in all aspects of life. Indulgence — in food, the arts, drink, sport, sex, travel, what have you — is to be encourageD.But at some point it becomes grotesque, and some still further point, dangerous. It is notoriously difficult to discover exactly where those lines lie. But there is fun to be had in trying.

This ancient question was reborn recently, in the context of clothing. Former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort spent $1.3m on clothes at boutiques in New York and Beverly Hills. This extravagance took place over seven years. What exactly he bought remains a mystery.

Did Manafort cross the line? The first point to make is that if you cannot imagine how he managed to spend what he did, you lack either imagination or real enthusiasm about clothes. Those of us with both enjoy active fantasy lives, in which spending what amounts to $200,000 is like falling out of a very nice beD.Given the means, I could drop $20,000 buying shoes on the internet while eating lunch at my desk. With a weekend's effort I could keep Savile Row's needleworkers hard at it until the next presidential administration.

The issue is not spending the money. That is the easy bit. It is whether, when the glorious rush of spending is over, Manafort — or anyone on a similar budget — actually looks good.

The answer is, sadly, almost certainly no. Consider the dilemma of the £20,000 suit — surely a must-have for a spender of Manafort's prodigious appetites. There are two possibilities. The first is that the suit is so beautiful that it in fact looks like a £20,000 suit. In that case, it would be impossible, wearing it, to avoid looking like a grotesque show-off. Style and apparent effortlessness are closely linkeD.A suit at that price is trying too hard by definition.

On the other hand, the excellence of the suit might be such a miracle of subtlety that only a true connoisseur could distinguish it from your standard £5,000 Savile Row job or, even better, one of the many lovely £2,000 suits one can buy off the rack. If that is the case, it is surely better to pocket the difference and spend it on something more sensible. Such as, say, drugs.

This aesthetic question is not to be confused with its more important moral analogue. Looking like a jerk is a smaller problem than being a jerk. And there may be a level at which spending of any sort becomes monstrously selfish. Even accepting that, though, the subtle thread that connects style to money is worth spinning out.

Truly extreme spending in clothes, by contrast, is almost always aesthetically self-defeating. That £1,400 suede and crocodile Stefano Ricci baseball cap is not, alas, going to make anyone look £1,400 better. On the contrary. The reason is clear enough. A picture has a certain distance from its owner. Its aesthetic properties can be assessed independently. Clothes are always to a greater or lesser degree modes of self-expression. And what about us requires such sums to express?

There is only really one possible answer. In a piece in the New York Times about the Ricci brand — perhaps the most expensive male clothing line in the world — the founder explained the choice of the eagle as the brand's emblem. “The eagle stands for a sense of strength, control.”

Just so: presenting oneself wrapped in a small fortune is, in almost every case and context, an expression of power, authority or superiority. And that just cannot be attractive — at least not to a grown-up.

It is worth considering the exceptions to the rule. Who piles on the luxury and looks great doing it? A good example is the American basketball star Russell Westbrook, whose style is sharp, but full of extravagant display. Rather than straining to wear his wealth subtly, he wears it with iridescent happiness. The clothes cease to be about status and become a form of art — and an acutely social one. It is all invitation, not exclusion.

This all sounds very philosophical.It is not. The rule is simple: if you are going to wear hugely expensive clothing, you had better have a huge amount of fun doing it. Otherwise, you will look terrible.

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 statements is true according to the article?

A.Paul Manafort spent $1.3m on clothes in preparation for Trump's campaign.

B.Paul Manafort spent $1.3m on his suede and crocodile Stefano Ricci suit.

C.Paul Manafort spent $1.3m on clothes at boutiques over seven years ago.

D.Paul Manafort spent $1.3m on clothes because of his enthusiasm about fashion.

答案(1)

2.What is the author's attitude towards Paul Manafort's spending on his clothes ?

A.He believes it was a good investment.

B.He regards it as a grotesque show-off.

C.He thinks Manafort overspent on clothes.

D.He thinks it was a miracle of subtlety.

答案(2)

3.The author believes clothes' aesthetic properties depend mainly on ____.

A.The fashion brand's emblem.

B.The designer's artistic talent.

C.The buyer's personal preference.

D.The wearer's own charisma.

答案(3)

4.Why does the author mention Russell Westbrook?

A.To give a good example of extravagant but artistic clothing style.

B.To explain why extreme spending can't guarantee a good look.

C.To give advice for people who are willing to spend a fortune on clothes.

D.To explain the subtle thread that connects style to effortlessness.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.Paul Manafort spent $1.3m on clothes at boutiques over seven years ago.

解释：特朗普前竞选经理Paul Manafort曾花费130万美元在纽约和比弗利山的精品店买衣服。

(2) 答案：C.He thinks Manafort overspent on clothes.

解释：关键在于，花了这么一大笔钱之后，Manafort，或是其他同样花了这么多钱的人，真的看起来更好了吗。很遗憾，答案是没有。

(3) 答案：D.The wearer's own charisma.

解释：一幅画与其拥有者的关系并不紧密，因此我们可以独立地评估其美学价值。但服装往往是一种自我表达方式，只是程度不同。

(4) 答案：A.To give a good example of extravagant but artistic clothing style.

解释：有什么人能把堆积如山的奢侈品穿好吗？美国篮球明星拉塞尔·威斯布鲁克就是一个很好的例子。

“双十一”：购物狂欢与消费革命

“双十一”所代表的不仅仅是电子商务的发展和购物狂欢。消费的迅速增长、商品的极大繁荣，和人们极度膨胀的消费欲望，这一切就像欧洲曾经历的消费革命一样，是社会变革的缩影。这场变革会将中国推向何方？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

extravaganza [ɪkˌstrævə'ɡænzə] n. 狂妄的言行

lavish ['lævɪʃ] adj. 大方的，浪费的

psychic ['saɪkɪk] adj. 精神的，心灵的

sumptuary ['sʌmptjʊərɪ] adj. 节省费用的

aristocrat ['ærɪstəkræt]n. 贵族，最优秀者

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31秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分48秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分37秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Alibaba sparks China's consumer revolution （632 words）

By John Gapper

This Saturday is Singles Day, which Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce giant, has made into the world's biggest fashion and gift-buying extravaganzA.It is the climax of a “shopping and entertainment festival” that easily exceeds the sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US.

Chinese shoppers spent $18bn online on November 11 last year, 82 per cent using mobile devices. This year, 140,000 brands, including 60,000 international names, are offering 15m items for sale. Singles Day is an expression of the power of Chinese ecommerce.

The numbers, although huge, understate the significance of the phenomenon. China is experiencing a consumer revolution, comparable to the one that happened in Europe in the 18th century, culminating in the 19th-century invention of the department store. Alibaba and competitors such as JD.com are making ecommerce not merely efficient but entertaining.

Singles Day, which Alibaba calls 11.11, started as a celebration by students in Nanjing and has become an online parade stimulating a frenzy of buying. David Hill, the producer of its countdown show on Friday evening, talks of mounting “a lavish experience that is emotionally satisfying and delivers a psychic reward activating people to go online at midnight”.

Note the contrast with online shopping in the US and Europe, which draws its appeal from scale and price, rather than entertainment. If you desire fun, visit a shopping mall or a fashion boutique; if you want something cheaply and conveniently, go to Amazon to get it delivereD.Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder, has done everything he can to eliminate the frictions of shopping.

The difference reflects the gulf between the US and China in the development of physical retailing. Americans have many choices of places to shop, so Mr Bezos first focused on the efficiency that only a digital platform can deliver. China is a less mature market outside the big cities and Alibaba's Tmall and JD.com sell global brands online that shoppers cannot otherwise buy.

These companies have to offer the entire experience of shopping, including the fun of browsing and discovering things. Alibaba calls this “new retail” — the integration of ecommerce with stores with apps and augmented reality. “I truly believe shopping is fun,” says Chris Tung, Alibaba's chief marketing officer. “When you open the box, your heartbeat speeds up a little bit.”

The growth of shopping in China mirrors the past. “Novelty, fashion, adaptation and innovation — the fuel of consumer societies — were the product of east-west exchange,” Frank Trentmann writes in Empire of Things, his history of global consumerism. The 18th-century revolution started with the import of spices, coffee and tea to Europe, along with porcelain from China.

Europe's consumerism grew out of urbanisation: the growth of cities where people could both make and spend money. A similar phenomenon is occurring in ChinA.Morgan Stanley estimates that private consumption could reach 47 per cent of the country's gross domestic product by 2030, with most consumption growth in lower-tier cities to which people are flowing from rural areas.

Consumerism blurred social classes in Europe after the lifting of the sumptuary laws of the late Middle Ages, originally imposed to curb luxury and prevent the masses from dressing like aristocrats. The twist in post-revolutionary China was that everyone had to dress like a peasant; on Singles Day, the new middle class can please itself.

This raises a question for a society that still counts itself as being under Communist rule. The 18th-century upsurge in consumerism predated the industrial revolution, and some historians argue that one led to the other — the heavy demand for imported goods provoked technological advances in British manufacturing.

But you never know where a revolution will lead, as 18th-century England discovereD.There may yet come a clash between Chinese consumer power and party discipline. One era's retail entertainment is another's sin.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The author believes Alibaba's Singles Day shopping festival reflects ____ in China.

A.an ongoing consumer revolution.

B.the sumptuary laws of middle classes.

C.technological advances in manufacturing.

D.the new era of digital consumerism.

答案(1)

2.Singles Day initially started as ____.

A.an entertaining festival among young people.

B.a celebration by a group of students in Nanjing.

C.the beginning of the New Year shopping season.

D.an occasion for single people to party together.

答案(2)

3.What is “new retail” according to Alibaba?

A.A consumer revolution which rewrites the sumptuary laws of China's middle classes.

B.A integration of shopping and entertainment with apps and augmented reality.

C.A combination of offline and online shopping experiences with new technology.

D.An effort to promote consumer spending and change the balance of China's economy.

答案(3)

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

A.About 82 per cent of Chinese customers make purchases on mobile devices.

B.Singles Day draws its appeal from scale and price rather than entertainment.

C.The development of ecommerce greatly helped to boost private consumption.

D.People in lower-tier cities is expected to contribute the most to China's consumption growth.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.an ongoing consumer revolution.

解释：巨额的消费数字掩盖了背后重要的社会现象。中国正在经历着消费革命，就像18世纪的欧洲一样。

(2) 答案：B.a celebration by a group of students in Nanjing.

解释：“光棍节”原本是起源于南京的一群大学生的庆祝活动。

(3) 答案：C.A combination of offline and online shopping experiences with new technology.

解释：阿里巴巴将其称为“新零售”——将app和AR技术与电子商务和商店整合到一起。

(4) 答案：D.People in lower-tier cities is expected to contribute the most to China's consumption growth.

解释：摩根士丹利预测，截至2030年，个人消费在中国GDP中的占比将达到47%，最大的消费增长将来自非一线城市。

《弗兰肯斯坦》与现代人的恐惧

1818年，玛丽·雪莱出版了小说《弗兰肯斯坦》。200年的时光匆匆而逝，但时至今日，《弗兰肯斯坦》一书中所描绘的关于“人造人”的恐怖故事依然毫不褪色。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

diabolicaladj. 恶魔的 /ˌdaɪə'bɒlɪkl/

vengefuladj. 复仇的，报复的 /'vendʒfl/

marinatevt. 浸泡 /'mærɪneɪt/

consortv. 陪伴，结交 /'kɒnsɔːt/

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22秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分41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

‘Frankenstein’ still speaks to very modern fears（593 words）

By Anjana Ahuja

From the fevered imagination of a young woman rose a creature so diabolical and vengeful that it has haunted us for two centuries. The beast was nameless but its creator, Frankenstein, was not.

Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic novel, about a scientist who stitches fragments of corpses together and then brings his tapestry of flesh to life, celebrates its 200th anniversary this month. Age has not diminished Frankenstein's power. It remains the go-to parable on the perils of unexamined scientific progress — and can even be reinterpreted for the age of artificial intelligence.

The tale was forged in circumstances that themselves read like a work of fiction. Shelley was the product of two extraordinary parents. Her mother was Mary Wollstonecraft, who wrote one of the earliest feminist tracts and died shortly after the birth. Her father was William Godwin, a minister-turned-atheist who became a radical philosopher of the left.

Little Mary Godwin, already blessed with fine genes, was marinated in a bracingly intellectual environment. Visitors to her father's London home included the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the then married Percy Bysshe Shelley, a high-born rebel. Mary and Percy ended up eloping to the continent; Percy's first wife killed herself.

Across Europe, Mary and Percy consorted regularly with Lord Byron. While staying at Byron's villa near Lake Geneva during the stormy summer of 1816, the host challenged his guests to spin a ghost story. She found hers in a terrifying nightmare: “I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion.”

It was this wild imagining that she expanded into her most famous work.

Frankenstein was published anonymously in 1818 to mixed reviews. One magazine opined that it was “in doubt whether the head or the heart of the author be the most diseased”. But Walter Scott claimed that the unknown writer exhibited “original genius”.

Mary had seemingly internalised the science of the time, which was focused on the essential distinction between life and death. She was fascinated by reports of “galvanism”, which held that electricity could possibly reanimate dead matter. In the late 18th century, the Italian experimenter Luigi Galvani had shown that the muscles of dead frogs could be made to twitch through electrical stimulation. In 1803, electro-stimulation was tried on a hanged murderer, to similarly ghoulish effect. Today, galvanism finds expression in the form of defibrillators, used to treat those with cardiac arrhythmia.

Frankenstein's monster took on a life of its own because Shelley so vividly crafted it. The creature, jolted irreversibly into sentient existence, longs for acceptance and companionship, and wreaks its terrible revenge when its creator cannot deliver either. The novel is a story of unforeseen consequences. The use of the “franken-” prefix — as in “frankenfoods”, for example — deliberately channels the same fears about meddling with nature in a way that cannot be undone. The rise of gene-editing, which enables precision tinkering, revives such concerns.

With a little imagination, though, we can also see parallels with the field of AI. Shelley's protagonist Victor Frankenstein toiled in secrecy, without oversight, for reasons of ego; when he lost control of his creation, others suffered terribly.

The monster also learns how to speak and behave by watching people but falls into an unhappy metaphorical crevice: humanlike enough to arouse fear but not sufficiently human to fit in. Designers of robots call this the “uncanny valley” effect. Even on its bicentenary, Shelley's masterpiece can assume fresh meaning for a new generation.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein about?

A.A brilliant but unorthodox scientist dies from unexamined scientific progress.

B.A mad scientist brings a dead person back to life in an unorthodox experiment.

C.A scientist creates a grotesque human-like creature in a scientific experiment.

D.A sapient humanoid robot transforms into a demon in a scientific experiment.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements regarding Mary Shelley is correct?

A.Mary Shelley wrote one of the earliest feminist tracts before she died.

B.Mary and Percy first met at Samuel Taylor Coleridge's home in London.

C.Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein was inspired by her friend Lord Byron.

D.Mary Shelley came up with the story of Frankenstein in summer of 1816.

答案(2)

3.From the article we can conclude that galvanism is ____.

A.a theory about the essential distinction between life and death.

B.the contraction of a muscle that is stimulated by an electric current.

C.the bringing to life of organisms through electrical stimulation.

D.a unorthodox scientific experiment which could revive dead frogs.

答案(3)

4.What is this article mainly about?

A.A warning on the perils of unexamined scientific progress.

B.A review of the writer Mary Shelley's most famous work.

C.An introduction of Mary Shelley and her work Frankenstein.

D.An introduction of the origin of science fiction story.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.A scientist creates a grotesque human-like creature in a scientific experiment. 这部玛丽·雪莱所著的恐怖哥特小说已经诞生200年了，书中讲述了一位科学家将尸体碎片缝合在一起并将其复活的故事。

(2) 答案D.Mary Shelley came up with the story of Frankenstein in summer of 1816.

1816年的狂风暴雨的夏天，当他们在拜伦在日内瓦湖附近的别墅做客时，主人向他的客人挑战，让他们编一个鬼故事。她讲出了自己可怕的噩梦。

(3) 答案：B.the contraction of a muscle that is stimulated by an electric current.

Luigi Galvani证明，电刺激可以让死亡青蛙的肌肉抽搐。1803年，绞死的犯人被用于电刺激测试，并产生了同样的效果。

(4) 答案：C.An introduction of Mary Shelley and her work Frankenstein.

本文主要介绍了玛丽·雪莱及其作品《弗兰肯斯坦》。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集

Vol.65

泰勒·斯威夫特的声誉管理课堂

现代社会中，我们无论在何时何地都会受到个人名誉的影响，因此，声誉管理是每个人必备的技能。关于个人声誉管理，我们或许可以从刚刚经历声誉危机的泰勒·斯威夫特身上学到些什么。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

schemer ['skiːmə（r）] n. 计划者，阴谋家

cryptic ['krɪptɪk] adj. 秘密的

approximation [əˌprɒksɪ'meɪʃn] n. 接近，近似

bestial ['bestiəl] adj. 残忍的，野蛮的

trammel [træml] vt. 束缚，妨害

dimension [dɪ'menʃn] n. 范围; 方面

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29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37秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

What Taylor Swift tells us about reputation management （623 words）

By Ludovic Hunter-Tilney

Ill repute outweighs good in pop and rock. “It gives a strange fascination,” Thin Lizzy admitted in their song “Bad Reputation”. Joan Jett recorded an identically titled song in which the “queen of rock ‘n’ roll” bragged that she didn't “give a damn about my reputation”, yowling defiance at prudes tut-tutting about young women doing what they want: “You're living in the past, it's a new generation.”

That was in 1980. Several generations later, Jett's fellow Pennsylvanian Taylor Swift is releasing the year's most anticipated album, Reputation. It follows a downturn in the singer's own standing. Previously lauded as a paragon of apple-pie goodness who wrote all her own songs, Swift has been traduced by haters as the precise opposite — a publicity-obsessed schemer who is accused of devising fake romantic relationships with other celebrities, who does cryptic things in pursuit of world domination as a supposed member of the Illuminati and is seen to have contracted out her music to the world's slickest, most soulless pop producers.

Reputation's cover shows Swift with one side of her face covered by a black rash of newsprint, a shady counterpart to the unblemished other side of her face. It recalls Abraham Lincoln's saying: “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” All reputations are suspect, in other words. They provide a distorted approximation of a person's true nature.

But that cannot be right. Reputation is a vital aspect of our public selves, not just a shadow of our real selves. Unlike status, which is high or low, it has a moral component, spoken about in terms of good and baD.It relates to one's good name, the loss of which can feel like a death. The sacked army officer Cassio in Othello bewails his drunken disgrace: “Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial.”

We like to imagine ourselves as more liberated than in Shakespeare's day, less trammelled by conventions about how we should behave. Surely the modern Cassio could do a Thin Lizzy and admit to a strange fascination with his bad reputation. But the opposite turns out to be the case. The public persona that we present to the world grows ever more significant.

In the digital age reputation is inescapable. Not a day goes by without our judging something or being judged ourselves. We like each other's tweets, get tracked by credit-rating agencies, give stars to Uber drivers and are given stars in return. The assignation of value unfolds in real time at an unprecedented scale.

This is reputation as brand, a system of identification that treats behaviour as a transactional product, goods to be exchanged rather than goodness in the deeper sense. But the moral dimension cannot be eraseD.The sexual crimes and scandals that have emerged in the wake of Harvey Weinstein's disgrace have ruined a succession of reputations, bringing low powerful men previously uncensured by laws and institutions. Tax avoiders find their good names on the line following the Paradise Papers leak, hauled up before the court of public opinion in the absence of other forms of sanction.

With her background in country music, a repository of traditional Christian values, Swift understands that reputation is more than skin deep and not just a branding exercise. Her new songs are full of the language of morality （“I Did Something Bad”, “Don't Blame Me”）. Reputation is an instrument of moral justice, sharpened by mass communication — a dangerously double-edged one, open to misuse and misappropriation, as the attacks on her own reputation attest. Unlike Jett, she gives a damn about it. She is right.

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 statements is true?

A.Joan Jett once suffered a lot from bad reputation just like Taylor Swift.

B.Thin Lizzy bragged that she didn't give a damn about her reputation.

C.Swift has been traduced by haters for her close connection to the Illuminati.

D.In pop and rock, ill repute matters more than good one to the singers.

答案(1)

2.According to the article, Taylor Swift's album Reputation ____.

A.is released when the singer is struggling with ill repute.

B.is inspired by Abraham Lincoln's idea on reputation.

C.is the year's most most sold and streamed album so far.

D.is designed to strike back against schemers and haters.

答案(2)

3.Why does the author mention the sacked army officer Cassio in Othello in the fourth paragraph?

A.To explain why reputation is vital to our public selves.

B.To prove that losing reputation is awfully traumatic.

C.To describe the undesirable consequence of ill repute.

D.To introduce Shakespeare's opinion on reputation.

答案(3)

4.According to the article, the author believes ____.

A.Reputation has grown more significant and inescapable.

B.Reputation has became less important in the digital age.

C.Reputation is a reflection of our behaviours and morals.

D.The public persona is more important in Shakespeare's day.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.In pop and rock, ill repute matters more than good one to the singers.

解释：在流行乐和摇滚乐中，坏名声比好的更重要。

(2) 答案：A.is released when the singer is struggling with ill repute.

解释：在发行专辑《Reputation》之前，Taylor Swift 的声望跌到了最低谷。

(3) 答案：B.To prove that losing reputation is awfully traumatic.

解释：失去名誉的痛苦堪比死亡，就像《奥赛罗》中的那个被解雇的军官Classio一样。

(4) 答案：A.Reputation has grown more significant and inescapable.

解释：如今，我们的公众形象变得更加重要了。在数字时代，名誉的影响无处不在。

基因才是精英学校的真相

新的研究显示，真正让精英学校的学生脱颖而出的因素不是教学质量，而是基因。决定学生成绩最关键的因素是智力和环境。人的智力约有50%由遗传决定，而聪明的父母往往又能为孩子打造最佳的成长环境。这让精英儿童在两方面都占尽优势。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

roulette [ruː'let] n. 轮盘赌，点线机

bestow [bɪ'stəʊ] vt. 授予，适用

helix ['hiːlɪks] n. 螺旋，螺旋状物

heed [hiːd] vt./vi. 注意，留心

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。

文章长度

693

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46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41秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Genetics and the truth about selective schools （693 words）

By Anjana Ahuja

If you are a parent and want to do the best for your children, then congratulations. You have already bestowed a powerful gift: your genes. Life, you see, is a roulette wheel — and success partly turns on the double helix of your DNA.

At least, that is the message from eye-catching research published recently. It transpires that there are, on average, measurable genetic differences between students attending different types of schools. Pupils from selective schools were compared to pupils from non-selective state schools.

By linking genetic data from nearly 5,000 pupils to exam results, researchers from King's College London found “an association between genotype and school type” that could account for why children at selective schools notch up higher scores.

Emily Smith-Woolley and her team draw two conclusions. First, once you take into account factors such as a student's previous academic achievements and family circumstances, selective schools don't necessarily offer higher quality education.

Second, admissions tests seem to cement genetic differences in intelligence: “This results in a system in which children [who sit entrance tests] are… unintentionally genetically selected.” Grammars and private schools are, it turns out, vehicles for genetic privilege.

Ms Smith-Woolley is a student of Professor Robert Plomin, a controversial figure who has long championed the idea that intelligence is highly heritable. He calls genetics “the elephant in the classroom” and believes it should feature in teacher training. Toby Young, a schools campaigner and libertarian provocateur, is listed as a co-author on this new research. Mr Young attracted opprobrium recently for writing that, since genetics was a dominant factor in academic achievement, schools were limited in the difference they could make.

Prof Plomin set out his own philosophy in a significant review paper published in January. To wit: life is an intelligence test, and this trait predicts better than any other how your life will turn out.

Intelligence is not the same as your level of education, but it influences it, which in turn sways your occupation and income, which has a bearing on social status. Being smart helps you to choose a good spouse and stay healthy. In short, intelligence is the key to being one of life's winners — and, according to twin studies, heritability accounts for about 50 per cent of it.

Prof Plomin entitled his paper “The new genetics of intelligence” — and with good reason. The technology involved in reading the human genome has become faster and cheaper. We are now entering a new era of biological revelation thanks to “genome-wide association studies”. These involve sequencing the genomes of tens or even hundreds of thousands of people, and then scanning for particular genetic variants that are common to people who share a specific characteristic.

This is allowing Prof Plomin and others to gradually plot the genomic co-ordinates of their chosen characteristic: intelligence. There is no such thing as a “gene for intelligence”; it is a composite of hundreds, maybe thousands, of genetic variants.

It is thought to correlate well with the number of years of education — and this is the statistical sieve through which Ms Smith-Woolley pushed her datA.Students at grammar schools and selective private schools showed patterns of education-related genetic variants （called polygenic scores） that have previously been associated with high levels of education. It is fair to say these kids, who will benefit from the supposed advantages that their schooling affords, already have a genetic head start.

This is embarrassing for the UK government, which champions grammar schools as a way of boosting the life chances of the disadvantaged.

Educators should heed the revelations. Academic achievement is generally seen as a product of environment: having affluent, educated parents; living in a book-filled home; being fed a nutritious diet; attending top schools. But these environmental factors are tied up in genetics too, in a circular phenomenon that goes by the name of gene-environment correlation. We traditionally think of genes and environment as largely separate entities that combine to create our wins and losses, but there is growing evidence that our genes shape the environments we make for ourselves and our children. The genetically advantaged, in other words, create environmental advantages, in a spiral of self-fulfilling success. The challenge for society is that this spiral increasingly resembles a double helix.

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 statements about King's College London's research is true?

A.A student's academic achievements are directly linked with family background.

B.Grammars and private schools offer better education to genetic privilege.

C.Admissions tests unintentionally cement genetic differences in intelligence.

D.Children attend selective schools don't necessarily notch up higher scores.

答案(1)

2.Why does the co-author on this new research Toby Young draw criticism?

A.Because he argues that genetics is the dominant factor in educational achievement.

B.Because he has long championed the idea that intelligence is highly heritable.

C.Because he pulished a significant paper claiming that life is an intelligence test.

D.Because he believes schools has limited effects on children's academic achievement.

答案(2)

3.What do polygenic scores refer to according to article?

A.The specific gene which influences academic ability across all subjects.

B.The patterns of genetic variants which are related to academic achievement.

C.The admissions test scores of grammar schools and selective private schools.

D.The educational achievements which are closely related to heritability.

答案(3)

4.Which statement would the author most likely agree with?

A.Academic achievement should no longer be seen as a product of environment.

B.Genes and environment are separate factors influencing academic performance.

C.Genetic factors are largely responsible for the educational environments for children.

D.The UK government should support grammar schools as a way to promote equality.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.Admissions tests unintentionally cement genetic differences in intelligence.

解释：入学考试似乎强调了智力的基因差异。“在这个系统中，（参加入学考试的孩子）在无意中被基因筛选。”

(2) 答案：D.Because he believes schools has limited effects on children's academic achievement.

解释：Toby Young 最近遭到了谴责，因为他在文章中称，由于基因是学术成就的主要影响因素，所以学校能做出的改变是有限的。

(3) 答案：B.The patterns of genetic variants which are related to academic achievement.

解释：精英学校和私立学校的学生表现出与教育有关的遗传变异模式（称为多基因分数）。

(4) 答案：C.Genetic factors are largely responsible for the educational environments for children.

解释：传统上认为基因和环境在很大程度上是不相关的因素，但越来越多的证据表明基因塑造了我们为自己和孩子创造的环境。

解决垃圾邮件的绝招

14年前，比尔·盖茨曾预言垃圾邮件问题将在两年内消失，但如今，世界上有几百万人仍然被塞满垃圾邮件的收件箱困扰。如何解决烦人的垃圾邮件？当然应该从寄件方下手。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

pronto ['prɒntəʊ] adv. 很快地，急速地

deluge ['deljuːdʒ] n. 大洪水，泛滥

twaddle ['twɒdl] n. 胡说八道，瞎扯

faff [fæf] v. 无事奔忙，小题大作

hurdle ['hɜːdl] n. 栏杆，障碍

prolific [prə'lɪfɪk] adj. 多产的，作品丰富的

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。

文章长度

698

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47秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分59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

A radical solution to the tedium of email spam（698 words）

By Pilita Clark

This morning when I arrived at work, I did what I do every morning and started scrolling through my emails.

Then I did something I bet you did too: tediously clicked and deleted my way through a pile of mail I never knowingly asked for and definitely did not need.

I have no doubt that the Panama Canal Authority is ready to increase liquefied natural gas shipping traffic, but it did not have to tell me about it. And while it is fine that a Taiwanese company I have never heard of has won a prize for its “creative technological solutions”, I would have preferred it to have kept the news to itself.

Journalists are obviously fair game for this sort of PR guff. But I am sure we were not the only ones to get an email like the one I had from Quandoo the other day saying I had 500 loyalty points that had to be used up pronto — news that I could not care less about even if I knew what Quandoo was.

Now that the Facebook data privacy row has exposed the true cost of “free” online services, it is surely time to re-think the scourge of spam and ask a once unthinkable question: should we start charging for email?

It is nearly 50 years since the American computer programmer Ray Tomlinson invented email as we know it, and 14 years since Bill Gates predicted the spam problem would be solved within two years. Yet millions of us still waste countless hours dealing with a deluge of twaddle.

Last year, the UK's Computeractive magazine asked its readers what they found most annoying about their email. Junk mail was high on the list of gripes and not just unsolicited tips for a tiny belly. Unwanted online retailer mails were another stubborn problem.

I know there are companies that claim to be able to fix this in a few clicks with instant unsubscribing services. But these can be fiddly to use and do not work with all email accounts. Worse, at least one service turned out to be selling customers' data on to other companies. There are also regulators around the world that one can complain to about junk email, assuming one has time.

Yet all this misses the point. Why should email recipients have to faff around with spam filters and regulator complaints to fix a problem that should not exist in the first place? Clearly the responsibility should lie with the senders.

I have always liked the idea of being able to charge people to send you email, though like a lot of things I would like to see, it has always been a non-starter.

A few companies have toyed with email charging over the years. Some would have let users set their own prices for virtual stamps and sent the proceeds to charity. You could charge your friends and family nothing but a Quandoo would have to pay at least £5 and an ex-husband £100.

I tracked down a US academic named Scott Fahlman whose work inspired the charity email stamp. He thought it had failed to catch on because email filters had improved so much that spam was no longer such a big problem. Like the readers of that Computeractive magazine, I am not so sure.

There would obviously be technical obstacles to charging, such as setting up a trusted payment system. The larger hurdle would be making people pay for something that has always been free — even if that freedom is routinely abused.

Esther Dyson, a prolific technology investor who has long been keen on charging for email, thinks the technical hitches are solvable. She told me recently she still thought some type of charging would eventually materialise because the cluttered inbox problem was still huge .

Meanwhile, new EU privacy rules may help. The General Data Protection Regulation that comes into force in May is supposed to make it easier for people to control the way businesses use their data and allows fines of up to €20m, or 4 per cent of annual global turnover, whichever is higher.

Some online marketers are worried, which is heartening. But if the Facebook row shows anything, it is that the time for tougher curbs on online data misuse is well and truly overdue.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.From the article we can conclude that the author ____.

A.has never heard about the Panama Canal.

B.checks her email at the start of every work day.

C.has stopped using Quandoo for a long time.

D.works as a technology journalist in Asia.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about spam is true?

A.Spam appeared soon after email was invented 50 years ago.

B.Bill Gates predicted spam could be eradicated in 14 years.

C.Unsubscribing services could potentially put user's data at risk.

D.Online retailer mails was voted the most annoying emails.

答案(2)

3.Which could be the largest obstacle to email charging?

A.Making people willing to pay for sending emails.

B.Setting up a credible online payment system.

C.Preventing online data leakage and misuse.

D.Set prices for virtual stamps and mail delivery.

答案(3)

4.What is the General Data Protection Regulation according to the article?

A.A regulation in EU law which tightens up on the email privacy restrictions.

B.A regulation in EU law which helps customers protect their data from misuse.

C.A regulation in EU law which stops spam filters from selling customers' data.

D.A regulation in EU law which enables email providers to charge their users.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.checks her email at the start of every work day.

解释：今天早上当我上班时，我像每天早上一样开始浏览我的电子邮件。

(2) 答案：C.Unsubscribing services could potentially put user's data at risk.

解释：即时取消订阅服务可能很难使用，并且不适用于所有电子邮件帐户。更糟的是，至少有一家服务将客户数据销售给其他公司。

(3) 答案：A.Making people willing to pay for sending emails.

解释：比起技术困难，更大的障碍是如何让人们愿意为一直免费的东西付钱。

(4) 答案：B.A regulation in EU law which helps customers protect their data from misuse.

解释：5月份生效的《通用数据保护条例》会让人们更容易控制企业使用自己数据的方式。

Uber车祸带来的反思

Uber的致命车祸告诉我们，至少目前为止，希望依靠自动化来补偿人为错误，提高安全性的想法仍是天真的。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

configure [kən'fɪgə] v. 配置

complacent [kəm'pleɪsnt] adj. 满足的，自满的

insidious [ɪn'sɪdiəs] adj. 隐伏的，暗中为害的

vigilant ['vɪdʒɪlənt] adj. 警醒的，警戒的

proximity [prɒk'sɪməti] n. 接近，亲近

expedite ['ekspədaɪt] vt. 加快，促进

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。

文章长度

643

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35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分34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38秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Fatal Uber crash shows we are poor at supervising driverless cars（643 words）

By Mica Endsley

The Uber self-driving car that struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona this week has many people wondering whether autonomous vehicles are safe. The National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating the accident to determine why the human safety driver behind the wheel failed to avoid the pedestrian by taking over control from the vehicle.

Whatever the answer in this accident, drivers are correct to worry about the current push to develop self-driving vehicles from at least 18 companies.

In my work in the field of human-automation interaction, and as chief scientist for the US Air Force, I have studied the ways automation affects human performance in aviation, driving and other industries. My colleagues and I have found that the assumption that automation always improves safety by compensating for human error is a false one. In fact, we have found that automation significantly changes how people perform and can create new kinds of accidents.

For example, aircraft crashes have been caused by pilots who are reliant on automation that fails or is incorrectly configureD.In 2009, Air France Flight 447 crashed off the coast of Brazil because the automation got conflicting readings from its sensors and provided such confusing information to the pilots that they never realised the plane was in a stall. Many other aircraft crashes and industrial accidents can be traced to challenges caused by automation.

Automation tends to put people out of the loop. Humans often fall short when they try to supervise automation. Our research has shown that their level of awareness of the situation around them, and what the automation is doing, is much lower than when they are directly driving the car or flying the plane. It is not a matter of drivers keeping their hands on the wheel, but rather of keeping their minds on the road.

This sometimes happens when people over-trust automation and become complacent. Their attention is easily redirected to other tasks — talking to passengers, changing radio stations, texting, or simply daydreaming. Highly reliable automation is seductive and easily leads to over-reliance.

A more insidious problem is that even when people are paying attention and working to be vigilant, they can still be slow to realise they need to take over from the automation if the unexpected occurs. It turns out that the switch from doing something oneself to monitoring another process lowers people's level of engagement, both decreasing their understanding of what is happening and making them slower to respond to critical events. It is as if the automation turns the driver into a passenger.

This research underlies the NTSB's findings in a fatal crash in 2017 that the design of the Tesla car contributed to the driver's over-reliance on automation, lack of engagement and inattention to the roadway. Most automation is not 100 per cent reliable, and is unable to handle the wide variety of situations that can happen in the real worlD.This is where the paradox lies: while automation software is improving, the more reliable it is, the more likely people are to over-trust it.

It can take vital extra seconds to realise that the automation is not going to handle a situation. Unlike aircraft, automobiles operate in proximity to each other and to hazards; only fractions of a second may be available in which to avoid a collision.

Despite these significant problems, new legislation is being considered by the US Congress that would expedite approval of highly automated vehicles, exempting them from many safety regulations, and allowing hundreds of thousands of these vehicles on to the roads with little oversight.

Much more work is needed to ensure that autonomous vehicles can sense and understand their driving environment, to develop driver displays that will overcome the fundamental challenges of low engagement and driver complacency, and to create training programmes to help drivers better understand the autonomy. Until that work is done, highly autonomous vehicles are still too dangerous.

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 statements about the Uber self-driving accident is true?

A.The cause of the fatal crash is still under investigation of authorities.

B.It is the first death associated with self-driving technology in the US.

C.The Uber self-driving car crashed in Arizona and killed the human passenger.

D.The death was caused by an error of Uber's driverless car software.

答案(1)

2.Why it is so difficult for human to supervise automation?

A.Because automation makes people much slower to respond to all kinds of emergencies.

B.Because human's s over-reliance on automation leads to lack of engagement and inattention.

C.Because automation is unable to handle the wide variety of situations in the real world.

D.Because human operators often fail to determine when to take over from the automation.

答案(2)

3.Which is NOT a reason why automobiles can be dangerous?

A.Only fractions of a second may be available in an emergency.

B.Human tend to over-trust automation and distracted by other tasks.

C.Automation is not 100 per cent reliable under all circumstances.

D.The development of self-driving technology is slower than anticipated.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards automobiles?

A.Cautionary.

B.Disapproving.

C.Skeptical.

D.Cynical.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.The cause of the fatal crash is still under investigation of authorities.

解释：美国国家运输安全委员会目前正在调查这起事故，以确定车轮后面的人身安全驾驶员为什么没能避开行人。

(2) 答案：B.Because human's s over-reliance on automation leads to lack of engagement and inattention.

解释：当人们过度信任自动化时，他们的注意力很容易转移到其他任务上。即使人们集中注意并保持警惕，从正在做的事转移到另一件事的过程也会降低人的参与感。

(3) 答案：D.The development of self-driving technology is slower than anticipated.

解释：大多数自动化不是100％可靠的。这就是悖论所在：自动化软件的可靠性越高，人们越可能过分信任它。

(4) 答案：A.Cautionary.

解释：在更多的工作完成之前，高度自动化的车辆仍然太危险。

数字时代的我们需要拉丁语

作为一门在生活中“没用”的语言，拉丁语在校园中正变得越来越冷门。但在语言碎片化、意见二元化的社交媒体时代中，我们需要拉丁语从铺天盖地的表情包中拯救我们的表达水平和思维能力。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

inflect [ɪn'flekt] vt. 弯曲，使屈曲

syntactic [sɪn'tæktɪk] adj. 句法的

repulse [rɪ'pʌls] vt. 逐退，击退

discourse ['dɪskɔːs] n. 谈话，演讲

reap [riːp] vt. 收割，收获

jumbled [ˈdʒʌmbld]adj. 乱七八糟的

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。

文章长度

633

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31秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分31秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分48秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分37秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Latin is an essential language for our digital age（633 words）

By Benjamin Auslin

Latin has a bad rap. In my high school, only six students in my grade of 698 take the subject — and the numbers are dropping. There is so little interest that this year no one has opted to learn the language. My friends tell me it is useless — you cannot even use it to order food in a foreign country — and that it is dead for a reason.

I started taking Latin by accident, thanks to a scheduling error in my first year, but it is the best mistake I have ever made. I now see that in today's digital world, the language is more necessary than ever to teach us critical thinking and powerful expression.

For centuries, Latin was at the core of western education precisely because it trains you to assess information critically, articulate ideas and convey them eloquently. As an inflected language, reading Latin involves inspecting the ending of each word to determine its syntactic function. Being able to break down and rebuild sentences — that is, being able clearly to comprehend or construct a thought — is a skill that translates well into English.

But my generation speaks a dialect of English that is native to the internet, and we are losing our ability to understand how our language works. English, mostly thanks to politics and social media, is being degraded tweet by tweet.

We live in world of hashtags, of broken sentences and fragments of ideas published on social mediA.It has become so bad that we might ask why even have language? With the advent of the emoji, pictures seem to do the job just as well — and they worked for our earliest ancestors.

The great Roman lawyer Marcus Tullius Cicero would be repulsed by our form of civil discourse. Politicians used to speak to the masses with rational argumentation using the power of rhetoric, which is now largely abandoneD.Part of learning Latin is studying their command of language to find lessons on public duty and the role of citizens in society, lessons that become more important as we seem to be splitting along class, race and party lines and engaging online in the least civil of discourse.

Imagine if the type of political “dialogue” witnessed online during the 2016 US presidential election became the norm over the next decade. When my generation runs for office, social media may well be the predominant forum for public debate because it is the most familiar and comfortable. Those who have let the social media mindset seep into civil discourse will reap what they now sow.

Latin's greatest use may lie where English fails in an age when thoughts become jumbled into 140 or 280 characters. Ideally, we would learn to think and write like the Roman authors. Julius Caesar was renowned for his clarity in writing, perhaps born out of his experience as a military general. Cicero brought down the Catiline conspiracy against the government through four extensive speeches using stirring rhetoriC.Read these masters and you will discover a rich legacy of literature that makes most Twitter feeds look like cave paintings.

It is ironic that the digital age should suffer from its own success. Language is powerful, but it has been subsumed into a revolution of liking and disliking, binary options rather than articulate responses.

Most of us will not have time to become fluent in Latin, but even in translation, the language offers benefits. Try picking up Caesar or Tacitus or Martial. You will be surprised how much they speak to today's concerns and persuade with their logic and eloquence. In a society in which we are increasingly unwilling to listen to each other, the classics may offer the greatest hope of recovering not merely a shared civility, but the ability to use our own language.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why few students take Latin in school according to the article?

A.Because few high schools in America offer students Latin courses.

B.Because students today can hardly feel the beauty of Latin language.

C.Because Latin is too complicated compared to modern languages.

D.Because Latin is a dead language and it is rarely used in real life.

答案(1)

2.The author believes Latin is necessary because it can teach us ____.

A.deliberation and eloquence.

B.speech and comprehension.

C.public duty and the role of citizens.

D.simplicity and eloquence.

答案(2)

3.How the English language has changed in the era of social media?

A.It fails in an age when thoughts become jumbled into 140 or 280 characters.

B.It is gradually splitting along class, race and party lines in political context.

C.It has became increasingly fragmented and subsumed into binary options.

D.It has been degraded with the advent of the emoji and picture languages.

答案(3)

4.Why does the author mention the 2016 US presidential election in his article?

A.To explain how Latin can enhance the power of rhetoric.

B.To exemplify why the social media mindset is so influencial.

C.To urge policymakers to provide Latin lessons for politicians.

D.To indicate the trend of English degradation in political context.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.Because Latin is a dead language and it is rarely used in real life.

解释：我的朋友告诉我，拉丁语是没用的——你甚至不能用它在外国点餐——而且因为某种原因，它已经死了。

(2) 答案：A.deliberation and eloquence.

解释：我现在发现，在今天的数字世界中，我们比以往更需要这门语言来教我们批判性思维和强大的表达。

(3) 答案：C.It has became increasingly fragmented and subsumed into binary options.

解释：我们生活的世界充斥着社交媒体上的话题关键字、破碎的句子和碎片化的想法。语言是强大的，但它已被卷入了异常赞和踩的革命，成为笼统的二元选择而不是清晰的反馈。

(4) 答案：D.To indicate the trend of English degradation in political context.

解释：想象一下，2016年美国总统大选期间，我们在网上看到的政治“对话”会成为未来十年的常态。

城市需要富人和穷人

经济危机后，随着高收入工作的不断增加，城市的住房成本也在不断增加。市中心的居民区曾是穷人的天下，但现在，低技能工人不得不搬到城市边陲，每天坐长时间的公交去工作。廉价住房是城市的必需品，因为我们不能失去这些低技能工人。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

janitor ['dʒænɪtə（r）] n. 守卫，门警

christen ['krɪsn] vt. 为…命名

rejuvenate [rɪ'dʒuːvəneɪt] v. 使…恢复精神，变年轻

doughnut ['doʊnʌt] n. 油炸圈饼，环状物

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。

文章长度

663

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44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53秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Cities only work if they accommodate rich and poor（663 words）

By Sarah O’Connor

For much of the 20th century, a lawyer and a janitor from America's Deep South could have boosted their incomes by moving to the New York area, even after housing costs. These days, that is only true for the lawyer. Housing is now so expensive around New York that, after paying rent or a mortgage, the janitor would end up with less.

This fact — drawn from an academic paper published last year — hints at a bigger problem. Many of the lower-skilled jobs of the future will be created in successful cities like New York. But it is increasingly hard to live a decent life in one of these cities on a low wage. That is not just a problem for the janitor. It is a problem for the lawyer, the city and the economy itself.

Big cities are growth engines: so much so that they are pulling away from everywhere else. In Europe, new research shows that inequality between regions, which declined between 1900 and 1980 as poorer areas industrialised, is on the rise again. Europe has lost some industrial jobs to the developing world in recent decades （bad for places like Wallonia and Wales） but gained jobs in finance, creative industries and technology （good for cities like London and Paris）. Since the financial crisis, London's share of UK jobs in these “advanced tradeable industries” has grown from 23 to 27 per cent. Some other cities such as Manchester have done well too.

Bankers, designers and coders are not the only winners. The Resolution Foundation think-tank found that for every 10 new jobs in these sectors in the UK, another six were created in the wider economy: builders, hairdressers, taxi drivers, plumbers and so on.

These workers need to live near their customers. But rising demand, often compounded by planning rules, has pushed up housing costs in flourishing cities. Janitors in the Deep South are not the only ones affecteD.A broader US phenomenon has been christened “skill sorting”: highly skilled workers are moving to high-income places, while lower-skilled workers are leaving them.

London's socio-economic map has turned inside out. Poorer people who used to live in the inner city have moved to its edges. The academic Tony Travers calls this the “suburbanisation of poverty”. Low-paid people increasingly commute from London's fringes to their inner-city jobs. There are growing pains in Manchester, where little affordable housing has been built by developers in the rejuvenated city centre.

The problem may have been masked by international migration. In London, workers from the EU do a quarter of the construction jobs, a third of the hospitality jobs and 12 per cent of the retail jobs. Working for low pay in an expensive city is not easy, but it might be worth it if you want to study or learn English, or because your other options are worse.

Two years ago I interviewed a woman cleaning offices in London for the minimum wage. She and her husband rented a room in the south of the city. She got up each day at 3.30am and took three buses to work, seven days a week. She couldn't speak English, and felt she had no better options.

We do not know yet the rules for EU migration after Brexit, but if the number of lower-paid migrants drops substantially, the cracks in London's economy will start to show.

Whether they are migrants or native-born, it is neither feasible nor fair to expect lower-paid workers to live in vast doughnuts around thriving cities, commuting ever-longer distances. Employers struggling to fill posts could raise wages, but that is unlikely to be sufficient.

Policymakers need to make brave interventions on planning, building and tax to boost housing supply. Affordable housing is not a “nice-to-have” but a necessity. Homeowners might worry this will dent the value of their houses. But so would rubbish-strewn streets, unstaffed hospitals, leaking pipes and shuttered shops. If cities only work for the highly paid, they just don't work.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why are regional disparities rising in recent years?

A.Manufacturing jobs in Europe is declining while highly skilled jobs increase.

B.The industrialisation process in less developed areas has been slowing down.

C.The advanced tradeable industries's share in UK's economy has risen to 27%.

D.The number of lower-paid migrant workers in the UK drops sharply after Brexit.

答案(1)

2.According to the article, which of the following statements is true?

A.Highly skilled workers are the only winners of economic development.

B.Janitor is the most affected job as a result of the rising regional inequality.

C.Highly skilled workers have pushed up housing costs in flourishing cities.

D.Lower-skilled workers are moving to big city to live near their customers.

答案(2)

3.What does the term “suburbanisation of poverty” refer to?

A.Rising demand has pushed up housing costs and impoverish the economy.

B.Low-income workers moved outside the inner city due to rising housing costs.

C.Poor workers are leaving high-income places as highly skilled workers move in.

D.Low-paid people increasingly commute from rural areas to their inner-city jobs.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's main purpose for writing this passage?

A.To explain how rising regional inequality influences big cities in Europe.

B.To indicate why socio-economic map in big cities has turned inside out.

C.To urge the policymakers to provide affordable housing for social good.

D.To challenge society's perception of the impact of affordable housing.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.Manufacturing jobs in Europe is declining while highly skilled jobs increase.

解释：近几十年来，欧洲的一些第二产业工作被转移给了发展中国家（对瓦隆和威尔士地区不利），但在金融，创意产业和技术领域的工作机会在增加（对伦敦和巴黎等城市有好处）。

(2) 答案：D.Lower-skilled workers are moving to big city to live near their customers.

解释：每十个高技能工作会创造六个其他产业的工作，如建筑工人，理发师，出租车司机，管道工等。这些工人需要住在靠近顾客的地方。

(3) 答案：B.Low-income workers moved outside the inner city due to rising housing costs.

解释：伦敦的社会经济地图已经彻底颠覆。过去居住在内城的穷人已经搬去了边陲。学者托尼特拉斯称这是“贫困郊区化”。

(4) 答案：C.To urge the policymakers to provide affordable housing for social good.

解释：政策制定者需要在规划，建设和税收方面做出大胆的干预，以推动住房供应。可负担住房并不是“锦上添花”，而是一种必需品。

外语让人更明智？

相比母语，我们在讲外语时会更加明智吗？芝加哥大学的研究发现，用外语思考时，人们往往会做出更加冷静、客观的决定；而母语使用者则更多依靠直觉。为什么会这样？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

ponderous ['pɒndərəs] adj. 笨重的，迟缓的

riposte [rɪ'pɒst] n. 机敏的反驳或应答

dispassionate [dɪs'pæʃənət] adj. 冷静的

hypothesis [haɪ'pɒθəsɪs] n. 假设，前提

concede [kən'siːd] vt. 承认，给予

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。

文章长度

757

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1秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2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

Do we make better decisions in a foreign language?（757 words）

By Michael Skapinker

An American friend recently told me of a reunion with the son of the German family whose home he had lived in for a year as an exchange student. My friend had spent the year acquiring fluent German, which he spoke to the family.

The reunion, several decades later, took place among a crowd who were speaking English. Afterwards, the German son said to my friend: “I never realised you were witty.” Because in German, he never was. It was too hard to joke in a foreign tongue.

Anyone who has learnt another language will be familiar with this. We are more ponderous in our acquired language. We are slower on the uptake, having to construct each riposte in advance.

But is it also possible that we make more dispassionate decisions when thinking in a foreign language?

Academics at the University of Chicago think we do.

Writing in the journal Cognition, they describe a well-known moral dilemmA.You are watching a runaway carriage hurtling down a railway. In its path you see five people tied to the track. On your left is a large man. If you push him into the carriage's path, you will kill him but save the five. Do you do it?

The Chicago academics put the dilemma to a group of 800 native German speakers. About half considered the dilemma in German and half in English. Those answering in their second language were more likely to favour pushing the man on to the track.

To the Chicago faculty, this was no surprise. There have been several experiments, with similar results, about the effect of language on the track dilemma, with native speakers of English, Korean, Spanish, French, Hebrew, German and Italian.

The question the Chicago team tried to answer in the Cognition study was why the change happens when people decide in another language.

Their hypothesis was that we visualise people and objects more sharply in our native tongue and this affects our decision-making. In particular, when thinking in our own language, we can clearly picture the large man and are reluctant to push him to his death.

To test this, the 800 German speakers were asked to rate the vividness of their images of the large man and the five people on the tracks. Those doing the experiment in German reported having a clearer picture of the man than those doing it in English. There was no difference between the vividness of the images of the five other people on the track.

Why should this be? The Chicago study argues that the images we form in our minds are based on the memories we have of people and objects. Because we have more experience of people in our native language, we find it easier to picture them.

To test this, they asked 359 native English speakers to imagine various scenarios and objects — a sunset, hands clapping, the feeling of sand, running up stairs, the taste of salt, the smell of paint, a sore throat — and to rate the intensity of the feeling.

Half did the experiment in English, half in Spanish, their second language. Those who did it in English reported more vivid sunsets, handclaps, sand and step-running than those who answered in Spanish. There was little difference for sore throats and none for paint or salt.

The Chicago team thought people had more vivid images in their native English because they were more likely to tap into their memories than if they did the thinking in another language. That the smell and taste images were as sharp in Spanish may have been because the English speakers had “rich associations of flavourful Mediterranean cuisine”. Generally, however, “the use of a foreign language reduces vividness because it limits access to… memories”.

The authors concede that “other potential explanations are possible”. However, they did argue in an earlier paper that “a foreign language provides a distancing mechanism that moves people from the immediate intuitive system to a more deliberate mode of thinking”.

They add: “A foreign language may provide greater distance because it is less grounded in the emotional system than a native tongue is.” People working in a foreign language are less subject to cognitive bias, they say.

How seriously should we take this? An increasing number of people are now working in organisations that operate in English, mixing native and second-language speakers. It is certainly worth thinking about whether people seem more considered, and make more dispassionate decisions, in English than the native speakers do. The non-native speakers may seem less witty, but pay more attention to their opinions.

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 mention his friend in the first paragraph ?

A.To argue that learning a second language is beneficial espeacially at workplace.

B.To compare the difference between telling jokes in English and in German.

C.To indicate that speaking foreign languages makes people more ponderous.

D.To explain why people often find it too hard to joke in a foreign tongue.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about the moral dilemma experiment is true?

A.A group of 800 native German speakers were asked to give their answers in English.

B.Those answering in native language are more reluctant to push the man to his death.

C.People were asked to considered the dilemma in English, Spanish, French and German.

D.People cannot visualise the large man when they considered the dilemma in English.

答案(2)

3.The Chicago team believe ____.

A.A foreign language usually provides people a more intuitive mode of thinking.

B.The taste images are sharp in Spanish because people eat plenty of Spanish cuisine.

C.People are more likely to tap into their memories when thinking and speaking in English.

D.The use of a foreign language reduces vividness for the lack of relevant experience.

答案(3)

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

A.The non-native speakers tend to be more attentive.

B.We should begin trying to speak foreign languages at work.

C.People should relate to more memories in second language.

D.Organisations need to hire more non-native English speakers.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.To indicate that speaking foreign languages makes people more ponderous.

解释：我们使用习得的语言是更加慎重。往往会花更多时间理解并再开口前想好如何回答。

(2) 答案：B.Those answering in native language are more reluctant to push the man to his death.

解释：那些用第二语言回答的人更有可能赞成将这名男子推上火车道。

(3) 答案：D.The use of a foreign language reduces vividness for the lack of relevant experience.

解释：芝加哥大学的研究认为，我们在脑海中形成的图像是基于对人和物体的记忆。因为我们有更多使用母语的经验，所以我们更容易描绘它们。

(4) 答案：A.The non-native speakers tend to be more attentive.

解释：非母语人士可能看起来不那么诙谐，但他们更多关注于自己的意见。

不再独特的年轻人

千禧一代常常被塑造为数字时代中成长起来的异类，他们热爱网购，拥抱科技，讨厌工作，频繁跳槽。但越来越多的研究表明，无论是对新科技潮流的积极性，还是对工作的态度，年轻人和父辈甚至祖辈相比都没有显著差别。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

savvy ['sævi] adj. 有见识的，懂实际知识的

trek [trek] vt. 艰苦跋涉

dealership ['diːləʃɪp] n. 代理权，经销商

itinerant [aɪ'tɪnərənt] adj. 巡回的，流动的

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。

文章长度

698

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47秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分59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

Why millennials are not so special any more（698 words）

By Pilita Clark

One morning last week I caught a train to Shoreditch, the beating heart of London hipsterdom, to see a big European business conference on how to sell stuff to millennials.

At first all proceeded as expecteD.Hundreds of people turned up to see dozens of speakers from outfits such as Amazon, Google, PepsiCo and Harrods. That's nothing new for the event, which has gone global since it was invented in London in 2015 and has always been called Millennial 20/20.

But then something odd happeneD.As the first speakers were clearing their throats, a conference co-founder named Rupa Ganatra bounced to the microphone to say Millennial 20/20 was deaD.The event would go on, she saiD.But it had become clear to the organisers that retailers needed to understand a lot more “than just the digitally savvy millennial generation”. From now on, the conference would be rebranded “Futr”, short for future trends, and its scope would grow.

This was baffling for several reasons. First, why do people still delete perfectly good vowels to create idiotic words such as “futr”? More importantly though, could it be that millennials, the most scrutinised, criticised and debated generation of our time, were not that special any more?

“Millennials are still important as a customer,” Ms Ganatra told me later. But there is now a “millennial mindset” that has nothing to do with age, she saiD.In other words, millennials may have been the first generation to have grown up in a digital world but the rest of us are catching on fast.

People of all ages are now so used to shopping with a click or talking to a chatbot that retailers need to think about the needs and desires of all their customers, not just those born between 1981 and 1996 — the latest definition experts have come up with for a millennial.

This confirms something I have always suspected about millennials, namely that they do not exist, or at least not in the way that conventional wisdom says they do.

Exhibit one: my 82-year-old mother. Apple has hardly made a single product she has not tried in the past 10 years. She had a mini iPad years before I did, as well as an iPhone 6, an Apple watch and Apple TV. Like most of her friends, she has been shopping online for years — and they are not alone.

Studies have shown for some time that parents have been copying the online shopping behaviour of their millennial offspring.

In the UK, a survey last month found 32 per cent of over-55s would prefer to look online for a new car instead of trekking to a dealership, which was not far behind the 44 per cent of millennials who said the same thing. The researchers said they found this surprising. But it should not be considering how similar millennials are to the rest of us in the place we spend most of our time: the office.

We all know millennials are entitled, self-obsessed, job-hoppers, desperate for a life outside work, a “purpose” and constant feedback, except if it's remotely critical. Except they are not.

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting workers of all ages are far more alike than dissimilar when it comes to their attitudes to work and their values, says Bruce Pfau, KPMG's former vice-chair of human resources.

Studies have found older baby boomers are just as keen as millennials on a decent work-life balance, doing work they are passionate about and helping to save the planet.

Millennials might move jobs more than older people, but younger workers have been doing that for decades. In fact, some data suggest that younger people are now less itinerant than previous generations.

None of this means millennials are not unique in other ways. They clearly have a fondness for tattoos their grandparents rarely share. They are doubtless more inclined to wing it when booking a holiday. But younger people have long been bolder about such things.

It would be a brave company that ignores such a large and important market as young people. But the sad truth about millennials is that they are not nearly as special as they have been tolD.In fact I am not entirely sure they were ever really here at all.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is Millennial 20/20 according to the article ?

A.An annual trade show presenting new products and technologies.

B.An European business conference targeting millennial customers.

C.An annual conference to promote millennial tech entrepreneurs.

D.A conference for young innovators to present their latest products.

答案(1)

2.The Millennial 20/20 co-founder Ms Ganatra believes ____.

A.the millennial mindset can apply to customers of all age groups.

B.there is no point in continuing the Millennial 20/20 conference.

C.millennial customers are not so important as people believe.

D.millennials catch on future trends faster than older generations.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following statements about the older customers is true?

A.Customers of all ages are much alike because we spend the same amount of time in office.

B.More over-55s prefer to buy new cars from sellers over the Internet compare to millennials.

C.Many older customers try online shopping under the influence of their millennial offspring.

D.About 44 per cent of over-55s insist on trekking to a dealership to buy daily necessities.

答案(3)

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

A.The so-called digitally savvy millennial generation doesn't exist.

B.People of all ages now prefer online shopping to in-store shopping.

C.New digital products should be more considerate of older people.

D.People has exaggerated the uniqueness of millennial workers.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.An European business conference targeting millennial customers.

解释：上周我参加了一场关于如何向千禧一代推销产品的欧洲大型商业会议。自2015年开办以来，这个会议就被命名为Millennial 20/20。

(2) 答案：A.the millennial mindset can apply to customers of all age groups.

解释：“千禧一代顾客依然重要。”Ganatra女士后来告诉我，“但是如今的‘千禧一代思维方式’与年龄无关。”

(3) 答案：C.Many older customers try online shopping under the influence of their millennial offspring.

解释：研究表明，一段时间以来，老一辈人一直在模仿他们千禧一代的子孙们网上购物。

(4) 答案：D.People has exaggerated the uniqueness of millennial workers.

解释：越来越多的证据表明，所有年龄段的员工在工作态度和价值观方面都十分相似。

被遗忘的互联网清洁工

在马尼拉等亚洲城市中，有这样一群IT工作者，他们受雇于Google、Facebook等名企，却拿着低廉的薪水。他们每天的工作就是面对互联网上最血腥暴力的恐怖主义信息，并因此承受巨大的心理压力。他们就是长期被忽视的互联网“清洁工”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

irritating ['ɪrɪteɪtɪŋ] adj. 刺激的，气人的

disconcert [ˌdɪskən'sɜːt] vt. 使困惑，破坏

expediency [ɪk'spiːdiənsi] n. 权宜，方便，私利

hiccup ['hɪkʌp] n. 连续地打嗝； 暂时性小问题

toll [təʊl] n.（战争、灾难等造成的）毁坏

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。

文章长度

730

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12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5秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分43秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The low-paid workers cleaning up the worst horrors of the internet（730 words）

By Gillian Tett

Is there any way to stop the spread of terrorist material on the internet? It's a question that many have asked in recent years, as groups such as Isis have pumped out sickening images of beheadings and torture on social media platforms. This month the European Commission tried to offer an answer: it demanded that companies such as Google and Facebook take down any terrorism-related content within an hour of it being reported.

“Hooray!” most FT readers might think. After all, one reason why Isis and others started creating these horrifying images is that they know how easily they can proliferate, giving terrorists a media voice out of all proportion to their actual influence. Only about 5 per cent of the content Isis has created has been in English. However, it has packed a formidable global punch precisely because it has been so widely shareD.The content is also hard to remove.

But as the European Commission starts, belatedly, on this crackdown, it raises the question of who exactly is going to monitor these social media feeds and decide what should be deleted?

This is not an issue most of us think about. Little wonder. Our 21st-century lives are built on all manner of seemingly sophisticated processes that produce waste, of the physical and cyber kinD.Yet it is very easy to ignore the question of who cleans up that mess, whether in a sewer, a street or in cyber space.

In recent weeks, I have been haunted by this question of cyber mess, due to a fascinating documentary called The Cleaners. This movie, which looks at how Facebook and others remove offensive material on its sites, goes undercover to interview a group of IT workers who are paid to scan content on monitors, taking down anything that breaks decency rules, such as terrorist posts.

As documentaries go, The Cleaners is not perfect. As well as a lot of irritatingly spooky music, the film leaves some key questions unanswereD.But it explores a fascinating, and disconcerting, topiC.It illustrates a point that very few western internet users know about, namely that the people who are actually “cleaning” Facebook posts do not usually sit in Silicon Valley or a Brussels bureaucracy; instead, many are found in places such as Manila in the Philippines.

Commercially, it makes sense for Silicon Valley to outsource these “cleaning” jobs to Asia, since IT workers there tend to be cheaper. There is also an element of expediency. Doing so keeps it out of the western public eye even if, inevitably, it can also create some hiccups. The workers sometimes struggle to understand the cultural nuances of the material they are scanning. Sometimes they delete western artistic nudes （because they confuse it for pornography） or human-rights videos from Syria （because they show violence）.

However, as the film tracks a collection of these workers, who spend many hours in grim cubicles watching the depravity that exists on the internet, it raises another, far more important issue: the toll this process takes on the workers themselves.

As the film shows, some of them rely on their religious faith to cope with the endless horrors they monitor online, while others try to remain detacheD.But nobody can pretend that this is an easy job or something most of us would ever agree to do.

This pattern of outsourced “cleaning” also creates a moral question: is there a better way to handle this process? Facebook says it is intensifying support for its “cleaners”, in the Philippines and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Google has taken a slightly different tack, by building extensive operations to monitor the internet in developed markets, such as Ireland, alongside those in the developing world.

But what no politician — or Silicon Valley whizz-kid — would ever dare say in public is that there is probably no easy （or cheap） way to “clean” the internet. Even if artificial intelligence is deployed, judging what is （or is not） indecent will always require some human input. And the more that terrorist groups churn out their material, and government bodies try to crack down, the more challenging this “cleaning” process will be.

Meanwhile, the next time you log into a social media account, spare a thought for this hidden world of the “cleaners”. Although cyber space might be intangible, there are hidden armies of humans involveD.They deserve a spotlight — precisely because they do a job most of us hate to even think about.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What measure did the European Commission take to stop terrorism-related content ?

A.They asked tech companies to remove terrorist content within an hour after being flagged.

B.They asked tech companies to develop automated techniques to delete terrorism-related posts.

C.They asked tech companies to work with counter-extremist groups to help identify content.

D.They asked tech companies to hire human reviewers to police violent and illegal posts.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about the cleaners is true?

A.Most of Facebook's cleaners are Filipino IT workers in Manila.

B.The cleaners delete human-rights videos because they are anti-religious.

C.Some of the cleaners have already been suffering from mental diseases .

D.Tech companies hire Asian cleaners since labor cost is cheaper in Asia.

答案(2)

3.What does Google do to better monitor its content?

A.They promise to intensify support for its cleaners in Asia.

B.They have built extensive internet monitoring operations.

C.They have applied the most advanced content classifiers.

D.They hire many cleaners in developed countries such as Ireland.

答案(3)

4.According to the article, the author believes ____.

A.Artificial intelligence could soon take over human cleaners.

B.Governments should take responsibility for internet monitoring.

C.Cleaning indecent content will always require human effort.

D.The cleaners deserve higher salaries and better support.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.They asked tech companies to remove terrorist content within an hour after being flagged.

解释：欧盟委员会本月命令诸如谷歌和Facebook等公司在收到举报后一小时内删除与恐怖主义有关的内容。

(2) 答案：D.Tech companies hire Asian cleaners since labor cost is cheaper in Asia.

解释：硅谷将这些“清洁”工作外包给亚洲，因为那里的IT工作人员往往更便宜。

(3) 答案：B.They have built extensive internet monitoring operations.

解释：谷歌已经采取了稍微不同的措施，他们在爱尔兰等发达国家市场以及发展中国家建立广泛的网络审核网络。

(4) 答案：C.Cleaning indecent content will always require human effort.

解释：即使有了人工智能，判断什么是（或不是）不当信息也总是需要一些人力。

离心离德的科技巨头

库克和扎克伯格之间爆发的嘴仗暴露出了科技巨头之间的裂痕。面对日益沉重的监管压力和受损的公众形象，处于内忧外患之中科技公司该怎样应对？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

backlashn. 激烈反应，强烈反对 /'bæklæʃ/

bickervi. 斗嘴，闪烁 /'bɪkə（r）/

myopicadj. 近视的，缺乏远见的 /maɪ'ɒpɪk/

siphonv. 用虹吸管吸出 /'saɪfn/

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22秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分41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

Tim Cook v Mark Zuckerberg exposes rifts in Big Tech（593 words）

By Anjana Ahuja

You could call it “Cook v Zuck”. In one corner, Tim Cook, the cautious veteran trying to rise above the fray. In the other, Mark Zuckerberg, the embattled upstart with a lot to prove. Like all heavyweight bouts, both fighters will probably end up bruised and bleeding.

The war of words in recent days between the bosses of Apple and Facebook is a clear sign of the huge pressure the leaders of the big tech companies are now feeling. There's a risk they will only end up exposing holes in each others' defences, weakening the united front that would help them better resist a political backlash and further sullying the “Big Tech” brand with consumers.

But, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, this is a debate that needs to be haD.The fact that it is being conducted in public at the highest levels of the tech industry underlines just how much is at stake.

It was Mr Cook who started the bickering, implying that Facebook's business model was founded on “an invasion of privacy” by trafficking in user data.

So no surprise that Mr Zuckerberg hit back — though it was still remarkable that he felt required to defend the basic advertising market on which much of the internet depends. This was the only way to reach a mass global audience, he saiD.For good measure he shot back at the criticism as “glib” and took a swing at Apple's own business model, saying Facebook was “not just serving rich people”.

Mr Zuckerberg is right. The massive data leak to Cambridge Analytica may have been a stark reminder that consumer internet services are not really as “free” as they seem. But advertising has brought online services to a large slice of the world's population — in Facebook's case, a mind-boggling audience of 2.2bn. The problem, of course, is that Mr Zuckerberg's company was so myopically focused on pursuing the logic of its business model and its self-professed ideals that it abandoned the responsibility to set up sufficient checks and balances.

The question now is how deep that failure runs. Its drive to draw as many people as possible into the network, for instance, raised profound questions that went largely unaddresseD.Just consider a recently leaked internal communication from a senior Facebook engineer pointing out that the company's singular focus on user growth might result in more deaths from online bullying or terrorism. It may have been intended as a provocative thought experiment, but the uncomfortable truth that it exposed can't be wished away.

At a time when it wanted to find more reasons for people to come to the network, Facebook also set out to attract as many new apps as possible — with access to its users' personal data acting as the main lure for app developers. This created plenty of financial incentives to turn a blind eye — leading directly to the siphoning off of so much information to Cambridge Analytica through a simple app promising a personality quiz.

If Mr Zuckerberg can't wrestle back control of this runaway system, then Facebook doesn't deserve the user trust that he says is his paramount goal. It is certainly risky for Mr Cook to expose the rift in Big Tech so publicly, but these are not normal times.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The wrangle between Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg indicates ____.

A.the “Big Tech” brand with their consumers has been sullied.

B.the united front of the big tech companies are weakening.

C.the security flaws of tech companies put every user at risk.

D.the leaders of tech giants are coming under huge pressure.

答案(1)

2.What did Mr Cook criticize about Facebook?

A.Trafficking in user data to make a profit.

B.Invading user's privacy for political purposes.

C.Defending their political advertisement bill.

D.Providing services only to the wealthy.

答案(2)

3.Why does Facebook allow so many apps to access its users' personal data?

A.To scale user growth.

B.To make profits from new apps.

C.To siphon off lucrative data.

D.To attract more advertisers.

答案(3)

4.The author would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements?

A.It is irrational for Mr Cook to expose the rift in Big Tech in public.

B.Facebook failed to prove its reliability in terms of user privacy.

C.Facebook should charge its user a privacy fee to protect their data.

D.Facebook's free internet service is at the cost of user's privacy.

答案(4)

(1) 答案D.the leaders of tech giants are coming under huge pressure. 近几天苹果公司和Facebook的领导人之间爆发了口水战，这表明大型科技公司的领导人现在正承受着巨大的压力。

(2) 答案A.Trafficking in user data to make a profit. 是库克挑起的这场争吵，他暗示Facebook的商业模式是建立在通过贩运用户数据而“侵犯隐私”的基础上的。

(3) 答案B.To make profits from new apps. Facebook也以访问用户数据为诱饵，着手吸引尽可能多的新应用。因此而产生的经济利益让他们对收集大量用户数据的剑桥咨询公司视而不见。

(4) 答案D.Facebook's free internet service is at the cost of user's privacy. 这次大规模数据泄露事件给了消费者一个鲜明的提醒——互联网服务并不像他们看起来那样“免费”。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集

Vol.66

纪梵希的小黑裙传奇

即便是对时尚一窍不通的人，也会记得纪梵希为奥黛丽·赫本设计的小黑裙。这件出现在电影《蒂凡尼的早餐》中的小黑裙经历了五十余年时光的洗礼，但其魅力毫不褪色。是什么造就了这件小黑裙的经典？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

couturier [ku'tjʊərieɪ] n. 裁缝师，设计师

insouciant [ɪn'suːsiənt] adj. 漫不经心的

totemic [təʊ'temɪk] adj. 图腾的

slouch [slaʊtʃ] n. 没精打采的样子

saucy ['sɔːsi] adj. 莽撞的，活泼的

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。

文章长度

784

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36秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分8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47秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Givenchy and the making of the world's most famous dress（784 words）

By Jo Ellison

Of the many iconic looks created by Hubert de Givenchy, the French couturier who died last weekend at the age of 91, the most enduring is found in the image of a young woman wearing a long black dress and elbow-length gloves. The dress is first seen from behind; lean and simple, with a wasp waist, it has a narrow skirt that allows its wearer only a geisha's shuffle in her low-heeled shoes. But the real drama is in the details, two semi-circular cutaways across the back that reveal the shoulders and upper arms.

It is, of course, the dress worn by Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in the opening scenes of Breakfast at Tiffany's. And it remains arguably the most famous dress in the worlD.It's a dress that has come to be shorthand for a certain insouciant sophistication. A dress that has been endlessly copied, mimicked and revisiteD.A dress so totemic that an anonymous bidder was compelled to pay £467,200 when it was offered at auction in 2006.

Even if you care nothing for fashion, hate the idea of it, think it's silly as all hell, the chances are that, once upon a time, you saw Breakfast at Tiffany's and fell in love with this dress. And quite possibly the woman inside it. It transcends mere fashionability. More than 50 years after the film's release, the vision of Hepburn pulling up to those Fifth Avenue windows to eat her morning pastry, with her oversized dark glasses and her hair piled high, still embodies the essence of elegance.

But what is it that so endures? Times have moved on. Women have changed, in wardrobe as well as in attitude. And yet that dress, that scene, captures a particular magiC.The promise of a better day. A salve for the “mean reds”. A shot of something unapologetically glamorous.

The dress made its designer a household name. Shortly after the film's release in 1961, Givenchy was commissioned to design Jackie Kennedy's wardrobe for a state visit to France. He delivered her a cream embroidered sleeveless gown and a narrow collared suit, and became the favoured couturier for America's socialites. The designer's genius was in giving women a wardrobe in which they truly felt at ease. “Givenchy's clothes are the only ones I feel myself in,” Hepburn once told reporters. “He is more than a designer, he is a creator of personality.”

For film, however, his clothes went further, creating layers of personality upon which to hang a character. The dress was the apogee of his working relationship with Hepburn. The pair first met in 1953, when Givenchy was asked to furnish the actress with a sufficiently authentic wardrobe to mark her post-Parisian transformation in the film SabrinA.He became her favoured costumier and she a loyal client. She wore his gown to pick up an Oscar. He designed the wedding suit for her second marriage. That union lasted 13 years; her friendship with Givenchy lasted more than 40.

Yet few outfits became imprinted in the public consciousness as powerfully as his Breakfast at Tiffany's ensemble. Perhaps its success is in its slyly provocative allure, and a black one at that. In the early 1960s, in a world only warming to the sexual revolution, Givenchy's take on womanhood is the antithesis of virginal white. It's refined — but also risqué.

Truman Capote offers scant information about Golightly's wardrobe but everything about her impression. In the story, written from the perspective of the infatuated Fred, we first meet her “in a slim cool black dress, black sandals, pearl choker”, as in the film. “For all her chic thinness,” Fred continues, “she had an almost breakfast-cereal air of health.”

Capote, no slouch when it came to the company of decorative women, understood well the business of chiC.He writes later: “She was never without dark glasses, she was always well groomed, there was a consequential good taste in the plainness of her clothes.”

Perhaps more than Hepburn, it is Golightly herself, with her plain good taste, that makes her the perfect muse for Givenchy: the call-girl wearing couture. The designer had trained with Cristóbal Balenciaga and always heeded that designer's credo that “to make clothes you must eliminate, eliminate, eliminate to obtain the true sense of a line”.

Golightly's style may be extravagant and worldly, but her wardrobe never overwhelms her. He also added saucy extras — the man's dress-shirt Hepburn wears in bed remains the template for women hoping to channel a certain gamin sexuality. No woman can wear a trenchcoat in the rain without considering Golightly's impassioned escape. She may be an emotional mess but her clothes are always immaculate — she remains the most beautiful “fraud”. A flawed figure to whom we can all aspire.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the most iconic look designed by Givenchy ?

A.A narrow collared dress with gladiator sandals.

B.A brownish black embroidered sleeveless gown.

C.A long sleeve black dress and short gloves.

D.A long black dress and elbow-length gloves.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about Givenchy's classic black dress is true ?

A.It cost Givenchy approximately £467,200 to make the black dress.

B.Even people who care nothing for fashion will love the black dress.

C.The black dress appeared in the beginning of Breakfast at Tiffany's.

D.The black dress first appeared on the windows of the Fifth Avenue .

答案(2)

3.Givenchy's life-long friendship and partnership with Audrey Hepburn began when ____.

A.he created the costumes for the movie Sabrina

B.he designed a gown for the Oscar ceremony.

C.he designed the wedding suit for Hepburn.

D.he created the black dress for Breakfast at Tiffany's.

答案(3)

4.From the article we can conclude that Truman Capote ____.

A.is the director of the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's.

B.wrote the original story of Breakfast at Tiffany's.

C.inspired Givenchy to create the classic black dress.

D.first introduced Givenchy to Audrey Hepburn.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.A long black dress and elbow-length gloves.

解释：法国时装设计师Hubert de Givenchy创造的许多标志性设计中，最经久不衰的是穿着黑色长礼服和长手套的年轻女性形象。

(2) 答案：C.The black dress appeared in the beginning of Breakfast at Tiffany's.

解释：这是奥黛丽·赫本在《蒂凡尼的早餐》的开幕场景中穿的裙子。

(3) 答案：A.he created the costumes for the movie Sabrina

解释：两人于1953年首次见面，当时纪梵希被邀请为电影《Sabrina》设计服装。

(4) 答案：B.wrote the original story of Breakfast at Tiffany's.

解释：杜鲁门·卡波特后来写道：“她从来没有摘下过墨镜，她总是打扮精致，衣着朴实却品味良好。”

男人进化论

女权主义的崛起改变的不只是女人，男性也会日渐受其影响。女权主义社会潮流怎样塑造了老中青三代男性？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

boilerplate ['bɔɪləpleɪt] n. 样板文件

queasy ['kwiːzi] adj. 使人呕吐的，反胃的

retort [rɪ'tɔːt] n. 反驳，顶嘴

cadre ['kɑːdə（r）] n. 干部，小组成员

sulk [sʌlk]vi. 生气；愠怒

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。

文章长度

724

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10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4秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分43秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

#MeToo and the evolution of man（724 words）

By Simon Kuper

A male friend who runs a small organisation recently recruited a senior executive. The best candidate, by a margin of perhaps 5 per cent, was a man. “A star,” says my frienD.“But he wasn't going to get the job.” The organisation had decided to reduce its gender gap by recruiting a senior woman.

Last autumn's #MeToo revelations are now changing employment, far beyond sexual harassment. Germany and the UK are forcing large companies to reveal their gender pay gaps. Canada's self-proclaimed “feminist” government just presented a budget packed with measures to help working women. Employers everywhere are frantic to recruit millennials, who are thought to care about equality. And so, in a reversal of all known employment history, women may now get the biggest share of new goodies at work. Most men are keeping a timid silence on these issues, fearful of venturing beyond boilerplate PC.But to adapt the eternal Cosmopolitan magazine headline, what do men really want? And how will they live with what they're going to get?

#MeToo showed most men a reality they had never thought about. Even smug, virtue-signalling PC males like me are queasily realising that we have spent our careers participating in unfair scenes. I realised that my working life was going to change during a panel last November. On arrival, I had clocked that the entire panel consisted of men. I'd sat on countless “manels” before but, for the first time in my experience, women in the audience complaineD.We had no retort beyond, “Yeah, you're right.” A female-led discussion broke out. The moderator explained that the festival always invited more female panellists than males, but always ended up with more men. The reasons: many women couldn't come because of childcare, or didn't want to pontificate about issues beyond their expertise. Someone said the festival should hire babysitters, and remind female invitees that most male panellists are happy to pontificate about anything at all.

This year, organisations everywhere are making these kinds of changes. Men （especially mediocre ones） will find senior roles growing scarcer.

Their relative pay will probably fall too. One friend tells me his employer has, predictably, discovered a massive company-wide gender pay gap. Any pay rises these next few years will mostly go to women. My friend, who isn't rich, expects never to get another raise. He doesn't complain, because it's boring, but sometimes gender equality is a zero-sum game: she wins, he loses. Shifts like these have plunged many men into often private emotional struggles.

Broadly, male responses seem to differ by generation. A category of older men （mantra: “this is PC gone mad”） grumbles that women are getting jobs just because they are women. This is a decent strategy for preserving self-esteem. However, it denies the obvious fact that they themselves always got jobs because they were men. The writer John Scalzi compares being a straight white male to playing the computer game called The Real World with the difficulty setting on “Easy”. Most younger people now would probably agree with the Hollywood film executive Franklin Leonard: “When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.”

Angry old men won't encounter broad sympathy, so they may find themselves retreating into a cadre of supportive peers in the golf club or the comments section, and voting for politicians like Donald Trump. In time, male sulking will probably die out. Sarah Jackson, who heads the British organisation Working Families, says one senior corporate executive told her: “We have a generation that we are just going to have to manage out. They'll be retiring. They don't get it and never will.”

Among middle-aged men, most seem to know their privilege is unearned, like extra ice cream. Most of us work full time, and almost none are house-husbands, but ever more are （in Sheryl Sandberg's language） “leaning out”. Jackson sees men turning down moves and ducking promotions, so they can collect the kids from school. This is the “Daddy Track”. Happily, this set-up lets us blame our stalled careers on society.

Millennial men （at least according to surveys） are even less keen to devote their lives to pursuing the corner office. Anyway, if they get there with the help of an old-fashioned housewife, their peers might be unimpresseD.When a powerful man such as the British politician Jacob Rees-Mogg boasts of never changing a nappy, he just looks outdateD.As male status detaches from career success, men are evolving.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why there are always less females at panels ?

A.Because the moderators deliberately invite less female panellists than males.

B.Because most male panellists are not happy to pontificate about everything.

C.Because many women are busy at childcare and lack interest in pontificating.

D.Because many females are not willing to participate in male-led discussions.

答案(1)

2.In paragraph 5, what does the underline word “these” refers to?

A.Organisations hold more female-led discussions for female panellists.

B.Organisations make efforts to reduce its gender gap in employment.

C.Organisations hire babysitters to encourage more women join panels.

D.Organisations gives more pay rises to women in the next few years.

答案(2)

3.The writer John Scalzi believes ____.

A.Straight white men enjoy privilege in video games.

B.Straight white males are accustomed to privilege.

C.Equality feels like oppression for straight white men.

D.Life is much easier for the straight white male.

答案(3)

4.How does the rise of feminism affect males from younger generations?

A.Younger men gradually care less about work but more on family commitments.

B.More and more young men blame their stalled careers on society and family.

C.Younger men are willing to devote their lives to becoming house-husbands.

D.Young men retreat into a cadre of supportive peers to complain about PC.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.Because many women are busy at childcare and lack interest in pontificating.

解释：主办方总会邀请更多女性，但来的男性总是更多。许多女性因为照顾孩子而不能来，或者不想对超出她们专业领域的问题夸夸其谈。

(2) 答案：B.Organisations make efforts to reduce its gender gap in employment.

解释：今年，各地的组织都在进行这种改变。男性（尤其是平庸之辈）会发现高级职位越来越稀缺。

(3) 答案：D.Life is much easier for the straight white male.

解释：作家John Scalzi将白人异性恋男性的生活比作在“现实世界”游戏中将难度调到低档。

(4) 答案：A.Younger men gradually care less about work but more on family commitments.

解释：随着男性地位不再与职业成功挂钩，男性正在不断进化。

你的学历价值几何？

英国教育部宣布将实行新的大学考核标准，新推出的标准将单独考核大学的不同课程。但这项新标准却因过多依赖于数据而引起了争议。大学学历的价值真的能依靠数据来评估吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

trajectory [trə'dʒektəri] n. 轨道，弹道

audacious [ɔː'deɪʃəs] adj. 大胆的，放肆的

jittery ['dʒɪtəri] adj. 神经过敏的，战战兢兢的

echelon ['eʃəlɒn] n. 梯形，梯队

retention [rɪ'tenʃn] n. 保存，保留

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。

文章长度

591

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13秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分21秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分41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

The value of university degrees will be hard to measure（591 words）

By Miranda Green

We are in, says Sam Gyimah, the higher education minister, “the age of the student”. On Monday, he announced changes to the league tables that show potential students how well UK universities compare in both teaching quality and future career prospects. For the first time, they will allow young people to compare courses, not just the institutions.

A competition for tech companies was also launched, inviting designs for an app: ministers want short-cuts for young people to check on the earnings return and career trajectory they can expect from studying a particular subject at a particular university.

It is easy to see why the Conservatives, cornered by an occasionally vague but electorally popular promise from Labour to “deal with” student debt, would like to transform themselves into the higher education sector's consumer champions. But this will be a hard trick for the governing party to pull off.

For one thing, shifting the blame from students and graduates discontented about their loans away from the politicians who designed the system is audacious. Mr Gyimah has been noticeably keen to talk up the rare cases of students suing their degree providers.

When it comes to the details of designing a better accountability framework, ministers will have to deal with a jittery sector and a hostile university workforce. Lecturers feel undervalued enough to strike over their pensions, while vice chancellors and their management echelon have lost authority over the pension dispute and objections to their sky-high pay.

The main problem, however, remains with the data: how do you measure value-for-money when much of a university's reputation （and hence the prestige and career-boost of its degrees） derives from research and from how selective it is on entry?

The main collection of data on the student experience, the Teaching Excellence Framework, is particularly controversial. Introduced last year, it was the first attempt to introduce a metric for return on investment at university, awarding gold, silver or bronze marks to institutions. A survey by Universities UK, the sector's umbrella body, found that only 2 per cent of respondents saw the TEF as an accurate assessment of teaching and learning excellence.

After pilot schemes over the next two years, the TEF will include more detail on individual subjects to, in the Department for Education's words, “shine a light on course quality”. That way, ministers claim, potential applicants can see which are “coasting or relying on their research reputation”.

This is confrontational language. Academics already resent the fact that student feedback data, which is subjective and can show bias （for example against female lecturers）, feeds into the TEF. Graduate employment and student retention rates are also already includeD.The pilots of the subject-level measures will now also look at class sizes and the number of hours contact with teachers — useful information, but again no measure of how prestigious a degree is considered to be by the world at large.

This is all designed to “help applicants make better choices”, says the government. But some educationalists have questioned the data around graduate earnings, which ought to be a key ingredient of any return on investment measure. Family background is still, for example, hugely significant in boosting graduate earnings, as is prior school attainment and which region you live in.

But as Mr Gyimah warned this month, accountability is not just “a blip”. If the higher education sector believes the government's data are misleading, it may have to come up with better-designed measures. Or hope that the tech competition throws up an app that improves significantly on the current league tables.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Higher education minister in the UK announced the new league tables to ____.

A.show students how well UK universities compare in future career prospects.

B.introduce subject-level metrics for students to compare courses directly.

C.allow potential students to compare institutions at a particular university.

D.introduce a metric for earnings return on investment at universities in the UK.

答案(1)

2.According to the author, what is the main problem with UK's higher education accountability system?

A.The economic data of an university is not equal to its academic reputation.

B.The system has to deal with a jittery sector and a hostile university workforce.

C.Few people in the UK see it as an accurate assessment of teaching excellence.

D.The system focuses too much on teaching excellence instead of career-boost.

答案(2)

3.Why does the TEF spark anger among academics?

A.Because TEF includes few useful information on student retention rates.

B.Because TEF includes too much redundant detail on individual subjects.

C.Because feedback data from students tend to be subjective and misleading.

D.Because TEF only collects data around employment and graduate earnings.

答案(3)

4.Which of the following is not a factor affecting the TEF assessment?

A.Class sizes.

B.Graduate earnings.

C.Graduate employment rates.

D.Regional background.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.introduce subject-level metrics for students to compare courses directly.

解释：这是他们第一次让年轻人比较不同的课程，而不仅仅是在教学机构之间作比较。

(2) 答案：A.The economic data of an university is not equal to its academic reputation.

解释：最大的问题出在数据上：一家大学的声誉来源于科研水平和入学难度，要如何据此衡量它们的经济价值？

(3) 答案：C.Because feedback data from students tend to be subjective and misleading.

解释：学者们对此感到厌恶。学生提供的数据往往是主观的，带有偏见，这些数据会被反馈给TEF。

(4) 答案：D.Regional background.

解释：例如，家庭背景在提高毕业生收入方面仍然具有非常重要的影响力，在校成绩和所在地区也是同样。

电子游戏的性别问题

全球电子游戏行业年收入达1160亿美元，是电影业的三倍。但在这样一个庞大的产业中，女性的身影却十分少见，这也导致市面上的很多游戏都充斥着过分暴力的男性力量幻想。什么样的游戏才能吸引女性？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

visceral ['vɪsərəl] adj. 发自肺腑的

console [kən'səʊl] n. 操控台，（游戏）平台

skew [skjuː] vi. 歪斜，斜视

metrics ['metrɪks] n. 度量学，指标

adrenalin [ə'drenəlɪn]n. 肾上腺素

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。

文章长度

797

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

3分11秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分16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

How to create computer games for women（797 words）

By Brie Code

With $116bn of annual revenues, the global video games sector is three times as large as cinemas, according to analysts Newzoo. Yet, there is a perception problem around games.

Media discussion of video games often focuses on violence, gambling or addiction. Many people are put off by these kinds of games. Masculine power fantasies are not for everyone. For many people, violence and stress are simply uninteresting.

Yet video games can also be spaces for healing, for learning or for connecting with others. I know from my own experiences that interactivity has the power to provide more visceral insight than books or film. Creating games that focus on these aspects could win over new audiences. However, the industry is still largely missing this opportunity.

Lack of diversity in the games industry has led us here. One of my creative directors once told me he wouldn't put women in our game because it was set in “a time of men”. The games industry is certainly a place of men: only 22 per cent of developers worldwide identify as women. These numbers fall further in creative roles: 10 per cent in game design, 11 per cent in visual arts, 10 per cent in audio and 5 per cent in programming.

Game design theory has been largely written by men and assumes a fight-or-flight response to stress. Most games use frustration to stress the player, then give them chances to win a zero-sum game. However, a study published in 2000 from the University of California, Los Angeles defines a second human stress response, common but little known or studied, called tend-and-befrienD.This response may be more prevalent in women.

In 2004, game designer Sheri Graner Ray observed in her book Gender Inclusive Game Design that women tend to like “scenarios that provide mutually beneficial solutions to socially significant situations”. Opportunities for care and connection do exist in video games, but they are often considered the side content.

Tend-and-befriend shows us that mutually beneficial outcomes are as rewarding as winning a fight. This hints at ways to design more interesting video games. Personality psychology and the work done by iThrive, a non-profit body that explores links between positive psychology and games, suggest other possible reward frameworks.

Game distribution and marketing channels are also a challenge. Game consoles and the most popular platform for PC games, Steam, generally come across as masculine and geeky. Virtual and augmented reality are also starting to be seen the same way. Mobile game stores are less skewed but have other challenges. The mobile games industry is focused on A/B testing, metrics and addictive mechanics, rather than meaningful, insightful experiences. It has taught a world of mobile players that games are shallow time-wasters. Designing games for new audiences means not only questioning game design theory but also creating new marketing channels. That's OK.

The studio Funomena is countering stereotypes developing around emerging games platforms. While most VR and AR games rely on adrenalin, Funomena is exploring innovative ways to engage and reach players. One of its games, Luna, a VR fairytale about recovering from a mistake, is being shown at museums such as the Exploratorium in San Francisco. “So many women would come out of the headset in tears and say they'd never experienced anything so beautiful and calming… that was when we knew we had something special,” says chief executive Robin Hunicke. “[We are] growing our audience and brand slowly, patiently — and with care.” I am taking a similar approach with my studio.

I also look at the approach of Star Stable, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game on PC for girls aged around 10-14, in which players care for horses and go on mysterious adventures together.

When the team began development, they were told that creating a PC game for girls was a terrible ideA.“Serious gaming entertainment for girls simply did not exist,” says Taina Malén, chief marketing officer at Star Stable Entertainment. The game launched in Sweden in 2011 to an audience of 11 players but now has more than 14m registered players all over the world.

Star Stable made innovative design decisions and bypassed the usual distribution channels by working directly with players. The team updates the game weekly in response to feedback from its community. “We've made this game together with our fans over the years,” says Ms Malén.

“The first impression can sometimes be that it's just a horse game,” she continues. “Most players come back for the adventure and the social part. She shares stories of girls “making friends for life”.

“What we do is just the beginning,” says Ms Malén. Girls today are creative, tech-savvy and engaged consumers looking for new ways to interact online. “It is so much fun to be part of this future, building a platform for girls in tech,” she says. I agree. It is also a substantial business opportunity.

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, why women are less likely to find video games fascinating?

A.Because the lack of gender diversity persists in the entire video games industry.

B.Because few women participate in the design and development of video games.

C.Because masculine power fantasies are prevailing in all kinds of video games.

D.Because the fight-or-flight response in games has been largely written by men.

答案(1)

2.The University of California, Los Angeles observed that ____.

A.Women usually take no interest in the chances to win a zero-sum game.

B.Video games developed by men assume a fight-or-flight response to stress.

C.Women are more comfortable with mutually beneficial solutions in games.

D.The tend-and-befriend response are likely to be more prevalent in women.

答案(2)

3.According to the author, how can a games win over new audiences?

A.Encouraging women to take part in the design and distribution of games.

B.Developing varied game design theory and changing marketing channels.

C.Focusing on meaningful, insightful experiences for mobile game players.

D.Countering gender stereotypes developing on popular games platforms.

答案(3)

4.Which of the following statements about the game Star Stable is FALSE?

A.Star Stable was originally launched in Sweden but now enjoys worldwide popularity.

B.Star Stableworks directly with players to bypassed traditional distribution channels.

C.Star Stable is an online VR role-playing game designed for girls aged around 10-14.

D.The major attraction of Star Stable lies in the adventure and the social part.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.Because the lack of gender diversity persists in the entire video games industry.

解释：如今的状况是游戏行业缺乏多样性所导致的。游戏设计理论主要由男性撰写，游戏分销和营销渠道也是一个挑战。

(2) 答案：D.The tend-and-befriend response are likely to be more prevalent in women.

解释：加州大学洛杉矶分校2000年发表了一份研究，其中提出了另一种常见却鲜为人知的人类应激反应，称为照料和结盟反应。这种反应可能在女性中更为普遍。

(3) 答案：B.Developing varied game design theory and changing marketing channels.

解释：为新观众设计游戏不仅需要改变现有游戏设计理论，而且还需要创造新的营销渠道。

(4) 答案：C.Star Stable is an online VR role-playing game designed for girls aged around 10-14.

解释：我研究了PC端的大型多人在线角色扮演游戏Star Stable吸引女性玩家的办法，该游戏目标人群为大约10-14岁的女孩。

花样滑冰丑闻与特朗普的崛起

花滑运动员克里根遇袭事件曾经是震惊全美的新闻。二十余年后的今天，这则体坛丑闻依然反映着美国的现实，以及特朗普崛起背后的故事。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

strenuous ['strenjuəs] adj. 紧张的；费力的

melodrama ['melədrɑːmə] n. 情节剧；闹剧

daintiness ['deɪntɪnəs] n. 优美，过分的讲究

hardscrabble [ˌhɑːd'skræbl] adj. 贫瘠的，穷困的

epitomise [ɪ'pɪtəmaɪz] vt. 摘要；概括

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。

文章长度

830

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55秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分19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49秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

What an ice-skating scandal can teach us about Trump（830 words）

By Gillian Tett

This month, one thing can be predicted with certainty: as the anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration draws near, a flurry of articles will attempt to explain his rise in terms of history and economics. But if you want to get another framing for our 2018 Trumpian world, I suggest you watch a new film set in the realm of American ice-skating: I, Tonya.

For anyone under the age of 30, or who has little interest in winter sports, the name Tonya Harding will not mean much. But many others will recall that Harding was a hugely talented skater who was among the contenders for an Olympic medal at the 1994 Winter games in Lillehammer. Two days before the Olympic trials that year, however, Harding's main rival in the US team, Nancy Kerrigan, was attacked after a practice session, by an unidentified man, who struck her on the knee with a crowbar. Within days, Harding's ex-husband, her bodyguard and two other men were being investigated for organising the attack （all four men were later charged）. Remarkably, Kerrigan went on to win a silver medal in Lillehammer, while Harding performed badly.

Harding has always strenuously denied any involvement in the attack, though she pleaded guilty to obstructing prosecutors and was stripped of her 1994 national title. But this week, the ABC news channel announced a documentary in which Harding admits she vaguely “knew something was up” when she heard her ex-husband discussing the Olympics prior to the attack but did not know the details.

The scandal already contained all the ingredients of a classic melodrama: ambition, revenge, heroes and villains. Indeed, this was precisely how it was presented at the time, not least because Kerrigan was pretty and wholesome, whereas Harding came across as tough and was often foul-moutheD.“As other skaters projected grace and daintiness,” a journalist wrote in The New York Times in 1994, “Harding stormed through routines, determined to succeed in her own rough-hewn manner and home-made costumes.”

As I, Tonya makes clear, you cannot understand this story without looking through the wider lens of political economy. In retrospect, it is clear that Kerrigan was a good cultural fit for the role of heroine: she was middle class, and conformed to the ideals of the elite skating worlD.Harding, by contrast, was raised by a poor single mother in Portland, Oregon, and her hardscrabble life epitomises the type of white working-class culture that has now come into sharp focus following Trump's election, and through books such as JD Vance's Hillbilly Elegy and Janesville, Amy Goldstein's study of car workers in Wisconsin.

Harding grew up in a world of poverty, instability and alleged mistreatment by her mother. It is hardly surprising if this bred anger and resentment. But if she found it tough to conform to the culture of elite skating, officials found her tough to accept too. “I never apologised for growing up poor or being a redneck,” Margot Robbie, the actor who plays Harding, tells the camera at one point in I, Tonya.

Although the film sympathises with Harding at times, she is not portrayed as a heroine. What her story provides, though, is an insight into some of the issues at the heart of America's cultural divide. These days, it is common to explain Trump's rise to power as a result of anger about economic inequality, joblessness and the decline of the middle class. In part, that is true. But my own travels around the US last year have left me convinced that what is really going on today is not just an economic saga but a culture war. Over recent decades, a deep resentment has built up among white working-class voters about the way that the elite has used a myriad of subtle cultural symbols to patronise, scorn or ignore them.

What happened to Harding in the ice-skating world is just one example of that clash but you can see many others during the rise of Trump. One of the most telling was when Trump used the word “bigly” in a debate. “Elite” observers reflexively laughed – or sneereD.Most journalists were in that camp. But many “non-elite” audience members quietly cheereD.If you do not have the education in America to be articulate, you feel a sense of almost daily humiliation.

To put it another way, the clash in modern politics is not just about the “haves” and “have nots” in an economic sense but between those who have control over the culture. Being “educated” creates snobbery, which is deemed acceptable among the elite, partly because it is presented in the language of meritocracy. Trump's genius has been to tap into this resentment that so many felt – and feel.

I may be reading too much into this tale of ice-skating battles, but at a time when we all need more empathy, I would urge you to go and see I, TonyA.If it helps to melt away some prejudice about what it means to be an “unlikeable” sports star – or a “deplorable” voter – that would be a good thing. Particularly if you still find it strange that anyone could have voted for Trump.

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, the Nancy Kerrigan attack ____.

A.resulted in Kerrigan's failure at the Olympic.

B.happened in Lillehammer in 1994.

C.happened two days after the Olympic trials.

D.is carried out by a man related to Harding.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about Tonya Harding is true?

A.Harding was raised by a single mother who worked as a car worker in Wisconsin.

B.Harding lost her only national title after the Nancy Kerrigan attack in 1994.

C.Harding pleaded guilty to hindering the prosecution and thus got punished.

D.Harding has always strenuously insisted she knows nothing about the attack.

答案(2)

3.The author believes Tonya Harding's story portrays ____.

A.the cultural divide between white working-class and the elite.

B.the rising income inequality between the elite and lower classes.

C.the decline of American middle class and Trump's rise to power.

D.the educational inequality results from economic disparities.

答案(3)

4.This passage appears to be a digest of ____.

A.a social science research.

B.a movie review.

C.a piece of sport news.

D.a biography of Tonya Harding.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.is carried out by a man related to Harding.

解释：几天后，哈丁的前夫、保镖和另外两名男子因被怀疑组织这起袭击事件而被调查（四名男子后来均被起诉）。

(2) 答案：C.Harding pleaded guilty to hindering the prosecution and thus got punished.

解释：哈丁一直坚决否认参与袭击事件，尽管她曾为了阻挠检察官调查而认罪，并被剥夺了1994年的全国冠军头衔。

(3) 答案：A.the cultural divide between white working-class and the elite.

解释：然而，她的故事反映出了美国文化鸿沟问题的核心。

(4) 答案：B.a movie review.

解释：本篇文章是对电影《I, Tonya》的评论。

自动驾驶的愿景与现实

科技公司空前一致地看好自动驾驶的前景，但科技的发展并不能只依靠热情和空想。自动驾驶面临着五个无法回避的问题。这些问题的存在让我们难以预测它的未来。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

transfix [træns'fɪks] v. 刺穿，钉住

unanimity [ˌjuːnə'nɪməti] n. 无异议，同意

halt [hɔːlt] n. 停止，中止

awry [ə'raɪ] adj. 扭曲的，走样的

rationale [ˌræʃə'nɑːl] n. 基本原理

exuberance [ɪɡ'zjuːbərəns] n. 充沛，丰富

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。

文章长度

668

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46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

The roadblocks to successful self-driving cars（668 words）

By Leslie Hook

There are only a few things that everybody in Silicon Valley agrees upon, and one of them is that driverless cars are the future. Companies everywhere are rushing towards this great prize, and that has never been as clear as this month when the Valley was transfixed by a high-profile court case over the alleged theft of self-driving trade secrets featuring Uber and Waymo.

Because of this unanimity of opinion, there is relatively little discussion of the obstacles that will stand in the way of self-driving cars. Between now and the day that they whizz around everywhere, what will go wrong?

I found myself thinking about this the other night when I was cycling home and met a self-driving car trying to cross a six-way intersection. It was doing just fine, until it saw me. It suddenly pulled to a halt about 20ft away, in the middle of the intersection, even though there was no one else arounD.I looked at it, it looked at me. My bike lights flasheD.Eventually, it moved on, perhaps because its human passenger took over.

As self-driving cars become more common, so do the accidents: last year there were 27 in California involving autonomous cars, and this year there were four in January alone. None of these appears to be the cars' fault, though it's hard to be entirely certain, because the accidents are all self-reported by the companies doing the testing.

Yet even as the number of autonomous cars on the road multiplies, there is still no serious discussion of their shortcomings. After writing about these vehicles for the past few years, there are five problems in particular I believe we should pay more attention to.

First, autonomous cars do not play well with others, particularly human drivers. The cars' jerky, cautious motions tend to befuddle those around them. The accident reports show this again and again: drivers of other vehicles often misread the robot car's intentions, resulting in collision.

Second, we will struggle to trust these machines. Think of a passenger aircraft. Thanks to autopilot systems, most planes are now capable of flying themselves. But they still have human pilots, who provide psychological reassurance to passengers and act as a back-up if anything goes awry. Self-driving cars, too, may need human guidance for much longer than their creators imagine.

Third, the regulatory environment for self-driving cars, which is something of a free-for-all, is unlikely to remain as permissive as it is today. In the US, legislation that would legalise autonomous vehicles across the country has been held up in Congress, with no sign of when it might make its way to a vote. Individual states, such as California, Arizona and Florida, have highly permissive rules for testing but a national law would be necessary before the cars could operate across the US.

Fourth, there is a risk that autonomous cars will not get smart enough, fast enough to operate across a broad geographic range.

In the next few years, self-driving cars will be used in specific neighbourhoods or along specific routes, which is how many companies are testing them today. But if they are not able to quickly outgrow this phase, that would undercut much of their economic rationale.

Finally, the boom in autonomous car research has been fuelled by a kind of economic exuberance. An era of easy money has helped fund the great science project that is self-driving cars. The sector is highly dependent on this funding to continue, because none of the current tech is economically viable. In the event of a financial shock, the autonomous future could start to look very far away.

Like all big disruptions, it's impossible to foresee exactly how or when self-driving cars will have an impact. Are they on the brink of a huge transformation, like the smartphone was 15 years ago? Or are they more like nuclear fusion, a grand idea that has never quite worked out? Silicon Valley is certain that it is the former, but this is a place that runs on enthusiasm, not realism.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What happened when the author came across a self-driving car the other night?

A.The author had to flash the bike lights to stop the car.

B.The car broke down in the middle of the intersection.

C.The automatic car suddenly stopped to avoid collision.

D.The human passenger took over the car to avoid collision.

答案(1)

2.Why human drivers find it difficult to play with self-driving cars ?

A.There is still no serious discussion of autonomous car's shortcomings.

B.Autonomous car's precautionary actions tend to be very misleading.

C.Car accidents caused by autopilot have became increasingly common.

D.Human passengers will struggle to trust these self-driving machines.

答案(2)

3.The author believes in the next few years self-driving car ____.

A.will gradually learn to cooperate with human drivers.

B.will reach a breakthrough in an era of easy money.

C.would probably suffer an unexpected financial shock.

D.will be used in limited situations or specific regions.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards the automation revolution in car industry?

A.Circumspect.

B.Enthusiastic.

C.Negative.

D.Expectant.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.The automatic car suddenly stopped to avoid collision.

解释：车一直开得好好的，直到它看到我。它突然停在交叉路口中间，距我20英尺的地方，尽管周围并没有其他人。

(2) 答案：B.Autonomous car's precautionary actions tend to be very misleading.

解释：首先，自动驾驶汽车与其他人，特别是人类驾驶员不能很好地协作。它们急促、谨慎的动作往往会让周围的人困惑不已。

(3) 答案：D.will be used in limited situations or specific regions.

解释：在接下来的几年里，自动驾驶汽车将被用于特定的地区或特定路线。

(4) 答案：A.Circumspect.

解释：像所有的巨大突破一样，不可能预见自动驾驶汽车将在何时或以何方式产生影响。

握手就好，别来吻我

每当有人在打招呼时想要亲吻我的脸颊，我的脑海中就会响起警报。亲吻礼这种欧陆风俗对于英国人来说太不友好。为了尊重彼此的个人空间，握手就够了。吻脸颊这种事还是留在家里吧。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

assailant [ə'seɪlənt] n. 攻击者

secular ['sekjələ（r）] adj. 世俗的，现世的

stuffy ['stʌfi] adj. 闷人的；一本正经的

instigate ['ɪnstɪɡeɪt] v. 策动 ，主使

tousle ['taʊzl]vt. 弄乱（头发）

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。

文章长度

671

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47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

1分55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

Air kissing makes my cheeks burn（671 words）

By Jonathan Guthrie

There is an upward flurry of notes in the score of Jaws that signals when the shark is going to attack. I hear this flourish in my head whenever someone I don't know tries to kiss me. I heard it a few evenings ago arriving for a dinner at a posh hotel. I held my hand out, checking my assailant mid-lunge.

“Lovely to meet you,” I said, shaking the lady's hanD.I kept my elbow locked, as a precaution.

If this were a populist newspaper I would introduce my theme as: “This kissy-kissy, mwah-mwah madness has got to stop!” Since this is the FT, I hypothesise that a secular shift in social mores means a higher value is being placed on personal space. Air kissing should be relegated to the home and to interactions outside it that are not professional in character.

Many readers will think me stuffy. After all, I was not being attacked by a marine super predator that evening in the hotel, but greeted by a chic middle-aged woman from the PR industry. Also, she was French. Also, she had just air kissed a colleague of mine.

But it was different for him. He has lived in Paris, where he read a lot of BalzaC.Many of my formative years were spent in Aberdeen, on the chilly east coast of Scotland, before they struck oil. There, a man seen kissing a lady to whom he was not unhappily married was liable to be denounced from the pulpit on the Sabbath as a fornicator doomed to burn in Hell with his painted Jezebel.

The mood is again judgmental. An air kiss from a stranger is just a bit too in-your-face, literally and metaphorically. Particularly when instigated by the man. A female colleague was surprised how often this happened when she became a markets reporter. Male bankers regularly air kissed her on first meeting. They appeared to believe （mistakenly） this was expected of them. Possibly they had attended all-male public schools. One of them had just been eating kippers.

Air kissing should remain an acceptable practice when welcoming friends to your home or meeting them outside it. But it is more appropriate to shake hands with the new partner of an old friend on first encounter. In this, as in so much else, we should be guided by 80s girl rappers Salt ‘N’ Pepa, who advised: “We just met, we can't do that yet”.

In saying hello to the teenage children of friends, a sketchy half-wave suffices. They almost certainly don't want you to kiss them. When you have to reach upwards to tousle the hair of the boys, it is time to stop.

My children have set guidelines on how I should greet their friends without causing them embarrassment. Under no circumstances should I try to shake hands. I may nod slightly. I am not permitted to say anything. If I have to breathe, I must do so quietly.

A handshake is fine in all other circumstances. The counsel of male lifestyle coach Ron Swanson applies: “Firm. Dry. SoliD.Three Seconds.” If you are an American man of the heartier kind, take heeD.It is true that the TV ad for Duluth Business Wear shows the wearer lifting an acquaintance by his outstretched arm and banging him up and down until the floor cracks. But this is meant to be a joke.

This still leaves the problem （an enduring one for the English） of how to deal with the French. And beyond the French, lies a whole European hinterland of potential cultural confusion. For example, I have a Swiss friend who insists on kissing everyone three times on the cheeks. You have to carve out diary time for a greeting like that.

Greater formality in air kissing may be the solution, rather than outright prohibition. General de Gaulle kissed his bravest soldiers on both cheeks, but he saluted them too. Usually he pinned a Croix de Guerre to their chests, for good measure. Maybe I'll try that, the next time I run into the French PR lady.

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 dislike air kissing?

A.Because he believes air kissing is an unacceptable practice in public.

B.Because he regards air kissing as an invasion of his personal space.

C.Because he doesn't want to be kissed by a middle-aged woman.

D.Because he is a typical English man who hates French etiquette.

答案(1)

2.Under which circumstance might an air kiss be considered appropriate according to the ariticle?

A.At a festive family feast in Aberdeen.

B.At a formal business dinner in Paris.

C.At an interview in a French company.

D.At an informal meeting with colleagues.

答案(2)

3.What should an adult do when greeting a teenager?

A.Giving a high-five.

B.Shaking hands.

C.Waving hands slightly.

D.Kissing on the forehead.

答案(3)

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

A.Air kissing is is very common in most of west European countries.

B.Male bankers especially love to air kiss their female colleagues.

C.Many American men don't know how to shake hands properly.

D.A handshake is fine in almost all circumstances at workplace.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.Because he regards air kissing as an invasion of his personal space.

解释：我认为社会习俗上的一些世俗化的改变能让个人空间得到更多尊重

(2) 答案：A.At a festive family feast in Aberdeen.

解释：亲吻礼应该留在家里。在外与人交往时行亲吻礼是不职业的。

(3) 答案：C.Waving hands slightly.

解释：在向朋友家的十几岁孩子问好时，简单地轻轻挥手就足够了。

(4) 答案：D.A handshake is fine in almost all circumstances at workplace.

解释：我的孩子们让我不要与他们的朋友握手。除此之外，握手礼在各种场合都很合适。

另类右派赢得美国“表情包战争”

“表情包”是政治传播中的新现象。在美国，右翼极端群体利用直观易懂且具有颠覆性的表情包创造了新的政治传播潮流，并让对手疲于招架。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

pseudonym ['suːdənɪm] n. 匿名，假名

snappy ['snæpi] adj. 干脆的，精力充沛的

ponder ['pɒndə（r）] vt./vi. 沉思，考虑

furore [fju'rɔːri] n. 轰动，狂热

malevolent [mə'levələnt] adj. 有恶意的，恶毒的

expletive [ɪk'spliːtɪv]n. 填补物，感叹词，咒骂语

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。

文章长度

702

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0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0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

Why the alt-right is winning America's meme war（702 words）

By Gillian Tett

Almost a decade ago, Matt Goerzen, a Canadian artist and social scientist, stumbled into the world of subversive internet chatrooms. He was fascinated — and alarmed.

Goerzen could see that the anonymity of the internet was enabling a virulently angry, anti-establishment community to emerge on platforms such as “4chan”, where users post under pseudonyms with little or no moderation. And while these groups did not initially seem very political （the message boards were notorious instead for puerile humour and pornography）, as the years passed they became infused with an “alt-right” agenda — that of the white nationalist movement. They also became adept at launching online attacks on their opponents, or “trolling”.

The artist in Goerzen observed something else: what made the alt-right so influential was that the users were not just using words to communicate their messages, but snappy visual images too. Both 4chan and 8chan, a similar platform, were originally created as “image boards”, focused on pictures rather than text — a format first created in Japan, where they were used to share manga and anime. Alt-right users had become adept at creating visual “memes”, to use the phrase coined by Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, back in the 1970s, to describe a “unit of cultural transmission” that spread from “mind to mind”.

“These [white nationalists] are a small group of people,” explains Goerzen, who now works as a researcher at a New York-based project called Data and Society, which studies modern cyberculture and mediA.“But these groups can deliver an outsized impact because of their ability to push the right buttons to bait the media.” Those memes, in other words, have wings.

It is an important point to ponder, particularly given the furore this month in Washington around racist imagery, and the degree to which malevolent political forces have been using social media to discredit and delegitimise political debate.

When reports emerged that President Donald Trump had used the word “shithole” to describe countries such as Haiti or Nigeria, mainstream observers were understandably appalleD.But many alt-right message groups were thrilleD.“Shithole” is a tag that has circulated in these message groups for a long time, giving birth to a range of memes. “Ha, CNN is actually saying shithole,” crowed one commenter on 4chan. Another participant said, amid a stream of cartoons and messages on the subject: “Who wants to colour in the world in five shades of brown?”

To be fair, there is no evidence that Trump has visited sites such as 4chan. However, the images created on 4chan and the more extreme 8chan have been seeping into social media and news publications. During the presidential campaign, Trump shared an image on Twitter of Hillary Clinton, with the phrase “Most corrupt candidate ever!” in a red six-pointed star. The image, with its anti-Semitic overtones, was discovered to have been previously featured on 8chan.

Doubtless many FT readers would like the most extreme of these sites to be shut down. But it would be naive to think you can stop this trend simply by banning platforms. The alt-right has swelled in power by presenting itself as a victim of elitist attacks, and the memes are so potent precisely because they are designed to be subversive and to bait their opponents into a reaction.

Indeed, what is going on here is a classic example of the type of “network” effect described by Niall Ferguson, the British historian, in his 2017 book The Square and the Tower: people are congregating online to challenge hierarchies, using the power of the （cyber） crowd against the elite. This fight is not just about ideas, but communication styles too. Five centuries ago, Martin Luther upended the power of the Roman Catholic Church by using vernacular speech to undercut priestly Latin. Today, alt-right trolls are using memes to overturn mainstream ideas about political communication.

The urgent question is whether there is any way for people to counter alt-right memes. After all, as Goerzen points out, one of the great oddities of our cyber age is that the leftwing of American politics has hitherto been ineffective at using this visual language.

There have been attempts to fight back. Liberal voices have created a few popular hashtags, such as #blacklivesmatter or #metoo. And last year a “left accelerationist” group of artists and activists called “Alt-Woke” appeared in cyberspace; they hope to beat the alt-right at its own game.

But it remains to be seen whether these counter-attacks will pack any punch — not least because one problem that haunts leftwing groups is that they seem reluctant to use the same aggressive “trolling” tactics employed by the right. Either way, the next time you hear the word “shithole”, consider how quickly that particular meme spreaD.Yes, the topic and image may make us wince; but this is a political trend that no voter can afford to ignore, least of all on the left. Particularly as the 2018 mid-term elections draw near.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is 4chan according to the article ?

A.An imageboard website for right-wing artists.

B.A discussion website for alt-right groups.

C.An anti-establishment online political group.

D.A message boards filled with puerile humour.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about the memes is true ?

A.Memes have helped the alt-right greatly to extend their political influence.

B.Memes were created by Japanese to share their political opinions online.

C.Both 4chan and 8chan were originally created to share alt-right memes.

D.Memes have became a symbol of alt-right white nationalists in American.

答案(2)

3.How do alt-right memes change the way political communication influences people?

A.They upend the power of the leftwing by using simple vernacular words.

B.They successfully picture the alt-right groups as the victims of elitist attacks.

C.They spread the alt-right culture in a more intuitive way via visual language.

D.They take advantage of the power of cyber crowd to challenge the elite.

答案(3)

4.What is the main purpose of the passage?

A.To present her key findings on the new trend of political communication.

B.To urge the government to shunt down extreme alt-right image boards.

C.To alert the voters to the dangers of alt-right messages and memes online.

D.To urge the leftwing to take the new political trend seriously and adopt it.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.A discussion website for alt-right groups.

解释：在像“4chan”这样的平台上，用户可以毫无节制地匿名发布信息。渐渐地平台上充满了极右信息。

(2) 答案：A.Memes have helped the alt-right greatly to extend their political influence.

解释：“但是这些白人民族主义者团体可以产生巨大的影响力，因为他们知道如何诱导媒体。”换句话说，这些表情包是有翅膀的。

(3) 答案：C.They spread the alt-right culture in a more intuitive way via visual language.

解释：五个世纪以前，马丁路德用白话颠覆了罗马天主教会的力量，削弱了教士的拉丁语。如今，另类右派群体用表情包来颠覆关于政治传播的主流观点。

(4) 答案：D.To urge the leftwing to take the new political trend seriously and adopt it.

解释：是的，这个话题和图片或许令人失望，但这是一个任何选民都不能忽视的政治趋势，至少对于左派来说是不可忽视的。尤其是在2018年中期选举日渐临近的时候。

呼之欲出的30小时工作周

在全球经济持续增长、就业数字屡创新高的背景下，劳动者们有了底气要求更好的福利。在很多高收入国家，政府或工会已经在为大幅缩短工作时间而努力，这样的努力在德国已经初见成效。种种迹象表明，我们或许离每周工作30小时的新制度不远了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

grumble ['ɡrʌmbl] v. 发牢骚，抱怨

precariousness [prɪˈkeriəs] n. 不确定，危险

guru ['ɡʊruː] n. 领袖，专家

subsistence [səb'sɪstəns] n. 生存，生活

trigonometry [ˌtrɪɡə'nɒmətri] n. 三角学

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。

文章长度

702

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0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0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

Why the 30-hour work week is almost here（702 words）

By Simon Kuper

A friend who recruits for an investment bank grumbled to me recently about millennial job applicants. He said that at interview they ask questions like: “Can I leave early on Friday afternoons to go to yoga?”

Surveys have shown for years that most millennials — male and female — don't want to work all hours. In recent studies by Deloitte and career-monitoring website Comparably, younger workers placed “work-life balance” above career progression. Millennials want to get home on time to raise their kids — or at least play some Nintendo.

During the economic crisis, any employer who got asked about yoga could simply titter and bin the jobseeker's CV. There was always a more desperate candidate. But now that's changing: with the global economy growing at its fastest rate since 2011, qualified jobseekers are scarce. Finally, workers can make demands. IG Metall, Germany's biggest trade union, just struck a deal allowing its members to work 28-hour weeks for up to two years, typically when they have small children. Childcare clearly isn't just a German women's issue any more: most IG Metall members are men.

True, Germany is currently something of a workers' paradise. But if other national economies keep growing, working hours will soon move up the agenda there too. During booms, more people want to trade money for time.

The post-2008 crisis has finally endeD.Average wages are now above pre-crisis levels in all developed countries except the UK and Greece. The eurozone's jobless rate is the lowest and US wage growth the fastest since 2009.

The average worker in the developed world now earns more than ever before. More than that, she has an inherited sense of security that previous generations lackeD.Picture somebody born in a western country in 1980. Her grandfather, born about 1930, worked long hours in a factory. Her father, born 1955, worked slightly shorter hours in an office. Now she's the third generation to make her career after the second world war, which means above mere subsistence level. She can also probably expect an inheritance. In short, though precariousness remains, today's average worker has enough money to cope. What she lacks in this age of helicopter parenting and constant work messages is time.

Work-life balance is typically discussed as a personal issue. Self-help gurus tend to recommend life hacks: quit Facebook, ignore most emails, install a meditation app, etC.Yet, as Anne-Marie Slaughter argues in her book Unfinished Business, it's not the individual worker who needs to change. It's the system.

Here, Germany has been the quiet trendsetter. In 1960, the average West German employee's working year was 2,163 hours. Today it's 1,363 hours, the lowest of all developed countries. And when Germans go home in mid-afternoon, lots of them are genuinely free. Many leading German companies — forced by tight job markets to keep workers happy — limit after-work emails. Daimler even automatically erases emails to employees who are on holiday.

Other traditionally workaholic countries are also trying to ease off. South Korea, China and Thailand have already limited school homework, though clearly not enough: many Chinese parents are rebelling against having to spend every evening doing their kids' trigonometry assignments. Now South Korea's government wants to cut the country's average annual working hours to less than 1,800, from 2,069 in 2016 — the most for any high-income country ranked by the OECD.So far, South Korea's plan remains mostly talk （as does Japan's promised Hatarakikata kaikaku, or “work-style reform”） but any government that improves Korean lives should win millennial votes.

Shorter hours won't help the poorest-paid workers, who can't afford to work less, or elite workers, who generally love their work and can hire help for household tasks. But for the broad middle in rich countries, a new working life is emerging. The basic workweek will shorten, and individual workers will scale down when they have kids or aged parents to look after. By contrast, in calmer phases of life, they will work more: IG Metall's deal makes it easier for some employees to scale up from the standard 35 hours to 40. Such flexibility should eventually kill off the “mommy track”, which punishes a woman all through her 45-year career for the few years she spends child-rearing.

The future of work could look like Germany: short workdays, high productivity and a booming yoga sector.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the key driver of shorter working week?

A.The recent boom in world economy.

B.The decrease of the workforce.

C.The rise of helicopter parenting.

D.The development of telecommuting.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about IG Metall is true ?

A.The average IG Metall member's working year is the lowest in the world.

B.IG Metall has decided to ban emails to employees who are on holiday.

C.IG Metall carries out the 28-hour working week to attract female workers.

D.IG Metall members are allowed to enjoy 28-hour weeks for up to two years.

答案(2)

3.According to Anne-Marie Slaughter, work-life balance ____.

A.cannot be reached with out personal efforts.

B.requires changes in the whole working system.

C.relies on full employment and tight job markets.

D.has been realized in some countries like Germany.

答案(3)

4.Which country had the longest average annual working hour among all high-income countries in 2016?

A.Germany.

B.Japan.

C.South Korea.

D.China.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.The recent boom in world economy.

解释：但现在情况正在改变：随着全球经济以2011年以来最快的速度增长，合格的求职者稀缺。因此，员工可以提出自己的要求。

(2) 答案：D.IG Metall members are allowed to enjoy 28-hour weeks for up to two years.

解释：德国最大的工会IG Metall刚刚达成协议，允许其成员在最长两年的时间里每周工作28小时。

(3) 答案：B.requires changes in the whole working system.

解释：正如Anne-Marie Slaughter在她的《未竟之业》一书中指出的那样，需要改变的并不是个体工作者，而是整个系统。

(4) 答案：C.South Korea.

解释：韩国政府希望将该国的年平均工作时间从2016年的2069小时（根据OECD的统计，这在高收入国家中是最长的）降低到1800小时以下。

不安的年轻人改变英国经济

对于英国的年轻一代来说，日子正变得越来越不好过。学费上涨，工资下滑，房价居高不下等等因素让他们成了最缺乏安全感的一代人，这种不安感正在重塑着英国经济。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

barragen. 弹幕，密集火力 /'bærɑːʒ/

averseadj. 厌恶的，反对的 /ə'vɜːs/

dismaladj. 阴沉的，凄凉的 /'dɪzməl/

aspirevi. 渴望；立志；追求 /ə'spaɪə（r）/

meritocracyn. 精英制度 /ˌmerɪ'tɒkrəsi/

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。

文章长度

677

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

Millennial insecurity is reshaping the UK economy（677 words）

By Sarah O'Connor

This week has brought a barrage of bad news for millennials in the UK. Their home ownership rates have collapseD.Their wages have droppeD.Their degrees are wildly expensive.

We have heard facts like these before. But it is time to move beyond the raw statistics and work out what they all add up to, not just financially but psychologically. These trends combined are changing the way young people feel and behave, and as a result, the shape of the economy itself.

The big picture: shifts in pensions, housing and employment have transferred more risk and instability on to the shoulders of young people. This is happening to varying degrees in most developed countries — the problems emerged earlier in the US, while in southern Europe, the changes to the labour market have hit particularly hard.

Yet economists sometimes miss how these issues can compound one another.

Not owning a home in your thirties or forties feels more nerve-racking when you have no idea how much income you will have in retirement to pay for rent or a mortgage. The state was smart to enrol employees automatically into defined contribution pensions, but the amount going into these pots is too small, and people are still left to bear all the investment risks on their own. Similarly, not having a permanent employment contract feels more worrying when it means you have no chance of persuading anyone to give you a mortgage.

This is neither an appeal for sympathy nor an attempt at generational one-upmanship. Previous generations had different — often far worse — hardships to endure. But however you feel about young people, if you want to understand the economy, you have to acknowledge the shifting sands under their feet.

It might be expected that a generation living with uncertainty will cling to whatever security they can. That is exactly what the UK labour market data show. Research from the Resolution Foundation think-tank suggests young people have become more risk averse in the jobs market than previous generations. They switch from one employer to another less frequently and are less willing to uproot themselves geographically for a new job.

That is remarkable given that more of this generation are graduates and renters — characteristics that typically encourage ease of movement. Yet the share of under-35s who move regions for work has dropped by one-fifth since 2000. Perhaps this makes sense: if your work schedule or your housing situation is unpredictable, it helps to stay near your family support networks.

While it may be rational, this excess of caution is bad for the economy. It is probably helping to suppress real wage growth, since the best way to secure a pay rise is to switch employer. Less fluidity in the job market means fewer people moving to where they can be most productive.

The irony is that millennials have many new opportunities; they are the best-educated generation ever; they can start companies from their bedrooms. But people are more likely to take risks when they have something to fall back on. It should be no surprise that the UK's self-employed are more likely to be homeowners than renters, and much more likely to own homes worth more than £500,000.

One could argue that young people have the security of knowing that one day they will inherit the housing wealth of their parents. But that is a dismal fallback plan for a country that aspires to meritocracy. Whether or not the “inheritance safety net” will catch you has nothing to do with how bright you are or how hard you have worked and everything to do with whether your parents own a house （especially a house in the south east of England.） Less than half of millennials who do not own homes have parents who are homeowners. And more than 80 per cent of millennials who already own their home have homeowner parents.

Britain needs to offer its young people a new deal: a base level of security that enables them to be confident and take risks. If not, the opportunities created by the modern economy will be wasted on all but the wealthy.

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 statements regarding millennials is true?

A.Not owning a home can be a major financial risk after retirement.

B.Young people around the world are suffering from rising instability.

C.Today young people find it increasingly hard to find permanent jobs.

D.The changes to the labour market hit the UK particularly hard.

答案(1)

2.Today young people are less likely to move regions for work because ____

A.their work schedule and housing situation is more flexible.

B.they need family support networks to deal with instability.

C.they are less willing to uproot themselves for a new job.

D.moving for a job can increase their financial difficulties.

答案(2)

3.According to investigation, most millennial home owners in the UK ____.

A.are from well-off families.

B.are self-employed individuals.

C.have home-owning parents.

D.got help from their parents.

答案(3)

4.What advice does the author give for helping young adults cope with financial stress?

A.Offering help to young people to guarantee a base level of security.

B.Carrying out a labour market reform to provide new opportunities.

C.Subsidizing the housing of middle and lower-income young adults.

D.Enrolling young employees into defined contribution pension plan.

答案(4)

(1) 答案 A.Not owning a home can be a major financial risk after retirement. 在三四十岁的时候仍然买不起房子是一件令人紧张的事。你不知道退休后能有多少收入来支付租金或抵押贷款。

(2) 答案 B.they need family support networks to deal with instability. 如果你的工作状况或你的住房情况阴晴难测，住在可以获得家庭支持的地区附近会大有裨益。

(3) 答案 C.have home-owning parents. 已经买房的千禧一代中超过80％的人父母也拥有房子。

(4) 答案 A.Offering help to young people to guarantee a base level of security. 英国需要为年轻人实施新的政策：保障基本的生活水平，使他们有信心并愿意承担风险。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集

Vol.67

武装教师——特朗普式狂想

面对频发的校园枪击案，特朗普提出的解决方法竟然是让美国教师武装起来。试着想象一下一群持枪的教师会把校园变成什么样子，你就会明白这一提议有多么荒唐且危险。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

disruptive [dɪs'rʌptɪv] adj. 捣乱的，破坏性的

assail [ə'seɪl]vt. 猛烈攻击，言语抨击

wobbly ['wɒbli] adj. 摆动的，不稳定的

holster ['həʊlstə（r）] n. 手枪皮套

pommel ['pɒml] n. （刀剑柄）圆头

risible ['rɪzəbl] adj. 可笑的，引人发笑的

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。

文章长度

697

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58秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分47秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分59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

Trump's plan to arm teachers – a bullet not worth biting（697 words）

By Robert Shrimsley

How many of your teachers would you have trusted with a gun? When Donald Trump floated his exciting policy proposal to minimise school shootings, I scanned my memory in search of teachers I would be reassured to see packing a piece. Perhaps this is one of those transatlantic-divide issues but, I have to say, the image of my form master with a Heckler & Koch was not entirely comforting. There were, after all, times when I tried his patience. I was a disruptive child and my mastery of gerunds was not all it could have been.

In general, I hold with that European commie pinko view that the prospect of gun deaths in your immediate locale declines meaningfully if no one around actually has a gun. So I viewed the president's idea with — what's the correct term here? — incredulity. But then again, we are always being assailed by inspirational stories about teachers. Perhaps most people had school days punctuated with life-affirming lessons from the likes of Sidney Poitier, Robin Williams and Maggie Smith. I mean who would not trust Maggie with a Smith & Wesson?

In advocating the idea, Trump talked about teachers who were “talented with weapons”. Now, call me old-fashioned but “talented with weapons” is not one of the key skills I look for in an English teacher. Imagine the interview process: “He was a bit wobbly on Shakespeare but he aced the free-fire zone.”

But perhaps I am an outlier in not having been taught by anyone I would want to see armeD.The president particularly specified coaches and sports teachers as among those who might be. Thinking of my own gym teachers, all I can say is “yikes”. I am sure they would have been the first to volunteer for special training.

And there would have been none of this keeping the pistol in a locked box. They would have strutted around the school with their holsters showing and a “make my day” glint in their eyes. As one of those physical-education wasters who never entirely got the point of neck springs, I would worry about the consequences of continued failure on the pommel horse. We were, after all, a results-driven establishment.

As for the caustic Welshman who taught me politics and history: I don't think he would actually go so far as to shoot a pupil, but he would definitely have enjoyed making them dance.

Let's not forget that the perpetrators of these massacres tend to be armed with semi-automatic or automatic weapons. So are we sure a mere handgun will be enough for the head of history? If you go down the Trump route, you need a bit more firepower. Would a teacher feel truly safe with anything less than a Kalashnikov? In fact, why stop at the teachers? Are children to be denied their second amendment right to defend themselves? Surely a gun-toting teenager is the best defence against another gun-toting teenager.

If all this sounds a bit glib, a little too close to the Florida tragedy, I would make the following points. First, it is always too close to a tragedy in the US. Second, it is often quiet, respectable people who have never previously aroused concern who carry out these atrocities. Maybe my school was unusual but I do not find it hard to imagine one of my teachers “cracking”. In fact, I do not need to imagine it and I can think of at least one who I am very glad had no access to lethal weaponry on the day he was forced to quit.

And lest it seem I am taking a pop at teachers, I would add that there are not many people at work or home that I'd be pleased to see armed either. Guns have their moment and their uses, but it's a lot harder to get shot if there are none around.

Finally, the notion that arming teachers is a solution is so spectacularly risible, such an outrageous piece of political posturing and calculated indifference that mockery is almost the only recourse. You want an example of glibness? How about a head of state who holds that there is no problem that can't be solved by a geography teacher with a Glock 17?

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why does Donald Trump want teachers to carry guns ?

A.To protect their students from dictatorship.

B.To claim their rights from the government.

C.To maintain law and order in classrooms.

D.To defend classrooms from mass shootings.

答案(1)

2.What can be inferred from the article about the author ?

A.He holds a negative view on teachers.

B.He is a student of Maggie Smith.

C.He is an ardent supporter of gun ban.

D.He is a European-born American citizen.

答案(2)

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

A.The perpetrators of mass shootings are mainly quiet and inconspicuous people.

B.Trump has proposed training sports teachers to use automatic weapons.

C.School teachers in America will be required to be talented with weapons.

D.Right-wing politicians are the main strength of gun rights supporters in the US.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards Trump's proposal?

A.Skeptical.

B.Reprehensive.

C.Scornful.

D.Prejudicial.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.To defend classrooms from mass shootings.

解释：为了尽量减少校园枪击事件，特朗普提出了他令人激动的建议。

(2) 答案：C.He is an ardent supporter of gun ban.

解释：总的来说，我坚持欧洲共产主义同情者的观点。如果你周围没有人拥有枪支，那么该地区的枪击死亡人数会显著下降。

(3) 答案：A.The perpetrators of mass shootings are mainly quiet and inconspicuous people.

解释：制造这些暴行的人往往是安静且受人尊敬的人，他们从不曾引起别人的注意。

(4) 答案：B.Reprehensive.

解释：作者强烈地反对和谴责特朗普武装教师的提议。

寻找真正的硅谷

每年，有许多满怀好奇的游客涌向硅谷，来到他们心中的科技圣地。其中有很多人都失望而归，因为他们什么都没看到。曾经，“硅谷”的定义来源于真实存在的电脑芯片和圣克拉拉山谷，如今，硅谷已经成了抽象的概念。“硅谷”究竟是什么？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

befuddle [bɪ'fʌdl] vt. 使昏乱；使迷惑

prestigious [pre'stɪdʒəs] adj. 享有声望的

untether [ʌn'teðə] vt. 解下拴牛马的绳

limelight ['laɪmlaɪt] n. 灯光照耀的舞台

eccentric [ɪk'sentrɪk] adj. 古怪的，反常的

relentless [rɪ'lentləs] adj. 不懈的；坚韧的

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。

文章长度

703

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

2分48秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分0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

In search of the real Silicon Valley（703 words）

By Leslie Hook

When people visit Silicon Valley, some leave disappointeD.In theory, and on a map, the Valley stretches across the south-western corner of the San Francisco Bay, from Santa Clara up to Palo Alto. But, in practice, there is little for visitors to see — few landmarks, no obvious valley, nowhere a tourist can take a picture and feel like they've arrived at the Silicon Valley they dreamed of.

I've noticed this befuddlement in many first-time visitors. I remember chatting to a group of Chinese entrepreneurs who were on a “Silicon Valley tour”. They drove down Sand Hill Road, home to many prestigious venture capital groups in drab office parks, and stopped to take pictures in front of the sign of Kleiner Perkins, a prominent VC firm, until they were shooed away by security guards. It was not a highlight of the trip.

As well as Sand Hill Road, there are other routine tour stops: the Computer History Museum, the Stanford Campus, the Golden Gate Bridge up in San Francisco. But none captures the Valley's essence, because “Silicon Valley” is not really a place any more. Outsiders still dream of somewhere called Silicon Valley, but that dream is increasingly untethered from a physical place.

This was not always the case. In the 1950s and 1960s, there was both silicon （in computer chips） and a valley （the Santa Clara Valley） that was at the forefront of scientific innovation, fuelled by government investment in research and by the nearby Stanford Research Park. The invention of the transistor and the microchip led to waves of technological creativity, closely linked to scientific advances, much of which occurred in the Bay Area.

This changed, however, with the advent of the internet and the smartphone, when online businesses and then apps replaced the hard sciences as the currency of disruption. At that point, “Silicon Valley” spread up and down the Bay Area and sparked imitators all over the world — Silicon Alley in New York, Silicon Hills in Austin, Silicon Roundabout in London. The start-ups most associated with the Valley today are companies such as Uber, Airbnb and Twitter, which are all based in San Francisco, dozens of miles from the literal Silicon Valley.

While it is no longer centred in a physical place, there are certain components that make the Valley what it is. First is its brand — so powerful that it needs little explanation. Second is its network of people. This is the true heart of the Valley — and the reason it is so hard for outsiders to discover. The network is not only entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, but also software engineers who avoid the limelight, eccentric billionaires who fund pipe dreams, and Stanford professors with a few side projects. While this network is low profile, it is by far the Valley's most powerful quality. It controls not only access to funding but also access to talent — who you can hire depends on who you know — and access to ideas.

This leads to the third distinct quality of Silicon Valley: there is a very specific way of thinking here. There is a relentless optimism, which is a necessary quality for any inventor. It is also a place where failure is accepted, even celebrated — it's considered perfectly normal for an entrepreneur to start a conversation by saying: “Well, my last company didn't work out, and this is what I'm doing now.” Moreover, the Valley is an area of great earnestness, although this has the side effect of making well-meaning techies seem more out of touch than they already are.

There is a downside to this shared way of thinking, which is that it tends to be inwardly focused, with little interest in the rest of the world （except as a potential market）.

What makes Silicon Valley itself is not a landmark but rather the intangible things — the brand, the network, the world view. I've lived here for almost four years and I'm moving on soon — this will be my last column from San Francisco. I'd like to think I'm taking a little bit of it with me, the optimism and the resilience, without having absorbed too many of the negatives. But I will still leave wondering whether I found the place I came to see.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why some visitors to Silicon Valley leave with disappointment ?

A.Because security guards of Silicon Valley companies often shoo visitors away.

B.Because nowhere a tourist is allowed to take a picture in Silicon Valley.

C.Because there are few interesting places worth a visit in Silicon Valley.

D.Because Silicon Valley is not at the forefront of scientific innovation any more.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following is not a routine stop in a Silicon Valley tour ?

A.The Golden Gate Bridge.

B.Kleiner Perkins.

C.Sand Hill Road.

D.The Stanford Campus.

答案(2)

3.Which factor triggered the transformation of Silicon Valley from a physical place to an intangible concept ?

A.The invention of transistor and microchip.

B.The expansion of Bay Area in San Francisco.

C.The advent of imitators all over the world.

D.The rise of online businesses and apps.

答案(3)

4.According to the author, what is the most significant component of Silicon Valley?

A.The network of people.

B.The powerful brand.

C.The relentless optimism.

D.The shared way of thinking.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.Because there are few interesting places worth a visit in Silicon Valley.

解释：但实际上，这里没有什么值得一看的——几乎没有地标，没有明显的山谷，游客无处拍照，也感觉不到他们已经抵达了梦中的硅谷。

(2) 答案：B.Kleiner Perkins.

解释：除了沙丘路，还有其他常规旅游景点：计算机历史博物馆，斯坦福大学校园，旧金山的金门大桥。

(3) 答案：D.The rise of online businesses and apps.

解释：然而，随着互联网和智能手机的出现，电子商务和应用程序先后代替了硬件科学成为科技的前沿，这种情况因此发生了变化。

(4) 答案：A.The network of people.

解释：尽管硅谷的人脉网络并不引人注意，但它却是目前硅谷最强大的特质，它不仅让硅谷源源不断地得到资金，也向硅谷输送着人才和理念。

该向拖延说再见了

统计数据显示，美国每天至少举行3700万次会议，其中有45%都会出现不同程度的推迟。这种普遍的拖延不仅影响工作效率，更影响心情。而这种现象是完全可以避免的。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

punctuality [ˌpʌŋktʃu'æləti] n. 准时

grim [ɡrɪm] adj. 冷酷的；糟糕的

mainstay ['meɪnsteɪ] n. 主要支持

blather ['blæðə（r）] vi. 说废话

unimpeachable [ˌʌnɪm'piːtʃəbl] adj. 无懈可击的

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。

文章长度

751

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

3分0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45秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

A quest to banish lateness at meetings and claw back lost time（751 words）

By Pilita Clark

A friend and I were chatting after work a few months ago when I mentioned my devotion to Ocado, the online grocery delivery service.

“No!” she shriekeD.“You have to stop using it. Haven't you read about Tim Steiner's divorce?” I ignored her. I had seen that Mr Steiner, Ocado's chief executive, had left the mother of his four children and taken up with a Polish model many years his junior.

But as far as I was concerned, other people's marriages were a foreign country and Ocado was the only source of my favourite pumpkin soup. More crucially, in all the years I had used it, its delivery drivers had never once been late. If they even suspected a delay, I would get a text explaining why and by how many minutes. In a world of lateness, it was a rare, glittering star.

I thought of this again last Tuesday when Mr Steiner finally got around to speaking about a more recent thing he has done to irk female customers: attend the men-only Presidents Club charity dinner, exposed by the Financial Times. I doubt his critics will be placated by his saying he had been shocked to read of “totally unacceptable” behaviour at the event.

But I am sticking with Ocado, and not just because of the soup. Regardless of Mr Steiner, the company treats me with respect. By showing up on time, it behaves as if my time is valuable. It seems to understand a great truth of modern life, namely that punctuality is an under-rated virtue.

Nowhere is this more evident than at work, where opportunities to be late are endless. It starts from the time of arrival but is worst in that grim office mainstay, the meeting. It is thought that at least 37m meetings are held each day in the US alone and up to 45 per cent of them probably start late, says Steven Rogelberg, a US professor who has studied meeting lateness.

He is close to publishing research indicating lateness is not just annoying, rude or a sign of job dissatisfaction but affects the quality of a gathering itself. A meeting starting up to five minutes late can still be productive but this changes once the wait gets close to 10 minutes and people start to display what Prof Rogelberg calls “negative socio-emotional” behaviour. In other words, they get increasingly hacked off and start criticising, interrupting or whispering to a neighbour.

I was slightly unsettled by this since I have been guilty on all counts myself, mainly because I never wanted to go to the meeting in the first place.

It turns out that one reason meetings start late is simply that they are held back-to-back, without enough time for people to take breaks in between. When Larry Page became Google's chief executive again in 2011, one of the first things he did was cut hour-long meetings to 50 minutes. Some experts now swear by the 50:25 rule: keep hour-long meetings to 50 minutes and half-hour ones to 25.

Still, if I had to make a list of solutions to the late meeting problem, I would start with a ban on pointless ones. One of the joys of working for a daily newspaper is that meetings rarely drag on. Deadline pressures require them to have a clear purpose, like deciding what to put in the paper next day or on the website in the next hour.

At the FT, a lot of these decisions are taken at a 9.30am news meeting. I went to one last week. It started at 9.32am and 15 people took just 27 minutes to talk about what had happened the day before and what should happen that day. Then it ended.

I am also a fan of standing meetings, having once had a boss who brought them in for a weekly meeting. The discomfort forced people to stop blathering and encouraged early arrivals, all hoping to speak first and make a speedy getaway.

Finally, I would ban a major cause of bad meetings, and therefore potential lateness: pointless participants. There is no easier way to make a discussion irrelevant and dull. This requires tact. When Steve Jobs was running Apple he was about to start a meeting when he spotted a woman he did not know and asked: “Who are you?” She said she had been invited to discuss a topic on the agendA.Jobs told her she was not needed and, as she began a long walk to the door, he carried on as if nothing had happeneD.The execution was awful but the principle, I am afraid, is unimpeachable.

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 stick with Ocado?

A.Because Ocado is the only source of her favourite soup.

B.Because she believes Ocado values her time.

C.Because she takes no interest in Ocado's scandal.

D.Because Ocado never allows any delay in delivery.

答案(1)

2.According to Steven Rogelberg, meeting lateness ____.

A.could possibly lead to negative socio-emotional behaviour.

B.always affects the quality of a conference significantly.

C.originates from Google's pointless hour-long meetings.

D.results from deadline pressures and lack of productiveness.

答案(2)

3.Why did some experts introduce the 50:25 rule to companies?

A.To avoid negative socio-emotional behaviour during meetings.

B.To encourage people to to go to the meeting in the first place.

C.To allow people to take breaks between back-to-back meetings.

D.To force people to stop blathering and stay focused at meetings.

答案(3)

4.Why does the author prefer standing meetings?

A.Because standing meetings usually take less time than ordinary ones.

B.Because there is no pointless participants at standing meetings.

C.Because she can speak first and make a quick exit at standing meetings.

D.Because people tend to be more efficient at standing meetings.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.Because she believes Ocado values her time.

解释：Ocado的送货员从未迟到过。如果可能出现延误，他们会提前向我解释清楚。这种守时的态度反映出了他们重视客户的时间。

(2) 答案：A.could possibly lead to negative socio-emotional behaviour.

解释：一旦等待时间接近10分钟，人们开始表现出被罗格伯格教授称为“负面社会情感”的行为。

(3) 答案：C.To allow people to take breaks between back-to-back meetings.

解释：事实证明，会议迟到的一个原因是它们往往连在一起，没有足够的时间让人们休息。

(4) 答案：D.Because people tend to be more efficient at standing meetings.

解释：站立会议的不适感迫使人们停止喋喋不休，并鼓励与会者早到，每个人都希望最先发言并快速离开。

美式橄榄球的种族分裂

在美国，橄榄球是一项价值数十亿美元的产业，其中，近70%的球员是黑人，但教练组和管理层却由白人把持。当越来越多的白人因健康风险而离开橄榄球场时，是什么激励着一代代黑人孩子从事这项危险的运动？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

degenerative [dɪ'dʒenərətɪv] adj. （疾病）变性的

gladiatorial [ˌɡlædiə'tɔːriəl] adj. 斗剑者的，争论的

hurl [hɜːl] v. 用力投掷

actuary ['æktʃuəri] n. 精算师，公证人

minuscule ['mɪnəskjuːl] adj. 非常小的

concussion [kən'kʌʃn] n. 脑震荡，震动

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。

文章长度

783

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7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46秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Winners and losers: American football's racial divide（783 words）

By Rana Foroohar

The weather gods in New York can't decide whether it should be winter or spring but my 11-year-old son is already dreaming of the playing fields of Prospect Park, near our home in Brooklyn, where he'll soon begin outdoor sports practice. When he does, we will be confronted with a startling racial divide — hordes of mostly white kids like him playing soccer, and a much smaller group of others, mostly African-American, playing American football.

By football, I mean tackle football — not touch football, its kinder, gentler cousin. Touch involves minimal contact. Tackle is the kind played with helmets and pads. It is also the type that has become the topic of major controversy in the US after years of increasing evidence that the head trauma, which is part and parcel of it, can cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy （CTE）, a degenerative brain disease that has resulted in the tragic — and often horrific — deaths of many professional football players. Several of those affected became so disturbed following repeated head injuries that they killed themselves. The NFL, which took years to recognise the problem, set up a $765m fund in 2013 to compensate the growing number of players with CTE and their families （in the 2015 movie Concussion, Will Smith plays a doctor trying to highlight the issue of brain damage in the sport）.

While African-American men make up only 6 per cent of the US population, they represent nearly 70 per cent of NFL players. Meanwhile, 75 per cent of the head coaches are white, as are the owners of 30 out of 32 teams. The same dynamics hold in college football and basketball, in which historian Taylor Branch once detected “an unmistakable whiff of the plantation”. In short, a group of predominantly African-American students fuel a multibillion-dollar industry without getting a dime of that money themselves, aside from scholarships （higher in football than in safer sports）.

All of this is something I couldn't help but think about as I watched this year's Super Bowl. American football is, in its way, beautiful. Enormous men don't just bash into each other; they also leap and spin and run with the grace of dancers. And yet, as I watched, I was reminded of the tiny helmets I'd seen on the children in the park. According to the NFL's own actuaries, some 28 per cent of professional players will suffer brain trauma, including but not limited to CTE. It's true that the powers that be within the sport have pushed various rule changes to make the game safer. Yet these children are still playing a sport that could, quite literally, lead them to an early grave.

People have many different theories about why this is. Talking about any of them guarantees you'll upset someone. Some research shows that when it comes to sport, money may be a factor in diversity issues. Academic studies have shown that soccer players, as opposed to American football or basketball players, tend to come from communities that have higher income, education and employment, perhaps, in part, because the sport is still run in the US on a mainly “pay to play” basis, rather than something done for free in schools.

There are others, such as New York Times-best-selling author Mychal Denzel Smith, who believe that black families may see the possibility of upward mobility via sport as worth the risk of injury, particularly in a world in which their economic odds are so poor. But of course the risk isn't worth it. The numbers of people who make it to the pros are minuscule. And the backlash around head trauma means that the game itself may not exist — at least in the form it does now — within a few years.

American football is still far and away the most popular youth sport in the country, played at a high-school level by more boys — of all races — than any other. But numbers have fallen over the past few years as many parents pull their children out. It's interesting that of all those playing now aged six or older, the participation rate for African-Americans is double that for whites. The reverse is true in safer sports, such as soccer or baseball.

Sport should be a unifier. Yet in the US, as with so many things, it illuminates our socio-economic divides. A recent report shows that athletic participation for kids aged six to 12 is down 8 per cent in the past decade, thanks to rising costs and declining public funding. Children from low-income households are half as likely to play one day's worth of any team sport than those from households earning at least $100,000. Childhood obesity is an even bigger health concern than concussions. That's yet another class and race issue we can see when we step outside our front doors.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why does tackle football become controversial in recent years ?

A.The link between tackle football and traumatic brain injury continues to strengthen.

B.The NFL tried to intimidate scientists studying deaths of professional football players.

C.Neurologists tried to highlight the issue of brain damage in the movie Concussion.

D.New studies found evidence that chronic traumatic encephalopathy could lead to death.

答案(1)

2.Why does Taylor Branch mention the plantation in the fourth paragraph ?

A.To explain why clear racial differences emerge in American football.

B.To indicate the football industry is fueled by African-American students.

C.To raise awareness of the health risks for African-American athletes.

D.To emphasise the racial issues in the football industry in America.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following statements about American football is true?

A.The NFL has been reluctant to push various rule changes to make football game safer.

B.Soccer players in the US tend to come from richer communities than American football players.

C.Around 28 per cent of professional players will suffer chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

D.African-American students often get lower scholarships than students from other backgrounds.

答案(3)

4.According to Mychal Denzel Smith, what causes the diversity issues in American football?

A.The health concerns associated with childhood obesity.

B.The possibility of entering prominent universities via sport.

C.The chance of upward mobility via sport for black families.

D.The generous scholarships offered to football athletes.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.The link between tackle football and traumatic brain injury continues to strengthen.

解释：橄榄球在美国引起了巨大的争议。数年来，越来越多的证据表明，橄榄球比赛中常见的头部创伤会造成慢性创伤性脑病变。

(2) 答案：D.To emphasise the racial issues in the football industry in America.

解释：近70%的NFL球员是非裔美国人，但75%的主教练都是白人，32只球队中有30只都有白人老板。在大学橄榄球和篮球中也是如此。历史学家Taylor Branch在此感觉到了“确凿无疑的种植园特点”。

(3) 答案：B.Soccer players in the US tend to come from richer communities than American football players.

解释：学术研究发现，与美式橄榄球或篮球运动员不同，足球运动员倾向于来自拥有较高收入，教育水平和就业率的社区。

(4) 答案：C.The chance of upward mobility via sport for black families.

解释：Mychal Denzel Smith认为，黑人家庭看到了通过从事体育来提升社会阶层的希望，并认为值得为此冒着受伤的风险。

费德勒还是罗纳尔迪尼奥

就在36岁的费德勒捧起第20个大满贯奖杯之时，与他年龄相仿的足球巨星罗纳尔迪尼奥宣布退役。费德勒与罗纳尔迪尼奥代表了两种不同的人格，一种生命不息，奋斗不止；另一种则知足常乐，享受人生。对于普通人来讲，谁才是人生的楷模？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

autumnal [ɔː'tʌmnəl] adj. 秋的，秋天的

monastic [mə'næstɪk] adj. 修士的，僧侣的

slacken ['slækən] v. 使松弛，变弱

bereaved [bɪ'riːvd] n. 丧失亲人的人

superlative [su'pɜːlətɪv]adj. 最上的，无比的

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。

文章长度

679

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

Who shows us how to live — Federer or Ronaldinho?（679 words）

By Janan Ganesh

In January, Roger Federer won his 20th Grand Slam at the age of 36. It was his third title in a late-career comeback that beggars most sporting comparisons, leaving you to reach for Philip Roth's 1990s revival as a truer parallel. Now free of injury, the Swiss could soon become the oldest number one in the history of the men's tennis rankings, which he first topped in the week that Facebook went online.

Also in January, Ronaldinho retired from professional football at 37. There was no autumnal resurgence for him, just the prolonged winding-down of a luminous gift. A decade has passed since he was central to the world game. Europeans who recall the Brazilian's mid-noughties miracles for Barcelona might have assumed that he had quit long ago.

The two most lavish talents of their sporting generation, certainly the only two who had it in them to make me involuntarily laugh, stand for different ways of going at life.

Federer is what students of decision-making call a maximiser, always striving for the best possible. He had the riches and titles to justify mid-career relaxation, but suffered to achieve more. It takes monastic discipline to sustain primacy, not just competitiveness, in a sport whose biomechanical demands make such short work of joints and cartilage.

I have met versions of him in business, still waking before dawn to squeeze efficiencies from their supply chain long after their fortune has crossed from the unspendable to the uncountable. The spoils of their work mean less to them than the work itself.

Ronaldinho is more of a “satisficer”, one who aims for a certain threshold （in his case, an extraordinarily high one） rather than more and ever more. It was at 26, when he added the Champions League to his World Cup and his Ballon d’Or, that coaches sensed his professionalism slackening in a haze of late-night parties. Barcelona phased him out at the age most players enter their prime. He went on to decorate AC Milan and the Brazilian league, but the downward arc was unmistakable, and — for football fans — tragically premature.

The two careers invert our romantic idea of where drive comes from. Stereotypically, it would be the polished native of Basel, where the world looks for financial regulation, who could be expected to lack a certain hunger, and the bereaved son of Porto Alegre who would burn with motivation. The assumptions of class even attach to their sports, with tennis linked to privilege and football to the global street. The two careers also leave us to wonder which is the “right” way of living. Federer and the ever-smiling Ronaldinho seem about as content as each other. As for the general population, however, the scholarly verdict is that satisficers tend to be happier than maximisers. Whether their decision is the purchase of a kettle or the management of superlative talent, they are less prone to regret and second-guessing.

In his 2004 book on the subject, The Paradox of Choice, the American psychologist Barry Schwartz made the case for satisficing. The most unfakably content people I know are masters of “good enough”. They had a picture of a nice life and entered a kind of cruise control once they made it real. Their careers have slightly undershot their maximum capabilities. They might not be married to the most ardent love they have ever known. But they are so at ease with their lot that they will confess these things in good cheer （out of their spouses' hearing range）.

Conversely, I have met globe-bestriding achievers who reek of regret at things not done, opportunities missed, prizes withhelD.These people make the world go around but you do not leave their presence with much envy. Entrepreneurs and retired politicians are classics of this haunted, restless type.

It is a skill not to move the goalposts as success pours in, to avoid invidious comparisons with what other people have or do. It is a skill to “not worry about the possibility that there might be something better”, as Schwartz puts it. What disappointed fans see in Ronaldinho as waste or indulgence is itself a kind of mental discipline — perhaps the highest kind.

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 statements about Roger Federer is true ?

A.Federer becomes the oldest winner in the history of Grand Slam events.

B.Federer strove to achieve more titles after a mid-career relaxation.

C.Federer won his 20th Grand Slam after recovering from a joint injury.

D.Federer will be the oldest player to hold the top spot of men's tennis rankings.

答案(1)

2.What is a “satisficer” according to the article ?

A.People who are more likely to experience low levels of happiness.

B.People who always stay optimistic and willingly settle for mediocrity.

C.People who feel satisfied with themselves once their criteria are met.

D.People who strive for flawlessness and set high performance standards.

答案(2)

3.Research shows satisficer tend to be happier than maximisers because ____.

A.satisficers tend to feel content with whatever decision they make.

B.satisficers take a mental shortcut to ease the load of decision making.

C.satisficers always make decisions after they've examined every option.

D.satisficers tend to spend less time and energy to reach a decision.

答案(3)

4.According to the article, which kind of personality does the author favour?

A.Maximiser.

B.Satisficer.

C.Both.

D.Neither.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.Federer will be the oldest player to hold the top spot of men's tennis rankings.

解释：这位瑞士名将很快就会成为男子网球排名历史上最年长的第一名，他首次登上榜首还是在Facebook刚刚上线的一周。

(2) 答案：C.People who feel satisfied with themselves once their criteria are met.

解释：罗纳尔迪尼奥更像是一个“满足者”，这种人的目标是达到一定的标准（以罗纳尔迪尼奥来讲，这个标准相当高），而不是不断追求更多。

(3) 答案：A.satisficers tend to feel content with whatever decision they make.

解释：学术上的结论是，满足者往往比精益求精者更快乐。无论是购买水壶还是发挥顶尖的天赋，他们都不太容易对自己的决定感到后悔和猜疑。

(4) 答案：B.Satisficer.

解释：失望的球迷们在罗纳尔迪尼奥身上看到的浪费天赋或自我放纵本身就是一种心理自律——也许是最高级的一种。

全民基本收入为何行不通？

在不远的未来，人们的工作会日益受到自动化的威胁。面对潜在的失业问题，实行“全民基本收入”的呼声越来越大。认识到这些威胁是可喜、及时的，但是转向全民基本收入寻求慰藉并不是好主意。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

solace ['sɒləs] n. 安慰

exponential [ˌekspə'nenʃl] adj. 指数的

reverberation [rɪˌvɜːbə'reɪʃn] n. 反响，余韵

grant [ɡrɑːnt] n. 拨款； 补助金

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。

文章长度

649

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38秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分35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38秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Five reasons why universal basic income is a bad idea（649 words）

By Ian Goldin

As the scale of the potential job losses arising from the artificial intelligence and robotics revolution becomes clearer, a chorus of otherwise disconnected billionaires, trade unionists and others are calling for universal basic income. Recognising the threat posed by these dislocations is welcome and timely, but seeking solace in UBI is a bad idea.

At least one in three jobs is vulnerable to AI and robotics, with routine and repetitive tasks in manufacturing, administration and call centres most easily substituteD.Research at the Oxford Martin School estimates that over the next 20 years up to 47 per cent of US jobs, around 40 per cent of UK and European jobs and a higher share of jobs in many developing countries including China, could be replaced by machines. The exponential increase in computing power and machine learning will intensify these vulnerabilities.

It is misleading to think of this as yet another industrial revolution and take comfort in the fact that all previous industrial revolutions have resulted in more and better-quality jobs. This time is different, both in the pace and the reach of change. The growth of new jobs is slower than the destruction of old jobs — and their quality in many cases is inferior, as full-time career employment gives way to gig work or contingency contracts.

The places most vulnerable are also geographically isolated from the dynamic cities experiencing record earnings growth and low unemployment. Moving to these cities is increasingly difficult, as soaring housing and commuting costs reduce employment mobility. The result is rising geographical concentration of poverty and inequality in places left behind by change. The political reverberations are already being felt. The legitimate concerns of vulnerable workers must be addresseD.But UBI is a red herring for five reasons.

First, UBI is financially irresponsible. Universal means everyone gets it. Even in the richest societies, if UBI was set at a level to provide a modest but decent standard of living it would be unaffordable and lead to ballooning deficits. To close the UBI budget black hole, much higher taxes or reallocation of resources from other areas such as health and education would be needed.

Second, UBI will lead to higher inequality and poverty. It typically aims to replace existing unemployment and other benefits with a simple universal grant. As shown by the OECD, the Paris-based club of mostly rich nations, by reallocating welfare payments from targeted transfers （such as unemployment, disability or housing benefits） to a generalised transfer to everyone, the amount that goes to the most deserving is lower. Billionaires get a little more.

Third, UBI will undermine social cohesion. Individuals gain not only income, but meaning, status, skills, networks and friendships through work. Delinking income and work, while rewarding people for staying at home, is what lies behind social decay. Crime, drugs, broken families and other socially destructive outcomes are more likely in places with high unemployment, as is evident in the drug pandemic in the US.

Fourth, UBI undermines incentives to participate. Stronger safety nets are vital. No decent society should tolerate dire poverty or starvation. But for those who are able, help should be designed to get individuals and families to participate in society; to help people overcome unemployment and find work, retrain, move cities. Wherever possible, safety nets should be a lifeline towards meaningful work and participation in society, not a guarantee of a lifetime of dependence.

Fifth, UBI offers a panacea to corporate and political leaders, postponing a discussion about the future of jobs. The demographic pressures in rich countries, and the deep challenge AI poses to development prospects in poor ones, adds to the need for this conversation. There must be more part-time work, shorter weeks, and rewards for home work, creative industries and social and individual care. Forget about UBI; to reverse rising inequality and social dislocation we need to radically change the way we think about income and work.

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 jobs is most at risk for automation ?

A.Data processing supervisor.

B.Human Resource manager.

C.Administrative staff.

D.Business analyst.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about our jobs is true ?

A.Around 40 per cent of jobs in developed countries are vulnerable to artificial intelligence.

B.Developing countries are likely to suffer more from automation than the developed world.

C.Research shows AI and robotics have began to replace many routine and repetitive jobs.

D.The growth of high-paying jobs is much slower than the destruction of repetitive old jobs.

答案(2)

3.How UBI undermine social cohesion according to the author ?

A.UBI cannot help people overcome unemployment and get a job.

B.UBI can make people lose incentives to participate in society.

C.UBI will deprive people of their meaning and social status.

D.UBI rewards joblessness which could aggravate social decay.

答案(3)

4.According to the article, how can we cope with the potential job losses?

A.Encouraging new forms of work and creative industries.

B.Reforming existing unemployment and other benefits.

C.Reallocating money and resources from other areas.

D.Helping individuals and families participate in society.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：Administrative staff.

解释：至少有三分之一的工作可能受到人工智能和机器人技术的威胁，制造业，行政和客服中心的常规和重复性工作最容易被替代。

(2) 答案：B.Developing countries are likely to suffer more from automation than the developed world.

解释：在未来的20年中，高达47％的美国工作岗位，以及约40％的英国和欧洲工作岗位可能被机器取代。在包括中国在内的许多发展中国家，受机器威胁的工作占比更大。

(3) 答案：D.UBI rewards joblessness which could aggravate social decay.

解释：让收入和工作脱钩，同时奖励人们呆在家里，正是社会衰败背后的原因。犯罪、毒品、家庭破裂及其他具有社会破坏性的结果，更有可能出现在高失业率的地方。

(4) 答案：A.Encouraging new forms of work and creative industries.

解释：必须有更多的兼职工作、更短的工作周以及对家庭劳动、创意产业、社会和个人护理的奖励。

索尼机器狗Aibo重出江湖

为了重现索尼在机器人领域的旧日辉煌，停产十余年的机器狗Aibo重出江湖。索尼相信这个机器版的“人类最好的朋友”将引领其在人工智能技术上的复兴。Aibo能肩负起这一重任吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

gadgetry ['ɡædʒɪtri] n. 小机件，小机械

buoy [bɔɪ] v. 使…浮，支撑

clunky ['klʌŋki] adj. 笨重的

medication [ˌmedɪ'keɪʃn] n. 药物治疗

dismiss [dɪs'mɪs]vt. 驳回，拒绝受理

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。

文章长度

742

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18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7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

Sony looks to reboot 1990s glory days with relaunch of robot dog（742 words）

By Kana Inagaki in Tokyo and Tim Bradshaw in Las Vegas

Aibo, Sony's once-beloved mechanical pet which garnered a cult-like following when it was introduced in the late 1990s, has returned with eyes, ears and artificial intelligence resembling a real dog.

The home robot was unveiled last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where the falling cost of hardware and advances in artificial intelligence are propelling a wave of robotics start-ups.

For Sony, the stakes are high as the company seeks to regain its position in AI and robotics after more than a decade of being in the shadows of US technology giants such as Amazon and Google.

The cuddly mechanical dog is a symbol of Sony's gadgetry strength and a symbol of what went wrong for the Japanese group. Aibo was discontinued in 2006 as Sony struggled with losses and a lack of compelling products that matched previous hits such as the Walkman music player and the Trinitron television.

“Aibo is such a symbolic presence that is directly linked to our brand,” says Izumi Kawanishi, a Sony executive in charge of the company's AI and robotics businesses. “Everybody wanted to do robots so people just came together [for the Aibo project].”

Kazuo Hirai, Sony's chief executive, revived the company's robotics business in the summer of 2016, bringing together more than 100 engineers as the company staged a turnround buoyed by sales of its PlayStation games and image sensors used in Apple's iPhones.

The new Aibo, which hit the Japanese market at a price of ¥198,000 （$1,770）, is packed with roughly 4,000 components — including sensors, cameras and microphones — to enable it to understand simple voice commands and interact with users.

Through data collected on the cloud, Sony says the robot can learn to identify its owner and remember behaviours that make its owner happy.

The original Aibo, launched in 1999, carried out programmed actions such as barking but its movements were clunky and its learning capability was limited with data stored on memory sticks as opposed to the clouD.It was, nevertheless, one of the most advanced personal robots consumers could get at the time.

The market is now awash with AI-enabled products, ranging from smart speakers such as Amazon's Echo, SoftBank's humanoid robot Pepper, and toy robots offered by San Francisco start-ups such as Anki.

“These products have to be priced in the $500-$1,000 range so Aibo's price could be a barrier for adoption,” says Aditya Kaul, research director at technology research firm Tractica.

“Consumers also have very high expectations, which is a reason why this technology is going to take time to roll out,” he adds.

Tractica estimates the consumer market for robotic toys and personal assistants to grow from $542m in 2016 to $4.5bn in 2022.

An array of robots were on display at CES, including Keecker, a roving entertainment system that follow their owners around the house playing music or projecting movies, to Elli-Q, a “social robot” head paired with a touchscreen tablet that is designed to help older people keep in touch with their families and gently remind them to take medication.

Intuition Robotics, the Israeli start-up behind Elli-Q, has just raised $20m in a funding round led by Toyota, and will begin beta testing the device in California and Florida this month.

Start-ups were not the only technology company displaying their latest inventions at CES. Omron, the multibillion-dollar Japanese robotics and electronics components manufacturer, drew a crowd at its first appearance at the show with its table-tennis playing robot.

Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight, is dubious that most of the domestic robots at CES will ever see wide adoption, dismissing many exhibitors as “idiot tech”.

“Most of them are closer to toys than something that adds real utility to your life,” he says.

Sony executives are undeterred, saying Aibo “is just the beginning” of its AI initiatives and a series of other projects are expected to follow.

While some of the company's products already rely on rival technologies of Google and Amazon, Mr Kawanishi says AI-powered hardware such as Aibo — that can emotionally connect with its owners — is unique to Sony with its consumer electronics and entertainment backgrounD.The use of Aibo could also expand outside of living rooms to elderly care homes, schools and hospitals.

While analysts remain sceptical whether there is a mass market for the new Aibo, devoted Sony fans are undeterred by the high price tag.

“I'm thrilled that Sony is making robots again,” says 43-year-old Kei Yamashita, one of the first consumers to get hold of the new Aibo. “I think the new Aibo is a sign of Sony's revival.”

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 statements about the new Aibo is true ?

A.The mechanical pet has became a symbolic presence of Sony's revival.

B.Sony introduced the new Aibo to regain its position in AI and robotics.

C.Some of Aibo's functions rely on technologies of Google and Amazon.

D.The Aibo's data is collected on memory sticks and stored on the cloud.

答案(1)

2.Why did Sony stop its Aibo robot dog project in 2002 ?

A.Because the company suffered losses and lacked compelling products.

B.Because Aibo was not so profitable as Sony's previous hit products.

C.Because Aibo's functions and capabilities were clunky and limited.

D.Because Sony believed domestic robots would never see wide adoption.

答案(2)

3.Japanese electronics company Omron displayed its ____ at CES.

A.humanoid assistant robot.

B.roving entertainment system.

C.table-tennis playing robot.

D.social robot with a tablet.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards domestic robots like pepper ?

A.Optimistic.

B.Appreciative.

C.Pessimistic.

D.Cautious.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.Sony introduced the new Aibo to regain its position in AI and robotics.

解释：这对于索尼来说是一场重大的赌博。十年以来，这家公司一直生活在亚马逊、谷歌等美国科技巨头的阴影下，如今，他们想恢复在人工智能和机器人领域的地位。

(2) 答案：A.Because the company suffered losses and lacked compelling products.

解释：Aibo于2006年停产。当时的索尼正受到亏损的困扰，并且缺少像曾经的Walkman随身听、特丽珑电视一样畅销的产品。

(3) 答案：C.table-tennis playing robot.

解释：日本机器人和电子元件制造商欧姆龙凭借其首次亮相的乒乓球机器人吸引了众多观众。

(4) 答案：D.Cautious.

解释：作者在文章中提到了家庭机器人的快速发展，也提起了一些人对家庭机器人的怀疑。

向“义理巧克力”宣战

每年情人节，日本公司里的女性员工都会为所有男性同事送巧克力，这种被称为“义理巧克力”的习俗名义上是自愿的，实际上已经成了一种不得不遵从的习俗。“义理巧克力”是日本黑暗的办公室文化的冰山一角，而巧克力制造商Godiva决定对此发起挑战。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

pulley ['pʊli] n. 滑车，滑轮

stagecraft ['steɪdʒkrɑːft] n. 编剧才能，演技

confectioner [kən'fekʃənə（r）] n. 糖果店

banal [bə'nɑːl] adj. 陈腐的，平庸的

torpor ['tɔːpə（r）] n. 麻木，无感觉

absolve [əb'zɒlv] vt. 宣告…无罪，赦免

dislodge [dɪs'lɒdʒ] vi. 移走，离开

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52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

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

Bittersweet campaign to liberate Japan's office workers（682 words）

By Leo Lewis

From campaigns by prime ministers and chief executives, to lobbying from union heads and labour activists, the attempts to remodel Japanese office culture have been distinguished but disappointing. Hope now rests with a Belgian chocolatier.

Godiva has chosen Valentine's Day for a broadside on trying to change workplace attitudes. Specifically, the time-honoured workplace phenomenon of the giri choco — literally “obligation chocolate”. Each February 14, women feel obliged to buy chocolates and distribute them evenly to their male co-workers （usually with gritted teeth）. The men must then return the “favour” a month later — the convention is that the value of their chocolate offerings be around twice that of those they received.

The social pulleys engineering this bit of stagecraft are as impressive as they are unsettling. There are two distinct obligations that compel the purchase of the giri choco and ratchet up its scale: a fear of non-alignment with the unwritten rules of the office and the need to appear even-handed by buying something for everyone.

A friend describes a panic after she and her colleagues made a solemn pact on February 13 that they would appear empty-handed at work the following day, only to find themselves haring to the nearest confectioner when one of their number broke ranks the next morning.

Giri choco buying is banal, burdensome and sustained by a dread of non-conformity — the very same recipe that has locked Japanese office work in decades of productivity torpor.

It may be the perfect moment to shape public policy. Last week, in a neat stroke of marketing, Godiva's Japan head, Jerome Chouchan, took out a full-page advert in the Nikkei newspaper （chosen for its audience of business executives）, calling for an end to the mental imprisonment of the giri choco. The advertisement notes the sense of relief that descends across corporate Japan in those blessed years where Valentine's Day falls on a weekend.

Absolutely you should give chocolates （hint: Godiva） to someone special, argues Mr Chouchan in the lengthy letter, but giri choco no longer has a place in this day and age. Valentine's is not a day, he writes, on which you should feel forced to do “something extra for the sake of smooth relations at work”.

The letter concludes by exhorting male readers, “especially if you are the top person in your company”, to formally absolve female staff of giri choco obligations.

Godiva does not quite spell it out, but the shadow cast by giri choco is part of a much larger darkness in Japan's office culture for which few good solutions have been deviseD.Japanese white-collar workplaces are hardly unique in allowing peer pressure and convention to reign, but the annual giri choco misery offers an uncomfortable reminder of just how potent it is as a force of resistance to change. Giri choco is on a spectrum of unspoken obligations which, at their most destructive, create the impulses that make the workplace bullying of pregnant women or new mothers — “maternity harassment” — a real thing, and leave the phenomenon of karoshi — “death by overwork” — seemingly impossible to dislodge.

Even good ideas — to reduce, for example, the culture of overwork — often end up wrecked by workplace norms genetically programmed to resist evolution.

A year ago, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry tried to establish “premium Friday” where, once a month, the week would finish at 3pm. Almost as the scheme was announced, companies and entire sectors of the economy formed a queue to explain why they would have to be exempteD.But they needn't have bothered: the same suite of obligations and fears that lies behind giri choco, prevented a buy-in to premium Friday. The trade ministry, when asked, claims the scheme will dutifully trudge on in 2018, but the very people it was intended to uplift have already declared it dead.

Godiva's stand, however self-serving as a piece of marketing, is an important one, as Valentine's Day 2018 will show. Yet it is a safe bet that even if orders to abandon giri choco are passed down, they will be ignored and Japan will go on observing its bittersweet traditions.

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, male employees in Japan are obliged to ____ on March 14.

A.buy chocolates for their female co-workers.

B.buy chocolates for their female bosses.

C.buy chocolates for every colleague.

D.buy chocolates for new mothers.

答案(1)

2.Godiva's Japan head Jerome Chouchan believes that ____.

A.Valentine's day is not a day for employees to give chocolates out of obligation.

B.young employees in Japan should stop giving chocolates on Valentine's day.

C.on Valentine's day people should buy Godiva chocolates for someone special.

D.business executives are obliged to take the lead on stopping Giri choco.

答案(2)

3.What did the convention of giri choco reflects ?

A.The culture behind the phenomenon of karoshi.

B.The unspoken obligations of pregnant women.

C.The potent and stressful office culture in Japan.

D.The unique feature of Japan's workplace culture.

答案(3)

4.What is “premium Friday” according to the article?

A.A new labour law introduced by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

B.A good solution to the peer pressure and convention in white-collar workplaces.

C.An outdated office convention which forces employees work overtime on Friday.

D.A campaign which encourages people to leave work earlier on Friday once a month.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.buy chocolates for their female co-workers.

解释：每年2月14日，女性都有义务购买巧克力，并平均分给男性同事。一个月之后，男人们必须返还这份“恩惠”。

(2) 答案：A.Valentine's day is not a day for employees to give chocolates out of obligation.

解释：Chouchan在长信中写道，在情人节这样的日子里，你不应该被强迫着为了维护同事关系而作额外的事。

(3) 答案：C.The potent and stressful office culture in Japan.

解释：义理巧克力投下的阴影只是日本黑暗的办公室文化中的一部分，人们对于这些黑暗的文化已经没有什么好办法了。

(4) 答案：D.A campaign which encourages people to leave work earlier on Friday once a month.

解释：一年前，日本经济产业省尝试推出每月一次的“超值星期五”，员工在周五下午三点结束工作。

超级碗收视率继续下跌

一年一度的超级碗可谓美国最大的体育盛事，但即便是这样的盛会也受到了收视率下跌的困扰。据统计，今年超级碗的收视人数与去年相比下跌了7%，即便是把收看在线直播的观众计算在内也无济于事。这种情况已经不是第一次发生。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

tumultuous [tjuː'mʌltʃuəs] adj. 喧哗的，骚动的

excoriate [ˌeks'kɔːrieɪt] vt. 撕去皮，严厉批评

concussion [kən'kʌʃn] n. 脑震荡，震动

anthem ['ænθəm] n. 圣歌，赞美诗，国歌

detergent [dɪ'tɜːdʒənt]n. 清洁剂

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。

文章长度

602

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18秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分24秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分43秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分36秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Super Bowl thriller watched by smallest audience since 2009（602 words）

By Shannon Bond

In a remarkable upset, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots to win their first Super Bowl — but the contest that was long on athletic excitement and short on recent political controversy drew the smallest viewing audience in nine years.

In spite of the upset which saw the Eagles beat the Patriots 41 to 33 in a hard-fought battle in Minneapolis that came down to the final seconds of play, the broadcast drew 7 per cent fewer viewers to NBC with 103.4m watching, according to Nielsen.

When people who watched the game online were included, NBC counted a total audience of 106m and said it was the most-streamed Super Bowl ever. But this compares with the 111.3m people who tuned in to Fox's broadcast last year.

While football remains the most popular programming on US television, the figures from Nielsen underscore the ratings decline that has been plaguing the National Football League for two seasons. Audiences for regular season games shrank 10 per cent in 2017, an acceleration from 2016's 8 per cent decrease.

The victory marked the first championship for the Eagles since 1960, before the modern Super Bowl was createD.Led by their back-up quarterback, Nick Foles, Philadelphia denied the Patriots — one of the most storied dynasties in American sports — a sixth NFL title. Foles became the first player in league history to throw and catch a touchdown in a Super Bowl, while his counterpart on the Patriots, Tom Brady, fell short of becoming only the fourth NFL player to wear six championship rings.

The game capped a tumultuous season for the league, which has been dogged by controversy over concussions and player safety, and criticism from US President Donald Trump, who excoriated NFL players who knelt for the national anthem during regular season games to protest against police shootings.

Politics were largely absent from the Super Bowl, however, with the greatest drama reserved for the fielD.The players all stood for the anthem, the halftime show from pop star Justin Timberlake played it safe, and unlike 2017's game, which saw a number of advertisers weigh in with politically tinged messages, big brands stuck to humorous or emotionally uplifting commercials.

As one of the few remaining live events that reliably attracts big TV audiences — even at the reduced viewership of this year, the championship game was still the tenth most-watched programme in US television history — the Super Bowl has become a massive stage for marketers, who paid upwards of $5m for 30 seconds of airtime.

Most of this year's advertisements avoided politics and social issues, opting instead to prompt laughter or poke gentle fun at the conventions of advertising itself.

Among the popular entries were a series of spots for Procter & Gamble's Tide detergent that reimagined ads for other products, from beer to cars to pharmaceuticals, as promotions for Tide. Australia's tourism board offered up a commercial disguised as a trailer for a new Crocodile Dundee film. An NFL house ad showed two well-known players, Eli Manning and Odell Beckham, re-enacting a sequence from the movie Dirty Dancing.

One ad that appeared to have hit a sour note was for Fiat Chrysler's Ram trucks that included a speech by Martin Luther King as a voiceover. The ad drew criticism on Twitter over the use of the civil rights leader's words to sell trucks.

The non-profit King Center, founded by King's widow, put out a statement distancing itself from the ad, saying neither it nor its chief executive, Bernice King, was involved in approving the use of King's words or image for commercial use.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How many people in total watched Super Bowl this year according to NBC ?

A.106m.

B.103.4m.

C.111.3m.

D.214.7m.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about the Patriots is true ?

A.The Eagles' ratings of regular season games shrank 10 per cent in 2017.

B.The Eagles becomes one of the most storied dynasties in Super Bowl history.

C.Foles became the first quarterback to catch a touchdown in a Super Bowl.

D.Eagles' back-up quarterback led his team to their first championship since 1960.

答案(2)

3.According to the article, advertisements in this year's Super Bowl ____.

A.was dogged by controversy over concussions and player safety.

B.are trying hard to steer clear of everything related to politics.

C.cost the companies upwards of $5m in total in 30 seconds.

D.stuck to poking gentle fun about politics and social issues.

答案(3)

4.Why Fiat Chrysler's advertisement got criticized?

A.Because it did not avoided politics and social issues like other brands.

B.Because it failed to present any cheerful or uplifting emotions to viewers.

C.Because it used a civil rights leader's voice to promote their business.

D.Because it used Martin Luther King's image as promotions for their trucks.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.106m.

解释：如果把观看网络直播的人被包括在内，NBC统计的观众人数达到106m，并称这是有史以来最火爆的超级碗。

(2) 答案：D.Eagles' back-up quarterback led his team to their first championship since 1960.

解释：这场胜利标志着老鹰队自1960年以来的第一个冠军。在替补四分卫尼克·福尔斯的带领下，他们阻止了爱国者队的第六个NFL冠军。

(3) 答案：B.are trying hard to steer clear of everything related to politics.

解释：今年的广告大部分都避开了政治和社会问题。

(4) 答案：C.Because it used a civil rights leader's voice to promote their business.

解释：这则引用民权领袖的话来销售卡车的广告在推特上引起批评。

Spotify是否重塑了流行音乐？

研究显示，近年来，流行歌曲前奏的平均长度已大大缩短。有人认为Spotify是这一现象的始作俑者——歌曲作者不得不缩短前奏长度来适应Spotify的30秒免费试听。Spotify真的改变了流行歌曲吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

threnodyn. 挽歌，哀歌 /'θrenədi/

collarvt. 抓住，为…戴项圈 /'kɒlə（r）/

archetypaladj. 原型的，典型的 /ˌɑːki'taɪpl/

ilkn. 种类，类型 /ɪlk/

ammunitionn. 军火，弹药，论据 /ˌæmju'nɪʃn/

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。

文章长度

772

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30秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分5秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分12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

Has Spotify rewritten the songbook?（772 words）

By Ludovic Hunter-Tilney

Spotify is expected to float on the New York Stock Exchange in the coming weeks. Shares sold privately last year value the Swedish music streaming service at between $6bn and $23bn. Dominant in the streaming market yet still making losses of $1.5bn last year, Spotify's financial worth is a riddle.

Its musical value is also contentious. Last year Hubert Léveillé Gauvin, a US doctoral student in music theory, published research into song intros. Looking at US top 10 hits between 1986 and 2015, he found their average length had dropped from more than 20 seconds to as little as five. The report received widespread coverage, mostly threnodies for what the BBC called the “dying art of the great song intro”. Streaming was collared as the villain: Spotify pays out for a song after 30 seconds of play, an incentive for songwriters to cut to the chase.

Format has always been critical to pop. The three-minute length of the archetypal pop song is linked to the amount of music that vinyl records could contain, a limitation dating back to the first days of the phonographic industry. Motown Records designed songs so as to sound best on car radios （the concept of “drive time radio” emerged in the 1960s）. Today's hits are similarly engineered for headphones and mobile phone speakers.

Cassandra-like commentators warn that Spotify and its ilk are promoting a low-attention-span, algorithmically-led musical culture, the malign overflow of Big Data into our listening habits. The fears chime with broader feelings of foreboding about our tech-driven worlD.But is streaming really changing the structure of songs?

Last year Mark Bannister, a London-based data analyst, published analysis of every US number one in the Billboard charts from August 1958 to April 2017. The data were taken from Spotify's publicly available store of data about its song library. The results are catnip for pop's version of the trainspotter, the chart obsessive. “I'm a big geek about that as well,” Bannister says.

His findings do not support the idea that streaming is radically reshaping songs. The shortest hits, averaging under three minutes, were in the 1960s, while the longest ones on average were in the 1980s, the decade when “attention deficit disorder” first appeared in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. During our own supposedly attention-degraded times there has been a gentle dip to just under four minutes.

Tempo has fluctuated since 1958, but not in a way mappable to notable format changes such as the arrival of CDs in the 1990s or streaming in the 2010s. Broader musical trends are at work. “In the 1960s and 1970s when you had rock and disco, it climbed up,” Bannister says. “In the 1990s when number one singles were dominated by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, it dropped.”

New York consultancy Hit Songs Deconstructed take a microscopic approach to breaking down hits. A resource for music labels, courses and songwriters, the company conducts in-depth analyses of songs in the US charts. At the FT's request, they provided a breakdown of compositional trends in the US top 10 since 2013, when their database begins.

Intros have not shrunk in the past five years, remaining broadly constant at about 13 seconds. The average time taken to get to the first chorus has been steady at almost 40 seconds. The average number of choruses in songs has not significantly changeD.The only ammunition for the hypothesis that songs are being front-loaded to reach the Spotify 30-second-payment mark is an upwards tick in the proportion of songs in which the chorus, the hookiest part of a song, is placed before the first verse.

The main music trend of the 2010s is the supremacy of hip-hop. One-third of hits last year were by rap acts, including half of the US number ones. Over the past five years, hip-hop has doubled in prominence as an influence on other genres in the US top 10. The most streamed performer last year was the Canadian rapper Drake with 6bn streams.

Hip-hop's pre-eminence has been over 30 years in the making: streaming is not the cause. The real transformation that the likes of Spotify have brought about is to sabotage traditional measures of a song's popularity, its sales figures.

Chart rules are constantly contorting themselves in order to incorporate streaming. The latest change, introduced this year in the US, favours paid-for streams over free content such as YouTube. Meanwhile albums have swollen to unimaginable sizes, like the 45-track behemoth released by Chris Brown last year, so as to game streaming figures.

We can therefore blame Spotify for hastening the death of the album and killing the charts. But hit songs themselves, pop's traditional unit of currency, are proving more resilient.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What does US student Hubert Léveillé Gauvin find in his research?

A.The average length of US top 10 hits keeps shrinking since the arrival of streaming.

B.The average length of US top 10 hit songs has shrunk by five seconds since 1986.

C.The average length of US top 10 hit songs' intros dropped to five seconds since 1986.

D.The average length of US hits keeps shrinking as a result of 30-second-payment mark.

答案(1)

2.Why are most pop songs only 3 minutes long?

A.The three-minute pop songs were perfect for music fans of the 1960s.

B.The three-minute length of archetypal song sounds best on car radios.

C.The root of three-minute length is derived from photograph records.

D.The capacity of vinyl records limits the length of archetypal pop song.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following statements regarding Mark Bannister's analysis is true?

A.There has been a gentle decline in the length of song since the arrival of streaming.

B.The algorithmically-led musical culture has prompted drastic changes of pop music.

C.Pop songs are being front-loaded to reach the Spotify 30-second-payment mark.

D.The average time taken to get to the first chorus has been steady in the past decade.

答案(3)

4.Which of the statements is the author most likely to agree with?

A.Researches show Spotify brings no substantial change to music industry.

B.The development of pop music has been greatly assisted by streaming.

C.The emerge of streaming service did not change hit songs themselves.

D.The arrival of streaming declares the death of the album and the charts.

答案(4)

(1) 答案C.The average length of US top 10 hit songs' intros dropped to five seconds since 1986. 去年，美国音乐理论博士生Hubert Léveillé Gauvin发表了对歌曲前奏的研究。他研究了从1986年到2015年美国排名前十的单曲，发现它们的平均前奏长度已经从20秒以上下降至仅仅5秒。

(2) 答案D.The capacity of vinyl records limits the length of archetypal pop song. 流行歌曲原型的长度在三分钟左右，这与黑胶唱片的容量有关。这种限制可以追溯到唱片行业诞生的第一天。

(3) 答案A.There has been a gentle decline in the length of song since the arrival of streaming. 在我们所在的这个注意力衰退的年代，流行歌曲的长度稍稍下降到不足四分钟

(4) 答案C.The emerge of streaming service did not change hit songs themselves. 因此，我们可以指责Spotify加速专辑的死亡并杀死了排行榜。但作为流行音乐的传统货币单位，歌曲本身有着很强的适应力。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集

Vol.68

行将就木的美国特色医保

美国的医保体系集昂贵和低效两大缺点于一身。为了改变这种现状，几家巨头公司打算联合起来建立更加透明、高质量、价格低廉的医保组织。他们会成功吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

unravel [ʌn'rævl] vt. 解开；阐明

bifurcate ['baɪfəkeɪt] adj. 分成两支的

conglomerate [kən'ɡlɒmərət] n. 联合企业

paradigm ['pærədaɪm] n. 例子，模范

triumvirate [traɪ'ʌmvərət] n. 三人执政

entitlement [ɪn'taɪtlmənt] n. 权利

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。

文章长度

692

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46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41秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The American way of healthcare（692 words）

By Rana Foroohar

Last March, I wrote a column arguing that US employers should be the first in line to argue for healthcare reform. Unlike their peers in the rest of the developed world, American companies are liable for covering healthcare insurance costs for two-thirds of the country's population. Even if the country's healthcare spending wasn't double most of the rest of the rich world's, with far worse outcomes, this would still be a competitive disadvantage in a global marketplace in which rivals don't have to shoulder that burden.

It is exciting, therefore, that three powerhouses of US business — Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Jamie Dimon — are taking on this issue by launching an organisation that aims to deliver “simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost”.

But which part of the Gordian knot of US healthcare will they be able to unravel, what difference will it make and to whom? The US has a healthcare system that is totally opaque, inefficient and bifurcated — the rich and poor have wildly different levels of care and outcomes. Together, these three issues have an impact on productivity and growth, not to mention economic volatility for average people. Healthcare emergencies and the costs that result are the number one reason for personal bankruptcy in the US.

Rising prices mean that health benefits now make up about 20 per cent of total worker compensation, which is a contributor to wage stagnation. That is, in turn, a key reason economic growth in the US isn't higher.

Already corporate conglomerates such as the Healthcare Transformation Alliance, a group of 46 large companies, have tried to tackle this. But since the US has no single national healthcare market, contracts and discounts must be negotiated with individual insurance companies, hospitals and providers.

While politicians, including US president Donald Trump, argue that selling insurance across state lines could solve these problems, the truth is that healthcare in the US is a very local business. The ability to leverage economies of scale depends on the number of employees that you can sign up to a particular provider. This is a paradigm better suited to an old model of jobs for life than the 21st-century gig economy. The triumvirate of Messrs Buffett, Bezos and Dimon may be able to lower costs for their own workers — whether they can do it for others without structural shifts in the healthcare industry is doubtful.

A bigger pay-off could come if the triumvirate invests in more innovative methods of delivering care. Healthcare is one of the least digitised industries in the US, according to the McKinsey Global Institute, which makes it an obvious target for a company such as Amazon. There is also low hanging fruit in developing “bundled” payments, in which a group of services are offered for a fixed price.

Having given birth to two children at a National Health Service hospital in the UK, I was always amazed that I could have all my needs — from basic check-ups to specialist visits — provided quickly and efficiently in the same place. Every provider had access to all my medical information digitally. The fact that this still isn't the case in America tells you how far the country has to go.

And yet the biggest challenge in the US healthcare system isn't technical, but existential. Americans have a sense of entitlement about many things and healthcare tops the list. Most rich countries decided decades ago that it makes economic, political and moral sense to provide a basic level of care for all citizens, rather than offering everyone the “option” of the most cutting-edge medical treatments, whatever the cost.

Yet Americans still hold fast to a mythology that “choice” is what makes the system fair. No matter that fewer and fewer people have any kind of choice at all. Medicare, the Us's version of the NHS for the elderly, provides a basic safety net, but it also subsidises a variety of costly and questionable treatments, money that could be better deployed offering more people more basic services. We refuse to have a real debate about the fact that resource-draining end-of-life care constitutes the largest share of medical spending.

In short, we prioritise the individual over the collective, in healthcare as in most areas of our society.

It is the American way. But it's no longer sustainable. Mr Buffett is right that healthcare costs are a “hungry tapeworm” eating away at our economic growth and prosperity. The best way to fix the situation would be to do what every other advanced economy has done and move to a nationalised system. But in lieu of this （as of yet） politically unfeasible solution, I'm glad that some of the smartest business people in the country are agitating for change.

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 statements about US healthcare is FALSE ?

A.Healthcare insurance costs contribute to the wage stagnation in the US.

B.Companies pay health insurance premium for over 60% of Americans.

C.Raising healthcare costs makes American businesses less competitive.

D.Health insurance costs is the number one reason for bankruptcy in the US.

答案(1)

2.What is the biggest challenge in the US healthcare system according to the author ?

A.The costs of healthcare emergencies.

B.The economic volatility for average people.

C.The health inequality between rich and poor.

D.The opaque and inefficient healthcare system.

答案(2)

3.Why did Mr Buffett describe the healthcare costs as “hungry tapeworm” ?

A.To indicate the American healthcare is damaging US economy.

B.To raise awareness of the inequality of US healthcare system.

C.To explain how healthcare costs eat away at economic growth .

D.To warn the public that US healthcare is no longer sustainable.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards the healthcare interest of the triumvirate of US business ?

A.Indifferent.

B.Approving.

C.Skeptical.

D.Disparaging.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.Health insurance costs is the number one reason for bankruptcy in the US.

解释：紧急医疗事件和其造成的花费是美国个人破产的首要原因。

(2) 答案：C.The health inequality between rich and poor.

解释：美国医疗体系面临的最大挑战不是技术性的。美国人对于许多事情都有一种权利感，医疗尤甚。美国的医疗保险为老人们提供了基本的保障，但它也补贴各种昂贵和疗效可疑的治疗方法。

(3) 答案：A.To indicate the American healthcare is damaging US economy.

解释：巴菲特先生是对的，医保费用是一个“饥饿的绦虫”，正在蚕食我们的经济增长和财富。

(4) 答案：B.Approving.

解释：但是为了取代这个（迄今为止）在政治上不可行的解决办法，我很高兴国内一些最聪明的商业人士正在谋求改变。

京东进军欧洲挑战亚马逊

中国的电子商务巨头京东计划将于2019年登陆欧洲，挑战亚马逊在欧洲的地位，其创始人称，该公司的目标是“在几年内占领整片欧洲大陆”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

logistics [lə'dʒɪstɪks] n. 后勤，物流

memorandum [ˌmemə'rændəm] n. 备忘录

procurement [prəˈkjʊəmənt] n. 征购，采购

behemoth [bɪ'hiːmɒθ] n. 巨兽，庞然大物

ubiquitous [juː'bɪkwɪtəs] adj. 到处存在的

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。

文章长度

524

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

2分5秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分29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

China's ecommerce giant JD.com to take on Amazon in Europe（524 words）

By Yuan Yang

China's ecommerce giant JD.com plans to challenge Amazon in Europe as early as 2019, aiming to be ubiquitous across the continent within “a few years”, says the company's chief.

Richard Liu, the group's founder and chief executive, told the Financial Times his company will first launch its ecommerce platform and delivery services in France, then the UK and Germany.

JD will spend at least €1bn over two years to build its logistics network in France. By contrast, Amazon says it has invested €15bn in Europe in six years from 2010.

JD recently also announced plans to launch in the US in the second half of this year.

Mr Liu said he is aiming for half of the company's profits to come from outside China within 10 years, although the bulk of product sales would remain in China — suggesting the company will expand beyond its ecommerce operation internationally. The group last year spun off its lending branch, JD Finance, as a separate company.

Mr Liu said JD planned to launch its first European research centre in Cambridge in the UK in the first half of 2019. The centre will be its second outside of China, and will focus on artificial intelligence and big data.

“UK talent and education is first-class globally,” Mr Liu said, adding that the cost of hiring talent specialising in AI was now lower in Europe than in the US and even China.

After meeting UK prime minister Theresa May during her visit to Beijing, Mr Liu signed a memorandum of understanding with the government to sell £2bn of British goods — mostly food and beverages — to customers in China over the next two to three years, through direct procurement and third-party sales.

Mr Liu said he expects sales of British goods on JD to soar from £3bn-£4bn last year to more than £10bn within three years.

Unlike domestic rival Alibaba and US behemoth Amazon, JD owns and runs its logistics network, which it cites as the reason for its fast deliveries. The company's army of migrant delivery workers means it can deliver a box of cereal within 24 hours in Beijing for less than a dollar.

“Our efficiency mostly comes from the management technology of our logistics. We built our logistics to be online from day one,” said Mr Liu. “Companies like DHL built their systems on decades-old technology, it's very hard for them to overturn their systems overnight.”

But in Europe, Mr Liu said, it is considering enlisting local partners for last-mile delivery, although it will own its own network of warehouses.

JD also plans to open an office in London in April to expand its local partnerships in the UK, and has already set up an office in Paris to do the same in France. It is also opening a procurement centre in France to handle exports of European goods to China.

JD invested $397m in London-based luxury fashion platform Farfetch last summer, becoming one of its largest stakeholders and receiving a seat on its board of directors. JD described the move as part of its “major luxury push”.

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 statements about JD is true ?

A.JD says it will spend at least €15bn in Europe in six years from 2019.

B.JD is aiming for half of its profits to come from the lending branch.

C.JD planned to spend at least €1bn on its logistics network in France.

D.JD will launch its delivery services only in France, the UK and Germany.

答案(1)

2.JD planned to launch its research centre in ____ in 2019.

A.France.

B.the UK.

C.Germany.

D.the US.

答案(2)

3.The British government signed a memorandum of understanding with JD to ____.

A.invest in London fashion platform Farfetch.

B.build a procurement centre in the UK.

C.launch a big data centre in Cambridge.

D.sell British goods to Chinese customers.

答案(3)

4.Why is JD's delivery services so efficient according to Mr Liu ?

A.Because of its cutting-edge logistics network.

B.Because of its army of migrant delivery workers.

C.Because of its local partners for last-mile delivery.

D.Because of its logistics network of warehouses.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.JD planned to spend at least €1bn on its logistics network in France.

解释：京东将在两年内花费至少10亿欧元在法国建立物流网络。

(2) 答案：B.the UK.

解释：刘强东表示，京东计划在2019年上半年在英国剑桥推出第一个欧洲研究中心。该中心将成为其在中国以外的第二个研究中心。

(3) 答案：D.sell British goods to Chinese customers.

解释：刘强东与英国政府签署了一份谅解备忘录，向中国客户出售价值20亿英镑的英国商品，其中主要是食品和饮料。

(4) 答案：A.Because of its cutting-edge logistics network.

解释：与国内的竞争对手阿里巴巴和美国巨头亚马逊不同，JD拥有并运营着自己的物流网络，他们认为这是物流快的原因。

被忽视的致命疾病

哪一种疾病对儿童最致命？答案是肺炎。这种用30便士的抗生素就可以治愈的疾病在2015年夺去了92万名5岁以下儿童的生命。但与艾滋等疾病不同，肺炎只会杀死那些最贫穷的孩子，这也是为什么肺炎的危险性长期被人忽视。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

ravage ['rævɪdʒ] v. 毁坏，破坏

coalesce [ˌkəʊə'les] v. 合并，联合

feasible ['fiːzəbl]adj. 可行的，可能的

paediatric [ˌpiːdi'ætrɪk] adj. [医]儿科的

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。

文章长度

767

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

3分4秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分11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

Why some killer diseases are overlooked（767 words）

By Simon Kuper

In early 1918, Dr Loring Miner in Haskell, Kansas, found that he was seeing patients nonstop. Sometimes he slept in his buggy while his horse walked home without him. A mysterious new strain of influenza had hit the areA.By 1919, this “Spanish flu” had killed tens of millions worldwide.

The pandemic wasn't simply influenzA.Most victims, after catching the flu, probably died of bacterial pneumonia, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US.

Pneumonia is now very treatable. Nonetheless, in 2015 it killed 920,000 kids under five, more than any other disease, according to a report by Save the Children. Imagine a child you know well. Then imagine watching that child die of an illness that can generally be cured by antibiotics costing about 30p. That happens twice a minute somewhere in the developing world, even as we are slaying other diseases. Global mortality of children under five fell from 93 per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 41 （an all-time low） in 2016.

So why do some diseases get tackled while others don't? This is partly a story of the attention economy. Like hit songs or video games, diseases compete for attention. More attention generally means more funding, and fewer deaths.

To understand how this works, compare pneumonia with HIV. The diseases are about equally deadly — HIV killed about a million people in 2016, says the World Health Organisation. Both are treatable. Yet HIV has won the attention battle.

That goes back to the 1980s, when the west woke up to the disease. Many politicians ignored the “gay plague”, but some celebrities, such as Princess Diana, got involveD.They were mocked, but they drew attention. Many westerners with HIV were well-off, articulate adults. Rightly, they got media coverage. Research funding followeD.By the late 1990s, new treatments were saving lives worldwide.

In 2002 the WHO spurred the creation of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and MalariA.The three diseases were killing millions and ravaging developing economies. Bill Gates and others donated billions. Networks of experts, activists and funders coalesced around these diseases.

The results have been a success story. Pessimism about developing-world diseases is simply mistaken. The number of people being treated for HIV in low- and middle-income countries has jumped a thousand-fold since 2000, while the average cost of treatment has fallen about a hundred-fold, says Jeffrey Sturchio, who heads the global health strategy consultancy Rabin Martin.

The attention economy also attracts money to diseases that can feasibly be eradicateD.This is a goal that excites donors. Polio （37 reported cases in 2016） and guinea-worm disease （30 reported cases in 2017） could soon disappear. The last remaining cases attract fortunes in funding.

Meanwhile, pneumonia remains mostly ignoreD.David Berlan of Florida State University quotes a member of the then tiny unofficial world pneumonia network who interviewed global health funders in 2004 and 2005: “Zero of 30 could identify pneumonia as the leading killer of children. These are people who programme billions in global health spending. Then when we asked them, ‘What do you think kills the most children?,’ they said, ‘Aids, TB and malaria.’ ‘Wrong, wrong and number three.’”

Even today, most health ministers in developing countries remain similarly ignorant. Pneumonia still isn't “sexy”. There are hardly any medical conferences about “the most important paediatric problem in the world”, notes Kim Mulholland of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. That's largely because pneumonia almost never kills rich people. The typical victim is “the malnourished child, from the poorest family, from the community that is not really served by government”, says Mulholland.

A poor-children's disease — diarrhoea, which kills the most kids after pneumonia, is another example — won't produce many well-off, articulate advocates. Moreover, there's no simple magic bullet for pneumoniA.The disease has many causes and two main forms: viral and bacterial. Health workers often misdiagnose it, sometimes because they haven't been trained in pneumoniA.And many health workers will continue to emigrate from poor to rich countries, says Tom Kenyon, who heads Project HOPE, a health NGO.

Still, difficult as pneumonia is, it's fixable. Its death toll has fallen, albeit slowly. “We can do a lot with existing vaccines and antibiotics, if we can get them to the poorest children,” says Harry Campbell of Edinburgh University.

As other diseases retreat, we are moving up the chain of harder-to-reach, poor people's killers. The UN's Sustainable Development Goals, shaped partly by lobbyists for different diseases, set the remarkable target of ending “preventable” deaths of children by 2030. “You'd have to say pneumonia is the ultimately preventable cause of child death,” says Kevin Watkins, who heads Save the Children. Here is humanity's next step forward.

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 statements about pneumonia is true ?

A.Pneumonia had killed tens of millions worldwide by 1919.

B.Pneumonia can be easily treated with cheap antibiotics now.

C.Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in developing countries.

D.Pneumonia mortality rate fell to an all-time low in 2016.

答案(1)

2.Why does the author mention HIV in the article ?

A.To exemplify how attention can help to eradicate illnesses in developing countries.

B.To prove that pneumonia would soon disappear if we pay more attention to it.

C.To explain why HIV is now less deadly than pneumonia in the developing world.

D.To urge politicians and public wake up to pneumonia to save impoverished kids.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following diseases could soon be eradicated according to the article ?

A.Tuberculosis.

B.Diarrhoea.

C.Guinea-worm disease.

D.Viral pneumonia.

答案(3)

4.Kim Mulholland believes that ____.

A.pneumonia remains the most ignored disease in the developing world.

B.pneumonia could be eradicated with existing vaccines and antibiotics.

C.pneumonia is overlooked because rich people never catch pneumonia.

D.the poorest and malnourished kids are the major victims of pneumonia.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.Pneumonia can be easily treated with cheap antibiotics now.

解释：想象一下你认识的一个孩子。再想象一下，看着那个小孩死于一种30便士的抗生素就可以治愈的疾病。

(2) 答案：A.To exemplify how attention can help to eradicate illnesses in developing countries.

解释：要了解注意力经济是如何起作用的，可以把艾滋病与肺炎作比较。

(3) 答案：C.Guinea-worm disease.

解释：脊髓灰质炎（2016年有37例报告）和几内亚虫病（2017年有30例报告）可能很快消失。

(4) 答案：D.the poorest and malnourished kids are the major victims of pneumonia.

解释：典型的肺炎受害者是“那些营养不良的孩子，他们来自最贫穷的家庭，来自缺乏政府服务的地方。”Mulholland说。

硅谷的流水线创业家

四年前，当我从中国搬到洛杉矶时，我注意到了一件奇特的事——硅谷的创业者看起来都差不多。这种相似不仅体现在外表上，也体现在他们的言谈举止之间。他们的自我包装与我曾在中国看到过的创业者大相径庭。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

hindsight ['haɪndsaɪt] n. 后见之明

zeitgeist ['zaɪtɡaɪst] n. 时代精神，时代思潮

disdain [dɪs'deɪn] v. 蔑视

permeate ['pɜːmieɪt] v. 弥漫，渗透

tenet ['tenɪt] n. 教义，信条

constellation [ˌkɒnstə'leɪʃən] n. 星座，星群

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。

文章长度

683

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52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

1分57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

Silicon Valley's founder factory（683 words）

By Leslie Hook

When I moved to San Francisco four years ago, I noticed something odd about the start-up founders I met: many of them resembled each other. Not just physically, though most were men under 35. But also in the way they spoke about their companies. They had PowerPoints at the ready, and big numbers on the tips of their tongues. Everyone seemed to know exactly what the total addressable market of their start-up was, even if they hadn't yet made a single dollar of sales.

It took a while to identify exactly what was missing. I had moved to the US from China, where Silicon Valley is revered as an innovation paradise, and tech icons such as Steve Jobs have mythical status. But when I compared my new home with my old one, I realised that the Valley was lacking in one core area — a sense of entrepreneurial hustle. In China, many of my friends were entrepreneurs, but I only realised this with hindsight, because none of them described themselves as such. They were architects, teachers or art historians, launching import businesses or travel companies. It just seemed normal for people to be trying out new businesses.

By contrast, while there are a lot of founders in Silicon Valley, I have found relatively few entrepreneurs. The founders are smart and hard-working. But many are simply products of a system, which is why they all seem vaguely the same.

People who have been here a while say it wasn't always this way. Recently, I was on stage interviewing Kevin Hartz, co-founder of Eventbrite, who started his first company here two decades ago. It was a much rarer path back then, he told me, when careers in investment banking or consulting were the norm.

“Today the track — actually, the mainstream — is becoming a company founder,” he saiD.There is an upside to this, which is that start-ups are no longer seen as an odd niche, but there is also a downside, he points out. “The cynical view is that you have people [becoming founders] who feel they can go pad their résumé, to get into business school.”

The talented overachievers once drawn to Wall Street or McKinsey are instead showing up here with pitches about their start-up ideas. This shift occurred slowly over the past decade, propelled by tech success stories such as Mark Zuckerberg's, and by a cultural zeitgeist that disdained working for big corporations. There was one company in particular that catalysed the trend — Y Combinator, an incubator founded in 2005.

Though its origins were humble, today Y Combinator is like the Harvard of start-ups, with an influence to match. Each year it accepts some 250 founders and puts them through a three-month boot camp, grooming them to deliver a pitch speech to investors at the end （in a style that has become widely emulated）. Alumni include Airbnb, Stripe and Dropbox.

One of the central beliefs at Y Combinator is that start-ups make the world a better place, so its mission is to create more of them. This strange mix of moral superiority and business permeates the Valley — but is foreign to actual entrepreneurs in the real world.

Another tenet of Y Combinator is that it doesn't really matter whether a start-up has a good idea or not: if the founders are smart enough, they will eventually stumble across one that works. This leads to the funding of smart and charismatic people whose business plans may never pan out.

The incubator's success has sparked many imitations, as well as for-profit schools in San Francisco that offer courses in start-up-related topics such as user design or app development. There is a formula now for being a founder, and a constellation of companies whose business it is to keep selling the founder fairy tale.

As the process of creating a start-up has become commoditised, something has been lost. If I were to ask my friends in China, I suspect they would tell me that being an entrepreneur is about having a good, saleable business idea and the will to implement it. That's not something that can be packaged or taught, even in Silicon Valley.

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, typical start-up founders in Silicon Valley ____.

A.like to talk about big numbers.

B.are mostly white males under 35.

C.see Silicon Valley as an innovation paradise.

D.don't like to call themselves a entrepreneur.

答案(1)

2.What does entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley lack compared with their Chinese counterparts?

A.a sense of expertise and innovation.

B.creativity and experience.

C.wisdom and hard work.

D.a sense of entrepreneurial hustle.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following statements about Y Combinator is true ?

A.Y Combinator is a business school for entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.

B.Y Combinator believes creating more start-ups can can benefit the world.

C.Y Combinator's idea of start-up business has permeated the Silicon Valley.

D.Y Combinator accepts 250 students each year and trains them to start a company.

答案(3)

4.According to the article, the author believes ?

A.a saleable business idea is more important than a competent founder.

B.a start-up can eventually succeed if the founders are smart enough.

C.a good business idea is not something that can be taught in school.

D.entrepreneurs in China have better ideas than founders in the US.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.like to talk about big numbers.

解释：其中有很多人都非常相似。不仅是在外表上，他们提起公司的方式也如出一辙。总是准备好了PPT，喜欢讨论宏大的数字。

(2) 答案：D.a sense of entrepreneurial hustle.

解释：但是当我把我的新家与中国比较时，我意识到硅谷缺乏了一个核心要素——一种企业家的喧嚣感。

(3) 答案：B.Y Combinator believes creating more start-ups can can benefit the world.

解释：Y Combinator的核心理念之一是，创业公司让世界变得更美好，所以它的使命就是创造更多的创业公司。

(4) 答案：C.a good business idea is not something that can be taught in school.

解释：一个好的、有市场价值的商业点子和将其付诸实践的意志力不是什么可以被打包或教授的东西，即使在硅谷也一样。

硅谷初创公司的无人快递竞赛

无人快递成了硅谷的新热点。无人送货车初创公司的创始人们相信，相比一般的自动驾驶车辆，无需搭载乘客的自动驾驶送货车更加容易实现，也能更快投入市场。这场无人快递竞赛中，谁会是最后的赢家？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

secretive ['siːkrətɪv] adj. 秘密的；偷偷摸摸的

occupant ['ɒkjəpənt] n. 占有者，拥有者

deployment [dɪ'plɔɪmənt]n. 部署，展开

prototype ['prəʊtətaɪp] n. 原型，雏形

sedan [sɪ'dæn] n. （美）厢式小轿车

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。

文章长度

525

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45秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分6秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分30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

Silicon Valley start-ups race to win in driverless delivery market（525 words）

By Leslie Hook in San Francisco and Tim Bradshaw in Los Angeles

While autonomous cars have dominated tech headlines in recent months, a growing group of engineers in Silicon Valley is betting that a different type of self-driving vehicle will be the first to market — unmanned delivery vans.

On Tuesday, two new start-ups each claimed to be the first to reveal such technology, underscoring the intense competition amid rising investment in autonomous vehicles.

Nuro announced it had raised $92m from investors including Banyan Capital and Greylock Partners, the venture capital firms, and said it would run pilot tests with customers by the end of the year.

On the same day, Udelv, a competitor, scheduled the first public demonstration of its delivery vehicle, ferrying groceries from a store in Silicon Valley to two customers.

Both start-ups were founded by engineers who previously worked on car projects at much larger Silicon Valley companies.

Nuro was founded by two top engineers in Google's self-driving car team, who decided to leave the internet group because they thought they could bring autonomous technology to market faster by using custom-made delivery vehicles.

Akshat Patel, a Udelv co-founder, worked on Tesla's Autopilot self-driving project before joining Apple's secretive autonomous car team called “Project Titan”.

Udelv was founded two years ago. The company has not disclosed how much money it has raised, with chief executive Daniel Laury describing it only as a “very significant amount of money”.

Dave Ferguson, Nuro co-founder, said that because an autonomous delivery bot does not need to worry about any human occupants, it has more flexibility in its driving decisions.

“There are some technical challenges that are made a bit easier by not having a passenger involved,” he saiD.One example is that the delivery object does not have to drive smoothly, something that has been hard for autonomous cars.

“If you remove the passenger, you simplify that problem… it can drive like your grandma and everyone will be OK with that,” said Mr Ferguson.

Mr Laury said that for the same reason, focusing on delivery vehicles would make it easier to get regulatory approval for deployment. “The computer doesn't have to make the complicated decision of [whether to] protect the passengers or the pedestrians because there are no passengers in the car,” he said.

Another benefit of delivery vehicles is that they can be smaller than ordinary cars. Nuro's prototype is about half the width of a standard sedan. “There's more space [around the car] and more room for error,” explained Mr Ferguson.

Unlike other delivery robot start-ups, which design machines to travel at low speeds on pavements alongside pedestrians, these new vehicles will drive on the road and follow the same rules as regular traffic.

As ecommerce grows from today's 9 per cent portion of total retail sales in the US, the costs, congestion and pollution will grow. Mr Laury said Udelv's electric and autonomous vehicles will cut “last mile” delivery costs in half. The near-term potential for solving that problem means autonomous delivery vehicles could hit public roads sooner than the robo-taxis envisaged by the likes of Uber or Alphabet's Waymo.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which company is scheduled to run pilot tests within the year ?

A.Udelv.

B.Greylock.

C.Banyan.

D.Nuro.

答案(1)

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

A.Udelv carried out the first public demonstration of its delivery vehicle successfully.

B.Udelv was founded by two top engineers in Apple's secretive autonomous car team.

C.Akshat Patel worked on Apple's “Project Titan” before found Udelv two years ago.

D.Nuro's founders left Google because they believes delivery bots are more profitable.

答案(2)

3.Mr Ferguson believes autonomous delivery are easier to realize because ____.

A.there is no passenger involved in the delivery process.

B.the delivery object does not have to stay upright.

C.autonomous delivery cars drive like a grandma.

D.it's easier for delivery bots to get regulatory approval.

答案(3)

4.What is the difference between Nuro's delivery car and other delivery robots ?

A.Nuro's car is smaller and more flexible than other bots.

B.Nuro's car follows the same rules as regular traffic.

C.Nuro's car can drive at a higher speed on pavements.

D.Nuro's car travels on pavements alongside pedestrians.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.Nuro.

解释：Nuro表示将在年底前与用户进行测试。

(2) 答案：C.Akshat Patel worked on Apple's “Project Titan” before found Udelv two years ago.

解释：Udelv的联合创始人Akshat Patel在加入苹果公司的”Titan”项目前，曾参与过特斯拉的自动驾驶项目。Udelv建立于两年前。

(3) 答案：A.there is no passenger involved in the delivery process.

解释：“如果没有乘客，问题就简单多了……它可以开得像你奶奶一样，没人会有意见。”弗格森先生说。

(4) 答案：B.Nuro's car follows the same rules as regular traffic.

解释：其他送货机器人初创公司设计的机器往往和行人一起慢慢地走在人行道上，而这些新车将在道路上行驶，并遵守正常的交通规则。

巨星公司的崛起

在企业经济中，重要的不是性别或种族，而是阶级。过去二十年里，各个行业的产业集中度不断提高，出现了许多呼风唤雨的巨星公司。巨星公司的不断壮大对社会公平构成了巨大的威胁。“巨星俱乐部”或许会重塑社会阶级。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

albeit [ˌɔːl'biːɪt] conj. 虽然（即使）

antitrust [ˌænti'trʌst] adj. 反垄断的

hoard [hɔːd] v./n. 贮藏，秘藏

rapacious [rə'peɪʃəs] adj. 强夺的，贪欲的

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。

文章长度

772

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30秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分5秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分12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

The rise of the superstar company（772 words）

By Rana Foroohar

It seems inevitable that Oprah Winfrey, America's empathiser-in-chief, would emerge as the Democratic dream of a candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2020. As an African-American woman, she speaks to any number of interest groups and political issues around identity, from #MeToo to Black Lives Matter.

But as the most popular all-round female media star in the US over the past several decades, with a television, movie and magazine empire, she also talks to the middle. Oprah is, like our current president, a global brand, which is telling. We are living in a superstar economy in which the top individuals, companies and even geographic regions command hugely disproportionate power, wealth and attention.

Since the late 1990s, we've seen the rise of the superstar company. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, three industries — tech, finance, and healthcare and pharma — have seen their share of profits nearly triple since then, to about 45 per cent of all corporate profits in the US （the concentration in these industries is also increasing, albeit to a lesser extent in other rich countries）.

Yet increasingly in the US, this isn't reflected just in the intellectual property-rich sectors, but throughout the entire economy. As a recent Brookings Institution paper explained, over the past two decades, more than 75 per cent of US industries have seen an increase in concentration of both wealth and influence. If you compare the numbers with the post-second world war period, when US growth was strongest, the contrast is striking. In 1954, the top 60 companies accounted for less than 20 per cent of US GDP. Today, the top 20 companies make up more than 20 per cent.

Why is this happening? One reason, of course, is global competition, which has put more pressure on US businesses and pushed companies away from the more equitable postwar pie sharing between workers, corporations and local communities. Another is the shift in antitrust law. It's no accident that the changes to monopoly regulation advocated by federal judge Robert Bork spread in the 1980s when foreign competition was rising.

Yet the largest and most powerful industries today don't function like industries of the past. Their products are often cheap or free, so consumer prices should not be the measure of competition. Network effects allow the players that can grab the most market share quickly to dominate entire industries seemingly overnight. Their huge cash hoards allow them to snap up potential competitors. Monsanto, the US agrochemical company, purchased more than 30 companies over the past decade; business software maker Oracle snapped up over 80; and Google more than 120. Nearly every other industry — from food and beverages, to banking, to packaged goods, to media — is merging in response, to gain the heft they need to have a chance of success against the largest tech players. It seems quite clear that the well-reported decline in start-ups and entrepreneurial zeal in the US has much to do with the concentration of power among a handful of rapacious players.

Around superstar companies, there are clusters of superstar investors and workers. Note, in particular, the rise of “pass-through” corporations, which were given even more special tax preference under the Trump tax plan. Pass-through corporations are businesses that are taxed at the individual owner's personal tax rate. They make up 50 per cent of all total US corporate income and mostly represent people working in those intellectual property-rich areas such as tech, law and finance. They also represent about 40 per cent of the rise in income inequality recorded by academics such as Thomas Piketty.

It's no surprise that these clusters of economic power have led to the concentration of geographic power. A 2016 report by the Economic Innovation Group, revealed that 75 of America's 3,000-plus counties make up 50 per cent of all new job growth. It's a trend that snowballs, as the most talented millennials are attracted to a handful of cities, driving up property prices and making it tougher for anyone who isn't part of the superstar club to get a leg up on the socio-economic food chain.

That's why, as much as I love Oprah and the emotional contrast she presents to our current president, I'm not so sure I'd want her in the White House. Democrats spend a lot of time worrying about concentrations of power in race and gender. But at the risk of sounding like a Marxist, the real action is in class. I'd love to see our next president be someone who cares deeply about understanding and deconstructing the superstar economy, which is suffocating a more shared and sustainable economic recovery.

I'm just not convinced a media billionaire is the person to do it.

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 statements is true according to the article ?

A.The concentration of wealth and influence began after World War II.

B.Today the top 20 companies make up about 20 per cent of US GDP.

C.The concentration in tech industry is also increasing in other rich countries.

D.Most of superstar companies emerged in the tech and finance industry.

答案(1)

2.Why big tech companies are gobbling up other companies?

A.To attract investment from superstar investors and investment bank.

B.To take advantage of their cash reserves to snap up potential competitors.

C.To gain the heft they need to compete against magnates in other industries.

D.To suppress prospective competitors and the entrepreneurial zeal in the US.

答案(2)

3.What is a pass-through company?

A.A business entity that deals in investments and tax avoidance.

B.A legal method to modify an individual's financial situation.

C.A cluster of investors who enjoy tax waiver under new tax plan.

D.A special business structure that is used to reduce tax burden.

答案(3)

4.From the article we can conclude that the author ____.

A.believes the emergence of superstar company threatens equality.

B.will support Oprah to run for president as Democratic candidate.

C.doesn't care about the concentrations of power in race and gender.

D.thinks the concentration of geographic power breeds superstar company.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.The concentration in tech industry is also increasing in other rich countries.

解释：在其他富裕国家，高科技、金融和医药行业的产业集中度也在提高，尽管提高的幅度要小一些。

(2) 答案：B.To take advantage of their cash reserves to snap up potential competitors.

解释：他们巨大的现金储备使他们能够抢购潜在的竞争对手。

(3) 答案：D.A special business structure that is used to reduce tax burden.

解释：转嫁公司是指按个人所有者的个人所得税税率征税的企业。

(4) 答案：A.believes the emergence of superstar company threatens equality.

解释：这种现象会愈演愈烈。对于那些不在超级巨星俱乐部的人来说，想在社会经济食物链上更进一步就更难了。

不堪一击的网络红人

社交媒体的出现催生出了一批自恋、虚伪且无聊的网络红人，他们在网络上宣传超出自己能力的奢侈生活方式，吸引了大批与自己年龄相仿的粉丝，并以此为资本要挟企业提供免费商品和服务，来换取他们的好评和宣传。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

entitlement [ɪn'taɪtlmənt] n. 权利

garner ['ɡɑːnə（r）] v. 贮藏，积累，得到

rebuff [rɪ'bʌf] n. 断然拒绝，严厉拒绝

chutzpah ['xʊtspə] n. 放肆，厚颜

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。

文章长度

697

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58秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分47秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分59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

The blaggers of social media（697 words）

By Robert Shrimsley

There are few things as satisfying as watching two people you don't care about knock lumps out of each other on social mediA.As the row escalates, you sit back and luxuriate in the conflict with all the pleasure your grandmother derived from watching wrestling.

So there was much joy to be found in the hilarious spat between a young YouTuber called Elle Darby and a small Dublin hotel and restaurant called the Charleville Lodge and White Moose Cafe. Darby is one of a growing band of people trying to make it as a media personality with her own YouTube channel, which she dedicates to talking about lifestyle and beauty products. Fancying a Valentine's weekend away with her boyfriend, the 22-year-old Darby contacted the hotel, offering her services as a “social influencer” in return for a free stay. This collaboration would see her singing the praises of the “stunning” hotel that had facilitated her romantic getaway.

Sadly for Elle, the hotel was unimpressed with her promise to post lovely pictures for her sizeable but far-from-enormous following. Perhaps sensing that her likely audience of impoverished twentysomethings living at home lay outside his core demographic, the hotel owner, Paul Stenson, took to Facebook to mock and berate the young Elle （though he didn't identify her by name） for her sense of entitlement. He could just have ignored the request, but the hotel's Facebook page suggests he thrives on outrage, happily ranting against crying children and vegans.

Poor Elle was desperately hurt by the rebuff and subsequent abuse that followed her polite request.

We know this because she went on to post a tearful 17-minute video wondering what she had done to deserve such bullying. She was just a young social influencer, building a business, and these old people who were, like, “over 30” didn't understand how social media workeD.As an exercise in self-pity this was top-notch, a gold-medal contender in the distress Olympics.

Unfortunately, what the episode showed is that “over 30” Stenson entirely understands social media, and may in fact be better at exploiting it than the ingénue influencer. For while she has boosted her profile and followers, the hotel has also garnered a ton of publicity. Opinions divide along generational lines, although many of those happy to mock Darby might think nothing of asking for a free upgrade at an airport check-in.

Neither side deserves much sympathy. If you are going to spend your time blagging freebies, you need to toughen up to the odd rebuff, and although Stenson's irreverent style may appeal to some, there's also a touch of the Basil Fawlty about his behaviour.

But while we can all enjoy the tears of a rebuffed “social influencer”, I can't help respecting this new breed of bloggers, vloggers and others using the web to carve out a lifestyle beyond their means. Social media has allowed these people to build an audience among their own age group, and persuade businesses to gift them all kinds of free goods in return for publicity and praise. I find their output narcissistic, questionable and dull but I'm not the target audience.

The web is awash with such opportunities. A friend of the boy has worked hard to make himself an Amazon star reviewer, which also secures him all manner of free goods. It's not exactly a career but it beats paying for stuff.

Then there is that curious set of people who style themselves as Instagram models. An Instagram model — as far as I can see — is anyone who posts regular pictures of themselves on the site, although the model is likely to be an attractive woman unencumbered by clothing. Some will turn this into a living. I've put a few images on Instagram myself but probably lack the commitment to make it as a model. Certainly, the offers from big brands have been slow to arrive.

These, then, are the new blaggers. They may need to toughen up in response to rejection. But if they have the chutzpah and skill to get top businesses to comp them a lifestyle they could not otherwise afford, then good luck to them. Some may call it entitlement — to me it looks like initiative.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who is Elle Darby according to the article ?

A.A young YouTuber who has an influence among youngsters.

B.An Instagram model focusing on lifestyle and beauty products.

C.A 22-year-old social influencer who has enormous followers online.

D.A star reviewer on YouTube who enjoys all manner of free goods.

答案(1)

2.How did the hotel owner react to Elle's request?

A.He showed no interest in Elle's core demographic and ignored her request .

B.He refused Elle straight away and mocked her publicly on social media.

C.He posted a 17-minute video on Facebook ranting against social influencers.

D.He used Elle's request letter to boost his profile and followers on Facebook.

答案(2)

3.How can a social influencer get free goods?

A.They promised to sign a cooperation agreement for publicity.

B.They promised to boost online followers of the businesses.

C.They promised to build an audience among their followers.

D.They promised to give publicity and praise to businesses.

答案(3)

4.From the article we can conclude that the author ____.

A.disapproves of the way the hotel owner turned down social influencer.

B.once tried to become an Instagram model by posting his selfies.

C.believes social influencer is not a career but it beats paying for stuff.

D.thinks the Irish hotel owner is narcissistic, questionable and dull.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.A young YouTuber who has an influence among youngsters.

解释：一个名叫Elle Darby的年轻YouTube红人与都柏林一家小酒店之间发生了一场令人捧腹的争端。

(2) 答案：B.He refused Elle straight away and mocked her publicly on social media.

解释：遗憾的是，这家酒店对此不感兴趣。酒店老板Paul Stenson在Facebook上嘲笑并斥责了向他们提要求的Elle。

(3) 答案：D.They promised to give publicity and praise to businesses

解释：社交媒体让这些人能够建立一个与自己年龄相仿的粉丝群，并说服企业为他们送上各种免费的商品，以此来获得他们的宣传和赞美。

(4) 答案：A.disapproves of the way the hotel owner turned down social influencer.

解释：这一事件中双方都不值得同情。

戒掉手机，就像戒烟那样

在iPhone上市许多年以前，香烟曾是人们闲暇时刻离不开的消遣。在Facebook出现许多年以前，烟草曾经是一种社交的方式。如今，当智能手机的危害渐渐浮出水面，我们应该像当初戒掉香烟一样戒掉手机成瘾。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

fidgety ['fɪdʒɪti] adj. 烦躁的，不安的

tangential [tæn'dʒenʃl] adj. 间接相关的，次要的

thorny ['θɔːni] adj. 多刺的，棘手的

grandstanding ['ɡrænstænd]n. 哗众取宠

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。

文章长度

651

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39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51秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why quitting smartphones is the new quitting smoking（651 words）

By Hannah Kuchler

Long before iPhones, the cigarette was the companion of choice for fidgety hands. And, long before Facebook, it was tobacco that promised to enhance your social life. Now, quitting smartphones has become the new quitting smoking.

Of course, technology does not yellow your teeth, cause emphysema or lead to cancer. But some individuals are so concerned that device addiction is damaging their mental health that they have spent January trying to reduce their dependence. Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, ran a digital declutter experiment with thousands of followers of his blog, while in the UK, Time To Log Off has run a 30-day digital detox campaign.

Even in Silicon Valley, people are turning off the notifications that constantly buzz for their attention, banning smartphones from the bedroom and, curiously, changing the colours on their screens to a less seductive scale of grey.

The big tech companies will have to work out how to respond to this new generation of quitters. Facebook is the first to go public with its attempt, hoping its recent move to slash memes, brands and news from its newsfeed will make the social network feel more homely — filled with friends and family who encourage us to stay.

Last year the tech industry received a label — Big Tech — with unfortunate echoes of other industries that have faced fierce opposition, including Big Tobacco. Like them, the tech industry has to quell concern from a new generation of activist shareholders that are questioning its role in the worlD.Jana Partners and the California teacher pension fund have urged Apple to consider developing software that would allow parents more options to limit children's phone use. Arjuna Capital and the New York State Common Retirement Fund have submitted proposals to Facebook and Twitter, calling for them to stop sexual harassment on their platforms. Trillium Asset Management has submitted a proposal to Facebook, arguing it needs a risk committee to consider research linking the site to depression and other mental health issues.

These campaigns are nowhere near as extensive as those faced by Big Tobacco. In the 1990s, socially responsible investors refused to put money in tobacco stocks, activists lobbied for companies to spin off tobacco divisions and even targeted companies with a tangential interest in the business.

It is far thornier for investors to challenge Big Tech and hard to separate the good these companies do in the world — connecting old friends and giving space for people to share their ideas — from the baD.The annual general meeting, where PR posturing meets shareholder grandstanding, may not be the place to reckon with these complexities.

In the meantime, going cold turkey on technology remains problematiC.The ability to achieve tech-life balance is becoming a status symbol. In The World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech, Franklin Foer argues that tech should be seen in a similar way to junk food: a convenience that some reject for more sustaining nourishment.

Given that the average American spends more than four hours a day on their phone, according to research firm eMarketer, I believe we need to do more to turn the tide. We need real rules to nudge people of all backgrounds away from addiction, not just those who feel social pressure to live an offline life.

Perhaps it is here that activists can take the most inspiration from anti-smoking campaigners, by focusing on the impact bad habits can have on others. In the same way that public service announcements made smoking around your children taboo, we can warn parents against losing themselves in their smartphones while taking care of kids. As when non-smoking areas were established in restaurants, we can create no-smartphone zones at dinner. Eventually, smartphones could be banned from all public places, shunned in favour of actually giving our attention to the people around us instead.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The author believes we should quit smartphones because ____.

A.Smartphones are the companion of choice for fidgety hands.

B.Smartphones are suspected of causing emphysema and cancer.

C.Smartphones can cause coronary heart disease and lung cancer.

D.Smartphones addiction can cause damage to mental health.

答案(1)

2.How does Facebook respond to the quitters?

A.It slashes memes, brands and news from its newsfeed.

B.It starts a 30-day digital detox campaign in the US.

C.It changes the colours on its website and app to grey.

D.It develops a private social network for friends and family.

答案(2)

3.What makes investors unwilling to challenge tech giants according to the author ?

A.Tech companies find it hard to separate the good things they have done.

B.Tech companies are always skilled in grandstanding and self-boasting.

C.Tech companies are so lucrative that investors don't want to give up.

D.Tech companies have also made people's life better in some respects.

答案(3)

4.Franklin Foer thinks tech and ____ affect people's health in a similar way.

A.Sugar.

B.Marihuana.

C.Cigarette.

D.Junk food.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.Smartphones addiction can cause damage to mental health.

解释：技术不会使你的牙齿发黄，引起肺气肿或导致癌症。但有些人担心设备上瘾会损害他们的心理健康。

(2) 答案：A.It slashes memes, brands and news from its newsfeed.

解释：大科技公司将不得不研究如何应对新一代的戒断者。Facebook从其时间线里删除表情包和品牌的信息，希望借此使社交网络更加亲切。

(3) 答案：D.Tech companies have also made people's life better in some respects.

解释：让投资者对科技巨头发难是很难的。很难把他们做的恶与好事区分开。

(4) 答案：D.Junk food.

解释：Franklin Foer认为，应该以类似于看待垃圾食品的方式来看待高科技：非常便利，但无法让人获得更多的营养。

为了工作而“洗白”？

在白人主导的职场上，许多少数族裔员工不得不通过改变名字和穿戴来掩盖文化差异，以避免可能遭到的疏远和歧视。这种办法有效吗？少数族裔所面对的职场环境何时才能有所改观？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

ethnic ['eθnɪk] adj. 民族的，有民族特色的

barrister ['bærɪstə（r）] n. 法庭律师，律师

accolade ['ækəleɪd] n. 赞美，表扬，推崇

braid [breɪd] n. 辫子，穗带

ingrain ['ɪn'greɪn] v. 生染，使根深蒂固

stale [steɪl] adj. 不新鲜的，陈腐的

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。

文章长度

757

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1秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2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

A desire to fit in prompts employees to ‘whiten’ for work（757 words）

By Layli Foroudi

When Shafa started his first legal internship at the International Criminal Court he hesitated while introducing himself to his boss.

“I remember saying: ‘Hi, my name is Sh — Lawrence’,” says the 29-year-old lawyer. His parents had given him the name Lawrence at birth but until that internship, he says, no one had ever really used it.

“Growing up, at school and university, everybody knew me as Shafa,” he says. “But I always thought, if I'm going into the legal world, I will call myself Lawrence.”

He says he did not want an “ethnic name” which might worsen his chances in the competitive process to becoming a barrister, and he felt it would simplify life at work. Lawrence “sounds more professional and even [with] trivial silly things, like email addresses, you don't have to spell it”.

Researchers at the University of Toronto and Stanford University have studied the phenomenon they call professional “whitening”. Last year they published a paper, which found that black and Asian students were whitening their CVs in order to increase their chances of being asked to an interview.

Through conversations with 59 students, they found that 36 per cent of participants had whitened their CV — by swapping a foreign-sounding name for a “more American” one, omitting race-specific accolades or including stereotypically white hobbies like hiking and kayaking. A further two-thirds of interviewees had relatives or friends who had made similar alterations.

Such practices do not end at the interview stage. They continue in the workplace, too. Sonia Kang, the lead researcher on the study and a professor at the University of Toronto, thinks that the reasons for whitening in the workplace are similar.

“The motivation is to avoid discrimination,” she says. “You want people to accept you; you're changing your name because you think that people will see you as an outsider.”

Jazmine Scott, a software analyst in the US city of Minneapolis, has altered her appearance to avoid unwelcome attention. In her first job, at a credit union, a colleague kept touching her braided hair, she says.

“She had a whole conversation [while] grabbing my hair. When someone does something like that, what do you do? You notice the things that other people from other cultures notice about you and you try to tone them down as much as possible.” From then on, she avoided styling her hair in braids.

Ms Scott, 26, has been the only person of colour in every department she has worked in and says whitening is “just something that is ingrained in you. It's subconscious.”

Whitening need not only be about disguising ethnicity. Tunde Okewale is a barrister at London's Doughty Chambers. In his work helping young people from less-privileged backgrounds succeed in the legal profession, he has noticed people putting on accents and acting differently to fit in.

“You still have the fear that [the legal world] is stale, male, pale and middle-class,” he says. “If you don't tick any of those boxes, you might have certain ideas about what is expected of you and that may influence your behaviour, whether consciously or unconsciously.”

Mr Okewale says it is necessary to conform to the industry's idea of professional conduct and learn the norms of a workplace. But “that is slightly different from putting on a posh accent and pretending to be someone you're not,” he says.

You Make It is a project in London that helps young unemployed women develop their careers. While it offers public speaking training, founder Asma Shah rejects the idea that women should change their accents. “One of the things that I'm really keen to do with this programme is not to get women thinking that they have to talk like middle-class posh people,” she says. “We encourage women to talk with confidence and power, in their own voices: Have pride in your backgrounD.Don't feel you have to rid yourself of your class identity.”

Prof Kang's study also found students who are against whitening because they feel it erases parts of their identities. As one student put it: “If blackness puts a shadow over [my CV] then it probably isn't the job I want to be in”.

Melody Patry, advocacy director at Access Now, a digital rights organisation, is determined not to tone down her black identity. “It's me. It's my personality. It's who I am,” says Ms Patry, who is French and has been based in London for nearly five years.

“When I've had TV interviews, or speak at the European Commission, I make a point to have my [hair in] full afro mode because representation matters. I'm aware of the message it sends, especially to younger people.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How did Shafa whiten himself when he started his first legal internship？

A.He included some stereotypically white hobbies on his resume.

B.He changed his ethnic name and gave himself a white name.

C.He used a common English name instead of his ethnic name.

D.He omitted to spell his ethnic name in email to avoid attention.

答案(1)

2.Why did Jazmine Scott alter her hairstyle ?

A.To make herself look more American on the interview.

B.To increase her chances of being asked to an interview.

C.To show respect to her colleagues from other cultures.

D.To avoid unpleasant physical contact from her colleague.

答案(2)

3.Mr Okewale noticed young people from less-privileged backgrounds tend to ____ in the the legal world ?

A.Omitting race-specific accolades in their CVs.

B.Swapping a foreign name for an American one.

C.Putting on a posh accent and acting differently.

D.Altering their appearance to avoid discrimination.

答案(3)

4.The founder of You Make It believes ____.

A.People can't hide his culture background and class identity.

B.It's no use trying to behave like middle-class posh people.

C.People should have confidence in their social background.

D.It is necessary to learn the norms of professional conduct.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.He used a common English name instead of his ethnic name.

解释：他的父母在他出生时给他取了Lawrence这个名字，但他说：“从小到大，大家都叫我Shafa，但是我一直认为，如果进入法律界，我会称自己为Lawrence。”

(2) 答案：D.To avoid unpleasant physical contact from her colleague.

解释：她说，在从事第一份工作时，一位同事在讲话时不停地触摸她的辫子。此后她很少在梳辫子了。

(3) 答案：C.Putting on a posh accent and acting differently.

解释：Tunde Okewale帮助弱势青年进入法律界，在工作中，他注意到有些人会通过改变口音和举止来适应环境。

(4) 答案：C.People should have confidence in their social background.

解释：“我们鼓励女性自信地发出自己的声音：以自己的背景为荣。不要觉得你必须摆脱你的阶级身份。”

扎克伯格的Facebook是如何失控的？

Facebook的快速发展得益于它把用户的强纽带与弱纽带混在一起，但弱纽带发挥的强大影响也变成该平台的缺陷。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

bashfuladj. 害羞的 /'bæʃfl/

sorcerern. 男巫士，魔术师 /'sɔːsərə（r）/

laxityn. 松驰，放纵 /'læksəti/

subduev. 使服从，压制 /səb'djuː/

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。

文章长度

757

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1秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2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

Mark Zuckerberg cannot control his own creation（762 words）

By John Gapper

In Walt Disney's Fantasia, the apprentice Mickey Mouse bashfully hands back the sorcerer's hat after failing to stop a troupe of magic broomsticks from causing a flooD.Mark Zuckerberg made his own bow to the US Congress on Tuesday by apologising for the havoc that he has unleashed at Facebook.

Mr Zuckerberg once gave the impression of being supremely in charge of his company, down to his control of its voting shares. Even when something went wrong and he had to backtrack, it felt like a mere adjustment to his master plan. Lately, he has looked more apprentice than sorcerer.

“Social networks can have properties that are neither controlled nor even perceived by the people within them,” Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler observe in their book ConnecteD.Or by those in charge. The troubling thing is not that Mr Zuckerberg at first downplayed Russian efforts to affect the US presidential election, but that he did not understand them.

With greater effort and honesty, Facebook can fix the laxity with which it has handled personal datA.The Cambridge Analytica scandal showed that it was far too loose in allowing people and organisations to plug into its “social graph” and extract data about millions of users. It has already tightened its data controls and must tighten them more, but the task is achievable.

But other things cannot be fixed because they are beyond Mr Zuckerberg's control, lost in myriad encounters among Facebook's 2bn users. The technical term is emergence, the powerful and unpredictable outcome of millions of users interacting freely with others. Anything from joke videos to fake news can spread like a virus, changing how people feel and act.

Mr Zuckerberg has been subdued by witnessing his creation cause chaos. Facebook was tapped by anti-Rohingya Buddhists in Myanmar and Russian fake news factories. No higher authority holds the solution. The EU and the US may impose stricter rules on social networks, but politicians and regulators have no deeper insight into Facebook's workings than its founder.

Facebook increasingly talks of trying to limit the amount of passive consumption by users, from reading news （fake and otherwise） to watching videos. Instead, it wants to nudge them back to the kind of interactions with which it started — “to stay connected to the people they love, make their voices heard, and build communities and businesses”, Mr Zuckerberg says.

That may be prudent, but it does not get to the heart of the matter: Facebook grew by intentionally mixing up what Mark Granovetter, the US sociologist, called “strong ties” with weak ones. The former are close relationships among families, friends and colleagues; the latter are links to distant acquaintances and people in other communities. On Facebook, all “friends” are equal.

There was a philosophy behind the strategy. Prof Granovetter pointed out that weak ties sometimes have greater benefits than strong ones. His original example was finding a job: it helps to engage an extensive network of contacts rather simply sticking close to home. Similarly, Facebook groups devoted to organ donation can be extremely useful for patients who need one.

Facebook's size makes it more weakly tied than social networks that focus on smaller communities. One analysis of 957,000 Facebook users and 59m connections （gathered before it limited data scraping） found that “most connections are weak… with few contacts and infrequent interactions”. That made it “a powerful way to transfer information across large social distances and to wide segments”.

Hundreds of millions of weak ties also make it a powerful way to wield influence. Studies show that people's mood, behaviour, and even weight are affected by others who are fairly weakly connected in a social network — Profs Christakis and Fowler refer to the “three degrees of influence” that friends of friends of friends can invisibly exert.

This is the trouble with Facebook's elision of families and acquaintances, of strong and weak ties. The latter can make users happy or depressed; can help them to lose weight or gain it; can deliver insight or misinformation. Good and ill both multiply across its emergent, disobedient network.

Mr Hoffman limited this at LinkedIn by making explicit the degrees of separation among users rather than calling them all “friends”, but Mr Zuckerberg was less cautious. So was Mickey Mouse, who dreamt of controlling the stars but awoke to complete disorder.

The sorcerer cleaned up Mickey's mess but Mr Zuckerberg has not yet handed in his wizard's hat. “It's not enough to connect people, we have to make sure those connections are positive,” he told members of Congress on Tuesday. That is a fine pledge, but it would take magic to fulfil it.

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 that Zuckerberg “has looked more apprentice than sorcerer” ?

A.To show how Facebook's trouble has transformed into a political disorder.

B.To explain why Zukerberg have to apologised in person to the US Congress.

C.To argue that Zuckerberg is to blame for the havoc unleashed at Facebook.

D.To indicate that Zuckerberg is not capable of solving Facebook's trouble.

答案(1)

2.What is Facebook trying to do to settle its problem?

A.To ban organisations from plugging into its “social graph” and extracting data about users.

B.To switch user's attention from passive consumption to interactions in close relationships.

C.To fix the laxity with which Facebook has handled personal data and tighten its data controls.

D.To subdue Mr Zuckerberg for witnessing his creation cause political havoc around the world.

答案(2)

3.According to Mark Granovetter, how did Facebook grow so popular?

A.By engaging an extensive network of contacts rather sticking close to home.

B.By mixing up close relationships with weak links to distant acquaintances.

C.By creating new communities and relationships of distant acquaintances.

D.By making use of weak ties to affect user's mood, behaviour and weight.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards Facebook's future?

A.Ambivalent.

B.Indifferent.

C.Optimistic.

D.Pessimistic.

答案(4)

(1) 答案 D.To indicate that Zuckerberg is not capable of solving Facebook's trouble. 魔法师的学徒米老鼠在未能阻止一群被施了魔法的扫把引发洪水后，扭捏地把魔法帽还给了魔法师。最近这段时间，扎克伯格看起来更像学徒米老鼠，而不是魔法师。

(2) 答案 B.To switch user's attention from passive consumption to interactions in close relationships. Facebook越来越多地试图限制用户的被动消费量，从阅读新闻（无论真假）到观看视频。相反，它想让用户们回到最初的互动模式——“与你爱的人保持联系，听取他们的声音，以此为基础发展社群和商业”。

(3) 答案 B.By mixing up close relationships with weak links to distant acquaintances. Facebook刻意地将美国社会学家Mark Granovetter所说的“强关系”与“弱关系”混淆在一起，这让它的用户量持续增长。

(4) 答案 D.PessimistiC.魔法师收拾了米老鼠的烂摊子，但扎克伯格还没有交出魔法帽。他对国会议员说：“仅仅把人们联系起来还不够，我们必须确保这些联系发挥积极作用。”誓言虽然美好，但他得有魔法才能实现。

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集

Vol.69

癌症早诊断的代价

早期癌症的生存率要远远优于中晚期癌症，因此许多科研人员长期致力于寻找便利、准确的早期诊断方法。但研究发现，越是早期的癌症，出现误诊的概率越高。而癌症误诊往往会让病人付出巨大的代价。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

biopsy ['baɪɒpsi] n. 活组织检查

mutated [mjuː'teɪt] vi. 变异，突变

pancreatic [ˌpæŋkri'ætɪk] adj. 胰脏的

asymptomatic [ˌeɪsɪmptə'mætɪk] adj. 无症状的

incur [ɪn'kɜː（r）]v. 招致，蒙受

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。

文章长度

621

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26秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分29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37秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Scientists have yet to find the Holy Grail of cancer tests（621 words）

By Anjana Ahuja

The lifeblood coursing through your veins may one day become a messenger of death. Scientists revealed last week that they have taken baby steps towards developing a blood test for cancer. The so-called liquid biopsy looks for traces of mutated DNA and rogue proteins shed by tumours. For all the claims, it is not a universal test for this feared emperor of maladies. And, while earlier detection would be a boon to some, it could also become a burden for those whose modest abnormalities would not have proved life-threatening.

This new tool, being developed at Johns Hopkins University, is called CancerSEEK. The test looks for traces of 16 genes and eight proteins associated with eight types of cancer. The checklist included ovarian, liver, stomach and pancreatic cancers. All tend to be diagnosed late and have low survival rates.

Blood samples were taken from 1,000 cancer patients whose tumours had not spreaD.CancerSEEK flagged up about 70 per cent as showing evidence of the disease （a sensitivity of 70 per cent）. This means that 30 per cent of cases were misseD.They represent the false negatives: instances in which the disease exists but the test fails to expose it. The test's sensitivity fell to 43 per cent when it was trialled on the earliest cancers （so-called stage 1 tumours）.

CancerSEEK fared much better when it came to working out who did not have cancer: of more than 800 healthy controls, only seven tested positive （false positives）.

The trouble is that controlled trials contain just two categories of people: the diseased and the completely healthy. Many of those likely to undergo a cancer test will have other common illnesses. Observers have noted that, since the test uses proteins that are also produced by diseases such as arthritis, the frequency of false positives may rise.

The Johns Hopkins research highlights the imprecise art of clinical screening and testing. Any test should identify the diseased without needlessly alarming the healthy; it should be cheap, safe and ideally non-invasive （CancerSEEK costs a respectable $360）; and early detection should be accompanied by the realistic prospect of meaningful treatment. Usually, the earlier a cancer is picked up, the better; a blood test that can spot traces in asymptomatic individuals would be a game-changer. One company chasing this goal, launched in 2016 and whose backers include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has the revealing name of Grail.

Misdiagnosis, though, carries high costs for both patient and society: false positives can damage individuals psychologically （such as increasing suicide risk）; dent public confidence; and incur expensive, unnecessary investigations. False negatives have an obvious cost in failing to catch treatable disease early.

Questioning the value of universal screening and testing does not mean advocating for ignorance. But it does mean considering the consequences of a positive test result.

Just such a debate has happened with prostate cancer. Although 16 per cent of American men will develop this cancer, only one out of six with a diagnosis will die from it. The prostate-specific antigen test used to screen for the disease cannot distinguish between harmless tumours and aggressive ones. Nonetheless, an elevated PSA result usually leads to further investigation and treatment — some of which affects mood and libido. And yet, for the majority of men, these serious interventions are for nothing. While one European study found some survival benefit among those taking the PSA test, an equivalent American study did not. Today, men are advised to skip the PSA test unless they have particular concerns, such as a family history of the disease.

As one genetic counsellor told MIT Technology Review recently: “The big problem… will not be finding cancer, it will be finding the cancer that should be treated.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How does CancerSEEK diagnose early-stage cancer？

A.It examines proteins produced by arthritis to find cancer cells.

B.It checks mutated genes and rogue proteins associated with cancer.

C.It checks the tissue under a microscope to find malignant cells.

D.It looks at areas inside the body using a tube called an endoscope.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about the Grail is true ?

A.The rate of misdiagnosis is around 43 per cent.

B.It was developed at Johns Hopkins University.

C.It can detect cancer on early stage by a blood test.

D.It is non-invasive, but it costs a respectable $360.

答案(2)

3.According to the author, what is the destructive effect of false negatives ?

A.Failing to catch treatable disease timely.

B.Damaging individuals psychologically.

C.Increasing suicide risk significantly.

D.Incurring unnecessary investigations.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards early detection ?

A.Skeptical.

B.Cautious.

C.Trustful.

D.Caustic.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.It checks mutated genes and rogue proteins associated with cancer.

解释：这项测试能够追踪与八种癌症相关的16种基因和八种蛋白质。

(2) 答案：C.It can detect cancer on early stage by a blood test.

解释：可以在无症状个体身上发现癌变的血液测试将会改变现在的局面。一家公司正为此而努力，并与2016年推出一款产品Grail，其支持者包括亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝佐斯。

(3) 答案：A.Failing to catch treatable disease timely.

解释：显然，假阴性会让尚可治愈的病措施治疗时机。

(4) 答案：B.Cautious.

解释：作者肯定了癌症早诊断的积极作用，但也提出了误诊可能造成的风险。

科技公司面临信任危机

极端言论、不良内容、虚假信息、政治广告、儿童成瘾……面对一桩又一桩丑闻，科技公司仍然不愿意正视自身的问题，顾左右而言他。而一场针对科技公司的信任危机已经在民间和政界展开。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

funnel ['fʌnl] n. 漏斗；烟囱

opaque [əʊ'peɪk] adj. 不透明的，难懂的

repeal [rɪ'piːl] n. 废止，撤销

deflection [dɪ'flekʃn] n. 歪斜，偏向

aisle [aɪl] n. （席位间的）通道，侧廊

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。

文章长度

677

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

Big Tech's trust issues at the forefront of Davos debate（677 words）

By Rana Foroohar

The World Economic Forum in Davos has just openeD.As the forum of movers and shakers has become bigger — some would say too big — over the years, it has turned into more of a dealmaking venue than a thought leadership salon. But Davos is still the greatest place in the world to put a finger to the wind and see what the key economic and political issues of the year will be. I'm betting that top of the list will be Big Tech's attempt to rebrand itself.

The Fangs — Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google — are having a crisis that encompasses the cognitive, the political and the economiC.Activists, regulators and even some tech executives themselves are calling for an investigation into the addictive nature of smartphones and social media.

Just last week, Congress once again grilled Facebook, Google and Twitter about their management of extremist content. The bottom line? They have no clear answers about how they are going to prevent their platforms from being used for things such as Russian election meddling, or by governments in places such as Myanmar to prepare their populations for death squads and genocide.

Indeed, there is evidence linking the rise of platform technologies with declining trust in liberal democracy itself. Fully 65 per cent of the population gets its news from platforms and aggregator sites, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer survey of 28 countries.

Sadly, the fact that Facebook, Google and Twitter now provide the world with most of its news has also coincided with a decline in trust in liberal democratic governments. The filter bubbles created by these platforms push people towards far right or left extremist content, and that has the tendency to erode their belief in existing institutions.

That is one reason it is so odd to me that the latest attempt by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to “fix” the company's problems involves pushing people away from news sites and towards friends and family. Unfortunately, the people we are closest to are the very ones who create our filter bubbles. The bubbles are quite profitable for the platforms, which can use them to funnel opaque political and corporate advertising to individuals, messaging that usually plays to their own prejudices.

It's very often stuff that would not look good in the light of day, which is one of the reasons that the Big Tech companies are lobbying against moves such as the Honest Ads Act, which would make them put their political advertising out into the clear light of day, like any other media company.

When you have a problem, and you are truly serious about solving it, you reach out to the people who are toughest on you. My own experience with Big Tech is that there is still a sense that people who criticise “just don't get it”.

Rather, what you are seeing is a classic corporate PR playbook of deflection and delay. At Davos, tech executives will continue trying to humanise artificial intelligence, talk about their efforts around education and retraining and generally push business as usual. But it is already clear that politicians on both sides of the aisle are starting to shape an economic agenda that includes, quite rightly, a focus on the monopoly power of the largest companies, most notably the Fangs.

In December, Keith Ellison, the co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, introduced new legislation, the 21st Century Competition Commission Act, to address corporate monopoly power and its anti-competitive effects. Several state Democratic congressional candidates are running on anti-Big Tech tickets, as are Republicans such as Josh Hawley as Missouri's attorney-general, launched an antitrust investigation into Google. Politicians such as Democrat Elizabeth Warren are ramping up the rhetoric on this topic, too.

No wonder. Last year, when the polling company Gallup asked respondents if they were satisfied with the “size and influence of major corporations”, 58 per cent said no.

The key political and economic issue, not just in Davos, but in the US midterm elections and even the presidential elections in 2020, may be the power of Big Tech.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What does the Fangs refer to according to the article？

A.The general term for a group of Big Tech companies.

B.The special subsidies tech companies have enjoyed.

C.The addiction to smartphones and social media.

D.A group of companies with great market power.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about the Big Tech is true ?

A.65 per cent of the population trust platforms more than media.

B.They have not figured out how to deal with extremist content.

C.The rise of platform technologies leads to the collapse of democracy.

D.The social media sites were once used for meddling Russian election.

答案(2)

3.According to the author, what has led to the credibility crisis of liberal democracy ?

A.The opaque political advertising pushed people away from liberal democracy.

B.Democratic institutions take no effective measure to stop extremist content.

C.The addictive nature of social media erodes people's belief in institutions.

D.Filter bubbles created by social media sites drive people towards extremism.

答案(3)

4.The loudest criticisms of Big Tech come from ____.

A.Politicians from both sides.

B.The Democrats.

C.The Republican.

D.The tech executives.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.The general term for a group of Big Tech companies.

解释：The Fangs —— Facebook，亚马逊，Netflix和谷歌 —— 正在经历一场涵盖了认知心理，政治和经济的危机。

(2) 答案：B.They have not figured out how to deal with extremist content.

解释：国会再次就极端主义内容管理的问题向Facebook，Google和Twitter发难。底线？对于如何防止平台被用于诸如俄罗斯干预大选等事件，他们没有明确答案。

(3) 答案：D.Filter bubbles created by social media sites drive people towards extremism.

解释：这些平台所产生的过滤泡沫，引导人们阅读极左或极左的内容，而这往往会削弱他们对当今政府机构的信任。

(4) 答案：A.Politicians from both sides.

解释：两党的政治家们正在制定经济议程，着重关注大公司，特别是the Fangs的垄断力量。

自动驾驶汽车：交通工具还是武器？

由于存在被用作“武器”的风险，自动驾驶车辆在很多国家和地区受到严格的限制。多国政府纷纷禁止外国公司运营的自动驾驶汽车。百度首席运营官陆奇表示：“你有一个能够自主移动的物体。根据定义，这就是一种武器。”

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

autonomy [ɔː'tɒnəmi] n. 自治，自动

grapple ['ɡræpl] vt. 扭打，搏斗

pedestrian [pə'destriən] n. 行人，步行者

breed [briːd] n. 品种，族类

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。

文章长度

532

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48秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分7秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分31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

Self-driving cars raise fears over ‘weaponisation’（532 words）

By Tim Bradshaw

Autonomous vehicles are in danger of being turned into “weapons”, leading governments around the world to block cars operated by foreign companies, the head of Baidu's self-driving car programme has warned.

Qi Lu, chief operating officer at the Chinese internet group, said security concerns could become a problem for global carmakers and technology companies, including the US and China.

“It has nothing to do with any particular government — it has to do with the very nature of autonomy,” he said on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show last week. “You have an object that is capable of moving by itself. By definition, it is a weapon.”

Increasingly, self-driving technology is seen as advancing faster than regulators can keep up with. Regional and national governments are grappling with the issue of when to allow autonomous cars on to their roads and under what conditions.

Multinational companies will have a “high bar” to meet local policy requirements for autonomous driving, Mr Lu saiD.“The days of building a vehicle in one place and it runs everywhere are over. Because a vehicle that can move by itself by definition it is a weapon.”

Baidu is investing heavily in Apollo, its open-source autonomous car software, as it looks to diversify away from its core business of internet advertising into artificial intelligence. At CES, it unveiled Apollo 2.0, which offers improved security, alongside a new $200m fund to invest in south-east Asian efforts to improve autonomous driving.

It has already agreed partnerships with US chip companies, including Intel and Nvidia, as well as American and European carmakers Ford and Daimler. In China it is working with local auto manufacturers JAC and BAIC, who plan to start producing autonomous vehicles based on Apollo as soon as next year.

Mr Lu, who joined Baidu from Microsoft a year ago, said autonomous vehicles should reduce fatalities on the road, whether caused accidentally or intentionally as an act of terrorism. Pointing to incidents in London and Charlottesville where cars were used intentionally to run down pedestrians, he said: “In the future, these cars won't move if they see a human in front of [them] — it doesn't matter who controls the car.”

Despite the “overwhelming benefits” of autonomous driving, Mr Lu said it would not happen without a “lot of dialogue” between companies, regulators and politicians. “How we ensure safety, in my view, is going to be a journey,” he said.

Mr Lu's remarks came amid rising tensions between the US and China following news that AT&T had pulled out of plans to distribute Huawei's smartphones on the eve of the deal's announcement at the Las Vegas conference. Security concerns have been blamed for the collapse of talks between the US operator and the Chinese smartphone maker.

Mr Lu said the open nature of Apollo, to which any company can contribute new software coding, would help Baidu navigate regulatory challenges.

“Apollo is created by Baidu but not owned by Baidu,” he saiD.“We fundamentally believe that an open system that cultivates an environment where the best of breed can participate is better than one single company that does it alone.”

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 banned by governments all over the world？

A.Self-driving cars made in foreign countries.

B.Vehicles that is capable of moving by itself.

C.Undocumented self-driving car programme.

D.Autonomous cars owned by foreign companies.

答案(1)

2.Baidu's chief operating officer Qi Lu believes ____.

A.Self-driving cars can be seen as weapons because they are autonomous.

B.Some governments have strong hostility towards self-driving technology.

C.Autonomous technology is advancing faster than regulators can understand.

D.Costumers can only buy and drive self-driving cars from domestic brands.

答案(2)

3.What is Apollo according to the article ?

A.Baidu's artificial intelligence project.

B.Baisu's electric self-driving car.

C.Baidu's autonomous car software.

D.Baidu's core business of the future.

答案(3)

4.According to Mr Lu, how can autonomous car reduce fatalities on the road?

A.They can change direction in accordance with the operator.

B.They can dodge any obstacles in front of them very quickly.

C.They can altered the emergency services after a road crash.

D.They can identify people in front of them and avoid crash.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.Autonomous cars owned by foreign companies.

解释：自动驾驶车辆有被转化为“武器”的风险，这导致世界各国的政府禁止外国公司运营的自动驾驶汽车。

(2) 答案：A.Self-driving cars can be seen as weapons because they are autonomous.

解释：陆奇在上周的消费电子展上称：“你有一个能够自己移动的物体。根据定义，这就是一种武器。”

(3) 答案：C.Baidu's autonomous car software.

解释：百度正在大力投资开源的自动驾驶软件Apollo。

(4) 答案：D.They can identify people in front of them and avoid crash.

解释：未来，如果有人在车前，车就不会移动——谁来控制这辆车并不重要。

失落的男性时尚偶像

曾经，世上有很多可称为时尚偶像的男性，但他们就像恐龙一样灭绝了。“阳刚之气”的重新定义，以及艺术界偶像的倒塌，让男人们失去了可以瞻仰的时尚偶像。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

meteorite ['miːtiəraɪt] n. 陨石，陨星

assertive [ə'sɜːtɪv] adj. 断定的，过分自信的

spontaneity [ˌspɒntə'neɪəti] n. 自然发生，自发

iconoclast [aɪ'kɒnəklæst] n. 提倡打破旧习的人

sprawling ['sprɔːlɪŋ] adj. 摊开手脚

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。

文章长度

653

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39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51秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

For men, the style icon is dead（653 words）

By Robert Armstrong

There was a time when giants of style walked the Earth. That time is now over.

The iconic man of style — think of Steve McQueen, or Paul Newman, or the young Miles Davis — is as dead as the dinosaur.

You are probably objecting already: David Beckham, you say. Jay-Z, you say. But it is no use insisting that an alligator is a tyrannosaurus. The resemblance ends with the scales.

To see the difference, consult your fantasy life. As an adult man do you want to live your life in the mode of Jay-Z, or McQueen? Of Beckham, or Miles? In which mould would you cast your partner? The would-bes are beautifully dresseD.They are men of great style. They are not, however, ideals after which a grown-up can sincerely aspire.

This hard reality raises philosophical and historical questions: what was it that made the style icons of the 20th century what they were, and which meteorite drove them to extinction?

I would divide the old icons into stars and artists. The stars, such as McQueen and Newman, were about physical energy and sexual presence. The clothes that they wore were important, but only because they displayed inner illumination to best effect. McQueen's clothes, with a few exceptions — those suits in The Thomas Crown Affair, for example — consisted of simple and close-fitting sportswear. Sweaters and turtlenecks, snug T-shirts and white tennis shoes. But he turned these basic American things into symbols of an assertive, competent, striving masculinity.

The artists, from Miles Davis to Samuel Beckett were all creators in the 20th-century mode. They were defined in large part by the rejection of classical or bourgeois conceptions of aesthetic or intellectual achievement in favour of greater spontaneity and authenticity. They were iconoclasts before they were icons. Their clothes are in one sense irrelevant, because it is the work that matters. But they were also absolutely relevant, because the work was not just changing music or literature but the whole way we approach life, right down to what we wear.

My guess is that two factors killed the style icons. First is a social change that has been much in the news in the past year, but has been brewing for much longer than that: a change in the ideal of masculinity. The political or professional destruction of sexual pests and predators, and the rewriting of the rules of sexual engagement, speak to a rethink of male sexual attractiveness — which is to say, male sexual power.

The second factor has been noted in other contexts. The idol-smashing of the arts in the past century turned in short order into a sprawling industry whose product was authenticity for the masses. This machine has long been wildly profitable — and burdened by obvious ironic contradictions. It is now, for anyone even moderately self-aware, beyond parody. This has several implications. One is that people who might have become icons have become entrepreneurs insteaD.If authenticity is part of an icon's magic, monetisation is disqualifying.

The rest of us, as we seek after style, are left without new heroes to guide us. Attempts to pretend otherwise, published periodically in the likes of GQ or Vanity Fair, make depressing reading. Clooney, Elba and Westbrook are not going to lead men to style's promised lanD.In the 21st century, this is not the only area in which we have been left without heroes, and hardly the most important. We will just have to figure it all out for ourselves. This may even prove to be a useful exercise.

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 a style icon of the 20th century according to the author？

A.Steve McQueen.

B.Paul Newman.

C.George Clooney.

D.Miles Davis.

答案(1)

2.Why does the author mention alligator and tyrannosaurus in the second paragraph ?

A.To compare the current alligator trend to tyrannosaurus trend in the past.

B.To indicate iconic men of style today usually look like a tyrannosaurus.

C.To explain how the man's fashions have changed since last century.

D.To indicate Beckham and Jay-Z can't compare with previous style icons.

答案(2)

3.What is the most attractive part of the stars ?

A.The bourgeois aesthetics.

B.The inner illumination.

C.The basic American.

D.The close-fitting sportswear.

答案(3)

4.Which of the following is not a reason why style icons died out ?

A.The destruction of sexual pests and predators.

B.The different ideal of male sexual attractiveness.

C.The contradictions between art and fashion industry.

D.The incompatibility of authenticity and monetisation.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.George Clooney.

解释：时尚的标志性人物——史蒂夫·麦昆，保罗·纽曼，还有年轻的迈尔斯·戴维斯——像恐龙一样灭绝了。

(2) 答案：D.To indicate Beckham and Jay-Z can't compare with previous style icons.

解释：你可能已经反对了：你会说有贝克汉姆和Jay-Z。但坚持把鳄鱼说成暴龙是没有意义的。他们之间有着档次的差距。

(3) 答案：B.The inner illumination.

解释：他们的着装很重要，但只是因为这些衣服将他们内在的魅力最大程度地展现了出来。

(4) 答案：C.The contradictions between art and fashion industry.

解释：人们对于“阳刚之气”的理解已经不同了；如果本性是时尚标志的魅力所在，那么金钱是扯不上关系的。

德国“仇恨言论”禁令引争议

德国一项新法案规定社交媒体平台必须在24小时以内删除有违法嫌疑的言论。这是西方政府针对仇恨言论最严厉的制裁。该法案在德国引起了巨大的争议，有反对者认为它阻碍了人们自由发表言论，也有人认为它赋予了社交媒体公司过大的权力。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

detractor [dɪ'træktə（r）] n. 贬低者

martyr ['mɑːtə（r）] n. 烈士，殉道者

proliferation [prəˌlɪfə'reɪʃn] n. 增殖，繁殖

incitement [ɪn'saɪtmənt] n. 刺激，诱因

comply [kəm'plaɪ] vi. 顺从，答应

superfluous [suː'pɜːfluəs] adj. 多余的，过剩的

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。

文章长度

653

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39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51秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Berlin forced to defend hate speech law（653 words）

By Guy Chazan

Germany's government has defended a new law on online hate speech that puts the country at the forefront of global efforts to police the internet but critics say in effect censors social media.

The Network Enforcement Act, which came into force on January 1, requires platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to remove potentially illegal material within 24 hours of being notified or face fines of up to €50m.

The law is by far the toughest clampdown on hate speech by a western government. But opponents have argued that it gives too much power to the social networks to decide what constitutes illegal content — a role that should be the preserve of the courts.

There are also fears that platforms where billions of online messages are uploaded each day will err on the side of caution, deleting anything even mildly controversial to avoid fines.

Bernhard Rohleder, head of Bitkom, a digital trade body, said the “administration of justice is being privatised and handed over to the big US platforms”. “We're going to see private court martials in the social media that will pass judgment and put to death chop-chop, within 24 hours,” he said.

So far the law's noisiest detractors are politicians from the Alternative for Germany （AfD）, a rightwing, anti-immigration party whose leader Alexander Gauland likened the law to the “Stasi methods” and warned it would kill off free speech.

But disapproval has come from across Germany's political spectrum. “The law turns AfD politicians into opinion martyrs and appears to confirm their most dangerous slogan — that there are certain things （“truths”, according to the AfD） that you just can't say in Germany any more,” wrote Julian Reichelt, editor of the mass circulation Bild Zeitung. He called for it to be abolished.

Known in Germany as NetzDG, the law was passed last year amid alarm in Berlin at the proliferation of racist abuse and fake news on social media and how this might shape public opinion before last September's Bundestag elections.

That was combined with anger at the perceived failure of companies such as Facebook to crack down on posts, even when they clearly violated German laws, including prohibitions of incitement to racial hatred and Holocaust denial.

Heiko Maas, justice minister and proponent of the NetzDG, defended it on Friday in an interview with news magazine Spiegel. He said German media laws obliged operators of social networks to remove illegal content — but that they had failed to comply.

The measure ensured more effective enforcement of “laws that already exist”, Mr Maas saiD.“Whoever distributes illegal content in the Internet must be resolutely prosecuted and brought to justice.”

Social media platforms have argued the law is superfluous because they have intensified their efforts to police content. Facebook says last summer it was removing 3,500 posts reported as hate speech every week in Germany.

Twitter says it significantly tightened its rules on hate speech in December, including a ban on the use of swastikas, SS runes and other Nazi paraphernalia in users' profile photos.

The tougher rules have led to a flurry of Twitter bans. The highest-profile casualty was Beatrix von Storch, deputy leader of the AfD parliamentary group. She had taken exception to a New Year's greeting in Arabic issued by the Cologne police, tweeting: “What the hell is wrong with this country?… Is this your way of mollifying the barbarian, Muslim, gang-raping hordes of men?”

Twitter responded by suspending her account for 12 hours.

Another casualty was Titanic, a satirical news magazine, which had its Twitter account suspended after parodying Ms von Storch's tweet — a clear example, critics say, of how easily the law can backfire.

Ms von Storch condemned Twitter's move but others in the AfD are making hay with the tough new regime. “In this day and age, a charge of incitement is the new badge of honour,” tweeted another AfD MP, Jens Maier.

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 statements about NetzDG is true？

A.It requires the government to remove hate speeches within one day.

B.The NetzDG was passed in January with immediate effect in Germany.

C.It requires platforms to remove mildly controversial material online.

D.The NetzDG has attracted nationwide criticism as well as approval.

答案(1)

2.The law received the noisiest opposition from ____.

A.Bitkom.

B.Titanic.

C.the AfD.

D.the CDU.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following elements is not banned on Twitter?

A.Star and crescent.

B.Swastikas.

C.SS runes.

D.Nazi salute.

答案(3)

4.Why did Twitter suspend the Titanic's account ?

A.Because they posted hate comments on Muslim.

B.Because they parodied Ms von Storch's tweet.

C.Because they criticised the NetzDG on Twitter.

D.Because they used Nazi icon as profile photo.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.The NetzDG has attracted nationwide criticism as well as approval.

解释：该法案是迄今为止西方政府对仇恨言论进行的最严厉的制裁。但是反对者认为，它赋予了社交媒体过多的权力来决定什么是非法内容。

(2) 答案：C.the AfD.

解释：迄今为止，针对该法案最激烈的反对来自德国右翼反移民政党AfD的成员。

(3) 答案：A.Star and crescent.

解释：Twitter表示，它在12月份大幅度收紧了对仇恨言论的规定，包括禁止在用户个人资料照片中使用万字旗，闪电标志和其他纳粹元素。

(4) 答案：B.Because they parodied Ms von Storch's tweet.

解释：另一个牺牲者是讽刺新闻杂志《Titanic》，其推特帐户在戏仿von Storch女士的推文后被关停。

日本少女组合为虚拟货币发声

虚拟货币狂潮已席卷全球。日本不久前出现了一个八人的少女组合，名为“虚拟货币少女”，她们戴着墨西哥摔角面具，身穿女仆装，每个人代表一种虚拟货币。最近她们推出了单曲《月亮、虚拟货币与我》，还在东京举办了演唱会……

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

unquenchable [ʌn'kwentʃəbl] adj. 止不住的

octet [ɒk'tet] n. [音] 八重唱，八重奏

tussle ['tʌsl] n. 扭打，斗争，论争

oeuvre ['ɜːvrə] n. 全部作品

dollop ['dɒləp] n. （食物的）一块，一团

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。

文章长度

467

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20秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分52秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分20秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分28秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Japan girl band gives voice to cryptocurrencies（467 words）

By Leo Lewis

As cryptocurrency fever has spread across the globe, some nations have embraced it, some have regulated it and some have descended upon it with an outright ban.

In Japan, it has spawned Kasotsuka Shojo, an eight-member girl pop ensemble with virtual coin-themed Mexican wrestling masks, maid outfits and an unquenchable zeal for decentralised public blockchains.

The group, whose name translates as “Virtual Currency Girls”, performed its first concert in Tokyo on Friday — a frenetic half-hour that allowed the octet to explain, in song and dance, both the benefits and dangers of a diversified crypto investment strategy.

As the lyrics from their opening number “The Moon and Virtual Currencies and Me” explained: “It's hell if you buy at a high price!”, and “Don't underestimate the market!”

Members of the group introduced themselves as representatives of a different cryptocurrency, with Hinano Shirahama, as bitcoin, appearing to appoint herself leader. In an early onstage tussle, however, her leadership was challenged by Rara Naruse, the representative of bitcoin cash, the currency that emerged from a technological split last year.

“The surge of bitcoin caused various problems. To solve these, bitcoin cash was established, with smaller fees and quicker transactions. So I think bitcoin cash will replace bitcoin at some point in the future. The market cap of bitcoin cash will be number one!” said Ms Naruse before locking woollen horns with Ms Shirahama.

In a later self-introduction, the representative of Cardano complained that she had initially been treated badly and decried as “dubious”. “But now I'm in the top five in terms of market cap, which proves there's trust in me,” she said.

The emergence of the group from the Cinderella Academy girl band factory underscores Japan's broader welcome of cryptocurrencies. Last year, in a move that put it well ahead of other developed countries, Japan's financial authorities recognised bitcoin as a form of currency and granted licences to 11 sites trading it and other virtual coins.

Boosted by that sense of legitimacy, Japan has become one of the largest markets for bitcoin trading, accounting for 40 per cent of total global volume on most days.

Advertising for trading sites has targeted Japan's “Mrs Watanabe” household investors, and newly formed schools have begun offering tutorials in trading strategies. The wealth effect from the bitcoin price run-up, wrote Nomura analysts in a note to investors last month, could lead to a substantial boost to consumption.

While the group's enthusiasm for their virtual currency avatars is unquestionable, the overall message of Kasotsuka Shojo's oeuvre includes necessary dollops of caution. Lyrics of one song include the warning: “Don't forget about two-step verification,” and “Never use the same password twice”.

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 statements about Kasotsuka Shojo is true？

A.It suggests people to approach crypto prudently.

B.Each of its member represents a kind of bitcoin.

C.It is set to hold its first concert in Tokyo on Friday.

D.It is a Mexican-style girl band with eight members.

答案(1)

2.According to Ms Naruse, bitcoin cash ____.

A.is a safer investment compared with bitcoin.

B.is currently the hottest financial craze.

C.was established to solve bitcoin's problems.

D.will exceed other cryptocurrencies in the future.

答案(2)

3.The author believes the emergence of Kasotsuka Shojo reflects ____.

A.Japan's deregulation of crypto investment.

B.Japan's wide acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

C.Japan's unquenchable cryptocurrency craze.

D.Japan's distinctive idol band culture.

答案(3)

4.What is the author's attitude towards Kasotsuka Shojo?

A.Encouraging.

B.Objective.

C.Cautious.

D.Hypercritical.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.It suggests people to approach crypto prudently.

解释：虚拟货币少女在演唱会上用唱和跳的形式讲解了多元化加密投资策略的好处和风险。

(2) 答案：C.was established to solve bitcoin's problems.

解释：比特币的风潮造成了各种问题。为了解决这些问题，比特币现金出现了。

(3) 答案：B.Japan's wide acceptance of cryptocurrencies.

解释：这个由Cinderella Academy推出的少女团体的出现凸显了日本对加密货币的普遍欢迎。

(4) 答案：B.Objective.

解释：作者客观地介绍了虚拟货币少女的形象和表演，以及日本对虚拟货币的宽容。

网红狗成为广告界新星

再见吧，美妆博主们！网红狗狗们已经成为了广告界新的宠儿。一家宠物明星事务所的负责人表示，她的一百多个宠物客户中有相当一部分年收入达百万美金以上。什么样的宠物有做明星的潜质？你家的可以吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

edgy ['edʒi] adj. 急躁的，紧张不安的

anthropomorphism [ˌænθrəpə'mɔːfɪzəm] n. 拟人化

lapse [læps] n. 过失，间隔

charisma [kə'rɪzmə] n. 个人魅力

retriever [rɪ'triːvə（r）] n. 取回的人，寻回犬

undisclosed [ˌʌndɪs'kləʊzd] adj. 未泄露的，保密的

winsome ['wɪnsəm] adj. 引人注目的，迷人的

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。

文章长度

722

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

2分53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43秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Move over Zoella — dogs are the new social media stars（722 words）

By Jonathan Margolis

The Beganovich sisters, Amra and Elma, each earn almost $1m a year promoting fashion and beauty brands from a small serviced office in Times Square, New York. I wrote about them recently in the column.

Just over a year later, I am back in the US on the trail of this bizarre internet marketing phenomenon. The globally famous influencer I have come to meet this time is doing so well, she has an agent on Park Avenue, right opposite the Waldorf AstoriA.It is at the agent's office we are meeting, but the social media star in question, who goes by the name of Loubie, is late.

Texts arrive detailing Loubie's latest location. The “talent managers” in the agency are edgy. Loubie is one of their hottest properties.

And suddenly, she is here, all swagger and confidence. Indeed, she jumps right up on managing partner Loni Edwards' desk and starts licking her face.

Apologies for any lapse into anthropomorphism there're the talent's apparent charismA.Loubie the star Instagrammer is of course a dog — a four-year-old golden retriever. But she does seem to have quite notable, well, self-esteem.

Photos of her are followed by 192,000 people and she is known for her “work” with Google and Chanel among other companies.

Loubie is short for Louboutina, aka The Hugging Dog. Her special trick is to cuddle people on New York streets.

She is named after Christian Louboutin, the Parisian luxury shoe brand, and it was that company which, spotting Louboutina on Instagram, recommended she contact Ms Edwards' two-year-old company, The Dog Agency.

Now Loubie provides an undisclosed six-figure income for her owner, Cesar Fernandez Chavez, a translator.

According to 33-year-old Ms Edwards, many of her 100+ animal clients are earning above $1m annually. She is a Harvard Law School graduate who worked in intellectual property litigation, then as a tech entrepreneur. When her own dog, Chloe the Mini Frenchie, succeeded at being cute in Instagram photos, she was inspired to build her 10-person business around “pet influencers”.

“We do everything from the pets' brand partnerships to book deals to merchandise to commercials to clothing lines to TV show concepts,” Ms Edwards told me as we were awaiting Loubie's grand entrance.

Sixty per cent of the agency's clients are dogs, followed by cats, pigs, monkeys and chinchillas. One of the most successful is a rabbit, Bunnymama, who has 801,000 followers. Clients include Dyson, L’Oréal, Subaru, Barneys New York, Cunard, Nordstrom and Ritz-Carlton.

A typical example of how pet influencing works is a short video clip a dog called Chloe and others have made for Dyson.

“An adorable pet alongside a vacuum cleaner is just something people will react to better than a human with it,” she says.

“Another example. We just did some work with L’Oréal about one of their brands, Urban Decay. The hook was that they don't test on animals and it was incredibly successful. People see a pet they love and then make the connection to testing on creatures and the message hits home.”

So can any pet make the grade? I show her some photos of our family Cockerpoo, Jumble, a nice dog but one of, frankly, little brain.

“Can Jumble make us $1m a year?” I ask.

For an instant, Ms Edwards looks awkward, as if I had used my journalistic cover to hijack her into taking Jumble on. Then she looks deeply unimpressed.

To break in and get signed by the agency, I learnt, a pet would need to already have between 50,000 and 100,000 Instagram followers.

“From there the engagement needs to be outperforming, so we need to see the back-end analytics, how many people are commenting, liking. Business accounts on Instagram supply all that datA.Plus a strong brand identity and an owner who's up to the job.”

“Above all, it's a personality thing,” she concludes, with barely a second glance at Jumble's winsome face. “The pet has to want it.”

I leave Park Avenue wondering if it was all an odd dream and head off for lunch in Queens with my younger daughter and a Manhattan artist friend.

Over lunch I tell the artist about the strange new phenomenon of pet influencers.

“That's really weird, people following dogs,” she saiD.“I only follow, like, one animal on Instagram, but that's an alpaca.”

For perhaps the nth time since the internet was invented, I am minded what a very strange thing it can be.

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, Loubie is a dog who ____.

A.lives on Park Avenue, right opposite the Waldorf Astoria.

B.became famous for cuddling people on New York streets.

C.once showed up in Google and Chanel's TV commercials.

D.is one of the hottest star of Ms Edwards's dog agency.

答案(1)

2.How did Loubie become a star ?

A.Christian Louboutin spotted her in New York when she was cuddling people .

B.Christian Louboutin spotted her on Instagram and introduced her to an agency.

C.The Dog Agency spotted her when she was filming her Chanel advertisement.

D.The Dog Agency spotted her through a popular short video clip on Instagram.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following statements about The Dog Agency is true?

A.Some of the most successful clients of The Dog Agency earn above $1m annually.

B.Loni Edwards created the agency after she graduated from Harvard Law School.

C.The agency served only for dogs at first, but now its clients include all types of pet.

D.Chloe the Mini Frenchie is one of the most successful client of The Dog Agency.

答案(3)

4.To get signed by the agency, a pet would need to ____?

A.already have some experience in advertising and filming.

B.be able to attract people's attention with apparent charisma.

C.have a winsome face and special tricks to entertain people.

D.already have more than 50,000 followers on social media.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.is one of the hottest star of Ms Edwards's dog agency.

解释：Loubie是他们最热门的财产之一。

(2) 答案：B.Christian Louboutin spotted her on Instagram and introduced her to an agency.

解释：Christian Louboutin在Instagram上发现了Loubie，并推荐她联系Edwards成立两年的公司The Dog Agency。

(3) 答案：A.Some of the most successful clients of The Dog Agency earn above $1m annually.

解释：33岁的Edwards女士称，她的100多个动物客户中的有许多每年的收入超过100万美元。

(4) 答案：D.already have more than 50,000 followers on social media.

解释：在Instagram上拥有5万到10万个粉丝的宠物才能被事务所签下。

北京“雾霾战争”成效显著

为解决空气污染问题，北京今年采取了一系列严厉的防污染措施，包括关停周边工厂，严格限制燃煤，清除大量使用劣质煤球的贫民区等等。如今，他们的努力有了回报，2017年第四季度北京的PM2.5排放显著下降。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

briquette [brɪ'ket] n. 坯块，煤饼

slum [slʌm] n. 贫民窟

particulate [pɑː'tɪkjələt] n. 微粒状物质

rollout ['rəlˌaʊt] n. 首次展示

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。

文章长度

526

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45秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分6秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分30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

Beijing breathes easier as war on smog clears skies（526 words）

By Lucy Hornby

Drastic measures to cut pollution in the areas around Beijing during the final months of 2017 have led to unusually clear air in the capital, offsetting the effect of a nationwide economic recovery, according to new data.

Authorities closed factories and forbade residents in provinces neighbouring Beijing from using coal to heat their homes during winter, in a last-ditch effort to meet emissions-cutting targets for 2017.

Beijing also ejected hundreds of thousands of migrants workers and razed several neighbourhoods ringing the city. Poor-quality coal briquettes used to heat villages and slum neighbourhoods account for half of coal consumption in Beijing and surrounding regions in the winter.

As a result, emissions of PM2.5 — a measure of tiny particulates in the air — fell 33 per cent in the region around Beijing during the final quarter of 2017 compared with the same period the previous year, according to a study by Greenpeace, the campaign group. The fall came despite recovering growth and higher energy usage.

But nationally, PM2.5 levels fell just 4.5 per cent in 2017 compared with 2016, as much polluting activity was merely shifted elsewhere in ChinA.Other measures to reduce particulates in the air included placing covers on construction sites and fuel restrictions.

The government pulled out the stops to meet its targets because 2017 was the last of a five-year anti-pollution campaign, noted Yang Fuqiang, senior adviser at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.

New targets for upcoming years are expected to be even stricter, he said, adding: “The government has realised that it can achieve good results as long as it is devoted to solving the problem.”

Before the implementation of drastic measures to lower industrial pollution, PM2.5 levels in the region surrounding Beijing had increased 6 per cent year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2017.

The clearer air has been noticeable in Beijing, despite popular outrage at the sudden and sometimes violent eviction of migrants. Normally the Beijing winter is marked by bouts of choking smog.

“I've never seen Beijing like this!” said French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday at the end of a three-day state visit to ChinA.He praised Beijing's action to close its factories: “It shows they have a capacity that is rapid, even brutal.”

Mr Macron has hailed China's support of the Paris accord in which nations pledged measures to limit emissions and avert climate change. China expects its carbon emissions to grow until 2030.

However, in 2012 it revealed a complex national plan to wean industry in the north China plain off coal, and shift factories on to the national power grid.

But Beijing's action to eliminate coal-burning sources, including industrial boilers and residential heating stoves, was not matched by the rollout of new gas infrastructure.

This resulted in a spike in gas prices and the government responded by limiting gas use throughout central China before relenting and allowing rural residents to heat their homes with coal.

The government has now offered additional incentives, including loans from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, to extend the natural gas infrastructure. The anti-pollution plan is expected to increase China's gas use significantly over the long term.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Authorities have taken following measures to cut pollution in areas around Beijing except ____.

A.Forbidding residents in areas around Beijing from using coal at home.

B.Expelling migrant workers from Beijing and razing slum neighbourhoods.

C.Banning poor-quality coal briquettes in slum neighbourhoods in Beijing.

D.Closing highly polluting factories in provinces neighbouring Beijing.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following statements about the anti-pollution plan is true ?

A.Authorities are expected to set stricter targets for upcoming years.

B.2017 was the last year of China's nationwide anti-pollution campaign.

C.Nationally, PM2.5 levels fell 33 per cent in 2017 compared with 2016.

D.China cut down energy usage to reach the five-year anti-pollution goal.

答案(2)

3.What was Emmanuel Macron's attitude towards Beijing's action to close factories?

A.Negative. He believed it had terrible effect on economy.

B.Negative. He thought it was too brutal and fierce.

C.Positive. He believed it helped to cut pollution greatly.

D.Positive. He thought it was rapid and forceful.

答案(3)

4.What did the government do to tackle with the soaring gas prices?

A.Eliminate coal-burning sources including residential heating stoves.

B.Allowing residents in central China to heat their homes with coal.

C.Limiting gas use and extending the new natural gas infrastructure.

D.Revealing a plan to wean industry in the north China plain off coal.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.Banning poor-quality coal briquettes in slum neighbourhoods in Beijing.

解释：北京还驱逐了成千上万的移民工人，并清除了几个城市边陲的居民区。村庄和贫民区取暖所用的劣质煤球占据了北京及周边地区冬季煤炭消费量的一半。

(2) 答案：A.Authorities are expected to set stricter targets for upcoming years.

解释：2017年是一项为期五年的反污染运动的最后一年。预计未来几年的新目标将更为严格。

(3) 答案：D.Positive. He thought it was rapid and forceful.

解释：法国总统赞扬了北京关闭工厂的行动：“这展现了他们迅速甚至是粗暴的行动能力。”

(4) 答案：C.Limiting gas use and extending the new natural gas infrastructure.

解释：这导致了天然气价格的飞涨，为解决这一问题，政府限制中国中部的天然气使用，后来又放松了农村居民取暖用煤。还从亚洲基础设施投资银行贷款建设天然气基础设施。

朝鲜的“隐士经济”

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

hermit|隐士；遁世者

fawning|奉承的

foe|敌人

dauphin|王储

Kim Jong-il|金正日

brazenly|厚颜无耻地

whine|哀号，诉怨

famine|饥荒

cult|迷信，狂热的崇拜

orthodox|正统的

booze|烈性酒

smuggle|走私

supernotes|假钞

pariahs|流浪汉，贱民

Kaesong Industrial Complex|开城工业园区

Hyundai|韩国现代

chaebol|财阀

abruptly|突然地

regime|政治制度，政权

disarmament|解除武装，裁军

obdurately|顽固的，执拗的

tacit|隐性

Lee Myung-bak|李明博

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。

文章长度

872

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13秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分29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52秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Hermit economics hobbles Pyongyang （872 words）

Great Leader? Pyongyang's fawning hagiography not only grates, but is singularly unearneD.Even by its own dim lights, North Korea's decision-making is going from bad to worse.

Last year saw two spectacular own goals. Missile and nuclear tests were a weird way to greet a new US president ready to reach out to old foes. The predictable outcome was condemnation by the United Nations Security Council, plus sanctions on arms exports that are biting.

Domestic policy is just as disastrous. December's currency “reform” beggars belief. Did Kim Jong-il really fail to grasp that redenomination would not cure inflation, but worsen it? Or that brazenly stealing people's savings – beyond a paltry minimum, citizens only got 10 per cent of their money back – would finally goad his long-suffering subjects into rioting? Forced to retreat, officials even apologiseD.One scapegoat was sacked – and possibly shot.

By his own admission, Mr Kim does not do economics. In a speech in 1996, when famine was starting to bite, the Dear Leader whined defensively that his late father, Kim Il-sung, had told him “not to get involved in economic work, but just concentrate on the military and the party”.

That awful advice explains much. Incredibly, North Korea was once richer than the South. In today's world, this is the contest that counts. “It's the economy, stupid” is no mere slogan, but a law of social science.

Having taken an early lead, Kim senior threw it all away. He built the world's fourth largest army, crippling an economy that he refused to reform, viewing liberalisation as betrayal. His own personality cult was and is a literally monumental weight of unproductive spending.

Used to milking Moscow and Beijing, in the 1970s North Korea borrowed from western banks – and promptly defaulteD.That was not smart; it has had to pay cash up front ever since.

Pyongyang also resorts to less orthodox financing. In 1976 the Nordic nations expelled a dozen North Korean diplomats for trafficking cigarettes and booze. In December a Swedish court jailed two for smuggling cigarettes. More than 100 busts worldwide over 30 years, of everything from ivory and heroin to “supernotes” （fake $100 bills）, leave scant doubt that this is policy.

Yet morality aside, it is stupid policy. Pariahs stay poor. North Korea could earn far more by going straight. The Kaesong Industrial Complex （KIC）, where South Korean businesses employ Northern workers to make a range of goods, shows that co-operation can work. Yet Pyongyang keeps harassing it, imposing arbitrary border restrictions and demanding absurd wage hikes.

Now it threatens to seize $370m （€275m, £247m） of South Korean assets at Mount Kumgang, a tourist zone idle since a southern tourist was shot dead in 2008 and the north refused a proper investigation. Even before that, Pyongyang's greed in extorting inflated fees from Hyundai ensured that no other chaebol has ventured north. Contrast how China has gained from Taiwanese investment.

In this catalogue of crassness, the nadir came in 1991 when the dying Soviet Union abruptly pulled the plug on its clients. All suffered, but most adapteD.Cuba went for tourism; Vietnam tried cautious reform; Mongolia sold minerals. Only North Korea, bizarrely, did nothing – except watch its old system crumble. Gross domestic product plunged by half, and hunger killed up to a million. Now famine again stalks the lanD.The state cannot provide, yet still it seeks to suppress markets.

All this is as puzzling as it is terrible. China and Vietnam show how Asian communist states can morph towards capitalism and thrive. Kim Jong-il may fear the fate of the Soviet Union if he follows suit. True, his regime has survived – even if many of its people have not. Yet the path he is on is patently a dead enD.Mr Kim's own ill-health, and a belated bid to install his unknown third son as dauphin, only heighten uncertainty. Militant mendicancy over the nuclear issue – demanding to be paid for every tiny step towards a distant disarmament, then backsliding and trying the same trick again – will no longer wash. North Korea has run out of road; the game is finally up.

What now? A soft landing, with Mr Kim embracing peace abroad and reform at home, remains the best outcome. But if he obdurately resists change, we need a plan B.The US and South Korea have contingency plans for the north's collapse. So does China, separately. Tacit co-ordination is urgent, lest future chaos be compounded by a clash of rival powers – as in the 1890s. Koreans have a rueful proverb: when whales fight, the shrimp's back is broken.

But Beijing will not let it come to that. China is quietly moving into North Korea, buying up mines and ports. Some in Seoul cry colonialism, but it was they who created this vacuum by short-sightedly ditching the past decade's “sunshine” policy of patient outreach. President Lee Myung-bak may have gained the Group of 20 chairmanship, but he has lost North Korea.

Nor will Mr Kim nuzzle docile under China's wing, though his son might. As ever, North Korea will take others' money and do its own thing. In early 2010 new fake “super-yuan” of high quality, very hard to detect, started appearing in ChinA.They wouldn't, would they?

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 statement about Kim Il-sung is CORRECT, according to the article?

A.He did not do economics until the disastrous famine started.

B.His regime has survived, yet the path he is on is patently a dead end.

C.He has installed his son as dauphin.

D.None of the above.

答案(1)

2.In 1991 when the dying Soviet Union abruptly pulled the plug on its clients，which of the following country did not adapt, according to the article?

A.Cuba

B.North Korea

C.Vietnam

D.Mongolia

答案(2)

3.According to the author, the North Korea should do all the following for survival EXCEPT?

A.get rid of the isolation.

B.do economic reform.

C.give up its nuclear program.

D.confront the US.

答案(3)

4.Generally, what's the author's attitude towards the regime of Kim Jong-il?

A.Cautiously optimistic

B.Hopeful

C.Indifferent

D.Deeply concerned

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.His regime has survived, yet the path he is on is patently a dead enD.

解释："when famine was starting to bite, the Dear Leader whined defensively that his late father, Kim Il-sung, had told him “not to get involved in economic work, but just concentrate on the military and the party”. "由此看出，朝鲜并没有在饥荒问题后转而关注民生，故选项A错误；"Mr Kim's own ill-health, and a belated bid to install his unknown third son as dauphin, only heighten uncertainty."故选项C错误。

(2) 答案：B.North Korea

解释：" All suffered, but most adapted.","Only North Korea, bizarrely, did nothing".

(3) 答案：D.confront the US.

(4) 答案：D.Deeply concerned

解释：在对“伟大领袖”的冷嘲热讽的表面之下，作者对朝鲜局势非常担忧。

办公室放音乐，你准备好了吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

minglevt. 混合 /'mɪŋɡl/

perchv. 栖息，就位 /pɜːtʃ/

hygienicadj. 卫生的 /haɪ'dʒiːnɪk/

penetratevt./vi. 穿透，渗透 /'penətreɪt/

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。

文章长度

662

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43秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分38秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分53秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The sound of Taylor Swift at my desk? No thanks（662 words）

By Pilita Clark

The other day I went to an office where there was something so odd that at first I thought it had to be a horrible mistake.

It was home to a workplace design agency called the Fourfront Group that had been built to show off the latest in office set-ups. The kitchen was large and airy, all the better to lure workers to mingle and swap ideas. The desks were mostly hot. Chucking your coat over a chair to nab one was banned and so was eating at them. Snacking from a toilet seat was more hygienic, I was tolD.Better to get up and “connect” in the kitchen or the nearest coffee shop.

One of the few rooms with a door had “perching stools” on a pole that deliberately wobbled to stop meetings dragging on. I liked the look of these, though I was less sure about the walls, which were dotted with mantras such as “don't be an arse” from what the agency calls “the Fourfront Way”.

But as I was being shown around, something far more grating kept disrupting my thoughts. Eventually I realised it was the sound of a radio and it seemed to be coming from the ceiling. “What's that?” I asked, pointing in the general direction of the noise.

“They're Sonos speakers,” I was told and no, the radio had not been left on by mistake. Anyone in the office with a Sonos app could pick what to play and at that moment it was a local radio station. “Really?” I blurted out, immediately realising from the silent faces around me that this was entirely serious.

Music in the office turned out to be part of a growing movement to make the workplace more homely, welcoming and less formal. Companies competing for younger recruits apparently find it especially appealing.

Fourfront said about 30 per cent of its clients chose to have music playing and though they tended to be companies with younger workers making things like software, the trend is spreading.

Architects, construction firms and professional consultants are no longer ruling it out.

“We have Spotify Fridays in our office,” said a PR person on the tour who worked at another company. People picked a list of tracks based on anything from animals to the year they were born, he said, and everyone loved it.

I could see this might work in some places. But was it really becoming routine in ordinary offices where people needed to concentrate and escape was impossible? What if you couldn't stand your colleagues' taste in music? Who decides what's played? What happens if you are on the phone trying to impress some important stranger with Bruno Mars blaring in the background?

As soon as I got back to work I fired off a few emails to people I knew around the City of London to see if music had penetrated their offices and what they thought of the ideA.“Oh my GoD.No. How dreadful,” said one. “Nooooooo!” said another. An architect told me the sudden arrival of speakers piping “rubbish pop” around the office was one of the main reasons he decided to quit a firm not long ago.

When I asked what people in my own office thought, I might as well have been suggesting we start a Come to Work Naked Day.

Even younger colleagues balked at the ideA.“I don't see how that would work,” said a frowning 22-year-olD.“Listening to Taylor Swift all day would be very grim.”

But the PR man had a point: music in the office is by no means a rarity. Some organisations are using it because open plan offices are so quiet that private conversations are impossible.

Playing music softly supposedly creates the right sort of background noise. Fans point to studies showing music helps to make people more co-operative, productive, and happier.

It still sounds dreadful to me. I did eventually find someone at a big white-collar firm who had been seconded to work in an office where he said the piped music in one spot was remarkably useful for the task at hand.

It was not at his desk nor even in the kitchen. It was a place where he often waited in self-conscious silence, hoping for a bit of noise, and the music did the trick brilliantly. It was the lavatory. And as far as I am concerned, that is precisely where the idea of playing music out loud in the office should stay.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the Fourfront Group according to the article?

A.A workplace design agency.

B.An audio equipment designer.

C.A construction company.

D.A office set-ups distributor.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following companies is most likely to welcome background music at workplace?

A.A PR agency works with young artists.

B.A comprehensive modern art studio.

C.A tech start-up with young workers.

D.A professional fine art consultancy.

答案(2)

3.Why some open plan offices opt to have background music playing at workplace?

A.To make the open-plan offices more homely .

B.To encourage more private conversations.

C.To creates the right sort of background noise.

D.To make employees more co-operative.

答案(3)

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

A.Background music in office often distracts worker's attention from their tasks.

B.The idea of playing music out at work should stay only in open-plan offices.

C.Playing music softly can make employees more co-operative and productive.

D.Background music should be banned in offices to avoid background noise.

答案(4)

(1) A.A workplace design agency. 这是一个名为Fourfront Group的办公室设计机构的所在地，这里展示了最新潮的办公室设置。

(2) C.A tech start-up with young workers. Fourfront表示，大约30％的客户选择播放音乐，尽管这些公司一般为年轻雇员较多的软件公司，但这种趋势正在蔓延。

(3) C.To creates the right sort of background noise. 一些公司组织组织正在使用背景音乐，因为在非常安静的开放式办公室里，私人谈话是不可能的。

(4) A.Background music in office often distracts worker's attention from their tasks. 在需要集中精力工作的普通办公室里，背景音乐真的变成了无法回避的常规吗？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集

Vol.70

“数据天后”的雅虎之路

本文作者为英国《金融时报》记者 蒂姆·布拉德肖

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。

文章长度

978

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59秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分54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58秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Data diva who left Google to ‘go purple’ （978 words）

In January 2009, Marissa Mayer – by her own admission – broke the internet.

As Google's vice-president of search products, Ms Mayer was responsible for what was then the world's most popular website. An errant “/” in a computer code had triggered a chain of events that resulted in the message “This site may harm your computer” popping up alongside every search result.

“It was as if the internet was broken,” she told Newsweek. “I work well under pressure, but I began to have this horrifying sense of just how many millions of people were looking at their computer screens thinking, what is going on? And how many of them were clicking straight over to Yahoo.”

After Ms Mayer hit two phone lines, eight instant-messenger chats and made a video call from a family holiday hotel room, the problem was fixed in just under an hour.

In the end, not many users switched over to Yahoo: Google's dominance in search has continued largely unabateD.But three years later, Ms Mayer herself has “gone purple”, becoming Yahoo's fifth chief executive in as many years.

News of her poaching – and that she has taken the job while six months pregnant – might also have strained the internet a little, so huge was the reaction, particularly in Silicon Valley. At just 37, Ms Mayer was one of Google's longest-serving and best-known executives.

But fixing Yahoo will take a little longer than the broken internet that January morning and despite her many talents, Ms Mayer must prove that she can outlast her combined predecessors to collect more than $100m in potential compensation.

Although she has built her reputation over 13 years at Google, one of the world's smartest companies, Ms Mayer's plan to turn round Yahoo by focusing on innovation and product developments comes after years of flatlining revenues. Riding the wave of constant growth at Google may not have adequately prepared her for the difficulties at Yahoo, sceptics say.

Nonetheless, she is the closest thing Google has had to a celebrity. One ad agency executive this week grumbled that he had never met her but knew plenty about her from San Francisco society pages, which have documented her penthouse atop the Four Seasons Hotel and hirings of entire cinemas to show friends flicks such as Sex and the City.

She has been profiled in Vogue, which lauded her as “the most poised and powerful information guru”, and drooled over the snowflake lace” wedding dress Ms Mayer wore when “she married entrepreneur Zack Bogue. The pair, whose first child is due in October, reportedly enjoy marathons, cooking and long hikes in the Alps.

Her investments are among Silicon Valley's hippest: Square, the payment company led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, ex-president of Facebook Sean Parker's new video-chat service Airtime, and high-end ecommerce site One Kings Lane.

Ms Mayer has always known the right places to be seen. The granddaughter of a Wisconsin mayor, she grew up in Wausau, a midsized town in the Midwestern state. At high school she managed to make both the debating team and dance group – a combination of brains and blonde that would fare her well as the media-friendly face of Google at a time when few of the search engine's geeky guys were interested in talking to the press.

But her blossoming profile irked some of her fellow Googlers, particularly when San Francisco magazine dubbed her the “Googirl” in a glowing 2008 interview that was more about her than the company.

"She was clearly the outlier," says one former colleague at Google. “Some of that is curateD.When she has her picture taken she makes sure she is dressed to the nines and that the photos come out great.”

Despite playing to the media's superficialities, in the office Ms Mayer makes decisions based on hard datA.That may not be readily accepted by the more political Yahoo, which many Silicon Valley observers like to call a media company, with all the cosier connotations that carries.

"She has good IQ but not EQ [emotional intelligence]," says one Mayer supporter, who believes doing a better job of relating to people will be critical to succeeding as chief executive of Yahoo.

She joined Google aged 24 after studying computer science at Stanford University, becoming custodian of the homepage as well as other core services such as Gmail. “I had the rare privilege of watching a service scale 10,000 times over and build the back-end infrastructure,” she says, when asked about her main achievement there.

"At heart, Marissa is a product person, not a media or tech person," says Dan Crow, chief technology officer at Songkick, a live music website, who worked with Ms Mayer in the late 2000s and believes she is an “inspired choice” to run Yahoo.

But Ms Mayer was seen as being sidelined in her later years at Google and emerges with a mixed reputation as a manager. One underling called her a “demanding diva”, while a peer describes her as a “high latency micromanager”.

Josh McFarland, another ex-Google staffer now running data-marketing company TellApart, dismisses backbiters who say Ms Mayer rode on the coat-tails of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's co-founders. “You can't hide in a 20-person company,” he says. “You can't rise so far and be so close to the founders and not be brilliant. Larry and Sergey do not suffer fools.”

Crucial to her success at Yahoo will be answering what the website, visited by hundreds of millions of people, is really for in an age of Facebook and Google dominance.

Some, however, suspect the posting will serve to boost Ms Mayer's profile yet further, regardless of whether she can answer that question. “If she does something great, huge win,” says a Yahoo alumnus. “If she can't, she can say it wasn't fixable and will still have had the opportunity of sitting in a CEO position.”

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 wrong about Marissa Mayer ?

A.She used to be google's vice-president of search products.

B.She is the Yahoo's fifth chief executive now.

C.She has eight months pregnant.

D.She was one of Google's longest-serving and best-known executives.

答案(1)

2.What is the characteristic of Mayer in her colleagues'eyes according to the passage?

A.strict and skillful

B.kind and helpful

C.high EQ and low IQ

D.strict and kind

答案(2)

3.What can we learn from the sentence “Some of that is curated…that the photos come out great.” in paragraph fourteen?

A.Mayer is also a morden lady.

B.Mayer also focuses on her beauty.

C.Not only is she successful in her business,but she also focus on her appearance in every occasion.

D.None of them is right.

答案(3)

4.What did Dan Crow think about Marissa in this passage?

A.She is a product person rather than a tech person.

B.She will have a bright future in Yahoo.

C.She is better in Yahoo than in Google.

D.All of above is right.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.. She has eight months pregnant.

解释："she has taken the job while six months pregnant ",所以选项C是错误的。

(2) 答案：A .strict and skillful

解释：文章倒数第四段中有两个Google同事对她的评价——“demanding diva”&“high latency micromanager”。故正确答案选择A。

(3) 答案：C.. Not only is she successful in her business,but she also focus on her appearance in every occasion.

解释：根据文章的意思是，梅耶尔不仅是一个事业型女人，也很注意自己的形象，总留给大家一个美的感觉。正确答案选择C。

(4) 答案：D.All of above is right.

解释：正确答案选择D。

缅甸崛起？

本文作者为美负责亚太事务前助理国务卿詹姆斯.凯利（James Clad）

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Rangoon|仰光

Myanmar|缅甸

dictatorial|独裁的

hegemony|霸权，领导权

emigre|移民，侨民

coup|政变

caveat|警告

periphery|外围，外缘

jeopardise|危及

patronage|赞助，光顾

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。

文章长度

666

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39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39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Diplomacy shouldn't halt ‘rush to Rangoon’ （666 words）

Myanmar is fast becoming the destination of choice for US chief executives. Looking back to my first visit to the country in 1980, I cannot remember anything like this. One oil executive recently told me he was dismayed to encounter a swarm of business rivals on the same flight to Yangon airport. Another describes a “rush to Rangoon” akin to the 19th-century Oklahoma land rush. Foreigners are finding it difficult booking hotel rooms. Well-heeled tourists are flocking to Mandalay determined to see the country before it is “spoiled”.

Things are moving fast in diplomatic circles, too. Australia announced on Monday that it was lifting some of its sanctions against the country and the UK prime minister, David Cameron, suggested a similar move during his visit to Myanmar last week. The US has yet to follow, although it has relaxed some financial and travel restrictions. Political and economic reform seems to be well on its way.

Of course, it is easy to get carried away. Much of the country's half-century of dictatorial history remains in place. Myanmar's military is south-east Asia's most experienced fighting force and it is still the ultimate guarantor of a lowland Burmese hegemony imposed on fragmented hill tribes.

Non-governmental organisations also serve as a check on progress. Working on US foreign policy towards Myanmar from 2007 to 2009, I sought to open quiet but minimal communication with the regime after the 2008 cyclone led to an unprecedented relief effort. This squarely humanitarian effort went nowhere. NGOs were hostile to any loosening of strictures and sanctions. They were both impervious to how sanctions marginalised western influence and indifferent to how they created a vacuum into which Chinese commercial and diplomatic interests were all too happy to step.

However, these caveats should not obscure the fact that reform has now begun and will be very difficult to stop. There are four reasons why this is so – reasons that need to be understood by companies planning on following the rush to Rangoon, and by the Obama administration as it considers how to calibrate foreign policy towards Myanmar.

First, the retreat from a half-century's stultifying isolation reflects a broad yearning to regain Myanmar's place as the respected, reasonably well-off Asian country it was back in early 1950s. The 1962 coup forfeited that status. The people of Myanmar want it back.

Second, Myanmar continues to benefit from a more relaxed Chinese response to its new path. China's dominant role in Myanmar reflects its economic and military power, geographical proximity and – importantly – specific patronage relationships between mostly retired Burmese generals and Chinese extraction companies. For now, encouragingly, China has signalled it is ready to give Myanmar more breathing room and to accommodate the changes that the UK and Australia have endorsed.

Third, Aung San Suu Kyi. Neither NGOs nor émigré groups can explicitly oppose her qualified support for the current political reform track.

Fourth, there are also other pro-democracy figures far from the sway of her political party. They are not regime stooges, either. Democratisation will – fortunately – not stand or fall with one person, no matter how great her stature.

The Obama administration has to strike a balance. It must encourage the reform's forward momentum while delivering entry into Myanmar for US companies – and, crucially, for companies from other countries. With a major Chinese delegation arriving in Myanmar this month, Washington must avoid giving any impression it is playing a zero-sum game on China's periphery. It is an edgy, transitional political year in Myanmar's northern neighbour: not the time to empower hardliners all too ready to depict Myanmar as seduced by western caprice. This was the view adopted by some in China after Hillary Clinton's surprise visit to Yangon in November.

Reform in Myanmar is real. US and international businesses are right to be exciteD.Policy makers in the west must not jeopardise this opportunity. Cautious and encouraging diplomacy from the UK and US will help open a hitherto closed economy – precisely the result the people of Myanmar want.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why does so many foreigners rush to Rangoon ,according to the passage?

A.Because Myanmar has enchanting scenery.

B.Because Myanmar has so many resources to exploit and they want to do business.

C.Because Myanmar has the open plolicy to the foreigners.

D.Because Myanmar'the Water-Sprinkling Festival attracted them.

答案(1)

2.How many reasons for the Obama administration to consider how to calibrate foreign policy towards Myanmar?

A.One

B.Four

C.Six

D.Five

答案(2)

3.According to the article, why does China act an important role in Myanmar ?

A.Because China's economic and military power,geographical proximity.

B.Because there are specific patronage relationships between mostly retired Burmese generals and Chinese extraction companies.

C.Because China often assitants Myanmar.

D.Both A and B.

答案(3)

4.In author's opinion, what's the attitude of the western country to the Myanmar at present?

A.Excited.

B.Enjoyable.

C.Cautious.

D.All of the above

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.Because Myanmar has so many resources to exploit and they want to do business.

解释：正确。由第一段可知，作者说许多外国人去缅甸考察，为的是发现更多的商业投资机会，就像19世纪的俄克拉荷马州。

(2) 答案：B.Four

解释：答案在第五段，缅甸未来的发展不可阻挡，美国也不得不考虑缅甸未来的潜力。

(3) 答案：D.Both A and B.

解释：答案在第七段第二句话。“China's dominant role in Myanmar reflects its economic and military power, geographical proximity and – importantly – specific patronage relationships between mostly retired Burmese generals and Chinese extraction companies.”

(4) 答案：D.All of the above

解释：从最后一段可以看出。西方国家看到了缅甸的发展前景，立刻调整其外交政策，把从前对缅甸的一系列制裁全部取消。同时，他们也非常希望看到缅甸的发展，很兴奋，但同时对其的投资也很谨慎，毕竟缅甸不是他们的同盟国。

“经济价值”是个什么玩意儿？

本文作者系《金融时报》专栏作家约翰·凯（John Kay）。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

underestimate|低估，估计不足

divert|使转移，使转向

extol|赞颂，赞扬

vendor|小贩，摊贩

despise|鄙视，看不起

propitiate|劝说，抚慰

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。

文章长度

679

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

A GOOD ECONOMIST KNOWS THE TRUE VALUE OF THE ARTS （679 words）

By John Kay

Many people underestimate the contribution disease makes to the economy. In Britain, more than a million people are employed to diagnose and treat disease and care for the ill. Thousands of people build hospitals and surgeries, and many small and medium-size enterprises manufacture hospital supplies. Illness contributes about 10 per cent of the UK's economy: the government does not do enough to promote disease.

Such reasoning is identical to that of studies sitting on my desk that purport to measure the economic contribution of sport, tourism and the arts. These studies point to the number of jobs created, and the ancillary activities needed to make the activities possible. They add up the incomes that result. Reporting the total with pride, the sponsors hope to persuade us not just that sport, tourism and the arts make life better, but that they contribute to something called “the economy”.

The analogy illustrates the obvious fallacy. What the exercises measure is not the benefits of the activities they applaud, but their cost; and the value of an activity is not what it costs, but the amount by which its benefit exceeds its costs. The economic contribution of sport is in the pleasure participants and spectators derive, and the resulting gains in health and longevity. That value is diminished, not increased, by the resources that need to be diverted from other purposes.

Similarly, the economic value of the arts is in the commercial and cultural value of the performance, not the costs of cleaning the theatre. The economic perspective does not differ from the commonsense perspective. Good economics here, as so often, is a matter of giving precision to our common sense. Bad economics here, as so often, involves inventing bogus numbers to answer badly formulated questions.

But good economics is often harder to do than bad economics. It is difficult to measure the value of a Shakespeare play: you can start with the box office receipts, but this is only the beginning of the story. Adding up the actors' wages does not help. Changes in relative prices since the time of Verdi mean that grand opera is now very expensive to perform. The relevant economic questions are whether the cultural and commercial value of the performance offsets these costs and whether these benefits can be translated into a combination of box office receipts, sponsorship and public subsidy. The appropriate economic criterion, everywhere and always, is the value of the output.

But bad economics has been allowed to drive out gooD.I am sympathetic to the well-intentioned people who commission studies of economic benefit, though not to those who take money for carrying them out. They are responding to a climate in which philistine businessmen assert that the private sector company that manufactures pills is a wealth creator, but the public sector doctor who prescribes them is not. Extolling the virtues of manufacturing, they value the popcorn sold in the interval, but not the performance of the play, arguing that the vendor of consumer goods creates resources, which the subsidised theatre uses up. People who work in the theatre, hospitals or education are often forced to listen to this nonsense. It should be no surprise that so many of them despise business and the values such business espouses. If these values were truly the values of business they would be right to despise them.

The surveys on my desk are expensively commissioned because their sponsors perceive a language they detest and do not understanD.We need to put out of our minds this widely held notion that there is such a thing as “the economy”, a monster outside the door that needs to be fed and propitiated and whose values conflict with things – such as sports, tourism and the arts – that make our lives agreeable and worthwhile. Activities that are good in themselves are good for the economy, and activities that are bad in themselves are bad for the economy. The only intelligible meaning of “benefit to the economy” is the contribution – direct or indirect – the activity makes to the welfare of ordinary citizens.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What's the main purpose of the first paragraph of this article?

A.To stress the importance of the contribution disease makes to the economy

B.To list the example of the contribution

C.To suggest the government do more to promote disease

D.To refute people's wrong idea about "benefit to the aconomy"

答案(1)

2.Which of the following is CORRECT about "good economics", according to the author?

A.Good economics is a matter of giving precision to our common sense.

B.Good economics is often harder to do than bad economics.

C.The appropriate economic criterion is the value of the output.

D.All of the above.

答案(2)

3.According to the article, which of the following is NOT asserted by philistine businessmen?

A.The public sector doctor who prescribes pills is a wealth creator.

B.They extol the virtues of manufacturing.

C.They value the popcorn sold in the interval instead of the performance of the play.

D.They argue that the vendor of consumer goods creates resources.

答案(3)

4.According to the author, what's the true meaning of "benefit to the economy"?

A."Economy" is a monster outside the door that needs to be fed and propitiated.

B.Values of "economy" conflict with things such as sports and the arts.

C."Economy" is the contribution which the activity makes to the welfare of ordinary citizens.

D.All of the above

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.To refute people's wrong idea about "benefit to the aconomy"

解释：第一段其实是举了一个反例，意在告诫人们，这些都是对“经济收益与贡献”的误解。在第二段里作者对此进行了解释。

(2) 答案：D.All of the above.

(3) 答案：A.The public sector doctor who prescribes pills is a wealth creator.

解释："They are responding to a climate in which philistine businessmen assert that the private sector company that manufactures pills is a wealth creator, but the public sector doctor who prescribes them is not. "，故A项错误。

(4) 答案：C."Economy" is the contribution which the activity makes to the welfare of ordinary citizens.

解释：正确，详见文章的最后一段。

高盛之“罪”

本文作者系《金融时报》副主编、专栏作家、首席产业评论员。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

fraud|欺诈，诈骗

enduring|持久的，不朽的

flee|逃走，逃避

unswerving|坚持不懈的，坚定不移的

adherence|遵守，遵从

tawdry|华而不实的

behalf|方面，利益

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。

文章长度

916

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32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37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

Greed is not good for Goldman （916 words）

By John Gapper

There are various ways to describe the synthetic collateralised debt obligation that Goldman Sachs constructed for John Paulson, the hedge fund manager who bet on the collapse of the mortgage bubble.

Goldman itself terms it “nothing unusual or remarkable”. The US Securities and Exchange Commission describes the Abacus deal that closed in April 2007 as securities frauD.I call it short-term greedy.

Goldman rose to its dominant position on Wall Street through the dictum of Gus Levy, its former senior partner, that it should be “long-term greedy”. He meant that it should forgo quick gains for enduring profits.

The bank's expression of that principle on its website is: “Whether a mid-size employer in Kansas, a larger school district in California, a pension fund for skilled workers, or a start-up technology firm, our clients' interests come first.” So what about a Düsseldorf bank?

In late 2006, after an internal debate on its mortgage desk, Goldman made a far-sighted decision to protect itself from what it had come to fear would be a severe downturn in the housing market. It pulled back from taking risk and hedged its mortgage book, saving itself from the deluge.

At exactly the same time, it was approached by Paulson & Co to structure a CDO that the hedge fund could make money by shorting. Paulson offered it a $15m fee to assemble the deal and find an investor that would take the risk from which Goldman was simultaneously fleeing.

Fabrice Tourre, Goldman's front-man on the deal, went to IKB, a bank that had invested in several of its Abacus CDOs and was a valuable Goldman client. He offered it a package, which it took without looking closely enough at the dodgy mortgage swaps inside.

When the smoke cleared, Paulson made a profit of about $1bn while IKB lost $150m and had to be bailed out that August. ACA Capital, which selected the securities, lost $900m and later failed （with ABN-Amro assuming liability）. Goldman, which tried to shed its position but could not hedge it exactly, lost $100m.

The SEC will find it difficult to make a charge of fraud stick against Goldman and Mr Tourre. IKB was a “qualified” professional investor that was not supposed to need its hand held by an investment bank （although there always seems to be a German bank in such cases, eager to blow a hole in its balance sheet）.

But judged by Levy's dictum, and the principles of John Whitehead, another senior partner （“We are dedicated to complying fully with the letter and spirit of the laws, rules and ethical principles that govern us. Our continued success depends on unswerving adherence to this standard”）, Abacus was a tawdry episode.

None of the deal documents made clear that Paulson had called the tune and Goldman had initially acted on its behalf. Goldman has been reduced to brandishing the letter of the law and insisting that it adhered to “market practice”, which is not the same as ethical principle. Goldman gave 8m documents to the SEC, but did not include the overarching philosophy that brought it to Abacus, the strategy laid out by Lloyd Blankfein, its chairman and chief executive, in 2005.

As Charles Ellis's The Partnership records, Mr Blankfein feared that if Goldman stuck to its traditional separation of agency and principal businesses – keeping its client advisory and asset management work isolated from risk-taking with its own capital – it would be overtaken by commercial banks.

“Its complex variety of many businesses was sure to have lots of conflicts,” Ellis writes. “Goldman Sachs, Blankfein said, should embrace the challenge of those conflicts.” It definitely embraced them with Abacus, keeping IKB in the dark both about Paulson and its own view of mortgage CDOs.

Goldman was, to borrow words from Robert Armstrong, the former British cabinet secretary, being “economical with the truth”. It treated IKB like a trade counterparty while Paulson got the privileges associated with a client.

The biggest client business in banking is mergers and acquisitions and there is a saying in M&A, honoured more in the breach than the observance. It is that the best piece of advice a banker can give a client is not to do an ill-advised deal although he would earn a fee.

IKB was Goldman's client for its first Abacus deal in 2004, and, if it had truly put IKB first Goldman would have told it not to take part in the last one. Even as it was being assembled, Jonathan Egol, Mr Tourre's colleague, was e-mailing: “You know I love it, all I'm saying is that the CDO business is dead and we don't have a lot of time left”.

Goldman can argue, and it does, that it did not have any fiduciary duty to IKB to tell it any such thing. It had a view of the mortgage market, IKB had another and Paulson & Co a thirD.They were all consenting counterparties operating in a sophisticated market. In the end, that is not good enough, certainly not for a bank that takes pride on putting clients first. IKB was one such but, when it came to this deal, Goldman's message was: “We're taking care of our balance sheet and you're on your own.”

Emanuel Derman, a former partner who was one of Goldman's first derivatives wizards, wrote on his blog this week: “The SEC may be trying to cure unethical behaviour by treating it as illegality.” But the law is all the SEC has; ethics are Goldman's responsibility.

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 statement about IKB is NOT true, according to the article?

A.IKB is a bank that had invested in several of its Abacus CDOs.

B.IKB lost $150m and had to be bailed out.

C.IKB was a qualified investor that was not supposed to need its hand held by an investment bank.

D.IKB was treated like a privileged client by Goldman.

答案(1)

2.What's the author's attitude when he mentions the principle on Goldman's website in the 4th paragragh?

A.Strongly opposed

B.Sarcastic

C.Satisfied

D.Nonchalant

答案(2)

3.Which of the following is Goldman's actual behavior, according to the author?

A.Goldman seems to take care of only their balance sheet.

B.Goldman argues that it did not have any fiduciary duty to IKB to tell it any "unnecessary message".

C.Goldman treats IKB and Paulson differently.

D.All of the above

答案(3)

4.According to the article, which of the following is TRUE?

A.The best piece of advice a banker can give a client should be based on whether he would earn a fee or not.

B.Gus Levy suggested that Goldman should seek for "long-term greedy".

C.The SEC will find it easy to make a charge of fraud stick against Goldman.

D.All of the above

答案(4)

(1) 答案：D.IKB was treated like a privileged client by Goldman.

解释："It treated IKB like a trade counterparty while Paulson got the privileges associated with a client. ",故D项错误。

(2) 答案：B.Sarcastic

解释：作者在描述了高盛写在自己网站上的准则后，有这样一句话：So what about a Düsseldorf bank?，仔细体会这句话的口气。

(3) 答案：D.All of the above

(4) 答案：B.Gus Levy suggested that Goldman should seek for "long-term greedy".

解释："It is that the best piece of advice a banker can give a client is not to do an ill-advised deal although he would earn a fee.",故A项错误；“The SEC will find it difficult to make a charge of fraud stick against Goldman and Mr Tourre. ”，故C项错误。

俾斯麦的教训

本文作者系政治、经济和商业顾问公司Longford Advisors的总裁。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

brinksmanship|边缘政策

undermine|逐渐削弱，暗中破坏

jittery|紧张不安的，神经过敏的

Vladimir Putin|弗拉基米尔·普京，俄罗斯总理

Yuriko Koike|小池百合子

Tamil rebels|泰米尔反政府武装

prop up|支持，资助

Eurasia|欧亚大陆

periphery|外围，周围，边缘

Ostpolitik|（西欧国家的）东方政策

Otto von Bismarck|俾斯麦，德意志帝国第一任首相

Prussia|普鲁士

beggar-thy|以邻为壑

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。

文章长度

722

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

2分53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43秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Bismarck's lessons for Beijing（722 words）

By Wen Liao

Both America and China have blinked in their dispute over the renminbi's exchange rate. A fortnight before Tim Geithner was due to pronounce on whether China manipulates its currency, the US Treasury secretary postponed the report. The decision followed President Hu Jintao's announcement that he would attend this week's US-led nuclear disarmament summit for forthright discussions on imposing new sanctions on Iran and curbing North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

Although putting the renminbi on the back-burner serves the interests of both Washington and Beijing, the world's response to the debate suggests the dangers of such brinksmanship. America received almost no support for its tough stance, save for some mild words of rebuke from Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and a soft joint letter of protest from five leaders of the Group of 20. There was a deafening silence from Japan and South Korea, both of which have massive investments in ChinA.Their most powerful companies' profits are linked to China's export success, which a stronger renminbi would undermine.

But Beijing should not take comfort from this because its neighbours are increasingly jittery about Chinese power. Evidence can be found in India's efforts not only to forge an alliance with the US but, during Vladimir Putin's recent visit, to revive military ties with RussiA.A call from Yuriko Koike, the former Japanese defence minister, for a strengthening of Japanese-Indian military ties also suggests that the region's powers are looking for ways to contain ChinA.

The critical moment came last year. In providing military aid and advice to Sri Lanka as it crushed the Tamil rebels, China revealed a willingness to wield its military might outside of its traditional sphere of influence, dramatically challenging IndiA.

Moreover, by extending credits to prop up former Soviet states in central Asia and eastern Europe – demonstrating in financial terms its rejection of Russia's claim to an exclusive “sphere of influence” in its near abroad – China showed its determination to maintain the post-cold war settlement across EurasiA.

China's rapid economic growth over 30 years, combined with its military build-up, has made it Asia's strongest power. After centuries of dominance by powers outside Asia or on its periphery – Russia, Britain, the US and Japan – China is reasserting the sway it held for most of its history and is exerting pressure in new areas, as in Sri LankA.

Leaders in Beijing will need to become foreign-policy jugglers as they seek to prevent regional coalitions to keep China in check, maintain tolerably amicable relations with the US and develop an “Ostpolitik” to keep smaller neighbours – such as members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations – happy.

This juggling act is reminiscent of that required of Otto von Bismarck, the 19th century's master diplomat-conjuror, after he united Germany. Bismarck strove ruthlessly to achieve unification and what he considered Prussia's rightful place among the great powers. Having achieved these aims, he sought to preserve a new European equilibrium through prudence and restraint. But Germany had so mobilised its resources and nationalist sentiments that it terrified its neighbours. Soon, Bismarck was speaking of “the nightmare of hostile coalitions”. For all his efforts, it was a nightmare that would come true.

China's dilemma is that, like Bismarck's Germany, it surpasses in power all its neighbours combined （save for Russia with respect to its nuclear arsenal）. To avoid the fate of the Second Reich, China must recognise and publicly accept that it is no longer a developing country but a global power with responsibilities that extend beyond its immediate national interests.

It will need to explain its actions and factor other countries' interests into its policies. The dispute over the renminbi is a wake-up call for Beijing. But pulling back from the brink with the US is not enough. Nor can China rely on Asia's “great chain of production” providing it with a secure and stable region. As with the Asian crisis of 1997, when China shunned beggar-thy-neighbour currency policies, what is needed above all is a commitment to neighbourly multilateralism.

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 TRUE, according to the article?

A.Most countries support America's tough stance towards China.

B.Profits of Japan and Korea's companies are linked to China's export so that stronger renminbi would benefit them.

C.As China's neighbour, India is getting increasingly stressful and began to forge an alliance with countries like the US.

D.None of the above.

答案(1)

2.According to the article, what is the biggest risk for China?

A.Its rapid economic growth

B.the dispute over the renminbi

C.excessive power and disregard of the neighbours' sentiments

D.None of the above

答案(2)

3.According to the author, what can China learn from Bismarck?

A.Accept that it is a global power with responsbilities

B.Explain its actions and factor other countries' interest

C.Shun beggar-thy-neighbour currency policies

D.All of the above.

答案(3)

4.Which of the following would the author DISAGREE?

A.The dispute over the renminbi is only a wake-up call for Beijing.

B.China could rely on Asia's “great chain of production” providing it with a secure and stable region.

C.Bismarck's Germany had so mobilised its resources and nationalist sentiments that it terrified its neighbours.

D.With the strong power, China is reasserting the sway it held for most of its history and is exerting pressure in new areas, as in Sri Lanka.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.As China's neighbour, India is getting increasingly stressful and began to forge an alliance with countries like the US.

解释："America received almost no support for its tough stance",故A项错误；"Their most powerful companies' profits are linked to China's export success, which a stronger renminbi would undermine."，故B项错误。

(2) 答案：C.excessive power and disregard of the neighbours' sentiments

解释：Good

(3) 答案：D.All of the above.

解释：Good

(4) 答案：B.China could rely on Asia's “great chain of production” providing it with a secure and stable region.

解释："But pulling back from the brink with the US is not enough. Nor can China rely on Asia's “great chain of production” providing it with a secure and stable region. "，故B项错误。

死不认账的CEO

同样是CEO，为什么有些人做错事马上道歉，而另一些人死不认账呢？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Warren Buffett|股神巴菲特

Omaha|巴菲特所在的城市奥马哈

The Sage of Omaha|巴菲特的绰号“奥马哈圣人”

Berkshire Hathaway|巴菲特旗下的伯克希尔哈撒韦公司

Gordon Brown|英国首相，在担任首相之前是财政大臣

Climategate|气候门

Nietzsche|尼采，哲学家

inexorable|无法改变的，无法阻拦的

Dick Fuld|雷曼兄弟前CEO

hindsight|回头看，回顾，事后

Alan Schwartz|贝尔斯登前CEO

fated|注定

assert|坚称

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。

文章长度

663

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44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53秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Regrets? Everyone should have a few （663 words）

By John Kay

Which leader of a large financial services company recently confessed to shareholders of “a very expensive business fiasco entirely of his own making”? The executives of many companies owe their investors that kind of apology. But mostly their statements make extensive references to unprecedented turmoil in the financial world, challenging market conditions and the dangers of historic errors of regulation. You will find an occasional expression of regret for what has happeneD.That is not quite the same as regret for what one has oneself done.

The company in question seems to have responded well to the challenging conditions. It is led, of course, by Warren Buffett. He has publicly admitted defeat in Berkshire Hathaway's withdrawal from the credit card business after substantial losses.

The Sage of Omaha's investment record, and the adulation of his supporters, is such that he could now own up to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and be cheered to the rafters. You might think that past success makes it easier to admit present failure, but you more often find the reverse: many people in senior positions take the view that their past achievements simply confirm their own assessment of their extraordinary prescience.

Mr Buffett's capacity to admit error predates his popular fame. The Berkshire Hathaway annual report of 25 years ago uses similar language to describe the company's belated closure of the textile business whose name it still bears. “I was very wrong,” said Mr Buffett. “I ignored Comte's advice – the intellect should be the servant of the heart but not its slave – and believed what I preferred to believe.”

George Soros is another celebrated investor ready to admit to being wrong: “With regard to events in the real world, my [forecasting] record is downright dismal. The outstanding feature of my predictions is that I keep on expecting developments that do not materialise.” This quotation dates from the 1980s, before Mr Soros became a household name. The ability to recognise errors seems more likely to be a reason for the success of these men than a product of it.

To learn from mistakes, you must first acknowledge them. One of Gordon Brown's many problems is that a world in which no errors have been made in economic and fiscal policy since 1997 is so divergent from reality. The British prime minister's evidence to the Iraq inquiry is succinctly summarised by the title of a fine recent book by the social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson: Mistakes Were Made （But Not By Me）.

Ms Tavris and Prof Aronson document our susceptibility to confirmation bias. Like the Climategate scientists, we review the evidence not to search for the truth, but to support propositions we have already persuaded ourselves are true. Worse, we rewrite history to fit our current perceptions. As Nietzsche described it: “ ‘I have done that,’ says my memory. ‘I cannot have done that,’ says my pride, and remains inexorable.” We do not acknowledge our mistakes because we have genuinely persuaded ourselves we did not make them.

So Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers can without irony assert that “based on the information that we had at the time, I believed that these decisions were both prudent and appropriate”. The furthest the chief executive of the bankrupt company would go was to acknowledge that “with the benefit of hindsight, would I have done things differently? Yes, I would have.” Alan Schwartz, former Bear Stearns chief executive, would not go so far: “I just simply have not been able to come up with anything, even with the benefit of hindsight, that would have made a difference.”

Throughout the credit crunch, mistakes were made, by bankers, politicians, regulators. But not by me. George Santayana, the Spanish philosopher, famously remarked that “when experience is not retained, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” If we learn no other lesson from the events of the past decade, we will be fated to learn that one.

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 would the author agree?

A.Haughtines invites losses while modesty brings profits.

B.You don't make mistakes unless you admit you do.

C.Only successful people can afford to appologize.

D.Successful investors like Warren Buffet never make big mistakes.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following is true about Gordon Brown, according to the author?

A.He made a lot of errors in economic and fiscal policy since 1997.

B.He doesn't acknowledge his mistakes.

C.He doesn't learn from his mistakes.

D.All of the above.

答案(2)

3.Which of the following is true about Dick Fuld, according to the author?

A.He knows he has made huge mistaks, just doesn't have the courage to admit.

B.He convinced himself that he has done nothing wrong.

C.He would avoid the same mistake if given another chance.

D.Any one in his situation would have done the same thing.

答案(3)

4.The author's attitude toward Alan Schwartz, former Bear Sterns chief, can be described as:

A.sarcastic

B.supportive

C.sympathetic

D.neutral

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.Haughtines invites losses while modesty brings profits.

解释：这句话的中文意思就是“谦受益，满遭损”。这正是这篇文章的核心论点。

(2) 答案：B.He doesn't acknowledge his mistakes.

解释："To learn from mistakes, you must first acknowledge them. One of Gordon Brown's many problems is that a world in which no errors have been made in economic and fiscal policy since 1997 is so divergent from reality…"

(3) 答案：B.He convinced himself that he has done nothing wrong.

解释：这个问题的几个答案都有点似是而非，请仔细阅读这段话，体会其中微妙的差别：We do not acknowledge our mistakes because we have genuinely persuaded ourselves we did not make them. So Dick Fuld of Lehman Brothers can without irony assert that “based on the information that we had at the time, I believed that these decisions were both prudent and appropriate”.

(4) 答案：D.neutral

解释：Good

比财政紧缩更好的选择

本文作者为智库首席经济学家迈克尔·赫德森（Michael Hudson）。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

depreciation|货币贬值，跌价

unpalatable|不好吃的，不合口味的

overdose|用药过量

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。

文章长度

706

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2秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分49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42秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

FOR STATES IN CRISIS, AUSTERITY IS NOT THE ONLY OPTION （706 words）

As Europe's banking crisis deepens and the US economy stalls, most discussions of how to stabilise national finances assume only two options: “internal devaluation” （shrinking the economy by cutting public spending） and currency devaluation. Both aim to make countries more competitive: the first using unemployment to lower wages and imports, the second lowering export prices.

The Baltic states, in particular, have applied the first option to an extreme degree. Government cuts have shrunk the gross domestic product of Latvia and Lithuania by more than 20 per cent in two years, while wages in Latvia's public sector have fallen by 30 per cent. The hope is that falling wages and prices will see economies “earn their way out of debt”, creating a trade surplus to earn euros that, in turn, can pay the debts that fuelled the post-2002 property bubble.

The second option has been tried less often. Those eastern European countries that have not yet joined the euro know that currency depreciation would delay their planned European Union membership. It would also raise the price of energy and other essential imports, aggravating the economic squeeze and trade deficit. Most leaders therefore find currency devaluation so unthinkable that, at first glance, austerity seems to be the only choice. The problem is that austerity prompts strikes and slowdowns, which, in turn, shrink the domestic market, investment and tax receipts. As unemployment spreads and wages fall, mortgage arrears and defaults soar. Property prices have plunged too. Some business owners are even now taking a novel approach to escaping their debts: emigration.

Facing these two unpalatable options, some of eastern Europe's leaders have begun to realise that there is, in fact, a third option: radical reform of the tax system. Taxes in most post-Soviet eastern European economies, along with countries such as Greece, are regressive. They add to the price of labour and industry while under-taxing property. Latvia is an extreme example: its flat taxes fall almost entirely on employment, meaning workers take home less than half of what employers pay. The good news is that these high taxes on labour leave open the option of shifting taxes on to other areas, in particular lanD.Lowering taxes on wages would reduce the cost of employment without squeezing take-home pay and living standards. Raising taxes on property, meanwhile, would leave less value to be capitalised into bank loans, thus guarding against future indebtedness.

Hong Kong, for example, promoted its economic take-off by relying mainly on collecting the land's rental value, enabling it to minimise employment taxes （currently 15 per cent）. Yet throughout the former Soviet sphere, real estate taxes often have been only a fraction of 1 per cent until this year. This low tax on land was part of the reason for the property bubbles in these countries, because untaxed land value was paid to banks, which, in turn, lent it out to bid up prices all the more. Shifting the burden of tax from labour to land would actually hold down the price of housing and commercial space, because rental value that is taxed would not be recycled into new mortgages.

Housing costs typically absorb 40 per cent of family budgets in eastern European countries. Lowering this rate would help to boost demand elsewhere in the economy. A reduction to 20 per cent – the typical rate in Germany's much less indebted economy, where lending has been more responsible – could even provide further scope for wage moderation without lowering living standards.

The main issue in eastern Europe and beyond over the coming years will be whether economies can free themselves from the twin burdens of heavily taxed wages and inflated housing prices, while avoiding an overdose of needless austerity. The clear alternative is a reformed system that focuses on taxing the rising land values created by general prosperity, or economic rent. It is worth remembering that taxing the “free lunch” of rising land values was part of the original liberalism of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill and the Progressive Era reformers in the US, all of whom sought to make their economies more competitive. Today, tax reform is again the best option to help countries around the world regain their competitiveness.

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, which is the best way to get out of debt?

A.Radical reform of the tax system

B.Currency devaluation

C.Shrinking the economy by cutting public spending

D.None of the above

答案(1)

2.Taxes in most post-Soviet eastern European economies are regressive. What's the weak point of "regressive"?

A.Add to the price of labour and industry

B.Lacks property tax

C.In some extreme case, its flat taxes fall almost entirely on employment.

D.All of the above.

答案(2)

3.What would NOT happen, after raising taxes on property?

A.Leave less value to be capitalised into bank loans

B.Guard against future indebtedness

C.Fuel the property bubbles and bid up prices

D.Rental value that is taxes would not be recycled into new mortgages.

答案(3)

4.Which of the following is TRUE, according to the article?

A.Currency devaluation is using unemployment to lowerwages and imports.

B.Austerity prompts strikes and slowdowns and shrinks the domestic market.

C.Heightening the rate of housing costs in family budgets, helps to boost demand else where in the economy.

D.All of the above

答案(4)

(1) 答案：A.Radical reform of the tax system

解释：正确。本文的题目就叫“AUSTERITY IS NOT THE ONLY OPTION”。

(2) 答案：D.All of the above.

解释："They add to the price of labour and industry while under-taxing property. Latvia is an extreme example: its flat taxes fall almost entirely on employment, meaning workers take home less than half of what employers pay."

(3) 答案：C.Fuel the property bubbles and bid up prices

解释："This low tax on land was part of the reason for the property bubbles in these countries, because untaxed land value was paid to banks, which, in turn, lent it out to bid up prices all the more. "，由此可见，低土地税才更可能催生房产泡沫。

(4) 答案：B.Austerity prompts strikes and slowdowns and shrinks the domestic market.

解释：It is “internal devaluation” which use unemployment to lower wages and imports,故A项有误；"Housing costs typically absorb 40 per cent of family budgets in eastern European countries. Lowering this rate would help to boost demand elsewhere in the economy. "，故C项有误。

怎样避免危机循环？

本文作者系摩根士丹利亚洲主席、华尔街上最具影响力的经济学家之一史蒂芬·罗奇。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

ominous|不吉利的，不祥的

parlance|腔调，说法，用语

peril|极大危险，危险的事

asymmetrical|不匀称的，不对称的

intractable|难对付的，难解决的

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。

文章长度

821

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51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20秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分49秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

A monetary battle plan to break the cycle of crisis（821 words）

By Stephen Roach

The pace and severity of financial crises have taken an ominous turn for the worse. Over the past 30 years a crisis has occurred, on average, every three years. Yet now, only 18 months after the meltdown of late 2008, Europe's sovereign debt crisis has hit with full force. With one crisis seemingly begetting another, and the fuse between crises now getting shorter and shorter, the world economy is on a very treacherous course.

Each crisis has its poster child – from Thailand, to dotcom, to subprime. But they all have one thing in common – easy money. The “Greenspan put” – the notion that central banks would be quick and aggressive in backstopping financial market disruptions – was the short-term anaesthetic that repeatedly set the stage for the next crisis.

In the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, über monetary accommodation fed the equity bubble. Once that bubble burst in 2000, another dose of extraordinary monetary ease set the stage for massive property and credit bubbles. The aftershocks of that post-bubble carnage have now brought Europe to the brink.

Sadly, central banks are doing it again – policy rates near the zero bound in nominal terms and negative in real terms. And in the parlance of the Federal Reserve, this destabilising condition is likely to persist for an “extended” perioD.

As day follows night, this is a recipe for the next crisis. Whether that crisis is spawned by another asset bubble, a credit binge, or CPI inflation is impossible to say. But any – or all – of these options are conceivable in yet another undisciplined post-crisis climate. Breaking this daisy chain won't be easy. But a new approach is desperately needeD.History gives us a guide as to how and where to find the answer. Think back to the late 1970s. At the time, there was a deep-rooted sense of despair and hopelessness over the seemingly intractable Great Inflation.

Politicians and policymakers were convinced that the system was unwilling – or perhaps unable – to accept the pain of the cure. Sound familiar? Paul Volcker dispelled that notion, breaking the back of inflation by pushing the federal funds rate up to 19 per cent in 1981.Just as monetary discipline was the answer nearly 30 years ago, I suspect it is the only way out today. For a world in the depths of crisis and despair, another “Volcker moment” may well be at hanD.

No, I am not suggesting that central banks tighten monetary policy in the midst of a crisis. But it is high time to banish the moral hazard of macro policy, the false sense of security provided by open-ended fiscal and monetary accommodation as the world lurches from crisis to crisis.

Central banks need to lead the way in regaining policy traction by laying out credible and transparent exit strategies from the unprecedented stimulus now in place. Three things are required here: an explicit target for a “normal” policy rate; a macro forecast that would identify the conditions under which this normalisation would occur; and a specific timetable of adjustments in the policy rate that would achieve this result.

As an example of how this approach might work, consider the task of the Federal Reserve. Step one: announce a target of restoring the real federal funds rate back to its long-term average of 2 per cent.

Step two: lay out a three-year macro forecast of the US economy. For the sake of argument, plug in average real GDP growth and inflation of 2.5 per cent and an unemployment rate that falls back to 6 per cent by the end of 2013.

Step three: conditional on that forecast coming to pass, announce a normalisation plan of nine moves of 50 basis points in the federal funds rate – spread out over 18 months and commencing as soon as the dust settles on the euro crisis. This is a hypothetical example of how a new approach might work. Admittedly, it is predicated on an imperfect forecast and hostage to forces that might render that forecast wide or short of the mark.

But it has the advantage of identifying the parameters of a restoration of monetary discipline – something that has been sorely missing over the past 15 years. And it avoids the perils of the “asymmetrical reaction function”, the aggressive monetary easing in a crisis followed by the baby steps of post-crisis normalisation that have allowed the “cure” of one crisis to sow the seeds of the next one.

Central banks are imperfect institutions – and more so in recent years as they have abdicated their political independence. They were outstanding in waging the battle against inflation. They have failed in managing the post-inflation peace. The only hope for a crisis-prone world is a new battle plan.

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, what's the common thing of each financial crisis?

A.Low inflation

B.Tight monetary policy

C.Easy money

D.Turbulent political situation

答案(1)

2.Which of the following is true, according to the article?

A.Greenspan put cannot completely solve the crisis.

B.According to the situation, the next cirsis will be spawned by another CPI inflation.

C.The central banks should tighten monetary policy in the midst of a crisis.

D.All of the above.

答案(2)

3.What should we do to avoid this cycle?

A.an explicit target for a “normal” policy rate

B.a macro forecast that would identify the conditions under which this normalisation would occur.

C.a specific timetable of adjustments in the policy rate that would achieve this result

D.All of the above

答案(3)

4.Which of the following statement about central banks is NOT true, according to the article?

A.They are imperfect institutions

B.They have abdicated their political independence.

C.They have failed in waging the battle against inflation.

D.They were not successful in managing the post-inflation peace.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：C.Easy money

解释："Each crisis has its poster child – from Thailand, to dotcom, to subprime. But they all have one thing in common – easy money. ",故C项正确。

(2) 答案：A.Greenspan put cannot completely solve the crisis.

解释："Whether that crisis is spawned by another asset bubble, a credit binge, or CPI inflation is impossible to say. ",故B项错误；"I am not suggesting that central banks tighten monetary policy in the midst of a crisis. ",故C项错误。

(3) 答案：D.All of the above.

(4) 答案：They have failed in waging the battle against inflation.

解释：正确，原文最后一段中，作者肯定了央行在成功对抗通胀方面的贡献。

领导们的恐吓战术

本文作者系《金融时报》经济和商业的专栏作家。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

swine flu|猪流感

millennium bug|千年虫

salmonella|沙门氏菌

unpasteurised|未消毒的

naysayer|反对者

fickle|易变的，无常的

repressive|镇压的，残暴的

rationale|基本原理，根本原因

jeopardy|危险，风险

mantra|颂歌，咒语

underestimate|对…认识不足，低估，轻视

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。

文章长度

663

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44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53秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分39秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How our leaders get to grips with a scare story （663 words）

By John Kay

Do you remember swine flu? Or the millennium bug? The dangers of salmonella in eggs or of cheese made from unpasteurised milk? These scare stories played for a time and were then forgotten: but cost large amounts of money and caused anxiety and loss to many individuals. Some scares catch on: others do not. It is nonsense to claim that the dangers of the credit expansion of 2003-07 could not have been foreseen; those who did foresee problems could not attract public attention or political support for their views. Those warning of the danger of easy availability of nuclear technology and of poor control of the former Soviet Union's nuclear weapons have experienced something similar.

Successful promotion of a scare requires that some interest group benefits. Sometimes this is the scare-promoters themselves. Scientists have learnt that exaggerated claims are a route to a media profile and research funding. There is little downside in predicting disaster: if it does not materialise they can claim to have been instrumental in staving it off. Scares that thrive, such as the millennium bug and swine flu, have commercial interests that benefit from their propagation. Naysayers in the credit boom, by contrast, were trampled in the rush to share the riches available to those who denied or disregarded the dangers.

The regulator, or politician, confronted with warnings of danger faces twin pressures of commercial interest and public opinion. Industries are a permanent lobbying presence. Public concern, by contrast, is fickle: it may be strong when aroused, but unless supplied with a string of newsworthy events – dead bodies, corporate collapses, scandalous exposures – it soon fades.

When public and commercial interests operate in the same direction, the outcome is clear, but not when they conflict. That is why swine flu produced an exaggerated response but no action was taken to restrain the credit boom （the creation of a new collateralised debt obligation was never newsworthy）. The tension between commercial and public interest can lead to tipping points. The problem of bovine spongiform encephalopathy – mad cow disease – was at first unjustifiably minimised; but then greatly exaggerateD.In the early phase, the issue was managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, which represented the farming industry; later, the Department of Health, whose concerns were for patient and medical interests, took over.

Public anger at bankers is now so great that it threatens to overwhelm even their legendary lobbying capabilities. When Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, last weekend accused Goldman Sachs of moral bankruptcy, it was not because the US bank's behaviour had changeD. The most dramatic tipping point was September 11: a period, before the attacks, in which those who pointed to the threat from al-Qaeda had been marginalised was followed by one in which the threat was used as a rationale for repressive actions including invading foreign countries.

The politician or regulator has the impossible job of steering a way through these conflicting pressures. “The safety of the public must always come first” is a compelling mantra – but only if the public really believe their safety is in jeopardy. “No one could possibly have anticipated this disaster” is another common line of defence. We want our experts to talk certainties, not assess probabilities. The explanation “we thought an event might occur but underestimated its likelihood or severity” is never acceptable: but that outcome does, and should, happen often to people who make nuanced decisions in complex environments. The political and regulatory incentives are either to downplay risks or exaggerate them – or to do each at different times.

So if, like me, you find yourself stranded by the grounding of Europe's aircraft, pity the poor regulators. Would you rather appear on television to explain why you had disrupted the holiday and business plans of an entire continent, or to tell viewers why you had failed to respond to a well-publicised danger?

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 a newsworthy event,according to the article?

A.Dead bodies

B.New collateralised debt abligation

C.Scandalous exposures

D.Corporate collapses

答案(1)

2.Which of the following is CORRECT about commercial and public interest?

A.Both industries and public concern are fickle.

B.The tension between commercial and public interest can lead to tipping points.

C.When public and commercial interests conflict, the outcome is clear.

D.All of the above

答案(2)

3.According to the article, which of the following is FALSE?

A.Scare stories usually cost large amouts of money and caused anxiety and loss to many individuals.

B.Successful promotion of a scare requires that some interest group benefits.

C.The problem of mad cow disease was unjustifiably minimised without exaggerated claims.

D.It was not because the US bank's behaviour had changed when Gordon Brown accused Goldman Sachs of moral bankruptcy.

答案(3)

4.Which of the following would the author DISAGREE?

A.The threat from al-Qaeda was firstly marginalised and then used as a rationale for repressive actions.

B.People want the experts to talk certainties instead of probabilities.

C.Exaggerated claims are a route to a media profile and research funding.

D.Nowadays, there is a obvious downside in predicting disaster.

答案(4)

(1) 答案：B.New collateralised debt abligation

解释："It may be strong when aroused, but unless supplied with a string of newsworthy events – dead bodies, corporate collapses, scandalous exposures – it soon fades.","the creation of a new collateralised debt obligation was never newsworthy".

(2) 答案：B.The tension between commercial and public interest can lead to tipping points.

解释："Industries are a permanent lobbying presence. Public concern, by contrast, is fickle.",故A项错误；"When public and commercial interests operate in the same direction, the outcome is clear, but not when they conflict."，故C项错误。

(3) 答案：C.The problem of mad cow disease was unjustifiably minimised without exaggerated claims.

解释：“The problem of bovine spongiform encephalopathy – mad cow disease – was at first unjustifiably minimised; but then greatly exaggerateD.",故C项错误。

(4) 答案：D.Nowadays, there is a obvious downside in predicting disaster.

解释："There is little downside in predicting disaster."故D项错误。

像亚洲人一样爱机器人

当西方人不断担忧机器人抢走工作，泯灭人性，威胁人类的同时，亚洲人已经学会了接纳机器人。亚洲开发银行的报告称，机器人事实上能为人类创造更多工作机会。西方人应该学会向亚洲人一样爱机器人。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

retractableadj. 可缩回的，伸缩自如的 /rɪ'træktəbl/

transfixv. 刺穿，钉住，使呆住 /træns'fɪks/

monotheisticadj. 一神论的 /ˌmɒnəʊθi'ɪstɪk/

taglinen. 宣传词;标志性语言 /ˈtæɡlaɪn/

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。

文章长度

698

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47秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分59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

Asia has learnt to love robots — the west should, too（698 words）

By John Thornhill

Maybe it is time we all learnt to love the robots, just as many Asians do. In the west, robots receive a terrible press. We worry about them killing our jobs, if not wiping out all of humanity, having been reared on too many Terminator movies and fears of a rogue superintelligence.

In Asia, though, it is a different story. Robots appear far more popular where they are most commonly used in Japan, South Korea and China.

In contrast with the doom-laden economic analysis of many western think-tanks about the looming threat of technological induced unemployment, the Asian Development Bank published a report last week arguing that the rise of the robots was creating, rather than destroying, jobs overall.

The ADB's analysis of 12 developing Asian economies between 2005 and 2015 found that rising demand had more than compensated for jobs lost to automation. The adoption of new technologies, such as modern machine tools and computer systems in factories and offices, had stimulated higher productivity and economic growth. That transformation, it estimated, had created 134m new jobs, compared with the 101m jobs lost to technology.

Why such a stark contrast exists between Asia and the west in how we view our technological futures is an interesting question. It provoked some intriguing replies from Japanese roboticists on a recent trip to Tokyo.

One commentator explained that generations of Japanese children had been brought up to think of robots as helpful heroes. Take Astro Boy, a popular manga series which has sold 100m copies worldwide. Astro Boy tells the tale of a humanoid robot created by Dr Umataro Tenma to replace his lost son. Aided by seven super powers, including a neat retractable machine gun in his hip, Astro Boy fights evil and injustice. Visit the Miraikan museum of science and innovation in Tokyo and you will find Japanese children transfixed by the football-kicking Asimo robot.

Masatoshi Ishikawa, a robotics professor at Tokyo university, has an alternative theory. He suggests that religious belief is influential. Whereas the monotheistic religions of the west have a hard time crediting a non-organic body with any intelligence, the spiritualist religions of the east find it easier to believe that robots might have a separate spirit.

“The Japanese religious mind can easily accept a robot-type of existence,” he says. “We see them as friends and believe they can help humans.”

Professor Ishikawa says that there are two types of robots: those that do the work of humans and those that enhance the performance of humans. We hear too much about the first type and too little about the seconD.As roboticists never tire of saying, their creations can help humans deal with the “3 Ds”: dirty, dull and dangerous tasks. Those countries that have the highest adoption of robots have some of the lowest rates of unemployment.

This points to the strong economic case for the increased use of robots across much of AsiA.They are helping address an acute demographic squeeze as societies rapidly age. Some Asian societies prefer robots to immigrants to supplement their shrinking workforces. That implies that robots will increasingly move out of the factory and into homes and hospitals, where they will need different capabilities. As a research field, human-robot interaction is booming around the world.

Kaname Hayashi, founder and chief executive of GrooveX, says that a third generation of robots is needed that combines hardware and software to produce emotionally aware humanoid robots.

Mr Hayashi, who helped develop Pepper while at SoftBank, is creating just such a robot known as LOVOT （a contraction of love and robot） at his start-up company. “LOVOT isn't alive but it unburdens you, makes you laugh, makes you happy. It makes your heart feel warm inside,” its tagline runs.

“We want to build relations between humans and machines that we can trust,” says Mr Hayashi.

Terah Lyons, executive director of the Partnership on AI, a technology consortium that includes US and Asian members, contrasts the enthusiasm with which Japanese society is embracing automation with the “widespread panic” that is spreading across the US. “Technology is not destiny,” she says. Much depends on political and business culture.

We have the power to shape the outcomes — and narratives — we want. Societies must bend technologies to their desired ends and tell the robots what to do.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Asian Development Bank believes that robots ____.

A.is capable of creating more jobs.

B.will not kill manufacturing jobs.

C.appear far more popular in Asia.

D.will eventually wipe out humanity.

答案(1)

2.Accroding to the author, why Japanese children like robots?

A.Because their religion makes it easier for them to trust robots.

B.Because they had been taught to see robots as helpful heroes.

C.Because they grew up reading robot superheroes manga series.

D.Because Japanese believe that robots can solve labor problems.

答案(2)

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

A.Japan prefers robots to immigrants to supplement their shrinking workforces.

B.Japanese can easily accept a non-organic existence because of their belief.

C.Japanese don't believe that robots are capable of doing the work of humans.

D.Increased use of robots can be seen in homes and hospitals in a few years.

答案(3)

4.What is LOVOT according to the article?

A.A emotionally aware humanoid companion robot.

B.A robot that enhance the performance of humans.

C.A robot that can ease the widespread fear of robotics.

D.A robot company which produce humanoid robots.

答案(4)

(1) 答案A.is capable of creating more jobs. 亚洲开发银行上周发布了一份报告，认为机器人的崛起正在创造——而不是摧毁——就业机会。

(2) 答案B.Because they had been taught to see robots as helpful heroes. 一代代的日本孩子从小就被教育把机器人视为助人为乐的英雄。

(3) 答案B.Japanese can easily accept a non-organic existence because of their belief. 西方的一神教信仰很难将非有机体与智慧联系起来。东方的灵性宗教更容易相信机器人可能具有独立的精神。

(4) 答案A.A emotionally aware humanoid companion robot. “LOVOT并非生命体，但它让你感到放松，让你笑，让你开心。它让你的内心感到温暖。”

The End

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Table of Contents

- 书名页

- 版权页

- 目　录

- 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.61

- 谷歌被指控“反向歧视”

- 黑客盯上平昌冬奥会

- 被政治正确抛弃的工人阶级白人

- 不爱机器人的旧金山

- “精灵宝可梦”即将登陆中国

- 100岁的人生意味着什么？

- 什么是“文化精英病”？

- 面对性骚扰，你该怎么办？

- 新时代的防灾指南

- 令人纠结的爷爷奶奶

- 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.62

- 假新闻催生新商机

- “用脚投票”拯救Twitter

- 阿片类药物致美国预期寿命下降

- 当他们遭遇特朗普

- 陷入困境的H&M

- 该不该信任用户评分？

- 性骚扰者：一句道歉有多难？

- 不知所云的年度流行色

- 日本公司的招聘战争

- 藏在房间里的DNA黑客

- 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.63

- 政客对我们隐瞒了什么？

- 夸张的“俄罗斯威胁论”

- 职场上的“秘密妈妈”

- 梅根·马克尔：改写故事的灰姑娘

- 勾人的算法和脆弱的孩子

- 星巴克在上海开设烘焙工坊

- 泰姬陵陷入“身份危机”

- 留学生成为英国的新财富

- 俄罗斯世界杯——普京的乌龙球？

- 枪支问题惹怒美国年轻人

- 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.64

- 不太宜居的“智慧城市”

- 谁能证明自动驾驶汽车的安全？

- 机器人去哪了？

- 不再时髦的塑料瓶

- 欢迎来到未来的学校

- 为什么时装这么丑？

- 如何成为办公桌艺术家？

- 金钱买得来好形象吗？

- “双十一”：购物狂欢与消费革命

- 《弗兰肯斯坦》与现代人的恐惧

- 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.65

- 泰勒·斯威夫特的声誉管理课堂

- 基因才是精英学校的真相

- 解决垃圾邮件的绝招

- Uber车祸带来的反思

- 数字时代的我们需要拉丁语

- 城市需要富人和穷人

- 外语让人更明智？

- 不再独特的年轻人

- 被遗忘的互联网清洁工

- 离心离德的科技巨头

- 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.66

- 纪梵希的小黑裙传奇

- 男人进化论

- 你的学历价值几何？

- 电子游戏的性别问题

- 花样滑冰丑闻与特朗普的崛起

- 自动驾驶的愿景与现实

- 握手就好，别来吻我

- 另类右派赢得美国“表情包战争”

- 呼之欲出的30小时工作周

- 不安的年轻人改变英国经济

- 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.67

- 武装教师——特朗普式狂想

- 寻找真正的硅谷

- 该向拖延说再见了

- 美式橄榄球的种族分裂

- 费德勒还是罗纳尔迪尼奥

- 全民基本收入为何行不通？

- 索尼机器狗Aibo重出江湖

- 向“义理巧克力”宣战

- 超级碗收视率继续下跌

- Spotify是否重塑了流行音乐？

- 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.68

- 行将就木的美国特色医保

- 京东进军欧洲挑战亚马逊

- 被忽视的致命疾病

- 硅谷的流水线创业家

- 硅谷初创公司的无人快递竞赛

- 巨星公司的崛起

- 不堪一击的网络红人

- 戒掉手机，就像戒烟那样

- 为了工作而“洗白”？

- 扎克伯格的Facebook是如何失控的？

- 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.69

- 癌症早诊断的代价

- 科技公司面临信任危机

- 自动驾驶汽车：交通工具还是武器？

- 失落的男性时尚偶像

- 德国“仇恨言论”禁令引争议

- 日本少女组合为虚拟货币发声

- 网红狗成为广告界新星

- 北京“雾霾战争”成效显著

- 朝鲜的“隐士经济”

- 办公室放音乐，你准备好了吗？

- 英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.70

- “数据天后”的雅虎之路

- 缅甸崛起？

- “经济价值”是个什么玩意儿？

- 高盛之“罪”

- 俾斯麦的教训

- 死不认账的CEO

- 比财政紧缩更好的选择

- 怎样避免危机循环？

- 领导们的恐吓战术

- 像亚洲人一样爱机器人

Table of Contents

书名页

版权页

目　录

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.61

谷歌被指控“反向歧视”

黑客盯上平昌冬奥会

被政治正确抛弃的工人阶级白人

不爱机器人的旧金山

“精灵宝可梦”即将登陆中国

100岁的人生意味着什么？

什么是“文化精英病”？

面对性骚扰，你该怎么办？

新时代的防灾指南

令人纠结的爷爷奶奶

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.62

假新闻催生新商机

“用脚投票”拯救Twitter

阿片类药物致美国预期寿命下降

当他们遭遇特朗普

陷入困境的H&M

该不该信任用户评分？

性骚扰者：一句道歉有多难？

不知所云的年度流行色

日本公司的招聘战争

藏在房间里的DNA黑客

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.63

政客对我们隐瞒了什么？

夸张的“俄罗斯威胁论”

职场上的“秘密妈妈”

梅根·马克尔：改写故事的灰姑娘

勾人的算法和脆弱的孩子

星巴克在上海开设烘焙工坊

泰姬陵陷入“身份危机”

留学生成为英国的新财富

俄罗斯世界杯——普京的乌龙球？

枪支问题惹怒美国年轻人

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.64

不太宜居的“智慧城市”

谁能证明自动驾驶汽车的安全？

机器人去哪了？

不再时髦的塑料瓶

欢迎来到未来的学校

为什么时装这么丑？

如何成为办公桌艺术家？

金钱买得来好形象吗？

“双十一”：购物狂欢与消费革命

《弗兰肯斯坦》与现代人的恐惧

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.65

泰勒·斯威夫特的声誉管理课堂

基因才是精英学校的真相

解决垃圾邮件的绝招

Uber车祸带来的反思

数字时代的我们需要拉丁语

城市需要富人和穷人

外语让人更明智？

不再独特的年轻人

被遗忘的互联网清洁工

离心离德的科技巨头

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.66

纪梵希的小黑裙传奇

男人进化论

你的学历价值几何？

电子游戏的性别问题

花样滑冰丑闻与特朗普的崛起

自动驾驶的愿景与现实

握手就好，别来吻我

另类右派赢得美国“表情包战争”

呼之欲出的30小时工作周

不安的年轻人改变英国经济

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.67

武装教师——特朗普式狂想

寻找真正的硅谷

该向拖延说再见了

美式橄榄球的种族分裂

费德勒还是罗纳尔迪尼奥

全民基本收入为何行不通？

索尼机器狗Aibo重出江湖

向“义理巧克力”宣战

超级碗收视率继续下跌

Spotify是否重塑了流行音乐？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.68

行将就木的美国特色医保

京东进军欧洲挑战亚马逊

被忽视的致命疾病

硅谷的流水线创业家

硅谷初创公司的无人快递竞赛

巨星公司的崛起

不堪一击的网络红人

戒掉手机，就像戒烟那样

为了工作而“洗白”？

扎克伯格的Facebook是如何失控的？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.69

癌症早诊断的代价

科技公司面临信任危机

自动驾驶汽车：交通工具还是武器？

失落的男性时尚偶像

德国“仇恨言论”禁令引争议

日本少女组合为虚拟货币发声

网红狗成为广告界新星

北京“雾霾战争”成效显著

朝鲜的“隐士经济”

办公室放音乐，你准备好了吗？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集 Vol.70

“数据天后”的雅虎之路

缅甸崛起？

“经济价值”是个什么玩意儿？

高盛之“罪”

俾斯麦的教训

死不认账的CEO

比财政紧缩更好的选择

怎样避免危机循环？

领导们的恐吓战术

像亚洲人一样爱机器人