英国《金融时报》
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英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集（四）
英国《金融时报》 出品

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目　录

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.31

生酮饮食助燃运动潜力

HBO如何守护“铁王座”

手机这样也可以？

失物招领大市场

两名男性生孩子，不远了？

领导人该不该公开健康状况？

睡觉就能“涨知识”？

亚马逊：米其林大餐1小时送达

职场利器“奶奶灰”？

关于香槟你不可不知的事

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.32

被暗示涉色情业，特朗普妻子怒告媒体

打破无趣，勇敢跳槽

防止校园性侵，从醉酒禁酒开始

升职后，朋友怎么做？

无人驾驶超越人类？

不要过早夸赞员工

优步外卖司机不干了？

无人驾驶的出租车首次上路啦

有一种痛苦，叫节后内疚

如何让你的简历脱颖而出

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.33

亚马逊的空中算盘

日本：殡葬业文化正转变

工作中该不该用表情符号

中国移动支付大战

什么样的老板最可怕？

芝加哥的美食推荐

欧盟青少年面临社交网络限制

FBI给黑客的百万赏金

法国给麦当劳的当头一棒

不可小看人头马君度？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.34

“国际范儿的”慷慨

Twitter回来啦？

愤怒的微软

体格强壮是领导优势吗？

《太阳的后裔》——经济新希望？

为减少性侵害——全面禁酒

橄榄球场上的马云

中国白酒：太难张口说爱你？

视频直播圈里的劲敌：Facebook？！

Uber：遭遇卑鄙的对手？

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.35

香港房市之痛：被迫分居

老当益壮？《夺宝奇兵》回来啦！

苹果电子书反垄断案彻底败诉

人类将斗不过机器？

Facebook在德国遭遇反垄断调查

谷歌无人驾驶汽车发生交通事故

敢不敢抛弃智能手机？

比尔•盖茨发声支持FBI破解iPhone

苹果拒绝为FBI提供破解 竞争对手力挺

内马尔再陷偷税风波

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.36

剑桥大学新动作

脖子上的自动拍照相机

谷歌：AI进军互联网核心技术

再次回归：任天堂重返VR

优酷土豆原副总裁被警方拘留

不要急于对谷歌发气

五比零：计算机完胜人类？

寨卡病毒：从哪来•到哪去

绝望的股东

通用试水汽车共享

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.37

宠物美容正发力

百度高管被中国网信办约谈

优步CEO称滴滴快的补贴过多、负担过重

搞定银联 Apple Pay年初登陆中国

《星战：原力觉醒》有望成为最卖座电影

披头士音乐平安夜登陆流媒体

优步联手脸书用手机讯息叫车

阿里巴巴收购南华早报

Twitter瞄准未登陆用户

中国工商银行137人被处罚

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.38

有线电视市场：亚马逊来了！

中国“最卖座电影”被疑票房造假

风险资本公司的“颠簸路”

“糖税”为肥胖减重？

扎克伯格将捐出99%Facebook股份

中印在雾霾笼罩下开始气候谈判

互联网土著？比想象的还“单纯”

官方请求加快电子香烟药物许可审核

ISIS财务出现困难

英式英语从未没落

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.39

在公园里办公才是正事

阿里网恋LendingClub

富豪为何钟爱私人飞机

经济学家应向TBBT学什么

奇怪的个性化营销

我的手机，我的寄生虫

观察香港问题的两种视角

FT年度词汇：新俄罗斯

不应让男人独占金融业

中国经济仍将路遇颠簸

英国《金融时报》原文阅读精选集Vol.40

全球经济走向何方

小米：中国的“苹果”？

FT年度词汇：民粹主义

BAT：中国网霸三国志

欧盟与希腊应各退一步

未来十年可能属于中国

自由平等与恐怖主义

FT年度词汇：北方引擎

纪念25年前的波兰大选

我们这个时代的和平

英国《金融时报》
原文阅读精选集Vol.31

生酮饮食助燃运动潜力

由于生酮饮食中只摄取少量的糖类，肝脏便会将脂肪转换成脂肪酸和酮体。酮体运经脑部，取代葡萄糖作为能量来源

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

starvation饿死；挨饿；绝食[stɑː'veɪʃn]

glycogen糖原['glaɪkədʒ(ə)n]

carbohydrate[有化] 碳水化合物[kɑːbə'haɪdreɪt]

ketone酮['kiːtəʊn]

rationale基本原理[,ræʃə'nɑːl]

hitting the wall撞墙期（长跑运动员突然跑不动了）

lean瘦的；贫乏的[liːn]

ketogenic diets生酮饮食

saturated fat饱和脂肪

one-size-fits-all万全之策

hormone激素，荷尔蒙['hɔːməʊn]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分41秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分38秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分55秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

A low-carb diet to fuel athletes longer （554words）

By Charles Wallace

What do some extreme distance runners have in common with the athletes at the Tour de France cycle race? Suddenly, everyone seems to be talking about adopting a high-fat diet.

The idea behind these diets is that when humans enter starvation mode, their bodies are able to switch from burning glycogen, the sugars produced by eating a meal including carbohydrates, to burning stored body fat which is released into the bloodstream as ketones. These extremely low carbohydrate diets are called ketogenic.

The rationale is that there is only about 40 minutes of glycogen stored in leg muscles, which is why runners have to keep gulping down sweets during marathons or they end up “hitting the wall” two-thirds of the way through the race.

But even lean athletes have several pounds of stored fat reserves, so if those could be tapped, you could cycle for hours without running out of fuel. So some Tour de France cyclists have started using this approach.

What's tempting more athletes to try ketogenic diets is recent research that casts doubt on the link between saturated fat in the diet and heart disease. But I asked Peter Attia, a medical doctor who practises in New York and southern California, and who also happens to be a cycling enthusiast, his view on the persistent medical concerns about fat.

Dr Attia, who spent three years on a ketogenic diet, has written about his experiences on his blog, where he gives a scientist's explanation of how the diet works.

He says it made him “far more metabolically flexible and efficient” as a cyclist. So would he recommend that his patients go on a ketogenic diet, which usually means eating very few carbohydrates? He would in about only a third of cases.

His point is that there are no one-size-fits-all diets out there. What works for one person may not work for others. Some people perform better by eating more fats, while others actually do better in endurance by eating a lot of nonprocessed carbs such as vegetables. And a lot of an individual's response to nutrition is determined by genetic make-up.

Dr Attia suggests that before going ketogenic, athletes work with a sport-orientated physician to determine if such a diet would be beneficial or even safe. You need to get blood tests before and during the diet to make sure you are not experiencing a sudden increase in small-sized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles, or triglycerides, which are known contributors to heart disease.

He also points out that, while it might be low in carbohydrates, the ketogenic diet is not actually a high protein diet — too much animal protein can cause a rise in IGF-1, which controls growth hormone and, at high levels, has been associated with cancer. Healthy fats can be obtained through foods such as coconut oil, avocados and nuts but many prefer to pile on the bacon and butter.

Other concerns about low-carb diets include the effect these regimes have on gut bacteria, which mainly ferment undigested starches such as vegetable fibre and produce short-chain fatty acids that help protect your gut. Because these diets are low in fibre, athletes have reported issues with constipation.

Ketogenic diets are probably best for short-term periods of training only and should not be considered a lifestyle choice. The long-term effects have not been assessed.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What kind of nutrient could produce sugars in the body?

A.vitamin

B.inorganic salt

C.lipid

D.carbohydrate

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How long does glycogen store in leg muscles?

A.30 minutes

B.40 minutes

C.50 minutes

D.60 minutes

答案⁽²⁾

3.How many years did Dr. Attia spend on a ketogenic diet?

A.1

B.2

C.3

D.5

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one of the following is wrong about ketogenic diet?

A.it may cause constipation

B.it is best for long -term periods of training

C.the effect varies with the individual

D.vegetable fat is better than animal fat

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.carbohydrate
解释：饥饿模式下身体会燃烧糖原，这些糖原来自于食物中的碳水化合物。

(2)答案：B.40 minutes
解释：糖原大约可以在腿部肌肉中存储40分钟，这就是为什么在马拉松途中运动员需要补充大量甜食和在三分之二处会觉得突然跑不动了。

(3)答案：C.3
解释：Dr. Attia坚持了三年生酮饮食，并且感觉“新陈代谢提高，并且更加高效了”。

(4)答案：B.it is best for long -term periods of training
解释：生酮饮食最好短期时间的训练，而不应被视为一种生活方式的选择，长期影响还没有评估。

HBO如何守护“铁王座”

不出意料《权力的游戏》打破艾美奖一部剧集获奖的总数纪录，“铁王座”依然是HBO的。然而新媒体巨头Netflix、Amazon在原创剧集上每年花费数十亿美元，在强势进攻下，HBO如何避免“凛冬将至”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Emmy awards艾美奖（艾美奖是美国一项用于表彰其电视工业杰出人士和节目的奖励，其重要程度与电影界的奥斯卡金像奖、音乐界的格莱美奖以及戏剧界的东尼奖一样。）

covet垂涎；觊觎['kʌvɪt]

powerhouse精力旺盛的人；动力室；发电所['paʊəhaʊs]

acclaim称赞；为…喝彩，向…欢呼[ə'kleɪm]

cable subscriptions有线电视订阅

borne out证实；支持

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

2分52秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分28秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分13秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

HBO faces fresh competition after Emmy success （731words）

By Matthew Garrahan in New York

HBO swept the two most coveted Emmy awards on Sunday with Game of Thrones and Veep, continuing the Time Warner-owned network's 16-year run as television's creative powerhouse.

In total, HBO won 22 Emmys from 94 nominations at this year's awards, more than any other network.

But it faced stiff competition from rivals, namely 21st Century Fox's FX channel, which landed multiple wins for its The People Vs OJ Simpson mini-series, and Netflix and Amazon's digital streaming services.

The question facing HBO is whether it can continue to prosper in an increasingly digital world characterised by on-demand viewing and the emergence of two global competitors in Netflix and Amazon, which are spending billions of dollars a year on original programming.

HBO clearly thinks it can. Last year it launched HBO Now, its own over the top subscription service. It has since struck several big programming deals to broaden its range of content.

The deals underline how HBO is evolving, analysts say. The network used to be known primarily for its edgy dramas such as The Sopranos, which did not shy away from violence, profanity or sexual content.

It continues to produce such shows, garnering great critical acclaim for its recent crime thriller The Night Of, but has added other content to the mix, bringing characters such as Elmo, Cookie Monster and Big Bird to the network via a five-year deal with the non-profit Sesame Workshop to produce new episodes of Sesame Street.

HBO has also broadened its current affairs and comedy portfolio, snapping up Jon Stewart, the former host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show to make “short form” content for HBO Now. This month, HBO will also begin airing a nightly news show produced by Vice, the youth-focused media group.

“They are evolving their model,” says Rich Greenfield, analyst with BTIG Research. “They're not just creating content but buying it from Sesame Street and Vice so they can broaden out their programming in a direct to consumer world.”

Digital subscription services are easier to cancel than cable subscriptions, he adds, which means that HBO has to ensure that its digital platform has something for everyone. “That's why they're doing kids' programming and news.”

In this respect, HBO's digital approach is not dissimilar to Netflix, which has stocked its service with documentaries, kids shows and original series. However, the Time Warner-owned channel has several advantages, notably the rights to first run theatrical movies from some of Hollywood's biggest studios, including Warner Brothers and Universal Studios. These movies make up the bulk of viewing on the channel.

HBO also has no wish to sever ties with cable and satellite companies in the US and elsewhere that pay handsomely to carry its channel, and which has made it much more profitable than its digital rivals.

In the UK, for example, HBO programming is available on Sky via the Sky Atlantic channel. HBO has about 49m subscribers in the US and 131m globally; Netflix, by contrast, has 83m.

Still, the emergence of Netflix, Amazon and services such as Hulu, which is part owned by Walt Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast, has made original programming more expensive.

The new digital services are willing to write big cheques for the best projects and exclusive rights, as are cable channels, which have begun to use original programming to define themselves in an era of cord-cutting and fragmenting audiences.

This was borne out at the Emmys when Rami Malek won the best actor award for his role in Mr Robot, which airs on NBC Universal's USA Network — a channel which had not previously been known as a home of top quality drama.

The array of new buyers has put pressure on HBO and increased prices. The network remains the home of the best dramas and, thanks to its Emmy wins for Veep and John Oliver's Last Week Tonight, a force in comedy, too.

But with its biggest hit Game of Thrones only having two more seasons to go before coming to an end, HBO must ensure it has a full pipeline of top original content.

“HBO has always been known for being artist friendly and for being a place that can be a home for top talent,” says Christopher Vollmer, global entertainment and media advisory leader for Strategy&, which is part PwC. “I'm sure that will continue. But its rivals aren't putting any constraints on talent either.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How many Emmys did HBO win at this year's awards?

A.16

B.22

C.94

D.126

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What kind of contents spend billions of dollars a year for Netflix and Amazon?

A.micro film

B.original programming

C.current affairs

D.comedy portfolio

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one is not mentioned as HBO's efforts to survive the competition?

A.broadened its advertising partners

B.broadened its range of content

C.broadened its current affairs

D.broadened its comedy portfolio

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the reason of HBO doing kids' programming and news?

A.it is easier to make money

B.these contents make up the bulk of viewing

C.ensure that its digital platform has something for everyone

D.ensure HBO programming is available on Sky

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.22
解释：HBO今年获得22个奖项，并以94项提名再次成为今年最大赢家（尽管与去年的126项提名相比有所下降）。

(2)答案：B.original programming
解释：Netflix、Amazon在原创剧集上每年花费数十亿美元。

(3)答案：A.broadened its advertising partners
解释：文章并未提到HBO在对广告合作伙伴的扩大。

(4)答案：C.ensure that its digital platform has something for everyone
解释：HBO之所以推出以上内容，是为了确保每个数字平台上都有可供任何人群观看的内容。

手机这样也可以？

Monohm公司由一群来自苹果和索尼的老员工创建，相对于目前的大多数旗舰手机，其设计的Runcible古灵精怪，绝对是个异类。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

crowdfunding众筹

interchangeable可互换的[ɪntə'tʃeɪn(d)ʒəbl]

unorthodox非正统的；异端的；异教的

rectangle矩形；长方形['rektæŋg(ə)l]

valid有效的；有根据的；合法的['vælɪd]

wilful故意的；任性的['wɪlfʊl; -f(ə)l]

gimmickry伎俩，花招['gɪmɪkrɪ]

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47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

1分42秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分57秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why this phone could be the shape of things to come （570words）

By Jonathan Margolis

Aubrey Anderson's offices are only 20 minutes' drive from San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, where Tim Cook unveiled the iPhone 7 last week. But both Mr Anderson's company, Monohm, and its first product might as well be 20 light years away.

The Runcible phone, which cost $1.2m to develop, an amount raised mostly through crowdfunding, takes the form of a 7.5cm diameter disc. It is Android-operated, but with a lot of customisation of the software.

The phone looks a little like a pocket watch, and it comes with interchangeable backs. Current options include black plastic made from discarded bottles fished out of the Pacific and sustainably harvested madrone wood from Mendocino County, California. Coming soon: non-poached, wind-fallen Koa wood from Hawaii and shed horn from Ankole cows in Uganda.

“Our first design principle is to focus on humanistic, emotional aspects and see if we can make an electronic [sic] that … follows a form with which humans have had a longer relationship — and can potentially develop a still longer relationship,” says Mr Anderson, about his unorthodox smartphone, which will be available in the US next month.

His point, that humans knew circles from the natural world before the invention of the rectangle, is valid — but it would still be easy to dismiss the Runcible as wilful gimmickry. Yet looking at the $399 Babbage and the $499 Lovelace models as I interview him via Skype, I cannot help thinking that they may conceivably be the shape of things to come.

One thing is certain: we will still have mobile communication devices in the future. But it is also clear that the wearable phone is a flop. I got that loud and clear the day I wore an Apple Watch for the first time and, as I was walking through a quiet park in London, a call came through on my wrist.

I took it, Dick Tracy-style, in sight of a homeless man. He looked at me with a loathing that could pierce armour and I realised how idiotic I looked. In effect, he was an analyst, because the global market for devices that make you look like an idiot has proved limited (remember Google Glass).

If I had taken the call on a Runcible, and was talking just to the microphone on my headphone lead, it may not have excited the man's ire.

On the other hand, I remember making my first mobile phone call with a Motorola “brick” outside Preston railway station in northern England in the late 1980s and gathering a small crowd. In that case, however, the mood of the meeting was more wonder than hatred. One teenage girl explained to her mate: “It's a Yuppie.”

Handheld mobile phones did eventually catch on. But as Mr Anderson says: “Square screens are just cheap and easy to make, and that's the only reason we're beset with rectangles.”

I had never thought about it that way. We look at the world through round windows — our field of vision is circular. Watches are round. TVs were originally. So why — other than for the convenience of manufacturers and the lower cost to consumers of mass production — should phones be rectangular? I wrote back in April about the almost desperate search for innovation in mobiles, but nobody then was proposing a different shape.

Perhaps this radical new disc design could be the breakthrough to what Monohm calls “The third age of electronics”.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.what about the shape of the Runcible phone?

A.rectangle

B.square

C.rhombic

D.circular

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which country's people can buy the Runcible phone next month?

A.Britain

B.America

C.Africa

D.China

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is a flop in the writer's opinion?

A.the wearable phone

B.interchangeable backs

C.Runcible phone

D.the pocket watch

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one is not right for the Runcible phone?

A.square screens are easy to make

B.square screens are cheaper than circular ones

C.the phones' backs are interchangeable

D.It is Android-operated

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.circular
解释：Runcible是Monohm公司设计的圆形手机，直径7.5厘米。

(2)答案：B.America
解释：Monohm公司计划于下个月开始在美国市场配送Runcible。

(3)答案：A.the wearable phone
解释：在作者看来，未来一定会使用电子通信设备，但是可穿戴电话绝对是失败的创造。

(4)答案：B.square screens are cheaper than circular ones
解释：相对于圆形，方形屏幕更加便宜且容易制造。

失物招领大市场

Lostbox是一个帮助人们寻找失物的网站，起先由Owen先生因一次偶然经历而建立，现在员工大多数由志愿者组成。面对更多的需求，在商业化的社会中，Lostbox该何去何从？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

altruism利他主义['æltrʊɪz(ə)m]

impulse脉冲['ɪmpʌls]

desperate令人绝望的['desp(ə)rət]

retrieval检索[rɪ'triːvl]

intervene干预[ɪntə'viːn]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分50秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分50秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分44秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分57秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Online finder of lost dogs and teddies on a funding mission （575words）

By Chris Tighe

The kindness of strangers who try to help upset people find lost items or pets shows that impulse to do good. The desperate search for the lost teddy bear, family pet or child's hearing aid and the relief of retrieval provides a rich seam of human interest narrative.

Combine the two and you have Lostbox, based in the north-east of England. An online venture started by Mrs Owen after a chance event, it has 150,000 social media followers and a weekly reach, via shares and retweets, of 5m people. “I'm a big believer in fate,” she says. Maybe fate did intervene one winter night in 2012 outside Sunderland Football Club's stadium, when she trod on a small metal object and looked to see what it was.

The metal was a man's gold wedding ring, engraved “AJ à SC 16-06-90”. Recently married herself, Mrs Owen took it home and began trying via social media to find its owner. She soon realised how hit and miss this mission was.

Three years later, however, Stéphane Chambon, a French oil company executive who had attended a game at Sunderland, was traced and reunited with the ring. For him, it was a happy ending. For Mrs Owen, that search was just the beginning. “It completely changed my life.”

Despite running her own digital marketing and recruitment companies, Mrs Owen says she had no initial thought of making this a business. But after a year, and realising the unmet demand, she set up a website, Lostbox, as a place to post information and pleas for help.

Staffed by volunteers, Lostbox is financially supported by a recruitment company run by Mrs Owen and her business partner Phil Pringle. A prize, offering office space and support services worth about £100,000, has helped cover the costs for the past two years.

In that time, it has become the UK's largest online lost-and-found service. Meanwhile, many UK police forces are reducing their involvement in lost property because of budget cuts.

Lost dogs and toys are the biggest categories but war medals, a tortoise and false teeth and limbs are among the 40,000 items reunited so far with their owners.

Lostbox is run by 32 volunteers and one paid employee, plus Mrs Owen and Mr Pringle who regularly work 80-hour weeks. The venture is at a turning point. “It needs to be a commercial company to sustain it and keep up to date with the technology we need,” says Mrs Owen.

A free app, compatible with Apple and Android devices, was launched last month, providing “push notifications” of items lost in a specified geographical area, with lost and found colour coding. Lostbox has just moved to office premises in Gateshead, a Tyneside location that will make it easier to hire tech-savvy staff.

Paid-for merchandising, such as key rings, stickers, and luggage and dog tags, will be available shortly but the basic service will remain free.

To support this, Lostbox is negotiating advertising deals for products that are relevant to lost property. “We don't want to dilute our brand,” says Mrs Owen. Expansion overseas is on the cards too.

The office volunteers and the people who post found items and publicise it on social media do so “out of the goodness of their heart”, she says. “They're doing it because they want to get involved. They want to be the person who gets that buzz.”

She would like to pay some as part-timers but no promises have been made. “People appreciate the fact we've set up for the right reasons. But to sustain it, it has to make money,” she says.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Lostbox is mainly staffed by what kind of people?

A.Those who lost their property

B.Mr Owen and Mr Pringle

C.Volunteers

D.Retired Police

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why are many UK police forces reducing their involvement in lost property?

A.Because of budget cuts

B.The lack of workforce

C.Lost property reduced

D.The efficiency is too low

答案⁽²⁾

3.What are the biggest categories of the lost property?

A.False teeth and limbs

B.War medals

C.Documents

D.Dogs and toys

答案⁽³⁾

4.What problem does Lostbox meet now?

A.It is limited by its technology

B.It needs capital to sustain and support the technology

C.The staff turnover

D.The reduce of user

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Volunteers
解释：文中提到，Lostbox的员工基本上由志愿者组成。

(2)答案：A.Because of budget cuts
解释：文中提到，英国警察在失物寻找的警力减少是因为预算的减少。

(3)答案：D.Dogs and toys
解释：文中提到，Lostbox已帮助寻找的最多的失物是宠物狗与玩具，也包括一些如勋章、假牙等各种各样的物品。

(4)答案：B.It needs capital to sustain and support the technology
解释：文中提到，Lostbox维持经营和提高技术需要资金的支持，下一步可能进行商业化考虑，包括引进广告等。

两名男性生孩子，不远了？

英国的研究者称，这项研究可能在原则上为一种“推测和幻想”情境打开了大门，即精子可以让取自皮肤或其他组织的成年体细胞受精。这甚至可以在无需女性参与的情况下，让两名男性成为一名婴儿的生身父母。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

offspring后代['ɒfsprɪŋ]

fertilise使受精；施肥于；使肥沃['fə:tilaiz]

embryology胚胎学[,embrɪ'ɒlədʒɪ]

parthenogenetic[胚] 孤雌生殖的[,pɑrθənodʒɪ'nɛtɪk]

embryo[胚] 胚胎

tissue组织['tɪʃuː; 'tɪsjuː]

dogma教条，教理；武断的意见['dɒgmə]

mammalian哺乳类[mæ'meɪlɪən]

sperm精子；精液；鲸蜡油[spɜːm]

haploid[细胞][遗] 单倍体['hæplɒɪd]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分50秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分50秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分44秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分57秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Scientists create life without fertilising an egg （575words）

By Clive Cookson,Science Editor

Scientists have produced healthy offspring without fertilising an egg in a breakthrough that overturns the fundamental principles of embryology.

Bath University biologists bred baby mice by injecting sperm into a non-viable type of embryo called a parthenogenote. This has dividing cells that are fundamentally different from eggs and more like cells elsewhere in the body.

Tony Perry, senior author of the study, said the research could in principle open the way to a “speculative and fanciful” scenario in which sperm are made to fertilise adult cells derived from skin or other tissue. It could even allow two men to become the biological parents of a baby, without female involvement.

“Our work challenges the dogma, held since early embryologists first observed mammalian eggs and fertilisation [in the 19th century], that only an egg cell fertilised with a sperm cell can result in a live mammalian birth,” said Dr Perry, senior author of the study.

“This is an exciting piece of research which may help us to understand more about how human life begins and what controls the viability of embryos — mechanisms which may be important in fertility,” said Paul Colville-Nash, programme manager for developmental biology at the Medical Research Council, which funded the work. “It may one day even have implications for how we treat infertility, though that's probably still a long way off.”

The study, which is published in Nature Communications, began with the chemical stimulation of an unfertilised mouse egg to develop into a parthenogenote. Normally this dies within a few days because it lacks the genetic input from sperm that enables a normal embryo to grow.

The Bath team, which included two Japanese embryologists, Toru Suzuki and Maki Asami, then injected sperm into the parthenogenote. They adapted a technique called Icsi that is frequently used in human IVF fertility treatment to inject sperm into eggs.

Their version, called Phicsi (for parthenogenetic haploid Icsi), triggered the parthenogenote to develop into a normal embryo with genes from both parents: the sperm donor and the original embryo donor. The first pair of mice produced in this way, named Phicsim and Phicsia, grew into healthy adults that then had offspring of their own.

Although the animals seem normal, they are distinctly different from other mice in their “epigenetics” — biochemical markers on their DNA that indicate gene activity. This shows that a fundamentally different form of genetic reprogramming takes place during the Phicsi procedure.

During a press briefing in London, Dr Perry was happy to speculate about the implications. Unlike sperm and eggs, parthenogenotes are “mitotic cells” that divide like the body's other non-reproductive cells. His group is going on to investigate the possibility of adapting mitotic cells like those in skin to undergo a fertilisation procedure like Phicsi.

“Can embryos reprogramme other mitotic cells? Can other mitotic cells reprogramme sperm? Can other mitotic cells reprogramme other mitotic cells?” Dr Perry asked. If so, it may be eventually be possible to “mate” cells of two individuals in the lab without involving sperm or eggs.

“Will we be able to do that? I don't know,” he said. “But I think if it is ever possible one day in the distant future, people will look back and say this is where it started.”

Robin Lovell-Badge, an embryologist Crick Institute in London, said: “I'm not surprised that the authors are excited about this. I think it is a very interesting paper, and a technical tour de force.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which university's biologists have produced healthy offspring without fertilising an egg?

A.Harvard University

B.University of Oxford

C.Tsinghua University

D.Bath University

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which one of following is the experimental subject in the study?

A.rabbit

B.mouse

C.human

D.frog

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following is not right for the study?

A.It may help us to understand more about how human life begins.

B.It may help us to understand what controls the viability of embryos.

C.The Bath University funded this work.

D.It challenges the dogma as we know.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What's the difference between experimental mice and the others?

A.epigenetics

B.appearance

C.propagation

D.nothing

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Bath University
解释：巴斯大学的科学家们在没有让卵子受精的情况下繁育出健康的后代，这一突破颠覆了两个世纪以来的公认智慧。

(2)答案：B.mouse
解释：生物学家们把精子注入一个名为单性繁殖胚胎的无活性胚胎，繁育出了老鼠。这种方法以根本上不同于卵子的方式使细胞分裂，更像是体内的其他细胞。

(3)答案：C.The Bath University funded this work.
解释：这项研究的资助方是英国医学研究理事会(UK Medical Research Council)。

(4)答案：A.epigenetics
解释：尽管它们看起来没什么不同而且也能繁育后代，但他们的“实验胚胎学”完全不同于其他同类。

领导人该不该公开健康状况？

当之前非常健康的人突然被诊断出患有一种严重疾病时，秘而不宣的愿望通常是很强的——这关其他人什么事？但是，对于政治领导人和商业领导人，他们负责招聘和解雇人员、做出可能意义深远的并购和处置决定，当他们生病，我们是否有权知晓？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

tumour瘤；肿瘤[ˈtuːmər]

colon[解剖] 结肠；冒号['kəʊlən]

authoritative有权威的[ɔː'θɒrɪtətɪv; -,teɪtɪv]

thyroid甲状腺；甲状腺的['θaɪrɒɪd]

concussion冲击；震荡；脑震荡[kən'kʌʃ(ə)n]

prostate cancer前列腺癌['prɒsteɪt]

ailment小病；不安['eɪlm(ə)nt]

pancreatic胰的；胰腺的[,pænkrɪ'ætɪk]

apartheid种族隔离[ə'pɑːtheɪt; ə'pɑːtaɪd]

robust强健的；健康的[rə(ʊ)'bʌst]

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30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48秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分19秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Trump, Clinton and our right to know about our leaders' health （799words）

By Michael Skapinker

“The president has cancer.” It is 31 years since Steven Rosenberg, a member of the surgical team that removed a tumour from President Ronald Reagan's colon, made that announcement to the world.

What I remember, from watching on television, is not only how calmly definitive Dr Rosenberg, chief of surgery at the US National Cancer Institute, was, but how clearly he described Reagan's condition and its consequences. “There are many forms of cancer,” he said. As this one had not spread, the president's chances of living a normal lifespan were “excellent”. Reagan lived another 19 years, dying in 2004 at the age of 93.

Harold Bornstein, Donald Trump's doctor, has been less authoritative. In a four-paragraph letter, addressed “to whom my (sic) concern”, which he says he wrote in five minutes while a Trump team car waited outside, he described the Republican candidate's health as “astonishingly excellent” and said that he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”.

Hillary Clinton's doctor wrote a more detailed account, mentioning the Democratic candidate's underactive thyroid and a concussion in 2012, but said she “was in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States”. The only problem is that the letter was written more than a year ago.

Do we have a right to know the details of our political leaders' health? And does the same apply to business leaders, responsible for hiring, firing and making potentially far-reaching acquisition and disposal decisions? Should we hear when they become ill?

Apple attracted criticism for revealing too little about the pancreatic cancer that killed Steve Jobs, its founder, in 2011. But other chief executives have kept us up to date on their ailments.

In 2012, investor Warren Buffett announced that he had prostate cancer, that he would have daily radiation treatment for two months, but that his condition was “not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way”.

In 2014, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, announced that he had throat cancer and, five months later, after treatment, that his tests had come back “completely clear”.

Not all business leaders have curable conditions. In 2013, SABMiller announced that Graham Mackay, its chief executive, was stepping down three months early after undergoing surgery for a brain tumour. Mackay, who was SABMiller's leading figure as it turned itself from an apartheid-era South African company into an international brewer, returned briefly as non-executive chairman. He died that year.

When a previously robust person is suddenly presented with a shocking-sounding medical diagnosis, the desire to keep it private is often strong. What business is it of anyone else?

But in these corporate cases, disclosure seems to have been the better option. If people in the public eye appear to be under-par, as Jobs did, rumours start. It is better to get the truth out.

Apart from stopping the gossip, talking about illness serves two other positive purposes. It alerts people, whether employees or not, to possible problems with their own health. Mr Blankfein said he had felt unwell for several weeks before his lymphoma was discovered. Anyone reading that who felt similarly low might be encouraged to make an appointment with their doctor.

It might also aid their discussions with their doctors about what treatment they need, or if they need treatment at all.

Marc Garnick, a Harvard Medical School professor, wrote that if he had had an octogenarian patient with Mr Buffett's condition, he would have advised “active surveillance” rather than radiation treatment.

The second and more important reason for knowing about our leaders' health is that it breaks down the idea of the all-knowing imperial boss.

Leaders, like the rest of us, are incomplete. They are not always at their best. Illness reminds us of that. A chief executive slowing down while having hospital treatment is no bad thing. The next breakthrough will be when companies and their leaders feel they can be equally candid abut depression and mental health.

If chief executives need to step back because they are ill, they should, if they have done their jobs properly, have deputies who can take over, and teams that can take the strain.

The US presidency is the mightiest post on earth, invested with more authority than any reigning monarch's. Yet no president can function without a strong team, because commanders-in-chief have bad days too, and they suffer health problems.

As we live longer and work until we are older, top managers, along with everyone else, will discover there is more that can go wrong with their health.

There is no shame in that, provided they have people around them to help manage it. Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton should provide detailed up-to-date accounts of their health, preferably from doctors who can write in measured, professional tones.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How many years did Reagan live after the announcement?

A.1

B.19

C.31

D.93

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What's wrong with Hillary Clinton in 2012?

A.thyroid cancer

B.concussion

C.prostate cancer

D.cardiopathy

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one is not the positive purpose about getting the health truth out?

A.stop the gossip

B.alerts employees to take care of themselves

C.social sympathy

D.breaks down the idea of the all-knowing imperial boss

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who is the mightiest man on earth in author's opinion?

A.the president's doctor

B.the president's wife

C.the US presidency

D.the US commanders-in-chief

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.19
解释：他的医生团队表示：“总统现在有很多种癌症。”这种癌还没有扩散，总统活到正常寿命的几率“很高”。里根后来又活了19年，于2004年去世，享年93岁。

(2)答案：B.concussion
解释：希拉里·克林顿的医生描述得比较详细，她提到这位民主党总统候选人患有甲状腺功能减退，在2012年有过一次脑震荡，但她表示，希拉里“身体状况非常好，能够担任美国总统一职”。

(3)答案：C.social sympathy
解释：除了止住流言，谈论病还会提醒人们关注他们自己可能的健康问题和打破认为老板高高在上、无所不知的看法。

(4)答案：C.the US presidency
解释：作者看来美国总统是全世界最有权势的职位，比任何在位统治者的权力都大。

睡觉就能“涨知识”？

最新研究称睡眠可以有效地帮助记忆学习——做梦和记忆巩固有着密不可分的关系。所以想要学习一门新的语言，可能在上面睡一觉也是不错的方式。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

probe探查；用探针探测[prəʊb]

physiological生理学的，生理的[,fɪzɪə'lɒdʒɪkəl]

REM快速眼动睡眠

participant参与的；有关系的[pɑː'tɪsɪp(ə)nt]

consolidation巩固；合并；团结[kən,sɒlɪ'deɪʃən]

lag落后；迟延[læg]

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43秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分5秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

0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

If you want to learn, sleep on it（313 words）

By Denis Schluppeck

If you want to learn a language, try sleeping on it. This is the advice from researchers at Swansea University who are studying the interaction between sleep patterns, dreaming and memory consolidation — the process for laying down more securely memories in the brain.

In a forthcoming study in the Journal of Sleep Research, the scientists looked at how sleep and the value attached to pieces of information affect their memorability. Participants in the study slept in a specially designed lab, while their brain activity was being monitored.

Native English speakers who had recently arrived in Wales had to memorise Welsh words and were tested on them 12 hours later. One group had to remember the information during the daytime, while the other slept on it in the lab.

The sleepers performed significantly better in a test of their newly acquired vocabulary — and caring about the Welsh language further improved performance.

Related work in the sleep lab, presented at the British Science Festival, aims to understand whether dreams have a physiological role or whether they are a byproduct of other events occurring during sleep. To understand the timing and content of dreams, the team analysed the dreams participants reported in their own words, immediately on being woken.

This research found that the likelihood of experiencing a dream is particularly high — about 80 per cent — during REM sleep. This part of the sleep cycle, characterised by rapid eye movements, is thought to play an important role in memory consolidation.

Electrical activity in the brain varies significantly at different stages of sleep. This helped researchers to monitor sleep duration and quality, and to wake participants at particular points in the sleep cycle.

The research found daytime events were more likely to be incorporated into dreams with a one-day delay and to recur after another five to seven nights. This phenomenon has been termed the dream-lag effect.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which is not right about the study of researchers at Swansea University?

A.speaking

B.sleep patterns

C.dreaming

D.memory consolidation

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which is not right about the study in the Journal of Sleep Research?

A.how sleep and value attached affect memorability

B.monitored body movement

C.participants slept in the designed lab

D.monitored brain activity

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which is not right about the related work in the sleep lab?

A.whether dreams have a physiological role

B.whether dreams are the conditioned reflex

C.whether dreams are a byproduct

D.timing and content of dreams

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the percentage of the likelihood of experiencing a dream?

A.50 per cent

B.60 per cent

C.80 per cent

D.85 per cent

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.speaking
解释：英国斯旺西大学的研究者在做一项有关睡眠类型，做梦和记忆巩固之前关系的研究。

(2)答案：B.monitored body movement
解释：在睡眠调研的日志中，科学家观察了睡眠和附加的碎片信息如何影响着参与实验者的睡眠，并且他们要睡在特殊设计的实验室中，他们的大脑活动也会被时刻监控着。

(3)答案：B.whether dreams are the conditioned reflex
解释：睡眠实验室的相关工作想通过研究来了解做梦是否有着生理学的角色，他们是否是梦中发生的其他事件的副产品，还要了解做梦的时间和内容。

(4)答案：C.80 per cent
解释：调研发现在睡眠中出现做梦的概率非常高，大概有百分之八十的可能性。

亚马逊：米其林大餐1小时送达

亚马逊加入餐饮外卖竞争，伦敦成为海外第一站。要知道近几年亚马逊公司一直致力于快速物流服务，尽管主要竞争对手UBer、Deliveroo的外卖服务则可以在 30 分钟内完成，配送时间上更有竞争力。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

offshoot分支；支流；衍生物['ɒfʃuːt]

eclipse使黯然失色；形成蚀[ɪ'klɪps]

logistics network物流网络

marketing campaign营销活动

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。

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55秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分18秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1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

Amazon Restaurants takes a bite out of food delivery market（497 words）

By Madhumita Murgia

Amazon will expand into the crowded UK food delivery space with the launch of a restaurant takeaway service in London that will take on established rivals such as Deliveroo and UberEats.

The new food service — called Amazon Restaurants — will offer one-hour restaurant deliveries for paying customers of its Prime service in parts of the capital.

Amazon has promised free delivery on orders of £15 or more, with 180 restaurants having signed up ranging from the Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Benares to high street pizza chain Strada.

The arrival of Amazon will mean further competition for existing takeaway groups such as Deliveroo and Just Eat, which are already facing a new threat from the arrival in the UK of UberEats, a food delivery offshoot of the US car ride company that launched in the summer.

In the past five years, the western European market for takeaway and delivery grew 2.2 per cent to £18.4bn on the back of the success of such start-ups, while restaurant-bought food revenues fell 7.6 per cent to £135.3bn, according to analyst Euromonitor.

Although eclipsed by Amazon and Uber in size, the three-year-old Deliveroo operates in 12 countries through 2,500 restaurants and is valued, by some estimates, at more than $1bn.

However, Amazon's vast logistics network and scale puts it in a very strong position to challenge its position, according to analysts.

“Amazon can reduce the cost per delivery by bundling deliveries from multiple restaurants to similar locations and improve service by accelerating delivery time,” said Neil Campling, analyst at Northern Trust Capital Markets.

“Amazon, like Uber, cares about land grab and quick scale, not quick economic returns.” The food delivery offer is an extension of grocery delivery service Amazon Fresh, which launched in London this summer. The UK is the first market outside the US for Amazon's restaurant service, which was first launched in Seattle in 2015 and has expanded into 15 US cities.

Al Wilkinson, UK head of Amazon restaurants, said: “Based on our own research into what is important to consumers in food delivery, our team have handpicked a selection of the best quality local restaurants in London. We're excited to be helping many of these small businesses start offering home delivery for the very first time.”

San Francisco-based Uber, well known for its multinational car-hailing app, is also looking to further expand its takeaway service, which was launched in London with an aggressive marketing campaign in June.

UberEats already operates in 18 cities, and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, head of Uber's Emea operations, says it is “investing heavily to bring UberEats to new cities across Europe”.

The Seattle giant's entry could also squeeze takeaway ordering websites like FTSE 250 company Just Eat and Dutch Takeaway.com, according to analysts. “The risks are rising in our view that Just Eat will have to consider [delivery],” said Mr Campling.

On Tuesday, Takeaway.com, the Dutch challenger to Just Eat, launched its intention to raise €175m through an initial public offering to take on European rivals.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How long will Amazon Restaurants need to do food delivery?

A.one half hour

B.in one hour

C.one and half hours

D.in two-hour

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the order's price amount will Amazon do free delivery?

A.£10

B.£15 or more

C.unlimited

D.£25 or more

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which is not the competitor with Amazon Restaurants in UK?

A.Deliveroo

B.OrderUp

C.Just Eat

D.UberEats

答案⁽³⁾

4.How many countries does Deliveroo operate?

A.10 countries

B.12 countries

C.18 countries

D.25 countries

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.in one hour
解释：亚马逊送餐服务承诺将在一小时内为客户送餐到家。

(2)答案：B.£15 or more
解释：亚马逊送餐要求顾客在点餐总额达到十五英镑或更高的时候，将为其提供免费的送餐服务。

(3)答案：B.OrderUp
解释：在英国，亚马逊现有的送餐竞争对手就已经有Deliveroo，Just Eat和UberEats三家公司。

(4)答案：D.25 countries
解释：Deliveroo公司已经横跨二十五个国家，涉及两千五百个餐厅，为客户提供送餐服务。

职场利器“奶奶灰”？

现实生活中我们总以一切手段以求看起来“永葆青春”，然而三周前作者却一夜白了头——不是因为心力交瘁，而是选择了染成“奶奶灰”。如今职场中对女性“奶奶灰”的组合更加具有认同感吗？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

dye染；把…染上颜色[daɪ]

compel强迫，迫使；强使发生[kəm'pel]

palette调色板；颜料['pælɪt]

baffling令人困惑的；变幻的['bæf(ə)lɪŋ]

ilk家族；亲属[ɪlk]

canvassing拉票活动

elicit抽出，引出；引起[ɪ'lɪsɪt]

dumbfounded目瞪口呆的，惊呆的[dʌm'faʊndɪd]

paucity缺乏；少数；少量['pɔːsɪtɪ]

lamented令人遗憾的；被哀悼的[lə'mentɪd]

reactionary保守派[rɪ'ækʃ(ə)n(ə)rɪ]

henna指甲花；散沫花；红褐色；指甲花染料['henə]

ubiquitous普遍存在的；无所不在的[juː'bɪkwɪtəs]

nerves神经紧张；胆量[nə:vs]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分30秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分12秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分0秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分3秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Is white hair good for business? （631 words）

By Sarah Gordon

Three weeks ago, I went white overnight. Not through shock, but by choice. After a quarter of a century of dying my hair brown, I felt compelled to embrace the real me. Or at least my real hair.

The decision was not an easy one. Women in the west may have better career opportunities, better reproductive choices and more of our own money than our peers half a century ago, but when it comes to hair it's as if the 1960s never happened. Look around a room of middle-aged women (as I did recently at a screening in Chelsea of the new Absolutely Fabulous movie) and a uniform palette of ash-blonde greets you. It's a colour that most women are still dyeing to achieve.

We try to maintain our youth in many ways — but most of these now come with modern excuses. We keep fit for strength and health as much as beauty. We use make-up to look smart and professional, as much as to look young. But we dye our hair because we don't want to look old. The sexist illogic is baffling on this topic — as on many others. Men are allowed to go grey — but not bald — and still be considered sexy: think of George Clooney (as I often do) or other silver foxes of his ilk. Yet my canvassing of friends and colleagues over the decision to go natural elicited some powerfully negative comments. Several were so dumbfounded — or appalled — it took them several seconds of obvious reflection before asking why “on earth” I would want to take such a step. “Why would you want to look old?” said a female friend. “It's not your age bracket,” said another.

Sexist social expectations apart, there are other powerful reasons not to go grey — or white in my case since, although (only) 51, my grey days are well behind me. There is little research to back it up — probably given the paucity of grey (or white-haired) women in the corporate world — but it's difficult to avoid the feeling that, just as short men get promoted less often than tall ones, so women with grey hair are seen as somehow less dynamic. Christine Lagarde was quoted to me so often as a woman who looked fabulous with white hair it only emphasised how few obviously successful, silver-haired women there are out there.

The late lamented author Nora Ephron once wrote: “There is a reason why 40, 50 and 60 don't look the way they used to, and it's not because of feminism … It's because of hair dye.”

Although feminism has made progress in the workplace and the home, the trends in women's hair colour have been comparatively reactionary. Indeed, the craze for colouring is comparatively new. While the ancient Egyptians are understood to have used henna to disguise grey hair, the zeal for hair dye only picked up in earnest with the arrival of readily available hair colour in the mid-20th century: only 7 per cent of housewives in America dyed their hair in the 1950s. Things changed fast. Clairol launched a home-colouring kit in 1956, and colouring became so ubiquitous thereafter that, by 1968, Americans were no longer required to put their hair colour on their passport.

……

Despite my nerves, the reaction to my white hair from friends, family and colleagues has more than justified my decision. Even those who cautioned against it were uniformly, and surprisingly, positive. Several women friends have even voiced admiration at my bravery in trying out the new look.

Changing one's hair colour is not the stuff of bravery. But it was a big decision for me. Once taken, I do not just feel empowered, I feel more confident, even, dare I say it, younger. I just wonder why it took me so long.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which is not right about the differences of modern women compare with their peers half a century ago?

A.better career opportunities

B.more tired and stressful

C.better reproductive choices

D.more of own money

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How old is the author now?

A.45

B.50

C.51

D.57

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why did Nora Ephron say that women in elder years don't look the way they used to?

A.feminism

B.hair dye

C.efficiency

D.capacity

答案⁽³⁾

4.In which year that Clairol launched a home-colouring kit?

A.1950

B.1956

C.1968

D.1970

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.more tired and stressful
解释：现在的西方女性相比较半世纪前的职场女性有着更好地就业机会，更好地生殖选择以及得到更高的薪水。

(2)答案：C.51
解释：此文的作者51岁。

(3)答案：B.hair dye
解释：作者诺拉·艾芙伦曾经说道，四十、五十和六十岁的女人之所以看起来和过去的她们不同，不是因为女权主义，而是因为发色的差别。

(4)答案：B.1956
解释：伊卡璐公司在1956年推出了女性消费者可以在家自己染发的套装产品。

关于香槟你不可不知的事

阅读文章涨知识——香槟是法国人奉献给世界的绝世佳酿，而年份香槟更是香槟中最珍贵的一员——在葡萄的最佳成熟期采摘并经过最严谨的流程酿造出来。如何挑选香槟？香槟最适合饮用的储藏年份？你是否懂得如何品鉴一瓶优质的香槟？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

lore知识；学问[lɔː]

hail致敬；猛发；使像下雹样落下[heɪl]

notch up创下；达到

ripeness成熟；老练['raɪpnɪs]

cliffhanger扣人心弦的比赛['klɪfhæŋə]

palatable美味的，可口的；愉快的['pælətəb(ə)l]

tactfully巧妙地；机智地['tæktfəli]

aroma芳香[ə'rəʊmə]

limelight众人注目的中心['laɪmlaɪt]

CIVC法国香槟酒行业委员会

tarry-eyed过分乐观的；幻想的['stɑ:ri,aid]

intrinsic本质的，固有的[ɪn'trɪnsɪk]

glamorous迷人的，富有魅力的['glæmərəs]

fizzy起泡沫的；嘶嘶作响的['fɪzɪ]

zesty兴致很高的['zesti]

austere严峻的；简朴的；无装饰的

magnum大酒瓶（容量为1.5升）['mægnəm]

Roederer Cristal水晶香槟

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分39秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分58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29秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Still sparkling? （895 words）

By Jancis Robinson

Vintage years are important in wine lore. Vintages tend to acquire their reputations early on and are usually stuck with them for the rest of their active lives. The 2001 vintage of red bordeaux, particularly on the right bank, has arguably gained in stature over time, as did the 1993 vintage of red burgundy, but these are exceptions.

In Champagne, the 1996 vintage was hailed early on as exceptionally good, not least because the grapes notched up record levels of both ripeness and acidity. At a recent showing of his excellent NPU prestige bottling, champagne producer Bruno Paillard called the 1996 vintage a “naughty boy” because it was so changeable and such a cliffhanger for producers as they waited for acid levels to fall to palatable levels, “but the result is fantastic for those who have the patience to wait”. This demanding vintage followed the hot summer of 1995, whose earlier-maturing wines were initially regarded as inferior to the dramatic 1996s.

Today there is considerable revisionism about the reputation of the 1996s. Many champagne drinkers and producers are now expressing doubts about how well the 1996s have aged. In some cases, the acidity, rather than tactfully receding into the background to allow mature fruit and complex aromas to blossom, continues to hog the limelight while the fruit seems already to be losing its power. This is particularly true of regular 1996 vintage champagne from less starry producers. The downgrading of 1996 often goes hand in hand with an approving reappraisal of the 1995s. Some 1995 champagnes that have particularly impressed me recently were the P2 late releases of Dom Pérignon, both white and pink, Bruno Paillard's NPU and Charles Heidsieck's Blanc de Millénaires.

It may be worth noting that the only time I have been invited to a generic tasting in Champagne by the inter-professional body, the CIVC, was in 2002 when it asked a group of wine writers from all over Europe to participate in a blind comparison of wines from the 1995 and 1996 vintages. My conclusion at the time was starry-eyed. “On average I have awarded the same overall score to 1995s as to 1996s (3.3 stars), but when you consider that most of the famous names are still on vintage 1995 or older, and that a high proportion of the 1996s [we tasted] are from lesser-known producers, I think the vintage's intrinsic worth shines through.”

Twenty years is quite an age for a champagne, even a vintage-dated one that is generally based on the finest base wines available, but the high acidity of the 1996s should, at least in theory, be enough to keep the best of them soldiering on into their third decade.

The fine-wine trader BI (known as Bordeaux Index before diversifying into pastures new, notably top quality champagne) tends to hold an annual tasting of 10-year-old champagnes. At this year's event were eight 2006 prestige champagnes plus a Krug Grande Cuvée based on the 2006 vintage. But, in honour of BI's 20th anniversary, this year these were supplemented by a dozen 1996 champagnes, including virtually all the most glamorous ones.

Having tasted these 1996s — admittedly some of them extremely expensive — supplemented by a few others tasted recently, it seems you have to head for the crème de la crème of Champagne to be guaranteed a really outstanding 1996, and that, yes, there are disappointments to be found. Two bottles of Gosset Grand Millésime 1996 and a magnum of Lanson Gold Label 1996 were just a bit too tart for comfort.

The weekend before last at a private dinner, for instance, I tasted two bottles of Bollinger Grande Année 1996 from the same case. The first was served blind and I guessed it was at least 10 years older, probably more. It was barely fizzy and had a severe shortage of fruit — the common fault in 1996s that have not aged gracefully. But a second bottle was much, much fresher and zestier, even though it still finished a little dry. My tasting note ended “better than some of the most austere 1996s but not glorious”. (This sort of bottle variation is, alas, all too common in wines both still and sparkling.)

……

The finest 1996 champagne of all in the BI tasting was from a (very rare) magnum of Roederer Cristal. This was a very particular pleasure to taste because, thanks to worldwide demand for Cristal, it is so unusual to come across examples of this luxurious wine with much bottle age on it — and even rarer to find it from the supposedly optimum magnum size. But I swear it was not just the rarity that was so exciting but also the extraordinary range of aromas of gingerbread, baked apples and a positively electric sort of energy in this youthful wine. You would never guess from either the taste or the look of this wine that it was 20 years old.

When I first tasted this wine at the end of 2002, presumably soon after it was released, it was really not very communicative at all and didn't start to show what it was capable of for another eight years or so. I see that when I tasted it, again from magnum, in 2007 I observed: “This should make spectacular old bones — if it's allowed to.” Cristal really does repay patience even if it is hardly ever given it.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.In which year the vintage was hailed exceptionally good?

A.1995

B.1996

C.1998

D.2000

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which is not the reason that people will like the champagne?

A.grapes notched up record levels

B.earlier-maturing

C.ripeness and acidity are unexceptionable

D.excellent NPU prestige bottling

答案⁽²⁾

3.How many years is quite an age for a champagne?

A.fifteen years

B.twenty years

C.twenty five years

D.thirty years

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which is not right about the Roederer Cristal?

A.negatively electric sort of energy

B.luxurious wine

C.rare to find the supposedly optimum magnum size

D.extraordinary range of aromas

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.1996
解释：1996年的葡萄酒酿造期是迎来大家欢呼声最高的，也同时受到了香槟爱好者特殊的称赞。

(2)答案：B.earlier-maturing
解释：饮酒者挑选香槟会根据香槟酿造时葡萄收成的成熟度和酸度是否达到了无可挑剔的最高水平，以及要有很好的装瓶水准。

(3)答案：B.twenty years
解释：二十年通常代表着香槟最适合饮用的储藏年份。

(4)答案：A.negatively electric sort of energy
解释：香槟的名声在于它及其难找寻的装瓶容器，赋予了其奢华的本质，并且有着非凡的各种芳香让人流连忘返。

英国《金融时报》
原文阅读精选集Vol.32

被暗示涉色情业，特朗普妻子怒告媒体

梅拉尼娅·特朗普控告《每日邮报》，要求其索赔一亿五千万美金的损失费，原因是《每日邮报》对身为共和党总统候选人唐纳德·特朗普妻子的她造成了声誉影响，诽谤她在上世纪九十年代做过应召女郎，并大肆造谣。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

hinge on决定于……

Slovenian斯洛维尼亚的[sləu'vi:niən]

escort陪同

retraction撤回，撤销；收回[rɪ'trækʃən]

allegation指控; 宣称; 陈词，陈述[ælɪ'geɪʃ(ə)n]

circuit巡回['sɜːkɪt]

eponymous使得名的，齐名的[ɪ'pɒnɪməs]

wrestler摔跤选手，搏斗者['reslə]

amendment修正案；改善；改正[ə'men(d)m(ə)nt]

libel诽谤罪；诋毁；毁坏名誉的东西['laɪb(ə)l]

allegedly依其申述；据说，据称[ə'ledʒɪdlɪ]

defamatory诽谤的；中伤的；破坏名誉的[dɪ'fæmət(ə)rɪ]

malice恶意；怨恨；预谋['mælɪs]

reckless disregard不计后果的漠视

plaintiff原告['pleɪntɪf]

delegate委派…为代表[ˈdɛlɪˌɡeɪt; -ɡɪt; (for v.,) ˈdɛlɪˌɡeɪt]

catastrophic灾难的；悲惨的；灾难性的，毁灭性的[kætə'strɒfɪk]

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50秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分44秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分57秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Daily Mail lawsuit hinges on definition of ‘public figure'（577 words）

By David Bond, Media Correspondent

The Daily Mail's hopes of avoiding an expensive bill from its legal battle with the wife of US presidential candidate Donald Trump are likely to rest on whether Melania Trump is considered a public or a private figure under US law.

Mrs Trump launched a suit against Associated Newspapers, the British parent company of the Daily Mail and Mail Online, late on Thursday over an August 20 article citing a Slovenian magazine's report that a modelling agency, which employed her in the 1990s, had also served as an escort service.

The Mail retracted the story in Friday's print edition and online. But it also insisted that the intention of the story had been to point out how the allegations “could impact the US presidential election even if they are untrue”.

Despite the retraction, Mrs Trump's lawyer Charles Harder said she would press ahead with the lawsuit, filed at the state circuit court in Montgomery County, Maryland. He added that she would be seeking $150m in damages.

Mr Harder successfully brought Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media for posting portions of a sex tape on its eponymous website. The retired wrestler, whose real name is Terry Bollea, was awarded $140m in damages. The payout prompted Gawker's sale to Univision and the closure of the website.

Under the First Amendment to the US Constitution, a public figure suing a newspaper for libel has to prove that the allegedly defamatory article was published with what is known as “actual malice”.

“Actual malice has to be something published in reckless disregard of the truth or falsity of what was published,” said Jerome Barron, law professor at George Washington University. “In other words, can the plaintiff show that they didn't care whether it was true or false?”

In contrast, anyone considered a private person under US law, only has to prove that what was published was false.

The article at the centre of the dispute was published by the Daily Mail, first in its UK printed edition and subsequently on Mail Online, about a month after Mrs Trump addressed delegates at the Republican party convention in Cleveland, Ohio.

Floyd Abrams, a partner at the law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel said he had no doubt that Mrs Trump's appearance at the convention meant she would be seen as a public figure.

He also questioned why Mrs Trump had chosen to sue for libel in the US and not the UK.

“It's far, far easier to win a libel case in the UK than in America, even allowing for recent changes to UK legislation,” he said. “One possible explanation is that she is seeking to achieve maximum publicity in the US for the case.”

People at the Daily Mail told the Financial Times that the publisher had already committed to publishing a retraction before the case was filed in Maryland on Thursday.

Mr Abrams added the retraction could help reduce any future damages were the newspaper group to lose the case.

But even if Mrs Trump were to be awarded the full amount, it would not be catastrophic to DMGT's business model, people familiar with the company said. The $150m figure would represent around one-third of the media company's annual profit and around 5 per cent of its annual revenues.

“The Daily Mail is much more able to survive something like this as an established funded business rather than a start-up like Gawker,” said Alice Enders, an analyst with Enders.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How much Mrs Trump would be seeking in damages?

A.$120m

B.$140m

C.$150m

D.$155m

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which is not right about the actual malice?

A.reckless disregard of the truth

B.not consider party's feeling

C.falsity of what was published

D.not care whether it was true or false

答案⁽²⁾

3.When was the disputed article published by the Daily Mail?

A.on Thursday

B.two months after Mrs Trump addressed delegates

C.about a month after Mrs Trump addressed delegates

D.not mentioned

答案⁽³⁾

4.Why does Mrs Trump chose to sue for libel in the US and not the UK？

A.achieve maximum publicity in the US

B.easier to win a libel case in America

C.UK legislation has changed

D.no influence in the US

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.$150m
解释：特朗普夫人要求索赔一亿五千万美金。

(2)答案：B.not consider party's feeling
解释：实际恶意的伤害是指不计后果的漠视事件的真实性，不真实的报道事件，以及根本不考虑所报道的文章是真实的还是虚构的。

(3)答案：C.about a month after Mrs Trump addressed delegates
解释：在八月二十日，每日邮报发表了一篇诋毁特朗普夫人的文章，是其在共和党全国大会上发表演讲后的一个月左右。

(4)答案：A.achieve maximum publicity in the US
解释：特朗普夫人选择在美国控告每日邮报的诽谤罪而不是在英国，是因为其想在美国达到最大的公开宣传效果。

打破无趣，勇敢跳槽

你是否每天醒来后很担忧即将到来的工作？你是否只为工作付出了一点甚至毫无价值？你是否对你上司的职位毫无兴趣？当你在做自己公司或者创业时，你是否对未来五年的前景很矛盾？如果是的，那么你该考虑换一个新职位了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

priest牧师；神父；教士[priːst]

cricket板球，板球运动['krɪkɪt]

dread惧怕；担心[dred]

ambivalent矛盾的；好恶相克的[æm'bɪv(ə)l(ə)nt]

adage格言，谚语；箴言['ædɪdʒ]

textile纺织品，织物['tekstaɪl]

transcendent卓越的；超常的；出类拔萃的[træn'send(ə)nt; trɑːn-]

lateral侧面的，横向的['læt(ə)r(ə)l]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分56秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分19秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1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

It is not too late to recreate yourself （499 words）

By Mrs Moneypenny

Reinventing yourself in later life has always been possible.

I did not have to look very far for examples when I was writing my careers book, back in 2011: in it I described three women in Scotland who had relaunched themselves into new paid employment, all at the age of 60. One became a lawyer, one a priest and the other a residential lettings specialist.

So the challenge of becoming UK prime minister at 59 should be no problem for Mrs May.

Closer to home, Mr M has reinvented himself twice in recent times — after 25 years in the TV industry he became a wine merchant, and nine years later he moved on to become a professional cricket coach.

So, it is never too late. But regardless of age, how do you know if you should be changing direction?

Here is a checklist:

• Have you for some time been getting up in the morning dreading to going to work?

• Do you feel that you add little to no value in the job you do?

• Do you look at your boss and think that you really do not want their job?

• If you own your own business or work for a start-up, do you look five years into the future and feel ambivalent about what you see?

If the answer to any one of these is “yes” then you should think about doing something else. “A change is as good as a rest” is not simply an overused adage. (Random fact of the week — the phrase was first used as the title of a poem in 1857. People were sick of singular careers even then!)

One thing that almost anyone who has ever changed career direction has done is to retrain. There are lots of reasons to consider doing this and in an age of “blended learning” (some study in person, some over the internet), you can usually do so without leaving your current job.

The first is to see if you actually like doing the job to which you aspire. Interior design might look like an attractive and creative way to spend your time, but try studying it first to find out if you could really devote all yourself fully to textiles and the trade in transcendent taste.

The second reason for retraining is to show people that you are serious, which is crucial if you are going to try and make a lateral move. Even if you already know everything there is to know about wine, passing professional exams shows intent.

The third is to force yourself to give proper time to considering what might be a life-changing move. No decision I have ever made has suffered for being taken over a longer period of time.

So this summer, while you bask in the sunshine and leisure time and maybe reacquaint yourself with your family, consider whether you are really happily employed.

You spend most of your waking hours at work. Is it time to do something new?

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which is not right about the title that three women who had relaunched into new paid employment?

A.lawyer

B.artist

C.priest

D.residential lettings specialist

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many times that Mr M has changed his job in recent times?

A.1

B.2

C.4

D.5

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which is not right about the checklist?

A.dreading to going to work

B.add little to no value in the job

C.you really want your boss's job

D.feel ambivalent when you look five years into the future

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which is not right about the reasons to consider retraining in an age of “blended learning”?

A.consider in five years whether you will like your change

B.if you like doing the job you aspire

C.show people you are serious

D.force yourself to give proper time to think

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.artist
解释：作者在文中提到的三个在六十岁又换了新职业的女性分别做的是律师，牧师和住宅租赁专家。

(2)答案：B.2
解释：M先生在最近几次里相继换了两份工作，一次是从电视机工厂二十五年后改行做了红酒商人，另一次是九年后又改行做专业的板球教练。

(3)答案：C.you really want your boss's job
解释：作者提到了一个清单，当你觉得每天早上醒来时很担忧即将到来的工作，你认为只为自己的工作付出了一点甚至毫无价值的时候，当你在做自己的公司或者创业时，你对未来五年的前景很矛盾的时候，你该考虑换一个新的事业了。

(4)答案：A.consider in five years whether you will like your change
解释：当你在接受新的事业时，你要考虑是否做了自己渴望的工作，你要给身边的人展现出你的认真态度，以及要强迫自己在适当的时间内考虑清楚是否换工作将会是你人生中重要的一步，而不是过分的拖延时间。

防止校园性侵，从醉酒禁酒开始

2015年美国布朗大学调查表明，美国校园内强暴事件日益频发，平均每6位女性中就有一位女性在刚入学后醉酒失去防御能力遭性侵。斯坦福大学轰动一时的校园性侵案给大家一个响亮的警告，校方是时候在规章制度上做些有力度的改变了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

provost教务长；院长['prɒvəst]

formidable强大的；令人敬畏的['fɔːmɪdəb(ə)l; fɔː'mɪd-]

endeavor尽力，竭力[ɪn'devə; en-]

earnest认真的，热心的；重要的['ɜːnɪst]

entreaty恳求；乞求[ɪn'triːtɪ; en-]

Bacchus manoeuvre酒神巴克斯策略

choke窒息；阻塞；说不出话来[tʃəʊk]

vomit呕吐；呕吐物；催吐剂['vɒmɪt]

porcelain瓷制的；精美的['pɔːs(ə)lɪn]

fraternity友爱；兄弟会；互助会；大学生联谊会[frə'tɜːnɪtɪ]

sorority妇女联谊会；女学生联谊会[sə'rɒrɪtɪ]

boozy嗜酒的；酩酊的['buːzɪ]

stereotype陈腔滥调，老套['sterɪə(ʊ)taɪp; 'stɪərɪə(ʊ)-]

damning咒骂的；毁灭的；受永罚的['dæmiŋ]

abstinence节制；节欲；戒酒；禁食['æbstɪnəns]

tawdry非常华丽的；廉价而俗丽的['tɔːdrɪ]

abstainer节制者；戒酒者；弃权者[əb'stenɚ]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分2秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分37秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分1秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分24秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

America is still learning how to cope with the demon drink （844 words）

By Philip Delves Broughton

My heart went out this week to Greg Boardman, the vice provost for student affairs at Stanford, the poor man charged with implementing the California university's policy on undergraduate drinking. For all of Stanford's might and achievement at the heart of Silicon Valley, it has suffered in the past few months for the actions of Brock Turner, a former student jailed for six months for sexually assaulting a young woman. Turner, a member of

Stanford's formidable swimming team, was drunk and his victim unconscious. His crime prompted yet another look at binge drinking at American colleges. Stanford has responded by banning hard liquor and Mr Boardman wrote to undergraduates this week explaining the change, asking them to “bring your best selves to this endeavour” and be a part of solving the problem. “We must create a campus community that allows for alcohol to be a part of the social lives of some of our students, but not to define the social and communal lives of all of our students,” he wrote.

His earnest entreaty sits on the website of Stanford's office of alcohol policy and education. Here one can also learn about the Bacchus manoeuvre, which is the method of turning over an unconscious person so they don't choke on their own vomit, and the practice of pregaming, drinking a large amount in a short time before going out for the night. “Although it may initially seem cool, most people visit the ‘porcelain god' an hour or two later,” the university warns.

Stanford's approach to student drinking also includes alcohol-free “cardinal nights” of movies and entertainment intended “to challenge the faulty normative belief that alcohol is needed in order to have fun on a college campus”.

Faulty as it may be, that normative belief is rooted in American culture. With his cardinal nights, Mr Boardman is taking on the force of movies like Animal House, Road Trip and Old School. He is taking on the beer-and-barbecue traditions of tailgating — serving a meal from the back of a car — before college football games. He is challenging fraternity and sorority traditions, and is up against the allure of boozy, spring-break trips to Florida beaches.

These habits have survived a deluge of adverse research and statistics. The National Institutes of Health reports that each year about 1,825 college students die from alcohol-related, unintentional injuries including car crashes. About 97,000 experience alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.

Much of the drinking is due to social pressures. True to the Animal House stereotype, the students who drink the most are those living in fraternities or sororities. Those who drink the least live with their parents and commute to classes.

Perhaps most damning of all for universities is that alcohol abuse among students is higher than it is for young adults who do not attend college, particularly so for women. Universities seem to make the problem worse.

A few years ago, the journalist Malcolm Gladwell wrote that America's approach to the problems caused by alcohol is to “moralise, medicalise, and legalise” — anything but treat alcohol the way the Italians or French do, as simply as they do food and ordinary socialising. To drink in America is still at some level a vice — at least naughty, at most a trigger for serious, antisocial behaviour. Equally, the decision not to drink comes with a halo.

This has left universities struggling. In 2008, a group of college presidents urged that the drinking age be dropped from 21 to 18. The 21 rule only came into effect nationwide in 1984. It is absurd that Americans can vote, be sent to war and buy a gun before they can buy a beer. But the effort to drop the age limit was rebuffed by a combination of abstinence and law enforcement groups.

Drinking is also a natural partner of the sport culture that has become so commercially important to American universities. You drink before the game and even more after the game. A study of college drinking by the Harvard School of Public Health in 2008 found that cheap, freely available booze correlated with binge drinking. A Saturday night cruise through almost any college town could confirm this.

One strategy that appears to be working is urging parents to warn their children against drinking before arriving on campus. At some colleges, students are told that if they have to be brought home or hospitalised after drinking, their parents will be informed. The fear of being ratted on to the people writing the $50,000 annual tuition cheques is proving powerful.

But the spate of tawdry news about college drinking compounds a strong, negative narrative about American universities as places where young people struggle rather than thrive, where they fall victim to anxiety, debt and the worst kinds of social pressure. Prescription drug abuse has been increasing among students, presumably to cope with the anxiety. And drinking habits are becoming extreme, with more abstainers but more students drinking to excess. Mr Boardman is right that this is a “multiple lens” problem. The answers need to be less blurred.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which is not right about Bacchus manoeuvre?

A.turn over an unconscious person

B.choke on drinker's own vomit

C.practice of pregaming

D.drink a large amount in a short time

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many college students die from alcohol-related?

A.900

B.1,825

C.2,008

D.5,000

答案⁽²⁾

3.In which year that college presidents urged about the drinking age be dropped from 21 to 18?

A.2000

B.2005

C.2008

D.2012

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which is not related to young people struggle?

A.fall victim to anxiety

B.academic stress

C.debt

D.worst kinds of social pressure

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.choke on drinker's own vomit
解释：酒神巴克斯策略是将醉酒的人翻过身来以至于他们不会被自己的呕吐物噎住嗓子使他们窒息，并且还要做些“赛前训练”，让学生在晚上出去玩之前短时间内大量饮酒。

(2)答案：B.1,825
解释：每年由于大量饮酒而丧失生命的大学生有将近1825人。

(3)答案：C.2008
解释：在2008年，很大一部分的大学校长要求将美国的可饮酒年龄从二十一岁降低到十八岁。

(4)答案：B.academic stress
解释：年轻人大量饮酒作出的挣扎都是由于他们过早的成为了焦虑的牺牲品，有借款要偿还的债务以及不利的社会压力。

升职后，朋友怎么做？

当昔日的职场好友变成顶头上司，多多少少面临尴尬。担心踩到职场地雷？又怕失去真心的朋友？——摆正自己的位置，放平自己的心态，做到良好的沟通，给彼此适应的时间。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

erstwhile以前的；从前的；往昔的['ɜːstwaɪl]

coze友好的谈心；聊天[koz]

awkwardness尴尬；笨拙['ɔːkwədnəs]

scenario方案；情节；剧本；设想[sɪ'nɑːrɪəʊ]

teasing戏弄['ti:ziŋ]

a good rule of thumb好的做法，好的标准

grumble抱怨；嘟囔['grʌmb(ə)l]

cutting corners投机取巧

fudge胡说；谎话[fʌdʒ]

off the record非正式的；非官方的

grace period（行动、责任等的）宽限期

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10秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分27秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分28秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分51秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How to manage your erstwhile friends after promotion （519 words）

By Emma Jacobs

The good news: you have been promoted. The bad news: you are managing your peers, including people you would describe as friends. So how do you manage those with whom you shared personal confidences?

Liana Davey, psychologist and founder of 3 coze, an executive team consultancy, recommends having a “reset conversation” with team members, along the following lines: “I will never consider not being your friend, but as a manager I have to set our relationship. How do we make it work?” By posing a positive question it leaves no room for the relationship to fail.

The awkwardness of this scenario, she believes, puts empathetic people off applying for promotions, whereas “it wouldn't even cross the mind of a driven person willing to steamroller over their former peers”.

Robert Sutton, professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University, as well as author of Good Boss, Bad Boss, warns that a bit of teasing from your team is inevitable, although if it goes on for longer than a couple of weeks you are in trouble.

The first few months should be spent listening to your colleagues, advises Katy Tynan, management expert and author of Survive Your Promotion.

“Unfortunately many new managers don't get proper training, so they think they need to assert their authority and boss people around on day one.” They spend more time trying to tell people what to do, and not enough time listening and learning.

A good rule of thumb, Ms Tynan says, is to spend the first 30 to 60 days in learning mode. Meet the people on your team, work on getting a solid understanding of the skills and motivations of team members, rather than their attributes as a friend.

There needs to be a bit of social distancing between yourself and your former peers, advises Prof Sutton. The friendship can survive and it might make you a better and more empathetic manager because you care about their wellbeing. But you need to be clear-headed about the possibility of calling out team members over a problem or, even worse, firing them.

It works both ways: as a former peer, you are more likely to get blame and grumbling directed at you, he says.

What if you know your friends are cutting corners? You have to make a judgment on how it affects their performance, says Prof Sutton. You have to call people out on the big things, rather than the small fudges.

Ms Tynan advises having an “off the record” conversation with the friend to let them know that, as their peer, that behaviour was not your concern — but now you are the boss, you are going to have to deal with it.

Give them a grace period to clean up their act, but let them know that if they keep up that type of activity, you will have to deal with it on the record. If they do not fix their behaviour, you must act.

However, she adds, make sure you are also recognising as much (or more) the good things people are doing, and not just focusing on the negative.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which is not right about the promoted people who don't get proper training?

A.have enough time to listen and learn

B.assert their authority

C.boss people

D.tell people what to do

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How long it will take to spend to be on the learning mode?

A.10 to 15 days

B.15 to 40 days

C.30 to 60 days

D.35 to 60 days

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which is not right about when you are promoted?

A.social distance

B.fire peers

C.clear-headed

D.care about peers' wellbeing

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which is not right about what new managers should do?

A.call people out on the big things

B.rebuke the subordinate when having mistakes

C.give a grace period to clean up

D.not focuse on the negative

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.have enough time to listen and learn
解释：通常新上任的经理在没受到过良好培训的情况下，很容易错误的在上任第一天去指挥员工，展示他们的职能。

(2)答案：C.30 to 60 days
解释：经验告诉我们，在刚上任的前三十至六十天左右，是最好的学习时机。

(3)答案：B.fire peers
解释：当你新上任时，应该做到与前同事保持适当的社交关系，要能够顾虑到下属的想法以及保持清醒的头脑从而考虑犯错下属的去留。

(4)答案：B.rebuke the subordinate when having mistakes
解释：新上任的经理应该要在员工犯了一些大的错误时再去职责，不能一味的关注小的事情。要给他们足够的宽限期，不能只是在乎员工的负面表现，也要及时提倡员工做事的积极一面。

无人驾驶超越人类？

一位先锋工程师表示：当人类司机出现失误，他会自己从中学习到经验；而一辆无人驾驶的汽车出现失误时，其他每一辆“汽车伙伴”都将从中吸取教训并且避免“无人驾驶司机”必然会超过人类司机——只是时间早晚的问题。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

banal陈腐的；平庸的；老一套的[bə'nɑːl; -'næl]

outlandish古怪的；奇异的[aʊt'lændɪʃ]

commonplace老生常谈；司空见惯的事；普通的东西['kɒmənpleɪs]

flurry疾风；飓风；骚动['flʌrɪ]

sit idle坐视不管

clog up堵塞

smash into猛撞在……

boon恩惠；福利；利益

congestion拥挤；拥塞

envisage正视，面对；想像[ɪn'vɪzɪdʒ; en-]

whizzing发出嗖嗖声；嗖嗖掠过['wiziŋ]

astonishing惊人的；令人惊讶的[ə'stɒnɪʃɪŋ]

throng人群；众多[θrɒŋ]

inevitably不可避免地；必然地[ɪ'nevɪtəblɪ; ɪn'evɪtəblɪ]

backlash反冲；强烈抵制['bæklæʃ]

provoke驱使；激怒；煽动；惹起[prə'vəʊk]

visionary空想家；梦想者；有眼力的人['vɪʒ(ə)n(ə)rɪ]

dichotomy paradox两分法悖论：在两分法悖论中，芝诺要论证的是：一个正在行走的人永远到达不了他的目的地，因此，运动是不可能的。

Stalinist斯大林主义：是指控制苏联和受苏联影响的社会主义阵营内的国家，在约瑟夫·斯大林统治下及其之后的共产主义理论。

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46秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分54秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分30秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分13秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Humans are the main obstacle to the driverless revolution （737 words）

By John Thornhill

Brilliant technologies transform the magical into the banal. An idea that seems outlandish to one generation becomes commonplace to the next. So it has been with electricity, space flight and the internet. So it is likely to prove with driverless cars.

The past few weeks have seen a flurry of announcements. Singapore has launched the world's first public trial of a robo-taxi service. Uber and Volvo announced that they would pioneer an autonomous taxi fleet in Pittsburgh within weeks. Ford said it would build its first mass-market driverless car by 2021.

To their backers, autonomous cars cannot arrive quickly enough. Conventional cars are inefficient, dangerous and dirty. They sit idle for 95 per cent of their lives, clogging up city streets and car parks. When moving, they smash into each other, killing 3,500 people every day around the world. Ninety per cent of accidents are caused by human error. Cars pollute the environment, accounting for 45 per cent of oil burnt.

The widespread adoption of fully autonomous and, still better, electric cars could therefore be a massive boon to mankind. It could lead to a far more efficient use of resources, save many lives and reduce congestion and pollution. Futurologists envisage small fleets of shareable, connected cars constantly whizzing around our cities picking up passengers on demand. McKinsey forecasts that 15 per cent of new cars could be fully autonomous by 2030.

But two obstacles block their widespread adoption. The first remains technological. For all the astonishing advances made in recent years, it is phenomenally difficult to replicate humans as sensory beings.

How does a car distinguish between a plastic bag blowing across a road and a runaway dog? How does a car nudge its way through a throng of people outside a football stadium?

Engineers argue that the genius of self-driving cars is their connectedness. “When human drivers make a mistake the individual learns from it,” says one Silicon Valley pioneer. “When a self-driving car makes a mistake then every other car will learn from a mistake once an engineer has fixed it. It is just a matter of time before our technology surpasses human capacity.”

But sceptics compare autonomous car technology with Zeno's dichotomy paradox: every leap will take us halfway to our destination without ever reaching it.

No matter how hard the technology proves, it may be the easier part of the puzzle. A stiffer challenge remains the human. Even when manufacturers and software engineers develop fully autonomous cars in which they have total trust, it will still take many years, if not decades, for them to be freely embraced by governments and consumers.

First, there is the instinctive human resistance to handing over control to a robot, especially given fears of cyber-hacking. Second, for many drivers cars are an extension of their identity, a mechanical symbol of independence, control and freedom. They will not abandon them lightly.

Third, robots will always be held to far higher safety standards than humans. They will inevitably cause accidents. They will also have to be programmed to make a calculation that could kill their passengers or bystanders to minimise overall loss of life. This will create a fascinating philosophical sub-school of algorithmic morality. “Many of us are afraid that one reckless act will cause an accident that causes a backlash and shuts down the industry for a decade,” says the Silicon Valley engineer. “That would be tragic if you could have saved tens of thousands of lives a year.”

Fourth, the deployment of autonomous vehicles could destroy millions of jobs. Their rapid introduction is certain to provoke resistance. There are 3.5m professional lorry drivers in the US.

Fifth, the insurance industry and legal community have to wrap their heads around some tricky liability issues. In what circumstances is the owner, car manufacturer or software developer responsible for damage?

Some governments, such as those of Singapore, China and the UK, as well as several states in the US are creating permissive regulatory and legal environments. Regulators can certainly speed adoption by approving designated lanes for autonomous cars, for example, and devising international safety rules and standards. Conversely, politicians may yet succumb to the pressure of public fears and vested interests and frustrate the roll out of self-driving cars.

Autonomous car visionaries may soon be able to perfect the technology. But their success may be determined by how good they are — in Stalinist terminology — as engineers of human souls.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.When will Ford build its first mass-market driverless car?

A.2017

B.2020

C.2021

D.2025

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which is not right about the conventional cars?

A.inefficient

B.dangerous

C.fast speed

D.dirty

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which is not the advantage of the electric cars?

A.more efficient use of resources

B.lead to traffic jams

C.save many lives

D.reduce pollution

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one is not the worry of the driverless car?

A.instinctive human resistance

B.same safety standards than humans

C.destroy millions of jobs

D.the influence of the insurance industry and legal community

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.2021
解释：福特计划在2021年做到其第一批大销量无人驾驶汽车。

(2)答案：C.fast speed
解释：传统的汽车并不高效，而且还危险不干净。

(3)答案：B.lead to traffic jams
解释：会给人们带来很多益处，比如可以更加高效使用能源，可以挽救很多由于交通事故而丧失的无辜性命，以及降低排气对环境造成的污染。

(4)答案：B.same safety standards than humans
解释：无人驾驶汽车会给人们带来很多担忧，比如人们从心底里对机器人操作的排斥感，大批量使用无人驾驶汽车会导致很多人失去工作，还有就是会影响保险法律公司，使他们很难追究无人驾驶的事故责任。

不要过早夸赞员工

新员工入职时像阳光般温暖反而会埋下问题的隐患？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

haphazardly偶然地，随意地[,hæp'hæzədli]

indication指示，指出；迹象；象征[ɪndɪ'keɪʃ(ə)n]

niggl拘泥小节；为琐事费时；挑剔['nɪg(ə)l]

disengage脱出；松开[,dɪsɪn'geɪdʒ; ,dɪsen-]

drain消耗[dreɪn]

succumb屈服[sə'kʌm]

gratification满意；喜悦[ɡrætɪfɪ'keɪʃn]

misery痛苦，悲惨；不幸；苦恼['mɪz(ə)rɪ]

frustrate挫败的；无益的[frʌ'streɪt; 'frʌs-]

refrain节制，克制；避免；制止[rɪ'freɪn]

indulge沉溺；满足；放任[ɪn'dʌldʒ]

sword刀，剑；武力，战争[sɔːd]

domestic bliss家庭的极大幸福

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4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25秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分51秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why being too nice to new staff can store up problems （510 words）

By Emma De Vita

It may feel right to go easy on a new member of staff but failing to give critical feedback early on will only store up trouble. By the time they receive real feedback, they may already have made substantial mistakes, damaged relationships and undermined their credibility.

“Negative impressions of a new hire tend to stick and can be virtually impossible to turn around,” says Professor Michael Watkins of IMD, the Swiss business school.

His advice is to give your new hire honest feedback early on but in a systematic way. If you give it haphazardly they might feel they are being singled out or are in serious trouble, he says. It is better instead to give a comprehensive verbal assessment around the 60-day mark.

“Enough time has gone by for the new person and the organisation to get to know each other but it happens soon enough to catch early indications of trouble.”

Judge carefully whether an error is worth discussing in the first few weeks, says Edward Houghton, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. “If it's a minor niggle, wait,” he says.

“If you pick up on small mistakes you might give the wrong impression and they might disengage.”

Prof Watkins recommends allowing 30 days for someone to demonstrate corrective action. If a new recruit ignores your advice, “it is never a good sign — you should prepare for their departure,” he adds.

Turn the music off

A morning commute need not be a drain, so long as you use it to plan work rather than succumbing to instant gratification, such as listening to music. Harvard Business School research finds that commuters who use their journey to think through daily tasks are less emotionally exhausted and more satisfied in their jobs than commuters who do not.

By preparing ahead, they use their time at work more effectively and so are less time-pressed and stressed. Using the morning commute to think about work also helps you to go from being “home” you to “work” you.

While it has previously been found that a long commute might not necessarily equate to misery, this research goes some way to understanding why that might be.

It comes down to self-control, say the authors of the study. Commuters with less self-control tend to view their commute as something frustrating to endure and prefer to distract themselves with non-work pleasures: music or daydreaming. While those activities might be more pleasurable than thinking about work, it is the commuters who refrain from indulging that end up happier at work.

When two become one

“We were worried it could all turn a bit Game of Thrones — you know, swords through the head-type problems.” So Sebastian James, chief executive of Dixons Carphone told Management Today recently about the 2014 merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse.

“But no. We've moved into our boyfriend's flat, we're off the honeymoon period now and have decided who puts the bins out and who does the washing up.” If only all mergers ended in such domestic bliss.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which is not right about failing to give critical feedback early to the new member?

A.good performance

B.have made substantial mistakes

C.have made substantial mistakes

D.undermined their credibility

答案⁽¹⁾

2.When is appropriate time to give the new hire comprehensive verbal assessment?

A.30-day

B.45-day

C.60-day

D.70-day

答案⁽²⁾

3.How long does someone need to demonstrate corrective action?

A.20 days

B.30 days

C.45 days

D.50 days

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which is not the result of preparing ahead?

A.use time at work more effectively

B.less protracted

C.less time-pressed

D.less stressed

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.good performance
解释：过早的给新员工评价会导致员工在真正得到实际评价的时候，已经犯了错误，影响了员工之间的关系以及破坏了员工的可信度。

(2)答案：C.60-day
解释：一个新的员工给出综合的口头评价时，时间最好掌握在其进入工作岗位的六十天左右。

(3)答案：B.30 days
解释：新的员工最好在三十天左右就能表现出其对错误做法的及时改正。

(4)答案：B.less protracted
解释：提前准备好理清一天的工作会使员工在工作时更加有效率，减少时间给予的压力以及实际的压力。

优步外卖司机不干了？

本月早些时候，伦敦Deliveroo送餐公司在司机提出抗议后作出妥协，满足了他们的一些要求。上周，Uber送餐司机威胁也如法炮制看，Uber与司机之间这种复杂的关系正让人越来越担忧。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

protest抗议；断言['prəʊtest]

rival对手；竞争者['raɪvl]

demonstration示范；示威游行[demən'streɪʃ(ə)n]

wildcat strike[劳经] 野猫式罢工；非法的罢工；自发罢工

poverty贫困；困难；缺少；低劣['pɒvətɪ]

obligation义务；职责[ɒblɪ'geɪʃ(ə)n]

courier情报员，通讯员['kʊrɪə]

disgrace耻辱；丢脸的人或事[dɪs'greɪs]

incentive动机；刺激[ɪn'sentɪv]

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49秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分44秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分57秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

UberEats London drivers plan strike over pay （574 words）

By Madhumita Murgia

Hundreds of drivers for UberEats, Uber's food delivery service, plan to take to London's streets on Friday in strike action over low pay, as unrest among workers in the “on-demand” economy grows.

The UberEats protest follows similar action over pay rates by workers at Deliveroo, a rival food-delivery service in the capital.

The UberEats demonstration was announced via Facebook by trade union United Voices of the World Union. It said it had helped to organise the “wildcat strike” along with the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain and Deliveroo workers to protest over low wages and not being classed as employees.

“UberEats drivers are going on strike over their poverty wages,” said the UVWU. “No employee status, no obligation.”

At Uber's takeaway service, which launched in London just last month, couriers could earn roughly £9 an hour, according to the company, which added that many workers had made more than that in the past week.

“So far this week, couriers delivering lunch and dinner have made over 10 per cent more an hour than they did in the same period last week,” said Alex Czarnecki, general manager of UberEats London. “We don't set shifts, minimum hours or delivery zones — couriers can simply log in or out when and where they choose. This is why we've seen hundreds of new couriers sign up in the last week alone.”

Drivers claim, however, that they have ended up with as little as £9 after a full day's work, according to Petros Elias, UVW general secretary. He cited the example of one driver who had been on call all day but had been allocated only one delivery, meaning he received just £9 for a day's work.

“They were certainly inspired by Deliveroo drivers,” Mr Elias said. “After Uber's pre-launch recruitment drive, [it] recently went and slashed all the pay rates. It's an absolute disgrace.”

The union added that pay rates had been cut from £20 an hour to £3.30 per delivery.

UberEats said pay rates had fallen but that was because it had cut recruitment incentives. “While we were building up customer demand for UberEats, these incentives were very generous. As the business grows and couriers get busier, the need for these extra incentives has decreased.

“However, since we made the change last weekend, couriers have actually made over 10 per cent more an hour.”

It added that drivers were still paid if deliveries are cancelled.

The dissatisfaction among independent contractors employed by online platforms such as Uber and Deliveroo has risen sharply in recent months.

Last week, Deliveroo drivers held a series of demonstrations against a new payment structure, which could result in lower wages for workers. Deliveroo pays drivers £7 an hour plus £1 a delivery but has launched a trial of a new structure that pays £3.75 per delivery. Workers have said they want to be paid £9.40 an hour — the London living wage.

Deliveroo said the new pay scale could increase wages for those who are most efficient. It added that the day of the strikes was also the busiest in the company's history for signing up new recruits in London.

Uber is also facing first-time legal action from two drivers for its car-hailing service in the UK, who say they should be classed as workers rather than contractors and given basic employment rights, including holiday pay. If the drivers win the closely watched case, thousands more could lodge claims

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why do the UberEats' drivers plan to go on strike?

A.bad welfare

B.low pay

C.insufficient break time

D.long working time

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Where did UberEats announce the demonstration?

A.Facebook

B.Instagram

C.Twitter

D.Linkedin

答案⁽²⁾

3.How much do the couriers make more than they did last week?

A.8 per cent more

B.9 per cent more

C.10 per cent more

D.15 per cent more

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the London living wage?

A.£8 an hour

B.£9.40 an hour

C.£10.75 an hour

D.£11 an hour

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.low pay
解释：由于过低的工资，优步送餐的数百名员工计划在周五举行罢工游行。

(2)答案：A.Facebook
解释：优步送餐的罢工游行是通过脸书被公布出来的。

(3)答案：C.10 per cent more
解释：优步送餐的通信员在相比上周同样的时间段里，一小时之内增加了百分之十的订单量。

(4)答案：B.£9.40 an hour
解释：英国的基本工资水平是每小时9.4英镑。

无人驾驶的出租车首次上路啦

乘客可以通过智能手机免费预约这个没有司机的出租车，除了酷炫，是否还多了一分忐忑？你将如何和汽车展开互动？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

deploy配置；展开[dɪ'plɒɪ]

hail致敬；招呼[heɪl]

nuTonomy一家从麻省理工学院分离出来的创业公司开发的无人驾驶出租车。

steal a march on比…抢先一步

pioneer先锋；拓荒者[paɪə'nɪə]

foster培养；抱（希望等['fɒstə]

curb控制[kɜːb]

densely浓密地；密集地['dɛnsli]

forefront最前线，最前部['fɔːfrʌnt]

as a prelude to作为…的前奏['preljuːd]

roll-out初次公开展出[rəul'aut]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分3秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分57秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分49秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分59秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Self-driving taxis hit the road in Singapore（593 words）

By Jeevan Vasagar in Singapore

Singapore has claimed a head-start in the global race to deploy self-driving cars with the launch on Thursday of the world's first public trial of a robo-taxi service.

The trial allows selected members of the public to use a smartphone app to hail a free ride in autonomous cars operated by nuTonomy, a US startup that has been conducting trials of self-driving vehicles in Singapore since April.

The passengers, travelling either in a specially configured Renault Zoe or Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric vehicle, will be accompanied by one of the company's engineers, who can take control of the vehicle if necessary.

The trial steals a march on Uber, which is expected to begin testing an autonomous taxi fleet with customers in the US city of Pittsburgh within weeks.

Uber and pioneers of the autonomous car industry including Google, Tesla and Volvo are already road-testing self-driving vehicles with varying success, but nuTonomy says it is the first to offer rides to members of the public in a real-world setting.

The experiment is being conducted on a 6km network of streets in the One North area of Singapore, home to a number of science-focused companies and government research institutes. The trial, involving a fleet of six cars, will be conducted in normal traffic and includes both light and heavy traffic routes.

The pilot is being used to gather data on the performance of nuTonomy's self-driving software, routing efficiency, and the vehicle booking process ahead of the launch of a commercial robo-taxi service in Singapore, scheduled for 2018.

Karl Iagnemma, co-founder of nuTonomy, said in a statement: “The trial represents an extraordinary opportunity to collect feedback from riders in a real-world setting, and this feedback will give nuTonomy a unique advantage as we work toward deployment of a self-driving vehicle fleet in 2018.”

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup is a minnow in the robotics car race, which has been dominated by big technology groups and car companies such as Google and Ford. It was founded in 2013 by two MIT researchers, Mr Iagnemma and Emilio Frazzoli, who specialise in mobile robotics.

In May, nuTonomy completed a $16m Series A funding round led by Highland Capital Partners, with investors including the corporate investment arm of Singapore's Economic Development Board.

The company is also testing self-driving cars in the US and UK, where it collaborates with Jaguar Land Rover.

Singapore's government is keen to foster technology startups as it seeks new sources of economic growth. Using shared self-driving pods to shuttle commuters from their doorsteps to public transport is also seen as a way to curb private car usage on a densely populated island.

The ministry of transport has “invited companies and research institutions who are at the forefront of this development to test-bed their self-driving technology and mobility concepts here, in real-life, mixed-use traffic conditions,” it said in a statement. “We see this as a prelude to the eventual roll-out of their self-driving transport solutions in Singapore.”

Last week Uber announced a partnership with Volvo in which the two companies will jointly invest $300m to develop a self-driving vehicle. Uber has also bought Otto, a maker of self-driving technology for trucks.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which is not the pioneer of the autonomous car industry?

A.Google

B.Mercedes Benz

C.Tesla

D.Volvo

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which is not right about the experiment in the One North area of Singapore?

A.conducting in complex traffic

B.a 6km network of streets

C.home to a number of science-focused companies

D.involving a fleet of six cars

答案⁽²⁾

3.When will the launch of commercial robo-taxi service in Singapore be scheduled?

A.2016

B.2020

C.2018

D.2028

答案⁽³⁾

4.How much did the investors invest in nuTonomy?

A.$10m

B.$16m

C.$18m

D.$30m

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Mercedes Benz
解释：在汽车自动驾驶的产业里，谷歌，特斯拉以及沃尔沃都是行业的领头者。

(2)答案：A.conducting in complex traffic
解释：在六公里的道路网络上的试驾实验中，六辆车会被安排行驶在正常情况的马路上，既有红绿灯也会有交通拥堵的情况。

(3)答案：C.2018
解释：在新加坡运营的机器人出租车服务，有望预计在2018年开始运行。

(4)答案：B.$16m
解释：投资者为nuTonomy (开发无人驾驶出租车创业公司) 投资了$160,000,000。

有一种痛苦，叫节后内疚

Post-holiday guilt并不稀奇，度假途中纵情的不只是眼前的美景，还有一路难以抗拒的美食。大吃大喝过后，换上大码的裤子并不是唯一的坏处，尤其是男性——你们要小心了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

guilt内疚[gɪlt]

The Lancet柳叶刀（杂志名）['lɑːnsɪt]

epidemic传染病；流行病[epɪ'demɪk]

strict严格的；绝对的；精确的；详细的[strɪkt]

mortality死亡数，死亡率[mɔː'tælɪtɪ]

pose造成，形成[pəʊz]

BMI身体质量指数（Body Mass Index）

stroke中风[strəʊk]

regain恢复；重新获得[rɪ'geɪn]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分3秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分57秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分49秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分59秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Post-holiday guilt and the risk of marginal weight gains （593 words）

By Charles Wallace

We have all had the experience of returning home from a wonderful holiday abroad only to find that our trousers no longer fit.

The need to buy a bigger pair is, however, not the only downside of eating and drinking too much — a study says that being even marginally overweight can increase your risk of dying prematurely, especially if you are a man.

The study, published in The Lancet, was one of the largest ever conducted, involving body mass index data from more than 10m people in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. It provides further evidence that the obesity epidemic — well known in the US and UK — has spread to east Asia as well.

The study's authors said they were concerned that recent research papers had suggested that being overweight but not obese was somehow protective against disease. The results of this meta-analysis show those reports were incorrect, they said.

“We were able to use much stricter methodology to show that actually being overweight and slightly obese are associated with an increased risk of mortality,” said Emanuele Di Angelantonio, a lecturer at Cambridge university who worked on the Lancet study.

The analysis illustrated the health risks that obesity poses. Men who are 35 years old and have a normal weight have a 19 per cent risk of dying before age 70, while the number is only 11 per cent for women.

But when you add obesity to the equation, the risk for men rises to a 29 per cent chance of dying of all causes before age 70, while for women it rises to just 14 per cent. The excess risk for men caused by obesity is thus three times that for women. Going from what the US terms grade-one obesity, defined as a BMI of 25-29.9, to grade two, which is a BMI over 40, causes a rapid, hockey-stick-shaped increase in risk. BMI is defined as your weight in kilogrammes divided by the square of your height in metres.

While the study did not look at causes, other research has shown that obese men tend to have more heart attacks and strokes as well as diabetes and fatty liver disease than women.

The logical conclusion is that obese people need to lose weight but Dr Di Angelantonio acknowledged that this can be difficult. A meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal in 2014 noted that while attempts to change diet and exercise behaviours were often successful, “few people manage to maintain these changes in weight over the long term”.

But if you are successful at changing diet and physical activity sufficiently to lose those extra kilos, there is a considerable health benefit, Dr Di Angelantonio said. If you are a man and you lose 10 per cent of your body weight, your risk of dying is reduced by 20 per cent, he said. If you are a woman and lose 10 per cent of your body weight, your risk is reduced by 10 per cent.

“Losing weight is a very difficult business and studies show most people tend to regain the lost weight in 12-24 months,” Dr Di Angelantonio said. “That's why we need new strategies for increasing physical activity and healthy eating.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What can be increased by marginally overweight if you are a man?

A.the risk of being unhealthy

B.the risk of dying prematurely

C.the risk of sleeping deprivation

D.the risk of malnutrition

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the percentage risk of dying before age 70 that man has a normal weight?

A.11 per cent risk of dying

B.18 per cent risk of dying

C.19 per cent risk of dying

D.35 per cent risk of dying

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the US grade-one obesity？

A.BMI of 25-29.9

B.BMI of 30-39.9

C.BMI of 45-49.9

D.BMI over 50

答案⁽³⁾

4.What will be the risk of dying is reduced if a man loses 10 per cent of body weight?

A.reduced by 10 per cent

B.reduced by 20 per cent

C.reduced by 35 per cent

D.reduced by 40 per cent

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.the risk of dying prematurely
解释：对于男人来说，如果是体重刚好超重，这容易增加过早死的风险。

(2)答案：C.19 per cent risk of dying
解释：一个男人拥有着标准体重，在七十岁之前的死亡率会达到百分之十九。

(3)答案：A.BMI of 25-29.9
解释：美国制定的一级肥胖症的标准是身体质量指数在25至29.9之间。

(4)答案：B.reduced by 20 per cent
解释：当一个男人减掉自身体重的百分十的时候，他的死亡风险会降低百分之二十。

如何让你的简历脱颖而出

获取心仪工作的第一步就是书写一个作为自荐信的简历，这可以使即将面试你的用人单位方便直观的了解你。作为敲门砖的简历，到底应该怎么写？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

stick to坚持[stɪk]

Mallorca马略卡岛（西班牙东部）[mɑ:'jɔ:kə; mɑ:l'jɔ:rkɑ:]

plead借口；托称[pliːd]

poverty贫困；困难['pɒvətɪ]

nudge推进；用肘轻推[nʌdʒ]

embark on从事，着手[ɪm'bɑːk; em-]

headmistress女校长[ˌhɛdˈmistrəs]

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16秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分30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52秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Stick to a single page CV （527 words）

By Mrs Moneypenny

Thirty years separate the two groups of women I met last week. But to both, my career advice was surprisingly similar. The 14-year-old St Paul's Girls' School pupils were there to get my help with writing a CV. Yes, you can — and should — write a CV at 14. I told them that I favour the one-page variety, something which I believe works at 14, 44 or 94.

CVs are important. This week we have even been able to put a monetary value on them. LinkedIn has just over 100m active users for whom Microsoft is paying $26bn, so I make that about $260 a CV.

LinkedIn profiles might be enough for Microsoft, but for us individuals they are not. The format of LinkedIn is one-size-fits-all. A 14-year-old will have a very different CV to someone 10 years older. Also, being 14 may itself mean that you cannot use LinkedIn — in the UK you can post your CV on the site from the age of 13, and in the US from 14; but if you are Dutch it is 16 and in China 18.

Almost everyone's electronic footprint now extends well beyond LinkedIn, of course. Just as many parents check their children's Instagram posts and credit collection agencies look at social media (are you are having a holiday in Mallorca while pleading poverty?), so prospective employers check recruits out extensively.

I have known clients of ours decline to interview people because they decided that the way the candidate described themselves on Twitter was inappropriate.

So while you polish your CV, go and clean up your virtual existence too. You might even want to set up a Google Alert that nudges you every time your name pops up on the web. A week after my visit to St Paul's I spent an hour with a small group of members of Women in Advertising & Communications London. All the women were in senior positions and in many cases had already embarked on non-executive director careers in parallel with their executive roles.

In our session I also stressed the value of a single-page CV, even for those at the top of their career. A CV, after all, is rather like a 14-year-old girl — it is rarely going to be out anywhere alone. It will be accompanied, either by a covering letter or by the recommendation of a head hunter. So it does not need to do everything because those supplementary documents will be there to augment it.

I admit that talking about CVs with adults seems more relevant than doing so with younger teenagers. At the start of secondary school, a career may seem a long way ahead. But our children's work life is likely to take on many different forms over many years, so it is never too early (or late) to plan a CV and think about where a professional life may lead. And while my group of 14-year-olds prepare their first CVs, the prime minister has appointed their headmistress, Clarissa Farr, to be a trustee of the British Museum. Guess what? Even for that top appointment she will have needed a CV … ideally made up of a single page.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which one is right about the author's career advice among different years old people?

A.similar

B.different

C.exactly same

D.various

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many active users does LinkedIn have?

A.76m

B.over 100m

C.over 125m

D.260m

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one is right about the age of the children can use LinkedIn in Dutch?

A.10 years old

B.14 years old

C.16 years old

D.18 years old

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one is the platform of business networking?

A.LinkedIn

B.Instagram

C.Twitter

D.Facebook

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.similar
解释：作者认为不同年龄阶段的人群在介绍自己的简历上，内容风格大致上是类似的。

(2)答案：B.over 100m
解释：领英（商务化人际关系网）上面有超过1,000,000,000的活跃用户。

(3)答案：C.16 years old
解释：在荷兰只有年龄达到16岁的孩子才被允许使用领英。

(4)答案：A.LinkedIn
解释：领英致力于向全球职场人士提供沟通平台，是职业的社交网站。

英国《金融时报》
原文阅读精选集Vol.33

亚马逊的空中算盘

为更好地摆脱其他快递公司对网购包裹的丢件和延迟，亚马逊宣布将自己运营的运输货机规模翻倍。未来数年，至少架40架波音767-300型改装货机将在空中建设自己的专属物流王国。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

lease租约；租期[liːs]

cargo jet喷气式货机

logistics后勤；物流[lə'dʒɪstɪks]

aviation飞行术；飞机制造业[eɪvɪ'eɪʃ(ə)n]

inventory存货清单；详细目录['ɪnv(ə)nt(ə)rɪ]

parcel打包；捆扎['pɑːs(ə)l]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分37秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分8秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分14秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分47秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Amazon deal doubles size of air cargo fleet （472words）

By Leslie Hook in San Francisco

Amazon has signed a new leasing deal for cargo jets, doubling the size of its fleet and underscoring its ambitions to grow its air transport network.

The news comes as Amazon has been investing heavily in its logistics network and taking more logistics operations in-house. The retailer has experienced rapid growth in sales and in units shipped — which rose 28 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, last quarter — and executives say they have had to take control over more logistics operations to keep up with growth.

Under the new deal, Amazon will lease 20 Boeing 767 cargo jets from Atlas Air Worldwide, an aviation company based in New York state, for seven years. Amazon will also have the option to purchase up to 30 per cent of Atlas Air Worldwide at a predetermined price of $37.50 per share, a slight discount to Wednesday's closing price.

Amazon has previously said that its cargo fleet will be used to support the growth of Prime membership in the US, which includes two-day shipping. Analysts said the planes would probably be used to transport goods between Amazon warehouses.

“I am a little surprised at the number of aircraft,” said David Vernon, analyst at Bernstein. “Going from zero to 20 was a lot, and now they've doubled that. It seems like they have this pressing need for expedited transport of inventory.”

Amazon's moves have raised questions about whether the company, which loses more than $1bn each quarter on shipping, may be trying to lessen its dependence on its traditional logistics partnerships such as FedEx and UPS.

“It doesn't appear to me that they are re-creating the UPS or the FedEx parcel network,” Mr Vernon said, pointing out that Amazon does not currently use UPS or FedEx for the type of rapid warehouse transport that the new fleet will provide. “It is hard to know because it is an entirely new development — we have never seen a supply chain like this built before.”

Amazon said during earnings last week that it would keep investing in logistics. “We continue to add logistics capacity really to supplement our other carriers,” said Brian Olsavksy, chief financial officer. “The main driver here is to be able to handle faster and faster delivery speeds.”

The deal with Atlas is similar in structure to Amazon's first leasing agreement, in which it leased 20 jets from Air Transportation Services Group and had the option to acquire up to 20 per cent of the company.

Also on Thursday, Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive, sold $670m in Amazon shares, his biggest disposal ever by value. The sale of one million shares was part of a scheduled transaction — Mr Bezos also sold 1m shares last year and in the previous year. He remains Amazon's largest shareholder, owning 17 per cent of the company.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How many cargo jets did Amazon operate before?

A.40

B.10

C.20

D.30

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Where is the headquarters of Atlas Air Worldwide?

A.Washington State

B.New York state

C.New York

D.Hoosier

答案⁽²⁾

3.Where is the new 20 Boeing 767 cargo jets used for?

A.Prime membership

B.warehouse management

C.international express service

D.cooperating with FedEx

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one of following is wrong for Amazon?

A.Amazon would keep investing in logistics.

B.Amazon has the option to acquire up to 20 per cent of Atlas.

C.Mr. Bezos remains Amazon's largest shareholder.

D.It is the second deal with Atlas for cargo jets.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.20
解释：亚马逊之间就运营了20家货机负责运输物流，这次又将规模翻倍到40架。

(2)答案：B.New York state
解释：文中提到总部是在纽约州，而非纽约市。事实上Atlas Air Worldwide的总部位于美国纽约州帕切斯（Purchase）以希腊神话中的擎天神亚特拉斯的名字命名。

(3)答案：A.Prime membership
解释：亚马逊表示新租赁货机主要是为了应对Prime用户在美国的增长。

(4)答案：D.It is the second deal with Atlas for cargo jets.
解释：之前的20家波音客机来自于与美国航空运输服务集团（ATSG）的协议，并不是Atlas。

日本：殡葬业文化正转变

过去，为显示忠诚，员工集体出席老板的近亲、或重要客户企业的社长及其亲属的葬礼，是十分常见的事情。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

undergo经受；忍受[ʌndə'gəʊ]

wholesale批发的；大规模的['həʊlseɪl]

demographic人口学的[,demə'græfɪk]

actuarial保险统计的[,æktjʊ'eərɪəl]

mourner哀悼者['mɔːnə]

erode腐蚀，侵蚀[ɪ'rəʊd]

scramble混乱，混乱的一团['skræmb(ə)l]

conventional符合习俗的，传统的[kən'venʃ(ə)n(ə)l]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

2分55秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分45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

Japan's funeral sector adapts as ‘peak death' looms（413 words）

By Leo Lewis in Tokyo

Japan's Y2tn funeral business is undergoing a wholesale cultural transformation as the world's third-biggest economy enters its mournful demographic ascent to “peak death”.

The shift comes as Japan enters what actuarial tables show will be a two-decade boom of activity for the industry.

A persistently low birth rate means Japan's annual 1.3m deaths already outnumber births by 300,000. The country's rapidly ageing population puts occupancies at the nation's mortuaries on course to peak at 1.67m in 2040.

But while revenues are rising, average mourner numbers have halved since the 1990s. The bereaved have become less enthusiastic about the average Y2.3m ($21,000) cost of a funeral and conventions are being eroded as families question the ceremonies themselves. Securing sustainable profit growth even amid a rising mortality rate could become more difficult, say industry heads.

An unprecedented funeral trade fair in Tokyo in December, and a recent spat between Amazon Japan and a Buddhist group over an online monks-for-hire service hint strongly at an industry scrambling to adapt as Japanese people reassess how to mark the passing of loved ones.

Surveys on Japan's death industry are rare but conventional wisdom is that more than 35 per cent of elderly Japanese want only family and close friends at their funerals and at least 8 per cent want no funeral at all.

Driving down the attendance rates, though, has been the disappearance of the “duty attendee”. In the past it was quite normal for loyalty-bound employees to troop to the funerals of their bosses' close relatives or the presidents and family of important customer companies, says Yuichi Noro, president of the country's largest funeral management group San Holdings.

In a busy year, it was once quite usual for company workers to attend two or three funerals of people they had never met. But work culture has changed. A rising proportion of the workforce is on short-term or part-time contracts and less bound by old conventions.

“Companies do not feel like families in the way they used to and feelings of loyalty are lower,” said Mr Noro, whose company has become the most aggressive consolidator of the Japanese funeral industry. “Without the duty attendees the atmosphere of funerals has completely changed.”

Demographics are also forcing a fundamental shift in the way Japan approaches mourning, he added. Life expectancies in the low 80s mean that by the time they die, most Japanese have been retired for nearly two decades and their funerals are no longer padded with ex-colleagues.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.According to article, how long could the funeral industry keep prosperous?

A.10 years

B.2 years

C.20 years

D.200 years

答案⁽¹⁾

2.When will the occupancies at the mortuaries reach peak in Japan?

A.2040

B.2036

C.2090

D.2030

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who can be hired at the funeral by Amazon Japan?

A.priests

B.monks

C.mourners

D.actors

答案⁽³⁾

4.Why the attendance rates drive down now?

A.most of people want no funeral at all

B.the disappearance of close relatives

C.the atmosphere of funerals has completely changed

D.the disappearance of the “duty attendee”

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.20 years
解释：精算表格显示，日本殡葬业在未来20年（two-decade boom）都会持续繁荣。

(2)答案：A.2040
解释：日本迅速老化的人口结构，令日本殡仪馆接收遗体数按照现有趋势将于2040年达到167万的峰值。

(3)答案：B.monks
解释：在日本，你可以通过亚马逊网购一名和尚上门做法事。这一行为引起争议。

(4)答案：D.the disappearance of the “duty attendee”
解释：压低葬礼出席率的原因，是“礼节性出席者”的消失。过去为显示忠诚，员工集体出席老板的近亲、或重要客户企业的社长及其亲属的葬礼，是十分常见的事情。

工作中该不该用表情符号

Emoji表情现在无处不在，但在工作场合要怎么使用才合适呢？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

ideograph表意文字（等于ideogram）

circumstance情况；事件；境遇[ˈsɜːkəmstəns]

precursor先驱，前导[prɪ'kɜːsə]

Neanderthal尼安德特人的；穴居人的[ni'ændətɑ:l; -θɔ:l]

ubiquitous普遍存在的；无所不在的[juː'bɪkwɪtəs]

levity多变；轻浮['levɪtɪ]

proliferate增殖；扩散[prə'lɪfəreɪt]

buttoned-down守旧的

semantic语义的（等于semantical）[sɪ'mæntɪk]

nuance细微差别['njuːɑːns]

hilarity欢喜；高兴[hɪ'lærɪtɪ]

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10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16秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分8秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Work deserves a :-), but avoid overdoing it（687 words）

By Azeem Azhar

Emoji are everywhere. From gurning faces to the occasional grinning poo, these modern ideographs have wormed their way into our lives. You can find them on smartphones, text messages, in social networks and on T-shirts. Last month, a French man was handed a six months sentence for threatening his ex-girlfriend by sending her a gun emoji.

We should prepare ourselves for a tidal wave of winking characters. But are they ever acceptable in the workplace? Research suggests they are … in the right circumstances.

Emoji and their precursors have served a useful role in communication for nearly 35 years. Their Neanderthal forebear, the emoticon, emerged on the early text-based internet as a way of presenting some nuance and inflection to emails and chats. The first emoticon, a clumsy combination of punctuation, was the now-ubiquitous smiley :-). Its purpose was to indicate levity.

By the very end of the 1990s, iMode, a mobile internet service, was booming in popularity in Japan. Unlike the mobile internet in other countries, iMode had rich graphical interfaces that provided catalysts for experimentation. And so technicoloured emojis were born, brought to the world by designer, Shigetaka Kurita.

Scroll forward to 2011 and the use of these pictograms proliferated as Apple began to ship iPhones with an emoji keyboards. Instagram, the social network focused on images, saw the number of messages containing emoji jump from less than 5 per cent to more than 40 per cent three years later.

Sure, Instagram is frequented by youth. But data show emojis have escaped millennial limbo and entered the mainstream. A survey of US adults late last year by Emogi, an ad agency, found that 92 per cent of them regularly used emoji. A later poll by Adobe, a software company, found that our age did not not affect our attitude to emoji in the workplace. Cardigan-wearing crumblies were as likely to approve of emoji use as fresh-faced graduates.

What mattered was who you were talking to. The more senior your recipient, the more buttoned-down you needed to be. A pity, our bosses might be missing out.

The question remains, is using emojis at work just one step too far? True, language is always evolving, but there are some words we still don't use at work. Should that apply to emojis too?

We can agree they don't have a precise semantic value. Take the dollar bill with wings. Does this mean profits flying high? Or that money is flitting away? All our training around precision and clarity in communication seems in stark contrast to these ambiguous icons. Yet many emoji remain useful. My sense is that it is their fuzzy-edged sentiment that gives them their value. In themselves they may not be much but, they add nuance to sentences.

In The Communicative Functions of Emoticons in Workplace E-Mails, an academic paper recently published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, researcher Karianne Skovholt and her co-authors, argue that emojis are used to intimate texture to workplace communication. One particularly important use is as a modifier to hedge messages. In expressive phrases, such as greetings, emojis strengthen the message. In more demanding dispatches, such as requests, they are used to soften the tone. In other words, they play similar roles to body language.

More prosaically, emoji also bring humour and emotion to the office. A quick emoji can signal a sense of triumph or tiredness, victory or delight, the things that make us human.

But it is best not to use them willy-nilly. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found that different phones and computers render emojis differently — enough to change their meaning. A grinning, smiley face (“well done on the sales figures! ”) sent using Microsoft software can render as a grimace on your subordinate's iPhone (“the sales figures look terrible”). Hilarity might not ensue. Best also to avoid their use when firing someone, writing a legal document or in your annual Chairman's letter — for such messages they are still not yet universal or precise enough.

And there are some emojis that one should ignore completely because a recipient will never interpret them well. The top contender?Probably the gun.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What had the French man done to his ex-girlfriend before got arrested?

A.sent a gun emoji

B.sent the T-shirts with a gun

C.shot his ex-girlfriend

D.destroyed smartphones

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Where were emojis born?

A.France

B.Japan

C.USA

D.Neanderthal

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who added an emoji keyboards in 2011?

A.Instagram

B.Facebook

C.Adobe

D.Apple

答案⁽³⁾

4.What should we do when use emojis in workplace messages?

A.use them willy-nilly

B.as a modifier to hedge messages

C.use them to fire people

D.ues the gun emoji

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.sent a gun emoji
解释：法国男子在与前女友实时通讯时，加入“手枪”的表情符号(emoji)，被前女友告上法庭, 被判6个月监禁。

(2)答案：B.Japan
解释：emoji1999年由一个名叫Shigetaka Kurita（栗田穣崇）的日本人发明的。

(3)答案：D.Apple
解释：2011年苹果公司在iPhone上添加了emoji表情键盘。

(4)答案：B.as a modifier to hedge messages
解释：在工作环境中使用表情可以拉近距离、直观地传递情绪，但是也要注意使用方法和避免使用的情景。

中国移动支付大战

为吸引用户阿里和腾讯都已支出巨额补贴。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

high-stakes高风险的

subsidise资助（等于subsidize）；给……补助金['sʌbsɪdaɪz]

de-escalation降级

affiliate隶属的机构[ə'fɪlɪeɪt]

withdrawal提款；取消；退股[wɪð'drɔː(ə)l]

merchant商人，批发商['mɜːtʃ(ə)nt]

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32秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分32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

Tencent backs down in mobile payments war with Alibaba（382 words）

By Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai

Chinese online gaming and social networking group Tencent has pulled back from a high-stakes battle with ecommerce company Alibaba for control of China's mobile payments market, after spending billions of renminbi on subsidies to attract users.

Last month the company began charging users for transferring funds between WeChat Pay — the payments service linked to Tencent's popular instant messaging app — and traditional bank accounts. Previously, Tencent had subsidised the transfers by absorbing the associated bank transaction fees rather than passing them on to users. A WeChat wallet feature also allowed transfers between different commercial banks.

In January alone, Tencent spent Rmb300m ($46m) on bank transaction fees, the company revealed in its annual report. For the fourth quarter, “other” revenue expenses rose 153 per cent to Rmb1.5bn, an increase it said was “mainly driven” by bank transaction fees accrued by WeChat Pay.

Pony Ma, Tencent's chairman, said that as of March, when the company began imposing user fees, operating losses from WeChat Pay were “brought under control”.

The shift marks a partial de-escalation of its market-share battle with Alipay, the payment service run by Alibaba's financial affiliate Ant Financial.

Competition between the companies intensified at the start of the lunar new year 2015, when both spent billions on “red envelope” cash giveaways to lure new users. An earlier duel between the internet heavyweights over car-hailing apps began with a war of subsidies for riders and drivers but ended with a merger of Tencent-backed Didi and Alibaba's Kuaidi.

The introduction of user fees is not purely a cost-saving measure. Analysts say that imposing fees on withdrawals will make cash stored in the WeChat wallet “stickier”.

“The fees create a barrier to funds leaving, so it incentivises users to keep their money inside the WeChat ecosystem,” says Li Zhefeng, analyst at iResearch in Beijing.

Tencent's subsidies helped WeChat attract millions of users and boosted transaction volume in a year that witnessed the explosion of online-to-offline mobile payments encent has little to show for the money it spent. Its payment affiliate, Caifutong, prto merchants such as supermarkets and restaurants.

But in terms of market share, Tocessed 20 per cent of Chinese third-party online payments last year, compared with Alipay's 48 per cent, according to iResearch. That's up only half a percentage point from a year earlier.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How to subsidized the transfer fee for WeChat Pay before last month?

A.charged users

B.from state subsidies

C.absorbed from banks

D.donation from shareholders

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the main reason of “other” revenue expenses rose for the fourth quarter?

A.policy changed

B.bank transaction fees

C.lacked of user volume

D.not mentioned

答案⁽²⁾

3.When the competition between Alipay and WeChat Pay were intensified?

A.lunar new year 2015

B.last month

C.in January

D.when Didi and Kuaidi have been merged.

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who have controlled the mobile payments market in China according to the article?

A.WeChat Pay

B.Alipay

C.Caifutong

D.Taobao

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.absorbed from banks
解释：此前腾讯通过吸收相关银行手续费（而不是将其转嫁给用户）来补贴这类转账操作。

(2)答案：B.bank transaction fees
解释：对于去年第四季度，“其他”业务的收入成本同比增长153%，腾讯称，这一增加主要是由微信支付发生的银行手续费驱动的。

(3)答案：A.lunar new year 2015
解释：两家公司之间的竞争在2015年农历新年加剧，当时双方都砸下巨款发送“红包”以吸引新用户。

(4)答案：B.Alipay
解释：艾瑞咨询的数据显示，“支付宝”去年处理了中国48%的第三方在线支付。由此可推断出结论，淘宝并不是移动支付平台。

什么样的老板最可怕？

比起一个在某些时候很可怕的老板，我们宁愿要一个总是很可怕的老板。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

sidle侧身而行；悄悄贴近['saɪd(ə)l]

sarcastic挖苦的；尖刻的[sɑː'kæstɪk]

perch栖息；就位[pɜːtʃ]

glower怒目而视；瞪眼['glaʊə]

corridor走廊['kɒrɪdɔː]

ulcer溃疡；腐烂物['ʌlsə]

unglamorous单调的，乏味的[ʌn'ɡlæmərəs]

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36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38秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分55秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Why we prefer nasty bosses to be horrible all the time（555 words）

By Lucy Kellaway

By far the most difficult boss I've ever had was an inspiring, morally upstanding man. I respected him and learnt a lot from him. The problem was that I could never predict how he would respond to anything.

Sometimes he would sidle past and say something sarcastic about a piece I'd written. At other times he would bound up, full of praise. Occasionally he would perch on the edge of my desk and talk as if he valued my opinion. The following day he would revert to glowering and ignore me entirely.

The very sight of him advancing down the corridor was enough to make me feel anxious. When he was being nice, his face looked the same as when he was horrid and so I started to wonder if his praise was ironic. It was most disconcerting.

I thought of him the other day when I read a piece of research from the University of Michigan suggesting we would far rather have a manager who was horrible all of the time, than one who was horrible only some of it. When it comes to our bosses, it seems we can cope with more or less anything — save unpredictability.

The researchers conducted a series of experiments in which they divided students into three groups and gave them all a job to do. The first group was subjected to constant compliments; the second to constant abuse and the third to a mix of the two. The first group wasn't stressed at all; the second was mildly so, while the third — the group that didn't know if they were going to get sticks or carrots — was by far the most stressed and least happy.

This experiment, written up in the American Academy of Management, reminds me of an earlier study in which rats were given electric shocks. One group heard a bell ring to herald each shock; a second group had shocks with no warning. The first group of rats fared more or less fine. The second group, who could not predict the timing of the shocks, developed stomach ulcers. Workers and rats have a lot in common.

Yet this idea that consistency is important is nowhere in the leadership literature. Predictability is considered boring and unglamorous, in a world that reveres creativity and disruption.

A couple of weeks ago the Harvard Business Review published a blog about the most important traits of leaders, as reported by 195 global leaders themselves. These turned out to be a more or less soppy list of “competencies” including “strong ethics”, “nurtures growth”, “has the flexibility to change opinions” and “is committed to ongoing training”. And so on. Predictability was nowhere on the list.

The only company I can find that explicitly values this is Google. Because it delights in collecting data and measures all leaders constantly, it has found that consistency is one of the most important qualities there is. When the boss isn't consistent, people can't do their best.

Predictability matters at work not just in relation to your boss — but to almost everything. People claim they love jobs in which every day is different, but there is little evidence to back this up. Instead, studies in the US have shown that workers with unpredictable hours are more stressed and less happy than those who keep a regular timetable.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which one is wrong to describe author's boss as mentioned?

A.rational

B.inspiring

C.upstanding

D.inconstant

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many groups is there of research from the University of Michigan?

A.2

B.3

C.4

D.5

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which trait of the following is not on the list about leadership from Harvard Business Review?

A.strong ethics

B.nurtures growth

C.predictability

D.is committed to ongoing training

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which company values predictability explicitly?

A.Baidu

B.Harvard Business Review

C.all above

D.Google

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.rational
解释：根据前两段的描述老板是一位能启发他人、为人正直的男士，但也能推测出老板是善变的。

(2)答案：B.3
解释：密歇根大学的研究人员进行了一系列实验，他们将学生分成三组并指派所有人做一项工作。

(3)答案：C.predictability
解释：特质包括“道德观念强”、“注重增长”、“能够灵活改变观点”和“致力于持续培训”等等。可预测性并不在这份列表上。

(4)答案：Google
解释：唯一一家公开看重这一特质的公司是谷歌。由于谷歌喜欢收集数据并对所有领导者持续做出评估，该公司发现一致性是最重要的特质之一。如果老板前后不一致，员工就无法尽其所能。

芝加哥的美食推荐

餐厅所有的食材都来自当地，烹饪出新鲜地道的美式大餐。还有什么比下班之后拿起肉汁饱满的汉堡和一大杯冰镇啤酒更解压呢？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Americano美式咖啡

plug socket电源插座

hefty肌肉发达的['heftɪ]

Miller Lite米勒淡啤

craft brews工艺啤酒

hub中心[hʌb]

glamour魅力['ɡlæmə]

entice诱使；怂恿[ɪn'taɪs; en-]

salvage抢救['sælvɪdʒ]

ketchup蕃茄酱['ketʃəp; -ʌp]

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

1分51秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

0分36秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

0分8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

Farmhouse, Chicago （240 words）

By Lindsay Whipp

Where 228 W Chicago

Ave Americano$3

Plug sockets/WiFi Yes

Privacy 3/5

Open 11am-12am; Fri until 1am; Sat 10am-1am; Sun 10am-11pm

Forget the Chicago classics of deep-dish pizza and hefty steaks washed down with Miller Lite. Farmhouse is all about the capital of the Midwest's more recent obsession: farm-to-fork fare and local craft brews. After all, Chicago's wealth of warehouses has helped it become America's craft beer capital, with about 1.6m sq ft of craft brewery space.

Located a few blocks from the tech hubs Merchandise Mart and 600 West Chicago, and steps from two train lines running to some of the city's trendier neighbourhoods, Farmhouse attracts a techie crowd and young professionals, creating a lively but not loud atmosphere.

The menu, which is home cooking made fancy, is all sourced from Midwest farms in nearby states like Wisconsin (the cheese curd sticks are a favourite), and Farmhouse even offers wine from Michigan. Chicago's long winters (think snow in April and chilly in May) leave little space for glamour. It makes warm, dark taverns where you can rock up in your (clean) welly boots and woolly jumpers enticing.

Farmhouse's low-lit hipster take on cosy is also about local sourcing too. It says 85 per cent of its decor is produced from locally salvaged materials and furniture, including the bevador — a vintage refrigerator. With even the condiments made in-house, you will not find a Heinz ketchup bottle lurking on your table.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What time does the Farmhouse open on weekends?

A.11am

B.12am

C.not mentioned

D.10am

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What can you do in the Farmhouse?

A.try local craft brews

B.have deep-dish pizza

C.buy Americano and get one free

D.use WiFi for $3 per hour

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who prefer the Farmhouse as mentioned?

A.financiers

B.young students

C.young professionals

D.chorus girls

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the “bevador”?

A.a name of wine

B.one of grape varieties

C.a refrigerator

D.a ketchup

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.10am
解释：周六和周日都是十点开。

(2)答案：A.try local craft brews
解释：在这里你可以品尝到从农场到餐桌的新鲜食材和当地的工艺啤酒。

(3)答案：C.young professionals
解释：这里活力又不喧闹的氛围吸引了很多技术人员和年轻的专业人才来。

(4)答案：C.a refrigerator
解释：餐厅的大部分装饰都来自于当地回收材料和家具，包括bevador就是一台老式冰箱。

欧盟青少年面临社交网络限制

调研公司eMarketer数据显示，英国12-17岁人群中，拥有社交媒体账号的比例近80%。而待新的法案生效，16岁以下的青少年再不能自由使用社交网站及消息应用——而是首先必须要征得父母的同意了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

parental父母亲的[pə'rentl]

abide容忍；停留；遵守[ə'baɪd]

Strasbourg斯特拉斯堡（法国东北部城市）

specialise专门研究（等于specialize）['speʃəlaɪz]

thwart挫败；反对[θwɔːt]

whereby借以；与…一致[weə'baɪ]

vouch for担保；保证

inertia迟钝；不活动[ɪ'nɜːʃə]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分54秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分25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6秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter have tough task on rules for kids （664 words）

By Duncan Robinson in Brussels and Murad Ahmed in London

“Can I download Snapchat, Mum?”

A conversation like this will play out in households with teenage children who use the messaging app across the EU when new rules requiring social networks to get parental consent from all users under the age of 16 come into force in 2018.

While parents may face awkward questions, the likes of Facebook and Snapchat will have the logistical and legal challenge of abiding by the new law. If they do not, they run the risk of fines of up to 4 per cent of global turnover under a sweeping data protection regulation finally agreed by MEPs in Strasbourg last week.

The scale of this demand is significant. Big social networks such as Snapchat, Facebook — and its picture-sharing service Instagram — as well as Twitter all have large numbers of young users.

About one in five under 11s in the UK has a Facebook account — even though this breaks the social network's own terms of service which requires users to be 13 or over, according to eMarketer, the research group. Among 12 to 17 year olds, this figure leaps to nearly 80 per cent.

Big technology groups will have to come up with a way of gathering parental consent for these users or banning them from the service. “It has the potential to be a headache,” says Phil Lee, a partner specialising in data protection at Fieldfisher, a law firm. Age verification has long proven tough to enforce online. “It is very, very difficult to do,” he added.

Snapchat uses an age gate, which forces a new user to enter their date of birth when they join the service.

Facebook employs a similar method, installing a cookie on a person's device if they admit to being under 13 — the social network's current age limit — which will stop them from signing up until their 13th birthday.

But both these methods are easily thwarted: cookies can be deleted, while children can lie. “By putting the age up, they will just drag more children into telling lies about their age,” says John Carr, who helps run the Alliance for Child Safety Online, which looks at child protection.

Getting the blessing from millions of parents will prove harder. Facebook has over 1bn users, with 300m in Europe. That gives it the scale to set up a scheme whereby parents who are also on the social network are able to vouch for their children, according to one person familiar with the company's plans. But lawyers suggest some companies may be forced to rely on blunt tools, such as requiring a credit card to access their services, according to legal experts.

All companies will be expected to take “reasonable” measures to ensure that teenagers are over 16 or have parental permission, according to the new law. But what counts as “reasonable” is yet to be determined. “It is a classic example of legislators pushing a problem to industry,” says Mr Lee.

Some industry insiders admit privately that there is little they can do to stop determined, smartphone-wielding children from using their services without their parent's say-so. “There will always be able to ways to get around rules,” says one person at a leading US internet company. A relatively high age limit will do more harm than good. “It will tarnish them by forcing them to break the rules,” the person adds.

A last-minute compromise gave individual countries the ability to lower the age from 16 to 13. Children's rights campaigners — such as Mr Carr — fear that inertia will result in many EU countries opting for the path of least resistance and leaving the age limit as it is.

Some countries such as the UK are expected to drop the limit to 13, while others including France have made clear that they will keep the age limit at 16.

This adds another layer of complexity for social media groups: they will have to come up with slightly different solutions for teenagers from Paris, Poznan or Peterborough.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.When will the new rules come into force?

A.2016

B.2017

C.2019

D.2018

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many children under 11s have a Facebook account according to eMarketer?

A.80%

B.13%

C.20%

D.5%

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who uses an age gate when new users join the service?

A.Facebook

B.Snapchat

C.Twitter

D.Instagram

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the attitude of social networks insiders towards the age limitation?

A.favorable

B.disgusted

C.powerless

D.hopeful

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.2018
解释：该法案将于2018年生效，届时，16岁以下的青少年要使用社交网站及消息应用，首先必须要征得父母的同意。

(2)答案：C.20%
解释：调研公司eMarketer数据显示，英国11岁以下儿童中，1/5拥有Facebook账号。

(3)答案：B.Snapchat
解释：Snapchat设置年龄门槛，要求新用户输入出生日期。Facebook也曾采用类似措施，如果用户承认不到13岁，就会在他们的个人设备上安装一个Cookie。但这些方法很容易被破解。

(4)答案：C.powerless
解释：一些行业人士承认，他们也没有什么好办法来阻止儿童未经父母同意就使用他们的服务。“他们总会千方百计地绕过规则。提高年龄界限可能弊大于利，因为这将迫使他们打破规则。”

FBI给黑客的百万赏金

为破解iPhone，FBI为付出了不少代价。局长James Comey说：“（付给解锁人的费用）比我在这个位置上所剩下的时间里挣的钱还要多，但我认为这很值得”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

litigation诉讼；起诉[lɪtɪ'geɪʃ(ə)n]

odd古怪的；临时的

stimulate刺激；鼓舞['stɪmjʊleɪt]

annual salary年薪

attorney-general司法部长

surveillance监督；监视[sə'veɪl(ə)ns; -'veɪəns]

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2秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分56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59秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

FBI paid more than $1.4m for iPhone hack （591words）

By Murad Ahmed in London

The FBI paid more than $1.4m to hackers who developed a way to gain access to the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers, leading the law enforcement agency to drop litigation against Apple intended to force the company to help break into the device.

James Comey, director of the FBI, said on Thursday that the cost was “worth it”, but added that an accommodation needed to be made with Apple and other technology companies in the future, as paying outside technologists to find ways to access highly-encrypted messages on phones used by terrorist suspects was not “scalable.”

In February, the justice department brought legal action against Apple in an attempt to force the company to create software that would help the FBI break the passcode of the iPhone used by one of the killers in December's shootings in San Bernardino, California.

Apple resisted the order, saying it would create a “back door” that would harm the privacy of all iPhone users. The FBI dropped the case in March, saying it had found another way to unlock the device but it has not yet disclosed what method it used to do so.

Speaking at an Aspen Security Forum event in London on Thursday, Mr Comey said: “We were able to get into the phone because, in an odd way, all the controversy around the litigation stimulated a marketplace around the world…for people trying to figure out if they could they break into Apple 5C running iOS9 — and those details matter because that's the phone that the terrorists left behind.”

He added that: “Somebody approached from outside the government [with a solution]. We tested it and tested it, then we purchased it.”

Asked how much the FBI paid, he said: “A lot. More than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months, for sure. But it was, in my view, worth it…I think it was very, very important that we got into that device.”

Mr Comey's annual salary was $183,800 last year, suggesting his agency paid about $1.4m to the as-yet-unknown hackers who developed the method to break into the device.

The FBI director added that he wanted to find a long-term solution with technology groups such as Apple and Facebook, which both used end-to-end encryption on some of their messaging services, to avoid the need to pay outside parties if confronted with a similar situation in the future.

“I'm hoping we can get to a sensible solution that doesn't involve hacking and that doesn't involving spending loads of money,” he said.

As a former US deputy attorney-general, Mr Comey became a hero among privacy activists when it emerged he resisted the Bush Administration's attempts to gain legal approval for its programme of warrantless electronic surveillance.

But in recent weeks, Mr Comey has lead the US government's charge against the American tech industry and its application of tough security and encryption on smartphones.

US authorities has already signalled the likelihood of future legal clashes with Apple and other tech companies over the use of encryption, which makes it nearly impossible for third parties to intercept messages.

In April, the US Department of Justice said it would attempt to compel Apple to unlock an iPhone seized by police in New York during a drugs investigation. Apple said it was disappointed but not surprised that the government was proceeding with the case, with the company's legal team saying the government was attempting to establish a sweeping precedent that could apply to all phones.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What will be harmed by “back door” as Apple said?

A.privacy

B.security

C.entertainment

D.independence

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which one of the following was broken into in this case?

A.5C running Ios8

B.6s running iOS9

C.5C running iOS9

D.5S running Ios7

答案⁽²⁾

3.How to get the number($1.4m) of pay?

A.estimation

B.Comey's reveal

C.FBI's reporter

D.the hacker told

答案⁽³⁾

4.What did Mr. Comey do when he was the US deputy attorney-general?

A.signaled the likelihood of future legal clashes with Apple

B.resisted warrantless electronic surveillance legally

C.compel Apple to unlock an iPhone

D.turned against Bush

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.privacy
解释：苹果声称“开后门”的做法的会伤害用户的隐私。

(2)答案：C.5C running iOS9
解释：在这个案件中FBI破解的是犯罪分子运行iOS9系统的5C手机。

(3)答案：A.estimation
解释：付给超过黑客140万美元是根据Comey的发言估算的：根据公开资料，James Comey的任期还有7年4个月，而他去年的年薪是$183,800。

(4)答案：B.resisted warrantless electronic surveillance legally
解释：Comey任小布什政府司法部副部长时，还因此成为隐私维权人士之间的一个英雄。

法国给麦当劳的当头一棒

看来欧洲对于整顿跨国公司的税务问题下了决心，这个消息对正寻求迅速扩张的“麦叔叔”来说可真的不那么美好。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

alleged所谓的；声称的[ə'ledʒd]

affiliate隶属的机构[ə'fɪlɪeɪt]

ruling主要的；支配的['ruːlɪŋ]

verdict结论；裁定['vɜːdɪkt]

subsidiary子公司；辅助者[səb'sɪdɪərɪ]

continent洲，陆地['kɒntɪnənt]

scrutinise仔细检查（等于scrutinize）['skruːtɪnaɪz]

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10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16秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分8秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

McDonald's hit by French tax bill （686words）

By Adam Thomson in Paris

McDonald's France has been sent a bill for alleged unpaid taxes, as part of a crackdown by French authorities on multinational companies that shift their profits abroad.

According to people familiar with the case, the French finance ministry has taken issue with the amount of money McDonald's France paid to a Luxembourg-based affiliate for services — including its use of the fast-food restaurant brand name — which helped to reduce McDonald's taxable profits in the country.

McDonald's France declined to comment on reports of the bill, which some media reports have suggested could be as high as €300m — including €100m in fines.

Instead, the company said in statement: “McDonald's is one of the biggest taxpayers in France and we are proud of it.” It added that McDonald's and its franchises had paid €1.2bn in taxes since 2009, invested €1bn and created more than 15,000 jobs in France.

France's finance ministry declined to comment on the matter, pointing out that it was governed by tax secrecy rules.

News of the tax bill, first reported by French business magazine L'Expansion, follows a European Commission investigation into a deal that McDonald's struck with tax authorities in Luxembourg.

In December, the commission accused Luxembourg of establishing a tax scheme for McDonald's that allows the US fast-food group to pay no tax on its European royalties, either in the US or in the Grand Duchy.

Margrethe Vestager, competition commissioner, said at the time that Luxembourg had acted against the spirit of a US-Luxembourg double taxation treaty.

“A tax ruling that agrees to McDonald's paying no tax on their European royalties either in Luxembourg or in the US has to be looked at very carefully under EU state aid rules,” she said. “The purpose of double taxation treaties between countries is to avoid double taxation — not to justify double non-taxation.”

France's move against McDonald's comes as the EU continues a broader crackdown against aggressive corporate tax planning. Brussels issued its first verdicts in tax cases in October, ordering Luxembourg and the Netherlands to claw back tens of millions of euros of underpaid tax from Italian carmaker Fiat and US coffee shop chain Starbucks.

A report published last year entitled “Unhappy Meal” also claimed that McDonald's and its subsidiaries had undertaken an aggressive European restructuring in 2009 that “led to the avoidance of significant amounts of tax across the continent”.

This report, written by several trade unions and the charity War on Want, claimed that the restructuring could have meant the French government missed out on up to €713m in taxes between 2009 and 2013.

France now represents a big market for McDonald's — thanks to the rise in popularity of fast food in the country over the past few decades. According to its website, the French business had outlets at more than 1,000 locations in the country in 2014, more than in the UK.

Sending it a tax bill appears to be part of a bigger push by the national government to scrutinise the tax practices of multinationals. In February, the country's Socialist government ruled out the possibility of a tax deal with Google — only days after the US search engine struck a £130m settlement with the UK government over back taxes.

Michel Sapin, finance minister, said at the time that the bill Google would eventually have to pay in France would be “way bigger” than the amount it had settled with UK authorities.

At a European level, multinational companies have also been facing more scrutiny on tax — especially since the leak of the so-called Panama Papers, which reveal how a Panamanian law firm has set up offshore funds to help companies and individuals hide their wealth.

This month, Lord Hill, EU commissioner for financial services, unveiled a set of draft rules that would compel companies with global revenues of more than €750m per year to provide a public country-by-country breakdown of key financial information — claiming the move would expose complex corporate arrangements intended to avoid tax.

However, these measures need approval from the European parliament and national governments to become law, a requirement that will almost certainly mean months of debate on amendments.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What did McDonald's do to reduce its taxable profits in France?

A.paid to an affiliate for services

B.paid by check

C.traded with oversea relative company

D.attributed profits to subsidiaries

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How much should McDonald's pay to French finance ministry as the fine?

A.€300m

B.€200m

C.€100m

D.€2.2b

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the problem of McDonald's now in Europe according to the commission?

A.double non-taxation

B.double taxation

C.pay their their European royalties to US

D.mass layoff

答案⁽³⁾

4.In which country could companies hide their wealth legally?

A.UK

B.Panama

C.Socialist state

D.none

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.paid to an affiliate for services
解释：文章第二段，由知情人士透露可知。

(2)答案：C.€100m
解释：法国税务局要求麦当劳法国分公司补交3亿欧元（约合人民币22亿元）的税金，其中1亿欧元为罚款。

(3)答案：A.double non-taxation
解释：委员会指责麦当劳在将应缴纳的税款在欧洲和美国双边都没有缴纳。

(4)答案：B.Panama
解释：文章提到在巴拿马这样做是合法的。

不可小看人头马君度？

这款再熟悉不过的烈酒曾经随着中国经济增长放缓和对政府官员送礼行为的打击而一蹶不振。如今，销售数据似乎表明，国人似乎还是偏爱这橙味的酒香，人头马君度又在中国找到了重振雄风的希望？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

cognac干邑['kɒnjæk]

outstrip胜过；比…跑得快[aʊt'strɪp]

Rémy Martin人头马

materially实质地；极大地[mə'tɪərɪəlɪ]

upheavals剧变；隆起；举起[ʌp'hiːv(ə)l]

compensate赔偿；抵消['kɒmpenseɪt]

flat单调的；不景气的；干脆的[flæt]

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49秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分42秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分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

Rémy Cointreau finds renewed spirit in Chinese market （405words）

By Adam Thomson in Paris

Rémy Cointreau signalled that China may be rediscovering its passion for cognac after the French spirits maker's sales outstripped expectations.

The maker of Rémy Martin and Cointreau liqueur reported that revenue during the last quarter of its business year reached €251.5m, 9.8 per cent higher in organic growth terms than a year earlier.

The figures, which beat analysts' forecasts, sent Remy shares 8.5 per cent higher on Tuesday, their biggest one-day gain in more than six years and a high since October 2013.

The Paris-based group said the strong figures were “on the back of improving trends in greater China”, where it would start to increase prices this year after gaining market share during the lunar new year.

Cognac sales were also strong in the US, a growing market thanks to a revival of classic cocktails.

However, Remy's management maintained its earlier guidance of positive operating profit growth at constant exchange rates for the full business year — reflecting caution over drawing any hard conclusions.

Andrea Pistacchi, an analyst at Citi, said: “All the trends were directionally as we expected, but stronger.” However he sounded a note of caution, saying “we don't expect China to improve materially from here any time soon”.

At Rémy Martin, which accounts for more than half group sales, revenues jumped 12.3 per cent in organic terms during the last three months of its business year, driven by solid growth in North America and an improvement in China.

That will come as a welcome interruption to what has been a challenging market in recent years for spirits producers and the luxury sector, as they have had to contend with slower economic growth and a crackdown by Beijing on conspicuous consumption by officials.

During the first quarter of the business year, for example, revenue at Rémy Cointreau shrank 9 per cent in organic terms compared with a year earlier on the back of upheavals in the Chinese market.

Luxury groups have also had to contend with the difficult market conditions. In February, French luxury goods group LVMH said sales in China were flat last year. But it managed to compensate for the lack of growth with robust sales in other regions, suggesting that it had managed to appeal to Chinese tourists travelling abroad.

For the full business year, group revenue at Remy reached €1.05bn, 0.3 per cent higher in organic terms than the previous year — and 8.9 per cent higher in reported terms.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where is the Rémy Cointreau's headquarter?

A.France

B.US

C.UK

D.Australia

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What will be changed for Rémy Cointreau during the lunar new year?

A.lower prices

B.more ads

C.higher prices

D.as cocktails' material

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the main reason for cognac's strong sales in US?

A.revival of classic cocktails

B.expressive on the nose

C.revival of bar culture

D.cheaper than the others

答案⁽³⁾

4.How about LVMH's sales in China last year?

A.inspired

B.non-ideal

C.beat forecasts

D.not mentioned

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.France
解释：人头马的总部在巴黎。

(2)答案：C.higher prices
解释：人头马君度表示，在赢得更多市场份额后将考虑调高其价格。

(3)答案：A.revival of classic cocktails
解释：干邑在美国市场也销量强劲，主要得益于传统鸡尾酒的复兴。

(4)答案：B.non-ideal
解释：文末提到奢侈品牌LVMH去年在中国的销量是不景气的，需要靠其他地区的强劲增长来平衡收益。

英国《金融时报》
原文阅读精选集Vol.34

“国际范儿的”慷慨

腾讯公司董事会主席兼首席执行官马化腾承诺向慈善事业捐赠逾20亿美元，此举将使他加入高科技领域最大慈善家马克·扎克伯格和比尔·盖茨的行列。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

philanthropist慈善家[fɪ'lænθrəpɪst]

capitalisation市值（等于capitalization）[,kæpɪtəlɪ'zeʃən]

overshadowed使失色；使阴暗[əʊvə'ʃædəʊ]

publicity stunt做秀

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55秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分45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

Tencent's Pony Ma pledges more than $2bn to charity （414words）

By Don Weinland in London

The chairman of one of China's largest internet companies is looking to join the ranks of the technology world's big philanthropists Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates with a more than $2bn donation to charity.

Pony Ma, who is also founder and chief executive of Tencent Holdings, plans to cash in 100m company shares to make the donation to the Tencent Foundation, which gives money to healthcare, education and environmental protection in China, the company said on Monday.

Tencent shares in Hong Kong closed up 0.24 per cent at HK$165.7, making the donation worth about $2.1bn.

The company operates QQ and WeChat, two of China's largest online and mobile chatting applications. The Shenzhen-based, Hong Kong-listed group has a market capitalisation of $185bn and owns entertainment and online gaming businesses, as well as a bank and other financial services.

Mr Ma has a net worth of about $20bn, according to Forbes but his success has often been overshadowed by Jack Ma of Alibaba, the ecommerce company. The Alibaba founder was reportedly worth more than $22bn. Alongside his chief financial officer, he said last year that he had set up a fund using share options worth about 2 per cent of the company's equity, or about $3bn at the time of the announcement.

The Tencent chairman said in a statement: “After 10 years of exploration and participation in philanthropic activities, I increasingly feel a better way to continue giving back to the society is to do it over a longer term and in a more organised way.”

Tencent said its Foundation, which was established in 2007 and co-operates with other charities in China, was set to become one of the biggest charitable funds in the world.

The donation follows a long line of charitable activities from some of the world's leading technology entrepreneurs.

In December, Mr Zuckerberg said he would donate 99 per cent of his and his wife's Facebook shares, worth about $45bn, to philanthropic causes.

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has donated tens of billions of dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Philanthropy in China is still new to the country's emerging business class. One of China's best-known philanthropists, Chen Guangbiao, who attempted to buy the New York Times in 2014, has been accused of using charity acts as publicity stunts.

In 2014, Mr Chen, who made his fortune in a recycling business, treated 250 homeless people in New York to a decadent lunch where volunteers served dishes in People's Liberation Army uniforms.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who will get the donation from Pony Ma directly?

A.Tencent Foundation

B.the Chinese government

C.hospitals and schools

D.Pony Ma Foundation

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Where is Tencent's listing location?

A.Shenzhen

B.Shanghai

C.Hong Kong

D.NYSE

答案⁽²⁾

3.When was the Tencent Foundation established?

A.2007

B.2006

C.2004

D.2012

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who treated 250 homeless people in New York to a decadent lunch in 2004?

A.Bill Gates

B.Chen Guangbiao

C.Mark Zuckerberg

D.Jack Ma

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Tencent Foundation
解释：马化腾计划捐献1亿股腾讯股票给腾讯基金会（Tencent Foundation）。该基金会将向中国的医疗、教育和环保事业捐赠资金。

(2)答案：C.Hong Kong
解释：腾讯总部位于中国广东深圳，于2004年6月16日在香港交易所上市。

(3)答案：A.2007
解释：腾讯基金会成立于2007年，腾讯表示其基金会将成为全球最大的慈善基金之一。

(4)答案：B.Chen Guangbiao
解释：2014年陈光标在美国纽约的一家豪华餐厅接待了250名贫民和无家可归者用餐，服务员身着与中国人民解放军军装类似的制服。

Twitter回来啦？

Twitter任命了首位大中华区董事总经理，不过它的中国策略并非吸引社交网络用户，而是做中国企业的生意。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Greater China大中华地区

emerging markets新兴市场

turnround突然好转（或恶化）['tɜːnraʊnd]

albeit虽然；即使[ɔːl'biːɪt]

censor检查和删节['sensə]

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58秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1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

Twitter appoints greater China managing director （418words）

By Leslie Hook in San Francisco

Twitter has appointed its first managing director for greater China and pledged to expand its investment in the region, despite being banned in mainland China since 2009.

The move comes as other US social media companies, including Facebook and Google, have also been trying to expand their reach to Chinese advertisers, even while their services remained blocked there.

Twitter named Kathy Chen as its new managing director for mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, an area previously run by Twitter's director of emerging markets.

Ms Chen was an executive at Microsoft in Beijing, where she oversaw business development for Microsoft's cloud computing and enterprise services in China.

On Friday morning local time, Ms Chen published her first tweet, thanking chief executive Jack Dorsey for the opportunity to be at Twitter. “We have many ways to connect China to the world,” she wrote.

The appointment comes at a time when Twitter has been struggling to boost user growth and draw advertising revenues away from more popular platforms such as Facebook and Google.

The companies share price has fallen to just one-third of its level a year ago, and co-founder Mr Dorsey, who became permanent chief executive in October, has so far failed to revive its fortunes. His turnround plan has included staff layoffs, new products and business partnerships such as livestreaming American football games.

Last year Twitter reported $2.2bn in revenue, of which one-third came from outside the US. The company's advertising sales within China have been growing fast, albeit from a low base:

Twitter said the number of Chinese advertisers on the platform had tripled from a year ago. Twitter said that it would be focusing on its enterprise offerings, such as advertising.

“We will look to Kathy's leadership to help us identify ways in which Twitter's platform and technology assets can be utilised to create further value for enterprises, creators, influencers, partners and developers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan,” the company said.

Like Facebook and Google, Twitter was blocked in China after it refused to comply with censorship requests. For real-time information, Chinese users often turn instead to Weibo, a Twitter-like platform that is owned by Sina, or to WeChat, a chat app owned by Tencent. Both Weibo and WeChat are closely monitored and censored by government employees.

Facebook has also been stepping up efforts to expand its tie with China. Founder Mark Zuckerberg visited Beijing last month and even went jogging on a smoggy day, sparking comments about his willingness to win over regulators.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.When was Twitter banned in mainland China?

A.2009

B.2010

C.2015

D.2008

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Where did Kathy Chen work for before Twitter?

A.Facebook

B.Google

C.Microsoft

D.Sina

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one is chief executive Dorsey's “turnround plan”?

A.all of the above

B.staff layoffs

C.new products

D.business partnerships

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who monitor and censor Weibo and WeChat closely in China?

A.users

B.government employees

C.lawyers

D.corporate senior managers

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.2009
解释：2009年以来Twitter在中国内地一直处于封禁状态。

(2)答案：C.Microsoft
解释：陈葵(Kathy Chen)曾是微软(Microsoft)驻北京的一名高管。在那里，她负责微软云计算的业务拓展和微软在中国的企业服务。

(3)答案：A.all of the above
解释：他的扭亏为盈计划包括裁员、推出新产品及加强商业合作——比如直播美国橄榄球比赛。所以三项都是。

(4)答案：B.government employees
解释：文章倒数第二段。

愤怒的微软

继苹果之后，微软也因用户隐私安全的问题跟美国政府杠上了，而这次还正式起诉了美国政府。微软表示，政府部门禁止科技公司向用户透露他们的数据何时被联邦机构审查的做法违背了美国宪法。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

sue控告；请求[s(j)uː]

DoJ司法部（Department of Justice）

attorney-general司法部长；总检察长

gag塞住…的口；钳制…的言论[gæg]

invasive侵略性的[ɪn'veɪsɪv]

compel强迫，迫使[kəm'pel]

antiquated过时的；陈旧的['æntɪkweɪtɪd]

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49秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分15秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分19秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分48秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Microsoft sues DoJ over ‘secrecy orders'（489words）

By Leslie Hook in San Francisco

Microsoft is suing the Department of Justice over its requests to access customer data stored in the cloud, expanding the fight between US technology companies and Washington over privacy concerns.

Microsoft's lawsuit takes aim at the DoJ's practice of issuing “secrecy orders” that ban Microsoft from telling customers when their information is being accessed by the government. It names Loretta Lynch, the US attorney-general, as a defendant.

Microsoft says this practice, which is legal under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, violates its customers' Fourth Amendment right to know when they are being searched and violates Microsoft's First Amendment right to speak about these investigations.

“People do not give up their rights when they move their private information from physical storage to the cloud,” the lawsuit states. The DoJ said it was reviewing the filing.

Another large tech company confirmed that it, like Microsoft, had also seen an increase in secret searches. Microsoft's case is expected to get broad support from Silicon Valley.

The lawsuit comes at a time of growing public debate over how the US government should be able to access electronic records. Apple fought the FBI's demand for special software to access the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists, until the FBI found another way to unlock the device.

Microsoft said the practice of issuing search warrants with secrecy orders had become more common as more customers move to cloud computing. “The government … has exploited the transition to cloud computing as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations,” the filing said.

Over the past 18 months, courts have issued more than 5,000 demands for customer information to Microsoft, around half of which contain secrecy orders. Of those, two-thirds have no fixed end-date, meaning that a user might never find out their information had been searched.

The suit follows Apple's high-profile case against the FBI in February. Although that case was later dropped, the DoJ has continued to try to compel Apple to co-operate in providing access to information on new iPhones.

Speaking about the Apple case in February, Microsoft founder Bill Gates told the Financial Times that he hoped that case would spark a deeper public debate over the circumstances under which governments should, and should not, have access to citizens' information.

“I hope that we have that debate so that the safeguards are built and so people do not opt — and this will be country by country — [to say] it is better that the government does not have access to any information,” he said.

The Microsoft lawsuit also takes aim at the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which has been criticised by many tech companies. The suit calls the statue “antiquated” and argues that the part of the law that allows secrecy orders is unconstitutional.

Microsoft has undertaken similar cases before, previously bringing three privacy-related cases against the US government over issues like disclosing the number of legal requests it received.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What right will be violated for Microsoft if the government hid investigations according to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act?

A.the First Amendment right

B.the Fourth Amendment right

C.the Fifth Amendment right

D.the Third Amendment right

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the result of the fight between Apple and FBI about terrorist's iphone?

A.Apple unlocked the device just this once

B.the device was broken

C.the FBI found another way to unlock the device

D.Apple provided access to information on new iPhones

答案⁽²⁾

3.How many demands did the courts issue with secrecy orders over the past 18 months?

A.2500

B.5000

C.3300

D.1000

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is tech companies' attitude towards Electronic Communications Privacy Act as?

A.supportive

B.critical

C.controversial

D.expectant

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.the First Amendment right
解释：表示，这种行为侵犯了其客户根据美国宪法《第四修正案》对于自己被搜查的知情权，同时侵犯了微软根据美国宪法《第一修正案》告知这些调查的权利。题目主体是微软。

(2)答案：C.the FBI found another way to unlock the device
解释：最后FBI通过别的途径解锁了那部手机。

(3)答案：A.2500
解释：过去18个月，法庭向微软发出了逾5000项调查客户信息的要求，其中约一半含有保密命令。其中三分之二没有固定截止期限，这意味着，用户可能永远无法发现自己的信息遭到了搜查。

(4)答案：B.critical
解释：科技公司们对《电子通信隐私法》是批判的，此前微软也处理过3起和隐私相关的冲突事件了。

体格强壮是领导优势吗？

虚荣心或许不是雄心勃勃的年轻男性在意自己体格的唯一原因。他们或许是朝着领导地位迈出了精心策划的一步。最近的一项研究表明，人们会将男性身体的强壮等同于更高的地位和种种领导品质。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

obsess迷住，缠住[əb'ses]

physique体格，体形[fɪ'ziːk]

chest胸部；衣柜[tʃest]

esteem尊重；尊敬[ɪ'stiːm; e-]

Tops and Tails儿童游戏“头和尾”

manipulate操作；篡改[mə'nɪpjʊleɪt]

indigenous本土的；土著的；国产的[ɪn'dɪdʒɪnəs]

regime政权，政体[reɪ'ʒiːm]

merger并购；吸收['mɜːdʒə]

collapsed倒塌的；暴跌的[kə'læpst]

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53秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分46秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分58秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The leadership advantage that a ripped upper body brings （584words）

By Andrew Hill

Vanity might not be the only reason ambitious young males obsess about their physique. They may be taking a calculated step towards leadership.

A new study suggests that people equate physical strength in men with higher status and leadership qualities. Researchers showed participants photographs of young men and women dressed in undershirts to show off their shoulder, chest and arm muscles.

They were told that the people were recruits at a consulting firm. They were asked to rate how much they admired them, held them in esteem and believed they would rise in status. “Do you think this person is a good leader?” was one of the questions.

In an academic version of the children's game Tops and Tails, the researchers Photoshopped the images, switching the bodies and heads and manipulating heights, to take account of the possibility that results could be skewed by how tall or attractive the subjects were.

Participants consistently rated stronger men more highly for status and leadership qualities. When shown pictures of women, it made little difference whether the subjects were stronger or weaker.

The research, soon to be published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, seems to endorse Vladimir Putin's habit of flaunting his physique, or Donald Trump's publication of his doctor's opinion of his “extraordinary” physical strength. It also adds to a rich vein of work on the physical characteristics of business executives.

A 2004 paper, for instance, looked at research on height and found that tall individuals have an advantage in their careers, with six-footers earning almost $166,000 more over 30 years than someone standing only 5 feet 5 inches. Warwick Business School research last year indicated that men who rise highest in business, the military and sport share common facial features.

Other researchers have noted a link between upper-body strength and status in indigenous Bolivian people, but, happily, we do not get to see many chief executives undressed, so it is hard to assess whether the same applies in the boardroom.

Those executives who admit to a serious workout regime, or who projected a public image of physical strength, have a mixed record.

Carsten Kengeter, a broad-shouldered extreme skier who “likes nothing better than a weekend of marathon running in the Mont Blanc massif”, looks set to take his leadership of Deutsche Börse through the pain barrier with a merger with the London Stock Exchange.

Gavin Patterson's leonine appearance — regularly referenced by reporters — has not hindered his rise to the top of BT, the UK telecoms group.

On the other hand, in 2012, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg — then 87 — boasted to the FT of his weightlifting prowess. It is doubtful if this would have saved AIG, the insurer he used to run, from bailout.

Thor Björgolfsson wears “sculpted suits” and works out regularly, according to a recent profile “because it teaches self-discipline and pushes one to the limit”. Fellow investors in Landsbanki, the collapsed Icelandic bank where he was the major shareholder, might have hoped for more self-discipline sooner in his career.

The paper is called “The role of physical formidability in human social status allocation” — a title that risks having sand kicked in its face by more muscular headlines.

Aaron Lukaszewski of Oklahoma State University, who carried out the study with co-authors from University of California Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and University of Portland, has a word of caution for any leader tempted to throw his weight around. “Self-interested aggressiveness decreased men's projected status,” he says.

Mr Putin and Mr Trump, take note.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who published his “extraordinary” physical strength?

A.Donald Trump

B.Vladimir Putin

C.Aaron Lukaszewski

D.Obama

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What feature can be an advantage in people's careers in a 2004 paper?

A.short

B.strong

C.tall

D.thin

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who were found a link between upper-body strength and status?

A.Bolivians

B.Britishmen

C.Americans

D.Chinese people

答案⁽³⁾

4.Why the author gives examples at the end of article?

A.to prove physical strength is helpful for career

B.to prove physical strength has a mixed record

C.to suggest people exercise both mind and body

D.to criticize Mr Putin and Mr Trump

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Donald Trump
解释：唐纳德·特朗普公布了医生对其身体素质“特别出色”的评价的做法，增加了有关企业高管外形特征的论述。

(2)答案：C.tall
解释：一份2004年的论文研究了身高，发现高个子在事业上拥有优势，在30年的时间里，身高6英尺的人会比身高仅5英尺5英寸的人多挣近16.6万美元。

(3)答案：A.Bolivians
解释：还有研究人员注意到玻利维亚本地人上半身体形的强壮与其地位存在关联，但幸运的是，我们不会看到有多少首席执行官袒露上身，因此很难评估这是否也适用于企业的董事会。

(4)答案：B.to prove physical strength has a mixed record
解释：文章说那些坦言自己严格执行锻炼计划，或者营造身体强壮的公众形象的高管们的命运好坏参半，之后举例证明。

《太阳的后裔》——经济新希望？

女主角宋慧乔使用的兰芝牌口红，3月销量同比暴增360%，尤其是在明洞零售中心区，已经全部脱销，因为这里是外国游客的集散地，中国游客的需求特别大。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

surgeon外科医生['sɜːdʒ(ə)n]

irritate刺激，使兴奋['ɪrɪteɪt]

industrialisation工业化[ɪndʌstrɪrlaɪzeɪ'ʃən]

cosmetic化妆品[kɒz'metɪk]

cachet优良标志['kæʃeɪ]

formula准则；配方['fɔːmjʊlə]

infinite无限的，无穷的['ɪnfɪnət]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分9秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分0秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分51秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分0秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

China awash with Korean Wave fever（601words）

By Song Jung-a in Seoul's eighth-largest stock with its market cap reaching nearly $20bn while CJ E & M was added to the MSCI Korea index

A new South Korean soap opera dealing with a military romance between a soldier and surgeon is sweeping across Asia, highlighting the growing popularity of Korean pop culture and its commercial potential in the region.

The 16-episode show titled Descendants of the Sun, which first aired in Korea in February, has been viewed more than 2bn times on China's online streaming site iQiyi, irritating Chinese authorities who have warned of the social ills of excessive viewing of Korean dramas.

However, the warning has failed to cool Korean drama fever in China as the phenomenon known as Hallyu, or “Korean Wave” — which dates to the early 2000s — is extending its reach beyond dramas, films and K-pop into areas including fashion, food and beauty products.

About 4,500 employees of a Chinese cosmetics group recently visited South Korea for a Hallyu experience. The trip included a dinner party with fried chicken and beer — a food combination that has become popular in China after the 2013 Korean drama My Love from the Star — and then visited filming locations of the hit drama.

Hallyu is breathing life into South Korea's slowing economy amid the declining competitiveness of its smokestack industries. In contrast to waning demand for steel, microchips and cargo ships — which have driven the country's rapid industrialisation over half a century — exports of cultural products hit a record $5.3bn in 2014, with an annual average growth rate of 13.4 per cent for five years since 2010.

Korean companies, on the back of the country's growing soft power, are now increasingly focusing on areas that have been boosted by Hallyu. AmorePacific, the country's biggest cosmetics company, in 2015 enjoyed a 44 per cent year-on-year jump in overseas sales as the country's cool image gives a marketable cachet to consumer goods abroad.

CJ E & M, the media unit of the family-run CJ conglomerate, is seeing its overseas sales grow more than 20 per cent a year while Netmarble Games, South Korea's top mobile game company, is planning a Won2tn initial public offering as exports of Korean games reached nearly $3bn in 2014, accounting for more than half of the country's cultural exports.

South Korean culture had long been overshadowed by its bigger neighbours, China and Japan, but has punched far above its weight in recent years, as the country, which grew from the ashes of the Korean war to become the world's sixth-largest exporter within a generation, offers something unique but still universal for global audiences to relate to.

“The country, heavily influenced by the US culture in the past, has successfully combined some magic formula from Hollywood with Asian sensibilities and tastes,” says Yoon Ho-jin, a director at Korea Creative Contents Agency. “Those who love Korean dramas and pop music have developed a liking for Korean products and come to visit Korea.”

Hallyu has also boosted South Korea's popularity as a tourist destination, with 13m foreigners visiting the country last year — up from 8.5m in 2010.

The main beneficiaries of Hallyu such as AmorePacific and CJ E & M have become the darlings of investors. AmorePacific is now the country last November instead of struggling industrial giants Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and Hyundai Merchant Marine.

“We've learned what works in Asia and beyond by trial and error over the past two decades,” says Mike Suh, senior vice-president at CJ E & M. “I believe Hallyu will last for the next 10 years at least, which means infinite opportunities for content exports.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where Descendants of the Sun can be seen in China?

A.IQiyi

B.YouTube

C.Youku

D.China Central Television

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the meaning of Hallyu?

A.K-fashion

B.soap opera

C.Korean Wave

D.huge audiences

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one is the Korean biggest cosmetics company?

A.AmorePacific

B.Iconix

C.Netmarble Games

D.CJ conglomerate

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the main beneficiaries of Hallyu as mentioned?

A.disseminate culture

B.attract investments

C.combined some magic formula

D.attract Chinese tourists

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.IQiyi
解释：网络平台爱奇艺以2500万元引进这部16集的电视剧。因为该剧过于火爆，中国公安部门甚至在官方微博上传了“看《太阳的后裔》或有安全隐患”的提醒。

(2)答案：C.Korean Wave
解释：Hallyu（韩流），是针对本世纪以来韩国文化在亚洲其他国家受到热捧的现象而造出的新词。

(3)答案：A.AmorePacific
解释：韩最大化妆品集团爱茉莉太平洋，女主使用的就是其旗下LANEIGE兰芝品牌的唇膏。

(4)答案：B.attract investments
解释：原文表示，最主要的好处是像AmorePacific和CJ E & M这样在影视作品中被接受的品牌成为投资者的宠儿。

为减少性侵害——全面禁酒

为了防止男性黄汤下肚后施暴，印度比哈尔邦政府4月在邦内实行全面禁酒。犯罪率有没有下降还不知道，但真的苦了脱瘾中心的医生，在这里，甚至有酒鬼靠吃肥皂、吃纸过瘾。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Bihar比哈尔（印度东北部一座城市）[bi'hɑ:]

beachfront海滨地区['biːtʃfrʌnt]

imposition征收；强加[ɪmpə'zɪʃ(ə)n]

phase逐步执行[feɪz]

forgo放弃；停止[fɔː'gəʊ; fə-]

clampdown压制；取缔['klæmpdaʊn]

chequered有方格的；多变的['tʃɛkɚd]

bootleggers造私酒者；走私者['bu:t,legə]

facilitate促进；帮助[fə'sɪlɪteɪt]

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8秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分26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51秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

India's northern Bihar state outlaws alcohol （516words）

By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi

India's northern Bihar state on Wednesday imposed prohibition on its 99m people, fulfilling an election promise that had boosted the popularity of Nitish Kumar, chief minister, among women voters in state polls last year.

With its decision, Bihar has become the second Indian state to impose restrictions on alcohol sales in the past two years, amid growing public anger over alcohol abuse, especially among the poor and working classes.

In 2014, the beachfront state of Kerala, whose economy is dependent on tourism, banned the sale of alcohol, except from five-star hotels and a few hundred state-owned liquor shops. Kerala said these measures were preparation for the imposition of prohibition within 10 years.

Mr Kumar promised to enforce prohibition during last year's Bihar state elections, when he was facing a tough challenge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata party.

Initially, Mr Kumar decided prohibition would be phased in gradually, starting with a ban on locally made traditional spirits on April 1. But his administration surprised the liquor industry when it decided to ban the sale and consumption of all types of alcohol immediately.

The decision means Bihar will forgo about $606m in excise revenues from alcohol sales, accounting for about 15 per cent of all state revenues. The army, however, will be exempt from the ban, and Bihar will still permit the manufacture of alcohol in the state.

The clampdown on alcohol sales comes as international spirits groups, such as Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Beam Suntory, have been making big investments to gain a foothold in what they see as a potentially vast market.

Diageo recently spent £1.8bn to take a controlling stake in United Spirits, India's largest liquor company, while Pernod Ricard has 25 Indian bottling plants, two grain alcohol distilleries and a winery.

India's spirits consumption is just 4.5 litres per capita, according to the World Health Organisation, which is far lower than many other parts of the world. But consumption has risen 55 per cent over the past two decades, according to a separate OECD study.

Analysts warn that growing popular support for restrictions on alcohol sales — especially among women whose husbands abuse cheap, locally made “country liquor” products — could threaten buoyant growth projections of India's liquor consumption.

“All the political parties see this as a big opportunity where they can go ahead and promise prohibition and it will win them huge votes among women,” says a spirits industry analyst, who asked to remain anonymous. “It looks like a clear winner in states where income levels aren't great, and alcohol abuse is a big issue. It's a concerning trend.”

India's experiments with prohibition have a chequered history. They have failed to curb alcohol consumption — which was facilitated by bootleggers who smuggled booze in from neighbouring states — and starved state coffers of a rich source of revenue.

In the 1990s, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh both imposed prohibition after mass anti-liquor campaigns, but then reversed the policy after just a few years as state coffers felt the pinch. Several small north-eastern states have also reversed years of prohibition, conceding it had failed to work.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How many Indian states imposed restrictions on alcohol sales within 2 years?

A.2

B.1

C.3

D.5

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Where can people buy the beer in Kerala?

A.all of liquor shops

B.supermarkets

C.five-star hotels

D.import stores

答案⁽²⁾

3.What kind of alcohol was banned to sale in Bihar?

A.all types

B.beer

C.wine

D.spirit

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one is India's largest liquor company?

A.Diageo

B.United Spirits

C.Budweiser

D.Magic

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.2
解释：比哈尔是两年内第二个实施全面禁酒的邦

(2)答案：C.five-star hotels
解释：只有在五星级酒店和部分国有的酒商店才可以买到酒。

(3)答案：A.all types
解释：一开始比哈尔只禁了部分酒产品，并计划逐步在6个月实现全面禁酒，但部分禁酒才实行了5天，库玛就在记者会上宣布全面实施禁酒。

(4)答案：B.United Spirits
解释：United Spirits (孟买上市) 世界三大烈酒制造商之一，印度最大烈酒制造商。

橄榄球场上的马云

这项让人热血沸腾的运动，能否抱住马云的“大腿”，在中国变得流行？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

rugby英式橄榄球['rʌgbɪ]

multimillion数百万[mʌlti'miljən]

tournament锦标赛，联赛['tʊənəm(ə)nt]

off-pitch场外的

collaborate合作；勾结[kə'læbəreɪt]

sporadically零星地；偶发地[spə'rædɪkli]

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42秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分38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

Alibaba's Jack Ma tackles rugby in China （395words）

By Tom Mitchell in Beijing

Alibaba chairman Jack Ma, a relatively recent investor in China's surging football industry, is now hoping to promote another English import after signing a development and sponsorship deal with World Rugby.

Under the agreement, announced on Sunday, the e-commerce group's sports division said it would make a “long-term multimillion US dollar investment in the development of rugby in China”.

“We encourage young people to join rugby to cultivate the spirit of being strong-willed, aggressive, acquisitive and unified,” said Zhang Dazhong, chief executive of Alisports.

The deal was announced at the annual Hong Kong Sevens, the world's premier seven-a-side tournament that is as famous for its off-pitch parties as it is for the on-pitch action.

In exchange for its support of the sport, Alisports will be given exclusive rugby broadcast rights for its internet platform. The partners will also collaborate to help China host more international rugby events.

Alisports was established by Alibaba in September with minority investors including Sina and Yunfeng Capital, a private investment vehicle controlled by Mr Ma.

“This deal will ensure an unprecedented platform for rugby to reach, engage and inspire new participants across China,” said Bernard Lapasset, World Rugby chairman.

Alibaba, the most famous of China's “big three” internet groups, is one of the country's most acquisitive companies, using its cash to snap up assets as diverse as Chinese football clubs and Hong Kong newspapers.

It owns 38 per cent of Evergrande Taobao FC, a successful club based in the southern city of Guangzhou. Recent investments by Chinese billionaires such as Mr Ma and Wang Jianlin, chairman of the Dalian Wanda property and entertainment group, have begun to change the face of international football.

Mr Ma, 51, is China's second-richest man with a fortune estimated at $22.7bn, according to the annual Hurun report. He was previously the country's richest man before being surpassed by Mr Wang, whose wealth grew by more than 50 per cent last year. In 2015, Mr Wang paid $52m for a 20 per cent stake in Spain's Atlético Madrid.

But it is far from certain that Chinese tycoons such as Mr Ma can do for rugby what they have done for football, given its much lower profile in the world's most populous country.

China has been represented only sporadically at the Hong Kong Sevens by teams that have often been beaten heavily by other minnows.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where is the birthplace of rugby?

A.America

B.England

C.China

D.Australia

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many players are on the court for Hong Kong Sevens?

A.15

B.5

C.7

D.21

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who controlled Yunfeng Capital, a private investment vehicle?

A.Wang Jianlin

B.Jack Ma

C.government

D.Zhang Dazhong

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who paid $52m for a 20 per cent stake in Spain's Atlético Madrid?

A.Wang Sicong

B.Jack Ma

C.Hurun

D.Wang Jianlin

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.England
解释：Rugby:英式橄榄球，最早起源于英国。

(2)答案：C.7
解释：香港七人橄榄球赛是一项世界顶级7人比赛，场地、规则与传统15人制橄榄球大致相同。

(3)答案：B.Jack Ma
解释：去年9月，阿里巴巴创建阿里体育，少数股东包括新浪(Sina)和由马云控股的私人投资公司云峰基金。

(4)答案：D.Wang Jianlin
解释：2015年，王健林斥资5200万美元购入西班牙马德里竞技俱乐部(Atlético Madrid) 20%股权。

中国白酒：太难张口说爱你？

中国现在希望将白酒推向全球，除了走进酒吧作为基酒调制“荔枝马提尼”、还听说，品尝优质白酒与聆听世界级古典音乐……更配哦？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

litre公升['liːtə]

boardroom会议室['bɔːdruːm; -rʊm]

ubiquitous普遍存在的；无所不在的[juː'bɪkwɪtəs]

hangover宿醉；残留物['hæŋəʊvə]

frugality俭省，节俭[fruː'gælɪtɪ]

subsidy补贴；津贴['sʌbsɪdɪ]

Philharmonia Orchestra爱乐管弦乐团

patron赞助人；保护人；主顾['peɪtr(ə)n]

virtuoso艺术大师[,vɝtʃu'oso]

cocktail鸡尾酒；开味食品['kɒkteɪl]

mixologist酒吧调酒员[mɪk'sɒlədʒɪst]

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53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

1分45秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分57秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Baijiu: the people's tipple （579words）

By Christian Shepherd

Traditionally drunk straight, and in great volume, baijiu is China's national spirit: the country gets through an estimated 10-17 billion litres of the grain-based liquor every year. It is central to Chinese business deals, where the banquet table trumps the boardroom, and ubiquitous at formal dinners. It's sipped, according to toasting culture, whenever your superior asks. Calls of “Ganbei” — literally, “Dry your glass” — are common and hard to refuse.

Growing up in Beijing, I learnt about the spirit from my investor stepfather's tales of endless toasting at business banquets — and the terrible hangovers that followed. Once, after an evening with an aviation fuel company, he described the host's expensive baijiu as “bearing a distinct resemblance to his own products”.

Now China wants to take baijiu global. State-owned producers, boutique brands and large drinks corporations are all interested in the spirit's export potential. If tequila can do it, so the reasoning goes, why not baijiu?

The push to sell baijiu abroad is part of a transition in the domestic market. Through the boom years, baijiu's central role in business transactions saw sales surge with the economy. Managers of state-owned enterprises plied each other (and the relevant officials) with increasingly overpriced bottles — and billed it to the company.

But in 2012, President Xi Jinping launched a frugality campaign that banned lavish dinners and gift giving, thus cancelling the state's de facto subsidy of the industry and bringing soaring profits down to earth. Diversifying sales by moving into untapped western markets suddenly became an increasingly attractive idea.

However, with an industrial bouquet and a throat-choking 40-60 per cent alcohol content, baijiu is reviled by many foreigners who live in China. To popularise it outside of China requires imagination, not to say blind optimism.

Wuliangye, China's largest baijiu producer by volume, struck upon the novel approach of partnering with a London orchestra. About a year ago Liu Zhongguo, its chairman, signed a five-year sponsorship deal with the Philharmonia Orchestra as a way to “inspire people to enjoy the harmonious balance of drinking fabulous alcohol while listening to world-class classical music”. The £500,000 deal was signed at a Downing Street reception.

Jonathan Kuhles, who manages sponsorship for the Philharmonia, says: “Everyone [at the concerts] is very interested to try it … The longer we work with [Wuliangye], the more you get a taste for [baijiu] in a way you don't think you will originally.”

Patrons of the Philharmonia who came to hear Chinese piano virtuoso Lang Lang at the Royal Festival Hall in London last November were offered a taste of the spirit, while VIP gift bags reinforced the message. Yet samples at a reception may be insufficient to overcome the problem of differing national palates. One theory among China-dwelling foreigners is that it takes 300 shots to stop disliking baijiu. That's a lot of concerts.

In an effort to create a more stylish image, promoters of baijiu abroad are turning it into a bar drink. Baijiu-based cocktails can now be found on bar menus from Paris to Perth. For mixologist Orson Salicetti, co-founder of Lumos, a Manhattan bar specialising in the spirit, its powerful taste can be a good thing — it is the high alcohol content that is a problem. “The advantages of baijiu are the sweetness, rotting fruit and nutty sherry — you need to respect these notes,” he says. His creations use baijiu in different ways, from baijiu-infused lemongrass in his “lychee martini” to mixing it with spiced almond milk in an almond cocktail.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where is better to talk business in China?

A.banquet table

B.boardroom

C.tea room

D.bureau

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is baijiu's role model on globalization?

A.fuel

B.concert

C.tequila

D.red wine

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one of the following is China's largest baijiu producer by volume?

A.Moutai

B.Wuliangye

C.Fenjiu

D.Langjiu

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the main problem to turn baijiu into a bar drink?

A.high alcohol content

B.the sweetness

C.achromatic color

D.without bubbles

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.banquet table
解释：白酒在中国的生意场上有着重要地位，中国的生意往往是在酒桌上谈成的，而不是在会议室里，而且所有正式晚宴都能看到白酒的身影。

(2)答案：C.tequila
解释：中国现在希望将白酒推向全球：如果龙舌兰酒可以为全球市场接受，那么同样道理，白酒为什么不行？

(3)答案：B.Wuliangye
解释：中国以销量计最大的白酒生产商是五粮液，大约一年前，五粮液董事长刘中国与英国爱乐乐团(Philharmonia Orchestra)签署了5年赞助合同，以此“激发人们找到品尝优质白酒和聆听世界级古典音乐之间的和谐平衡”。

(4)答案：A.high alcohol content
解释：白酒的推广者们正努力在海外为其创造一个更时尚的形象，将它变成酒吧饮品。白酒强烈的味道可以是优点，但其高酒精含量是个问题。

视频直播圈里的劲敌：Facebook？！

Facebook刚刚宣布，已经完成对其直播视频产品Facebook Live的大规模升级。除了被放在更加显眼的位置，还添加了在屏幕上放滤镜和涂鸦等好玩的花边功能。作为世界最大社交网络，相信Facebook的这一升级让其他视频平台足够紧张了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

deluge使泛滥；压倒['deljuːdʒ]

unveiled裸露的；公布于众的[,ʌn'veɪld]

livestream视频直播

filter滤光器['fɪltə]

lure诱惑；饵[l(j)ʊə]

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29秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分30秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分47秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分37秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Facebook to expand livestreaming service（377words）

By Hannah Kuchler in San Francisco

Facebook is expanding its livestreaming service with the launch of a 24-hour deluge of video, as it challenges Twitter's Periscope, Snapchat and live television.

The world's largest social network has unveiled new ways to stream live video only to certain groups or events, added the ability to post emoji reactions in real-time to what is being said on stream. It has also created a hub which users can visit to find live video from around the globe.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook chief executive, said livestreaming is a “big shift” in how people communicate, with video having the potential to become the majority of content on the app.

“Live is like having a TV camera in your pocket,” he wrote in a post on Facebook. “Anyone with a phone now has the power to broadcast to anyone in the world. When you interact live, you feel connected in a more personal way.”

Facebook first launched Live for celebrities to broadcast on last summer, before opening it up to the masses in late 2015. The company is pouring more resources into the livestreaming because it sees higher engagement on live videos than pre-recorded ones, with 10 times more people commenting on livestreams.

The social network is trying to encourage media companies to post more live video on the platform, even offering to share advertising revenue or pay some partners temporarily. Such a move is unusual for a company that usually relies on free content. Facebook Live does not yet feature advertising, though many brands are trying to work out how best to use it to reach potential customers.

The new filters, emoji reactions and ability to draw on the live videos are Facebook's attempt to lure younger viewers who enjoy similar features on the messaging app Snapchat.

But the company's real advantage is its massive audience: at over 1.5bn monthly active users, it is far larger than Snapchat or Periscope, Twitter's livestreaming app.

Facebook plans to officially launch its new livestreaming push at an event in Los Angeles on Wednesday morning, rather than its headquarters in northern California, in a sign of its attempt to lure Hollywood on to the site.

An online hub on the platform will broadcast livestreams for 24 hours straight, including one from Mr Zuckerberg.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What may be the majority of content on the app as Zuckerberg said?

A.video

B.picture

C.text

D.voice

答案⁽¹⁾

2.When did Facebook first launch Live for celebrities to broadcast?

A.late 2015

B.this Wednesday

C.summer of 2015

D.February 2016

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which measure is wrong for encouraging media companies on Facebook Live?

A.offers to share advertising revenue

B.relies on free content

C.pays some partners temporarily

D.without feature advertising now

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the company's real advantage?

A.new filters

B.emoji reactions

C.ability to draw on the live videos

D.massive audience

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.video
解释：Facebook CEO马克·扎克伯格表示视频内容有潜力成为app上的大多数。

(2)答案：C.summer of 2015
解释：Facebook Live在去年夏天先向名人推出，2015年晚些时候面向大众。

(3)答案：B.relies on free content
解释：为鼓励优质的视频内容，Facebook会暂时会有偿支付这些内容，这对于依赖于免费内容的社交平台并不多见。以来于免费内容并不是鼓励这次的鼓励措施。

(4)答案：D.massive audience
解释：Facebook最大的优势是其大量的粉丝基础，能够添加滤镜、表情互动和视频涂鸦是为了吸引喜欢Snapchat类似功能的年轻人。

Uber：遭遇卑鄙的对手？

Uber将印度同行业的竞争对手Ola告上法庭，称后者卑鄙地建立虚假账户，约车后再取消，而Uber不得不为此向司机支付近8000美元高额的取消费用。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

allege宣称，断言[ə'ledʒ]

summon召集；鼓起['sʌmən]

petition[法] 诉状；请愿书[pɪ'tɪʃ(ə)n]

deliberately故意地；谨慎地[dɪ'lɪbərətli]

deep-pocketed有钱的

frivolous无聊的；轻佻的['frɪv(ə)ləs]

malicious恶意的[mə'lɪʃəs]

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57秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分20秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分22秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分50秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Uber and OlaCab clash in India court over fake account claims（500words）

By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi

The race to dominate India's taxi market has taken a bitter turn with US group Uber accusing local rival, OlaCab, of using dirty tricks to disrupt its business.

In a lawsuit filed in the Delhi High Court, the San Francisco-based ride hailing app, has lodged a complaint alleging that Ola employees created some 93,000 fake rider accounts, through which they made more than 400,000 false bookings, summoning Uber drivers to fetch passengers, who never materialised.

Uber, which has invested $1bn in India over the past nine months, claims that these fake bookings cost it nearly $8,000 in cancellation fees to drivers, and severely frustrated Uber employees, who wasted their time waiting.

It also alleges that such fake bookings are “intended to block the availability of taxis” through the US company's platform, and divert business to rival Ola, resulting in lost revenues both to the company and Uber drivers, thus “frustrating…and scaring” them, the petition claims.

Uber has sought $7.4m in damages from OlaCabs for what it says was “deliberately, unlawfully, wrongfully, maliciously, falsely …interfering” in its business.

Bangalore-based OlaCabs rejects using dirty tricks to undermine its deep-pocketed foreign rival. “We are categorically denying it,” an Ola spokesman said. In a statement, it called the charges “false and frivolous”.

But on Wednesday, Jugnoo, a Chandigarh-based company operating an Uber-style tech platform to match autorickshaws with passengers, levelled similar allegations against Ola for the first time.

Samar Singla, Jugnoo's co-founder and chief executive officer, said his company had seen a surge of 20,000 bookings from 800 fake accounts on its platform, leading to a waste of time, and lost earnings to rickshaw drivers. Tracing bookings from which the riders never showed up, the company found nearly all came from close proximity to existing Ola offices — two in the greater Delhi area, and one in south India.

“We are planning to take suitable action against Ola for the same, but will refrain from doing so if they cease to do this,” Mr Singla explained in a statement.

Allegations of dirty tricks highlights the rising stakes for Uber, Ola and other transportation service providers in India, a crucial market where just 6 per cent of all households own a car, leaving a vast potential growth opportunity for ride hailing services, and other transport aggregators.

Uber and Ola are competing fiercely both for potential customers and drivers, many of whom are enrolled on both platforms, and simply use that which promises a ride — or a passenger — faster or closer.

In its court petition, Uber said some of the fake bookings through its platform appeared intended to obtain the contact details of its ‘driver-partners,' who then received “malicious” phone calls and text messages to discourage them from remaining affiliated with Uber.

But Anand Subramanian, a spokesman for Ola, has suggested Uber's lawsuit against it simply stems from pique, as Ola had filed a petition last month accusing Uber of violating a Delhi High Court order banning the use of diesel-fuelled taxis in India's highly-polluted capital city.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who got the cancellation fees from Uber?

A.drivers

B.employees

C.passengers

D.policemen

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is Ola's purpose by fake bookings on Uber's petition?

A.attack the confidence of drivers

B.let passengers down

C.take up the street

D.block the availability of taxis

答案⁽²⁾

3.Where is Jugnoo's “hometown”?

A.San Francisco

B.Chandigarh

C.Bangalore

D.Beijing

答案⁽³⁾

4.How many households own a car in India?

A.a quarter

B.a half

C.less than 10%

D.78%

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.drivers
解释：取消费用是Uber付给司机们的。

(2)答案：D.block the availability of taxis
解释：Uber的诉状表示，Ola的这些假订单“意在封锁出租车供应”。

(3)答案：B.Chandigarh
总部位于昌迪加尔(Chandigarh)、利用技术平台在摩托三轮车与乘客之间牵线搭桥的Jugnoo公司也对Ola提出指控。Uber总部在旧金山，Ola的再班加罗尔。

(4)答案：C.less than 10%
解释：印度只有6%的家庭保有汽车，对于召车应用这是很大的市场。

英国《金融时报》
原文阅读精选集Vol.35

香港房市之痛：被迫分居

在香港房市的压力下，不少已婚夫妻在婚后无奈选择和各自的父母住在一起，“分居”生活。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

millennials千禧一代[mɪ'lɛnɪəls]

vexed恼怒的；为难的['vekst]

alien to不相容的；与…相反

gross总额[grəʊs]

norm标准，规范[nɔːm]

deliberate深思熟虑的[dɪ'lɪb(ə)rət]

repercussion反响；弹回[riːpə'kʌʃ(ə)n]

domestic chores家庭杂务

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32秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分6秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分13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

Hong Kong cost of living forces married couples into separate beds（466 words）

By Gloria Cheung in Hong Kong

Jim and Grace Lai, a couple in their early thirties, had the wedding of their dreams last year. But five months later they are still living apart with their respective parents.

Welcome to the world of Hong Kong millennials, every bit as vexed as the experiences of their counterparts in the US and Europe. Seventy-six per cent of Hongkongers aged 18-35 are still living with their parents, according to the Urban Research Group of City University of Hong Kong, despite an unemployment rate of just 3 per cent.

That is almost twice the level of the US, the UK or France.

Concerns about job opportunities and being locked out of the housing market mean Hong Kong millennials have much in common with their western peers. But while American and European youths are entering a world alien to previous generations, the problem confronting Hong Kong's millennials is one with which their parents are all too familiar.

The land-scarce territory has the least affordable homes in the world, a position it has held for years. Median prices last year — which may represent a peak — were 19 times gross income, more than twice the proportion in the UK although some parts of London have already reached a similar level.

Even though multi-generational households have long been the norm in Asia the relentless rise of house prices has accelerated the stay-at-home trend over the past decade.

The number of couples “married but living apart” hit a record high last year, according to a study by Hong Kong Ideas Centre, a think-tank. The Lais know three other married couples in the same situation.

Ji Ling of the City University research group characterise the new generation's housing choices as a deliberate strategy “to bridge the gap between dreams and reality” at a time of uncertainty and financial stress. Political tension with the mainland is rising and the economy — forecast by the government to grow just 1-2 per cent this year — is slowing, as China's rate of growth declines.

There are deep repercussions to young people's decisions to stay home with their parents: at 1.1 children per woman, Hong Kong's fertility levels are far below the replacement rate.

But another factor is also at play, one that parents far from Hong Kong might recognise.

An overwhelming 95 per cent of those living with their parents like to do so, according the Urban Research Group. The city's millennials prefer to have more money to spend by not paying rent; most said they liked being taken care of and avoiding domestic chores.

The newly-wed Mrs Lai recalls her mother once suggesting it was “funny” to live separately but has little time for such doubts herself.

“We see friends who spend most of their salary on rent,” she says. “Why suffer so much for it?”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What's the percent of Hongkongers aged 18-35 are still living with their parents?

A.7%

B.3%

C.35%

D.76%

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is different between Hong Kong millennials and their western peers as mentioned?

A.pressure for parents

B.job opportunities

C.housing market

D.unemployment rate

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one is wrong about HK's median prices in 2015?

A.London have already reached a similar level.

B.It was 19 times gross income.

C.It is less than a half the proportion in the UK.

D.It may represent a peak.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What can be inferred as the main reason to live with parents after marriage?

A.domestic chores

B.house rent

C.feeling fresh with mate

D.taking care of parents

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.76%
解释：尽管失业率只有3%，但还是有大约76%的年轻人（18-35岁之间）依然与自己的父母生活在一起。

(2)答案：A.pressure for parents
解释：在工作机会和房地产市场压力上香港的千禧一代和西方同龄人还是比较有共鸣的。但是，在欧美年轻人正在进入一个令上几代人感到陌生的世界之际，香港千禧一代面临的问题对于他们的父母来说实在太熟悉了。

(3)答案：C.It is less than a half the proportion in the UK.
解释：去年，香港房价中值（或许已达到峰值）达到了家庭税前年收入中值的19倍，是英国的两倍多，虽然伦敦部分地区早已升至同等水平。

(4)答案：B.house rent
解释：根据全文，尤其是后三段可以推断出，和父母在一起住可以省下房租，同时也可以免于自己打理家务。香港千禧一代喜欢这种不用交房租、把更多的钱用于消费的状态。

老当益壮？《夺宝奇兵》回来啦！

在这个续集、翻拍、重启的年代里，作为超级IP，迪士尼CEO终于宣布确认重启《夺宝奇兵》系列！主演导演也悉数回归！

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Indiana Jones夺宝奇兵（电影名）

swashbuckling虚张声势的['swɔʃbʌklɪŋ]

archaeologist考古学家[,ɑːkɪ'ɒlədʒɪst]

pipeline传递途径['paɪplaɪn]

volatility挥发性；波动[,vɒlə'tɪlətɪ]

Broadway百老汇['brɔːdweɪ]

animated film动画片

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28秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分30秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分47秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分37秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Disney to revive Indiana Jones series（376 words）

By Matthew Garrahan in New York

Walt Disney is reviving the Indiana Jones series with plans to release a fifth movie in 2019 featuring Harrison Ford as the swashbuckling archaeologist.

Rights to the series were included in Disney's 2012 purchase of Lucasfilm. The four previous Indiana Jones films have generated close to $2bn at global box offices. Steven Spielberg, who directed the other movies, would return for the fifth instalment, Disney said.

Mr Ford would also return to star in the movie although he would be 77 when the new film was released, raising questions about the mobility of the lead character.

Disney paid $4bn for Lucasfilm, primarily for the rights to Star Wars. The Force Awakens, its first Star Wars film — and the seventh in the series — has generated more than $2bn at the global box office since it was released in December.

The Lucasfilm deal was part of a move by Disney to focus on brands and established intellectual property to reduce the risk attached to costly film productions.

Disney acquired Pixar in 2005 and Marvel Studios in 2010, deals which have helped fill a pipeline of films that are producing more stable returns.

“We used to have huge volatility in our movie studio,” Bob Iger, chief executive, told the Financial Times last week. “It could make $200m one year and $800m the next. Now, there will be some fluctuation, like a big Star Wars movie in a given year, but [the returns] are going to be much more steady. And they will deliver to our bottom line.”

The company has a spin-off Star Wars movie, Rogue One, due for release in December and an eighth Star Wars film in the works for 2018.

However, the company has not abandoned original ideas: Zootopia, its latest animated film, has broken box office records around the world. The group's animation studio has been revived under the leadership of John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, the co-founders of Pixar.

Frozen broke box office records and won the Oscar for best animated film in 2014. A sequel is in the works. Frozen is also being developed into a Broadway show, with Disney hoping to repeat the success of its Lion King musical, which has grossed more than $6bn worldwide over the past 18 years.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What time the fifth movie is expected to be released?

A.2019

B.2016

C.2018

D.2012

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who had the rights to the Jones series before Disney?

A.Warner Bros

B.Pixar

C.Marvel Studios

D.Lucasfilm

答案⁽²⁾

3.What factors were Disney cared about in the deal with Lucasfilm?

A.film producers

B.post-production level

C.brands and established intellectual property

D.cinemas resources

答案⁽³⁾

4.What kind of movie can be Disney's original idea?

A.thriller

B.animated film

C.action movie

D.swordsmen film

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.2019
解释：迪士尼计划在2019年推出该系列的第5部影片。

(2)答案：D.Lucasfilm
解释：与《夺宝奇兵》系列有关的权利涵盖在2012年迪士尼收购卢卡斯影业(Lucasfilm)的交易中。

(3)答案：C.brands and established intellectual property
解释：迪士尼收购卢卡斯影业，是为了把精力放在品牌和成熟知识产权上，以降低耗资巨大的影片制作附带的风险。

(4)答案：B.animated film
解释：但迪士尼却并未放弃初衷：其最新出品的动画片《疯狂动物城》(Zootopia)已在世界各地打破票房纪录。

苹果电子书反垄断案彻底败诉

苹果（Apple）推翻一项认定其合谋抬高电子书价格、从而违反竞争法律的判决的最后努力以失败告终。这是该公司与美国司法当局最新的激烈交锋。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

antitrust反垄断的[æntɪ'trʌst]

marketplace vigilantism“市场自警行为”

bizarre奇异的[bɪ'zɑː]

compensation补偿[kɒmpen'seɪʃ(ə)n]

misconduct不端行为[mɪs'kɒndʌkt]

attorney-general司法部长；总检察长

conspiracy阴谋[kən'spɪrəsɪ]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分3秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分23秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分25秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分50秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Apple loses bid to overturn court ruling on ebook conspiracy （509 words）

By Tim Bradshaw in San Francisco

Apple has lost its final attempt to overturn a judgment that it broke antitrust laws by conspiring to raise ebook prices in the iPhone maker's latest bruising encounter with the US judicial authorities.

The US Supreme Court rejected the company's bid for an appeal against lower court rulings that it engaged in “marketplace vigilantism” against its rival Amazon and “unreasonably restrained trade” by creating a “cartel” with publishers to control ebook prices.

The ruling comes as the company begins a long fight with the US Department of Justice over whether it can be forced to help investigators break open an iPhone belonging to one of the killers in the San Bernardino terrorist shootings in December.

It is also a blow to Tim Cook, the chief executive, who has called the case “bizarre” and has defended deals struck by his predecessor Steve Jobs, and by Eddy Cue, Apple's internet services head.

“We've done nothing wrong there and so we're taking a very principled position on this,” Mr Cook said in an interview in 2013, just before the case came to court. “We're not going to sign something that says we did something we didn't do. So we're going to fight.”

Apple must pay $400m in compensation to people who bought ebooks through its iBooks store, under the conditional settlement agreed in July 2014. Five publishers have already paid out $166m as part of their 2013 settlement.

But, on Monday, the Department of Justice said that the company and book publishers had engaged in “cynical misconduct” as they worked in concert against the lower prices imposed by Amazon's Kindle store.

“Apple's liability for knowingly conspiring with book publishers to raise the prices of ebooks is settled once and for all,” Bill Baer, assistant attorney-general of the Justice Department's antitrust division, said in a statement. “And consumers will be made whole.”

Customers who bought books at higher prices will be repaid in store credits.

The US government accused Apple of being the “ringleader” in a conspiracy with the world's largest book publishers to raise ebook prices using its iPad, at a time when Amazon's Kindle dominated the market.

Whereas Amazon set ebook prices for the Kindle store, Apple introduced the “agency pricing” model with its iBooks system, allowing publishers to decide how much to charge.

The 2013 trial revealed that a string of emails were sent by Jobs and Mr Cue to publishing industry executives during their negotiations over iBooks. In one message, the Apple co-founder told James Murdoch of News Corp that Amazon's pricing model was “not sustainable” and that Apple was “the only other company currently capable of making a serious impact” in the ebooks market.

“Dynamic, disruptive entry into new or stagnant markets — the lifeblood of American economic growth — often requires the very type of vertical contracting and conduct” that the courts had blocked in their earlier rulings, Apple's legal team argued last year as it sought to take the case to the Supreme Court.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who was against from Apple in “marketplace vigilantism”?

A.Facebook

B.Murdoch of News Corp

C.Amazon

D.Google

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who will get compensation $400) from Apple?

A.Amazon

B.ebook's writers

C.US Supreme Court

D.iBooks store's users

答案⁽²⁾

3.How many publishers have already paid out $166m as part of their 2013 settlement?

A.5

B.3

C.6

D.8

答案⁽³⁾

4.What will be repaid to customers who bought books at higher prices?

A.cash

B.voucher

C.bank account balance

D.store credits

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Amazon
解释：下级法院认定，苹果参与了针对竞争对手亚马逊(Amazon)的“市场自警行为”，并通过与出版商创建“卡特尔”以操控电子书价格，“不合理地限制交易”。

(2)答案：D.iBooks store's users
解释：根据2014年7月达成的有条件和解协议，苹果必须向通过iBooks商店购买电子书的消费者支付4亿美元的赔偿。

(3)答案：A.5
解释：作为2013年和解协议的一部分，5家出版商已经支付了1.66亿美元。

(4)答案：D.store credits
解释：曾以较高价格购买图书的用户将得到商店积分作为补偿。

人类将斗不过机器？

我们应当别再为科幻小说中的情景感到担忧，把精力放到应对人工智能带来的真正挑战上去。归根到底，人类自身才是问题所在，而不是智能机器，这种情形在可以预见的将来也不会改变。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

terminator终结者['tɜːmɪneɪtə]

episode插曲，片段['epɪsəʊd]

apocalypse天启[ə'pɒkəlɪps]

outstrip胜过；比…跑得快[aʊt'strɪp]

generalisation普遍原理[,dʒenərəlai'zeiʃən]

encyclopaedia百科全书[ɪn,saɪklə'pidɪə]

enslave束缚[ɪn'sleɪv; en-]

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

3分10秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分41秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分17秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Humans have nothing to fear from intelligent machines（775words）

By Luciano Floridi

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, believes that artificial intelligence is “potentially more dangerous than nukes”. The “biggest existential threat” to humanity, he thinks, is a Terminator-like super machine intelligence that will one day dominate humanity. Luckily, Mr Musk is mistaken.

Plenty of machines can do amazing things, often better than humans. For instance, IBM's Deep Blue computer played and beat the Grand Master Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997. In 2011, another IBM machine, Watson, won an episode of the TV quiz show Jeopardy, beating two human players, one of whom had enjoyed a 74-show winning streak. The sky, it seems, is the limit.

Yet Deep Blue and Watson are versions of the “Turing machine”, a mathematical model devised by Alan Turing which sets the limits of what a computer can do. A Turing machine has no understanding, no consciousness, no intuitions — in short, nothing we would recognise as a mental life. It lacks the intelligence even of a mouse.

Believers in the coming of AI disagree. Stephen Hawking has argued that “the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”. He is right — but the same is true of the appearance of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Ray Kurzweil, the American inventor and futurist, has predicted that by 2045 the development of computing technologies will reach a point at which AI outstrip the ability of humans to comprehend and control it. Scenarios such as Kurzweil's are extrapolations from Moore's law, according to which the number of transistors in computers doubles every two years, delivering greater and greater computational power at ever-lower cost.

However, Gordon Moore, after whom the law is named, has himself acknowledged that his generalisation is becoming unreliable because there is a physical limit to how many transistors you can squeeze into an integrated circuit.

In any case, Moore's law is a measure of computational power, not intelligence. My vacuum-cleaning robot, a Roomba, will clean the floor quickly and cheaply and increasingly well, but it will never book a holiday for itself with my credit card.

In 1950 Turing proposed the following test. Imagine a human judge who asks written questions to two interlocutors in another room. One is a human being, the other a machine. If, for 70 per cent of the time, the judge is unable to tell the difference between the machine's output and the human's, then the machine can be said to have passed the test.

Turing thought that computers would have passed the test by the year 2000. He was wrong. Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive of Google, believes that the Turing test will be passed by 2018. We shall see. So far there has been no progress. Computer programs still try to fool judges by using tricks developed in the 1960s.

For example, in the 2015 edition of the Loebner Prize, an annual Turing test competition, a judge asked: “The car could not fit in the parking space because it was too small. What was too small?” The software that won that year's consolation prize answered: “I'm not a walking encyclopaedia, you know.”

Anxieties about super-intelligent machines are, therefore, scientifically unjustified. Existing “smart” technologies are not a step towards full-blown AI, just as climbing to the top of a tree is not a step towards the moon, but the end of the journey. These applications can certainly outsmart us, outperform us and replace us in carrying out a growing number of tasks. This is not because they deal intelligently with the world, however, but because we are making the world increasingly friendly to them.

Take industrial robots. We do not unleash them in the world to build cars; we build artificial environments around them to ensure their success. The same is true of the billions of smart artefacts that will soon be communicating with one another in the so-called internet of things.

No AI version of Godzilla is about to enslave us, so we should stop worrying about science fiction and start focusing on the actual challenges that AI poses. In the final analysis, humans, and not smart machines, are the problem, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Our priority must be to avoid making painful and costly mistakes in the design and use of our technologies. There is a serious risk that we may misuse them to the detriment of both the species and the planet.

Winston Churchill once said: “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” The same applies to smart technologies in the “infosphere”.

The writer is professor of philosophy and ethics of information at the University of Oxford

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which one is wrong for “Turing machine”?

A.Its intelligence is equal to a mouse.

B.It has no understanding.

C.It has no consciousness.

D.It has no intuitions.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.When AI outstrip the ability of humans to comprehend and control it as the American inventor Ray Kurzweil said?

A.2048

B.2011

C.2018

D.2045

答案⁽²⁾

3.Whatcan be measured by Moore's law?

A.artificial intelligence

B.manipulative ability

C.computational power

D.cleaning capacity

答案⁽³⁾

4.What are the real problem in the final analysis as the author said?

A.smart machines

B.technologies

C.rumors

D.humans

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Its intelligence is equal to a mouse.
解释：图灵机器没有理解力，没有意识，没有直觉，它甚至不具备老鼠那样的智力。

(2)答案：D.2045
解释：美国发明家、未来学家雷·库兹韦尔(Ray Kurzweil)曾预测，到2045年，计算技术的发展将使得人工智能超过人类对其进行理解和控制的能力。

(3)答案：C.computational power
解释：无论如何，摩尔定律是衡量计算能力而非智能的标准。

(4)答案：D.humans
解释：归根到底，人类自身才是问题所在，而不是智能机器，这种情形在可以预见的将来也不会改变。

Facebook在德国遭遇反垄断调查

高管因数据保护问题在巴西被捕后的不久，德国就发表声明称怀疑Facebook违反用户信息保护法，滥用客户资料而正式展开反垄断调查。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

antitrust反垄断的[æntɪ'trʌst]

Bundeskartellamt德国卡特尔局

abusive滥用的[ə'bjuːsɪv]

clause条款[klɔːz]

infringement侵犯[ɪn'frɪn(d)ʒm(ə)nt]

blindsided攻其不备['blaɪndsaɪd]

negotiate谈判，交涉[nɪ'gəʊʃɪeɪt]

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5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14秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分8秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Facebook hit by German competition probe （680words）

By Guy Chazan in Berlin and Duncan Robinson in Brussels

Germany's antitrust agency has launched proceedings against Facebook to investigate if the world's largest social network abused its market power by infringing data protection rules.

The Bundeskartellamt said there was an initial suspicion that Facebook's conditions of use were in violation of German data protection provisions.

“Facebook's use of unlawful terms and conditions could represent an abusive imposition of unfair conditions on users,” it said.

The Bundeskartellamt said it would examine a possible connection between Facebook's dominant position in social networks and the use of such clauses.

The issue of data protection has become increasingly important as internet companies such as Facebook and Google have become big, data-driven businesses. How to regulate the industry as it has become more pervasive is a particular concern for European regulators and data protection authorities.

The Bundeskartellamt said that Facebook collected large amounts of personal user data from various sources. “To access the social network, users must first agree to the company's collection and use of their data by accepting the terms of service,” it said. However, it “is difficult for users to understand and assess the scope of the agreement accepted by them”.

It said there was “considerable doubt” as to whether such a procedure was admissible under national data protection laws. “If there is a connection between such an infringement and market dominance, this could also constitute an abusive practice under competition law.”

Facebook said: “We are confident that we comply with the law and we look forward to working with the Federal Cartel Office to answer their questions.”

Tech industry sources said Facebook had been blindsided by the German move.

The Bundeskartellamt said it was launching the proceeding in close contact with data protection officers, consumer protection associations as well as the European Commission and the competition authorities of other EU member states. It will target the company's Irish subsidiary and its German operation.

While the European Commission declined to comment on the specifics of the German case, a spokesperson made clear that “behaviour that violates data protection rules could also be relevant when investigating a possible violation of EU competition rules”.

Germany's opposition Greens welcomed the move. “For years there has been a justified suspicion that Facebook is possibly abusing its market dominance through its terms of service on the use of user data,” said Konstantin von Notz, a Green MP.

Andreas Mundt, head of the Bundeskartellamt, said that dominant companies were subject to “special obligations”, such as “the use of adequate terms of service as far as these are relevant to the market”.

“For advertising-financed internet services such as Facebook, user data are hugely important,” he said. “For this reason it is essential to also examine under the aspect of abuse of market power whether the consumers are sufficiently informed about the type and extent of data collected.”

Facebook's data protection practices have already been called into question by regulators in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Germany.

In February the French data protection authority gave Facebook three months to stop tracking non-users' web activity without their consent. It said the company did not inform internet users that it sets a cookie on their terminal when they visit a Facebook public page. Facebook insists that its practices were within the rules and common practice for most websites.

In January, Margrethe Vestager, EU competition chief, said the regulator was looking at whether the data collection methods of large internet companies were in breach of antitrust rules.

In addition, Guenther Oettinger, European digital commissioner, said last month that the EU was considering new rules to promote healthier competition among companies whose business models rely on data collection. He said the effort “includes looking for ways to mitigate the existing imbalance between data-rich and data-poor companies”. One proposal was to create “personal data spaces” that would “allow the consumer to negotiate the terms of access to and use of their own data”.

The initiative came amid growing concern that the huge data sets compiled by companies such as Google and Facebook could give them an unfair advantage by shutting out competition.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the similarity between Facebook and Google as mentioned?

A.Seattle-based companies

B.industry-leading

C.data-driven businesses

D.rely on ads

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What must users do to access Facebook for the first time?

A.see the advertising video

B.accept the terms of service about data

C.associated with mobile number

D.recompose security settings

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why the user data is so important or Facebook as Bundeskartellamt said?

A.for advertising-financed internet services

B.improve the quality of service

C.against terrorism

D.collect opinions

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which country's data protection authority gave Facebook three months to stop tracking non-users' web activity without their consent?

A.Germany

B.Ireland

C.Brazil

D.France

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.data-driven businesses
解释：它们都是数据驱动的企业。

(2)答案：B.accept the terms of service about data
解释：访问社交网络,用户必须首先同意公司的收集和使用他们的数据的接受服务条款。

(3)答案：A.for advertising-financed internet services
解释：联邦卡特尔局局长Andreas Mundt称，对于像Facebook这样依靠广告创收的互联网服务来说，用户信息是非常重要的。

(4)答案：D.France
解释：在2月法国的数据保护机构就要求Facebook在三个月之内停止对于未授权用户信息的追踪。

谷歌无人驾驶汽车发生交通事故

在2月情人节那天，谷歌的一辆无人驾驶汽车撞上了一辆公交车，这是谷歌无人驾驶汽车首次系统判断错误而导致的事故。对于一直强调无人驾驶汽车的谷歌来说，这是个坏消息。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

etiquette规矩['etɪket; etɪ'ket]

scrape擦痕[skreɪp]

encounter遭遇[ɪn'kaʊntə; en-]

unflattering不好看的[ʌn'flæt(ə)rɪŋ]

sort将…分类[sɔːt]

abide忍受[ə'baɪd]

negotiation谈判；顺利的通过[nɪgəʊʃɪ'eɪʃ(ə)n]

minor collision轻微的碰撞

simulation模拟[,sɪmjʊ'leɪʃən]

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50秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分16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49秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Google driverless car in road accident （491words）

By Richard Waters in San Francisco

One of Google's driverless cars has been involved in an accident for the first time in a situation where human drivers rely on the normal social etiquette of the road to avoid scrapes, according to an accident report filed in California.

The incident highlights the challenges of programming machines to deal with the sort of social situations that humans encounter every day on the roads, but which are beyond robots to resolve, experts said.

It also threatens to cast an unflattering light on the technology at a time when Google is fighting a proposed California rule requiring autonomous vehicles to have human drivers on hand to override their controls in emergencies.

However, the company suggested that the accident would have occurred even if a human had been at the wheel, while adding that it had already adjusted its algorithms to take account of the lessons from the scrape.

“There are all sorts of social clues that people abide by that are hard to program into a car,” said Jerry Kaplan, a serial technology entrepreneur and author of a recent book on robotics. “There was nothing terrible about this, no one got hurt or killed. But it will be a long time before the cars can be driven in heavily used streets and abide by the same social conventions people use.”

In a filing with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Google said its car had been trying to pull out into slow-moving traffic on Valentine's Day when a bus driver did not slow to leave room, causing a minor collision.

In a blog post on Monday, it blamed the accident on a “tricky set of circumstances” caused partly by an adjustment it had made to the car's algorithms weeks earlier to help it drive more like a human.

“This is a classic example of the negotiation that's a normal part of driving — we're all trying to predict each other's movements,” the company said. “We clearly bear some responsibility.” However, it also said that a Google employee in the car had also

The car had pulled close to the side of the road to make a turn, leaving room for other vehicles that were carrying on straight ahead to pass in the same lane — a manoeuvre Google said it had programmed into the car to make it a more considerate driver.

After finding its path was blocked by sandbags that had been placed round a drain, the car was forced to move back out into the line of traffic, causing the accident.

Google said it had already programmed lessons from the accident into its software, along with its findings from running simulations of thousands of similar situations.

“From now on, our cars will more deeply understand that buses (and other large vehicles) are less likely to yield to us than other types of vehicles, and we hope to handle situations like this more gracefully in the future,” it said.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where did the accident happen?

A.Utah

B.Montana

C.Scotland

D.California

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many people got hurt or killed in this accident?

A.1

B.2

C.0

D.3

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one is not right for Google driverless?

A.It is a tricky set of circumstances.

B.It is trying to predict each other's movements.

C.There is no one in the driverless car.

D.The accident would have occurred even if a human had been at the wheel.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What kind of vehicle is less likely to yield to driverless car as Google said?

A.large vehicle

B.SUV

C.MPV

D.minicar

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.California
解释：谷歌表示，这起事故发生在加州山景城，当时无人驾驶汽车正试图绕过道路上的一些沙包，结果与左方行驶过来的一辆公交车发生了碰撞。

(2)答案：C.0
解释：双方都是慢速行驶，并未造成人员受伤。

(3)答案：C.There is no one in the driverless car.
解释：当时车上有一位测试司机，他从后视镜上看到一辆公交车正开过来，但是他认为“公交车会停车或者减速以让谷歌无人驾驶车先通过”。

(4)答案：A.large vehicle
解释:文章最后一段。

敢不敢抛弃智能手机？

今年1月英国演员埃迪·雷德梅因(Eddie Redmayne)成为全球头条新闻，因为他加入了人数越来越多的智能手机拒绝者的行列。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

glue粘合[gluː]

dumb哑的; 低能的[dʌm]

bemoan叹息[bɪ'məʊn]

phoney骗子；假货['fəʊnɪ]

durability耐久性[,djʊrə'bɪləti]

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32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

2分25秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分11秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Digitally weary users switch to ‘dumb' phones（718words）

By Daniel Thomas

In January, British actor Eddie Redmayne made headlines around the world as he became the latest in a growing band of smartphone refuseniks.

“It was a reaction against being glued permanently to my iPhone during waking hours,” he explained, turning instead to an old-fashioned “dumb phone” handset that could only make and take calls.

He is not alone. There is a small but busy market for phones that are simple and cheap at a time when smartphones are becoming ever more complex and expensive.

Feature phones — handsets with some basic functions such as playing music and accessing the internet — are gradually being replaced by low cost smartphones, according to Francisco Jeronimo, research director for European mobile devices at IDC, the research group. But there is still a significant demand for older-style phones.

Strategy Analytics, a research group, estimates that 44m basic phones were sold in 2015, accounting for 2 per cent of the global market.

Some phonemakers, such as Sony and LG, have already turned their back on the market. But others like Microsoft and Samsung are still producing devices every year aimed at the feature market.

Many smartphone users bemoan having to buy devices that are easily broken, require daily recharging and which will be superseded by a new, better version within a year. Even basic smartphones offer computing power that not many people need.

Some users buy phones with limited or no internet connections in a conscious attempt to decouple from the modern digital world. Light Phone founder Joe Hollier falls into this camp. The 25-year-old former skater has developed a credit card-sized phone without a data connection and no extra functions other than to make calls. He describes a feeling of huge relief when the ability to check emails or status updates is removed.

Analysts say that there is a growing number of “second phoneys” who use an expensive smartphone or “phablet” during the day, but turn to cheaper, pocket-sized devices when they go out in the evening.

The Light Phone functions as a companion device to a smartphone but Mr Hollier hopes it will also encourage people to unplug from the modern internet world.

There are also practical reasons why some are turning their backs on smartphones. The short battery life of devices is a source of constant complaint and many travellers are still attracted to the reliability and long battery life of older phones.

This market is still being served by Microsoft, which now owns the Nokia brand. The US group last year launched the Nokia 215, for example, a simple, robust device that has a standby battery life of 29 days. The Nokia 515 has a massive 38 days standby time.

The phone has a simple layer of apps and basic data connectivity, but the main attraction is the $30 price tag. As Microsoft boasts: “Exceptional battery life and impressive durability are standard features. When you own a Nokia, you own a phone that's built to last.”

Dumb phones have more specific uses, however, for example being given to children for calling home. They are simple, robust and cheap if lost.

Likewise, there are simple phones for the elderly, such as those made by Doro, which prioritise large buttons and the amplification of volume rather than how quickly they can access the internet.

Mr Jeronimo says that such products are becoming a niche opportunity for companies. Doro has grown to become the third-largest feature phonemaker in western Europe after Microsoft and Samsung, he adds.

Feature phones are also more popular in developing markets because of the combination of low prices and long battery life.

“Using a smartphone in some countries in Africa, for instance, is not an option for many users, as it would require to charge it on a daily basis,” says Mr Jeronimo.

“On the other hand using a smartphone means little for users who cannot connect to a 3G network, either because they are not available or because the connectivity is extremely expensive.”

And, for those that find even basic phones are too much, there is a solution: the $5 NoPhone Zero. It claims to be the least advanced phone ever created, has no buttons or components and is just a plastic rectangle. It is a joke, but one that says much about our modern anxiety about technology.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What can users do with an old-fashioned “dumb phone”?

A.play music

B.access the internet

C.facetime

D.take calls

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which one is not right about Light Phone?

A.without a data connection

B.large volume

C.without a data connection

D.make calls only

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who owns the Nokia brand?

A.US Government

B.LG

C.Microsoft

D.Google

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one is not mentioned as the advantage to children with dumb phones?

A.simple

B.robust

C.large buttons

D.cheap

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.take calls
解释：老式“傻瓜手机”只能接打电话。

(2)答案：B.large volume
解释：Light Phone是只有信用卡大小的手机，除接打电话外，没有数据连接或其他额外功能。

(3)答案：C.Microsoft
解释：微软现在拥有诺基亚(Nokia)品牌。去年，微软推出诺基亚215，这是一款简单而坚固的手机，电池待机时间达到29天。

(4)答案：C.large buttons
解释：非智能手机简单、结实，如果丢失也不贵，适合给孩子用来打电话给家里。

比尔·盖茨发声支持FBI破解iPhone

在苹果与FBI的加密风波拉锯战中，显然，FBI获得了一个罕见的科技同盟者。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

stand-off平衡；冷淡

characterisation性格化[kærɪktərə'zeɪʃən]

ribbon绶带['rɪbən]

civil liberties公民自由

whistleblower检举者['hwɪsəl,bloɚ]

safeguards保障措施['sef,gɑrd]

expletive附加的；咒骂语[ɪk'spliːtɪv; ek-]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分15秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分30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52秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Bill Gates backs FBI iPhone hack request（526words）

By Stephen Foley in New York and Tim Bradshaw in San Francisco

Bill Gates has broken ranks with Silicon Valley in the stand-off between Apple and the US government, saying technology companies should be forced to co-operate with law enforcement in terrorism investigations.

The Microsoft founder took issue with Tim Cook's characterisation of the government's order that Apple help break open the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone as a demand for a “back door”, denying that it would set a wider precedent.

“This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case,” Mr Gates told the Financial Times.

“It is no different than [the question of] should anybody ever have been able to tell the phone company to get information, should anybody be able to get at bank records. Let's say the bank had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said ‘don't make me cut this ribbon because you'll make me cut it many times'.”

Apple has been pulled into a war of words with US law enforcement in the last week, after a judge ordered the company to write software that would enable FBI investigators to unlock Syed Rizwan Farook's iPhone. Mr Cook, Apple's chief executive, has called the request a “chilling” example of “overreach” by the US government that would set a “dangerous precedent that threatens everyone's civil liberties”.

Mr Gates' stance sets him apart from the rest of the tech industry, including the company he founded. Satya Nadella, Microsoft chief, has not publicly commented on the matter, but a spokesperson for the Seattle-based company pointed to a statement by the Reform Government Surveillance organisation, of which it is a member, opposing the order.

Silicon Valley executives including Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook chief; Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder; and Sundar Pichai, head of Google, have all sided with Mr Cook. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden called the showdown “the most important tech case in a decade”.

But James Comey, FBI director, has insisted that the case is “quite narrow”.

“We don't want to break anyone's encryption or set a master key loose on the land,” Mr Comey wrote in a blogpost on Sunday night.

Mr Gates told the FT that there were benefits to the government being able to enforce taxation, stop crime and investigate terror threats, but said there must be rules on when the information can be accessed.

“I hope that we have that debate so that the safeguards are built and so people do not opt — and this will be country by country — [to say] it is better that the government does not have access to any information,” he said.

Mr Gates was speaking at the launch of the annual letter from his charitable organisation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in which he argues that “an energy miracle” will be needed to bring electricity to the one-fifth of the world's population that does not currently have it, while still reducing carbon emissions to zero.

“Let's science the expletive-

out of this,” he said, quoting Matt Damon's character in the movie, The Martian. “I don't know what the expletives are.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which company was founded by Bill Gates?

A.Microsoft

B.Apple

C.IBM

D.Oracle

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which one is not mentioned as Gates' opinion?

A.It is similar to get information from phone company.

B.His remark is representative of Microsoft.

C.Government would not set a wider precedent.

D.There were benefits to the government being able to enforce taxation.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who called the showdown “the most important tech case in a decade”?

A.Bill Gates

B.Mark Zuckerberg

C.Edward Snowden

D.Sundar Pichai

答案⁽³⁾

4.What may not happen if government access to information in a good way as Gates said?

A.enforce taxation

B.stop crime

C.investigate terror threats

D.invest affairs

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Microsoft
解释：Gates与保罗·艾伦一起创建了微软公司，曾任微软董事长、CEO和首席软件设计师。

(2)答案：B.His remark is representative of Microsoft.
解释：他的言论不代表微软。

(3)答案：C.Edward Snowden
解释：发表这一言论的是告发美国国家安全局的爱德华·斯诺登。

(4)答案：D.invest affairs
解释：Gates并未提到对婚外情的调查。

苹果拒绝为FBI提供破解 竞争对手力挺

FBI要求苹果协助解锁iPhone，库克回绝了要求，得到谷歌等科技公司力挺。科技公司没有任何理由入侵消费者设备？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

encryption加密[ɪn'krɪpʃən]

militant好战的，激进分子['mɪlɪt(ə)nt]

bureau局，处['bjʊərəʊ]

chilling令人寒心的['tʃɪlɪŋ]

Silicon Valley硅谷

precedent先例['presɪd(ə)nt

wholly完全地['holli]

nefarious邪恶的[nɪ'feərɪəs]

attorney律师，代理人[ə'tɜːnɪ]

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23秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分42秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分21秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分10秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Apple supported by Google and WhatsApp in FBI encryption fight（705words）

By Tim Bradshaw in San Francisco

The chief executive of Google and the founder of WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service, have voiced their support for Apple in its fight with the FBI over encryption.

Apple has said it would challenge a federal court order to unblock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, as the FBI tries to investigate their links to Isis militants.

Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, has condemned the bureau's demand to remove security features and write new operating system software, saying it was “an over-reach by the US government” with “chilling implications” on customer privacy and security.

Mr Cook's tough stance won plaudits from privacy campaigners but Apple's peers and rivals in Silicon Valley initially remained silent on the issue.

Jan Koum, the co-founder of WhatsApp and a Facebook board member, was the first Silicon Valley executive to speak up in approval of Apple's position. In a Facebook post, Mr Koum said he “couldn't agree more with everything said in [Apple's] customer letter today”.

“We must not allow this dangerous precedent to be set. Today our freedom and our liberty is at stake,” Mr Koum wrote. Facebook itself has not commented on Apple's stance.

Later on Wednesday afternoon, Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet subsidiary Google, also spoke up, calling Mr Cook's letter “important”.

“Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users' privacy,” Mr Pichai said in a series of tweets. While Google, like other tech companies, co-operates with law enforcement in criminal investigations, that is “wholly different than requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices and data”, he said, which “could be a troubling precedent”.

The FBI's decision to take its row with Silicon Valley over encryption technology to the courts has been brewing for almost two years, after Apple introduced greater security and privacy controls to the iPhone with 2014's iOS 8 update.

By involving the San Bernardino case, Silicon Valley companies are forced to choose between abandoning their privacy principles and being seen as impeding an investigation into a terrorist attack.

“The PR optics could not possibly be worse for Apple,” wrote tech industry analyst Ben Thompson in a blog post. “It's a case of domestic terrorism with a clear cut bad guy and a warrant that no one could object to, and Apple is capable of fulfilling the request.”

Dianne Feinstein, the California senator and vice-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that if Apple did not voluntarily comply with the order, she would put forward legislation to require it, after previous efforts to do so last year failed.

“We have had this terrorist act in my state where 14 people were killed, and there is a phone encrypted that could yield additional information,” Sen Feinstein told CNN. “And I believe that, as a government, we have every responsibility and duty to see that Apple provides that information.”

Speaking at an MSNBC town hall, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said: “I think it is disgraceful that Apple is not helping…we should force them to do it.”

But others in Washington sided with Apple.

Ron Wyden, US senator for Oregon, said the FBI's request was “bad for Americans' online safety and security” and could “empower repressive regimes” by giving them a “blueprint” for how to evade encryption.

“This unprecedented reading of a nearly 230-year-old law would create a dangerous precedent that would put at risk the foundations of strong security for our people and privacy in the digital age,” he said in a longer message posted to Twitter. “This move by the FBI could snowball around the world.”

Tech industry groups have also supported Apple. “If governments compel tech companies to weaken the security that users demand, they are also creating the vulnerabilities that hackers, terrorists or other nefarious actors need,” said Computer & Communications Industry Association president Ed Black.

The Software and Information Industry Association agreed that the order against Apple would do “more harm than good”.

Alex Abdo, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the government request “risks setting a dangerous precedent”. “If the FBI can force Apple to hack into its customers' devices, then so too can every repressive regime in the rest of the world,” he said.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the attitude of WhatsApp towards Apple's fight with the FBI over encryption?

A.ridiculous

B.contradictory

C.neutral

D.supportive

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why FBI wanted Apple to remove security features in this case?

A.investigate shooters

B.monitor spies

C.adjust industry standards

D.protect customer privacy

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which company's co-founder was the first Silicon Valley executive to speak up in approval of Apple's position?

A.Google

B.WhatsApp

C.Google

D.Facebook

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who is not sided with Apple?

A.Ron Wyden(US senator for Oregon)

B.Ed Black(CCIA president)

C.Donald Trump(presidential candidate)

D.Ed Black(CCIA president)

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.supportive
解释：WhatsAppde 在苹果与FBI关于加密性的争执中是支持苹果的。

(2)答案：A.investigate shooters
解释：2015年12月，赛耶德·法鲁克(Syed Rizwan Farook)及其妻子对加州圣伯纳迪诺(San Bernardino)一家社会服务机构发起袭击，造成14人死亡，由于无法绕过苹果的加密技术，FBI无法获取遗落在现场的法鲁克手机中的内容。

(3)答案：B.WhatsApp
解释：WhatsApp 的联合创始人Jan Koum是硅谷第一个发声和苹果站在一边的。Facebook本身还未予置评。

(4)答案：C.Donald Trump(presidential candidate)
解释：美国总统候选人特朗普表示他支持法院，并在接受媒体采访时炮轰苹果的行为。

内马尔再陷偷税风波

据西班牙媒体报道，巴西联邦政府目前已经发出命令，宣布将冻结内马尔近4300万欧元的个人财产，内少的豪华游艇，私人飞机和多处巴西国内的房产都已经被冻结。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

seizure没收['siːʒə]

yacht游艇[jɒt]

omission疏漏[ə(ʊ)'mɪʃ(ə)n]

embolden使大胆[ɪm'bəʊld(ə)n; em-]

bribes脏物[braɪb]

preceded领先于[prɪ'siːd]

semi-final半决赛

prosecutor检察官['prɒsɪkjuːtə]

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44秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分40秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分56秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Judge orders Neymar assets seized in tax case （561words）

By Joe Leahy in São Paulo

A Brazilian judge has ordered the seizure of a private jet, a luxury yacht and other goods worth a total of R$192.8m (US$47.3m) from Neymar, the country's biggest football star.

The case against Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, who is accused of using shell companies to avoid taxes, mostly relates to his career at the Brazilian team Santos between 2011 and 2013. He is also at the centre of a separate case in Spain over alleged irregularities in his transfer from Santos to Barcelona, the reigning European champions.

“There were omissions of revenue received from sources inside and outside the national territory,” said the court ruling from a federal judge in Santos.

The case against Neymar, who like most Brazilian footballers is generally known by his first name, comes as the country's elites face increasing scrutiny from regulatory authorities.

Judges in Brazil have been emboldened by the success of the so-called Lava Jato — Car Wash — corruption case, in which former executives of state-owned oil company Petrobras have been accused of conspiring with politicians to secure bribes from contractors.

The multibillion-dollar scandal has led to the arrests of senior politicians, executives and bankers, surprising many Brazilians who were accustomed to a culture of impunity for the rich and powerful.

Neymar was Brazil's top scorer in the 2014 World Cup, netting four goals before injury forced him out. His absence preceded the “goleada”, or thrashing, in the semi-finals, when Brazil was beaten 7-1 by the eventual winners Germany.

Upholding an earlier court decision, the federal judge in Santos presiding over the case against Neymar ordered him to repay about R$63.6m in taxes he allegedly avoided, or a total of R$192.8m including fines and interest on the amount unpaid.

The court ordered that aside from his Phenom private jet, made by Brazi's Embraer, authorities should seize properties and vehicles owned by the footballer up to a total value equalling the amount he owes in tax, a statement from the court said.

Prosecutors allege the star used marketing and other shell companies to distribute his earnings in such a way that he paid less tax.

Neymar's lawyer was unavailable for comment. But the footballer has been contesting the case.

Brazilians have seen an increase in cases of the seizure of goods from the super-rich. In the most spectacular last year, police raided the homes of Eike Batista, once Brazil's richest man, taking a yacht and cars after he was accused of insider trading.

In a separate move related to the Petrobras case, they also raided the home of Fernando Collor, the former president, seizing three sports cars — a Ferrari, a Porsche and a Lamborghini.

However, the confiscation of Mr Batista's goods ended in farce after the judge who ordered the move was later seen driving a Porsche appropriated from the billionaire around Rio de Janeiro. A search of the judge's apartment complex later revealed he had also taken the billionaire's grand piano and other luxury cars.

Neymar has spearheaded Barcelona's push to retain the European Champions League and the Spanish league titles, alongside Argentina's Lionel Messi and the Uruguayan Luis Suárez.

Mr Messi is also due to face trial in Spain alongside his father, Jorge, over allegations of tax fraud. The 28 year-old, widely regarded as the world's best player, and his father have been under investigation over allegations of tax evasion since 2013.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What did Neymar do to avoid taxes under the accusation?

A.shell companies

B.transferred pricing

C.interested on Capital Lease

D.education deposit

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Where does Neymar come from?

A.Spain

B.Brazil

C.Portugal

D.South Africa

答案⁽²⁾

3.How many goals did Neymar nut before injury in the 2014 World Cup?

A.7

B.4

C.3

D.1

答案⁽³⁾

4.Why the Brazil's richest man Eike Batista's home was raided last year?

A.forcible rape

B.bribery

C.corruption

D.insider trading

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.shell companies
解释：内马尔被指利用空壳公司达到避税的目的。

(2)答案：B.Brazil
解释：就像内马尔，人们对于巴西球员通常只熟悉他们姓名的第一个字。

(3)答案：B.4
解释：在受伤之前，内马尔以4球升至射手榜首位，成为2014年世界杯得分最高的队员。

(4)答案：D.insider trading
解释：曾经的巴西首富Eike Batista由于内幕交易受审。

英国《金融时报》
原文阅读精选集Vol.36

剑桥大学新动作

剑桥大学准备引入新的入学申请系统来取代之前为人诟病的测试流程

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

brightest pupils最聪明的学生

labyrinthine迷宫一样的[,læbə'rɪnθaɪn]

opaque不透明的[ə(ʊ)'peɪk]

capricious反复无常的[kə'prɪʃəs]

eligible符合条件的['elɪdʒɪb(ə)l]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分11秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分28秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分28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

Cambridge announces written entrance test amid elitism row（520words）

By Gonzalo Viña, Public Policy Reporter

The university-wide tests will be standardised by subject, doing away with the myriad assessments at its colleges, and are being brought back to give admissions tutors a better idea of who to invite for interview now that schools are phasing out AS-levels.

The change comes as the Sutton Trust — a group that campaigns for greater social mobility — is this week expected to criticise Cambridge and Oxford universities for having labyrinthine admissions systems that deter applications from the brightest pupils at state schools.

Britain's elite universities are coming under fire for failing to do enough to to tackle discrimination. This week, David Cameron accused them of not doing enough to attract students from black and ethnic minority backgrounds and announced plans to force them to publish the ethnic background of students.

The Sutton Trust will say that teachers from state schools that traditionally send few students to Oxbridge are deterred from putting bright students forward because of the complexity of the system to outsiders.

There are 11 different exams at Oxford while Cambridge, until now, appeared at first glance to have as many as 380 although, in practice, many of them are simple tests rather than exams.

The opaque admissions system is traditionally believed to be subject to the capricious whims of university dons and was infamously captured in an incident in the late 1990s when Essex schoolgirl Tracy Playle was brought to tears, claiming that Eric Griffiths, her interviewer, had mocked her accent and background.

Under the new system, Cambridge's 29 undergraduate colleges will bring in a common written assessment to provide “valuable additional evidence” of academic ability, subject knowledge and “potential to succeed” following demands from teachers and students. The new system will be in place for those applying for entry in 2017.

The Sutton Trust will say in a report this week that the proportion of state school students at both universities has increased in recent years. Cambridge accepted 62 per cent of its students from state schools in 2014, while Oxford took 56 per cent, up from a combined average of 47 per cent in 1997. But there were just a total of 40 Oxbridge students in 2012 who were once eligible for free school meals, a widely used measure of poverty.

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said: “We welcome anymeasure to simplify the admissions procedures at Oxbridge. However, Cambridge should be aware that tests could present a disadvantage for low and middle income students as there is a thriving market in private tuition for the extra admissions tests used at Oxford and Cambridge.

“We will of course ensure that any changes that are made are fully reflected in our summer school programme, which now has 600 places at Cambridge.”

Mr Cameron this week said it was unacceptable that young black men were more likely to be in prison than studying at a top university, that there were no black generals in the armed forces, and that only 4 per cent of FTSE chief executives were from ethnic minorities.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the failure of Britain's elite universities?

A.The employment rate of the graduates is low

B.The infrastructure in school is old-fashioned

C.The quality of teaching is not satisfied

D.Not doing enough to tackle discrimination

答案⁽¹⁾

2.In the claim of the Essex schoolgirl Tracy Playle，what was mocked by her interviewer?

A.her low GPA

B.her accent and background

C.her low GPA

D.her dress

答案⁽²⁾

3.How many places are there in Cambridge' summer school programme？

A.400

B.200

C.1000

D.600

答案⁽³⁾

4.According to Mr Cameron,which factor was not unacceptable?

A.Young black men were more likely to be in prison than studying at a top university.

B.There were no black generals in the armed forces.

C.Black men has equal employment opportunity compared with White men.

D.Only 4 per cent of FTSE chief executives were from ethnic minorities.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Not doing enough to tackle discrimination
解释：文中提到英国顶尖大学在录取时在解决歧视问题方面做得不够好。

(2)答案：B.her accent and background
解释：文中提到在这次事件中，这位女士的口音和背景被嘲笑了。

(3)答案：D.600
解释：提到剑桥的暑期项目有600个席位。

(4)答案：C.Black men has equal employment opportunity compared with White men.
解释：根据文中主旨，人们认为黑人应该拥有与白人一样的求学于就职的权利。

脖子上的自动拍照相机

号称是“世界首款智能可穿戴相机”的Autographer是一款可挂在脖子上或者别在衣服上的自动拍照相机。它内置的传感器和 GPS定位系统会根据光影、色彩、运动、方向和温度识别拍照的最佳时期，无论好坏，它的确是一款特别的、无需动手的相机。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

pioneer先锋[paɪə'nɪə(r)]

gadget小玩意['gædʒɪt]

pacemaker领跑者['peɪsmeɪkəz]

doomed难逃一死的[dʊmd]

meltdown彻底垮台['meltdaʊn]

narcissism自恋['nɑ:sɪsɪzəm]

nostalgic怀旧的[nɒ'stældʒɪk]

giggle咯咯的笑['gɪgl]

gimmick噱头['gɪmɪk]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分21秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分40秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分20秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分10秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Cameras may yet put wearable technology in the picture（702words）

By Jonathan Margolis

Three years ago, a life-logging camera, Autographer, was announced. It was welcomed as a wearable-technology pioneer and was British — unusually for a novel consumer gadget.

Autographer was worn like a necklace and took thousands of photos a day, prompted by sensors that intelligently detected movement and other stimuli in the hope of getting the occasional nice snap. Its slick launch at London Zoo was greeted with some excitement. Wearable technology, at least for those who don't count glasses and pacemakers as trendy enough to be called that, was with us.

I'm glad/relieved that I reported Autographer as fun but doomed, because the £400 device was abandoned a few weeks ago by the maker. It was not a start-up, but the successful and perfectly grown-up Oxford Metrics Group, for whom it seems to have been a fairly small-scale experiment with a consumer product.

Apart from the fact that Autographer did not pass the common sense test, there were early signs of its ultimate demise. I saw the team at a wearable-tech show five months after launch and asked how it was going. Wonderfully, I was told, and proving particularly popular with magicians. Interesting market, but perhaps a little niche.

Thinking about Autographer's fate, I'm not inclined to go into middle-aged meltdown about narcissism and modern youth's obsession with recording everything rather than living in the moment. It's wiser to take all that lightly; it's not the end of civilisation. But you still would have thought that was it for tiny wearable cameras.

Yet now a Swedish company, Narrative, which launched a smaller version called Clip at about the same time, is having another run at the idea. Clip simply took a photo every 30 seconds, but Clip 2 also captures video on demand, like a GoPro but a fraction of the size.

And looking at Narrative's website, a tiny bit of me is thinking it looks, well, almost desirable. I take a lot of mobile phone videos, not for sharing, but to watch in idle moments for nostalgic purposes. So perhaps carrying a body camera, like some police officers now do, would be interesting? It would at least be handy for resolving domestic disputes: “You say you told me to get cat food at the supermarket. Let's check the recording.”

The first Clip got more traction than our brave, British chaps managed. It was adopted by the very god of life-logging, Morris Villarroel, professor of animal behaviour at Madrid's Polytechnic University. Prof Villarroel has kept a microscopically detailed diary of his daily life since 2010, but has reportedly been using a Narrative camera to add 700,000-plus photos to his voluminous handwritten notes.

Will Narrative bring wearable cameras to the mainstream? Probably not, but its tiny dimensions and less-clunky design than Autographer mean that convincing mainstream consumers is not as inconceivable.

The point is that there is a decent record of outlier innovations that seem bonkers when mooted, before then taking off — usually after another company has a stab at them. Leaving aside inventions such as writing (which Socrates thought disruptive and undesirable) and the telephone (which almost everyone thought was a gimmick), technologies such as texting and phone cameras have surprised even their inventors by how popular they have proved.

I couldn't stop giggling at the launch of the first camera phone I saw in 2001; whatever next? Colleagues reported the development more as quirky Japanese stuff, but essentially unwanted. I envisaged an epidemic of people taking and sending unrequested photos of their genitalia, which kind of happened but has been far from the defining characteristic of the behemoth that is phone photography.

What, then, of the innovation greeted with the least enthusiasm in recent memory — the Google Glass internet spectacles, which within days spawned the expression “Glassholes” to describe their users? Privacy issues, creepiness issues and looking-stupid issues were among the problems.

According to industry chat, it's just possible that Glass will be back in a less ridiculous form. Google supposedly has a team reviving the project under the name Aura. Now, an even smaller Narrative-type camera, embedded unobtrusively in a good-looking, socially acceptable connected spectacle frame, which recorded in high definition everything interesting you saw?

That could work for me. Maybe.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where did Autographer launched in the first place?

A.UK

B.USA

C.Canada

D.China

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How much is Autographer in UK?

A.£500

B.£200

C.£100

D.£400

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who like recording everything rather than living in the moment in the author's view?

A.middle-aged person

B.middle-aged person

C.narcissism youth's

D.pretty girls

答案⁽³⁾

4.What will the author probably do if he takes mobile phone videos?

A.share to friends

B.replace with photos

C.miss the past

D.leave evidence

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.UK
解释：这款相机首先在伦敦上市。

(2)答案：D.£400
解释：Autographer的机身主要是塑料材质，售价400英镑（约合人民币 3770元）。

(3)答案：C.narcissism youth's
解释：文章中讲那些自恋且时髦的年轻人更爱每时每刻都拍照留念，而不是活在真实的感受中。

(4)答案：C.miss the past
解释：拍摄些视频是为了日后怀旧，而不是分享出去。

谷歌：AI进军互联网核心技术

Google本周三宣布将任命原人工智能部门研究主管John Giannandrea，负责领导该公司旗下最重要的搜索引擎业务，显示互联网的核心技术正发生巨大变革。具体来说，新算法可以“理解”相似的词语和短语，因为它会对这些相似的词语进行编码，以便搜索引擎“看懂”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

algorithm算法['ælgərɪð(ə)m]

deluge泛滥['deljuːdʒ]

wrestled斗争['res(ə)l]

foreseeable可预测的[fɔː'siːəbl]

Himalayas喜马拉雅山脉[hɪ'mɑljəz]

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38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39秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分55秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Google puts AI expert in charge of its search algorithms （558words）

By Richard Waters in San Francisco

Google has put an artificial intelligence expert in charge of its search algorithms, signalling a sea change in one of the core technologies of the internet that may ultimately give intelligent machines the job of finding and sorting information for humans.

The search company on Wednesday named John Giannandrea, an expert in machine learning, to run the engineering group that devises its ranking algorithms, the core technology for making sense of the deluge of information on the internet.

He replaces Amit Singhal, an Indian engineer who oversaw a rewrite of Google's ranking technology after joining 15 years ago. He has since headed its search engineering efforts as the company has consolidated its grip on internet search for most of the world and wrestled with the new approaches to search forced by things such as the rise of smartphone apps.

For Google, Mr Singhal's departure is as significant as the departure of design chief Sir Jony Ive would be for Apple, said Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Land and a long-time analyst of the search industry.

He called Mr Singhal the “guiding force” behind the Google search engine, which is still the main source of the company's profits, and an “orchestra leader” who had succeeded in maintaining the quality of the search results as Google has grappled with the mass of new online information and new ways of searching.

His departure coincides with a wave of investment in artificial intelligence at Google, both to boost the overall quality of its core products as well as support a push into newer fields such as driverless cars and robotics.

The projects Mr Giannandrea has been in charge of at Google include RankBrain, a neural network — modelled on how layers of neurons in the brain interact — that tries to use machine intelligence to improve the ranking of search results without the intervention of human programmers.

Despite the growing importance of AI, machines are not likely to seize control of Google's search algorithms for the foreseeable future, said Mr Sullivan.

The technology has been put to use by Google to better understand what searchers are looking for, he said, but it is still a stretch for it to predict which piece of information people will find most useful. Nevertheless, the rise of an AI expert to head the rankings group points to an underlying shift in the technology that could one day see much of the job of search ranking left to machines, said Greg Sterling, an analyst at the Local Search Association in the US. The technology shift might one day leave Google's search engineers facing the risk of being put out of work by intelligent machines as workers in other fields, Mr Sterling said, though he added that there was always likely to be some level of human oversight.

“There will always be some sort of human oversight or spot-checking,” Mr Sterling said. “There will always be someone in the control room.”

Mr Singhal has long used the fictional intelligent computer on Star Trek as the model for the perfect search engine. In a post on Google+ announcing he was leaving the company, he said he had first dreamt of the idea when growing up in the Himalayas. “My dream Star Trek computer is becoming a reality, and it is far better than what I ever imagined,” he added.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the core technology for making sense of the deluge of information?

A.scientific management

B.computer language

ranking algorithms

D.recursive identification algorithms

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why Mr.Singhal was called “orchestra leader”?

A.taking up the main source of the Google's profits

B.Sir Jony's best friend

C.pushing into newer fields

D.maintaining the quality of the search results

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one of the following is wrong about AI and search algorithms?

A.The technology is aim to understand what searchers are looking for.

B.Machines will seize control of Google's search algorithms.

C.It is still a stretch for it to predict useful information.

D.There was always likely to be some level of human oversight.

答案⁽³⁾

4.Where is Singhal's main source of inspiration about intelligent computer?

A.fiction

B.music

C.movie

D.legend

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.ranking algorithms
解释：相关排序技术是搜索引擎结果处理的一个核心技术，其排序算法的优劣直接影响查准率。

(2)答案：D.maintaining the quality of the search results
解释：Singhal领导期间在保证了谷歌在激烈竞争中保持住有质量的搜索结果。

(3)答案：B.Machines will seize control of Google's search algorithms.
解释：机器不可能完全主导这一领域。

(4)答案：C.movie
解释：即将离职的Singhal在辞职公开信中表示自己一直以设计出“星际迷航”中的电脑作为梦想，如今这一梦想“即将成为现实，而且要比我此前想像的更好。”

再次回归：任天堂重返VR

任天堂在1995年推出了游戏界第一款虚拟现实游戏机，但是当时代表了虚拟现实技术在消费领域的首次大胆尝试的“Virtual Boy”却未能被用户接受。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

foray袭击['fɒreɪ]

fiscal财政的['fɪsk(ə)l]

lacklustre无光泽的['læk,lʌstə]

blockbuster一鸣惊人的人['blɒkbʌstə]

monochrome黑白的，单色的['mɑnəkrom]

compelling引人注目的[kəm'pelɪŋ]

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3秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分50秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1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

Nintendo signals cautious return to virtual reality （425words）

By Kana Inagaki

Nintendo's president has signalled that the Japanese video games company is exploring virtual reality technology more than two decades after its disastrous foray into what is the industry's hottest sector.

Tatsumi Kimishima's comments on Tuesday came after the Kyoto-based company reported a 36 per cent fall in net profit for the fiscal third quarter.

The lacklustre result had been widely expected after Nintendo missed the Christmas season to enter the mobile games market. Sales of its game devices also fell amid the absence of blockbuster titles while rival Sony continues to enjoy strong sales with its PlayStation 4 console.

For the quarter from October to December, net profit fell to Y29.1bn ($241m) from Y45.2bn a year earlier. That came in slightly above the Y23bn forecast by analysts.

Mr Kimishima told a news conference the company was carrying out research into virtual reality. It was an “interesting technology”, he said, but there was no specific plan to launch a product soon.

Nintendo was one of the first games groups to try to bring VR to consumers when it launched the Virtual Boy in 1995. But the firm abandoned the clunky red headset a year later amid complaints its monochrome screen caused headache.

Since then, technological advances have prompted a string of companies to enter the field. Facebook-owned Oculus VR began taking pre-orders for its Rift headset last month, while Sony's PlayStation VR will be launched in the first half of 2016. Apple also hired one of the top US researchers in virtual reality.

Naoki Fujiwara of Shinkin Asset Management said: “It has now become much easier to accept a VR device from Nintendo. If it can ride on the boom, it might be an interesting development.”

For now, though, Nintendo watchers are focused on its first smartphone game Miitomo, a character-based, social network-style service, that is scheduled to be launched next month. Investors are also pinning hopes that Nintendo will offer Mario Kart or Super Mario for its second mobile game title.

For a company whose most recent console, the WiiU, has delivered disappointing sales, the mobile gaming market figures had become increasingly compelling. At an estimated $7.5bn, Japan is the most valuable mobile games market, according to Deutsche Bank, which puts the worldwide market at $26bn.

Nintendo is working on a new console codenamed NX, although Mr Kimishima did not offer any fresh details.

In the third quarter, sales of Wii U console fell 2.1 per cent to 1.87m units, while sales of its 3DS handheld game device fell 28 per cent to 3.6m units.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where is Nintendo's headquarters?

A.Tokyo

B.Hokkaido

C.Kyoto

D.Sapporo

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who is Nintendo's rival, producing PlayStation 4?

A.Sony

B.Microsoft

C.Google

D.Oculus

答案⁽²⁾

3.When did Nintendo abandon the Virtual Boy?

A.2005

B.2015

C.1995

D.1996

答案⁽³⁾

4.Where is the most valuable mobile games market, according to Deutsche Bank?

A.China

B.USA

C.Japan

D.Canada

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Kyoto
解释：任天堂的总部在京都。

(2)答案：A.Sony
解释：任天堂已经很久没有推出重磅游戏，其游戏机的销售因而一直在下滑，而竞争对手索尼的PlayStation 4游戏机却销售火爆。

(3)答案：D.1996
解释：任天堂在1995年推出了Virtual Boy游戏机，这是游戏界第一次向消费者推出虚拟现实产品。一年之后，任天堂放弃了这款产品，原因是有用户抱怨称该产品的单色屏幕会造成头疼。

(4)答案：C.Japan
解释：根据德意志银行的预测，日本是最大的手游市场。

优酷土豆原副总裁被警方拘留

去年起前百度联盟总经理马国林被抓、原聚划算总经理阎利珉因受贿被判7年，或许，越来越多快速增长的互联网巨头要开始习惯将违法的员工或前员工送入监狱了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

catchy朗朗上口的['kætʃɪ]

detain拘留[dɪ'teɪn]

corruption贪污[kə'rʌpʃ(ə)n]

peer-generated content|自制内容

collude勾结[kə'l(j)uːd]

kickback回扣['kɪkbæk]

pave安排[peɪv]

marketing blitz闪电式营销

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30秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1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

Former internet video boss at Youku Tudou detained in China （378words）

By Charles Clover in Beijing

The man behind one of China's most catchy pop songs was detained by police on Monday after Youku Tudou, his employer and the country's largest internet video site, accused him of corruption.

Lu Fanxi, former president of peer-generated content at Youku Tudou, was famous for producing highly popular content including Little Apple, a much played but critically panned hit.

Drawing comparisons with South Korean pop singer Psy's Gangnam Style, the song has grown into a viral internet meme and became the basis for recruiting video for the People's Liberation Army.

Mr Lu left Youku in July last year in unclear circumstances, months before the platform was taken over by Alibaba, the ecommerce group.

An internal letter sent to employees by Heyi Film, Youku's film studio, and published in the Chinese press, said the charges against Mr Lu arise from an audit of Youku finances that “found some points of serious suspicion in certain production projects”.

“From the information we have now, we know that former employee Lu Fanxi is suspected of exploiting his position to take illegal and criminal activities,” the company said. “Lu has been taken away by the police to help with the investigation.”

A person with close ties to the online video industry said the charges arise out of suspicion Mr Lu had colluded with contracting companies for kickbacks, and the accusations are not related to any one show.

Mr Lu's case appeared to be similar to that of Liu Chunning, an executive at Alibaba in charge of video content who was detained by police in July after an internal probe by Tencent, his former employer. Both men were in video production, were fingered by internal audits and turned over to police.

The popularity of Little Apple by the duo Chopstick Brothers helped pave the way for more peer-generated content to catch on at China's online video sites. It was the theme song to Old Boys: The Way of the Dragon, a film released in May 2014 and one of the first full productions financed by Youku Tudou.

Largely due to Mr Lu's marketing blitz, as well as a combination of repetitive melodies and simple lyrics, it was an immediate hit on the internet and helped popularise a dance form known as square dancing.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which one was produced by Lu Fanxi as mentioned?

A.Gangnam Style

B.Little Apple

C.Go Princess

D.Lost Tomb

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who took over Youku in 2015?

A.Alibaba

B.Tencent

C.Baidu

D.YouTube

答案⁽²⁾

3.What did Mr.Lu do with contracting companies as the insider said?

A.took a kickback

B.published violent contents

C.had erotic services

D.implants the advertisements

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one is not the similarity between Lu Fanxi and Liu Chunning?

A.in video production

B.fingered by internal audits

C.detained in China

D.in the same company

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Little Apple
解释：卢梵溪曾是优酷土豆自制内容团队的负责人，以制作流行内容闻名，这些内容包括播放次数很多、但文艺界评价不高的歌曲《小苹果》。

(2)答案：A.Alibaba
解释：优酷被电子商务集团阿里巴巴(Alibaba)兼并。

(3)答案：A.took a kickback
解释：与网络视频行业有密切联系的一名消息人士表示，相关指控源于卢梵溪有勾结承包公司、自己拿回扣的嫌疑。

(4)答案：D.in the same company
解释：刘曾是阿里巴巴负责视频内容的高管，在他的前雇主腾讯(Tencent)进行内部调查后于去年7月被警方带走。这两人都从事视频制作，也都受到警方拘留。

不要急于对谷歌发气

对于谷歌近期麻烦缠身的税务问题，有观点称不要先急于迁怒于这家美国公司，而应做出更多努力，以确保跨国公司支付正确的公司税务。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

spat口角，挑衅[spæt]

tactics策略['tæktɪks]

jurisdiction司法权，审判权

jurisdiction marginal临界的['mɑːdʒɪn(ə)l]

haughty傲慢的['hɔːtɪ]

wholesale批发的['həʊlseɪl]

offshore离岸的['ɒfʃɔː; ɒf'ʃɔː]

prone有…倾向的[prəʊn]

upheaval剧变[ʌp'hiːv(ə)l]

exchequer财源，国库[ɪks'tʃekə; eks]

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

2分52秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分29秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分13秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Don't get mad at Google — get even （732words）

By Jonathan Ford

Whenever Google gets into a spot of bother about how much tax it pays, the US search company comes up with the same response. We cough up what we're required to by law, it says. You want more? Well, you're a democracy; pass some legislation.

The company's chairman Eric Schmidt made just this point three years ago during one of Google's periodic spats about the paltry sums it pays to Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs. “I am rather puzzled by this debate which has been going on in the UK for some time because I view taxes as not optional,” he said.

Google wasn't going to pay tax voluntarily just to appease an aggrieved British public, Mr Schmidt observed. It would pay what its lawyers told it to, and not a penny more.

British governments have tried tweaking the rules to curb the tactics Google and other US tech companies use to reduce their tax liabilities. For instance, the Diverted Profits Tax (or “Google tax”) was introduced to frustrate some of the tricks that annoy the public, notably the shifting of profits offshore through questionable inter-group charges to jurisdictions that attract lower rates of tax.

But it hasn't worked. In spite of the new rules, Google still successfully maintains that all but a sliver of the value that goes to achieving its UK sales arises somewhere else. When the company recently settled with HMRC over its past and future liabilities, the Google tax apparently wasn't even invoked.

And because reforming corporation tax is so difficult, requiring wholesale international agreement, that pretty much exhausts politicians' ammunition when it comes to legal combat. Their only recourse is to cut rates to make avoidance more marginal, while pleading with haughty multinationals for a few more crumbs from the groaning board.

There is, however, one simple measure that might allow the UK to do more than get mad at Google — and actually get even. It wouldn't require a wholesale revision of the existing system. It involves reviving (in a reformed guise) a levy abolished in 1999: Advance Corporation Tax (ACT).

Introduced in 1973 primarily to reform the taxation of dividends, this also addressed a similar problem: high rates of corporation tax had encouraged multinationals — perfectly legally — to shift profits overseas by shuffling activities overseas. It was paid at the rate of 30 per cent on dividends, and could only be offset against corporation tax. Shift too much profit offshore and you either had to cut your dividend or see your rate of tax go up.

The new Advance Corporation Sales Tax (ACST) would be based on a similar principle. Set at a percentage of a company's UK sales, the levy would be offset against its corporation tax payments. ACST could be set at varying levels for different sectors, based on their profitability, and targeted at those — such as web services and retail — that are prone to abuse.

Just as with the original, the beauty would be that ordinary UK taxpaying companies would be unaffected. Only those that shunted profits abroad would be hit.

To see how it would work, take a company like Google, with £4.3bn of UK sales in 2014. Apply ACST at the rate of, say, 4 per cent and it would have to pay £173m. Now if Google declared profits in Britain in line with its 26 per cent global margin, that would give it £1.1bn on which it would pay corporation tax of roughly £220m — more than enough to offset the ACST it had already paid. But if it continued to do what it currently does, squirrelling away profits overseas and stumping up just £30m of corporation tax, £143m of that ACST bill would be unrelieved.

Importantly, the tax-take would be raised without undue upheaval. There would be nothing to stop Google, Amazon or Facebook continuing to arrange their affairs however they liked, so long as they paid the ACST. But the new tax would stop the crazy state of affairs whereby the exchequer in effect subsidises their R&D and pricing strategies — the very mechanisms by which they are pushing their onshore UK competitors steadily to the wall.

There would be wrinkles of course. A low-profit or lossmaking business would need to be able to recover the ACST against a legitimate UK profit and loss account. There would be legal challenges — although the system isn't obviously discriminatory and the old ACT regime was compatible with the Treaty of Rome.

But, anyway, that shouldn't deter politicians from exploring the remedy. Those who play by the rules deserve a level field to play on. Mr Schmidt is right: shaming cannot be the main basis for tax policy. If the UK wants to collect more, it should stop pleading and find a law that works.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the main reason made Google pay tax to US as Mr Schmidt said?

A.to appease an aggrieved British public

B.employee protest

C.professional ethics

D.lawyers told

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the “Google tax” meaning?

A.collective welfare

B.diverted profits tax

C.collective welfare

D.vehicle purchase tax

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one is a better measure to solve the tax problem?

A.reviving ACT

B.cooperating with HMRC

C.canceling the Diverted Profits Tax

D.getting mad at Google

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which treaty was the old ACT regime compatible with?

A.Elysee Treaty

B.Treaty of Rome

C.The British Constitution

D.International Convention

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.lawyers told
解释：Schmidt表示，谷歌会根据律师要求进行补税，而不是为了平息英国公众的愤怒而交钱。

(2)答案：B.diverted profits tax
解释：diverted profits tax为转移利润税。

(3)答案：A.reviving ACT
解释：不需要大批量修改现有的税收系统，可以恢复之前的公司预付税，这样远比只迁怒于谷歌要有效的多。

(4)答案：B.Treaty of Rome
解释：文章倒数第二段句末。

五比零：计算机完胜人类？

计算机和人类竞赛在棋类比赛中已不罕见，在三子棋、跳棋和国际象棋等棋类上，计算机都先后完成了对人类的挑战。但对拥有2500多年历史的围棋而言，计算机在此之前从未战胜过人类。而在今天谷歌宣布在人工智能领域的重要进展：程序终于首次完胜人类欧洲冠军！

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

dub授予称号[dʌb]

subsidiary子公司[səb'sɪdɪərɪ]

triumph获得胜利['traɪʌmf]

nil无，零[nɪl]

intersection交叉点[ɪntə'sekʃ(ə)n]

deceptive欺诈的[dɪ'septɪv]

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18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31秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分53秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Google computer triumphs in complex board game battle （530words）

By Clive Cookson, Science Editor

A computer has comprehensively beaten a human champion playing Go, the board game which has been dubbed the world's most complex — achieving “a historic milestone in artificial intelligence” according to Nature, the journal publishing the science behind the feat.

The AlphaGo machine, developed by Demis Hassabis and colleagues at Google's DeepMind subsidiary in London, triumphed over Fan Hui, the European Go champion, by five games to zero.

Jon Diamond, president of the British Go Association, said: “Before this match I was expecting it to be at least five to 10 years before a programme would be able to beat the top human players.”

Of course Google, a company at the forefront of the drive to transform business through AI, is not just playing for fun. “While games are the perfect platform for developing and testing AI algorithms quickly and efficiently, ultimately we want to apply these techniques to important real-world problems,” Mr Hassabis said.

Applications will combine pattern recognition and forward planning. One early example will be an improved “intelligent personal assistant” for smartphones. Another application will be in medicine, combining images from scans and other patient data to diagnose disease and decide treatment.

The ancient game of Go, which originated in China more than 2,500 years ago, has an estimated 40m regular players worldwide and 1,000 professionals, mainly in east Asia.

Although IBM's Deep Blue computer famously beat Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997, Go has a profound complexity far exceeding that of chess, said Mr Hassabis, who is a keen player of both games. “There are more positions in Go than the number of atoms in the universe,” he added. “Go has more subtlety and intellectual depth than chess.”

Google's system defeated Fan Hui, a Chinese-born Frenchman who has played Go professionally since his teens, by five games to nil.

Google has also beaten Facebook, whose chief executive Mark Zuckerberg posted on Wednesday that his team was close to “building an AI” to win at Go.

“In March AlphaGo will face its ultimate challenge, a five-game match in Seoul against the legendary Lee Sedol — the top Go player in the world over the past decade,” Mr Hassabis said.

In a statement issued by Nature, Mr Lee said: “I heard Google DeepMind's AI is surprisingly strong and getting stronger, but I am confident that I can win at least this time.” If he is right, Google will pay him $1m; if he loses, the company gives $1m to charity.

Scientists have long used games as a testing ground for AI, to invent smart programmes that enable computers to tackle problems with something approaching human flexibility. But traditional AI methods, which search out options for all possible positions on the board, cannot work with Go.

The game looks simple. Starting with an empty square ruled with a grid of 19 by 19 lines, players alternately place white and black stones on the intersections between the lines; the aim is to control a larger area of the board than your opponent.

But the simplicity is deceptive; Go is the most complex “game of perfect knowledge” — in which luck and hidden moves play no part — played regularly anywhere in the world.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the world's most complex board game according to Nature?

A. (Chinese) chess

B.(International) chess

C.Aeroplane Chess

D.Go

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the perfect platform for developing and testing AI algorithms efficiently?

A.real-world problem

B.housework

C.game

D.nursing a sick person

答案⁽²⁾

3.Where will be application in by combining images from scans?

A.translation

B.retails

C.agriculture

D.medicine

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is Lee Sedol's attitude towards the ultimate challenge with AlphaGo in March?

A.anxious

B.hesitant

C.inimical

D.confident

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.Go
解释：《自然》表示围棋是世界上最复杂的棋盘游戏。就机器学习的角度而言，围棋的计算最大有3361种局面，大致的体量是10170，而已经观测到的宇宙中，原子的数量才1080。国际象棋最大只有2155种局面，称为香农数，大致是1047。

(2)答案：C.game
解释：哈萨比斯:尽管游戏是快速和高效率开发和检验人工智能算法的完美平台，但最终我们希望把这些方法应用于现实世界的重要问题。

(3)答案：D.medicine
解释：其他应用领域将包括医药，综合利用扫描图像和其他患者数据来诊断疾病和决定治疗。

(4)答案：D.confident
解释：从Lee Sedol的发言中可以看出他对人类获胜是有信心的。

寨卡病毒：从哪来·到哪去

世界卫生组织(WHO)昨日警告称，据信导致出生缺陷的寨卡病毒（Zika virus）快速传播，已波及中美洲和南美洲21个国家。不了解？不要紧，速读带你认识寨卡。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

rhesus monkey猕猴['ri:səs]

mild温和的[maɪld]

rash皮疹[ræʃ]

itchy skin皮肤瘙痒

foetus胎儿['fiːtəs]

semen精液['siːmən]

subtropical亚热带的[,sʌb'trɒpɪkəl]

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24秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分8秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分6秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The Zika virus — where did it come from and where will it end?（660words）

By Clive Cookson

Let's start at the beginning. Where did Zika come from? Like so many emerging viruses, Zika came out of Africa. It was first isolated in 1947 from a rhesus monkey in Uganda's Zika forest. But it did not cause significant outbreaks of human disease until 2013-14 in French Polynesia. It probably reached the Americas late in 2014, when an infected traveller was bitten by a local mosquito which then transferred the virus to other people.

What are the symptoms of Zika infection?

They are usually mild or non-existent. Most characteristic are a rash, itchy skin and red eyes. The trouble comes when pregnant women are infected. Then the virus attacks the brain of the foetus, leading to the birth of a baby with a very small head and neurological problems. Zika only began to arouse serious concern among global health experts in October, when authorities in Brazil linked it to a rapid rise in microcephaly in the country's tropical north-east where Zika cases are concentrated.

How does Zika spread?

It is a typical mosquito-borne virus, transmitted by aedes aegypti, the species that carries several other human diseases including dengue and chikungunya. It is unclear why it has spread with explosive speed in the tropical Americas over the past year. The risk of direct transmission between people is very remote, although the virus has been isolated in semen so sexual transmission cannot be ruled out.

Does the mosquito transmission mean that some parts of the world are safe from Zika infection?

Yes. Aedes aegypti only thrives in tropical and subtropical regions. It cannot survive cold winters, so most of the US and Europe are safe — unless global warming gathers pace or the virus mutates and moves into a mosquito species that lives in temperate climates. Most Europeans and Americans are vulnerable only if they travel to an infected region; a few have already returned home with Zika symptoms.

Is it safe to travel to the tropical Americas?

The only people who should worry are women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant. They are advised not to travel to areas with high levels of infection unless really necessary, and then to take steps to avoid mosquito bites, including covering bare skin with clothing or insect repellent and using mosquito nets.

What about the Olympics in Brazil?

It is too early to predict infection levels in and around Rio in August. The authorities hope they will be very low, both because they are working to eliminate pools of stagnant water where mosquitoes breed and because the weather then will be relatively cool and dry, and therefore less hospitable to mosquitoes.

What is longer-term outlook for the epidemic?

We do not know because serious research into Zika only began three or four months ago when scientists realised the threat posed by the virus to unborn children. The optimistic view is that people in infected regions will quickly build resistance to the virus and the outbreak will burn itself out. But that might be wishful thinking.

Any chance of a treatment or vaccine?

At the moment there is no reliable diagnostic test for Zika let alone an antiviral drug or vaccine. But research is gathering pace. GlaxoSmithKline is evaluating the possibility of using its vaccine technology for Zika, and Inovio, a US biotech company, is working on a candidate.

How about attacking the mosquitoes that carry the virus?

“Vector control” is possible by avoiding the build-up of stagnant water in populated areas and attacking mosquitoes through pesticides, although this approach cannot completely eliminate the mosquitoes. A more futuristic approach, developed by Oxitec of the UK and undergoing field trials in Brazil and elsewhere, uses genetically modified insects to wipe out the mosquitoes: large numbers of GM males are released to breed with all available females, producing offspring that die young. But this technology will not be available on a large scale in time to have much effect on the current Zika epidemic.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where did Zika come from?

A.Africa

B.west Asia

C.South America

D.French Polynesia

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which one is not the most characteristic of Zika infection?

A.rash

B.itchy skin

C.stomachache

D.red eyes

答案⁽²⁾

3.Where are much safer from Zika infection?

A.Russia

B.Thailand

C.Indonesia

D.Columbia

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who are advised not to travel to the tropical Americas because of Zika?

A.children

B.infant

C.pregnant women

D.infant

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Africa
解释：寨卡病毒最初来源于非洲。1948年初，人们从当地非洲伊蚊体内分离出Zika病毒。

(2)答案：C.stomachache
解释：这种病毒的症候非常轻微，最明显的就是皮疹、皮肤瘙痒和红眼。

(3)答案：A.Russia
解释：热带和亚热带地区更容易被传染。

(4)答案：C.pregnant women
解释：专家表示这种病毒会感染成长中的胎儿的大脑，因此不建议孕妇或备孕女性前往。

绝望的股东

对于暂时上市无望的农商行来说，除了在各地产交所挂牌转让股份之外，银行还通过淘宝抛售股份，这个迹象表明资金紧缺的投资者正采取日益绝望的举措。淘宝网平时更出名的是韩国化妆品，而不是金融机构股份。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

cash-strapped缺乏现金的

dwindle减小['dwɪnd(ə)l]

clearance sale清货贱卖

loosely宽松地['lu:slɪ]

swarm挤满[swɔːm]

divest剥夺[daɪ'vest; dɪ-]

deteriorate恶化[dɪ'tɪərɪəreɪt]

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17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30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

Investors rush online to ditch stakes in China rural lenders （528words）

By Don Weinland in Hong Kong

Shareholders in China's rural commercial banks have been offloading their stakes on Taobao, the biggest online Chinese auction site, in a sign of the increasingly desperate steps being taken by cash-strapped investors.

The stake sales in the lenders at the bottom of China's financial system, which are also appearing on the China Beijing Equity Exchange and an over-the-counter market, require minimal regulatory approval, if any at all. Until this month, an official freeze on initial public offerings in Shanghai and Shenzhen has trapped shareholders from divesting as valuations fall.

The backdoor methods for cashing out of the banks reflects a new urgency among shareholders to leave the sector amid dwindling returns and mounting bad debt. State-backed Securities Daily called the marketing of bank shares on the Beijing Equity Exchange a “clearance sale” of the deposit-taking institutions once carefully regulated by the state.

Investors snatched up about Rmb42m in shares in four small lenders from public auctions on Alibaba's Taobao site in December and January. Since April, investors in more than 11 banks have cashed out via such auctions on the shopping platform better known for Korean cosmetics than financial holdings.

Rural Commercial Bank of Zhangjiagang, which sold shares on Taobao this month, had about Rmb70bn in total assets in 2013. Assets at China's rural commercial banks made up 13.4 per cent of total banking system assets in November, according to the central bank.

While the asset quality of the banks are thought to be weak, the financial positions of the shareholders in these banks, mainly midsized manufacturers and local government-backed companies, are likely to be weaker as China's economy slows to a 25-year low.

“You can expect that the cash flow of many of these companies is not good,” said Liao Qiang, director of financial institutions ratings at Standard & Poor's in Beijing. “They need some fresh cash.”

The sales are not restricted to Taobao. Shareholders are also going to several of China's loosely regulated markets to sell the bank shares.

Shanghai Xupu Fasteners, a midsized bolt and screw maker put its 10 per cent stake in Anhui Taihu Rural Commercial Bank up for sale on the Beijing Equity Exchange in late November. The bank had net profits of about Rmb40m in 2014 and has asked Rmb100m for the stake, a high valuation in an industry swimming in bad debt.

Rural and city commercial banks have also swarmed the National Equities Exchange and Quotations, the OTC market known as the “New Third Board”. Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank said on its website that at least 22 banks had applied for listings on the exchange.

During the past two weeks, three rural commercial lenders have won China Securities Regulatory Committee approval to list in Shanghai or Shenzhen. The public listing will also help shareholders divest from the banks, Mr Liao said. The banks, all based in Jiangsu province, are at the front of a queue of at least 15 peers waiting to replenish their capital, which has suffered as asset quality deteriorates.

“The banks are quite clear that this asset quality pressure may translate into capital pressure,” Mr Liao said, hence the dire need for the IPOs.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How many banks' investors have cashed out via Taobao Since April?

A.more than 42

B.less than 11

C.more than 11

D.less than 42

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which one is much rarer on Taobao?

A.Korean cosmetics

B.Chinese clothes

C.snacks

D.financial holding

答案⁽²⁾

3.What do local government-backed companies need as Standard & Poor's director said?

A.fresh cash

B.lenders

C.optimization of asset quality

D.talented managers

答案⁽³⁾

4.How many rural commercial lenders have won CSRC approval to list in Shanghai or Shenzhen?

A.15

B.3

C.22

D.1

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.more than 11
解释：自去年4月以来，至少11家银行的股东已在这个购物平台举行的拍卖中抛售股份。

(2)答案：D.financial holding
解释：金融机构股份的售卖在淘宝上并不常见。

(3)答案：A.fresh cash
解释：“可以预计，其中很多公司现金流不好，”标准普尔(Standard & Poor's)常驻北京的金融机构评级主管廖强表示。“他们需要一些新资金。”

(4)答案：B.3
解释：过去两周里，有三家农村商业银行获得中国证券监督管理委员会(CSRC)批准在上海或深圳上市。

通用试水汽车共享

美国最大的汽车厂商正在押注这样一个趋势：未来将有更多的人选择不拥有汽车。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

connoisseur行家[,kɒnə'sɜː]

outright全部的，一直的[aʊt'raɪt]

nebulous朦胧的['nebjʊləs]

dweller居民['dwɛlɚ]

depreciate轻视，贬值[dɪ'priːʃɪeɪt; -sɪ-]

defunct非现存的[dɪ'fʌŋ(k)t]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分17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30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

General Motors launches new car-sharing service（528words）

By Andy Sharman in London

General Motors has unveiled a new car-sharing brand just weeks after investing $500m in ride-hailing service Lyft, as big carmakers prepare for a future in which drivers no longer own vehicles.

he new service — called Maven, a word used to describe connoisseurs who understand the latest trends — debuted this week in Ann Arbor, Michigan as a city-based car-sharing service.

Similar schemes will be launched in Chicago and expanded in New York. GM also has peer-to-peer car-sharing schemes in Frankfurt and Berlin.

GM, like other traditional carmakers, is concerned about a generational shift from outright ownership to the more nebulous concept of “mobility”. Apps like Uber and Lyft, which provide taxis summoned by smartphone, and car-sharing groups including Zipcar pose a big threat to the way automobiles have historically been sold.

If cars become shared, interchangeable vehicles, companies like GM stand to lose their direct relationship with many customers.

“GM is at the forefront of redefining the future of personal mobility,” said GM president Dan Ammann, announcing Maven on Thursday.

Mr Ammann told the Financial Times last year that the motor car — upon which the company's 107-year history is built — was now seen as inappropriate by many urban dwellers, because it depreciates “fairly rapidly, you use it 3 per cent of the time, and you pay a vast amount of money to park it for the other 97 per cent of the time”.

GM said it had poached ride-hailing and car-sharing specialists from Google, Zipcar and Sidecar, a now defunct Uber rival that GM acquired earlier this week.

GM is not the only carmaker pushing into car-sharing. Cross-town rival Ford last week launched its FordPass app, which bundles together the company's various mobility projects.

German carmakers have also started down this road. BMW is trying DriveNow sharing scheme — which has Minis, 1-Series cars and electric i3s — in nine cities — and Daimler has the Mercedes me brand. Toyota has run several trials in Japan and Europe.

“The carmakers are fighting to be seen as assailants and not victims as the industry faces disruption,” said George Galliers, analyst at Evercore ISI. “However, until mobility services result in meaningful sales and earnings which manufacturers are prepared to break out and disclose, the market is unlikely to give the companies much credit.”

Julia Steyn, head of urban mobility at GM, said: “With more than 25m customers around the world projected to use some form of shared mobility by 2020, Maven is a key element of our strategy [towards] changing ownership models in the automotive industry.”

Maven customers can use a smartphone app to search for and reserve vehicles by location or car type and unlock the vehicle using the same device. The app also enables remote functions such as starting, heating or cooling and more.

Customers will also be able to link into in-car systems such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, as well as GM's own connected car platform, OnStar. The cars also offer 4G wireless connections.

All the cars are from GM's Chevrolet brand and include the Volt plug-in hybrid; the Malibu sedan and the Tahoe sport utility vehicle. Prices start at $6 an hour, or $42 a day.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What kind of services is Maven?

A.car-sharing

B.ride-hailing

C.driver-sharing

D.mobile car eash

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which one will not pose a big threat to the way automobiles have historically been sold?

A.Uber

B.Lyft

C.Zipcar

D.Tesla

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which America carmaker launched its car-sharing app before GM last week?

A.Lincoln

B.Hummer

C.Ford

D.BMW

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one can't be achieved though the app from Maven customers?

A.reserve vehicles by location

B.automatic drive

C.unlock the vehicle

D.remote functions

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.car-sharing
解释：Maven是通用新推出的车辆共享业务。

(2)答案：D.Tesla
解释：传统的自有车辆商业模型，有可能随着共享经济体量的持续扩大带来根本性的规模不经济。像GM一样的汽车制造商会受到影响，失去与消费者的直接联系。

(3)答案：C.Ford
解释：福特也看准共享这一领域，上周发布了app FordPass。

(4)答案：B.automatic drive
解释：全部的预订、解锁、换车都直接通过APP完成，在APP上还能设置远程启动，提前开启空调。

英国《金融时报》
原文阅读精选集Vol.37

宠物美容正发力

宠物美容，不只是替狗儿洗澡而已，而是借着顶级的美容用品和精湛的修剪技法增添美感，从而达到让狗狗和主人身心愉悦的效果。作为全国最大的宠物连锁店，Pets at Home（宠物在家）更是从这一产业赚足了银子。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

notched有凹口的[nɔtʃt]

pamper纵容['pæmpə]

pooch杂种狗[puːtʃ]

like-for-like同比

veterinary兽医的['vɛtərənɛri]

flea跳蚤[fliː]

hygiene卫生学，保健法['haɪdʒiːn]

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17秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分58秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分7秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分44秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Pets at Home boosted by grooming services（445words）

By Aliya Ram

Pets at Home notched up strong growth in its third quarter as Britons gave their pooches a pampering in the run-up to Christmas.

The UK's largest pet store chain said on Wednesday that third-quarter revenues climbed 7.1 per cent to £195.1m in the three months to December 31. Like-for-like sales rose 2.2 per cent, fuelled by an 8.5 per cent jump in services sales, including a big contribution from veterinary and grooming.

This compares with like-for-like growth of 4.1 per cent for the group and 26 per cent in the services unit in the third quarter of the previous year.

According to the pet supplies chain the number of dogs groomed in the week before Christmas increased 18 per cent on the year before to 12,000. Merchandise sales, including pet nutrition, rose 1.7 per cent during the third quarter, compared with 3.4 per cent last time.

“We are pleased with the improved trading momentum in our merchandise business, alongside continued strength in our vet and grooming services,” said chief executive Nick Wood. “We are also delighted with our acquisition of one of the UK's leading specialist hospitals, Anderson Moores [a veterinary specialist].”

According to Mr Wood the slowdown in the pace of growth during its second year as a listed company was due to tough comparatives from 2014-15, when warm and wet weather resulted in high sales of flea treatments.

“Last year's growth was above our expectations because health and hygiene was very strong,” he said. “This year we've had a drag to our performance from health and hygiene…but underlying that, you have a very strong [offer] with a very fast and accretive business tacked on top.”

General merchandise sales, including health and hygiene products, account for a slightly larger proportion of the company's revenue mix over the winter. But total sales from the fast-growing services business increased more than in the previous year, jumping 27.4 per cent to £17.8m, compared with a 26 per cent rise last time, as Britons groomed their pets ready for Christmas.

“Merchandise like-for-like growth has picked up from the first half, with the health and hygiene category recovering,” said retail analysts at Liberum. “This should help reassure that the recent weakness was a trading ‘blip' rather than anything else.”

The chain added that it was on track to open 20-25 Pets at Home stores, five Barkers-branded outlet, up to 55 vet practices and 55-60 grooming salons this year.

Pets at Home has lost more than a fifth of its market value since October, when it reported weaker than expected sales.

On Wednesday shares were 4 per cent higher at 242.6p in early afternoon trade.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Pets at Home is the largest pet store chain in which country?

A.America

B.Britain

C.Canada

D.France

答案⁽¹⁾

2.When the number of dogs groomed according to the pet supplies?

A.the week after Christmas

B.the week before Easter

C.summer vacation

D.the week before Christmas

答案⁽²⁾

3.What resulted in high sales of flea treatments?

A.warm and wet weather

B.flood routing

C.pet owners' thoughtlessness

D.volcanic eruption

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one will be opened more in 2016?

A.Pets at Home stores

B.grooming salons

C.Barkers-branded outlet

D.vet practices

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Britain
解释：Pets at Home（宠物在家）是英国最大的宠物连锁店。

(2)答案：D.the week before Christmas
解释：人们把宠物视为家庭成员，愿意为其消费。除常规用品之外，英国人还会给宠物购买圣诞礼物。

(3)答案：A.warm and wet weather
解释：温暖潮湿的天气导致跳蚤治疗销售的增加。

(4)答案：B.grooming salons
解释：文章倒数第三段

百度高管被中国网信办约谈

据中国媒体报道，一些热门贴吧的吧主权可以卖到每年100万元人民币（合15.2万美元）以上，广告公司负责联系百度与营利性医院和药企，从中抽取佣金。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

pornography色情[pɔː'nɒgrəfɪ]

censorship审查制度['sensəʃɪp]

trinity三合一，三巨头['trɪnɪtɪ]

to be listed上市

unethical缺乏职业道德的[ʌn'eθɪk(ə)l]

bulletin公告['bʊlɪtɪn]

haemophilia血友病[,hɛmo'fɪlɪr]

pharmaceutical制药的[,fɑːmə'suːtɪk(ə)l]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分54秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分18秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分21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

China's Baidu hit by false ads, porn and medical advice scandal （496words）

By Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai

Chinese internet search engine Baidu has come under attack from the country's technology regulator after a flood of complaints over false advertisements, pornography and leaks of personal information.

Nasdaq-listed Baidu has enjoyed a rapid rise, helped by Google shutting down its China site over censorship concerns in 2010, and along with Alibaba and Tencent is one of China's internet trinity. However, disappointing half-year earnings in July suggest its star may be waning.

The latest scandal shows it is not too big to fend off criticism of unethical behaviour — or to evade the attentions of the regulator. The State Internet Information Office said it had grilled Baidu executives on Friday and that the company would face unspecified punishment.

In addition to several breaches, the regulator said: “Some search results on Baidu are not impartial or objective, and its news channel has spread harmful information involving violence and terrorism.”

Baidu has apologised for seeking to financially exploit medical information bulletin boards and said it would stop the practice on its Tieba, or Post Bar, site.

Chinese netizens had attacked the company for replacing the volunteer moderator of its haemophilia-themed bulletin board with a private hospital that was accused of providing substandard care. The popular Tieba platform hosts about 19m forums devoted to a wide range of topics.

Baidu previously faced accusations of altering search results to feature entities that paid it to have their sites highly ranked. The incident also comes amid widespread public distrust of doctors and hospitals over accusations of corruption and shoddy care.

“Sixteen years ago, the two search engine companies [Google and Baidu] started at almost the same time. Sixteen years later, one company is researching the feasibility of quantum computing. By contrast, the other one is researching how to help other people sell fake medicine,” Sina Weibo user 5718276383 said on the Twitter-like social media platform.

Baidu said on Saturday it would partner with non-profit organisations to raise the quality of medical information on its Tieba site. In addition to problems on the haemophilia board, local media raised doubts about the qualifications of for-profit hospitals and pharmaceutical companies in charge of Tieba forums to dispense advice on high blood pressure, liver disease, vascular disease and uterine fibroids.

Local media reported that moderation rights to the most popular forums could fetch more than Rmb1m ($152,000) a year, with advertising agencies taking a commission for connecting Baidu with for-profit hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.

“We've heard a broad range of criticism and advice from media and netizens, as well as the voices of Tieba users. This incident has exposed a dereliction of duty in the management of our Tieba commercialisation,” Baidu said on in a statement on its official Weibo account.

Baidu's apology failed to quell all the critics. A group of 36 non-profits has filed a complaint with the Beijing Administration of Industry and Commerce accusing Baidu of violating China's advertising law.

A Baidu spokesman declined to comment.

Additional reporting by Ma Nan

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the reason of Google's shut down in China?

A.to be listed in USA

B.too much tax

C.worried about censorship

D.profit shrinkage

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the meaning of “Baidu's star may be waning” in the second paragraph?

A.poor profit

B.under attack from regulator

C.Google is coming back

D.too much criticism

答案⁽²⁾

3.What did Baidu do in aemophilia-themed bulletin board and caused anger?

A.leaked personal information

B.replaced moderator

C.published false advertisements

D.tax evasion

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who will cooperate with Baidu to raise the quality of medical information?

A.volunteer doctors

B.pharmaceutical companies

C.for-profit hospitals

D.non-profit organizations

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.worried about censorship
解释：由于谷歌(Google)在2010年因担心审查制度而关闭了中国网站。

(2)答案：A.poor profit
解释：百度去年7月发布的半年度盈利令人失望，似乎表明其星光可能正逐渐暗淡。

(3)答案：B.replaced moderator
解释：百度将血友病贴吧的志愿吧主换成一家被指不具备医疗资质的民营医院，此举受到中国网民的抨击。

(4)答案：D.non-profit organizations
解释：百度表示将与非营利组织合作，提高贴吧医疗信息的质量。

优步CEO称滴滴快的补贴过多、负担过重

优步(Uber)CEO特拉维斯·卡兰尼克(Travis Kalanick)昨日为该公司在中国的霸主之争发起最新攻势，坚称优步可以比本土对手滴滴快的(Didi Kuaidi)坚持更久，因为优步拥有庞大的资产负债表，而且在支出上效率更高。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

salvo齐射，齐鸣['sælvəʊ]

balance sheets资产负债表

feud争执[fjuːd]

lucrative有利可图的['luːkrətɪv]

logistics物流，后勤[lə'dʒɪstɪks]

winner-take-all赢者通吃

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分23秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分1秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分9秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分45秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Uber chief executive dismisses Chinese rival Didi over subsidies （453words）

By Charles Clover in Beijing

Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick launched the latest salvo in his company's battle with for supremacy in China on Monday, insisting that the ride-hailing company could outlast local rival Didi Kuaidi because of its huge balance sheets and more efficient spending practices.

Mr Kalanick accused Didi Kuaidi of being overburdened with lossmaking subsidies to the tune of $70m-80m per week, which would represent about $4bn over the course of a year. “It's not how much you spend, it's how efficiently you spend,” he said, arguing that Uber spent less on driver subsidies per ride than Didi because of a more efficient structure.

Didi rejected Mr Kalanick's figures, saying that Uber “is being wildly creative about our numbers”, insisting that it was more efficient than its US competitor because it had more riders and drivers. “Didi holds over 80 per cent of the market, which means our competitor has to bleed subsidies to make up for inadequate numbers of riders and drivers,” the Chinese group said.

Mr Kalanick's broadside is the latest in a long-running feud between the two companies, which have been bitter competitors since Didi was created out of a merger of China's two largest ride-hailing apps last February. Uber launched in China in 2013 and says it has a market share of 30-35 per cent, and that this is growing rapidly.

Investors continue to plough money into taxi app companies. Uber China, which operates as a separate entity, was valued at $7bn last September before it raised a further $1.2bn. Didi said it was worth more than $16bn after its most recent funding round.

Both companies have spent heavily in the past year on subsidies in an effort to lock up China's most lucrative cities as markets. Uber has been reported to spend up to three times the fare on driver subsidies in an effort to get more operators on the road.

Neither Uber nor Didi disclosed how much they spent subsidising drivers and riders. But both companies have invested about $1bn in the past year in China, much of which has been for that purpose. Mr Kalanick, who was in Beijing to sign a partnership with travel and logistics giant HNA Group, which owns Hainan Airlines, said Uber would invest more in China.

“We have lots of cities around the world that are profitable and look forward to investing those profits in China,” he said.

While both companies have a winner-take-all approach to the market, experts say there may be room for both to coexist.

Brian Viard, a professor of economics at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, conducted a study that identified 24 Chinese cities with economies large enough market to sustain two or more ride-hailing app companies.

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 point of Travis Kalanick's speech about subsidies?

A.mongey-loser

B.confidence

C.efficiency

D.supporter

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is “more efficient” meaning by Didi's response?

A.more efficient spending practices

B.more riders and drivers

C.better consumption patterns

D.good policy

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who disclosed the figure of subsidy to drivers and riders?

A.Didi

B.neither

C.Uber

D.both

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who signed a partnership with sign a partnership with in Beijing?

A.Didi

B.Hainan Airlines

C.Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business

D.Uber

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.efficiency
解释：卡兰尼克声称滴滴亏损负担过重，相比而言优步在支出上效率更高。

(2)答案：B.more riders and drivers
解释：滴滴否认了卡兰尼克提出的数据，表示优步“对我们的补贴数字拥有疯狂的创造力”，并坚称自己比美国对手更高效，因为滴滴拥有更多乘客和司机。

(3)答案：B.neither
解释：无论优步还是滴滴都没有透露它们对司机和乘客的具体补贴数字。

(4)答案：D.Uber
解释：卡兰尼克昨日在北京与旅游和物流供应商海航集团(HNA Group)签订了合作协议，他表示优步将对中国加大投资。

搞定银联 Apple Pay年初登陆中国

作为iPhone的最大市场，Apple Pay终于克服困难计划2016年在中国正式上线。苹果正式宣布，Apple Pay与银联云闪付相结合，银联卡持卡人可以将卡片添加到iPhone、Apple Watch以及iPad上。届时苹果将要面对支付宝、微信支付等难缠的对手。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

rollout部署['rəlaʊt]

clearance放行证['klɪərəns]

earmark指定用途['ɪəmɑ:k]

cache缓存，储藏[kæʃ]

facto事实上['fæktəʊ]

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28秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分11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2秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Apple Pay to launch in China next year （628 words）

By Tim Bradshaw in San Francisco

Apple has struck a long-awaited deal with UnionPay and 15 Chinese banks to launch its mobile payments service in China.

The tie-up will allow Apple to tap UnionPay's 5bn issued cards, which are accepted across China and in more than 150 countries. Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and ICBC are among the lenders lined up to support Apple Pay.

However, the mainland rollout of Apple Pay is still awaiting regulatory clearance. Apple said it hoped UnionPay customers would be able to add their cards to the service “as soon as early 2016 after relevant tests and certification required by Chinese regulators”.

The wireless payments service was launched in the US in October 2014 after the debut of the iPhone 6, before arriving in the UK, Canada and Australia this year. Spain, Singapore and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region（HKSAR）are all earmarked for launch in 2016.

The app, powered by a secure chip inside the device, allows customers to pay at participating retailers by holding their thumb on the iPhone's home button and tapping it at the checkout. It also works with Apple Watch and within apps for Apple's smartphones and tablets.

China is a vital market for Apple at a time when growth has slowed in other parts of the world. Sales from the Greater China region surged 84 per cent last year to $58.7bn, as the iPhone retains its cache among Chinese consumers.

“China is an extremely important market for Apple and with China UnionPay and support from 15 of China's leading banks, users will soon have a convenient, private and secure payment experience,” said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice-president of internet software and services.

Chai Hongfeng, executive vice-president of China UnionPay, said: “China UnionPay is dedicated to promoting payment innovations and providing secure, convenient mobile payment experiences for its hundreds of millions of cardholders.”

UnionPay's QuickPass technology already allows many cardholders to pay by tapping their credit cards. Last week, UnionPay said more than 20 banks were backing a new mobile payment service. Chinese consumers used their smartphones to make $3.5tn worth of transactions last year but the market is dominated by Alibaba's Alipay and Tencent's Tenpay.

Apple faces tough competition in China, said Mark Natkin of Marbridge Consulting in Beijing, with Alipay dominant with around 70 per cent of the mobile payments market, followed by Tenpay with 16-19 per cent and Baidu trying to break in.

“They are coming into a market where there are two extremely strong incumbents and a third very strong local company that is making headway. For Apple to gain traction here — it won't be impossible, but it will be very challenging” he said.

Apple said in October that more than 1.5m US stores, and more than 250,000 shops in the UK, will accept payment by iPhone by the end of the year. However, its effort to become the de facto standard for mobile payments faces a growing number of challengers from rival tech companies such as Google and Samsung, as well as banks and retailers.

Walmart announced this month that it would launch its own mobile payment app across the US in the first half of next year. JPMorgan Chase is also launching a digital wallet that can be used at the likes of Walmart and 7-Eleven.

With Apple coy about exactly how many customers are making iPhone payments, some analysts have questioned the popularity of the service. One researcher, Phoenix Marketing International, has estimated that while 14 per cent of US households with credit cards had signed up for Apple Pay, transactions make up just a couple of percentage points. Apple is hoping to bolster usage of its service by adding person-to-person payments, akin to PayPal's Venmo, people familiar with its plans have said.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is Apple Pay still awaiting for now?

A.formal agreement with ICBC

B.headquarters support

C.regulatory clearance

D.solution of safety problem

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which country is not on the 2016 launch list?

A.Spain

B.Australia

C.Singapore

D.Hong Kong

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one is wrong to describe Apple Pay service by Apple's senior vice-president Eddy Cue?

A.covenient

B.high-tech

C.private

D.secure

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is Apple's plan to bolster usage of its service?

A.add P2P

B.add O2O

C.cooperation with Walmart

D.launch a digital wallet

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.regulatory clearance
解释：文章第三段。

(2)答案：B.Australia
解释：2015年11月Apple Pay正式登陆澳大利亚。目前，Apple Pay已经在美国、英国、加拿大和澳大利亚推出。

(3)答案：B.high-tech
解释：Eddy表示中国是苹果重要的市场，用户们将会感受到Apple Pay便利、私密和安全的服务。

(4)答案：A.add P2P
解释：苹果的目的是使Apple Pay支持个人间支付功能(P2P)。

《星战：原力觉醒》有望成为最卖座电影

上映仅12天，《星战7》全球票房就达到10.9亿美元，创下票房最快破10亿的票房纪录。作为全球第二大电影市场，《星战：原力觉醒》将于2016年1月9日在中国上映。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

gross总的[ɡrəus]

Avatar《阿凡达》

multiplex多元的，多厅影院['mʌltɪpleks]

royalty专利税['rɒɪəltɪ]

white slavers诱迫良家女子去当娼妓者

retro复古的['retrəʊ]

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27秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分3秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1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

Box offices feel force of Star Wars（458words）

By Matthew Garrahan in New York

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in China on Saturday after generating more than $1.5bn at the global box office in 19 days, putting it on course to surpass Avatar as the top grossing film.

The Walt Disney film capped a record 2015 for Hollywood, with global receipts for all movies exceeding $38bn, thanks to a multiplex boom in China, and total US box-office returns reaching $11bn for the first time.

China's cinema market is growing rapidly. Its total box office increased by 49 per cent in 2015 according to state figures, generating $6.77bn in revenues. The country is adding an average of 22 screens per day.

China, if it continues to grow at its current rate, is projected to overtake the US as the world's largest film market by 2017.

Chinese screens could boost results for The Force Awakens. In recent years the biggest films have performed similarly in China and the US. The Martian, a 2015 film from 21st Century Fox, made $50.1m in its opening weekend in China, compared with $54.4m over its first weekend in the US.

The Force Awakens has already generated $740.3m in the US, making it the biggest grossing film of 2015 and the second of all years behind Avatar, which made $760.5m. With China to come, the Avatar global haul of $2.8bn is within reach.

Only part of The Force Awakens' value lies in box-office returns. Macquarie Securities estimates that the film could generate $5bn in consumer product sales, with Disney likely to earn $500m-$1bn in royalties. Disney is also planning extensive new attractions at its theme parks which will be linked to the film and five other Star Wars titles it has commissioned, following its 2012 purchase of the rights.

Disney paid $4bn to George Lucas, the series creator, for his Lucasfilm company. Last week he criticised The Force Awakens as “retro” and compared the original series to his children, saying he had sold them to “white slavers”. He later apologised for the comments.

Investor anticipation about The Force Awakens lifted Disney shares over 2015. Disney and AMC Networks, home of The Walking Dead series, were the only US media companies to end 2015 with their shares up on 2014. Disney finished 2015 about 10 per cent up on the previous year.

Lower television ratings and fears about “cord-cutting” — the cancellation of cable and satellite television subscriptions — hit US media shares in 2015 with the S&P 500 Media Index falling 5.7 per cent, far more than the broader market, which was flat for the year.

Weakness in the sector is a contrast to the performance of Netflix, the on-demand streaming service that has upended viewing patterns of traditional television. Netflix shares ended 2015 up 130 per cent on 2014.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How much did the Walt Disney film get as global receipts in 2015?

A.$11bn

B.$6.77bn

C.$50.1bn

D.$38bn

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is the percentage of China's box office increased in 2015?

A.nearly one-half

B.2 times

C.nearly one-half

D.unchanged

答案⁽²⁾

3.How many screens is added in China per day?

A.21

B.22

C.17

D.6

答案⁽³⁾

4.When did Disney purchase the right of Star Wars?

A.2012

B.2015

C.2017

D.2002

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：D.$38bn
解释：2015年好莱坞全球票房总收入超过380亿美元。

(2)答案：A.nearly one-half
解释：中国的影院市场正在迅速增长。根据官方数据，其票房总收入在2015年增长了49%，创造了67.7亿美元的总收入。

(3)答案：B.22
解释：中国每天平均增加22块新银幕。

(4)答案：A.2012
解释：2012年，迪士尼收购星球大战品牌权益的拥有者卢卡斯影业。

披头士音乐平安夜登陆流媒体

全世界的披头士乐队(Beatles)粉丝今年将得到一份圣诞厚礼：这个偶像乐队的所有唱片将于周四早晨在各大流媒体平台上线。对很多用户来说，这不仅代表的是一张他们听了多年的唱片数字化这么简单，而是“情怀”的问题。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

coup政变[kuː]

label商标['leɪb(ə)l]

lossmaking总是亏损的['lɒs,meɪkɪŋ]

segment分割['segm(ə)nt]

tribute贡品['trɪbjuːt]

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41秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分11秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1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

The Beatles follow long and winding road to streaming services （478 words）

By Henry Mance, Media Correspondent

The Beatles'songs will be available on music streaming services from tomorrow, after the group's management company reached a deal with Spotify, Apple Music and other providers.

The move is a coup for the streaming companies, which have been attacked by artists such as Taylor Swift for their royalty rates, and which were unable to agree immediate access to Adele's new album.

All 13 of The Beatles' studio albums will go live at 12.01am local time on December 24 on nine music services: Amazon Prime, Apple Music, Deezer, Google Play, Microsoft-owned Groove, Rhapsody, Slacker, Spotify and Tidal.

The Beatles' recordings are controlled by Apple Corps, the band's own management company, and music label EMI. They did not appear on Apple iTunes until 2010, seven years after the launch of the download store, following what Steve Jobs, then chief executive, described as “a long and winding road”.

“In many ways this is quite early for The Beatles. Their estate is always fashionably late to the digital party,” said Mark Mulligan, a music industry analyst with Midia Research. “2016 is a coming of age for streaming.”

Although criticised for their payments by artists, streaming services are lossmaking, with income from advertising and subscriptions unable to cover the cost of royalties, marketing and technology development.

Unlike video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, music streaming companies do not own content rights and seek to offer a comprehensive catalogue. They also face strong competition from YouTube, the Google-owned video platform, which argues that it does not have to pay to license music.

Major record labels earned $2.2bn from streaming services last year, but such revenues are also likely to undermine sales from CDs and individual downloads. The trade-off is crucial for The Beatles, whose label has continued to exploit the band's back catalogue, including a deluxe reissue of the 1 album this year.

However, Mr Mulligan said that The Beatles were unlikely to lose many album sales by being on streaming services because their fans are segmented across different platforms.

Although terms of the royalty payments were not disclosed, The Beatles' management company would have received “an amazing deal”, Mr Mulligan said.

The Beatles' absence from streaming services has given voice to tribute bands and other artists who have recorded their songs. A version of Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles Tribute Band has been streamed 7.4m times on Spotify. However, that is likely to have earned the tribute band only a few thousand pounds, according to estimated royalty rates.

The solo catalogues of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison are already available on streaming services. Lennon's version of Imagine has been streamed 21m times on Spotify — although that lags behind well behind the 256m plays racked up by Four Five Seconds, a collaboration between Mr McCartney, Rihanna and Kanye West that was released earlier this year.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who attacked s streaming services for royalty rates?

A.Taylor Swift

B.Radiohead

C.AC/DC

D.Prince

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many studio albums of The Beatles' will go live on Christmas Eve?

A.24

B.9

C.4

D.13

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which management company own the band's now?

A.Apple Music

B.Apple Corps

C.EMI

D.Apple Inc

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who argues the need for paying to license music?

A.YouTube

B.Netflix

C.Amazon Prime

D.Spotify

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Taylor Swift
解释：Taylor Swift之前抗议免费流媒体音乐造成音乐人的版税流失。

(2)答案：D.13
解释：13张重制版披头士乐队录音室专辑将登陆9个平台。

(3)答案：B.Apple Corps
解释：披头士所属于苹果音像出版公司（Apple Corps）Apple Inc是苹果电脑公司。

(4)答案：A.YouTube
解释：文章第七段，是YouTube争辩其不需要为许可证付费。

优步联手脸书用手机讯息叫车

很多人都用Facebook Messenger来约朋友吃饭，这时他们就不用从手机再叫出另一个app，而是直接在Messenger对话中叫车。Facebook也能储存用户的付款资讯，供其他透过脸书进行的购物服务利用。于是，脸书独立的讯息服务扩张至不再只有单纯的沟通功能，Uber更一举成为拥有7亿社群网络用户支撑的服务软体。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

alliance联盟[ə'laɪəns]

disruptive破坏的[dɪs'rʌptɪv]

tie-up合作

concierge看门人[['kɒnsieəʒ]

coupo优惠券['ku:pɒnz]

integration一体化[ɪntɪ'greɪʃn]

mortgage抵押贷款['mɔ:gɪdʒ]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分23秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分34秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分33秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分53秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Facebook Messenger in transport move with Uber ride ordering deal （537 words）

By Leslie Hook and Hannah Kuchler in San Francisco

Uber has agreed an alliance with Facebook Messenger that will allow users to order a ride from within the Messenger chat app, in a coup for the disruptive ride-hailing company.

The tie-up gives Uber access to millions of potential new users and marks the first time that Messenger — for which Facebook has ambitions ranging from retail to concierge services — has ventured into transport.

Uber is the biggest ride-hailing company in the world in terms of funding, with about $12bn raised so far — even as lawsuits relating to its treatment of drivers and compliance with local laws work their way through courts in many countries.

The San Francisco-based company has been spending heavily to attract new users by providing them with generous coupons for joining and referring friends, and it will inaugurate the Messenger deal with a $20 coupon for new users.

Its Facebook Messenger service, initially released in 10 cities on Wednesday, will be rolled out across the US before Christmas, with the goal of expanding internationally in 2016. Uber would not disclose whether there was a revenue-sharing agreement with Facebook as part of the deal.

Uber has been working on extending the reach of its transportation service beyond its standalone app, and map apps from Google and Baidu, which is an investor in Uber, already have links that will steer a user to the Uber app.

Facebook's integration is unusual, though, because it works within Messenger, allowing a user to hail a car without ever leaving the chat app.

It forms part of a wider plan to turn Facebook Messenger into a chat platform, along the lines of China's WeChat or Japan's Line. These rival apps offer services such as hailing a cab, applying for a mortgage or even, in the case of Line, communicating with your smart fridge.

Facebook Messenger has more than doubled its userbase in the past year and a half since it was broken out from the main Facebook app. Its more than 700m monthly active users can send gifs and stickers, make voice calls and payments from within the app.

Facebook is also experimenting with a personal virtual assistant within Messenger, called M. It is powered by a combination of artificial intelligence and a team of humans, and can enable users to carry out tasks ranging from sending a friend flowers to cancelling a cable subscription.

Partnering with Uber could help Facebook Messenger persuade more users to hand over their payment details, which it could then store and use to encourage speedy purchases within the app. People who want to sign up for the service but do not already have an Uber account will store their credit card details in Messenger and have them sent securely to Uber to be charged.

The deal will also help differentiate Messenger in a crowd of chat apps, including Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which focuses on being a fast and simple text replacement service.

Seth Rosenberg, product manager for Messenger, said the agreement with Uber was the first it planned in the new category of transport. Messenger is also working with airline KLM to show boarding passes within the app but Mr Rosenberg would not say whether Facebook would strike deals with Uber's rivals such as Lyft.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where does Facebook want to try recently?

A.retail

B.transport

C.media

D.P2P

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who is the biggest ride-hailing company in terms of funding all over the world?

A.Ola

B.Grabtaxi

C.Lyft

D.Uber

答案⁽²⁾

3.How to attract new users for Uber?

A.send gifts

B.provide coupons

C.luxury car service

D.door-to-door service

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which app provide the service to communicate with users' smart fridge?

A.Line

B.Wechat

C.Facebook Messenger

D.WhatsApp

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.transport
解释：Facebook的野心从零售、服务现在已经探索到交通运输领域。

(2)答案：D.Uber
解释：尽管Uber在全球官司缠身，但是从资金方面来说它仍是全球最大的。

(3)答案：B.provide coupons
解释：为了吸引新用户，Uber提供$20的邀请券。

(4)答案：A.Line
解释：Line 还提供与智能家电说话的Home Chat服务，加速其在智能家电领域的布局。

阿里巴巴收购南华早报

南华早报集团周一（12月14日）宣布，将以约20.6亿港元（2.66亿美元）出售旗下媒体业务给中国阿里巴巴集团。《南华早报》是香港本地唯一的收费英文报章，创刊于1903年。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

pledge许诺[pledʒ]

portrayal描绘[pɔ:'treɪəl]

prestigious有声望的[pre'stɪdʒəs]

toned down下调，降温

lens镜头[lenz]

ominous不祥的['ɒmɪnəs]

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57秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1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

Alibaba to buy South China Morning Post （416 words）

By Henry Mance in London and Henny Sender in New York

Jack Ma's Alibaba Group has acquired the South China Morning Post, pledging to use the English-language newspaper to counter ‘negative' portrayals of China overseas.

The acquisition — Alibaba's first media investment outside of mainland China — echoes the purchase of the Washington Post by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2012. Although that investment was made by Mr Bezos personally, Amazon has since integrated the Washington Post into some of its offerings.

Alibaba did not disclose the price that it is paying for the SCMP. Founded in 1903, the newspaper was once a prestigious, independent voice in Hong Kong, but has been criticised for seeming increasingly close to Beijing's official line in covering politics.

Now, analysts in Hong Kong fear that economic and financial coverage will also be toned down.

Joe Tsai, Alibaba's executive vice-chairman, said that the company would “let the editors decide the editorial policy and direction of coverage for any story”. But he also criticised western news organisations for covering China through “a very particular lens”.

“When people don't really understand China and have the wrong perception of China, they also have a lot of misconceptions about Alibaba,” he separately told The New York Times. “What's good for China is also good for Alibaba.”

Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, said Mr Tsai's comments were “pretty ominous”.

English-language, Chinese news organisations currently include state-controlled newspaper China Daily and state broadcaster CCTV News.

The SCMP had a daily print and digital circulation of 102,000 last year, and claims to be the most read newspaper among Hong Kong's business elite. Mr Tsai said that Alibaba would “expand the SCMP's readership globally”.

Alibaba's media interests include film production, video streaming and a $194m investment in financial media company, China Business News. It will acquire the SCMP and other media assets, but not the listed parent company, SCMP Group, whose shares are suspended due to an insufficiently large free float.

SCMP's newspaper division fell into an adjusted operating loss of HK$2.7m (£230,000) in the first half of this year. Adjusted operating profits at its magazines arm, which publishes local versions of titles such as Cosmopolitan and Bazaar, fell one-third to HK$31.6m.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp acquired a 35 per cent in SCMP in 1986, but sold most of its holding to Robert Kuok, a Malaysian billionaire, in 1993.

When SCMP disclosed last month that it had received takeover interest, it was widely reported that Mr Ma, rather than Alibaba, the company he founded, was the suitor.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who bought the Washington Post?

A.Jack Ma

B.Amazon group

C.Jeff Bezos

D.Rupert Murdoch

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who will decide the direction of coverage for any story after the acquisition?

A.Beijing authorities

B.editors

C.Alibaba

D.Hong Kong authorities

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is Jay Rosen's attitude to the future of SCMP?

A.optimistic

B.moved

C.hopeful

D.dim

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the role of SCMP as the part of Alibaba's media interest?

A.media asset

B.film production

C.video streaming

D.financial media company

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.Jeff Bezos
解释：亚马逊公司创始人杰弗里·贝索斯以2.5亿美元收购《华盛顿邮报》，而不是其集团行为。

(2)答案：B.editors
解释：阿里集团执行副主席蔡崇信还强调《南华早报》将继续保持采编独立，以客观、准确与公平的方针报道新闻。

(3)答案：D.dim
解释：Rosen对于蔡崇信的发言感到“相当不详的”由此可以推断出他对于SCMP的未来是感到不那么积极的。

(4)答案：A.media asset
解释：阿里投资的媒体形式包括电影出品和发行、传统媒体和数字出版等。

Twitter瞄准未登陆用户

Twitter想向投资者表明，即使用户增长放缓，公司广告业务营收仍将会增长。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

initiative倡议

romoted tweets推广消息

periscope潜望镜

amortisation摊还

revamp改造

chronological按时间排序的

tenfold十倍的

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

3分10秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分27秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分28秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分51秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Twitter targets users who never log in （518 words）

By Hannah Kuchler

Twitter is to give companies the ability to advertise to the 500m people who visit the messaging site to read tweets every month, but never log in.

The San Francisco-based technology group said on Thursday that it was testing a way of showing promoted tweets, paid for by advertisers, to users who click on links to tweets in Google search results, or view Twitter members' profile pages.

Twitter's new initiative comes as it tries to expand the reach of its advertising, amid concerns that its user growth is slowing — making it harder to compete with much larger social networks such as Facebook.

Deepak Rao, revenue product manager, said that marketers could now tap into the “total Twitter audience”, which is larger than the 320m monthly logged-in users that Wall Street has focused on.

Twitter will start testing the promoted tweets with selected advertisers in the US, UK, Japan and Australia, before expanding into other countries. It will begin with the desktop Twitter website, rather than mobile site, and focus on advertising campaigns to drive clicks, conversions and video views.

Shares in Twitter closed up 6.7 per cent at $25.94 in New York, following the announcement of the product and news that its Periscope live video streaming app, acquired and launched earlier this year, had been named Apple's App of the Year.

Robert Peck, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphreys, said that the expansion of advertising had increased his revenue forecasts by 2 per cent and his predictions for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation by 6 per cent. “The longer-term lift from the increased reach of the platform, which has been a sticking point for investors and advertisers, could be significantly larger — particularly as we think about the 1.3bn audience that sees tweets on syndicated sites,” he said in a note.

Twitter's attempt to expand marketing beyond the core user base is part of a broader transformation promised by chief executive Jack Dorsey, the co-founder who took over the top job permanently in October.

Mr Dorsey has said that he will revamp the product to make it more accessible for new and inexperienced users. He has already launched Moments, which shows short stories made of tweets rather than the chronological timeline that Twitter is known for.

For some time, the messaging site has been trying to persuade advertisers that it reaches many more users than its active user base implies. In August, it launched the Twitter audience platform, which it said reached more than 700m people on and off Twitter. Promoted tweets that advertisers buy on Twitter can now be shown as native ads, video ads or banner ads on other sites and apps.

In addition, Twitter's mobile advertising exchange, MoPub, enables marketers to buy advertisements on other sites, informed by data that Twitter has on its users.

Speaking earlier in the week, Anthony Noto, Twitter chief financial officer, said that the company had doubled its advertiser base in the past year, as more marketers used the platform outside the US, and spoke of a “tenfold” opportunity in advertising, which contributes the majority of Twitter revenue.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who will be targeted by Twitter?

A.read tweets every month without landing

B.read tweets every 2 weeks without landing

C.registered but not logged in during a year

D.overseas users

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is purpose of Twitter's new initiative?

A.to increase page views

B.to expand the reach of its advertising

C.prove his chief position on social platform

D.to reduce costs

答案⁽²⁾

3.Where is not included as the test point?

A.Canada

B.Japan

C.Australia

D.Britain

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one cannot be shown on other sites and apps by Twitter's promoted tweets?

A.secondary ads

B.native ads

C.video ads

D.banner ads

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.read tweets every month without landing
解释：Twitter正计划利用超过5亿每月都浏览其文章但未登录的访客去获得收入。

(2)答案：B.to expand the reach of its advertising
解释：推特的目的在于扩大其广告宣传范围试图证明：即便是用户增长放缓，但Twitter的广告业务营收仍将会增长。

(3)答案：A.Canada
解释：推特会选择英国、美国、日本和澳大利亚的用户进行测试。

(4)答案：A.secondary ads
解释：原生广告、视频广告和横幅广告都可以展示在其他页面和app上。

中国工商银行137人被处罚

中纪委称，违纪行为包括，违规组织内部宴请、公务或商务接待超标准、参与客户组织旅游，以及领导干部在操办婚丧事宜中接受员工礼金等问题。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

graft贪污

austerity紧缩

probe侦查，调查

“Eight Regulations of Austerit” “八项规定”

quotidian日常的

violation违法行为

subordinate下属

Guosen Securities国信证券

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47秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分40秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分54秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分40秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

China punishes ICBC staff for flouting austerity regime （402 words）

By Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai

China's graft watchdog has reprimanded 137 staff at the country's top bank for hosting extravagant dinners and entertainment and forcing subordinates to give gifts.

The action by the Central Commission on Discipline Inspection was taken after the focus of the public austerity campaign was switched to the financial sector.

From late October, the Communist party body said it would inspect institutions including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's largest lender by assets, Agricultural Bank of China, China Development Bank, the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the People's Bank of China.

Previous probes have targeted state-owned groups including China Mobile, the telecoms business, China National Petroleum Corp, Baosteel and State Grid, the power distributor.

Party leaders approved the “Eight Regulations of Austerity” in December 2012, one of the first initiatives in Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign. While much of the drive has focused on large-scale bribery and abuse of power, the rules focused on more quotidian forms of corruption: banquets at public expense, unnecessary travel and meetings and unauthorised use of government cars.

A particular target was the habit of senior officials and state-owned enterprise executives of inviting subordinates to weddings, funerals and other functions where they would be expected to give red envelopes of cash or other gifts. Though ostensibly an invitation, attendance is understood to be mandatory.

At ICBC, the investigators discovered 25 violations that led to disciplinary action against 37 individuals and warnings to an additional 10. The 18 disciplinary violations that were found resulted in 90 punishments, including 15 firings and expulsions from the party.

Last week the Xinhua news agency reported that almost 139,000 people had been punished nationwide for violating the rules since their inception. Unauthorised use of vehicles was the most common offence, with forcing subordinates to attend parties ranking second.

The agency is looking into ICBC and other state-owned banks in parallel with police and regulatory inquiries into brokerages and fund managers in the wake of China's summer stock market rout.

Police have detained senior executives at Citic Securities, the country's largest brokerage, on suspicion of insider trading. The securities regulator is investigating Citic, Haitong Securities, the second-largest brokerage, and Guosen Securities for violating rules on margin lending.

The president of AgBank's, China's third-largest lender, was detained in early November and resigned this week. Xu Xiang, China's richest hedge fund manager, was arrested on suspicion of insider trading last month.

Additional reporting by Ma Nan

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where is the focus of the public austerity campaign now?

A.internet sector

B.entertainment sector

C.financial sector

D.media sector

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which one is the world's largest lender by assets?？

A.Agricultural Bank of China

B.Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

C.China Development Bank

D.People's Bank of China

答案⁽²⁾

3.What kind of groups have been targeted before?

A.privately owned groups

B.joint venture companies

C.overseas enterprises

D.state-owned groups

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the most common offence against “Eight Regulations of Austerity” by Xinhua news agency?

A.uauthorised use of vehicles

B.large-scale bribery

C.forcing subordinates to attend parties

D.banquets at public expense

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.financial sector
解释：中共中央纪委是在政府反腐倡廉行动的焦点转向了金融业。

(2)答案：答案：B.Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
解释：文章第二段，ICBC是中国最大的商业银行。

(3)答案：D.state-owned groups
解释：之前包括中国移动、中国石油、宝钢集团等国有集团都被调查过。

(4)答案：A.uauthorised use of vehicles
解释：自中央出台“八项规定”以来，全国有13.9万人因违反规定受到处理。其中，违规配备使用公务用车问题最突出，其次是大办婚丧喜庆。

英国《金融时报》
原文阅读精选集Vol.38

有线电视市场：亚马逊来了！

亚马逊为了竞争有线电视的份额，绑定视频频道如Showtime，Starz等公司的节目，制定了高级会员套餐并收取格外的一些费用

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

vying竞赛的

bundle打包

ecommerce电子商务

lessen减少

air广播

footprint足迹

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分15秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分56秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分6秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分44秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Amazon adds Showtime and Starz to bundle （442 words）

By Shannon Bond in New York

Amazon is vying to win over cable television “cord-cutters” by bundling subscription video channels from Showtime, Starz and other networks with its Prime membership programme for an additional fee.

The move allows the ecommerce group to broaden its offering of video content without having to pay higher licensing fees, and gives partners access to Amazon's distribution and billing infrastructure and a streaming-friendly audience that could help lessen their dependence on pay-TV providers.

As media companies, technology groups and cable and satellite operators introduce competing streaming packages, executives and analysts have begun to question how many services people will pay for. Amazon's bundling points to a possible solution by letting customers manage and pay for several services in one place.

“The way people watch TV is changing, and customers need an easier way to subscribe to and enjoy multiple streaming subscriptions,” said Michael Paull, Amazon's vice-president of digital video.

David Nevins, president of Showtime, the CBS-owned premium cable channel that airs Homeland, said: “By marrying Showtime with the powerhouse retail capabilities of Amazon, we continue to greatly expand our footprint, making sure our service is available to new subscribers whenever and however they want to watch us.”

Like Netflix, the biggest force in streaming video, and Hulu, the US service owned by Walt Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast, Amazon has been ploughing money into video programming. It has increased spending both on shows and movies licensed from media owners such as HBO and CBS and its own original programming, such as the Emmy-award winning series Transparent. It will spend $1.7bn on content this year compared with $500m in 2012, RBC Capital Markets estimates.

Amazon does not disclose the number of subscribers to its $99 a year Prime service, which includes on-demand video, music and free shipping, but Macquarie analysts estimate it has about 40m worldwide. Netflix has 43m US members and 69m in total around the world.

Prime members will be able to subscribe to Showtime for $8.99 a month — $2 less than Showtime charges for its standalone online offering. Hulu has also struck a deal to offer Showtime to its subscribers at the same discounted price.

The inclusion of Starz, a premium cable channel that was spun out of John Malone's Liberty Media in 2013, marks the first time the network has been offered online without a pay-TV subscription in the US. This year Starz launched online subscriptions in the Middle East.

Other channels available to prime members for an extra fee include AMC's SundanceNow documentary film service and Shudder horror film offering, A&E's Lifetime Movie Club, and streaming video from online-only providers including DramaFever, Defy Media and BroadbandTV.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Emmy-award is whose programming？

A.Amazon

B.HBO

C.CBS

D.Netflix

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many Prime service subscribers Amazon has worldwide estimated by Macquarie analysts？

A.30m

B.43m

C.40m

D.69m

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who launched online subscriptions in Middle East in 2013？

A.Amazon

B.Showtime

C.Comcast

D.Starz

答案⁽³⁾

4.What advantage does Showtime enjoy when they cooperate with Amazon？

A.Reduce operational cost

B.Support from government

C.Expand their footprint

D.Retain their old subscribers

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Amazon
解释：Amazon加大了在视频节目方面的投资，包括它自己旗下的Emmy-award。

(2)答案：C.40m
解释：Macquarie analysts估计，Amazon全球范围的高级服务订阅户为400万人。

(3)答案：D.Starz
解释：2013年，Starz在中东推出了在线订阅。

(4)答案：C.Expand their footprint
解释：David Nevins说，亚马逊强大的零售能力使得Showtime可以继续扩展他们的足迹。

中国“最卖座电影”被疑票房造假

2014年底，内地年度票房未能突300亿大关。截至2015年12月，只用了11个月就突破了400亿元目标。然而身为历史与年度双料票房冠军的《捉妖记》却被爆以“幽灵场”票房造假。数字的背后到底是“干货”的喜悦、还是“水分”的尴尬？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

box office票房

medieval中古的，中世纪的

top-grossin（尤指电影）票房最高的

netizens网络公民

distributor发行者

blackout管制

duplicate重复，轮排（电影）

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

2分46秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分40秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分54秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分40秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

China's best-selling film accused of inflating box office （401 words）

By Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai

China's box office champion for 2015 — a medieval fantasy about the child of a human man and monster queen that elbowed aside Furious 7 to become the country's top-grossing film to date — has been accused of inflating ticket sales to claim the crown.

The claims, made by state media after netizens raised doubts about the reliability of Monster Hunt's box office record, undermine the progress made by China's domestic film industry in grabbing market share from Hollywood this year.

Monster Hunt collected Rmb2.43bn ($379m) in ticket sales during its theatre run in August and September, outstripping Furious 7 by only Rmb160,000, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

The distributor has acknowledged giving away 40m tickets during the final 15 days of its run — an average of 2.7m tickets a day. That accounts for virtually all of the film's box office earnings in that period, according to calculations by National Business Daily. The film also played in theatres for 59 days compared with 47 days for Furious 7.

Total Chinese box office earnings reached Rmb40bn, a 47 per cent rise compared with 2014. Domestic films earned 59 per cent of total box office, the highest ratio in more than 10 years.

China restricts the number of foreign films shown in theatres each year to 35, up from 20 in 2012. Foreign films are also subject to an unofficial summer blackout period during which only domestic films are allowed to debut.

It is common practice for Chinese theatres and production companies to offer “public welfare screenings” with free tickets to young children, seniors, police, teachers and the disabled. Monster Hunt's distributor, Hong Kong-based Edko Films, appears to have exploited this strategy on an unusually large scale in a bid to claim the year's top spot.

Beginning in late August, netizens reported cases of theatres scheduling screenings of Monster Hunt in the middle of the night and multiple showings of the film on the same theatre screen scheduled less than 30 minutes apart. In September, state broadcaster China Central Television reported that public welfare screenings of Monster Hunt at three different theatres were empty.

Zhang Han, an Edko executive, told CCTV that “public welfare” tickets were counted in its official box office total. In a statement on its official Weibo account, Edko also acknowledged cases of overnight and duplicate screenings, and said it “instituted serious criticism” to the employees involved.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What kind of movie is the China's box office champion(2015)?

A.comedy

B.action movie

C.fantasy

D.thriller

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who was the runner-up for the box office performance?

A.Furious 7

B.Monster Hunt

C.Goodbye, Mr.loser

D.Lost in Hong Kong

答案⁽²⁾

3.What are occupied most of total box office in 2015?

A.Hollywood films

B.India films

C.European films

D.Chinese film

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who can not get the free tickets from “public welfare screenings” activity?

A.seniors

B.doctors

C. police

D.teachers

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.fantasy
解释：文章第一段，是一部中世纪的奇幻片。

(2)答案：A.Furious 7
解释：《捉妖记》在8月和9月的档期斩获24.3亿元人民币（合3.79亿美元）票房，比《速度与激情7》多出16万元人民币。

(3)答案：D.Chinese film
解释：国产电影占到了总票房的59%，这一比例为10多年来最高。

(4)答案：B. doctors
解释：中国影院和制片公司通常会向儿童、老年人、警察、教师和残疾人赠票，开展“公益放映”, 《捉妖记》发行方似乎大规模地采用了这种做法。

风险资本公司的“颠簸路”

加利福尼亚最活跃的风险资本公司之一Google Ventures的掌舵人比尔·马里斯(Bill Maris)警告称，部分初创企业到头来可能对不向公开发售股票，而是利用私募市场追求高整体估值的决定感到后悔。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

valuation估值

earmarked专款专用

negotiate谈判

surplus剩余额，顺差

grumble抱怨

cloak-and-dagger有关阴谋或间谍的

aligned对准的

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5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38秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分16秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Bumpy ride for Google Ventures （764words）

By Richard Waters in San Francisco

If there is anything holding back Google's venture capital arm, it is not a shortage of money or ambition. But with competition for investments driving up valuations of private technology companies, even having the backing of the world's most powerful internet company is not a guarantee of finding enough good deals.

Google Ventures, which will be renamed GV this week, invested 20 per cent less this year than last, even as the amount of capital it has earmarked for start-up investing has risen, according to chief executive Bill Maris. The number of companies it backed also fell, dropping to 34 from 57 the previous year.

“The amount of money trying to get into investments has caused prices to go up and negotiating leverage to move to the entrepreneurs,” he says. “Capital has never been a constraint for us.” Signs that private market valuations were starting to fall in some cases made it likely that the pace of investments would pick up again next year, he adds.

The investment unit has become one of Silicon Valley's most active start-up investors, backing more than 300 companies. Among them are ride-hailing app Uber and Nest, the “smart home” start-up that was acquired outright by Google for $3.2bn.

Google has set aside $2.4bn of its surplus cash for venture investing since getting into the sector six years ago, according to an annual fund update due to be published late on Sunday. But a third of that money — representing an overhang of $300m earmarked for earlier years, along with a new $500m fund for next year — has yet to be put to work.

In one change in approach that might speed up its investing, GV is abandoning the idea of running separate funds for overseas investing, a move that Mr Maris said would give it more flexibility when deciding where to invest.

The move comes only 18 months after it set up its first international fund, with a $125m pool of cash dedicated to ventures in Europe. Instead, it is pooling investments next year in a single global vehicle.

GV has made only six investments from the $125m European fund, which was heralded as a sign of surging venture capital interest in Europe, historically a backwater for venture investing.

But Mr Maris denied that the European fund had been disappointing. While it had not met its target “dollar for dollar”, the investment pace in Europe has matched the US fund, which is also set to end the year with cash on hand.

Meanwhile, following the reorganisation of Google into tech holding company Alphabet, the investment arm is this week renaming itself GV. The new name is partly to distance it from the company's internet business, now a separate subsidiary, and tackle perceptions about possible conflicts of interest.

There have always been grumblings from rivals, says Mr Maris, that “‘GV is a secret cloak-and-dagger unit of Google'”, set up to scour Silicon Valley for new ideas to feed Google's own business or to act as a pipeline for acquisitions.

“The minute that happens we're done — that's the end of the business,” he says. “There is not a single case that supports that mythology. The company gets no information from us, we're a shareholder just like any other. My interests are aligned with entrepreneurs and the other shareholders and not Google.”

As the ambitions of the wider Alphabet conglomerate expand, GV is already finding increasing overlap between its investments and other parts of the group.

One of the business ideas Google has considered for its driverless cars, for instance, has been a taxi-like service that might compete with Uber. Mr Maris says overlaps such as this are unavoidable but can be managed. Of Uber, he adds: “It's hard to believe that any companies of that size and scale don't compete with some aspect of what Google and Alphabet are doing.”

GV's move into life sciences — now the largest part of its activities, accounting for 31 per cent of the money it put to work this year — also potentially puts it into competition with Calico, a division of Alphabet run by Art Levinson, a former chief executive of biotechnology group Genentech.

To tackle some of the most ambitious new treatments with the potential to benefit large numbers of people, Mr Maris said the fund was planning to set aside $100m a year for the next two years that would be channelled into its three best ideas. That puts it on a more direct collision path with Calico, though Mr Maris says he does not discuss investment ideas with Mr Levinson.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What will happened if the amount of money trying to get into investments?

A.prices to go up

B.price fall

C.negotiating leverage to move to the banks

D.get more ad opportunities

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How many companies are backing from GV?

A.less than 300

B.more than 400

C.about 320

D.only 3

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is abandoned by GV about its running separate funds?

A.domestic investment

B.portfolio investment

C.pooling investment

D.overseas investing

答案⁽³⁾

4.Which one is the GV's largest part of its activities?

A.driverless cars

B.fibre communication

C.life sciences

D.map function

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.prices to go up
解释：试图进入投资的资金量已经导致了价格上升和谈判的杠杆向企业家们移动。

(2)答案：C.about 320
解释：即将改名为“GV”的Google Ventures自6年前创立以来，已投资了300多家公司。

(3)答案：D.overseas investing
解释：马里斯认为这一举措会使投资决策更多灵活性。

(4)答案：C.life sciences
解释：谷歌在生命科学领域正发力。

“糖税”为肥胖减重？

是时候政府出面解决儿童超重和肥胖现象了！英国国会议员建议政府应该采取强制措施：包括对含糖饮料进行征税，以及控制不健康食品和饮料的降价促销活动等，打击儿童身上的小肥肉。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

obesity 肥胖

waistline腰围

epidemic流行的

nanny保姆

countenance赞同

uneven不均匀的

confectionery甜食

conjunction汇合点

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20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56秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分1秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The compelling case for a British sugar tax （616words）

Obesity is one of the biggest threats to public health in the UK. After 30 years of expanding waistlines, one in four adults is now chronically overweight. It is an epidemic that costs Britain's National Health Service £5.1bn every year, and is growing fast.

The government is slowly waking up to the scale of the problem. A misplaced desire not to be seen to “nanny” the public has until now muted politicians' responses. But support is gathering for the idea of some form of sugar tax. For all David Cameron's public reluctance to countenance such a measure, it is something the prime minister should heed.

The idea of intervention may offend liberal souls. In fact, the state is already engaged — not least out of an understandable desire to promote better public health. There are rules in place about advertising unhealthy food to children, and the government has persuaded producers voluntarily to label the nutritional value of their products.

Still, this falls far short of what is needed to tackle the epidemic. Health experts and public campaigners are now calling for a tax on sugar. Endorsed by British doctors and Public Health England, a government body, the proposal would impose a 20 per cent levy on full-sugar soft drinks. A committee of MPs joined their ranks this week, urging the government to act.

Unsurprisingly, the idea is strongly opposed by the food and drink industry. Bosses claim that a levy would do little to shrink bulging waistlines. It would just be a highly regressive impost, bearing down on the wallets of the less well off.

The evidence on the policy is admittedly uneven. Granted, taxes do scale down on consumption. When Mexico introduced a 10 per cent levy on fizzy drinks last year, volumes fell 12 per cent. What is less obvious is the impact on waistlines, not least because the measure occurred too recently for meaningful data to have emerged.

As for the impact on the poor, it is hard to deny that they would be the most affected. The less well-off are big consumers of fizzy drinks, and these products account for a larger part of their disposable income. At the same time, children from the poorest families are twice as likely to become obese as their better-off classmates. It is the less affluent who have the most to gain from the fight against flab.

The idea of the state influencing the weekly shop may stick in the craw. However, something else already holds a large sway over taste buds. A third of confectionery purchases are impulse buys related to advertising. Public Health England estimates that buy-one-get-one-free promotions are responsible for increasing household food and drink consumption by 22 per cent, adding 6 per cent more sugar to Britain's already over-sweet diet.

True, a sugar tax is only part of the story. To tackle the UK's obesity epidemic, a multi-pronged approach is needed. Higher prices on fizzy drinks should complement regulatory changes limiting promotional offers and a more comprehensive labelling initiative. Some suggestions, such as national healthy food standards to be implemented across schools and the NHS, may actually be even bolder than a levy on fizzy drinks.

Britons consume far too much sugar. On average adults eat and drink three times as much of it as health experts recommend. The health and spending implications of the epidemic are clear. It is now time for the government toact. It would be unfair to expect a tax on a single product to transform the eating habits of an entire population. But in conjunction with other measures, it would be a much-needed start.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.How many people might be chronically overweight if there are 20 adults?

A.5

B.2

C.15

D.1

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is Cameron's attitude towards the tax on sugar?

A.moved

B.agreeable

C.chuffed

D.skeptical

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who opposed strongly the measure of sugar tax?

A.health experts

B.public campaigners

C.MPs' committee

D.food and drink industry

答案⁽³⁾

4.Where introduced a 10 per cent levy on fizzy drinks last year?

A.Brazil

B.Germany

C.Mexico

D.Moscow

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.5
解释：四个成年人中就有一个是慢性超重的状态。

(2)答案：D.skeptical
解释：首相戴维·卡梅伦的一名发言人则表示，卡梅伦认为征收糖税不是“正确之道”，所以应该是怀疑态度。

(3)答案：D.food and drink industry
解释：不出所料，饮料和食品制造商是强烈反对这项提议的。

(4)答案：C.Mexico
解释：为打击肥胖，墨西哥去年开始对含糖饮料征税。

扎克伯格将捐出99%Facebook股份

今年七月，扎克伯格在自己的Facebook 页面上宣布妻子 Priscilla Chan 怀孕。如今这位互联网“大佬”如此大方地分享了自己家庭的喜悦。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

pledge保证

initiative倡议

foreseeable可预见的

empower授权

entrepreneurship创业

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12秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分28秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分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

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg pledges $45bn giveaway （522words）

By Hannah Kuchler

Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to give away 99 per cent of his Facebook shares — worth about $45bn — during his lifetime, as he announced the birth of his first child.

The Facebook founder and president said he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were happy to welcome a daughter called Max, born early last week, into the world. “We are committed to doing our small part to help create this world we hope she grows up in,” he wrote in a post on the social network.

He launched the Chan Zuckerberg initiative, a limited liability company controlled by the couple, with a stated mission to advance human potential and promote equality.

Shares in Facebook were flat in after-hours trading. Mr Zuckerberg controls about 53 per cent of the voting rights of Facebook, through his holding of 419m Class B shares, which carry 10 votes each, and about 4m Class A shares.

He plans to sell or gift no more than $1bn of Facebook stock a year for the next three years and intends to retain his majority voting position for the foreseeable future, Facebook said in a filing.

Mr Zuckerberg had previously pledged to give away half his fortune, as part of an initiative called The Giving Pledge spearheaded by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates. He has already made gifts totalling $1.6bn to causes such as education, healthcare and the environment.

“We must make long-term investments over 25, 50 or even 100 years. The greatest challenges require very long-time horizons and cannot be solved by short-term thinking,” he said on Facebook.

Some 99 per cent of the couple's Facebook shares will be contributed to the organisation and will be used to fund non-profits, make private investments and participate in policy debates. Any profits from investments in companies will be used to fund additional work to advance the mission.

Mr Zuckerberg will continue to control the shares. Facebook said Mr Zuckerberg is committed to the company and its vision and will “continue in his role as chairman and chief executive for many, many years”.

“They have been very fortunate in their work and do not want to wait until later in life to give back,” a spokesperson said.

The Giving Pledge has been signed by Bill and Melinda Gates, the investor Warren Buffett, former New York mayor and media company owner Michael Bloomberg and technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, among many others.

Mr Zuckerberg and his wife wrote a letter to their daughter describing their vision for the future of the globe. He said the world was not directing resources at the “biggest opportunities and problems your generation will face”, giving the example of spending more on treating the sick than on preventive medicine or cures.

He hopes to focus on advancing human potential — through education, entrepreneurship and clean energy — and promoting equality — through eliminating poverty and hunger, providing basic healthcare and empowering women, minorities and immigrants.

Bill and Melinda Gates wrote that the couple were an inspiration. “We can be confident of this: Max and every child born today will grow up in a world that is better than the one we know now.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why did Zuckerberg decide to give away 99 per cent of his shares?

A.as the anniversary present for his wife

B.displays of affection for his wife

C.celebrated the birth of his first child

D.express gratitude to employees

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Who control the Chan Zuckerberg initiative?

A.the couple

B.Mark Zuckerberg

C.Priscilla Chan

D.the public

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the most needed for Zuckerberg's investments plan as he said?

A.short-term goal

B.sufficient funds

C.family problem

D.long-time horizons

答案⁽³⁾

4.Who will receive the letter from Zuckerberg and Chan about their vision for the future of the globe?

A.Bill

B.Max

C.Melinda Gates

D.Michael Bloomberg

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.celebrated the birth of his first child
解释：扎克伯格迎接女儿降生和妻子计划捐出99%Facebook股份，价值约450亿美元。

(2)答案：A.the couple
解释：陈-扎克伯格计划(Chan Zuckerberg Initiative)，这是一家由扎克伯格夫妇控股的有限责任实体，明确声明其使命是提高人类潜力、促进公平。

(3)答案：D.long-time horizons
解释：他在Facebook上表示：“我们必须开展25年、50年、甚至100年的长期投资。最大的挑战需要非常长远的眼光，不能通过短期思考解决。”

(4)答案：B.Max
解释：扎克伯格和妻子给女儿写了一封信，描述他们对全球前景的展望。

中印在雾霾笼罩下开始气候谈判

29日上午10时，北京将空气重污染预警由黄色升级为橙色。今天，北京继续被雾霾包围，当北京空气污染频遭抱怨之时，殊不知，邻国印度的空气质量更加糟糕。因为雾霾，火车延误在印度北方的冬季更是家常便饭。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

enshroud笼罩

filter过滤器

fleet柴油机

sulphur dioxide|二氧化硫

rein控制

smelt冶炼

boiler锅炉

scrubber洗涤器

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分30秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分12秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分0秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分3秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

COP21 Paris climate talks: Beijing and New Delhi choke on smog （631words）

By Lucy Hornby in Beijing and Amy Kazmin in New Delhi

China and India have greeted the start of climate change talks in Paris with their capitals enshrouded in thick brown smog, a product of runaway economic growth.

In Beijing and New Delhi, both plagued by smog for much of the past month, children have been kept indoors at schools and sales of air filter and face masks have boomed .

High levels of vehicle and industrial emissions have combined with smoke from heating in north China, and in northern India with agricultural waste burning.

The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, which has completed a study on Delhi's air pollution, has called for urgent measures to upgrade fuel standards. The government, however, appears reluctant to confront India's powerful automotive industry. Low-grade diesel and poor emissions standards among the country's growing truck fleet are leading causes of smog in India.

In Beijing, the smog worsened after the environment ministry announced that it had achieved its five-year pollution targets six months early. Research from one government-backed institute suggests the ministry has instead undercounted emissions of sulphur dioxide by about half.

The research highlights the difficulty China faces even quantifying its pollution problem, given the challenge of obtaining accurate statistics. Beijing has pledged to rein in its carbon emissions so that they stop growing by 2030, despite not having published an official estimate of emissions since 2005.

A study by the China Environment Chamber of Commerce shows that China emitted about 30m tonnes of SO2 last year, up from 25m tonnes in 2005, based on calculations of coal use by non-power generators such as metals smelters and factories. That contrasts with official figures that SO2 emissions fell to 19m tonnes last year.

“If you really want to control smog, you need to keep SO2 under 13m tonnes,” said Luo Jianhua, the chamber's secretary-general. “If we are at 20m tonnes now we are not so far off but if we are closer to 30m tonnes then there's a long way to go.”

The chamber's calculations take into account a 1.1bn tonne increase in the use of coal by the non-power sector over the past 10 years.

China's official statistics often undercount sectors that are dominated by private industry (including coal mining, manufacturing and smelting) because of their reliance on reporting by state-owned enterprises. This year, China revised up by about 14 per cent the amount of coal it had consumed between 2000 and 2013.

China has invested in scrubbers to clean emissions at its power generation plants and big steel mills. Complex plans to curb carbon emissions include shutting industrial boilers at factories and moving heavy industry away from eastern population centers to poorer regions, where there is “room to pollute” according to central planners' spreadsheets.

But the calculations that emissions will peak around 2030 rely heavily on politically sensitive projections of GDP growth, leaving the plans vulnerable should the economy not perform according to plan.

For most of this year, northern China enjoyed relatively blue skies, giving rise to reports that emissions-control measures such as moving heavy industry out to the hinterland were responsible for the improvement. Sceptics pointed instead to a drop in power generation, particularly coal-fired, thanks to a slowing economy, collapsing margins for steel producers, relatively mild weather and an onset of new hydropower generation.

In November, the coal-burning boilers that provide city heating fired up across the north China plain, burying the northeastern city of Shenyang in among the worst pollution recorded in China and blocking out the sun across much of the northern plain.

Many Chinese compared the murk to the blue skies that grace Beijing during international conferences when the government orders factories and power plants offline and cars off the roads. “Quick, apply another international event,” one commentator, named ‘xiaomin2012', quipped on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Where is plagued by agricultural waste burning?

A.north China

B.south China

C.northern India

D.south America

答案⁽¹⁾

2．What kind of professions is leading causes of smog in India?

A.tech industry

B.automotive industry

C.heavy industry

D.healthcare industry

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one of the following has been instead undercounted emissions about half by the ministry?

A.carbon dioxide

B.sulphuric acid

C.nitrogen dioxide

D.sulphur dioxide

答案⁽³⁾

4.How to clean emissions at its power generation plants and big steel mills for China?

A.restriction of coal

B.use alternative energy

C.secondary combustion

D.install scrubbers

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.northern India
解释：车辆和工业的大量排放在中国北方与供暖产生的烟结合在一起，在印度北方则与农业燃烧产生的污染物结合在一起。

(2)答案：B.automotive industry
解释：在汽车制造业中，随着卡车保有量不断上升，其劣质柴油和糟糕排放标准是印度雾霾的头号元凶。

(3)答案：D.sulphur dioxide
解释：有政府后台的一个机构的研究似乎表明，环保部将二氧化硫排放量低估了大约一半。

(4)答案：D.install scrubbers
解释：中国已在国内发电厂和大型钢厂投资安装洗涤器以清洗排气。

互联网土著？比想象的还“单纯”

尽管当今的少年儿童都是伴随着互联网长大的，号称“互联网土著”，但他们对于网上的各种伎俩却未必更有辨识能力。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

ageist年龄歧视者

dubbed被称为

timid胆小的

uphold秉承

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0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

Young ‘digital natives' naive about internet advertising （421words）

By Henry Mance, Media Correspondent

Forget their ageist sneering — children may know less about the internet than many people think.

Research in the UK has found that a large proportion of children lack a basic understanding of how the online world works.

Only one-third of those aged 12 to 15 could identify which Google search results were adverts, while one in five said that all information returned by search engines must be true.

In addition, almost half did not know that YouTube — dubbed the new children's TV, thanks to the popularity of bloggers such as Zoella and Tanya Burr — is funded by advertising.

The findings, in a report by the UK communications watchdog Ofcom, come as regulators struggle to uphold television rules on advertising in the digital age.

“The internet allows children to learn, discover different points of view and stay connected with friends and family,” said James Thickett, Ofcom's director of research.

“But these digital natives still need help to develop the knowhow they need to navigate the online world.”

In Ofcom's research, children were shown a list of search results for the term “trainers”, and directed towards the top two results — which were in an orange box with the word “Ad” written in it.

Only 31 per cent of those aged 12 to 15 identified the sponsored links as advertising. Among those aged 8 to 11, the proportion was even lower — 16 per cent.

However, children's misunderstanding of media businesses was not restricted to new media. Among 12 to 15-year-olds, 17 per cent thought that the BBC was funded by advertising. The public broadcaster does not air ads in the UK.

Overall, children aged 12 to 15 now spend almost three hours a day online — half an hour more than they spend watching TV.

Nearly one in 10 children named YouTube as their preferred source of “true and accurate” information — more than double the proportion a year ago. The most popular answer remained the BBC, accounting for 52 per cent of responses.

Some consumer groups have expressed concern that the internet allows advertisers greater access to children, compared with the more regulated world of television. Parents are now more likely to be concerned about companies collecting their children's personal data than about the impact of computer games.

Regulators have so far made timid steps to apply existing standards to the new world. Last year, the Advertising Standards Agency ruled for the first time that YouTube video bloggers had broken advertising rules by failing to make clear that videos where they licked cream off an Oreo cookie as quickly as possible had been paid for by the brand.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What's the proportion of children (12-15) thought all information returned by search engines must be true?

A.20%

B.30%

C.50%

D.80%

答案⁽¹⁾

2.How could Zoella and Tanya Burr get the funded?

A.government support

B.advertising revenue

C.social donation

D.bank advance

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one of following does not air ads in the UK?

A.BBC

B.Zoella

C.Tanya Burr

D.YouTube

答案⁽³⁾

4.How many hours do children aged 12 to 15 spend online per day?

A.1.5

B.6

C.5

D.3

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.20%
解释：12至15岁的少年儿童只有三分之一能够区分出搜索广告和搜索结果而五分之一认为所有信息都是真实的。

(2)答案：B.advertising revenue
解释：oella和Tanya Burr这些公司都是由广告业务支持的。

(3)答案：A.BBC
解释：公共广播电台不会推送广告。

(4)答案：D.3
解释：根据Ofcom的报告，12至15岁的英国少年儿童每天平均花3小时上网，约有10%将YouTube作为获取真实信息的主要来源。

官方请求加快电子香烟药物许可审核

电子烟是一种模仿卷烟的电子产品，它是通过雾化等手段，将尼古丁等变成蒸汽后，让用户吸食的一种产品。在一个新的事物研发的时候，总是伴随着争议与期待，到底电子香烟能否成为“资深烟民”的戒烟良药？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

regulatory监管的

inadvertently非故意地

nicotine尼古丁

inhaler吸入器

pipeline渠道

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43秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分39秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分55秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Officials call for faster medicinal licensing of ecigarettes （599 words）

By Mark Odell

Health officials have called for a review of ecigarette licensing to speed up their availability on prescription after concluding they can help smokers quit.

A report commissioned by Public Health England estimated they are 95 percent less harmful than tobacco but observed no product has secured approval to make it available on prescription in the five years since procedures were put in place to license tobacco replacement products.

“Much of England's strategy of tobacco harm reduction is predicated on the availability of medicinally licensed products that smokers want to use,” said the report.

It called for a review of the licensing process put in place by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in 2010, citing concerns the current cost of obtaining a licence would limit innovation and favour products produced by big tobacco companies

“The fact that no licensed ecigarettes are yet on the market suggests that the licensing route to market is not commercially attractive. The absence of non-tobacco industry products going through the MHRA licensing process suggests that the process is inadvertently favouring larger manufacturers…which is likely to inhibit innovation in the prescription market,” the report said.

Last year, a new type of nicotine inhaler backed by British American Tobacco won MHRA clearance. However, the product, Voke, is not yet commercially available in the UK and is not defined as an ecigarette because it uses the propellants found in asthma inhalers to deliver nicotine.

According to the report, BAT has submitted an ecigarette product for approval and rival products are also in the pipeline but “it is unclear at what stage the applications are”.

The one-off cost of the application process is estimated by the MHRA as between £252,000 and £390,000, along with annual costs of between £65,000 and £249,000 per product.

“A review of the…licensing process therefore seems appropriate, including manufacturers' costs and potential impact. This could include a requirement for MHRA to adapt the processes and their costs to enable smaller manufacturers to apply, and to speed up the licensing process,” the report said.

The report also warned that new EU legislation, which is likely to come into force in the UK in 2017, would take ecigarettes containing high nicotine doses off the market “potentially affecting heavier smokers”.

Among other conclusions, the study by teams from King's College London and Queen Mary London found the message that ecigarettes are much less harmful than tobacco was not getting through to smokers.

Instead, research questioning their safety has contributed to recent slowing demand.

“Ecigarettes are not completely risk free but compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm,” said Professor Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England. “The problem is people increasingly think they are at least as harmful and this may be keeping millions of smokers from quitting.”

Local services that help people to stop smoking should “look to support ecigarette users in their journey to quitting”.

However, a report last year by the World Health Organisation said it was too early to conclude whether ecigarettes helped smokers quit. It also said they should be banned in public buildings.

There is also concern that the use of ecigarettes would encourage young people to start smoking. The report by PHE said there was “no evidence” to support this.

The WHO report found there were not enough data to establish whether the trends for the growing popularity of ecigarettes in the UK and the gradual decline in nicotine use were “causally related”.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What's the percent of ecigarette less harmful than tobacco by Public Health England estimated?

A.50%

B.-95%

C.95%

D.-50%

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Whose product won MHRA clearance last year?

A.British American Tobacco

B.Chinese Tobacco

C.Japanese Tobacco

D.Germany Tobacco

答案⁽²⁾

3.What factor has contributed to recent slowing demand of ecigarette?

A.price

B.fashion

C.government tax

D.safety

答案⁽³⁾

4.Whose report last year doubted whether ecigarettes helped smokers quit?

A.WTO

B.MHRA

C.WHO

D.UK government

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.95%
解释：文章第二段，电子烟比烟草的危害小得多。

(2)答案：A.British American Tobacco
解释：文章第六段，BAT的新产品赢得MHRA clearance。

(3)答案：D.safety
解释：由于安全性被质疑使销售量下降。

(4)答案：C.WHO
解释：是World Health Organisation 认为现在下结论还为时尚早。

ISIS财务出现困难

随着多国联军开展打击行动，ISIS的收入来源正逐渐枯竭。该组织一方面削减开支，一方面加大对占领区资源的榨取，尽力维持平衡。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

dismantle拆开；拆卸[dɪsˈmæntl]

subsidy补贴；津贴[ˈsʌbsədi]

coalition结合体；联合；同盟[ˌkəʊəˈlɪʃn]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

7分1秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

4分44秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分48秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

1分41秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Isis struggles to balance books as finances squeezed (1010 words)

By Erika Solomon,February 27, 2015 15:28 pm

According to the Financial Action Task Force, it costs up to $10m a month for Isis to fund its fighters.

Smokers used to be flogged in Syrian territory ruled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — now they are fined about $65. Local rulers dismantle old state facilities to sell for parts. And shopkeepers complain Isis fighters no longer spend so freely.

The world's richest jihadi group is not as flush as it once was, say Syrians who live under its rule. Isis has cut spending on fuel and bread subsidies, while shaking down locals for cash. Fighters themselves may be feeling a squeeze too.

“Isis took some kind of financial hit …Some fighters' salaries were cut, including my nephew,” said a man in the eastern city of Mayadin, on the Euphrates river, who says an apparent drop in the group's revenues is making it difficult to cover the cost of Isis expansion in territory and membership since its lightning offensive last year.

Claims of belt-tightening are hard to confirm. Isis is a secretive organisation, particularly with its finances.

According to the US state department, it has $500m in liquid cash assets. But the group does seem to be restricting spending, potentially making it difficult to function like the caliphate it claims to be building.

This is unlikely to affect its capabilities as a militant organisation. According to the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body, it costs Isis up to $10m a month to fund its fighters.

“It's harder for them to maintain the fiction of running a state in the eyes of local [people],” said a senior western diplomat who attended recent meetings of the anti-Isis coalition. “But if you are a member of the organisation itself, or a fighting group affiliated with it, then the money is still available.”

Yet some of Isis's most profitable and straightforward sources of income are drying up. Before the coalition air strikes, Isis enjoyed a monopoly on captured oilfields in Syria and Iraq, where Isis holds nearly a third of each country's territory. It controlled the entire supply chain, from crude extraction and wholesale export to the refining and sale of fuel products internally.

Since the coalition began attacking its makeshift refineries and fuel convoys, Isis has passed the business on to local allies and relies solely on crude extraction and sales of about $20 a barrel.

“Without selling the fuel, and only relying on crude, they lose about half of what their oil revenues once were,” said a gas plant worker in eastern Deir Ezzor province, who, like all sources in Isis-controlled areas, asked not be named.

Torbjorn Soltvedt, of Verisk Maplecroft, a UK-based risk analyst, estimates the group's daily revenue from oil has dropped to $300,000 a day. Last year, analysts reckoned it made anything between $1m and $2m a day from oil.

“I don't think this will lead to their collapse. But it might accelerate their implosion,” Mr Soltvedt said. Opportunities to loot and kidnap for ransom, which Mr Soltvedt said earned

Isis about $20m last year and which the FATF put at anything up to $45m, have also become rare as the coalition campaign slows Isis territorial gains. Isis, which has lost hundreds of fighters since the coalition strikes, pays families 900,000 Syrian pounds (nearly $4,000) for each son killed, Raqqa residents say. With more than a thousand believed killed in the battle for the border town of Kobani alone, such payments could be an added financial burden. The group has also seen a string of commanders and emirs, or local rulers, fleeing — often with hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars.

In the past two months, at least five Isis officials have been executed for trying to abscond with large sums of money, according to locals and reports by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group. Yet the group has income to survive, notably from investments abroad and from taxing local businesses. It “still gets monthly extortion money from local businesses, taxes and the foreign transfers”, said Hisham al-Hashemi, an analyst of Islamist militants in Iraq.

A former Isis official, who asked to keep his identity secret because he fled the group, said Isis still had a secret pile of reserves abroad.

“Isis is in no danger of economic crisis,” he said. “They have enough to survive six more years of war like this.” But recent efforts by Turkey to tighten border controls have made it harder for the human mules who bring money from abroad to get across, activists and the ex-Isis member say.

In Syria, locals list numerous signs they say show Isis is beginning to feel the strain. Fines are now imposed for unkempt shopfronts. A businessman from Raqqa, Isis's de facto capital in northern Syria, told a local journalist he was forced to pay a $50,000 fine for overcharging some customers, an offence that once carried a $200 fine plus two days in prison. Traders say Isis is now selling off Assad government infrastructure, such as subsidised bakeries and clinics, to private investors. One trader from Raqqa said Isis tried to sell equipment in army bases captured last summer.

“They took us into the soldiers' dorms to buy whatever we want — the soldiers' corpses were still inside, and body parts everywhere,” he said with disgust, before recalling he found “good bargains” on military bunk beds.

Yet even among Syrians who hate living under Isis rule, there is little joy at these signs of strain. One shopkeeper in Deir Ezzor said his revenue had halved in recent months, a big concern for locals like him, struggling to get by on a few dollars a day.

“Isis foreign fighters aren't buying as much,” he said. “Syrians have no money any more, our economy collapsed — we're dependent on those fighters. For us, the situation is worse.”

Additional reporting by Sam Jones and a local journalist in Isis territories, whose name is withheld for security reasons

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What can be inferred from the article about the situation of the areas governed by ISIS?

A.People are living well with abundant resources.

B.Smoking is restricted.

C.ISIS has no financial problems.

D.ISIS Fighters themselves never feel a squeeze.

答案⁽¹⁾

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

A.The financial status of ISIS is open to the public.

B.It costs Isis up to $500m a month to fund its fighters.

C.Isis is expanding in territory and membership.

D.Even the fighters themselves can not get financial aid.

答案⁽²⁾

3.What does the word caliphate mean according to the article?

A.Capital.

B.Islamic laws.

C.Islamic leaders.

D.A kind of Islamic kingdom.

答案⁽³⁾

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

A.ISIS's daily revenue from oil has gone up in recent days.

B.The drop in oil related revenue may cause ISIS collapse internally.

C.Kidnap for ransom earned Isis about $45m last year.

D.ISIS have more access to external financial aid.

答案⁽⁴⁾

5.According to the current situation in Syria, which of the following statements is reasonable?

A.The punishment for overcharging some customers hasn't changed.

B.ISIS has never sold any military facilities.

C.Local people are suffering from less revenue and worse economics.

D.Foreign fighters of ISIS spend more in recent days.

答案⁽⁵⁾

(1)答案：B.Smoking is restricted.
解释：文章以ISIS对待吸烟者的态度引题，原先要遭到鞭刑现在要遭到罚款，可见对待吸烟者是严格限制的。

(2)答案：C.Isis is expanding in territory and membership.
解释：ISIS正在扩张领土与人员，而其收入的下降使其发生财政方面的紧缺问题。其他选项皆为对原文的曲解。

(3)答案：D.A kind of Islamic kingdom.
解释：caliphate一般指“哈里发国”，即由最高宗教和政治领袖哈里发领导的伊斯兰国。此题虽易，但能帮助大家了解伊斯兰教中的一个重要概念。

(4)答案：B.The drop in oil related revenue may cause ISIS collapse internally.
解释：按照文章表述，索尔维特（Soltvedt）认为在石油方面收入减少不会引起ISIS瓦解，但会造成其内部崩溃。本题转述了单词“implosion”。

(5)答案：C.Local people are suffering from less revenue and worse economics.
解释：文章后半部分描述了近期ISIS占据的叙利亚部分地区的情况，其中援引当地人士的话说，经济状况已非常糟糕，同时ISIS正在行使更多寻租行为。

英式英语从未没落

当年美国作家门肯认为英式英语将败给美式英语，他错了。有些人从英美大学留学归国，他们的口语会带有英式或美式口音，但大多数人都操着一口属于他们自己的英语。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Anglophile亲英派的人[ˈæŋgləʊfaɪl]

rejoice使高兴；使欢喜[rɪˈdʒɔɪs]

prevail流行，盛行；获胜，占优势[prɪˈveɪl]

dire可怕的，恐怖的[ˈdaɪə(r)]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分2秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分30秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分13秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分7秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Oscars show US conquest of English never happened (676 words)

By Michael Skapinker,February 11, 2015 12:28 pm American power has not obliged everyone, not even nominee actors, to adopt its language.

HL Mencken, the US writer, was no Anglophile. In his book The American Language, he rejoiced in the impending eclipse of the “stilted and precious” English spoken by England's elite.

America's English, he wrote, “is better on all counts — clearer, more rational and, above all, more charming”.

In any case, the larger number of US English speakers meant that, in any dispute over what was correct, the American view should prevail.

“There is no reason under the sun,” he wrote, why a language spoken in a country as huge as the US “should yield anything to the dialect of a small minority” in England.

Americans were not the only ones who found the standard English of the English ridiculous. “The Irishman, the Scotsman, the Canadian and the Australian laugh at it along with the American — and with the Englishman who has lived in the United States.”

With English spreading around the world, language learners would make their choice. Russians were opting for the American variety. “In Japan and elsewhere in the Far East, the two dialects are in bitter competition, with American apparently prevailing.”

Mencken's view that American English would render England's irrelevant was understandable. He completed his monumental work in 1948, when America's dominance and Britain's decline were evident. Had he been right, the consequences for UK companies and workers who depended on the language for their livelihood would have been dire.

Yet he wasn't right. The US outstrips the UK in manufacturing, technology and military might, but those who make a living speaking and writing standard UK English are doing fine.

Look at this year's Oscar nominees: Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones and Keira Knightley. It is true that much of the investment in British film comes from the US. These actors may not sweep the Oscars but their popularity indicates that English English is still an international linguistic currency decades after Mencken declared it worthless.

When it comes to written words, London-based Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, and the Anglo-Dutch Reed Elsevier are still among the world's leading publishers. Was Mencken right that foreigners would choose to learn American English rather than the English variety?

While most commentators have been preoccupied with the combative stance of Yanis Varoufakis, Greece's finance minister, and a few with his leather coat, I have been fascinated by his English.

I compared it with that of one of his opponents, Antonis Samaras, the defeated conservative prime minister. Mr Varoufakis studied at Essex and Birmingham universities; Mr Samaras at Amherst and Harvard Business School. Would Mr Varoufakis's English betray a British influence and Mr Samaras's an American one?

No. They both speak an English that, in accent, cadence and word choice, is distinctively Greek — that of the well-educated elite.

The same is true of English speakers from Brazil to Malaysia. Some return from university in the US or the UK having worked on their American or English accents but most speak an English that is their own.

Mr Varoufakis, after years of teaching in the UK, the US and Australia, uses standard English grammar. But I have written about what I have called Eurish, the English with its own grammatical tics that has developed in continental Europe and is not identifiably either American or British.

Where Mencken was wrong was assuming, in his early writings, that American and British English would diverge more than they did — and then, when they did not, that US power would mean everyone else would adopt its language.

In the end, the major streams of English remained mutually comprehensible, apart from the odd word or expression.

There is no need for anyone to adopt anyone else's accent or vocabulary, unless they want to. Anyone who achieves competence in the language can watch Downton Abbey or Orange is the New Black — or read novels in English from India or Nigeria.

There is a place for many forms of English. Unlike the Oscars, this was not a contest someone had to lose.

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 not true according to the article？

A.Mencken doesn't like British English.

B.Only American found the standard English of the English ridiculous.

C.Mencken regards British English as no more than a small dialect.

D.More people in the world tend to speak American English.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why does the author take this year's Oscar nominees as examples？

A.To prove that UK is still an enormous empire on the earth.

B.To reflect the recent popular trends.

C.To show that English English is still an international linguistic currency.

D.To demonstrate that British people have privilege in movie industry.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the statements below about accent is true according to the article？

A.English is a language resisting differentiation and mutation.

B.English developed in continental Europe can be categorized into British English or American English.

C.Speaking English in own accent is a shame for it shows speaker's rudeness.

D.Even well educated, one may still preserve their own distinguishable English accent.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the most probable trend of English development according to the article？

A.British English will conquer American English and be the only accent.

B.American English will be the mainstream and British will gradually disappear.

C.All kinds of English will exist at the same time.

D.Standard English will appear and dialects will be eliminated.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：B.Only American found the standard English of the English ridiculous.
解释：文中指出，觉得英格兰人的标准英语荒谬可笑的并不唯有美国人。与美国人一道对其报以嘲笑的还有爱尔兰人、苏格兰人、加拿大人和澳大利亚人——以及在美国生活过的英国人。

(2)答案：C.To show that English English is still an international linguistic currency.
解释：文章中间部分指出，这些演员可能不会横扫奥斯卡，但他们的受欢迎程度表明，在门肯宣布英式英语一无是处几十年后，它仍是国际通用语言。

(3)答案：D.Even well educated, one may still preserve their own distinguishable English accent.
解释：文章中后部分以希腊财长作例，提出关于口音的问题。也讲过，即便留学过英美，他们的口语会带有英式或美式口音，但大多数人都操着一口属于他们自己的英语。

(4)答案：C.All kinds of English will exist at the same time.
解释：文章最后一段提到，各式各样的英语是可以共存的。与奥斯卡不同，它不是一项必须决出胜负的比赛。

英国《金融时报》
原文阅读精选集Vol.39

在公园里办公才是正事

在咖啡馆里谈工作早就已经落伍了，人们未来的选择是在公园里办公，哪怕是大雪纷飞的冬天。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

surliness不和蔼

impunity免于惩罚

idle无所事事；懈怠的

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59秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分35秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分59秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分23秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Urbanism: the new ideas for city living (839 words)

By Simon Kuper, November 28, 2014 3:23 pm ‘Working in cafés is very 2003. The next step: working in parks, even in winter'

It was the perfect autumn afternoon in Paris. We sat on a café terrasse on the Place des Vosges, one of Europe's finest squares, craving a beer. Finally, the surly waiter took our order. But first, without asking, he demonstratively moved from his territory the rental bike that my companion Carlo Ratti had parked there.

Ratti runs the SENSEable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He knows his urbanism. That waiter, Ratti told me, hasn't yet understood that customers are now rating him online. The café we were in, Ma Bourgogne, specialises in surliness. Parisian tourist traps work on the theory that each tourist only comes once, so you can mistreat him with impunity. Right now people do indeed still stumble on Ma Bourgogne while ogling the Place des Vosges.

But, one day, before they sit down, their smartphones will flash an alert – “Rude waiters!” – and suggest a nicer alternative. Already, says Ratti, hotels are becoming more polite because they need good ratings.

Life in western cities gets better every day for people rich enough to live in them. This is happening for many reasons: technology, data, the hipster ethos, competitive city rankings that set places against each other, and the takeover of cities by a global elite ruthlessly determined to live well. Downtowns are becoming “living rooms”, says John Eger of San Diego State University. And as Ratti and others told me, even bigger changes are coming soon.

The biggest of all could be driverless cars. Already you can occasionally spot them on northern Californian streets. In perhaps a decade, these things will start transforming the city. One day your car will drop you at work, then drive itself off, either to park outside town or to collect someone else. One benefit: hardly any parking in cities any more. (Warning: do not buy an urban parking space now.)

From our table, Ratti pointed at the cars lining the gorgeous square. “Think how much real estate you are using to store idle pieces of metal that are used for what – an hour a day?”

Urban planners are already thinking of uses for former parking spaces. The obvious one is bike lanes. I've seen the future of urban transport, and it was the small Dutch town where I grew up in the 1970s. By the age of eight, my entire class was cycling to school without parents. It was (fairly) safe because we had dedicated bike lanes. Cycling in Paris still isn't very safe, because there aren't enough bike lanes. I stopped cycling here after a car door knocked me down. The driver dismissed my complaints, pointing out that I was merely bleeding from the head, not dead.

Biking is for everyone. One new trend is hybrid bikes with electric wheels. If you're old, or going uphill, just turn on the motor.

Another potential future for parking spaces: mini-parks, says Mathieu Lefevre, executive director of the New Cities Foundation. Previously, anyone with kids was expected to leave the city. Now that cities are nice and safe, families want to stay. However, they need more play areas. Replace that parked car outside Ma Bourgogne with a swing or slide, and you'd have the perfect family spot: parent friendly, which means “with coffee”.

Already, urban workplaces have changed. Ratti and I were having a business meeting in Ma Bourgogne. “I don't think there is a better office than this,” he said. But working in cafés is very 2003. The next step: working in parks, even in winter. New technologies can follow you around, giving you your own little portable bubble of heat and light, said Ratti. Another potential workspace: the roof of your apartment building. Imagine a swimming pool or garden there, and some desks.

…

Cities are now dominated by knowledge workers. But Ratti has a counterintuitive candidate for the next urban industry: manufacturing. He explains that 3D printing will be done by creative types in small spaces such as former garages. These people want to be somewhere like the Place des Vosges.

As the western city ceases to be a giant office-cum-parking lot, it looks better every day. But there's an iron rule of our time: anything desirable gets grabbed by the 1 per cent. Cities are becoming unaffordable for anyone else. One way to counter this is to build bridges – often literally – between rich and poor areas. In Johannesburg, rich Sandton and poor black Alexandra are now neighbours. Soon a 250m footbridge will connect them. In Paris, “horizontal skyscrapers” and parks could cross the ringroad to link the city with its suburbs, says Lefevre.

Today's cities also suffer from an age divide. Young people can't afford the house prices. Meanwhile, many older inhabitants are getting infirm and lonely. Seoul has a nice solution: a programme that helps an old person arrange to share with a student. Other cities will surely steal the idea, just as they are copying Amsterdam's bike lanes and Sydney's coffee. If only all policy making today were as creative as urbanism.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The word “ruthlessly” in paragraph 4 can be replaced by “______”？

A.tolerably

B.gently

C.cruelly

D.horrendously

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the article, which following is NOT true about urban parking spaces in the future?

A.People need to buy larger parking spaces in the city.

B.Cars can drive into parking spaces by themselves.

C.Some of the parking spaces will be changed into bike lanes.

D.Parked cars may be replaced by swing or slide.

答案⁽²⁾

3.According to the writer, which statement below is true about future workplace?

A.Café is always the best choice for workplace.

B.Portable working space can be produced by technology.

C.Parks will offer facilities for people who want to work there.

D.People could hardly get heat and light outdoor.

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：C.cruelly
解释：“ruthlessly”意为"冷酷的；无情的"，选项中只有cruelly与其意思相近，其他三词分别为：tolerably宽厚；gently温和地；horrendously骇人听闻地。

(2)答案：A.People need to buy larger parking spaces in the city.
解释：文章中提到，未来的无人驾驶汽车可以自动把车停到郊区,所以车主并不需要在市区购买更大的停车空间。

(3)答案：B.Portable working space can be produced by technology.
解释：文章中提到，人们在未来可以利用科技制造出提供温度与光的便携式工作空间。

阿里网恋LendingClub

中国电商阿里巴巴与美国P2P金融先驱Lending Club携手，是一个精明的配对。这一合作最初限于美国，但很可能会随阿里巴巴的电商业务一道扩展到世界各地。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

canny精明的[ˈkæni]

creditworthiness商誉 ['kredɪtwɜ:ðɪnəs]

affiliate附属企业[əˈfɪlieɪt]

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37秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分2秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

0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

Alibaba / Lending Club: cyber love (305 words)

by Lex,February 3, 2015 12:04 pm Match between the two internet marketplaces looks good

Ah, young love. Their public offerings barely past, China's Alibaba and US peer-to-peer finance pioneer Lending Club have hooked up. Lending Club will offer working capital financing to US businesses that buy from Chinese suppliers on Alibaba.com, an English language business-to-business website. The companies promise that an application takes less than five minutes, and offer up to $300,000 in funding. Monthly lending rates range from 0.5 per cent to 2.4 per cent (6-32 per cent annually).

It is a canny pairing. Alibaba contributes the borrowers, providing insights into their creditworthiness from online transaction history, and visibility on the usage of the funds. It should benefit from added sales on Alibaba.com, which is one of its smallest online marketplaces (others include Taobao, a Chinese language consumer-to-consumer site, and Tmall, a business-to-consumer site). Lending Club, meanwhile, gets access to a pool of borrowers. Consistent with Lending Club's model, the loans will be packaged and passed on to individual and institutional investors in the US.

This is just Alibaba's latest step into finance. Through affiliate Ant Financial it already operates China's largest money market fund, with assets of more than $80bn. Last month, Ant Financial became the first of eight companies granted a licence to launch a credit-scoring service, Sesame Credit. It will benefit from access to data on Alibaba's 300m consumers and 37m small business users — including visibility on merchants' cash flows. In a market with short credit histories, and outmoded and disconnected data collection processes, the new business could change consumer finance.

Although the new Lending Club partnership is initially limited to the US, it may well expand globally alongside Alibaba's ecommerce business. Alibaba's finance businesses are becoming an important part of its investment case. Young love can deepen into something greater.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.According to paragraph 1, which of the following statements is not true?

A.Alibaba and Lending Club have both finished the process of IPO

B.The application for loan will take less than 5 minutes.

C.Annual lending rates range from 0.5 per cent to 2.4 per cent.

D.Lending Club will offer financing service to US enterprises.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which of the following statements is not the reason for the collaboration is a canny pairing?

A.The online transaction history will provide Alibaba with the data of clients' creditworthiness.

B.Alibaba is planning to acquire Lending Club.

C.Lending Club will get access to a large number of borrowers.

D.The two companies will have better access to inspect the usage of funds.

答案⁽²⁾

3.According to the article, which of the following prediction is reasonable?

A.aba won't set foot in finance or e-commerce in the future.

B.Ant Financial and Sesame Credit will be totally independent from Alibaba when the partnership with Lending Club starts.

C.Alibaba will terminate the cooperation for the restriction and regulation in the US.

D.The new partnership between Alibaba and Lending Club will expand to the whole world in the future.

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：C.Annual lending rates range from 0.5 per cent to 2.4 per cent.
解释：第一段末尾作者提到了贷款金额最高可达30万美元，月息为0.5%至2.4%（相当于年息6%至32%）。

(2)答案：C.Annual lending rates range from 0.5 per cent to 2.4 per cent.
解释：文章第二段叙述了阿里巴巴与Lending Club进行合作的好处，但没有提到阿里巴巴会收购Lending Club。其余三项为文章内容的转述。

(3)答案：D.The new partnership between Alibaba and Lending Club will expand to the whole world in the future.
解释：文中提到，现在阿里巴巴与Lending Club新建立的合作最初只限于美国，但很可能会随阿里巴巴的电商业务一道扩展到世界各地。其余选项都与文中提到的趋势相矛盾，或者在文中没有提到。

富豪为何钟爱私人飞机

私人飞机是财富的终极象征，远远超过了豪宅、豪车或者简陋的直升飞机。它招致了不满，然而它也令人迷恋和兴奋。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

convocation召集；正式集会[ˌkɒnvəˈkeɪʃn]

miscreant恶棍，歹徒[ˈmɪskriənt]

consignment装运的货物[kənˈsaɪnmənt]

legwork外出搜集情况的工作（如新闻采访、案件调查等）[ˈlegwɜ:k]

resentment愤恨，不满[rɪˈzentmənt]

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24秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分8秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分6秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The corporate miscreants who keep rock ‘n’ roll excess aloft (660 words)

by Ludovic Hunter-Tilney,January 31, 2015 12:04 pm When the day comes when 1,700 aircraft really do descend on Davos, then the reign of the private jet as the last word in ultra-rich exclusivity will be over.

The skies over Davos were said to have darkened last week as 1,700 private jets delivered the world's elite to its annual convocation. You can picture the moment: a shepherd's child on an Alpine mountain pointing at one, then two, then a vast fleet of hawk-like aircraft materialising with their consignment of power brokers, roaring overhead as the sheep scatter in panic.

But wait. There is a problem with this awesome scene of inequality. The much reported figure of 1,700 jets is a fantasy. Financial journalist Felix Salmon has done the legwork and estimated the actual total to be about 200. So why was the inflated figure so eagerly believed?

The answer lies in the powerful hold of private jet travel on the popular imagination. It is the ultimate symbol of wealth, more so than mansions or limousines or the humble helicopter. It provokes resentment; yet it is also glamorous and exciting. Private jets titillate the non-private jet-flying classes even while offending them. The result is a combustible combination of moralism and desire.

In Sweden outrage runs high at the misuse of corporate jets by directors of the conglomerate, Industrivärden. Families were flown on trips abroad; a plane was sent to Stockholm when an absent-minded industrialist forgot his wallet. The result is one of the biggest corporate scandals in Swedish history. Yet these airborne miscreants were acting in the tradition of a form of transport known for rock 'n' roll extravagance.

It was a private jet that took Led Zeppelin on their wild debauches around the US in the 1970s. It is a private jet to which Kanye West refers when he humblebrags in one of his raps: “I'm sorry I'm in pyjamas but I just got off the PJ.” In these pressurised capsules, normal conventions do not apply. If former Korean Air executive Cho Hyun-ah had erupted in fury about her packet of nuts in such a craft there would have been no outcry. Instead she did so in a commercial airliner and found herself delivering an abject public apology.

Technically, private aircraft obey the rules of international airspace. Practically, they are above the law. The hidden, unsupervised space of the cabin is often sexualised; a British tabloid headline recently had the beleaguered Prince Andrew flying on his billionaire friend's “private ‘sex' jet”. In previous centuries, the carriage occupied a similar role, as the celebrated scene in Madame Bovary when Emma joins her adulterous lover for a daytime assignation in a curtained cab that travels enigmatically through the streets of their provincial town “tossing about like a vessel”.

Mystery surrounds private jets. They use their own airports and fly on separate routes. To add to the enigmatic air, they also perform the peculiar engineering miracle that is flying. Thus as the private jet whisks its plutocratic occupant over continents and through time zones it appears to defy the laws of physics, suspending time and space, disobeying gravity. It is the ultimate expression of superhuman freedom.

If the submarine is the vehicle of choice for Bond villains as they concoct their gargantuan schemes, the private jet is the favoured transport for those who have actually achieved world domination. It mirrors the restless, invisible migration of money around the globe. As the tycoon accelerates upwards in their sleek, steel tube we are reminded of Marx and Engels, who wrote in The Communist Manifesto of the magically transformative properties of capitalism: “All that is solid melts into air.”

The first Learjet came on to the market in the early 1960s. More than 50 years later, can the private jet maintain its mystique? Falling prices are a risk. For $295,000 you can buy a second-hand 1977 model: a sum well within the reach of the ordinary millionaire. When the day comes when 1,700 aircraft really do descend on Davos, then the reign of the private jet as the last word in ultra-rich exclusivity will be over.

The writer is the FT's pop critic.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What does the word “limousine” mean in paragraph 3?

A.High-end yachts.

B.Deluxe cars.

C.Space jets.

D.Luxury cruise liner.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the article, which of the following statements is true?

A.The number of plane used to deliver the world's elite to Davos is much more than 1,700.

B.Private jets don't stand for power and wealth.

C.People tend to believe that the figure of 1,700 jets in Davos was true.

D.Everyone takes that the rich use private jets as granted.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why does the author mention the Sweden directors of the conglomerate and Led Zeppelin ?

A.To criticize that the rich for using the private jets.

B.To emphasis the trend that private jets are symbol of wealth and power.

C.To reveal that the private jets are guilty.

D.To show that the private jets are somehow misused and abused.

答案⁽³⁾

4.In paragraph 7 , what characteristic do private jet and carriage share in common?

A.They are both in relevance to sex.

B.They are both like vessels.

C.They are both carriers for the noblemen.

D.They are both symbols of social status.

答案⁽⁴⁾

5.According to the last paragraph, which of the following statement is not true?

A.When 1,700 private jets really do descend on Davos, they won't be the symbol of wealth and power.

B.The price of private jets will always be at high position.

C.One of the risks of buying private jets is that the price and value will shrink.

D.Whether the private could maintain its mystique is doubtful.

答案⁽⁵⁾

(1)答案：B.Deluxe cars.
解释：limousine[ˈlɪməzi:n] 意指豪华的车辆，在第三段可以从文意中判断出来。

(2)答案：C.People tend to believe that the figure of 1,700 jets in Davos was true.
解释：文中提到，媒体报道1700架飞机出现在达沃斯年会上，但报道并不真实，却有很多人信以为真，或者认为理所当然。但使用私人飞机的行为也招致了一些人的不满，所以并非所有人都认为富豪坐私人飞机这件事是理所当然的。

(3)答案：D.To show that the private jets are somehow misused and abused.
解释：文中提到瑞典企业高管、齐柏林飞船乐队用以展现私人飞机在某些时候被滥用，特别是一些企业高管模仿摇滚乐队用飞机声色犬马引起众怒。

(4)答案：A.They are both in relevance to sex.
解释：第七段中与《包法利夫人》中的马车并列地提到私人飞机，特别是安德鲁王子的飞机，很容易看出两者都与“性”沾边的特点。

(5)答案：B.The price of private jets will always be at high position.
解释：最后一段中作者明确表示出对私人飞机神秘性以及身份象征性的怀疑，毕竟任何这一类的产品都会有价值与价格缩水的问题。所以断言私人飞机会永远高端也是欠妥的。

经济学家应向TBBT学什么

《生活大爆炸》中拥有顶尖头脑的科学家们能理解宇宙的奥秘，却搞不明白平凡人的日常生活。而生活在全世界最富裕国家的美国人，能在工作中赚取财富，却在工作外的休闲时间不知所措。财富的意义到底是什么？不仅美国人需要思考，正在赶超美国的中国也应该问问自己这个根本的问题。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

opulent富足的

mesmerizing令人目瞪口呆的

altruism利他主义

grind苦工

sitcom情景剧

gamboling活蹦乱跳的

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36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26秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分12秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Economists have a lot to learn from ‘The Big Bang Theory'(723 words)

By Bilal Hafeez July 21, 2014 6:10 pm America is rich but free time is scarce, writes Bilal Hafeez

The 300m or so people who were alive 2,000 years ago are each reckoned to have had access to goods and services worth, on average, about $800 a year in today's prices. It was not an opulent lifestyle but, for the first millennials, making money was not an all-consuming concern.

In the east Buddhism taught the virtues of renouncing worldly things and earning a livelihood without doing harm, the so-called Noble Eightfold Path. Hinduism taught that artha (the pursuit of material advantage) must take second place to dharma (morality), which included charity and compassion. Confucian ethics promoted ren (humaneness), a form of altruism.

Such ideas still find expression in some quarters – even in the US, where the average income now stands at $53,000 a year. But, by and large, they live on as empty words. Modern men and women have found a common philosophy. It is revealed in the way they act, and its central tenet is that more money is better than less. Apple founder Steve Jobs may have been a Zen Buddhist but that did not stop him from amassing worldly possessions with an estimated worth of about $11bn by the time of his death in 2011.

Such materialism is perhaps to be expected in an era that glorifies whatever can be quantified. More than that, it reflects an economic orthodoxy that sees income as the key to increasing “utility”, or satisfaction. That gives intellectual support to the idea that making money is one of life's deepest purposes.

The US is remarkably good at amassing material wealth, and much of the rest of the world wants to catch up. Emerging markets such as China and India are making particularly zealous efforts. But economic statistics can hide as much as they reveal, and those who wish to copy the American dream should first try to picture it more vividly.

The typical US job is in retail, either as a cashier or a middle manager. Only three in five workers can take paid leave, and those who do generally take about eight days a year away from the grind. These are the lucky ones; if you include the prison population in the potential labour force, the US unemployment rate – although low by international standards – looks less impressive. This exacts a huge economic toll. Keeping America's 2.2m prisoners costs double what is given out in unemployment benefits to the 2.7m people who receive them.

The average American sleeps for eight hours, works for eight hours and spends about three hours doing chores – cleaning, shopping, lookingafter children. The remaining four hours are devoted to leisure. Sometimes this involves exercise, socialising and reading. But mainly it involves sitting quietly in front of a television. The shows that Americans watch on those mesmerising rectangles bear little trace of the past millennia of human progress. Last year's most popular show, NCIS, is about a grumpy man who always carries the day for his colleagues in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The next biggest audience was for screenings of American football, a game in which big men in elaborately padded outfits chase an elongated ball. Then there was The Big Bang Theory, a sitcom about elite scientists who can wrap their minds around the deepest secrets of the universe but are baffled by the simplest routines of life on earth. Also popular were a glorified karaoke show, American Idol, and the amateurish gambolling display of Dancing With the Stars.

Modern man, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, first emerged about 200,000 years ago. Since then we have created majestic art, architecture and literature. Philosophies and religions have flourished and taught us different ways to live. Advances in technology allow us to see deep into space and to split the atom. We have learnt to heal our sickened bodies. We have explored places where our ancestors never dreamt men or women could tread. All of this has culminated in modern America. It is the richest civilisation that has ever existed, yet one in which free time is both scarce and difficult to fill. The financial crisis has shown their way of life to be more fragile than once thought. That is a valuable lesson. But Americans should also ask some fundamental questions about the worth of their wealth – and their would-be emulators should be careful what they wish for.

The writer is managing director and global head of foreign exchange research at Deutsche Bank

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Who, as a Buddhist, spared no efforts to make huge amounts of money?

A.Steve Jobs

B.Azim Premji

C.Bill Gates

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the author, what depicts the typical American lifestyle?

A.The typical US job is in retail, and almost every worker can take paid leave.

B.The average American works for eight hours and devotes another eight hours to leisure.

C.Americans are rich, but their free time is scarce.

答案⁽²⁾

3.What does the author mean by “those who wish to copy the American dream should first try to picture it more vividly”?

A.China and India haven't pictured the American dream vividly enough.

B.China and India won't understand the essence of the American dream.

C.The American dream may not be as wonderful as many think.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What can be inferred from the article?

A.The writer is critical of the American dream.

B.He loves watching the popular show NCIS.

C.He extolls the materialism in the American society.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Steve Jobs
解释：文章第3段提及，虽然乔布斯似乎是佛教徒，但这并未阻止他追求现世的巨大财富。

(2)答案：C.Americans are rich, but their free time is scarce.
解释：前两项答案分别在第6段和第7段可找到出处，在美国大部分人不能带薪休假，八小时工作之外的休闲时间只有四小时，在全文末端作者点题，美国人富有，但属于自己的时间很少，也不大清楚如何花自己的时间。

(3)答案：C.The American dream may not be as wonderful as many think.
解释：本句话在第5段末尾，从此后的两段可看出作者所指的“美国梦”实质是什么：典型的美国工作在零售业、没有多少人拥有带薪假期、人们在休闲时间里过得乏味无聊。

(4)答案：A.The writer is critical of the American dream.
解释：从全文主旨可推知，作者对美国梦和其宣扬的物质主义并非一味赞美的态度。倒数第二段提及了在美国流行的剧集，从作者的用词和语气可推知他并不是NCIS的粉丝，而是对大部分美国人的休闲活动只有看电视感到失望。

奇怪的个性化营销

当你走进一家商店想要闲逛时，摄像头已经通过面部识别获取了你在社交网站上的个人信息，并“暖心”的将系统自动匹配的优惠信息发送到你的手机上，你会有什么感觉？个性化电子营销一直被认为是广受欢迎且非常具有说服力的营销方式，但是FT专栏作家安德鲁·希尔却认为这种营销方式好像变得越来越奇怪了……

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

gaffe失礼；失态 [ɡæf]

encapsulate压缩；简述 [ɪn'kæpsjə.leɪt]

apocryphal虚构的[ə'pɑkrəf(ə)l]

queasiness恶心[呕吐]

misnomer用词不当

algorithm算法；计算程序['ælɡə.rɪðəm]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

5分31秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分46秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分24秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分11秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The moment digital selling tips over into creepy stalking (716 words)

by Andrew Hill, February 2, 2015 12:19 pm The ‘creepiness quotient' is a vital sales and marketing metric

While I flew to Barcelona last week to speak at a conference, my iPad was at breakfast at a restaurant in Cambridge. That, at least, is what I deduced from the device's location, transmitted to me after I activated the Find My iPhone app on my mobile phone.

I was relieved: the tablet was neither lost nor stolen; it had been accidentally picked up by the organisers of a meeting I had attended the previous day. If, however, another app had found me at the airport and started to badger me with offers, based on my movements, prior purchases and reputation as a loyal or fickle customer, I might have felt a little uneasy.

Here is a question companies increasingly need to answer: what is the creepiness quotient of your product, or marketing campaign, and how would you know? The problem is no secret. Public examples abound. They include embarrassing personalised marketing gaffes — encapsulated in the popular, but possibly apocryphal, tale of the retailer Target, which outed a pregnant teenager to her parents by pitching certain products to her — and the more recent suspension of sales of Google Glass, amid queasiness about the device's potential misuse. “Problem” may even be a misnomer. While Julia Angwin's recent book Dragnet Nation describes the dark side of surveillance by companies and governments, a new book by Michael Fertik, founder of Reputation.com, which offers ways of enhancing online reputations, sees it as a simple fact of modern life, which we can exploit for advantage.

In The Reputation Economy, he and co-author David Thompson lay out plenty of examples that I find creepy. They include Facedeals, which aimed to combine facial recognition and your Facebook profile to push special offers to you when you arrive at a shop. Another is Moven, a mobile payment app, which originally set out to score customers' social media credibility alongside traditional credit measures.

“Future legal cases will have to decide at what point digital stalking gets just too creepy,” Mr Fertik and Mr Thompson write. They recommend, instead, that you publicise recent job promotions on social networks, tweet about your forthcoming purchases (“Looking for new SUV, considering @BMWUSA or @MBUSA, any experiences?”), and reconcile with bitter ex-partners who have badmouthed you online — all in the interests of making algorithms think you are a successful, luxury-car-loving, perfect date.

Research used to show personalised marketing was persuasive and well received. But Lisa Barnard, who once worked in advertising and is now assistant professor at Ithaca College, ran some experiments aimed at identifying the creepiness quotient (she calls it the “creepiness factor”) in ad campaigns. Tailoring online advertising to individual behaviour still works, she found, but “perceived creepiness” makes customers 5 per cent less likely to make the purchase. That is 5 per cent of the budget that could be spent elsewhere, if a campaign's CQ could be cut to zero.

Even pioneers recognise personalisation has its limits. Facedeals has become Taonii, an app which still offers tailored deals, without face recognition. “Consumers were just not quite ready,” a spokeswoman said via email. “They wanted the benefits but in a slightly friendlier [way].”

Keith Weed, chief marketing officer of Unilever, the consumer products company, says digital personalised marketing is “a bit like when you to go to your local shop and they know you and perhaps even have what you want waiting for you”. But cosy as that sounds, he concedes that getting the online and mobile version right is “a fine balance”. For now, giving customers an easy opt-out and ensuring they know what will be shared, where and with whom, are the keys to not creeping them out, he says.

Going back to William Lever, Unilever's founder and early adopter of persuasive advertising, marketing has a history of constant experimentation, in which you and I are the guinea-pigs. Rapid evolution is inevitable, because the line between creepy and friendly is always shifting. A user may willingly give up information for one purpose, only to react with disgust when it is used for another. But companies owe it to their customers to come up with a better way of defining their creepiness quotient. Otherwise, deciding where “cool” becomes “eeugh” will continue to be a matter of trial and uncomfortable error.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The word “exploit” in paragraph 3 can be replaced by “______”?

A.waste

B.conserve

C.utilize

D.forgo

答案⁽¹⁾

2.what is the writer's attitude towards “Facedeals” and “Moven”?

A.Odd

B.Supportive

C.Biased

D.Indifferent

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why does the author mention Lisa Barnard in this article?

A.To argue the perspective that all personalised marketing was persuasive and well received.

B.To support the point that personalised marketing can help business to expand profit potential.

C.To give an example of customers who hate personalised marketing.

D.To illustrate the fact that personalised marketing is the most effective means of marketing.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What does the word “guinea-pigs” in the last paragraph mean?

A.A small animal that is often kept as a pet.

B.A subject of research.

C.A symbol of rapid evolution.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.utilize
解释：“exploit”意为“开发;利用”，选项中只有“utilize”与它意思相近,其他三个词的意思分别为：waste浪费；conserve节省/保护；forgo放弃。

(2)答案：A.Odd
解释：文章在第四段提到Facedeals和Moven时，作者明确表示是“examples that I find creepy”。

(3)答案：A.To argue the perspective that all personalised marketing was persuasive and well received.
解释：作者提到Lisa Barnard和她的研究结果是为了说明个性化营销并没有想象中那样具有说服力且深受欢迎，不恰当的个性化营销可能会降低消费者购买商品的可能性。

(4)答案：B.A subject of research.
解释：guinea-pigs本意为天竺鼠，同时也有“实验对象”的意思，通过上下文可以推断在这里当“实验对象”讲。

我的手机，我的寄生虫

为了繁殖和传播，病毒和其他寄生物侵占更大的生物体，并篡夺资源。智能手机和其他小玩意也对人类做着同样的事。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

malign有害的[mə'laɪn]adj.

commandeer征用，强占[ˌkɒmən'dɪə(r)]

umbilici核心，脐[ˌʌmbɪ'laɪkaɪ]n.

phage噬菌体[feɪdʒ]

toxoplasmosis弓形虫病[ˌtɒksəʊplæzˈməʊsɪs]n.

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

4分32秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

2分13秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分1秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分3秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

My mobile, the parasite (634 words)

by Jonathan Guthrie, January 2, 2015 6:52 am

The similarity between disease organisms and personal devices is striking, says Jonathan Guthrie.

While western governments worry over the threat of Ebola, a more pervasive but far less malign epidemic is spreading through their populations like a winter sniffle: mobile personal technology. The outbreak reached its height at Christmas, when gift-giving was predicted to take worldwide shipments of smartphones to a record 1.3bn units in 2014. The total will rise to 1.4bn in 2015, according to IDC, a market research firm.

The similarity between disease organisms and personal devices is striking. Viruses and other parasites commandeer larger organisms, usurping resources in order to multiply and spread. Smartphones and other gadgets do the same thing, feeding on ever-increasing amounts of human attention and electricity supplied via wire umbilici.

It is tempting to impute a “strategy” to both phages and phablets, neither of which is sentient. Instead, the process is evolutionary, consisting of many random mutations, as experimented with by legions of product designers. This makes it all the more potent.

Stephen Hawking believes intelligent machines could take over from humans and wipe us out. He may be the world's greatest living physicist, but he has not been paying attention. Unintelligent machines have already co-opted humans to serve their interests. Exterminating us would be counterproductive from their point of view, if they had one.

Fans of Apple are unlikely to agree that iPads resemble biological viruses. Peter Balfe, a virologist at the University of Birmingham, is sceptical too. He thinks tablet computers are more like a parasite, such as the single-celled toxoplasma gondii. This completes its life cycle through transmission between cats and mice.

“Toxoplasmosis suppresses the fear response in infected mice,” says Dr Balfe, who explains that they become attracted to cat odours. “They go out ‘looking' for cats they can be eaten by. Mobile devices are our toxoplasmosis. They change the way we behave.”

Tech addiction occurs through actively-learnt responses, or “operant conditioning” as animal behaviourists call it. The scientific parallel here also involves a rodent, typically a rat, which occupies a special cage called a Skinner Box. The animal is rewarded with a food pellet for solving puzzles and punished with an electric shock when it fails.

Mobile devices do not “taste” disobedient owners – yet. They do however deliver rewards in measured doses, exploiting our hunger for recognition. We get a jolt of pleasure when we receive a personal email or see an opinion endorsed in a retweet.

Desk-bound PCs were fostering operant conditioning long before the advent of the smartphone. But the latter silicon chip-based quasi-life form feeds more successfully on the energies of the host organism because it accompanies them everywhere.

“Are we getting a positive boost of hormones when we endlessly look at our phone, seeking rewards?” asks David Shuker, an animal behaviourist at St Andrews university, sounding a little like a man withholding serious scientific endorsement from an idea that a journalist had in the shower. Research is needed, he says.

Tech tycoons would meanwhile argue that the proliferation of mobile devices is a tribute to the brilliance of their designs. This is precisely what people whose thought processes have been modified by an invasive pseudo-organism would believe.

Fortunately, mobile technology causes symptoms less severe than physiological diseases. There are even benefits to compensate sufferers for shortened attention spans and the caffeine overload triggered by visits to Starbucks for the free wifi. Most importantly, you can obtain the FT in places as remote as Alaska or Sidcup.

In this sense, a mobile device is closer to a symbiotic organism than a parasite. This would make it akin to an intestinal bacterium that helps a person to stay alive, rather than a virus that may kill you. The similarity between the iPhone and a gut micro-organism is one that Apple boss Tim Cook is unlikely to dwell on in his next sales pitch, though.

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 is the similarity between Ebola and the mobile personal technology?

A.They are both fatal.

B.They are both from Africa.

C.They are both widespread through populations.

D.Both of them can cause serious outcomes and make people in panic.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the article, which of the statements below is true?

A.Stephen Hawking believes intelligent devices may enslave humans.

B.Phages and phablets are sentient and smart with strategies.

C.Smartphones and other gadgets occupy the organisms of humans just as what viruses do.

D.The process of developing new devices is evolutionary, consisting of many random mutations.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why does Peter Balfe think tablets are more like parasites?

A.They are portable and able to be carried by the users everywhere.

B.Because they can change the behavior of the users.

C.Because they are transmitted between one another.

D.Because they are both acquired through ingress.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is the attitude of the author towards the personal mobile devices?

A.Opponent.

B.Worried.

C.Frightened.

D.Neutral.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.They are both widespread through populations.
解释：作者在第一段中以埃博拉病毒作比较，体现个人移动通信技术的广泛传播性，但并没有提及其特别有害或者会引起恐慌。

(2)答案：A.Stephen Hawking believes intelligent devices may enslave humans.
解释：作者在第四段中提到霍金曾经预言智能机器或将接替人类成为世界的主宰，并将我们赶尽杀绝。其它选项均为文章内容的错误转述。

(3)答案：B.Because they can change the behavior of the users.
解释：作者在文章中以猫鼠作比，提到了平板“像寄生虫改变老鼠的行为那样改变人类行为”。

(4)答案：D.Neutral.
解释：在文章最后，作者认为比起寄生虫，手机等移动设备与人的关系显得更像共生生物，与前面列举的问题相对也是存在一定好处的。所以整体态度应为中立。

观察香港问题的两种视角

在是否已经享有“高度自治”这一问题上，中国政府和香港民主派人士似乎有着截然不同的看法。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

boisterous热闹的；充满活力的['bɔɪst(ə)rəs]

opium鸦片['oʊpiəm]

mischievously淘气地['mɪstʃɪvəsli]

sabotage蓄意毁坏['sæbə.tɑʒ]

nouveaux riche暴发户

tyranny暴政 ['tɪrəni]

frogmarch紧抓双臂押送['frɑɡ.mɑrtʃ]

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51秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分31秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分56秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分22秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

One country, two systems – and one puppet master(828 words)

By David Pilling September 3, 2014 2:42 pm The presence of Li, an emissary from Beijing, has relegated the territory's officials to irrelevance

Try to imagine for a moment how Hong Kong's boisterous push for democracy must look to the Communist party in Beijing. A bit of history is in order.

First, in 1842, British imperialists forced the Qing emperor to cede Hong Kong after deploying gunboats against China for daring to oppose the opium trade. In subsequent years, the British showed scant regard for their Chinese subjects, banning them from white-only residential areas and never allowing them so much as a sniff at a vote. Before London finally handed Hong Kong back in 1997, however, the last governor mischievously sowed the seeds of democratic ambition, an act of political sabotage the equivalent of introducing a killer weed into foreign soil.

Since the time of Hong Kong's return, Beijing has stuck pretty faithfully to the “one country, two systems” framework, allowing the so-called special administrative region a “high degree of autonomy”. As Li Fei, a senior official from Beijing sent this week to explain China's universal suffrage proposals, remarked: “The central government is implementing democracy in Hong Kong 17 years after the handover, much faster than Britain did in its 150 years of rule here.”

Yet far from being grateful, the mollycoddled Hong Kong residents are pushing for the whole nine yards. To add insult to injury, they look down on mainlanders whom they mock as ill-mannered and nouveaux riche. So brainwashed are Hongkongers by their erstwhile imperial overlords that some might imagine they are ashamed of being Chinese. All the while, Hong Kong residents behave outrageously (or exercise their civil liberties, as it is known in the west). Only this week, rowdy protesters ridiculed Mr Li. One man stripped himself virtually bare, a reference to what he said was Beijing's “naked tyranny”. Imagine such open mockery of Chinese leaders in Beijing. The man would be frogmarched to the nearest cell.

Such ingratitude must be all the more galling given that Beijing could cancel the whole universal suffrage jamboree if it chose. At the time of handover, Britain was still a power to be reckoned with. China's gross domestic product, then roughly $950bn, was only two-thirds of Britain's. Now China's economy is four times as big. Despite the reversal of power, Beijing has stuck to the deal. Naturally, it has insisted on establishing a mechanism for pre-screening candidates. Otherwise, it would risk Hong Kong electing some anti-Beijing rabble-rouser whom it would be obliged to veto. It stands to reason that Beijing cannot tolerate such an open challenge to its authority.

Now look at the same set of facts through the eyes of Hong Kong democrats. From their perspective, though Beijing may be sticking to the letter of the deal, it has gutted democracy proposals of all meaning. Beijing is insisting that all candidates are vetted by a nominating committee comprising 1,200 of Hong Kong's great and good. These are mostly well-connected, tame pro-Beijing businessmen who would never allow a true democrat to rock the boat – or, in this case, their luxury yacht. The proposed system can even be seen as a retrograde step. At least under the present system, democrats have a chance of making the ballot for chief executive, Hong Kong's mayor-equivalent, since they only require one-eighth of nominating committee votes.

That is not all, say democrats. Beijing is also beginning to erode some of the civil liberties on which Hong Kong's quality of life, not to mention its future as a financial centre, depends. The judiciary is under pressure to step into line and the knives are out – in one case literally – for independent journalists. Critics complain that nominally independent civil servants do Beijing's bidding. Take the suspiciously timed recent raid on the home of Jimmy Lai, an anti-Beijing media mogul who has helped fund the democratic cause.

Beijing's proposal on universal suffrage has presented democrats with a dilemma. They could set their teeth against the plan, voting it down in the legislature and organising civil disobedience on the streets. Indeed, that is what they say they will do. Yet Beijing has spoken. Such protests are not going to make it change its mind. At worst, they might provoke a show of force from the central government that would tear the veil off the “one country, two systems” façade.

If this episode demonstrates anything, it is that power resides with Beijing. Alex Lo, a columnist for the South China Morning Post, wrote this week about how the presence of Mr Li, Beijing's emissary, relegated Hong Kong's own officials to irrelevance. Instead of playing an active role in the discussion, the city's supposed representatives, from the chief executive down, “stayed on the sidelines like secretaries and clerks to the mainland honchos”. Sad to say, the man who stripped down to draw attention to Beijing's naked power was on to something. It is now clearer than ever that Hong Kong's “high degree of autonomy” is something of an illusion.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The word “scant” in paragraph 2 can be replaced by “______”.

A.extensive

B.infinitet

C.enviable

D.negligible

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Why does the author mention Jimmy Lai in paragraph 7?

A.To support the point that independent civil servants do Beijing's bidding.

B.To illustrate the fact that independent journalists are facing life risks.

C.To argue the perspective that Beijing is beginning to erode Hong Kong's life quality.

答案⁽²⁾

3.What does the author think about HK's high degree of autonomy？

A.Startling

B.Reassuring

C.Unrealistic

D.Demanding

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：D.negligible
解释：原文提到在英国统治下的香港人不允许进入白人居住区，从不给他们任何选举机会，并没有给予他们足够的重视，与原文意思就相符的一项是“negligible”，意为“微不足道的，不值一提的”。

(2)答案：A.To support the point that independent civil servants do Beijing's bidding.
解释：文中提到参与资助民主事业的反北京的媒体大亨黎智英(Jimmy Lai)遭到突击搜查一事，支持了“名义上的公务员在为北京卖命”这一观点。

(3)答案：C.Unrealistic
解释：作者认为香港的“高度自治”是某种幻想，很难实现。

FT年度词汇：新俄罗斯

这个名词从何而来？为何普京重新使用这个词汇会掀起轩然大波？了解一下2014年度热词“新俄罗斯”的前世今生吧。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Catherine the Great俄罗斯女沙皇叶卡捷琳娜大帝

Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Odessa卢汉斯克、顿涅斯克、赫尔松和敖德萨，乌克兰东部和南部城市

step children继子女

rouble卢布

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23秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分27秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

1分45秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分36秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

A year in a word: Novorossiya（369words）

Vladimir Putin's use of the word led many to fear Russian expansionism, says Courtney Weaver, FT Deputy Moscow bureau chief

Novorossiya

noun — the Black Sea territory that was part of the Russian Empire from the late 18th century until the Revolution of 1917. While most of the world considers the territory part of modern-day Ukraine, a group of pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine and the Moscow leadership beg to differ.

Stretching from northeastern Donetsk to southwestern Odessa, Novorossiya, or New Russia, was a territorial coup for Catherine the Great, who conquered the sea-bound territory following a series of wars with the Ottomans in the 18th century. More than two centuries later, the region has once again become an area of contention, this time between Ukraine's central government in Kiev and rebel forces who have formed self-declared republics on the territory of Donetsk and Lugansk.

While the term Novorossiya was abandoned during the Soviet era, the terminology was reintroduced the global lexicon this spring by Vladimir Putin. In a key speech, the Russian president stressed Novorossiya's historical, cultural and linguistic ties to Russia. “Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Odessa weren't included as part of Ukraine,” Mr Putin said. “They were given to it by the Soviet government.”

His words led many to believe that Moscow would annex Donetsk and Lugansk and make Novorossiya Russian once again. Yet nine months later, pro-Russia supporters in east Ukraine have been disappointed.

In the following weeks and months, Mr Putin dropped the term Novorossiya from his public vocabulary and has tamped down the Kremlin's public, if not private, support for the rebel leadership.

Unlike Crimea, which was fully embraced into the Russian Federation and is in the process of receiving billions of dollars in Russian state investment, Donetsk and Lugansk have ended up as step children: self-declared republics that receive humanitarian, financial, military and political assistance from Moscow, but to a large extent have been left on their own.

With a falling rouble and slowing economy, no one in Moscow seems quite so eager now for Novorossiya to rejoin the Russian empire. Crimean spring has faded into winter.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Novorossiya was a land conquered by the Russian Empire from whom?

A.Soviet Ukraine.

B.Prussia/Germany.

C.Ottoman Empire.

D.Poland.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.When was the term Novorossiya abandoned?

A.After the death of Catherine the Great.

B.After the desintegration of the Soviet Union.

C.After Putin was elected as president.

D.After Russian Revolution of 1917.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why this land is not like Crimea?

A.Putin dropped the term Novorossiya at last.

B.It is not being annexed into Russia like Crimea.

C.The Russian rouble is falling dramatically.

D.Pro-Russian self-declared republics were formed.

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：C.Ottoman Empire.
解释：第二段中提到，这些土地是叶卡捷琳娜女皇时代从奥斯曼土耳其手中夺取的。

(2)答案：D.After Russian Revolution of 1917.
解释：有两处提到了这件事，第一段中说这个名词是从沙俄时期到1917年革命时用的，以及第三段中普京重新使用了“新俄罗斯”一词，说这些地方自古以来不是乌克兰，而是苏联政府送给乌克兰的。

(3)答案：B.It is not being annexed into Russia like Crimea.

不应让男人独占金融业

女性可能需要大约120年才能在高管层面与男性平分天下——到那时22世纪已过去三分之一。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

inherently内在；固有[ɪn'herəntlɪ]

hegemony支配权；霸权['hedʒə.moʊni]n.

ruminate沉思；认真思考['rumɪ.neɪt]v.

harassment骚扰 [hə'ræsmənt]n.

Barclays巴克莱银行

Fidelity富达国际投资

Goldman Sachs|高盛

Morgan Stanley摩根士丹利

Deutsche Bank德意志银行

Oliver Wyman奥纬咨询公司

Banco Santander西班牙桑坦德银行

International Monetary Fund国际货币基金组织

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分40秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分58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29秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Men alone should no longer run finance(896 words)

By John Gapper December 3, 2014 6:58 pm At this rate, women should achieve executive parity in about 120 years, well into the 22nd century

Ana Botín has wasted little time since becoming chairman of Banco Santander in September, last week appointing a new chief executive. Like Abigail Johnson, installed as chief executive of Fidelity in October, she worked hard for her job, but it is inescapable that both are members of founding families. For women lacking a birthright, the route to the top in financial services is tough.

At the top 150 banks and financial services groups, just six chief executives are women; and only 13 per cent of the members of their executive committees are female. Although banks have tried to remedy some of the causes, men still rule the financial world.

When I was younger, I assumed that it would change. I was a child of the 1960s, a teenager of the 1970s and a graduate of the 1980s. My generation, even if it had prejudices and did not always fulfil its ideals, grew up amid feminism. Few argued publicly that men should be in charge of the workplace and that women should stay at home.

The results of this generational experiment are now in and they are pathetic. There has been some progress but it is glacial at the top. A study published this week by Oliver Wyman, a consultancy, finds that the proportion of women on executive committees of big financial institutions rose by only 3 percentage points between 2003 and 2013.

At this rate, women should achieve executive parity in about 120 years – a third of the way into the 22nd century. Last week, I went to a lunch hosted by a bank in the City of London, attended by a crowd of senior financial and business executives. It was a pleasant event but, in terms of the gender balance, it could have been 1970.

The senior management committee of Goldman Sachs includes five women out of 34 members. There are two women out of 16 on Morgan Stanley's operating committee, including Ruth Porat, chief financial officer. Two women sit on Deutsche Bank's 21-member executive committee. Barclays is an outperformer among global banks, with three women out of 11.

Financial institutions do better at board level, where the proportion of women has risen from 12 per cent in 2003 to 20 per cent in 2013. Barclays has already met its target of having a 20 per cent female board, and needs only to swap a woman for a man on a 14-member board to meet its target of 25 per cent by the end of 2015.

While this is creditable, it also shows the problem. It is simple to call a headhunter and ask for a shortlist of potential non-executives that includes women. The barrier is higher when institutions choose among the bankers, asset managers and traders seeking promotion. They tend to choose men to run revenue-producing businesses and a few women to oversee human resources and technology.

Banking and finance should be a relatively equitable industry – it does not involve lifting heavy objects, and the performance targets are fairly transparent. The degree to which it used to be a men's club should have been curbed by financial deregulation and open competition. Yet, although many women join banks as associates and analysts, they find it more difficult to win promotion than in other industries.

Something is so wrong that it provokes some to suggest that banks should instead place women in charge, since female hegemony would be an improvement on male domination.

Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund managing director, is among those to express the “Lehman Sisters” view that banks got into trouble in the 2008 crisis partly because men are inherently risk-seeking.

“I do believe that women have different ways of taking risks, of addressing issues…of ruminating a bit more before they jump to conclusions,” she told US National Public Radio. I think the results, particularly on the trading floor…would be different.”

Men have indeed shown higher risk appetite than women in psychological experiments, but using that to argue for female hegemony strikes me as dubious and dangerous. (Ms Lagarde says she seeks only greater diversity.)

It is dubious because women bankers choose to enter a risk-intensive industry. Those who make it to the top are even less likely to conform to the average. Zoe Cruz, head of fixed income at Morgan Stanley until 2007, was known for her belief in risk-taking.

It is dangerous because an over-emphasis on innate gender characteristics can lead to strange conclusions. One study found that men take greater risks in the company of women because they show off – it is a form of mating ritual. Does that prove that banks should clear trading floors of women?

It is also unnecessary. There is no need to place the burden of proof to women to demonstrate their worth. Male domination clearly weakens decision-making by curbing the diversity of opinion. It limits the talent pool and pushes women out of the industry at all levels, even ignoring the sexual harassment uncovered in this week's FTfm survey of asset managers.

Finance was never a balanced business. Nor is it simple to solve the challenges, for example, of bringing women back into managerial jobs after career breaks to raise children, or of changing the trading floor culture. But we should not stop noticing how strange it looks and how foolish it is.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Which one of the following contains synonyms?

A.dubious；unambiguous

B.provoke；prevent

C.conform；confirm

D.inherent；innate

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which one below is not a reason that finance industry should be a relatively equitable industry?

A.Finance industry does not involve lifting heavy objects.

B.The performance targets of finance industry are fairly transparent.

C.The wage of the finance industry is much higher than other industries.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Why does the author mention trading floor culture in the last paragraph?

A.To illustrate the topic of author's next article.

B.To argue the point that ladies are more exhausted than ever before.

C.To give an example of challenges which can not be solved easily.

D.To support the perspective that men should take care of children.

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：D.inherent ; innate
解释：dubious 怀疑;无把握
unambiguous 明确的;毫不含糊的
provoke 引发;激起
prevent 阻止;阻碍
conform 遵守;相一致
confirm 确认;认可
inherent 固有的;内在的
innate 与生俱来的;内在的
故选择最后一项

(2)答案：C.The wage of the finance industry is much higher than other industries.
解释：作者认为银行与金融业本该是个对女性比较公平的行业，因为不需要举重物并且业绩指标也相当透明，并没有提到报酬和薪水的问题。

(3)答案：C.To give a example of challenges which can not be solved easily.
解释：作者在文章最后提到如何改变交易部门的文化以及让离职养育子女的女性重新回到管理岗位上，都是金融业目前不容易解决的挑战。

中国经济仍将路遇颠簸

中国经济增长放缓并不令人意外，但经济失衡令人担忧。动作迟缓的国有企业得到的资本远超理智水平，而充满活力的中小企业只能吸引到较少资金。这方面的改革仅取得微小进展。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

decry抨击、谴责[dɪ'kraɪ]

trumpet大声说出或宣告|['trʌmpɪt]vt.

sluggish['slʌɡɪʃ]adj.行动迟缓的

piecemeal[ˈpi:smi:l]adj.零碎的;逐个完成的

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

2分49秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分8秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

0分31秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分32秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

China GDP: push me pull you (321 words) by Lex, January 21, 2015 6:15 pm

China announces what the market already knows: annual economic output grew by “about 7.5 per cent”. The actual number: 7.4. Despite the lack of surprise, this can still be taken as either a disaster or a relief. Bears decry the slowest growth since 1990. Bulls trumpet a positive surprise: economist forecasts for 2014 had been revised down to 7.3 per cent (merely the lowest number that could still be rounded up to 7.5).

Either way, China is slowing on an annual basis. Again, no surprise since there is more of the economy to grow: 7.4 per cent of a $17tn economy is more than 10 per cent of the $6tn economy China was a couple of years back.

Of more concern are the economic imbalances. China has long been a junkie of fixed-asset investment, which accounts for about half of GDP — even as that investment becomes increasingly unproductive. Sluggish state-owned enterprises with implicit government-backed loan guarantees receive more capital than is rational. Vibrant small and medium enterprises, responsible for 60 per cent of GDP and three-quarters of new job creation, attract less funding.

China is making piecemeal progress towards implementing change. This month's launch of WeBank, backed by private enterprises (including Hong Kong-listed Tencent) indicates that the incumbent banks — as firmly entrenched a vested interest as can be found — have lost one round. WeBank targets the smaller borrower. Alibaba, which already extends loans to some of its customers, is likely to launch next.

Structural change generally brings pain. Monetary palliatives might help by stimulating more liquidity. Economists expect more easing after last November's interest rate cut. Yet this, too, has unintended consequences as liquidity flows to shadow finance and into mainstream risk assets. This week's stock market slump as the government moved to curb stock speculation through use of margin lending illustrates the sensitive balance.

China's economy will shift, but the route to change is clearly bumpy. Expect more carrots and sticks — and more bumps — ahead.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What do the “bears” and “bulls” mentioned in the paragraph 1 refer to?

A.Two kinds of animals.

B.The republicans and the democrats

C.The pessimists and the optimists

D.The capitalists and the communists.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According the article, which of the statements below is not true?

A.Chinese economy depends a lot on fixed-asset investment.

B.State-owned enterprises cannot make changes flexibly

C.Chinese economy is balanced and steady.

D.Small enterprises attract less funding than big ones.

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the main topic of the article?

A.Economy reform is sure to happen in China, before which it will be confronted with more bumps and uncertainty.

B.China will accelerate the development of small enterprises.

C.Chinese economy won't work unless the state-owned enterprises disappear.

D.China will start its own quantitative easing plan to ensure the success of economy reform.

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：C.The pessimists and the optimists
解释：文章第一段中提到的“熊”和“牛”分别指悲观主义者和乐观者。

(2)答案：C.Chinese economy is balanced and steady.
解释：文章第3段讲道，中国经济失衡问题更令人担忧，所以中国经济并不如选项中说的一般平衡。

(3)答案：A.Economy reform is sure to happen in China, before which it will be confronted with more bumps and uncertainty.
解释：本文主旨即为：中国经济将发生转型，但变革的道路显然崎岖不平。预计未来将出现更多的“胡萝卜和大棒”，还有更多的颠簸。

英国《金融时报》
原文阅读精选集Vol.40

全球经济走向何方

油价下跌将会提振经济，但也导致了通胀水平急剧下降，同时欧洲央行出台量化宽松的前景也为全球经济前景蒙上了一层不确定性。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

precipitous鲁莽的，险峻的[prɪˈsɪpɪtəs]

choppy起伏的['tʃɒpɪ]

grist谷物[ɡrɪst]

sovereign bond主权债券

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分37秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分57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29秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

The economy is worse than you hoped but better than you think (893 words)

by Gavyn Davies, January 16, 2015 7:15 pm Though Europe faces deflation, the fall in oil price is a boon for consumers

The oil price has fallen by more than half in a little over six months, and you might expect investors to be cheering. Perhaps they would have been — had the result not been a precipitous drop in inflation.

A flight to the safety of government bonds has caused yields to fall lower than they have been at any time other than the darkest days of the euro crises of 2012. Although stock markets are still only 3.5 per cent from their all time highs, they have become a lot choppier. Prices are bouncing up and down, suggesting investors have become more nervous about the prospects for economic growth.

Economists believe the fall in the oil price was triggered mainly by an increase in the supply of oil, following a rise in US production, and the decision by Opec to keep output high. Standard economic models suggest this should boost global output by between 0.5 and 1 per cent this year, if present oil prices are maintained. There will be significant losses among oil producers — but even bigger gains to oil consuming households and businesses.

Investors initially accepted this, sending equity prices higher outside the energy sector. But lately, they have become sceptical, as inflation expectations have fallen off a cliff — for reasons that are not obvious, if the oil shock really is a boon for economic growth.

The answer lies in the eurozone. Although lower oil prices should have boosted growth there, the economy keeps crawling along with growth of less than 1 per cent, and inflation expectations have been torn loose from the European Central Bank's inflation target of below but close to 2 per cent. A deflationary process — in which consumers put off spending money because they expect prices to fall, companies cut prices to lure people into the shops, and households sit tight because their expectations have been confirmed — may be taking an inexorable grip on the single currency. The consequences would be disastrous, and far-reaching.

Mario Draghi, the ECB president, is aware of this threat, and has strongly hinted that the central bank will begin quantitative easing — that is, purchasing sovereign bonds with newly created money — at its meeting this coming Thursday. This week the European Court of Justice indicated that such bond purchases are likely to be deemed legal under the EU treaties, subject perhaps to some minor safeguards.

Meanwhile, the Swiss National Bank unexpectedly decided last Thursday to allow its currency to move freely instead of keeping its value below a predetermined cap. This has been taken as a signal that Swiss central bankers are unwilling to soften the fall in the value of the euro that is likely to occur when the ECB starts buying bonds. The alternative was to print Swiss francs in large quantities and use them to buy euros, so that — relative to one another, at least — the value of the two currencies would stay the same. But a glut of francs would have created the risk of instability in the Swiss financial system, and it would have exposed the SNB to losses on its foreign exchange reserves if it had been forced to backtrack later on.

Whatever the motives, the SNB's action has added to the jitters in financial markets. Its volte face leaves traders wondering whether they can take central bankers at their word when they promise unlimited intervention to meet an announced goal. Many investors are becoming sceptical about the efficacy of QE, even in “unlimited” quantities. This will be grist to their mill.

It will not, however, stop Mr Draghi from announcing sovereign bond purchases next Thursday — probably about €500bn worth. Adding in purchases of private-sector assets that have already been announced, this is enough to swell the ECB balance sheet by €750bn — the target he has previously indicated. But two large uncertainties remain.

First, we do not know whether the two German members of the ECB governing council, Jens Weidmann and Sabine Lautenschläger, will support QE in any form. And if they do, we also do not know whether they will insist that, if the ECB bears losses on sovereign bonds, they should be paid for by the country concerned. (Many economists believe that such an insistence would make QE far less effective, arguing that losses should instead be “mutualised” on the ECB balance sheet and spread out among the eurozone members.) Mr Draghi faces a crucial choice: does he seek to achieve unanimity even at the cost of undermining the size and efficacy of his QE programme?

Then there is the worry that the American economy may be in trouble. The dollar has been rising and it will rise further when the eurozone embarks on QE. This will damp growth, offsetting the boost from lower oil prices. Statistical models suggest that the real growth rate has slowed from 4 per cent in November to 3 per cent in January. But it is too early to turn pessimistic about America. The slowdown is roughly what the Federal Reserve expected. Joblessness is still coming down, and consumer confidence is very robust.

Last week, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, complained that global growth is “lopsided”, because it is too reliant on lower oil prices and the US recovery. This is clearly true. But do not lose sight of the rays of optimism amid the recent gloom.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What caused the yield of government bond to fall lower than they have been at any time other than the days of euro crises of 2012？

A.The U.S quit the QEIII.

B.The ECB announced QE in the eurozone.

C.Capital fled to the government bond.

D.Interest rate fluctuated too frequently.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the article, which of the statement below is true？

A.The stock price stayed steady only 3.5 per cent from their all time highs.

B.The fall in the oil price was triggered only by an increase in the supply of oil.

C.Investors have become more confident about the prospects for economic growth.

D.What caused the fall in the oil price was the eurozone.

答案⁽²⁾

3.According to paragraph 5, if the households expect that the prices of goods will fall in the future, what action will they take?

A.They will tend to buy more goods now.

B.They will tend to save money now to buy more in the future..

C.They will tend to exchange their money into another kind of currency.

D.They may withdraw money from banks.

答案⁽³⁾

4.According the article, which of the statements below is not true?

A.Mario Draghi hinted that the central bank will begin quantitative easing.

B.Swiss National Bank decided not to keep its exchange rate below a predetermined cap

C.Quantitative easing is to set a floating exchange rate.

D.Many investors are becoming doubtful about the efficacy of QE.

答案⁽⁴⁾

5.According to the article, for Mario Draghi's QE decision, what factors were uncertain?

A.The attitude of two German members of ECB governing councils and American economy.

B.The oil price and American economy.

C.C.The volume of FDI and the attitude of two German members of ECB governing councils.

D.D.The attitude of two German members of ECB governing councils and the oil price.

答案⁽⁵⁾

(1)答案：C.Capital fled to the government bond.
解释：文中第二段明确提到是资金涌入政府债券，使政府债券的收益率降到了2012年欧元危机以来的冰点。

(2)答案：D.What caused the fall in the oil price was the eurozone.
解释：第四段反驳了原先供给增加使石油降低的观点，第五段给出了解释：石油降价的原因是欧元区。

(3)答案：B.They will tend to save money now to buy more in the future..
解释：文章第五段以及经济学原理告诉我们，如果消费者预期商品价格今后会下降，他们会减少现在的需求从而未来能以更低价格买到更多商品。

(4)答案：C.Quantitative easing is to set a floating exchange rate.
解释：文章第六段以及经济学常识告诉我们，量化宽松是央行购买债券以增加流动性的行为，这是货币政策工具。

(5)答案：A.The attitude of two German members of ECB governing councils and American economy.
解释：文章10、11段写道不确定性的两个来源分别于1.欧洲央行治理委员会的两名德国委员延斯·魏德曼(Jens Weidmann)和萨拜因·劳滕施莱格(Sabine Lautenschläger)是否支持任何形式的量化宽松；2.美国经济可能会出问题。

小米：中国的“苹果”？

在软件领域，如果一家企业成长足够迅速，所有其他问题都会被原谅。小米(Xiaomi)则将这一原则扩张到了硬件领域。在有望成为中国最大的智能手机生产商之际，该公司在最新一轮融资中被估值400亿美元。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

dilute稀释、冲淡[daɪˈlu:t]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

2分26秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1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

Xiaomi: never mind the profits (373 words)

by Lex,December 16, 2014 5:26 pm

How loyal are the tech group's customers?

In software, if a company is growing fast enough, all else is forgiven. Xiaomi has extended this principle to hardware. The company raised its last round of capital at a reported $40bn valuation, on the back of becoming the biggest smartphone vendor in China.

On Monday, Gartner released its quarterly smartphone market report. It did nothing to dilute the Xiaomi growth frisson. The company has over 5 per cent of the global market, putting it in fourth place between Huawei and Lenovo. Its 16m units shipped in the quarter was 12m more than last year; only Apple came close, with 8m units added.

It is reassuring to find that Xiaomi makes money too. Last month the Wall Street Journal reported figures the company presented to its lenders. They include $4.4bn in sales and $566m in net profit last year, and a target of close to a billion in profit this year. A margin of nearly 13 per cent is better than Samsung, the number one vendor by volume, manages (Samsung had an 18 per cent margin in mobile last year, when sales were higher).

The profits are nice; they do not matter much. When Xiaomi comes to the public markets – the numbers show that it could float at will – it will not need to prove that it can make money. If you sell lots of handsets, you can make a profit. Plenty of companies have done it. Motorola, BlackBerry and Nokia all spring to mind. A strong gross margin is enough to prove the point; at this early stage, Xiaomi should be focused on investment rather than net profit. Justifying a monster valuation will instead require evidence that customers will stay loyal to Xiaomi. Only one company has managed this for long: Apple, using a strong brand and a suite of services that increase switching costs.

Xiaomi's brand is hot in China. It has a popular messaging app, and it is investing in services and content. It will take a few product cycles to know whether all this has made Xiaomi's customers as sticky as Apple's – despite the proliferation of alternatives at the low end of the market. A $40bn valuation makes sense for China's Apple. China's Nokia will be worth much less.

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, which statement below is true?

A.Xiaomi has over 5 per cent of the global market, putting it in fourth place between Huawei and Lenovo.

B.Huawei raised its last round of capital at a reported $40bn valuation, on the back of becoming the biggest smartphone vendor in China.

C.Any hardware manufacture's fault should not be forgiven even if they grow fast.

D.Apple's shipment grew faster than Xiaomi‘s in 2013.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the article, which of the following manufactures sold the most devices in 2013？

A.Huawei

B.Xiaomi

C.Samsung

D.Lenovo

答案⁽²⁾

3.According to the article, which below is NOT true about Xiaomi？

A.The company is profitable but profit itself seems not to be the most important role.

B.The only mission for Xiaomi is to sell an enormous number of handsets to prove its ability to make money.

C.Apple has done a lot to keep its customers' loyalty.So should be done by Xiaomi

D.Nokia and Motorola were profitable.

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：A.Xiaomi has over 5 per cent of the global market, putting it in fourth place between Huawei and Lenovo.
解释：原文第二段中提到：“该公司占全球市场的份额超过5%，处于华为(Huawei)和联想(Lenovo)之间，位居全球第四。”

(2)答案：C.Samsung
解释：文中第三段提到三星为销量第一。

(3)答案：B.The only mission for Xiaomi is to sell an enormous number of handsets to prove its ability to make money.
解释：文中提到小米现阶段的任务并非卖出大量机器以证明盈利能力，而是要尽量争取更多的投资，保证客户的忠诚。

FT年度词汇：民粹主义

FT评选出了2014年最热的一些词汇，并由编辑们撰文解释和分析。“民粹主义”为何成为年度热词？我们需要知道关于民粹主义的哪些事情？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

ideology意识形态，观念

Gracchi brothers格拉古兄弟，以发动土改而著称的罗马政治家

on a roll运气好，超常发挥

rollercoaster过山车

agrarian土地的，农业的

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

2分34秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分0秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

0分25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

A year in a word: Populism(300 words)

by Tony Barber, December 29, 2014 Those who claim to speak for the common people had a good 2014, writes Tony Barber

Populism

noun — political ideology that claims to speak for the common people; a brand of politics hostile to elites and established parties.

From the Gracchi brothers of ancient Rome to Hugo Chávez, the late Venezuelan president, populism boasts a colourful past and a rollercoaster record of political success and failure.

Today populists in parts of Europe believe themselves to be on a roll. In 2014 they enjoyed one of their most encouraging years since the second world war. Insurgent anti-establishment movements recorded electoral triumphs and opinion poll gains everywhere from France and Greece to Spain, Sweden and the UK.

No two European populist parties are alike and half the time they do not like each other, making generalisations risky. But most share a contempt for political elites and anger at the speed, scope and irresistibility of change in the modern world. Among rightwing populists, hostility to immigrants is a common feature.

A few populist parties on the left, such as Syriza of Greece and Podemos of Spain, want the euro to survive, but with socialist-style changes to eurozone economic policies. Germany's Alternative für Deutschland and Italy's Five-Star Movement are anti-euro. The Freedom party of the Netherlands is anti-Islamist, but its tolerant stance on gay sexuality is unpalatable to rightwing populists in Poland.

None of these parties is revolutionary — unlike the Russian intellectuals, known as narodniki (literally, “populists”), who in the 1870s tried, and failed, to stir up the peasants against tsarist autocracy.

The People's party, a mainly agrarian US movement, briefly captured the US imagination in the 1890s by railing against banks, industrial monopolies and urban political elites. By the dawn of the 20th century it was in decline — but its spirit survives in the modern Tea Party.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Populism is on the rise in 2014 mainly in?

A.Europe.

B.US.

C.South America.

D.Russia.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is a correct generalisation about populism in Europe?

A.They are hostile to immigration.

B.They don't want the euro.

C.They want socialism for the EU.

D.They despise the establishment and elites.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Among historical populists, who is against banks and industrial monopolies?

A.Gracchi brothers of ancient Rome.

B.Hugo Chavez of modern Venezuela.

C.Anti-Tsarist Russian intellectuals.

D.19th century American People's party.

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：A.Europe.
解释：第三段一开头划定了范围：Today populists in parts of Europe believe themselves to be on a roll.

(2)答案：D.They despise the establishment and elites.
解释：文中可以读出，欧洲的民粹主义政党有左翼的也有右翼的，有支持欧元的也有反对欧元的，有容忍同性恋的，也有反对的。真正的共同点，在于他们鄙视政治精英阶层，反对世界上迅猛的变化。

(3)答案：D.19th century American People's party.
解释：现代的民粹主义起源于19世纪末的俄国和美国，对今天的世界影响巨大。

BAT：中国网霸三国志

百度(Baidu)，阿里巴巴(Alibaba)，和腾讯(Tencent)被合称为“BAT”，它们受益于“长城防火墙”，是主宰中国互联网的巨头。随着移动互联网兴起，他们之间的竞争又蔓延到用户的掌心间，三大巨头纷纷在寻找“杀手级的应用”以占领市场。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

mogul大亨 ['moʊɡ(ə)l]

juggernaut巨头 ['dʒʌɡər.nɔt]

keiretsu经联会

duopoly两强垄断[du'ɑpəli]

VIE可变利益实体

nimble敏捷的,灵活的 [ˈnɪmb(ə)l]

impromptu即兴的[ɪmˈprɒmptjuː]

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33秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分21秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分49秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分20秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

China's internet titans focus on staying ahead of mobile revolution (803 words)

by Charles Clover, November 3, 2014 11:22 pm

The listing of Alibaba in New York in September created the world's second-largest internet company by market capitalisation, behind Google. This did not happen by accident. Of the top 10 internet companies in the world, ranked by market cap, three are Chinese, and the rest are from the US.

Together, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent form what is know in China as “BAT”. These economic juggernauts that have come to dominate the internet in China are operating almost along the lines of Japan's keiretsu, which are alliances of businesses with similar interests or that have shareholdings in one another. They are also rapidly branching out into offline sectors, such as transport, travel, retail and banking.

Whether the rapid growth of the Chinese internet is just a bubble or a stable trend is open to question. However, for the time being at least, BAT has become the nucleus of an internet industry that is starting to rival the US, creating what is essentially a US-China duopoly. The three Chinese companies also benefit from what has become known as the “Great Firewall”, as most of the top US companies, such as Google, Facebook and Twitter, are excluded from operating in China.

However, no Chinese internet company has yet made the leap from China to become a global brand. For now, it is enough for them be dominant in China, which had 632m internet users as of June, 527m of whom go online using mobile devices. The potential of the forecast consumption boom, as China moves from an investment-driven economy to a consumption-driven one, is enough to attract investments such as the $25bn sunk into Alibaba in its initial public offering, the largest ever.

The internet is the most dynamic part of China's budding private sector, though it remains solidly under the control of the state. Foreigners hold large shareholdings in Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu and dozens of other internet companies. But these stakes are largely theoretical at best and owned via “variable interest entities”, or VIEs, which guarantee a payment stream from, but not ownership of, the licence-holding vehicles in China. These VIE's are technically illegal, though Chinese courts turn a blind eye to the practice, and owners know their large holding only exists thanks to the tacit consent of the state.

Nimble private internet companies, able to dance circles around the inefficient state-owned enterprises, have begun impromptu liberalising of whole sectors such as financial services. Alibaba's fund company Yu'e Bao is China's biggest online money market fund, with Rmb574bn ($93.8bn) worth of assets.

The internet is a phenomenal wealth generator. Five of the 10 richest men in China are tech moguls, up from none three years ago, according to the Hurun China Rich List, which tracks wealthy individuals. In September, Alibaba founder Jack Ma joined the list in first place and became one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a 7.8 per cent stake in a $230bn company.

Competition between internet companies is fierce, however. With the entire industry switching from desktop devices to mobile ones, many companies risk being left behind if they don't have a “killer app” that will act as a gateway for mobile users.

Alibaba has been searching for just such a feature to challenge the currently undisputed leadership of Tencent, whose WeChat instant messenger has 350m monthly users. WeChat and Tencent's other messenger, QQ, are the two most popular mobile apps in China, according to iResearch, a Beijing-based internet research firm.

In June, Alibaba bought UCWeb, a popular mobile browser company, and the two have developed Shenme, a mobile search engine. They are also working with Quixey, a US-based company in which Alibaba has invested, to design a mobile gateway using Quixey's app search engine. Francis Bea of PapayaMobile, a Chinese mobile technology company, says

Alibaba is attempting to mirror Tencent's success with WeChat. He says: “In as highly competitive a market as China, there is potential for the mobile internet to disrupt established internet players if they don't manage the transition from desktop to mobile.” Alibaba has spent an estimated $6bn-$8bn in the space of a year on full acquisitions of, or investments in, companies including mobile providers, chain stores, an internet TV company, a maker of electrical appliances, a movie producer, a digital broadcaster and a professional Chinese football team.

While attention has focused on Alibaba's acquisitions, Tencent and Baidu have been on similar spending sprees. Baidu is betting that its stake in Qunar, China's top travel website by users, and mobile app store 91Wireless.com, will complement its popular search engine to carry it into the mobile age. Tencent has taken a stake in JD.com, China's second-largest ecommerce platform, and mobile-friendly companies such as restaurant review site Dianping and South Korea's CJ Games.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The word “rival” in paragraph 3 can be replaced by “____”.

A.equal

B.ally

C.surpass

D.behind

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What is “BAT”?

A.An acronym of three companies.

B.A small nocturnal flying mammal.

C.A heavy stick or wooden club.

D.A file extension for a batch file.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which one of the following belongs to Tencent?

A.Qunar

B.Yu'e Bao

C.DianPing

D.WeChat

答案⁽³⁾

4.According to this article, which company is the world's largest internet company by market capitalisation?

A.Amazon

B.Facebook

C.Alibaba

D.Google

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.equal
解释：文中提到“starting to rival the US”意为开始与美国相匹敌,equal做动词时有“比得上，敌得过”之意，其他三项均不正确。

(2)答案：A.An acronym of three companies.
解释：BAT是由百度（Baidu），阿里巴巴（Alibaba），腾讯（Tencent）三家公司的英文名称首字母所组成的缩写词。

(3)答案：D.WeChat
解释：BAT是由百度（Baidu),阿里巴巴(Alibaba),腾讯(Tencent)三家公司的英文名称首字母所组成的缩写词。

(4)答案：D.Google
解释：谷歌是以市值衡量的全球最大互联网公司，阿里巴巴暂时位居第二。

欧盟与希腊应各退一步

希腊极左翼联盟党废除债务和欧盟拒绝这么做都有很强的理由。为此双方最好达成协议，将偿付金额与希腊GDP增长水平挂钩，从而达到双赢局面。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

waterboarding水刑 ['wɔ:təbɔ:dɪŋ]

repudiation废除[rɪˌpju:dɪ'eɪʃn]

opine认为|[əʊ'paɪn]

predicament困境 [prɪˈdɪkəmənt]

austerity紧缩 [ɒ'sterətɪ]

jubilant欢欣鼓舞的[ˈdʒu:bɪlənt]adj.

pragmatism实用主义[ˈprægmətɪzəm]

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12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52秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分0秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Syriza's electoral win is a chance to strike a deal (605 words)

by Financial Times, January 27, 2015 5:44 am German voters (and other creditors) presumably want to be paid back in euros and not drachmas.

The victory of far-left Syriza in last weekend's Greek general election opens a dangerous new phase in the eurozone crisis. Its leader Alexis Tspiras has demanded an end to the “fiscal waterboarding” that in his view has left Greece trapped in a debtor's prison. But the rest of Europe, and Germany in particular, have so far stood their ground. If no compromise can be found Greece risks being bundled out of the euro by the end of the year.

The scale of Greece's problems sets it apart from the rest of Europe. The depression Athens suffered was as deep as any since the 1930s. Unemployment has soared and remains high, and Greece remains cut off from capital markets while other countries borrow ever more cheaply. After a rescheduling in 2012, its enormous debt is mostly owed to other European governments.

It is easy to see why Syriza put debt repudiation at the heart of its electoral campaign. John Paul Getty once opined that “if you owe the bank $100, that's your problem; if you owe the bank $100m, that's the bank's problem”. Greece's predicament may ultimately force creditors to the negotiating table. To service its debt burden would require Greece to operate as a quasi slave economy, running a primary surplus of 5 per cent of GDP for years, purely for the benefit of its foreign creditors. Even the IMF has dropped hints in favour of some debt forgiveness.

But Greece's EU creditors have equally strong reasons for refusing. Caving to Syriza's demands would come at a high political cost, particularly for Germany's Angela Merkel, who is harried by the eurosceptic AfD on her right. Other struggling countries would find their own radical parties emboldened by Syriza's success. No country deserves to live beyond its means indefinitely.

Back in 2011, Greece posed an existential threat to the eurozone. Today, Berlin and Frankfurt are no longer as frightened by the prospect of Greece leaving the single currency. Yet for the Greek people this would be a catastrophe: a giant economic step backwards and a blow to living standards just as severe as any endured under austerity.

Therefore, despite his jubilant post-match rhetoric, the cards remain stacked against Mr Tsipras. If he is determined to stay in the euro, he and his party will have to compromise. The new coalition government in Athens must continue difficult reforms to ensure greater competitiveness. Repudiating all of the conditions imposed as part of past bailouts is simply unrealistic. Some of Syriza's programme represents progress: the commitment to tackle tax evasion and the dominance of the economy by oligarchs. But mostly, Syriza wants to spend money that Greece does not have: on civil servants, free food and electricity and a higher minimum wage.

The EU should respond in kind to any signs of pragmatism from Syriza. On debt, arguments about fairness cut both ways; those banks that heedlessly lent money before the crisis must bear some of the risk. A programme should be agreed that restores the Greek economy to a level where debt repayments become affordable. This could be done so that creditors still do not take a writedown of the amount owed. The neatest way would be to link repayments with the level of Greek GDP.

A deal linked to growth would effectively turn Greek debt into risky Greek equity, which creditor nations will still find hard to swallow. But demanding money back merely to hasten the bankruptcy of the Greek state makes no sense. German voters (and other creditors) presumably want to be paid back in euros and not drachmas.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The word “emboldened” in paragraph 4 can be replaced by “____”.

A.enlarged

B.embedded

C.encouraged

D.empowered

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the paragraph 1 to 3, which of the statement below is true？

A.The fiscal policies in the eurozone are beneficial to Greece in all aspects.

B.The boom Athens experienced was unprecedented.

C.Greece's enormous debt is mostly owed to the Asian and North American governments.

D.The party that is elected takes debt repudiation as the core of its campaign.

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is one of the main reasons of Greece's EU creditors for refusing to repudiate the debt?

A.They are worried about imitation of other radical parties in the countries in debt.

B.They are in urgent need for currency.

C.They cannot support the expense for social welfare system that require large amount of money.

D.They are afraid that Greece may turn into a communist country.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What is one of the main policy that Syriza will take after election？

A.Greece will withdraw the eurozone immediately.

B.They will spend more on social welfare and raise the minimum wage.

C.They may attach more importance on political reform and ensure the constitution of legal system.

D.The party tend to start a revolution to establish a new government.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.encouraged
解释：原文中提到“希腊极左翼联盟党的成功会极大地鼓励其国内的激进党派”，embolden指“使大胆”，与以下“encourage”的意思更为相似。

(2)答案：D.The party that is elected takes debt repudiation as the core of its campaign.
解释：第三段明确提到，激进左翼联盟将债务废除作为选战的核心。本题将内容进行少许转述。

(3)答案：A.They are worried about imitation of other radical parties in the countries in debt.
解释：第四段提到，“而对其他处于困境中的国家来说，希腊极左翼联盟党的成功会极大地怂恿其国内的激进党派”。暗示如果欧洲债权国废除了希腊债务，那么其他在债务中的欧洲国家的左翼政党很可能也会模仿希腊的做法上台，要求废除债务。

(4)答案：B.They will spend more on social welfare and raise the minimum wage.
解释：文章第六段写道，“不过总体而言，极左翼联盟党还是想在希腊缺乏投入的方面增加开支：该党派希望加大公务员开支，希望推行免费食品和电器计划，并打算提高最低工资水平。”

未来十年可能属于中国

与普遍的看法不同，印度经济在过去十年的表现优于中国，印度仍然具有一些优势，例如消费比重较高和人口比较年轻。但如果Chindia携手卷土重来，也许下一个10年属于中国。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

elision [ɪ'lɪʒ(ə)n]n.省音

purchasing power parity购买力平价

MSCI摩根士丹利资本国际

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48秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分8秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

0分31秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分32秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

Chindia: getting back together? (320 words)

by Lex, January 11, 2015 4:25 pm The two economies have more in common, again

Celebrity couple elisions took off at the beginning of the 2000s, giving us Bennifer, Brangelina and Tomkat. Countries were not immune. And just like a celebrity couple, the halves of Chindia have gone separate ways. In common perception, China has had the better divorce, its economy realising its potential while India's struggles.

The data tell a different story. In the decade since 2004, India's economy in purchasing power parity terms has achieved an annual growth rate of 14 per cent, according to Bloomberg. China has only managed 12. Over the same timeframe, the MSCI India index has delivered a total return of 237 per cent to China's 154.

India still has advantages. Its economy is more consumer-driven – according to World Bank data, consumption as a percentage of GDP was over 70 per cent in India, versus less than half in China. So India is less likely to suffer from the sort of fixed asset investment hangover that now besets China. And its young population is not ageing as fast: nearly a third of India's people are below the age of 15. In China that figure is only one-fifth. CLSA estimates that China's working age population as a proportion of the total began to decline from 2010. India's worker proportion is still rising and should overtake China's by 2030.

China and India still have common ground. The dominance of a slothful public sector is marked in both countries. The neglect of small and medium enterprises by mainstream lenders hampers both economies. And both are pushing their banking sectors to serve the smaller end of their economies – India through rural account openings and China by granting private banking licenses. And India aims to develop new industries in the manufacturing sector, reminiscent of China's last five year plan, which focused on several sectors key to rebalancing the economy.

If Chindia is getting back together, perhaps the next decade belongs to China.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The word “slothful” in paragraph 4 can be replaced by “____”.

A.inactive

B.energetic

C.enormous

D.working

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to the article, which below is one advantage of India?

A.Population is aging rapidly.

B.Grant private banking licenses.

C.Economy is more consumer-driven.

D.Develop new manufacturing industries.

答案⁽²⁾

3.According to the article, which below is NOT a common ground between China and India?

A.The dominance of a slothful public sector.

B.The worker proportion began to decline from 2010.

C.The neglect of small enterprises by mainstream lenders.

D.Pushing banking sectors to serve the smaller end of economies

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：A.inactive
解释：slothful意味懒散的，选项中只有inactive接近这个含义。

(2)答案：C.Economy is more consumer-driven.
解释：文中提到印度所具有的两个优势分别为“经济在更大程度上由消费者驱动”以及“印度的年轻人口也不像中国那么快老龄化”。

(3)答案：B.The worker proportion began to decline from 2010.
解释：文中提到中国和印度所具有的共同点分别为两国都以懒散的公共部门占主导为特色、大银行对中小企业的忽视阻碍着两国经济、两国都在推动各自的银行业为经济小微端服务等，只有中国的劳动年龄人口占总人口的比例从2010年起开始下降。

自由平等与恐怖主义

面对恐怖主义，我们首先要接受的现实是，我们玩的是一个长期的围堵游戏。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

echo回声；回音；回响['ekoʊ]

penetrate渗透；进入；穿过['penə.treɪt]

salvation救恩；得救；救世[sæl'veɪʃ(ə)n]

eternity永恒；永生；不朽[ɪ'tɜrnəti]

copious充裕的；丰富的['koʊpiəs]

drastic极端的；急剧的['dræstɪk]

adherents信徒[əd'hɪrənt]

proclivity癖好[proʊ'klɪvəti]

secularism世俗主义['sekjələr.ɪzəm]

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

7分40秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

3分32秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

2分40秒

母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度

350

0分38秒

母语为英语的速读高手

1000

How to share the world with true believers behind global terror (981 words)

by Martin Wolf, January 13, 2015 5:44 pm First, accept that we are playing the long game of containment

How are we to understand last week's events in Paris? Why are people prepared to kill and die for their beliefs? How should liberal democracies respond? Many people must be asking themselves these questions. A remarkable man, Eric Hoffer, addressed them in a book published in 1951: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. The ideas in his book, developed in response to Nazism and communism, echo powerfully today.

Hoffer was born at the turn of the 20th century and died in 1983. He worked in restaurants, as a migrant farmhand, as a gold-prospector and, for 25 years, as a longshoreman in San Francisco. Self-taught, he could penetrate to the core of a topic in brilliant and limpid sentences. The True Believer is among my favourite books. It is once again an invaluable guide.

Who, then, is a true believer? Said and Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly, the men responsible for last week's terrorist attacks in Paris, were true believers. So are those active in al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) or Boko Haram. So, once, were Nazis and committed communists. True believers, argues Hoffer, are not characterised by the content of their faith, but by the nature of its claims. Their beliefs claim absolute certainty and demand absolute loyalty. True believers are those who accept those claims and welcome those demands. They are prepared to kill and to die for their cause, because its success in the world is more important to them than their lives or indeed anybody's life. The true believer is therefore a fanatic.

The fanatic is a familiar character in history. Fanaticism is born of temperament, not ideas. The fanatical temperament can express itself in many different ways. Hoffer's was an age of secular religions. Reality killed the religions that promised salvation on earth. But it cannot kill religions that promise eternity. The latter are now, once again, the most powerful forms of belief, though nationalism may yet run them close.

Indeed, religion and nationalism have frequently reinforced one another: God, after all, is so often held to be on “our side”. Thus, Hoffer states that “in modern times nationalism is the most copious and durable source of mass enthusiasm and that nationalist fervour must be tapped if the drastic changes projected and initiated by revolutionary enthusiasm are to be consummated”.

One of Hoffer's important insights is that it is not poverty that turns someone into a true believer; it is frustration. It is a sense that one deserves far better. It is not surprising that some of those engaged in terrorism are petty criminals. Hoffer argues “that the frustrated predominate among the early adherents of all mass movements and that they usually join of their own accord”.

Among their characteristics is that they may feel they do not fit into their societies. This is not unlikely to be the case for some children of immigrant minorities. Their attachment to the culture of their family's origin and identification with the culture of their family's destination are both quite likely to be fragile.

What then does the belief offer? In essence, it offers an answer: it tells the adherents what to think, how to feel and what to do. It provides an all-embracing community in which to live. It offers a reason for living, killing and dying. It replaces emptiness with fullness, and aimlessness with purpose. It offers a cause. This is sometimes noble and sometimes base, but it is a cause, and that is what matters.

“All mass movements generate in their adherents a…proclivity for united action,” notes Hoffer. “All of them, irrespective of the doctrine they preach…, breed fanaticism, enthusiasm, fervent hope, hatred and intolerance.” All demand “blind faith and single-hearted allegiance”.

Communism has waned. So, in many places, has secularism. Religion has taken its place. The moral and intellectual bankruptcy of secular rulers — particularly corrupt secular despots — has encouraged this revival. But western secular democracies are also vulnerable to assaults from true believers in militant Islamism. Wars may control them. But violence will not eliminate them, as the west has learnt in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The enemy is not “terrorism”, it is the idea of which terrorism is the fruit. Deterring people willing to die is hard. Killing ideas is hard. Killing religious ideas is nigh on impossible. If such ideas are to wane, they will do so only at the hands of more attractive ideas. Possibly, the more extreme might perish of exhaustion. But this could take a long time. Remember that Luther's ideas triggered 130 years of religious wars in Europe. It is a disturbing precedent.

What is to be done? I claim no expertise in this area. But I claim at least an interest: that of a citizen of a liberal democracy, which I very much wish to remain so. My answers are as follows.

First, accept that we are playing the long game of containment.

Second, recognise that the heart of the struggle is elsewhere. The west can help. But it cannot win those wars.

Third, offer the lived idea of equality as citizens as an alternative to violent jihad.

Fourth, appreciate and respond to the frustrations many now feel.

Fifth, accept the need for measures to provide security. But remember that absolute safety is never achievable.

Finally, remain true to our beliefs, since without them we have nothing to offer in this struggle. We must not abandon either the rule of law or the ban on torture. Once we do, we have already lost this war of ideals and ideas.

True believers do, once again, want to do us harm. But the threat they pose is not comparable to the ones that liberal democracy survived in the 20th century. We should recognise the dangers, but not overreact. In the end, this too will pass.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.The word “fragile” in paragraph 7 can be replaced by “____”.

A.breakable

B.sturdy

C.respectable

D.inadequate

答案⁽¹⁾

2.According to Hoffer's perception, _______ is the important key that turns someone into a true believer.

A.starvation

B.poverty

C.frustration

D.belief

答案⁽²⁾

3.According to the writer, which one below is the origin of fanaticism?

A.Promise

B.Proclivity

C.Ideas

D.Temperament

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：A.breakable
解释：原文中提到“狂热分子们对家庭原籍地文化的归属感，以及对所在国文化的认同感，可能都相当脆弱。”，fragile意为脆弱的，只有breakable与其意思相近。

(2)答案：C.frustration
解释：霍弗的一个重要深刻见解是，使一个人成为狂热分子的不是贫穷，而是挫败感，是一种认为自己值得更好生活的感觉。

(3)答案：D.Temperament
解释：作者认为，狂热分子在历史上屡见不鲜，狂热主义是情绪而非思想的产物。

FT年度词汇：北方引擎

英国财政大臣表示，通过权力下放，不久的将来，英国北部将拥有一个以曼彻斯特和利物浦等城市为核心的“北方经济引擎”，与伦敦相媲美。这个战略真的可行吗？一起来了解一下吧。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

encompass包含

mausoleum陵墓；阴森森的大厦

hydraulic accumulators液压蓄能器

turbine涡轮

chancellor of the exchequer财政大臣

marginal边缘的

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

2分35秒

母语为英语者的朗读速度

140

1分0秒

母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度

250

0分26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

A year in a word: Northern powerhouse（301words）

by John McDermott, December 24, 2014 UK now has its best chance in years at having a Chicago to add to its New York, says John McDermott

Northern powerhouse

noun — a conurbation in northern England encompassing Manchester, Liverpool etc (first known usage probably 18th century).

Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry is the mausoleum for the industrial revolution. In June, amid hydraulic accumulators, beam engines and turbines, George Osborne gave a speech in which he called on his audience to create a new “northern powerhouse” linking cities such as Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Hull — a conurbation to vie with London. Later in the year, the UK chancellor of the exchequer announced cities would receive more power over how money is spent in their locales.

Mr Osborne's critics say devolution is a ruse to deflect attention from deep cuts to local government spending. Other cynics see it as the inevitable response to Scotland's successful quest for more control over its affairs. They add that it will help the chancellor's Conservatives in marginal constituencies; the party of Margaret Thatcher remains a toxic brand in much of the north.

There is a less cynical explanation. Cities are sources of growth. Productive people want to live alongside one another in urban areas. London is the prime example. However, compared with their counterparts in the US, Germany and Italy, the UK's second-tier cities have been puny for too long. Rather than try to halt the ascent of its capital, Britain is wisely trying to make other cities more than the sum of their parts. The rise of Greater Manchester — the successor to Barcelona as the symbol of urban development — under the leadership of its activist council shows the potential of this idea.

The northern powerhouse is more a slogan than a strategy. Compared with Scotland (although not Scottish cities), English cities have few economic powers. Still, the UK now has its best chance in years at having a Chicago to add to its New York. Most important, the project should show that north versus south is not a zero-sum game.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.According to Osborne,“northern powerhouse” would bring benefit such as?

A.Competition between north and south.

B.More Power devolved to cities.

C.End of control from the central government.

D.A decrease in local government spending.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Which of the following critique to Osborne's devolution is inappropriate?

A.A ruse to distract public attention.

B.An inevitable response to Scotland's referendum.

C.A disguised assistance to Conservative election campaign.

D.A way to halt the ascent of London.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Who have been “puny” for a long time in UK according to the author?

A.Rural areas.

B.The Greater Manchester.

C.Second-tier cities.

答案⁽³⁾

4.What does the author mostly expect from the project?

A.English cities can obtain more economic powers.

B.The plan is not a slogan but a strategy.

C.North versus south is not a zero-sum game.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：A.Competition between north and south.
解释：文章第一段，财政大臣认为该计划能促进北方核心城市与伦敦的良性竞争。

(2)答案：D.A way to halt the ascent of London.
解释：文章第二段，有些批评者认为该计划是为了把公众的视线从政府削减开支中转移；有些认为，这是对苏格兰公投后争取到更多权益不可避免的反应；有些认为，这是为保守党争取更多边缘区选票的手段。

(3)答案：C.Second-tier cities.
解释：倒数第二段，英国二线城市发展被搁置了很长时间。

(4)答案：C.North versus south is not a zero-sum game.
解释：最后一段，作者最希望这项决议能让英国南、北方城市的经济较量不是一个“零和博弈”。

纪念25年前的波兰大选

1989年的夏天，波兰的大选和新政府的组建开启了多米诺式的东欧国家和平转型的序幕。有人称之为奇迹，那么这个影响世界的奇迹是如何发生的？它对今天的人们有何教育意义？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Poland in 1989在严重的经济短缺压力下，波兰当局在6月4日开放国会部分议席的选举，结果反对派团结工会(Solidarity)几乎赢得所有议席

augur预言

Belarus白俄罗斯

Iron Curtain温斯顿·丘吉尔对苏联集团的著名描述

US state department美国国务院（中国的国务院英文译作State Council） last-ditch|坚持到最后的，死硬的

moot提出…供讨论

Nicolae Ceausescu罗马尼亚共产党领导人齐奥塞斯库，在1989年被推翻并枪决

incarceration监禁，禁闭

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分52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21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

Poland's past points to the future of its neighbours

By Tony Barber, FT Europe editor The unthinkable became reality 25 years ago in one corner of the Soviet empire

In Warsaw the evening of August 23 1989 was pleasantly warm. It augured well for August 24, the day Poland threw off its shackles, and Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a Catholic newspaper editor and activist in the patriotic Solidarity movement, was named the first non-communist prime minister of a Warsaw Pact state.

(Mr. Mazowiecki formed a new government and was credited for having successfully transformed Poland's centrally-planned shortage economy to a free market economy, as well as introducing multi-party democracy.)

Twenty-five years on, a generation of Poles has grown up with no personal experience of communism. Poland is a sovereign democracy, an increasingly prosperous market economy and a proud member of Nato and the EU – a nation transformed from the dreadful era of one-party rule, dismal living standards and subservience to Moscow. Poland, you could say, has never had it so good.

For sure, it is unwise to be complacent. The post-communist evolution of Ukraine and Belarus, which share borders with Poland, illustrates the point. Russia's annexation of Crimea, its armed support of separatists in eastern Ukraine and the dire lack of political freedom in Belarus underline that all is not well in Poland's eastern neighbourhood. Still, it is worth celebrating the day a Solidarity-led government came to power in Warsaw, and asking what lessons the experience holds for today's Europe.

August 24 1989 was the breakthrough day of that year's “springtime of nations”. The unthinkable became reality, and the glacier of European communism began to melt unstoppably. After Poland, the floods of freedom flowed into Hungary, East Germany and Czechoslovakia. The Iron Curtain was washed away. Hardly a drop of blood was shed, except in Romania.

In the US state department archives there is an amusing exchange of cables on August 24 1989 between John Davis, ambassador in Warsaw, and Lawrence Eagleburger, deputy secretary of state in Washington. Mr Davis reports that, with Mazowiecki's appointment, he has completed “the political tasks assigned to me in my current letter of instructions and I await further orders”. Eagleburger replies: “Your next task is to promote and ensure the realisation of economic prosperity in Poland, to include stable growth, full employment, low inflation, high productivity and a Mercedes (or equivalent) in every garage.”

To a suspicious eye – an eye watching from, say, the KGB in Moscow – Mr Davis's reference to his “political tasks” might be taken as proof that the US was always out to bring down communism in Poland and its neighbours. In fact, the George HW Bush administration was careful to show restraint in 1989, conscious that a strident pro-democracy stance risked weakening Mikhail Gorbachev, the reformist Soviet leader, and setting back the cause of change in the communist world.

One lesson of August 1989, applicable to the present Ukrainian crisis, is that the US and its allies need to practise skilful diplomacy and respect legitimate Russian interests even as they assist democratic forces in countries once under Moscow's thumb. Needless to say, it is easier to secure results if a Gorbachev, not a Putin, is sitting in the Kremlin. But the lack of triumphalism in US foreign policy in 1989 – and in 1991, when the Soviet Union started to fall apart – was a factor in its success.

A second lesson is that no repressive system of government will last forever. As the good humour of Eagleburger's exchange with Mr Davis suggests, few politicians and diplomats close to the action were seriously worried in August 1989 that Poland's transformation would run into last-ditch resistance from Polish or Soviet diehards. Solidarity had agreed Mazowiecki's appointment in advance with the ruling communists. Mr Gorbachev had also signalled his approval. When the moment came, Poland's parliament approved Mazowiecki's nomination by 378 votes to 4, with 41 abstentions.

Yet even a few weeks before that vote, the notion that communism could be peacefully dismantled had no empirical evidence to support it. In fact, history argued the opposite: East Berlin 1953, Budapest 1956, Prague 1968, Warsaw 1981 and Beijing 1989. Just hours before Mazowiecki became prime minister, none of us in Warsaw had forgotten it was fewer than three months since China's bloodshed.

A “Chinese solution” was mooted by East Germany's rulers in October 1989 to disperse the peaceful marches for democracy that took place every Monday night in Leipzig. Hardened gangsters such as Erich Mielke, the Stasi chief, were more than capable of such brutality. But the worst never happened.

Instead, in the space of just four months, the end of communism in Poland was followed by a similar transformation in Hungary, by the fall of the Berlin Wall, by the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and by the uprising in Romania that resulted in the execution of the dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, and his wife, Elena, on Christmas day 1989. Then came German reunification in 1990, and the Soviet Union's demise.

If someone had predicted to me at the start of 1989 that all these events would come to pass, I would have been tempted to ask what they were smoking. But, by the evening of August 23 in Warsaw, I knew that the impossible was about to come true, at least in Poland. Night became day. Incarceration became liberty. Tears became joy.

Perhaps such miracles happen only once in 100 years. But the important thing is that they do happen.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the purpose of this article?

A.To try to understand what is going on in Ukraine and Belerus.

B.To memorate late Polish prime minister Mazowiecki.

C.To analyse the experience and learn lessons for today's Europe.

D.To make the point that peaceful democratic transition is no miracle.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.What does the writer say about “the lack of triumphalilsm in US diplomacy” in 1989-1991?

A.It undermined reformist Soviet leader Gorbachev's efforts.

B.It contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

C.It was behind the success of economic transision of Poland.

答案⁽²⁾

3.What is the first “emperical evidence” that communism could be transformed peacefully?

A.Polish election in 1989.

B.Czechoslovakia's Prague Spring in 1968.

C.German reunification in 1990.

D.Execution of Romanian dictator Ceausescu in 1989.

答案⁽³⁾

(1)答案：C.To analyse the experience and learn lessons for today's Europe.
解释：Good!C正确。作者在第四段末尾说，团结工会的执政值得庆祝...and asking what lessons the experience holds for today's Europe.

(2)答案：B.It contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
解释：作者认为，老布什政府的克制是东欧和平转型的原因之一。如果美国高调支持反苏的东欧反对派，可能会削弱戈尔巴乔夫的权力，让强硬派上台。

(3)答案：A.Polish election in 1989.
解释：波兰的大选和新政府组建，是东欧一系列“不可能发生”的转变的开始。倒数第三段讲到，波兰大选后仅仅四个月时间内，就接连发生了匈牙利剧变、柏林墙拆除、捷克斯洛伐克“天鹅绒革命”、以及罗马尼亚的起义。——而在此之前，血腥的镇压在东欧屡次发生。如布拉格之春。

我们这个时代的和平

“如果一战的士兵们有Twitter的话，那场战争早就被结束了。”尽管我们每天仍然从媒体上看到大量的战乱和冲突，但今天其实是史上最和平的时期之一。尽管拿破仑是比奥朗德更高端大气的领导人，但人们还是更愿意生活在奥朗德的时代。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Great Leap Forward“大跃进”

flabby软弱的，无力的

quibble over争论琐事

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

如果您读完全文用时为：

那么，您的阅读速度相当于

每分钟阅读的英文单词数

6分49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19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

Peace in our time By Simon Kuper ‘They'd have stopped the first world war fast if soldiers had live-tweeted the carnage'

“Peace in our time” was made famous by British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who in 1938 acknowledged Nazi Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakian territory, he told the British people that he had brought back “peace in our time”. Hitler started the Second World War soon afterwards.

When war broke out in August 1914, crowds in Trafalgar Square cheered. In Germany, even the liberal novelist Thomas Mann exulted, “War! We felt a cleansing, a liberation.” The “world of peace” had bored him.

His words show how far we have come since. Most recent commentaries about 1914 emphasise current risks of war. Yet today's overriding reality is peace – more widespread internationally and domestically than probably ever before. Armed conflict and violent crime are declining, as the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker describes in his seminal The Better Angels of Our Nature. What if trends are towards even more peace?

The notion that we live in peaceful times is counter-intuitive. Years after the attacks of 9/11, a woman from ostensibly calm Jupiter, Florida, asked me, “Don't you think this is the most dangerous time in history? My friends and I call each other, we hardly dare leave the house. We just pray our children are safe.” The mind springs easily to today's actual conflicts, because TV news is about bad things: terrorists, drones, Syria, incipient civil wars in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, murders everywhere.

Yet these are exceptions. The estimated 73,455 Syrians killed in 2013 represent more than half the world's deaths in armed conflict last year. Pinker says that annual deaths in battle dropped by over 90 per cent from the late 1940s through the early 2000s.

Just since the 1990s, various trends have been pushing us further towards peace. On average, humans have been getting more educated, rich and internationally connected, and more likely to live in democracies. These factors would tend to reduce violence. Indeed, by some definitions, there have been no interstate wars since 2008. Meanwhile, homicides have dropped across the western world, with US murder rates down to 1960s levels.

Twenty years ago, great military powers had recent memories of “happy” wars: swift victories over bad guys, as in the Falklands(war between UK and Argentina over Falklands/Malvinas Islands) and the first Iraq war. Since then all their war memories have been bad, which encourages peace.

So does TV. Certain news channels are quite as idiotic as the Anchorman movies suggest, yet they are brilliant peacekeeping devices. The Ukrainian famine, the Bengal famine of 1943, the Holocaust and China's “Great Leap Forward” occurred off camera but today if any soldier fires a shot almost anywhere, CNN is on to it. Then politicians rush to intervene. They'd have stopped the first world war fast if soldiers had live-tweeted the carnage.

Smartphones have extended the media's reach. A decade ago, there might have been two television cameras in South Sudan. Now almost everything gets filmed.

Tolerance for violence is at a low. The cheering crowds of 1914 would have thought us soft and flabby. But whereas they didn't know about machine guns, we've seen atom bombs. Even Robert Gates, the long-time US defence secretary, sounds almost like an anti-war hippie in his new memoir Duty. “Even thinking about the troops,” he writes, “…I realised I was beginning to regard protecting them – avoiding their sacrifice – as my highest priority . . .this loss of objectivity meant it was time to leave.”

Interstate wars could return. China and Japan are now squabbling over some rocks in the East China Sea. However, Rana Mitter, professor of Chinese history at Oxford university, says: “I don't think there's a prospect of war.” No constituency in China is advocating military adventures abroad, he explains. Anyway, if Chinese soldiers died, the Chinese public “could turn against the party”.

What about an accidental slide into war? Mitter retorts that after China extended its “air-defence zone” in November, the resulting tensions soon eased, “perhaps in part because Joe Biden turned up and told everyone to cool it”. Unlike in 1914, today's international environment encourages peace. Looking at recent trends rather than 1914, expect the following:

• The American deal with Iran will stick, and Israelis and Palestinians will keep moving towards peace. The public in all these countries probably prefers peace, and if they chose war, foreign allies and media would punish them.

• Global defence spending will keep falling. In 2012 it dropped slightly for the first time since 1998, says the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The decline probably deepened in 2013.

• Armies will increasingly commit violence in secret, using drones or camera-free interrogation chambers. No US government will again allow a televised war like Vietnam.

• Tough guys will lose elections. Historically, Republicans in the US campaigned on promises to be tough on crime and tough in war. They will miss crime and war.

• International trade will keep growing. Last month the World Trade Organisation agreed its first ever deal on global trade.

• Politicians will continue to lose status, as they no longer pursue national glory but quibble over pocketbook issues they can't even control. Napoleon is a grander figure than François Hollande, even though it's better to live in a country ruled by Hollande. Still, I'm not one of those pundits who can tell the future, so perhaps all this will change.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.Why does the writer choose “Peace in our time” as the title?

A.To mock British PM Chamberlain's Appeasement Policy.

B.To memorate Chamberlain's idea of permanant peace in Europe.

C.To examine why peace is in our time instead of Chamberlain's.

答案⁽¹⁾

2.Intuitively, are we living in a peaceful time, according to the writer?

A.Yes, fewer people die in battle than in the past.

B.No, we see conflicts and murders on TV everyday.

C.Not sure.

答案⁽²⁾

3.Which of the following is not an “encouraging factor” of peace?

A.Swift military victories against bad guys.

B.People are better educated, rich and internationally connected.

C.TV and Twitter news are covering everywhere.

D.More people are living in democracies.

答案⁽³⁾

4.Is a Sino-Japanese conflict likely to occur, according to the writer?

A.Yes.

B.No.

答案⁽⁴⁾

(1)答案：C.To examine why peace is in our time instead of Chamberlain's.
解释：在英语世界中，“我们这个时代的和平”是个为人熟知的典故。在第一段中，作者谈到英德两国人在一战爆发时的兴奋之情，这在今天看来是完全不可理喻的，这显示了巨大的变化。

(2)答案：B.No, we see conflicts and murders on TV everyday.
解释：The notion that we live in peaceful times is counter-intuitive. 从直觉上来说我们很容易觉得世界上到处是空难、爆炸和凶杀，并不和平。

(3)答案：A.Swift military victories against bad guys.
解释：在第五段，作者介绍了几个原因，更好的教育、更富裕和国际化的生活，更多的民主国家，都是促进和平的因素。后面详细讲了电视和Twitter也是重要的因素。

(4)答案：B.No.
解释：作者引用Mitter教授的话说，“I don't think there's a prospect of war.” “Anyway, if Chinese soldiers died, the Chinese public 'could turn against the party'.”

The End

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