阅读理解Boredom has become trendy. Studies point to how boredom is good for creativity and innovation, as well as mental health. It is found that people are more creative following the completion of a tedious task. When people are bored, they have an increase in "associative thought"—the process of making new connections between ideas, which is linked to innovative thinking. These studies are impressive, but in reality, the benefits of boredom may be related to having time to clear your mind, be quiet, or daydream. In our stimulation-rich world, it seems unrealistic that boredom could occur at all. Yet, there are valid reasons boredom may feel so painful. As it turns out, boredom might signal the fact that you have a need that isn’t being met. Our always-on world of social media may result in more connections, but they are superficial and can get in the way of building a real sense of belonging. Feeling bored may signal the desire for a greater sense of community and the feeling that you fit in with others around you. So take the step of joining an organization to build face-to-face relationships. You’ll find depth that you won’t get from your screen no matter how many likes you get on your post. Similar to the need for belonging, bored people often report that they feel a limited sense of meaning. It’s a fundamental human need to have a larger purpose and to feel like we’re part of something bigger than ourselves. When people are bored, they’re more likely to feel less meaning in their lives. If you want to reduce boredom and increase your sense of meaning, seek work where you can make a unique contribution, or find a cause you can support with your time and talent. If your definition of boredom is being quiet, mindful, and reflective, keep it up. But if you’re struggling with real boredom and the emptiness it provokes, consider whether you might seek new connections and more significant challenges. These are the things that will genuinely relieve boredom and make you more effective in the process.

阅读理解 The amount of greenhouse gases we've already pumped into the atmosphere has irreversibly bound us to a certain amount of warming over the next several decades. That means climate change isn't a problem for tomorrow—the effects are happening now. Already raining patterns seem to be changing, making some drier areas even drier, and rainy regions even wetter. As warmer temperatures creep northward, so do insects and other pests that are adapted to the heat. The population of the tiny mountain pine beetle, which infests pine trees in the Rocky Mountain region, used to be controlled by freezing winters. But as temperatures have warmed over the past decade, the mountain pine beetle's territory has spread, destroying millions of acres of Canadian pines. The pine beetle infestation represents the unique challenges that warming will pose for land conservation managers on the front lines of the battle against it. Generations of American conservationists have fought to preserve wildlife and to keep nature pure in the face of a growing population and pollution. But global warming threatens to change all that, by altering the very foundation on which the conservation movement was built. What good is a wildlife reserve if the protected animals can't live there, because climate change pushes them out? What difference does it make to defend trees from logging, if global warming will allow a new pest to ruin the whole forests? The answer is to adapt the way we practice wildlife and land conservation to climate change. There's a term for this—adaptive management. We need to begin making moves today to adapt to changes that warming will bring decades hence. 'Climate change will affect anything, you name it,' said Lara Hansen of EcoAdapt. 'We need to change the way we allocate resources and protect livelihoods.' That means that the way we've been carrying out conservation—picking the right land spaces and playing goalie—won't work anymore, as climate change keeps moving the target. Conservationists will have to work even harder, trying to minimize non-climate-related threats to land and species even as the human population grows by billions. Regardless of what we do, the changes will be coming fast and the future will bring increased drought, heat waves, rainstorms, extinctions and more. We need to begin cutting our carbon immediately, but we need to adapt now as well. The world is changing because of us; to save what's left, we'll have to change too.

阅读理解Questions 71 to 80 are based on the following passage

阅读理解Passage 1 The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was just as gloomy as anticipated

阅读理解Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage

阅读理解Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

阅读理解Passage E There were several reasons why the Industrial Revolution started in the Great Britain rather than in France, the other great power of the day

阅读理解Passage Three Imagine that youre a fly

阅读理解A tree growing in a remote area of southeastern Guinea was once home to thousands of bats

阅读理解Passage 1 There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling

阅读理解Questions 20 to 23 are based on the following passage

阅读理解 On the ground floor of the Federal Reserve building in Washington, DC, there is an electronic game which tests a visitor's skill at setting interest rates. You have to decide how to respond to events such as rising inflation or a stockmarket crash. If you get all the answers right, the machine declares you the next Fed chairman. In real life, because of huge uncertainties about data and how the economy works, there is no obviously right answer to the question of when to change interest rates. Nor is there any easy test of who will make the best Fed chairman. So who would The Economist select for the job? Alan Greenspan will retire as Fed chairman on January 31st, after a mere 181/2 years in the job. So George Bush needs to nominate a successor soon. Mr. Bush has a penchant for picking his pals to fill top jobs: last week he nominated his personal lawyer Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. But his personal bank manager really would not cut the mustard as Fed chairman. This is the most important economic-policy job in America—indeed in the whole world. The Fed chairman sets interest rates with the aim of controlling inflation, which in turn helps determine the value of the dollar, the world's main reserve currency. It is hardly surprising that financial markets worldwide can rise or fall on his every word. Financial markets are typically more volatile during the first year after the handover to a new chairman than during the rest of his tenure. In October 1987,barely two months after Mr. Greenspan took office, the stock market crashed. Current conditions for a handover are hardly ideal. America's economy has never looked so unbalanced, with a negative household savings rate, a housing bubble, a hefty budget deficit, a record current-account deficit and rising inflation. Figures due on October 14th are expected to show that the 12-monthrate of inflation has risen above 4% —its highest since 1991.

阅读理解The balance of nature is not an empty phrase

阅读理解Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage

阅读理解Format 2 A dictionary contains a definition of friendship somewhere in the Fs between the words fear and Friday

阅读理解What is the theme of the passage?

阅读理解What does the author think of the role of music?

阅读理解Passage 3 Women are also underrepresented in the administration and this is because there are so few women full professors

阅读理解 In 1939 two brothers, Mac and Dick McDonald, started a drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California. They carefully chose a busy corner for their location. They had run their own businesses for years, first a theater, then a barbecue (烤肉) restaurant, then another drive-in. But in their new operation, they offered a new, shortened menu: French fries, hamburgers, and sodas. To this small selection they added one new concept: quick service, no waiters or. waitresses, and no tips. Their hamburgers sold for fifteen cents. Cheese was another four cents. Their French fries and hamburgers had a remarkable uniformity (一致性), for the brothers had developed a strict routine for the preparation of their food, and they insisted on their cooks' sticking to their routine. Their new drive-in became incredibly popular, particularly for lunch. People drove up by the hundreds during the busy noontime. The self-service restaurant was so popular that the brothers had allowed ten copies of their restaurant to be opened. They were content with this modest success until they met Ray Kroc. Kroc was a salesman who met the McDonald brothers in 1954, when he was selling milkshake-mixing machines. He quickly saw the unique appeal of the brothers' fast-food restaurants and bought the right to franchise (特许经营) other copies of their restaurants. The agreement included the right to duplicate the menu, the equipment, even their red and white buildings with the golden arches (拱门). Today McDonald's is really a household name. Its names for its sandwiches have come to mean hamburger in the decades since the day Ray Kroc watched people rush up to order fifteen-cent hamburgers. In 1976, McDonald's had over $1 billion in total sales. Its first twenty-two years is one of the most incredible success stories in modern American business history.