单选题Who's Really Addicting You to Technology? A. 'Nearly everyone I know is addicted in some measure to the Internet,' wrote Tony Schwartz in The New York Times. It's a common complaint these days. A steady stream of similar headlines accuse the Net and its offspring apps, social media sites and online games of addicting us to distraction. B. There's little doubt that nearly everyone who comes in contact with the Net has difficulty disconnecting. Many of us, like Schwartz, struggle to stay focused on tasks that require more concentration than it takes to post a status update. As one person ironically put it in the comments section of Schwartz's online article, 'As I was reading this very excellent article, I stopped at least half a dozen times to check my email.' C. There's something different about this technology: it is both invasive and persuasive. But who's at fault for its overuse? To find solutions, it's important to understand what we're dealing with. There are four parties conspiring to keep you connected: the tech, your boss, your friends and you. D. The technologies themselves, and their makers, are the easiest suspects to blame for our diminishing attention spans. Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, wrote, 'The net is designed to be an interruption system, a machine geared to dividing attention.' E. Online services like Facebook, Twitter and the like, are called out as masters of manipulation—making products so good that people can't stop using them. After studying these products for several years, I wrote a book about how they do it. I learned it all starts with the business model. Since these services rely on advertising revenue, the more frequently you use them, the more money they make. It's no wonder these companies employ teams of people focused on engineering their services to be as engaging as possible. These products aren't habit-forming by chance; it's by design. They have an incentive to keep us hooked. F. However, as good as these services are, there are simple steps we can take to keep them at bay. For example, we can change how often we receive the distracting notifications that trigger our urge to check. According to Adam Marchick, CEO of mobile marketing company Kahuna, less than 15 percent of smartphone users ever bother to adjust their notification settings—meaning the remaining 85 percent of us default to the app makers' every preset trigger. Google and Apple have made it far too difficult to adjust these settings so it's up to us to take steps to ensure we set these triggers to suit our own needs, not the needs of the app makers'. G. While companies like Facebook harvest attention to generate revenue from advertisers, other technologies have no such agenda. Take email, for example. This system couldn't care less how often you use it. Yet to many, email is the most habit-forming medium of all. We check email at all hours of the day—we're obsessed. But why? Because that's what the boss wants. For almost all white-collar jobs, email is the primary tool of corporate communication. A slow response to a message could hurt not only your reputation but also your livelihood. H. Your friends are also responsible for the addiction. Think about this familiar scene. People gathered around a table, enjoying food and each other's company. There's laughter and a bit of kidding. Then, during an interval in the conversation, someone takes out their phone to check who knows what. Barely anyone notices and no one says a thing. I. Now, imagine the same dinner, but instead of checking their phone, the person belches (打嗝)—loudly. Everyone notices. Unless the meal takes place in a beer house, this is considered bad manners. The impolite act violates the basic rules of etiquette. One has to wonder: why don't we apply the same social norms to checking phones during meals, meetings and conversations as we do to other antisocial behaviors? Somehow, we accept it and say nothing when someone offends. J. The reality is, taking one's phone out at the wrong time is worse than belching because, unlike other minor offense, checking tech is contagious. Once one person looks at their phone, other people feel compelled to do the same, starting a chain reaction. The more people are on their phones, the fewer people are talking until finally you're the only one left not reading email or checking Twitter. From a societal perspective, phone checking is less like belching in public and more like another bad habit. Our phones are like cigarettes—something to do when we're anxious, bored or when our fingers need something to toy with. Seeing others enjoy a smoke, or sneak a quick glance, is too tempting to resist and soon everyone is doing it. K. The technology, your boss, and your friends, all influence how often you find yourself using (or overusing) these gadgets. But there's still someone who deserves scrutiny—the person holding the phone. L. I have a confession. Even though I study habit-forming technology for a living, disconnecting is not easy for me. I'm online far more than I'd like. Like Schwartz and so many others, l often find myself distracted and off task. I wanted to know why so I began self-monitoring to try to understand my behavior. That's when I discovered an uncomfortable truth. I use technology as an escape. When I'm doing something I'd rather not do, or when I'm someplace I'd rather not be, I use my phone to port myself elsewhere. I found that this ability to instantly shift my attention was often a good thing, like when passing time on public transportation. But frequently my tech use was not so benign. When I faced difficult work, like thinking through an article idea or editing the same draft for the hundredth time, for example, a more sinister screen would draw me in. I could easily escape discomfort, temporarily, by answering email or browsing the web under the pretense of so-called 'research.' Though I desperately wanted to lay blame elsewhere, I finally had to admit that my bad habits had less to do with new-age technology and more to do with old-fashioned procrastination (拖延). M. It's easy to blame technology for being so distracting, but distraction is nothing new. Aristotle and Socrates debated the nature of 'akrasia'—our tendency to do things against our interests. If we're honest with ourselves, tech is just another way to occupy our time and minds. If we weren't on our devices, we'd likely do something similarly unproductive. N. Personal technology is indeed more engaging than ever, and there's no doubt companies are engineering their products and services to be more compelling and attractive. But would we want it any other way? The intended result of making something better is that people use it more. That's not necessarily a problem, that's progress. O. These improvements don't mean we shouldn't attempt to control our use of technology. In order to make sure it doesn't control us, we should come to terms with the fact that it's more than the technology itself that's responsible for our habits. Our workplace culture, social norms and individual behaviors all play a part. To put technology in its place, we must be conscious not only of how technology is changing, but also of how it is changing us.

单选题 Economically speaking, are we better off than we were ten years ago? Twenty years ago? In their thirst for evidence on this issue, commentators seized on the recent report by the Census Bureau, which found that average household income rose by 5.2% in 2015. Unfortunately, that conclusion puts too much weight on a useful, but flawed and incomplete, statistic. Among the more significant problems with the Census's measure are that: 1) it excludes taxes, transfers, and compensation like employer-provided health insurance; and 2) it is based on surveys rather than data. Even if precisely measured, income data exclude important determinants of economic well-being, such as the hours of work needed to earn that income. While thinking about the question, we came across a recently published article by Charles Jones and Peter Klenow, which proposes an interesting new measure of economic welfare. While by no means perfect, it is considerably more comprehensive than average income, taking into account not only growth in consumption per person but also changes in working time, life expectancy, and inequality. Moreover, it can be used to assess economic performance both across countries and over time. The Jones-Klenow method can be illustrated by a cross-country example. Suppose we want to compare the economic welfare of citizens of the U.S. and France in 2005. In 2005, as the authors observe, real consumption per person in France was only 60% as high as the U.S., making it appear that Americans were economically much better off than the French on average. However, that comparison omits other relevant factors: leisure time, life expectancy, and economic inequality. The French take longer vacations and retire earlier, so typically work fewer hours: they enjoy a higher life expectancy, presumably reflecting advantages with respect to health care, diet, lifestyle, and the like; and income and consumption are somewhat more equally distributed there than in the U.S. Because of these differences, comparing France's consumption with the U.S.'s overstates the gap in economic welfare. Similar calculations can be used to compare the U.S. and other countries. For example, this calculation puts economic welfare in the United Kingdom at 97% of U.S. levels, but estimates Mexican well-being at 22%. The Jones-Klenow measure can also assess an economy's performance over time. According to this measure, as of the early-to-mid-2000s, the U.S. had the highest economic welfare of any large country. Since 2007, economic welfare in the U.S. has continued to improve. However, the pace of improvement has slowed markedly. Methodologically, the lesson from the Jones-Klenow research is that economic welfare is multi-dimensional. Their approach is flexible enough that in principle other important quality-of-life changes could be incorporated—for example, decreases in total emissions of pollutants and declines in crime rate.

单选题 自20世纪70年代开始，中国步入了一个经济改革开放和现代化建设的历史时期。在25年的时间内，中国经济始终保持快速增长的势头。在此期间，中国的GDP年增长率平均为9.4%；城乡居民的收入和生活水平不断提高；对外贸易额以每年16%的势头增长；官方外汇储备由19.4亿美元增加到403.3亿美元。现在，作为世界第七大经济实体，中国总体经济实力显著提高。在过去的20年里人均国内生产总值翻了4倍。

单选题 For this part, you are allowed 30 minutes to write a letter to your pen pal. You should write at least 120 words according to the outline given below. 1.描述你以前的学习和工作经历。 2.你的现状、兴趣和爱好。 3.建议见他/她。

单选题 Cheating in GCSE and A-Levels by pupils, teachers and even school exam centres rose markedly last year, with ever more sophisticated electronic gadgets being smuggled into exam halls. The number of teenagers found guilty of cheating rose by 6.2% to 4,415 during last summer's exams. But not only pupils were at it—the number of teachers disciplined for test 'malpractice' was 30% higher than the year before. A breakdown of figures from the Office of the Qualifications and Exams Regulator (Ofqual) showed that the most common form of cheating was 'bringing a mobile phone or other electronic gadget' into the room. Some candidates were caught with concealed earpieces, described as 'exam cheat equipment' on some of the websites that sell them, which could receive information from outside an exam hall. Exam bosses admitted that these were more difficult to detect, although many schools now use mobile tracking devices to detect whether a signal is being sent from anywhere in the room. The second most common cause of malpractice was plagiarism (剽窃) or copying other students' work, which accounted for 1084 cases. Disruptive behavior in the exam room, including swearing (讲脏话), rose from 514 cases in 2008 to 539 last year. Candidates were also docked marks for including offensive and obscene comments in their exam papers. In total, 2,155 students lost marks after being found guilty, 644 failed their exams and 1,616 escaped with warnings. 'Candidates who bring a mobile phone into an exam room but do not have the phone at their desk might receive a warning, whereas candidates found using a mobile phone during an exam might be disqualified from the unit or qualification in the current exam series a spokesman for Ofqual explained. The number of teachers disciplined rose from 68 to 88, and 17 were suspended from invigilating (监考) in exams. Their crimes include leaving the exam hall unsupervised and helping candidates to answer questions. Ofqual stressed that the figures confirmed that only 0.03% of pupils cheated in exams taken last summer. However, Jim Sinclair, director of the Joint Council for Qualifications, the organization which represents the examination boards, said it took a 'zero tolerance' approach to all forms of cheating, including the possession of unauthorized items such as mobile phones, iPods and other digital music players. Mick Brookes, of the National Association of Head Teachers, said he did not condone cheating but pointed out that children knew some exams were 'extremely high stakes' and schools were under more pressure to succeed. 'Young people are in a highly pressurized environment, partly due to the jobs market being more difficult than it was, and university entrance being restricted,' he added.

单选题 All the evil in this world is brought about by persons who are always up and doing, but do not know when they ought to be up nor what they ought to be doing. The devil, I take it, is still the busiest creature in the universe, and I can quite imagine him denouncing (谴责) laziness and becoming angry at the smallest waste of time. In his kingdom, I will bet, nobody is allowed to do nothing, not even for a single afternoon. The world, we all freely admit, is in a mess, but I for one do not think that it is laziness that has brought it to that condition. It is not the active virtues that it lacks but the passive ones; it is capable of anything but kindness and a little steady thought. There is still plenty of energy in the world (there never were more fussy people about), but most of it is simply misdirected. If, for example, in July 1914, when there was some capital idling weather, everybody, emperors, kings, archdukes (大公爵), statesmen, generals, journalists, had been suddenly smitten (迷惑) with an intense desire to do nothing, just to hang about in the sunshine and consume tobacco, then we should all have been much better off than we are now. But no, the doctrine of the strenuous (艰苦的) life still went unchallenged; there must be no time wasted; something must be done. And, as we know, something was done. Again, suppose our statesmen, instead of rushing off to Versailles (凡尔赛宫) with a bundle of ill-digested notions and a great deal of energy to dissipate, had all taken a fortnight off, away from all correspondence and interviews and what not, and had simply lounged about on some hillside or other, apparently doing nothing for the first time in their energetic lives, then they might have gone to their so-called Peace Conference and come away again with their reputations still unsoiled and the affairs of the world in good trim. Even at the present time, if half the politicians in Europe would abandon the notion that laziness is a crime and go away and do nothing for a little space, we should certainly gain by it. Other examples come crowding into the mind. Thus, every now and then, certain religious sects (派别) hold conferences, but though there are evils abroad that are mountains high, though the fate of civilization is still doubtful, the members who attend these conferences spend their time condemning the length of ladies' skirts and the noisiness of dance bands. They would all be better employed lying flat on their backs somewhere, staring at the sky and recovering their mental health.

单选题 Business Ideas A. What makes a business idea good? Have you ever thought you had a great idea for a business but didn't do anything about it, only to find out that, a short while later, someone else did? How do you know ff you'll be able to make the business work? B. If you think you want to start your own business you have to first eliminate any doubts you may have about yourself and your abilities. That means that you have to first identify your own strengths and decide if you're the type of person who can build a business and make it a success. Once you have determined that, then you need a good—no, make that a great—idea for a business. Do you have what it takes? C. There are some basic skills that you, as a potential business owner, should have. If you don't have them then you need to at least have a friend or family member who does or be willing to pay an outside service or consultant to do these things for you. D. Financial management and accounting—If you don't have the skills now, you either need to take the time to learn, or have someone else you can depend on to handle this side of the business for you. E. Marketing—You have to be able to sell yourself or your business. If people don't know about you then you won't get any business, and if you don't have any business then, technically, you aren't really in business. So, marketing is a very important part of your skill set. Fortunately, it is also an easy skill to farm out to experts. F. Management skills—You must have the management skills and organizational skills in order to run your business. If you have no management experience at least start reading management books of all types that would apply to your business. G. Determination, enthusiasm, energy—No one ever said being your own boss was easy! In fact, you'll probably work harder than ever—you'll just get to reap more of the benefits. You have to have the energy to make your business succeed. If you have any doubts then maybe you should rethink the idea. If you read the success stories behind many businesses, you'll see the recurring theme that the business owner had no doubts that he or she would succeed, or that the thought of failing never entered their minds. Identifying your talents H. For some, coming up with the business idea is the easy part. They simply turn a hobby, or something else that they love doing, into a business. In some cases, this works great. In other cases, it doesn't work so great. Why the difference? Because you can't just try on the pants when you want to buy the whole suit. In other words, there are a lot of different things to consider when you're trying to come up with an idea for a business that will fit you. I. Those people that have made a go of it by converting their hobby into a business were lucky in that there was a market for their business in the first place. It doesn't matter how skilled you are and how much you love building those miniature replicas (复制品) of Star Wars (tm) Millennium Falcons inside authentic 1940's 6-ounce Coca-Cola(tm) bottles, if there aren't people who want to buy them (i. e. a market) then you're not going to be able to support yourself doing it. It will still be a 'hobby'. J. It still makes sense, however, to start a business that is based on things you know and are good at. You just can't stop there. It is also possible to start a business based on something you know nothing about. In this case, however, you probably should try and learn as much as you can before you get in too deeply. Or, consider buying a franchise (特许经营权) that offers training, or an existing business from someone you can pump for information. You can also try working in the industry for a few months to pick up information. You may be surprised at how much you can learn even in low level positions. Finding business ideas that fit your talents K. The Internet is full of web sites that list page after page of business ideas. We don't list those ideas here, but have provided links to some sites that do on our Links page. What we want to do is to help you discover and evaluate the ideas that appeal to you and best fit you as an individual. L. Any list of business ideas you find will basically boil down to three types of businesses. Those business types are manufactured products that you build and sell yourself, distributed products or services that you buy wholesale and then resell at a higher price, and services that you provide. M. For those three business types, there are typically four possible strategies. The strategies you might use include inventing a completely new product for a completely new market, inventing a completely new product for an existing market, improving on an existing product and selling it to the existing market, and selling an existing product to a completely new market. N. Coming up with an idea for any of these areas requires some observation skills and creative thought. Start with the things you know about and enjoy and look for ways to make improvements, or sell them to new people. Be observant everywhere you go. Look at how existing businesses operate and make note of the problems you see. Can you come up with a way to eliminate those problems? Can you see a way to improve the service, product or marketability of it? Do you see trends in the market such as larger retired populations? Are there special products or services that that increasing market will need? O. Brainstorm with friends, write everything down, and study your list often. Make notes as you think of them. Ideas multiply into lots of new ideas. Evaluate these ideas based on what you like and what you know about. Once you've narrowed the list down to the finalists, read on to find out how to evaluate those ideas. Other deciding factors P. There are few more things to consider when thinking about starting your own business. They include the followings: Your own level of commitment—Consider the extent or length to which you would go to make your business work (i. e. travel, commuting, relocating, etc.) Your family's support and approval of your idea—Having the support of your family is very important to the success of your business, as well as the stress levels you endure in working to making it happen. Make sure you have the support you'll need both emotionally and from a workload standpoint. Zoning restrictions for the location you are looking at—Make sure you know the restrictions on the types of businesses that can occupy a space (particularly if you are operating your business out of your home). Your town planning office or City Hall can provide that information. Your willingness to seek outside help if you need it—Don't hesitate to get professional help for your business. There are many resources that can provide you with great ideas and information that can help manage more efficiently and perhaps even find that 'edge (优势)'. The compatibility of the business with your lifestyle—If you're a night person and hate mornings then you probably don't want to open a doughnut shop. Make sure your business idea fits the schedule you work best in. (选自The Washington Post)

单选题 Being in charge has its benefits: More money, more control, more power, and apparently, more job satisfaction. Recently the Pew Research Center released data from a survey that found bosses are happier than workers in their jobs. 69% of the people in management positions from the survey said they were satisfied with their current positions, compared with just 48% of rank-and-file (普通的) workers. The manager respondents were also more likely than non-managers to say they consider their work a career rather than merely a job (78% vs. 44%) and were much less likely to be looking for a job than those who don't manage others (12% vs. 23%). They're also more likely to be happy with their lives outside of work, to feel they're paid fairly for what they do, and to think having children hasn't been a hindrance to their advancement. While those numbers may not be surprising given the age, greater income and longer careers of those typically in management, the report did find that both managers and non-managers value the exact same things (and in the exact same order) when considering a job. Enjoyable work comes first, followed by job security and then the ability to take time off to care for family. Similarly low numbers of participants cited a big salary (just 20% of bosses and 18% of workers) and opportunities for advancement (25% vs. 24%) as being important, despite presumably different access to each. Also surprising, says Rich Morin, senior editor of Pew's Social Demographic Trends project, was how similar numbers of bosses and employees considered problems such as gender discrimination to be a social issue. 62% of managers and 66% of workers agree that the country needs to make changes to solve gender inequality (不平等) issues in the workplace. 'It wasn't a case of big bad bosses and exploited workers,' Morin says. 'That was an optimistic finding. On these important issues, they think alike.' Perhaps most notable, meanwhile, is that despite the greater satisfaction and lower stress associated with being in charge, fewer people want to become managers than not. Just 39% of people responding to Pew's study said they would like such a position; 43% said they wouldn't. (The remaining 18% included those who were already managers and a few who didn't answer.) 'Some people simply don't want the headaches that come with being a boss, and some simply don't want the long hours,' Morin says, acknowledging the contradiction between that statement and Pew's findings. For many, it seems, the satisfaction that comes from greater control and more money simply doesn't outweigh the potential perils (危险) of being the one in charge.