专题03 阅读六选四10篇
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）Over the years I’ve been teaching children about a simple but powerful concept - the ant philosophy (哲学). I think everybody should study ants.
They have an amazing four-part philosophy, and here is the first part: ants never quit. That’s a good philosophy. 1 , they’ll look for another way. They’ll climb over, they’ll climb under, and they’ll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy, to never quit looking for a way to get where you’re supposed to go.
2 . That’s an important viewpoint. You can’t be so naive (天真的) as to think summer will last forever. So ants are gathering in their winter food in the middle of summer.
An ancient story says, “Don’t build your house on the sand in the summer.” Why do we need that advice.’ 3 . In the summer, you’ve got to think storm. You’ve got to think rocks as you enjoy the sand and sun. Think ahead.
The third part of the ant philosophy is that ants think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, “This won’t last long; we’ll soon be out of here.” And on the first warm day, the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they’ll dive back down. 4 . They can’t wait to get out.
And here’s the last part of the ant-philosophy. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter All he possibly can. What an incredible philosophy, the “all-you-possibly-can” philosophy.
Wow, what a great seminar to attend - the ant seminar. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can.
A．Second, ants think winter all summer
B．If they go somewhere and you try to stop them
C．Ants think summer all winter
D．Summer and winter are both important to ants
E．However, they will come out at once when it gets warm
F．Because it is important to be realistic.
【答案】1．B 2．A 3．F 4．E
【导语】这是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了一些蚂蚁给人的启示和哲学。
1．根据上文“They have an amazing four-part philosophy, and here is the first part: ants never quit. That’s a good philosophy.(他们有一个惊人的四部分哲学，这是第一部分：蚂蚁从不放弃。这是一个很好的哲学)”以及后文“they’ll look for another way(它们会寻找其他方法)”可知，后文提到蚂蚁寻找其它方法，说明被阻拦，故B选项“如果它们去某个地方，而你试图阻止它们”符合语境，解释上文提的蚂蚁的哲学，从不放弃。故选B。
2．根据后文“That’s an important viewpoint. You can’t be so naive (天真的) as to think summer will last forever. So ants are gathering in their winter food in the middle of summer.(这是一个重要的观点。你不要天真地以为夏天会永远持续下去。所以蚂蚁在盛夏的时候收集它们的冬季食物)”可知，本段的主旨是蚂蚁在盛夏的时候聚集它们的冬季食物，故A选项“第二，蚂蚁整个夏天都在考虑冬天”符合语境，故选A。
3．根据上文“An ancient story says, “Don’t build your house on the sand in the summer.” Why do we need that advice (一个古老的故事说，“不要在夏天把房子建在沙子上。”我们为什么需要这样的建议？)”可知，本句是在回答上文提到的“我们为什么需要这样的建议”的问题，故F选项“因为现实一点很重要”符合语境，故选F。
4．根据上文“If it turns cold again, they’ll dive back down.(如果天气再次变冷，它们就会潜下去)”以及后文“They can’t wait to get out.(它们迫不及待地想出去)”可知，天气冷，蚂蚁会再次冬眠，本句是在说明蚂蚁出来的情况：天气变暖。故E选项“然而，当天气变暖的时候，它们会立刻出来”符合语境，与前文是转折关系。故选E。
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）In the movies and on television, artificial intelligence is typically depicted as something sinister that will turn our way of life upside down. When it comes to AI in business, we often hear about it in relation to automation and loss of jobs, but in what ways is AI changing companies and the larger economy that don’t involve doom-and-gloom (前景暗淡的) mass unemployment predictions
A recent survey has found that companies currently use AI more often in computer-to-computer activities than in automating human activities. Here are a few ways AI is aiding companies without replacing employees:
Better hiring practices
Companies are using artificial intelligence to remove some of the unconscious bias from hiring decisions. There are experiments that show that, naturally, the results of interviews are much more biased than what AI does. In addition, 5 One company that’s doing this is called Blendoor. It uses analytics to help identify where there may be bias in the hiring process.
More effective marketing
Some AI software can analyze and optimize marketing email subject lines to increase open rates. One company in the UK, Phrasee, claims their software can outperform humans by up to 10 percent when it comes to email open rates. This can mean millions more in revenue. 6 These are tools that help people use data, not a replacement for people.
Saving customers money
Energy companies can use AI to help customers reduce their electricity bills, saving their money while helping the panies can also optimize their own energy use and cut down on the cost of electricity. Insurance companies, meanwhile, can base their premiums (保险费) on AI models that more accurately access risk. 7
Protecting and maintaining infrastructure
Several companies, particularly in energy and transportation, use AI image processing technology to inspect infrastructure and prevent equipment failure or leaks before they happen. If they fail first and then you fix them, it’s very expensive. 8
A．I replace the boring parts of your job. If you’re doing research, you can have AI go out and look for relevant sources and information that otherwise you just wouldn’t have time for.
B．There are also companies like Acquisio, which analyzes advertising performance across multiple channels like Adwords, Bing, and social media and makes adjustments or suggestions about where advertising funds will yield the best results.
C．You want to predict if something needs attention now and point to where it’s useful for employees to go.
D．Before, they might not insure the ones who felt like high risk or charge them too much, or they would charge them too little, and then it would cost the company money.
E．We’re also giving our customers better channels versus picking up the phone to accomplish something beyond human scale.
F．AI looks at résumés in greater numbers than humans would be able to, and selects the more promising candidates.
【答案】5．F 6．B 7．D 8．C
【导语】本文是一篇说明文。文章介绍了人工智能在不取代员工的情况下帮助公司的具体路径，包括在招聘、营销、省钱、维护基础设施方面的运用。
5．根据前文“Companies are using artificial intelligence to remove some of the unconscious bias from hiring decisions. There are experiments that show that, naturally, the results of interviews are much more biased than what AI does.（公司正在使用人工智能来消除招聘决策中的一些无意识偏见。有实验表明，面试的结果自然而然地比人工智能的结果更有偏见。）”和空前的“In addition（此外）”可知，本段介绍人工智能在招聘中的运用，并强调它比人更具有优势，空处会继续说明它在招聘中的优势。F项“人工智能会比人类看更多的简历，并选择更有前途的候选人。”符合语境，承接前文。故选F。
6．根据前文“Some AI software can analyze and optimize marketing email subject lines to increase open rates. One company in the UK, Phrasee, claims their software can outperform humans by up to 10 percent when it comes to email open rates. This can mean millions more in revenue.（一些人工智能软件可以分析和优化营销电子邮件主题，以提高打开率。英国一家名为Phrasee的公司声称，他们的软件在电子邮件打开率方面比人类高出10%。这意味着可以增加数百万美元的收入。）”可知，本段介绍人工智能在营销中的运用，并具体举例说明它的优势，空处应该会继续举例佐证它的优势。B项“还有一些公司，如Acquisio，分析多个渠道的广告效果，如Adwords、Bing和社交媒体，并对广告资金在哪些方面能产生最佳效果提出调整或建议。”符合语境，承接前文的例证，呼应后文的总结。故选B。
7．根据前文“Insurance companies, meanwhile, can base their premiums (保险费) on AI models that more accurately access risk.（与此同时，保险公司可以根据更准确地获取风险的人工智能模型来确定保险费。）”可知，此处讨论人工智能在保险公司运作中的应用，可以更精准地确定保险费，空处应该会继续讨论它在保险方面的优势。D项“以前，他们可能不会为那些高风险的人投保，或者收取过高的费用，或者收取过低的费用，这样会让公司赔钱。”符合语境，承接前文，通过和之前情况的比较突出人工智能的优势。故选D。
8．根据前文“Several companies, particularly in energy and transportation, use AI image processing technology to inspect infrastructure and prevent equipment failure or leaks before they happen. If they fail first and then you fix them, it’s very expensive.（一些公司，特别是能源和交通领域的公司，使用人工智能图像处理技术来检查基础设施，防止设备故障或泄漏发生。如果它们先坏了，然后你再修理，那就非常昂贵了。）”可知，本段介绍人工智能在能源和交通领域的运用，这些公司不希望等到设备出故障才修理，空处应该会涉及这些公司希望人工智能做到什么。C项“你想要预测现在是否有什么事情需要注意，并指出哪些地方让员工去会很有用。”符合语境。故选C。
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）In the fog of uncertainty about how new technology will change the way we work, policymakers around the world have flocked to the same idea. No matter what the future brings, they say confidently, we will need to upskill the workforce in order to cope.
The view sounds reassuringly sensible. If computers are growing smarter, humans will need to learn to use them to humans’ advantage. Otherwise, they may run the risk of being replaced by computers. 9 .
Research published by the Social Mobility Commission shows that workers with degrees are over three times more likely to participate in training as adults than workers with no qualifications. That creates a virtuous circle for those who did well at school, and vicious circle for those who did not. If the robots are coming for both the accountants and the taxi drivers, you can bet the bean counters will be more able to retrain themselves out of danger.
10 In the UK, the government introduced an “apprenticeship levy” a few years ago in an attempt to force employers to spend more on training. A surprising number have responded by sending their senior managers on “apprenticeships” at business schools.
It is no good criticizing employers for directing investments at their highly skilled workers. They are simply aiming for the highest return they can get. And, for some types of lower-paid work, it is not always true that technological progress requires more skills. The UK’s latest Employment and Skills Survey, which is performed every five years, suggests the use of literacy and numeracy skills at work has fallen since 2012, even as the use of computers has increased. The trouble is, when the computer makes your job easier one day, it might make it unnecessary the next. Many of those affected by automation will need to switch occupations, or even industries. 11
It is time to revisit older ideas. The UK once had an energetic culture of night schools, for adults to attend after their day jobs. These institutions have been disappearing due to funding cuts. But a revival of night schools could be exactly what the 21st century needs. 12 They can also explore interests they never had a chance to nurture before.
It is still not clear whether the impact of new technology on the labour market will come in a trickle or aflood. But in an already unequal world, continuing to reserve all the lifeboats for the better-off would be a dangerous mistake.
A．Employers also invest more in better educated workers by launching employer-sponsored cmployee education programs.
B．According to an Oxford University study, nowadays employers are more likely to hire the first-year apprentices.
C．Rather than just “upskilling” in a narrow way, people could choose to learn an entirely new skill or trade.
D．But the truth is, the people who are being “upskilled” in today’s economy are the ones who need it the least.
E．People can effectively train or upskill themselves to meet their specific professional needs.
F．But a retailer or warehouse company is not going to retrain its staff to help them move to a different sector.
【答案】9．D 10．A 11．F 12．C
【导语】本文为一篇说明文。文章针对通常看法“需提升劳动人口技能以应对自动化浪潮”指出，现实中技能提升的机会往往向高学历者倾斜，应为真正面临危机的低学历者提供再培训机会。
9．根据空前“The view sounds reassuringly sensible. If computers are growing smarter, humans will need to learn to use them to humans’ advantage. Otherwise, they may run the risk of being replaced by computers.(这一观点听上去合乎情理，令人放心：如果电脑变得越来越智能，人类就必须学会利用它们。否则，人们就冒着被电脑取代的风险。)”可知，空前提出这一观点听上去似乎合乎情理，故此空应反驳并提出观点，故D项“但是事实却是，在现在这个经济时代，得到技能提升的往往是在这方面需求最小的群体。”符合，首先退步承认通常做法有合理性，随后指出这一做法的受益群体是最不需要这一帮助的人，故选D项。
10．根据空后“In the UK, the government introduced an “apprenticeship levy” a few years ago in an attempt to force employers to spend more on training. A surprising number have responded by sending their senior managers on “apprenticeships” at business schools. (在英国，政府在几年前开始实施‘学徒税’，试图强制雇主加大培训投入。对此，竟有相当数量的雇主将高管送到商学院当‘学徒’。)”可知，空后举例说明雇主将高管送去培训的事例，故A项“通过实施雇主赞助的员工教育项目，雇主也对受教育程度更高的雇员的投入更多。”符合，此处指出雇主更愿意在高学历雇员身上投入更多，空后借“学徒税”的实施情况举例证明，故选A项。
11．根据空前“The trouble is, when the computer makes your job easier one day, it might make it unnecessary the next. Many of those affected by automation will need to switch occupations, or even industries.(问题在于，如果电脑今天让你的工作变得容易，那它明天可能就会让你的工作变得多余。受到自动化影响的许多人将需要更换职业，甚至更换行业。)”可知，本段提出雇主偏袒高学历雇员是情有可原的，但是单纯培训也不能解决低技能的危机，因此受到自动化影响的人需要更换行业，故此处F项“但是零售公司或批发店可不会为员工提供帮助他们转行的再培训。”符合，前文表明培训也不能解决低技能的危机，但是大部分雇主也确实不想培训低技能工人，故选F项。
12．根据空前“These institutions have been disappearing due to funding cuts. But a revival of night schools could be exactly what the 21st century needs.(这些机构由于资金削减已经奄奄一息。但是，夜校的复兴可能正是21世纪所需要的。)”可知，空前提出夜校是自动化浪潮面前的良好解决方法，应当扶持，故此处C项“人们并不是在进行狭义上的‘技能提升’，而是选择一门全新的技能或者手艺。”符合，空前提出夜校是一个良好的解决方法，此处进一步说明夜校的好处，学习新的技能或手艺，故选C项。
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）Mind the gap year
Young people in Finland enjoy one of the world's best school systems. By the age of 15 they perform above average in international tests of science, reading and math. That makes it annoying that once they leave school, their progress often comes to a stop. In America 90% of those who begin bachelor's degree do so in the same year they finish school. In Finland only 20% do.
13 Universities have traditionally made applicants pass long- winded entrance exams, in addition to tests they take at school. Excelling at both in the same year is difficult: school-leavers commonly perform worse than applicants who are a few years older and have had more time to prepare.
The result is that Finland's smartest cookies end up taking at least one and sometimes several unplanned gap years. Many find that a pain. 14 Finland's population is among the fastest-ageing in Europe. It cannot afford to let ambitious youngsters idle for such a long time.
The government is trying to shake things up. Changes that came into full force last year require universities to accept at least half of applicants solely on the basis of their scores in school. 15 Mr. Pekkarinen says early signs suggest the reforms are helping to bring down the age at which most students start their studies.
Making admissions more efficient will help the government benefit more from the cash it is spending in expanding the number of spots on offer. The share of young Finns with a degree has not changed much for a decade. 16 The government wants to hit 50% by 2030. Last year it funded about 4000 more places to help youngsters put out by the pandemic. Perhaps one day Finland's school-leavers will come to miss all the time they used to get off.
A．It is also bad for the economy.
B．At 42% it is below the rich-country average.
C．Highly selective admissions are one explanation.
D．The corona virus has sped up a trend already under way.
E．Many candidates still sit entrance tests, but the idea is that universities should no longer require them to do much of work in advance.
F．Colleges have experienced a rise in demand since test-optional policies went into effect.
【答案】13．C 14．A 15．E 16．B
【导语】本文是说明文。文章讲到了芬兰高等教育制度出现的一个问题：由于大学录取政策过于严格，很多有才华的年轻人需要经过漫长的等待才能上大学，有些人甚至错失了上学的机会。这对芬兰的经济发展造成了负面影响。政府目前已经意识到了这一问题，并且正在推行改革。
13．上文“That makes it annoying that once they leave school, their progress often comes to a stop. In America 90% of those who begin bachelor's degree do so in the same year they finish school. In Finland only 20% do.(芬兰的年轻人享有世界上数一数二的教育系统。到15岁时，他们在科学、阅读和数学的国际测试中的表现远远高于平均水平。而一旦离开学校，他们的学业进步往往就会停滞不前，这一点更加令人痛心。在美国，90%攻读学士学位的人在中学毕业的当年就能上大学。在芬兰，只有20%的人能做到这一点。)”提到了芬兰大学教育中的一个问题，只有很少的人可以上大学，下文“Universities have traditionally made applicants pass long- winded entrance exams, in addition to tests they take at school. Excelling at both in the same year is difficult: school-leavers commonly perform worse than applicants who are a few years older and have had more time to prepare.(根据传统，大学会要求申请人除了在中学参加考试外，还要通过冗长复杂的入学考试。在同一年内同时在这两项取得优异成绩是很困难的：中学毕业生的成绩通常比大几岁、有更多时间准备的申请人差。)”讲述了不能上大学的一个原因——严格的录取制度，因此推断空处引出下文，选项C“（芬兰）严格的录取政策是造成这一现象的一个原因。”符合语境，故选C。
14．前文“The result is that Finland's smartest cookies end up taking at least one and sometimes several unplanned gap years. Many find that a pain.(这样造成的结果是，很多芬兰最聪明的学生最终要度过至少一个，有时是几个计划外的间隔年。许多人觉得这很痛苦。)”说明了学生上不了大学后不得不度过一个甚至结构间隔年，下文“Finland's population is among the fastest-ageing in Europe. It cannot afford to let ambitious youngsters idle for such a long time.(芬兰是欧洲老龄化速度最快的国家之一；它不能让有雄心壮志的年轻人停滞不前这么长时间。)”说明了年轻人停滞不前对国家不利，因此推断此处讲述学生上不了大学造成的不利影响，因此推断A项“这对经济也会有不利影响。”符合语境，承接下文。故选A。
15．前文“The government is trying to shake things up. Changes that came into full force last year require universities to accept at least half of applicants solely on the basis of their scores in school.(政府正试图改善这一局面。去年开始全面实施的改革要求大学录取的学生中至少要有一半是只根据他们的在校成绩作为录取标准。)”讲述了政府采取了措施改善这个局面，下文“Mr. Pekkarinen says early signs suggest the reforms are helping to bring down the age at which most students start their studies.(佩卡里宁先生说，早期迹象表明，改革正在降低大多数学生进入大学学习的年龄。)”说明政府改革带来的结果，E项“许多考生仍在参加入学考试，但政府的计划是大学不应该再要求他们在考前花太多时间精力准备。”符合语境，讲述了政府实施的政策干预，承接上文。故选E。
16．前文“Making admissions more efficient will help the government benefit more from the cash it is spending in expanding the number of spots on offer. The share of young Finns with a degree has not changed much for a decade.(政府正掏钱以增加大学录取名额，而提高录取效率将有助于政府从这些投资中获取更多收益。过去十年来，芬兰年轻人中拥有大学学位的比例一直没有什么变化。)”讲述政府最终会从中受益， 但是过去10年芬兰年轻人有大学学位的比例没有什么变化，B项“该比例为42%，低于富裕国家平均水平。”讲述了拥有大学学位的芬兰年轻人的比例较低，引出下文“The government wants to hit 50% by 2030.(政府希望到2030年这一比例能达到50%。)”。故选B。
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）An environmental group in Colombia is leading a project to save wild areas in the San Lucas mountains with the help of coffee growers. 17 Colombia has more different kinds of living things than any country after neighboring Brazil, but destruction of forests has increased since 2016.
Government information shows that in 2017, almost 220,000 hectares of forest were destroyed compared to 124,000 hectares in 2015. Areas like San Lucas have been threatened by mining and growers of coca plants, which are used to make the drug cocaine.
To date, the project includes 10 families who farm 400 hectares of coffee plants. WebConserva said the project costs about $77,000 dollars a year. The group said it hopes that, in time, 200 families will be included. At that level, 20,000 hectares of untouched forest could be protected. In San Lucas, the families promise not to cut down trees to expand their crops or to hunt wild animals from the forest. 18
Arcadio Barajas is among those taking part. His new coffee plantation establishes a barrier between cattle ranches and forests where wild animals like the jaguar live and hunt. The presence of the coffee fields reduces the likelihood that there will be conflict between cattle ranchers and the big cats. Barajas said that cutting down the forest to plant coca and killing wildlife were against his faith. 19 “I’m taking care of the environment, the forest and the animals, so that I don’t end up ruined as well,” he said.
Arnobis Romero is a former coca grower and miner. He said many families depended on illegal activities to support their children. For example, at times one kilogram of Coca could be sold for $760. Romero said, “We feel really proud to look after this biodiversity and to leave it... for future generations.”
20 But each year, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land are destroyed. Activists want San Lucas to be protected as a national park, but the process has been slow.
A．In return, they receive $250 to $300 for 125 kilograms of coffee.
B．It protects forests, biodiversity and ecosystems at the same time.
C．Colombia has set aside 16 percent of its territory as protected land.
D．Gold mining and coca farming make more money than coffee growing.
E．But now he feels that growing coffee lets him be a good steward of the land.
F．The goal is to limit additional development in the northern San Lucas area which is rich in biodiversity, meaning many forms of life live there.
【答案】17．F 18．A 19．E 20．C
【导语】这是一篇新闻报道。主要报道了哥伦比亚的一个环保组织正在咖啡种植者的帮助下领导一个拯救圣卢卡斯山脉野生地区的项目。其目标是限制圣卢卡斯北部地区的额外开发，该地区拥有丰富的生物多样性，这意味着那里生活着多种形式的生命。
17．上文“An environmental group in Colombia is leading a project to save wild areas in the San Lucas mountains with the help of coffee growers.”（哥伦比亚的一个环保组织正在咖啡种植者的帮助下领导一个拯救圣卢卡斯山脉野生地区的项目。）可知，选项说明拯救圣卢卡斯山脉野生地区的项目的目的。选项F项The goal is to limit additional development in the northern San Lucas area which is rich in biodiversity, meaning many forms of life live there.（其目标是限制圣卢卡斯北部地区的额外开发，该地区拥有丰富的生物多样性，这意味着那里生活着多种形式的生命。）切题。故选F项。
18．根据上文“In San Lucas, the families promise not to cut down trees to expand their crops or to hunt wild animals from the forest.”（在圣卢卡斯，这些家庭承诺不会砍伐树木来扩大庄稼，也不会从森林中捕猎野生动物。）选项说明承诺保护森林的回报是什么。选项A项In return, they receive $250 to $300 for 125 kilograms of coffee.（作为回报，他们每卖出125公斤咖啡就能得到250到300美元。）切题。故选A项。
19．上文“Barajas said that cutting down the forest to plant coca and killing wildlife were against his faith.”（巴拉哈斯说，砍伐森林种植古柯和杀害野生动物违背了他的信仰。）提到破坏森林和杀害野生动物违背了他的信仰。下文““I’m taking care of the environment, the forest and the animals, so that I don’t end up ruined as well,” he said.”（他说：“我正在保护环境、森林和动物，这样我就不会被毁了。”）说明现在保护环境的做法。结合选项E项But now he feels that growing coffee lets him be a good steward of the land.（但现在他觉得种植咖啡能让他成为这片土地的好管家。）起到上下文的承上启下作用，上下文语意连贯。故选E项。
20．根据下文“But each year, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land are destroyed.”（但是每年都有成千上万公顷的土地被破坏。）转折说明每年都有成千上万公顷的土地被破坏，可推知，上文内容说明国土被划为保护区的情况。结合选项C项Colombia has set aside 16 percent of its territory as protected land.（哥伦比亚已划出16%的国土作为保护区。）切题。故选C项。
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）The Cube has his own voice
I arrive at the Szepilona Bisztro, on a leafy road on the “Buda” side of Budapest, holding a Rubik’s Cube and searching for the man who had created it almost 50 years ago. I feel unworthy to have lunch with Emo Rubik, not the least reason of which is because the Cube I am holding has never been solved.
Rubik arrives punctually. He’s been coming to this restaurant since the late 1960s, when he was a graduate student, before he had invented one of the world’s most successful puzzles — a cube with 43 quintillion combinations, only one of which is correct.
21 At that time, Rubik was living in his family’s apartment on a grand avenue on the “Pest” side of the city. He was a professor of architecture, but his room was “like a child’s pocket, full of marbles and treasures”.
In an attempt to help students understand three-dimensional problems, he tried to build a set of cubes that stayed together but could also move independently. 22 He painted each side a different colour. But after he had twisted it, he realised that he could not easily return it to its original state.
“It was a more difficult task to find a system to solve it than it had been to create the thing itself” he says. In the end, it took him a month. And solving it gave him a “happy feeling of freedom’’, he said at the time. The Rubik’s Cube was born, and to date more than 450 million have been sold, the craze reaching its peak in the early 1980s.
Rubik was 29 when he “discovered” the Cube in 1974. By 1979, Rubik had sold 300,000. 23 From there, it spread across the world, with some 100 million Rubik’s Cubes being sold in only three years. “I can’t imagine there being a higher type for it than there had been in the 1980s,” he says. He motions to my Cube. 24 Rubik comforts me with a Japanese slogan from the 1980s, coined for a game: “a minute to learn and a lifetime to master”.
A．But the content of the Cube is so wide that it can be a symbol of logical thinking, a way of life.
B．Eventually he came up with a six-sided structure with nine interlocking cubes on each side.
C．His moment of inspiration came in the spring of 1974.
D．I am forced to admit that I haven’t solved it yet.
E．Rubik was born towards the end of the Second World War to an aircraft engineer father and a poet mother.
F．The following year he was offered the chance to take his invention to a toy fair in New York.
【答案】21．C 22．B 23．F 24．D
【导语】这是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了魔方发明以及畅销的经过。
21．根据后文“At that time, Rubik was living in his family’s apartment on a grand avenue on the “Pest” side of the city. He was a professor of architecture, but his room was “like a child’s pocket, full of marbles and treasures”.(当时，鲁比克住在他的家庭公寓里，公寓位于城市“佩斯”一侧的一条大道上。他是一名建筑学教授，但他的房间“就像一个孩子的口袋，装满了大理石和珍宝”)”以及下文他解决了这一困难，说明事情出现了转机，他有了灵感。故C选项“他的灵感出现在1974年春天”符合语境，故选C。
22．根据上文“In an attempt to help students understand three-dimensional problems, he tried to build a set of cubes that stayed together but could also move independently.(为了帮助学生理解三维问题，他尝试构建一组立方体，这些立方体可以保持在一起，但也可以独立移动)”以及后文“He painted each side a different colour. But after he had twisted it, he realised that he could not easily return it to its original state.(他把每一面都涂上了不同的颜色。但在他扭曲了它之后，他意识到他不能轻易地把它恢复到原来的状态)”可知，本句应和上下文一致，继续说明这些立方体结构的情况，故B选项“最后他想出了一个六面结构，每面有九个相互连接的立方体”符合语境，故选B。
23．根据后文“From there, it spread across the world, with some 100 Rubik’s Cubes being sold in only three years.(从那时起，它传遍了世界，仅仅三年就卖出了大约1亿个魔方)”推知，空处句子提到了一个重要的时间节点。故F选项“第二年，他有机会把他的发明带到纽约的一个玩具展上”符合语境，故选F。
24．根据后文“Rubik comforts me with a Japanese slogan from the 1980s, coined for a game: “a minute to learn and a lifetime to master”.( Rubik用20世纪80年代的一句日本口号来安慰我，这句话是为一种游戏创造的：“一分钟学习，一生精通”)”可知，Rubik在安慰作者，由此可知作者还没有解决自己的魔方问题。故D选项“我不得不承认我还没有解决它”符合语境，故选D。
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）What the Next Era of Globalization Will Look Like
Editor: You talk in the book about how fragile many global supply chains have become. Why would a less globalized, more localized supply chain tend to be more resilient
Rana: Well, for starters, you have proximity (亲近). 25 . We had these “just-in-time”, “efficient” supply chains that were built, taking products around the world. It saves big companies a lot of money as long as nothing is going wrong in the world. But when anything goes wrong, be it a tsunami, be it a geopolitical event, be it a war, a trade war, a cold war, a hot war, you get problems. 26
Also, I would say when I think of resiliency, I think of sustainability. And well before the pandemic or the war in Ukraine, companies were actually already starting to think about localization for all kinds of reasons. 27 . The wage productivity arbitrage(工资套利)was losing its appeal. Wages were rising enough in the east so that the arbitrage didn’t make as much sense as it used to.
Finally, you are starting to have environmental concerns where companies are being asked to consider, “Okay, how many units of carbon are you expending to tote X product to Y location ” All of this was sort of pushing that notion of localization for resiliency.
Editor: 28 . Why not use antitrust(反垄断)to encourage more competition-but keep supply chains globalized
Rana: I don’t see them as an either-or proposition; I see them as ideas that work hand in hand. Let me give you an example: Right after the pandemic hits, everybody goes into lockdown, suddenly nobody’s eating out. Restaurants are closed; grocery stores have huge lines in front of them. And yet there are no products on the shelves. You can’t find tomato sauce, you can’t find juice. There are all these strange gaps that start to appear. And you might say, “Well, why is that ”
A．Whereas when you have more localized systems, you just don’t have those sorts of problems of hauling things halfway around the world.
B．In markets where you did have more localized agriculture or greater use of community farm programs or farmers markets, you didn’t have that problem.
C．You write that monopoly (垄断)is a source of weakness, because it means companies and consumers rely on a single source.
D．One of the messages in my book that I’m really trying to get across is place matters: The world is not flat; the world is bumpy(颠簸的).
E．One of which is that the sort of cheap capital for cheap labor model between the U. S. and Asia didn’t really work.
F．An efficient market theory would say that prices of commodities always reflect all available information about the supply and demand.
【答案】25．D 26．B 27．E 28．C
【导语】这是一篇采访。在一位编辑对Rana的采访中，Rana就全球化的下一个时代将会是什么样子进行了描述和解释。
25．第一段“You talk in the book about how fragile many global supply chains have become. Why would a less globalized, more localized supply chain tend to be more resilient (你在书中谈到，许多全球供应链已变得多么脆弱。为什么全球化程度较低、本地化程度较高的供应链往往更具弹性？)”指出全球供应链很脆弱，以及提出问题，即为什么全球化程度较低、本地化程度较高的供应链往往更具弹性，下面一段应该是对此问题进行回答，根据空前“Well, for starters, you have proximity (亲近).(首先，你们距离很近)”可知，本土化供应链是有距离优势的，空处应该承接上文，继续对此进行描述，D项“我在书中试图传达的信息之一就是地点很重要: 世界不是平的，世界是颠簸的。”指出世界不是平的，而是颠簸的，这说明长时间运输是有缺点的，间接说明了近距离的优势，故选D。
26．上文“But when anything goes wrong, be it a tsunami, be it a geopolitical event, be it a war, a trade war, a cold war, a hot war, you get problems.(但一旦出现问题，无论是海啸，还是地缘政治事件，无论是战争，贸易战争，冷战，热战，你都会遇到问题。)”指出一旦出现一些海啸，战争等问题，全球化供应链就会有问题，这说明了全球化供应链很脆弱，这也侧面说明了本地化供应链是有优势的，结合第一段提出的问题“Why would a less globalized, more localized supply chain tend to be more resilient (为什么全球化程度较低、本地化程度较高的供应链往往更具弹性？)”可知，空处应该是对此问题进行回答，说明本地供应链不会有这些问题，B项“在那些本地化农业较多的市场，或者更多地利用社区农场计划或者农贸市场的市场，你不会遇到这个问题。”符合语境，故选B。
27．上文“And well before the pandemic or the war in Ukraine, companies were actually already starting to think about localization for all kinds of reasons.(早在大流行或乌克兰战争爆发之前，公司实际上已经开出于各种原因进行本地化。)”提到一些公司开始考虑出于各种原因进行本地化，下文“The wage productivity arbitrage(工资套利)was losing its appeal.(工资生产率套利正在失去吸引力。)”指出公司考虑本土化的原因之一是：工资生产率套利正在失去吸引力，由此可知，空处应该承上启下，E项“其中之一就是美国和亚洲之间廉价劳动力模式的廉价资本并没有真正起作用。”符合，和下文表达意思一样，其中“which”代指上文“all kinds of reasons”，故选E。
28．空格处是编辑所问的问题，下文“Why not use antitrust(反垄断)to encourage more competition-but keep supply chains globalized (为什么不利用反垄断来鼓励更多的竞争——但保持供应链的全球化)”提出为什么不利用反垄断来鼓励更多的竞争这一问题，空处应该也是在讲“垄断”这一话题，C项“你写道，垄断是软弱的根源，因为它意味着公司和消费者依赖于单一的来源。”符合，是下文所提出问题的依据，其中“monopoly”和下文“antitrus”相对应，故选C。
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）Teaching is widely recognized to be a stressful occupation, characterized by numerous and varied challenges: administrative burdens, long hours, classroom management difficulties, to name but a few. 29 They are also paid less than other workers with similar experience and education, a gap that has grown from 4.3% in 1996 to 17% in 2015. Further, teachers face significant social and political scrutiny as to how they do their jobs .
30 The statistics on teacher turnover are grim: Research estimates that between 19% and 30% of new teachers leave the field within the first five years of teaching, which can reduce the team spirits of their campus community and negatively affect student learning. In the most recent PDK poll, half of teachers surveyed said they had considered leaving the profession within the last year, with low pay and high stress most frequently cited as the reasons. Of course, teacher stress is not unique to the United States. In fact, research has yielded remarkably consistent findings around the world, with roughly 20-25% of the teaching workforce reporting high levels of stress.
But if it’s clear that teacher stress is widespread, it’s not always clear how teacher stress should be defined. Traditionally, educational policy research has focused on working conditions (i.e., school administration) as the main driver of occupational health. That is, teacher stress tends to be viewed as a result of working in a stressful environment, often characterized as lacking sufficient funding or effective leadership. 31 In many schools, some teachers are stressed out while others are not; but if working conditions were all that mattered, then every teacher in the school would be equally stressed.
Chris Kyriacou and others have argued that teacher stress is better understood as resulting from a mismatch between the pressures and demands made on educators and their ability to cope with those demands. Workforce conditions alone are not sufficient to explain why some teachers are highly stressed. Rather, what matters most is how each teacher sees the demands they face in relation to the resources they have available to meet those demands. 32 And if this is true, then it should be possible to identify and intervene with teachers who are most vulnerable to stress, above and beyond efforts to improve the larger working environment.
A．These demands take a toll, resulting in job dissatisfaction, workplace fatigue, burnout, and reduced occupational commitment.
B．Just as beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, stress depends on the teacher’s unique view of their classroom.
C．For example, this holds true for 25% of teachers in Great Britain and Italy; 20-22% in Malaysia and Germany; and 25-26% in Australia and the U.S.
D．However, if only 20-25% of teachers report high levels of stress, then that would suggest that the working environment itself is only part of the issue.
E．Teachers are isolated from colleagues for much of the day, spending less than 5% of their work time collaborating with peers.
F．Clearly, then, there must be more to the story.
【答案】29．E 30．A 31．D 32．B
【导语】本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了教师的压力。
29．根据前句“Teaching is widely recognized to be a stressful occupation, characterized by numerous and varied challenges: administrative burdens, long hours, classroom management difficulties, to name but a few.(人们普遍认为教学是一项压力很大的职业，其特点是面临各种各样的挑战：行政负担、工作时间长、课堂管理困难等等。)”和后句“They are also paid less than other workers with similar experience and education, a gap that has grown from 4.3% in 1996 to 17% in 2015.(他们的工资也低于其他具有相似经验和教育背景的员工，差距从1996年的4.3%扩大到2015年的17%。)”可知，这里继续介绍教师所面临的挑战，所以选择项E“Teachers are isolated from colleagues for much of the day, spending less than 5% of their work time collaborating with peers.(教师一天中的大部分时间都与同事隔绝，与同事合作的时间不到5%。)”符合上下文语境，后句中的They指代的就是E项中的Teachers，故选E。
30．根据上文和后文“The statistics on teacher turnover are grim: Research estimates that between 19% and 30% of new teachers leave the field within the first five years of teaching, which can reduce the team spirits of their campus community and negatively affect student learning. In the most recent PDK poll, half of teachers surveyed said they had considered leaving the profession within the last year, with low pay and high stress most frequently cited as the reasons. (关于教师流动的统计数据令人担忧：研究估计，19%到30%的新教师在教学的头五年内离开了这个领域，这可能会降低教师队伍的团队精神，并对学生的学习产生负面影响。在最近的PDK民意调查中，一半的受访教师表示，他们在去年考虑过离开教师行业，最常见的原因是工资低和压力大。)”可知，本段主要介绍教师面临各种各样的挑战所带来的影响。所以选择项A“These demands take a toll, resulting in job dissatisfaction, workplace fatigue, burnout, and reduced occupational commitment. (这些要求造成了损失，导致工作不满、工作疲劳、倦怠和职业承诺减少。)”符合上下文语境。故选A。
31．根据前句“That is, teacher stress tends to be viewed as a result of working in a stressful environment, often characterized as lacking sufficient funding or effective leadership. (也就是说，教师压力往往被视为在压力环境中工作的结果，通常以缺乏足够的资金或有效的领导为特征。)”和后文“In many schools, some teachers are stressed out while others are not; but if working conditions were all that mattered, then every teacher in the school would be equally stressed. (一些老师压力很大，而另一些则没有；但是，如果工作条件是唯一重要的，那么学校里的每个老师都会同样的压力。)”可知，这里继续介绍教师工作环境与压力之间的联系。所以选择项D“However, if only 20-25% of teachers report high levels of stress, then that would suggest that the working environment itself is only part of the issue. (然而，如果只有20-25%的教师报告高水平的压力，那么这就表明工作环境本身只是问题的一部分。)”符合上下文语境。故选D。
32．根据前句“Rather, what matters most is how each teacher sees the demands they face in relation to the resources they have available to meet those demands. (相反，最重要的是每位教师如何看待他们所面临的需求与他们所拥有的资源之间的关系，以满足这些需求。)”和后句“And if this is true, then it should be possible to identify and intervene with teachers who are most vulnerable to stress, above and beyond efforts to improve the larger working environment. (如果这是真的，那么除了努力改善更大的工作环境之外，我们应该有可能识别和干预那些最容易受到压力影响的教师。)”可知，不同的教师的压力可能不尽相同。所以选择项B“Just as beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, stress depends on the teacher’s unique view of their classroom. (就像情人眼里出西施一样，压力也取决于老师对课堂的独特看法。)”符合上下文语境。故选B。
（21-22高二下·上海·期中）A Schoolyard Garden
Have you ever eaten something that you grew in your own garden Many people have not had the pleasure of this experience. Alice Waters, the owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant, set out to change all that for a special group of students at Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, California.
Waters worked with the school’s principal, Neil Smith, to create a cooking and gardening program at the school. 33 . She also believes that there is a strong relationship between food, health, and the environment. Her goal at the middle school was to show children the pleasure in gardening and in preparing the foods that they cultivated. She wanted to teach them that a healthy body and a healthy environment go hand in hand.
The project that Waters began took a lot of time and patience. 34 . At the same time, renovation was begun to turn an old, unused cafeteria into a kitchen where students could prepare foods and share meals with their teachers.
In the 1995-1996 school year, the first usable crops were planted. They included greens such as arugula and mustard, as well as lettuce, carrots, and potatoes. The following year brought the addition of plants such as apples, plums, black currants, hazelnuts, figs, raspberries, runner beans, and hibiscus. 35 .
Students have found that they look forward to the time they spend in the garden each week. They have learned how to weed, prune, and harvest. They have learned about the life cycles of various plants. They also know how to enrich the soil through composting, a process in which leftover scraps of fruits and vegetables are used as fertilizer. 36 .
Alice Waters dreams that one day there will be a garden in every school in the United States. She hopes that school lunches can be prepared using the produce from the gardens and other locally—grown organic produce.
A．She relied on the help of teachers, students, and community volunteers to turn a parking lot into a garden.
B．Waters believes in the importance of people knowing where their food comes from.
C．Waters believes in people joining their hands to teach children to become better citizens.
D．Many have discovered that they like fruits and vegetables that they had never before been willing to try.
E．However, they found it difficult to decide what crops to plant in this garden.
F．Every year since then, new crops are added and old crops are evaluated to make sure that they are best suited for the environment and the needs of the school.
【答案】33．B 34．A 35．F 36．D
【导语】这是一篇记叙文。文章讲述了Alice Waters发起的一项活动——在学校花园里种植粮食，好让学生们吃到自己种植的粮食，让他们明白健康与环境的关系。
33．由上文“Waters worked with the school’s principal, Neil Smith, to create a cooking and gardening program at the school. (Waters与学校校长尼尔·史密斯合作，在学校创建了一个烹饪和园艺项目)”和下文“She also believes that there is a strong relationship between food, health, and the environment. (她还相信，食物、健康和环境之间有着密切的关系)”可知，该空承接上下文讲Waters创建烹饪和园艺项目的想法来源，B选项中的“Waters believes”呼应下文中的“She also believes”，B选项“Waters相信人们知道食物来自哪里的重要性。”切题。故选B项。
34．由上文“The project that Waters began took a lot of time and patience. (Waters开启的项目花费了大量的时间和耐心)”和下文“At the same time, renovation was begun to turn an old, unused cafeteria into a kitchen where students could prepare foods and share meals with their teachers. (与此同时，学校开始进行翻修，将一个旧的、闲置的自助餐厅改造成一个厨房，学生们可以在这里准备食物，并与老师共享午餐)”可知，本段主要讲Waters为烹饪和园艺项目所做的努力，这些努力还包括诸如学校人员投入的努力，承接上下文，A选项“她依靠老师、学生和社区志愿者的帮助，把停车场变成了花园。”切题。故选A项。
35．由上文“In the 1995-1996 school year, the first usable crops were planted. They included greens such as arugula and mustard, as well as lettuce, carrots, and potatoes. The following year brought the addition of plants such as apples, plums, black currants, hazelnuts, figs, raspberries, runner beans, and hibiscus. (1995-1996学年，种植了第一批可用作物。其中包括绿叶蔬菜，如芝麻菜和芥末，以及莴苣、胡萝卜和土豆。第二年，苹果、李子、黑醋栗、榛子、无花果、覆盆子、扁豆和木槿等植物相继出现)”可知，上文讲烹饪和园艺项目开始种植了，每年都会出现新作物，一开始种植应该是摸索阶段，试着找到最适合学校种植的作物，承接上文，F选项“从那时起，每年都会增加新作物，并对旧作物进行评估，以确保它们最适合学校的环境和需要。”切题。故选F项。
36．由上文“Students have found that they look forward to the time they spend in the garden each week. They have learned how to weed, prune, and harvest. They have learned about the life cycles of various plants. They also know how to enrich the soil through composting, a process in which leftover scraps of fruits and vegetables are used as fertilizer. (学生们发现，他们期待着每周花在花园里的时间。他们学会了如何除草、修剪和收割。他们已经了解了各种植物的生命周期。他们还知道如何通过堆肥来丰富土壤，这是一种将水果和蔬菜残渣用作肥料的过程)”可知，上文讲烹饪和园艺项目让学生爱上了花园种植，学生对作物种植了解颇多，可得出对自己亲手种植的食物也应该是喜爱不已，承接上文，D选项“许多人发现他们喜欢以前从未尝试过的水果和蔬菜。”表明了学生们喜爱花园种植后所带来的好结果。故选D项。
（21-22高二下·上海杨浦·期中）Volcanoes in Indonesia
“The hardest bit of the job is having enough sleep,” admits Martanto, a 29-year-old geophysicist at the monitoring centre for Agung, a volcano in Bali which started erupting(爆发) on November 25th. For the past two weeks he and half a dozen others have relocated from Bandung, in West Java, to keep watch on Agung every hour of the day, occasionally in continuous 32-hour shifts.
37 It was home to both the biggest eruption of modern times, that of Tambora in 1815, and the second-biggest, of Krakatoa in 1883. Agung’s previous eruption, in 1963, was the most explosive of the 20th century in Indonesia. Gas, rock and ash were ejected to a height of 25km above the crater(火山口). More than 1, 000 people died. “Previous eruptions, in 1843 and 1710-11, were similarly destructive”, says Devy Kamil Syahbana of the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Centre(PVMBG) in Bandung.
38 The first, of which there are 69, are active volcanoes which have erupted at least once since 1600. The second are active but have not erupted since 1600. The third are potentially active openings in the earth’s crust, such as fumaroles. The first type, of which Agung is one, are monitored 24 hours a day by an observer in a station nearby, from which they can see the peak. They then feedback information to the main centre in Bandung.
Eruptions, in short, are hard to predict with precision. Sinabung, on the island of Sumatra, erupted suddenly in 2010 and then again in 2013 and 2016. 39 As a result, PVMBG had not been monitoring it, and those living nearby were not prepared to evacuate. It is still erupting; thousands of people have had to be permanently relocated.
Even when volcanoes are known to be active, and there are enough monitoring data, it is not easy to judge how destructive an eruption might be. 40 Call for an evacuation too early, and people might decide the risk is overblown and return to their homes.
A．Mr. Syahbana’s colleagues have divided the country’s volcanoes into three categories.
B．But before that it had not erupted for more than 400 years.
C．Technology helps with the monitoring too.
D．“Such decisions”, says Matthew Watson of the University of Bristol, “require a good deal of expert judgment under great uncertainty”.
E．Late on October 24th 2010 he decided that an eruption was at hand and called for an evacuation.
F．Indonesia is the country with the most volcanoes in the world, with 127 active ones.
【答案】37．F 38．A 39．B 40．D
【导语】这是一篇新闻报道。文章主要以印度尼西亚的火山为话题，讲述了印度尼西亚是世界上火山最多的国家，其火山分为3类，但由于其不稳定性，在预测方面，即使对于专家来说也是有困难的。
37．根据后文“It was home to both the biggest eruption of modern times, that of Tambora in 1815, and the second-biggest, of Krakatoa in 1883.(1815年坦博拉火山和1883年喀拉喀托火山的第二大喷发都发生在这里。)”可知，后文内容主要介绍了一些著名的大火山喷发都发生在印度尼西亚，因此，设空句作为该段首句，应为主旨句，概括“火山之国”这一核心内容。选项F“Indonesia is the country with the most volcanoes in the world, with 127 active ones.(印度尼西亚是世界上火山最多的国家，有127座活火山。)”在句意上概括了该段内容，可作主旨句，符合语境。故选F项。
38．根据后文“The first, of which there are 69, are active volcanoes which have erupted at least once since 1600. The second are active but have not erupted since 1600. The third are potentially active openings in the earth’s crust, such as fumaroles.(第一种是自1600年以来至少喷发过一次的活火山，共有69座。第二种是活跃的，但自1600年以来从未爆发过。第三种是地壳中可能活跃的开口，如喷气孔。)”可知，该段主要介绍了印度尼西亚的三种火山分类，因此，设空句作为该段首句，应是主旨概括句。选项A“Mr. Syahbana’s colleagues have divided the country’s volcanoes into three categories.(希巴纳的同事将该国的火山分为三类。)”在句意上贴合该段主旨，是对后文的概括，“three categories”对应后文的“The first”，“The second”，“The third”，前后呼应，衔接紧密。故选A项。
39．根据后文结果句“As a result, PVMBG had not been monitoring it, and those living nearby were not prepared to evacuate.(因此，PVMBG没有对其进行监测，住在附近的人也没有做好撤离的准备。)”可知，该火山没有被监测，因此可推知，设空句应是原因句，讲述没有被监测的原因。选项B“But before that it had not erupted for more than 400 years.(但在此之前，它已经有400多年没有喷发了。)”讲述了没有被监测的原因是“400多年没有喷发了”，与后文之间形成因果关系，逻辑紧密。故选B项。
40．根据前文“Even when volcanoes are known to be active, and there are enough monitoring data, it is not easy to judge how destructive an eruption might be.(即使已知火山活动，并且有足够的监测数据，也不容易判断火山爆发的破坏性有多大。)”可知，该段的话题是“判断火山爆发是不容易的”，因此可推知，设空句承接此话题“判断火山爆发的不容易”继续讲述。选项D“‘Such decisions’, says Matthew Watson of the University of Bristol, ‘require a good deal of expert judgment under great uncertainty’.(布里斯托尔大学的马修·沃森说，这样的决定需要“在很大的不确定性下进行大量的专家判断”。)”讲到了判断火山爆发需要在不确定性下的专家判断，进一步讲到了其不容易，与主题相呼应。故选D项。专题03 阅读六选四10篇
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）Over the years I’ve been teaching children about a simple but powerful concept - the ant philosophy (哲学). I think everybody should study ants.
They have an amazing four-part philosophy, and here is the first part: ants never quit. That’s a good philosophy. 1 , they’ll look for another way. They’ll climb over, they’ll climb under, and they’ll climb around. They keep looking for another way. What a neat philosophy, to never quit looking for a way to get where you’re supposed to go.
2 . That’s an important viewpoint. You can’t be so naive (天真的) as to think summer will last forever. So ants are gathering in their winter food in the middle of summer.
An ancient story says, “Don’t build your house on the sand in the summer.” Why do we need that advice.’ 3 . In the summer, you’ve got to think storm. You’ve got to think rocks as you enjoy the sand and sun. Think ahead.
The third part of the ant philosophy is that ants think summer all winter. That is so important. During the winter, ants remind themselves, “This won’t last long; we’ll soon be out of here.” And on the first warm day, the ants are out. If it turns cold again, they’ll dive back down. 4 . They can’t wait to get out.
And here’s the last part of the ant-philosophy. How much will an ant gather during the summer to prepare for the winter All he possibly can. What an incredible philosophy, the “all-you-possibly-can” philosophy.
Wow, what a great seminar to attend - the ant seminar. Never give up, look ahead, stay positive and do all you can.
A．Second, ants think winter all summer
B．If they go somewhere and you try to stop them
C．Ants think summer all winter
D．Summer and winter are both important to ants
E．However, they will come out at once when it gets warm
F．Because it is important to be realistic.
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）In the movies and on television, artificial intelligence is typically depicted as something sinister that will turn our way of life upside down. When it comes to AI in business, we often hear about it in relation to automation and loss of jobs, but in what ways is AI changing companies and the larger economy that don’t involve doom-and-gloom (前景暗淡的) mass unemployment predictions
A recent survey has found that companies currently use AI more often in computer-to-computer activities than in automating human activities. Here are a few ways AI is aiding companies without replacing employees:
Better hiring practices
Companies are using artificial intelligence to remove some of the unconscious bias from hiring decisions. There are experiments that show that, naturally, the results of interviews are much more biased than what AI does. In addition, 5 One company that’s doing this is called Blendoor. It uses analytics to help identify where there may be bias in the hiring process.
More effective marketing
Some AI software can analyze and optimize marketing email subject lines to increase open rates. One company in the UK, Phrasee, claims their software can outperform humans by up to 10 percent when it comes to email open rates. This can mean millions more in revenue. 6 These are tools that help people use data, not a replacement for people.
Saving customers money
Energy companies can use AI to help customers reduce their electricity bills, saving their money while helping the panies can also optimize their own energy use and cut down on the cost of electricity. Insurance companies, meanwhile, can base their premiums (保险费) on AI models that more accurately access risk. 7
Protecting and maintaining infrastructure
Several companies, particularly in energy and transportation, use AI image processing technology to inspect infrastructure and prevent equipment failure or leaks before they happen. If they fail first and then you fix them, it’s very expensive. 8
A．I replace the boring parts of your job. If you’re doing research, you can have AI go out and look for relevant sources and information that otherwise you just wouldn’t have time for.
B．There are also companies like Acquisio, which analyzes advertising performance across multiple channels like Adwords, Bing, and social media and makes adjustments or suggestions about where advertising funds will yield the best results.
C．You want to predict if something needs attention now and point to where it’s useful for employees to go.
D．Before, they might not insure the ones who felt like high risk or charge them too much, or they would charge them too little, and then it would cost the company money.
E．We’re also giving our customers better channels versus picking up the phone to accomplish something beyond human scale.
F．AI looks at résumés in greater numbers than humans would be able to, and selects the more promising candidates.
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）In the fog of uncertainty about how new technology will change the way we work, policymakers around the world have flocked to the same idea. No matter what the future brings, they say confidently, we will need to upskill the workforce in order to cope.
The view sounds reassuringly sensible. If computers are growing smarter, humans will need to learn to use them to humans’ advantage. Otherwise, they may run the risk of being replaced by computers. 9 .
Research published by the Social Mobility Commission shows that workers with degrees are over three times more likely to participate in training as adults than workers with no qualifications. That creates a virtuous circle for those who did well at school, and vicious circle for those who did not. If the robots are coming for both the accountants and the taxi drivers, you can bet the bean counters will be more able to retrain themselves out of danger.
10 In the UK, the government introduced an “apprenticeship levy” a few years ago in an attempt to force employers to spend more on training. A surprising number have responded by sending their senior managers on “apprenticeships” at business schools.
It is no good criticizing employers for directing investments at their highly skilled workers. They are simply aiming for the highest return they can get. And, for some types of lower-paid work, it is not always true that technological progress requires more skills. The UK’s latest Employment and Skills Survey, which is performed every five years, suggests the use of literacy and numeracy skills at work has fallen since 2012, even as the use of computers has increased. The trouble is, when the computer makes your job easier one day, it might make it unnecessary the next. Many of those affected by automation will need to switch occupations, or even industries. 11
It is time to revisit older ideas. The UK once had an energetic culture of night schools, for adults to attend after their day jobs. These institutions have been disappearing due to funding cuts. But a revival of night schools could be exactly what the 21st century needs. 12 They can also explore interests they never had a chance to nurture before.
It is still not clear whether the impact of new technology on the labour market will come in a trickle or aflood. But in an already unequal world, continuing to reserve all the lifeboats for the better-off would be a dangerous mistake.
A．Employers also invest more in better educated workers by launching employer-sponsored cmployee education programs.
B．According to an Oxford University study, nowadays employers are more likely to hire the first-year apprentices.
C．Rather than just “upskilling” in a narrow way, people could choose to learn an entirely new skill or trade.
D．But the truth is, the people who are being “upskilled” in today’s economy are the ones who need it the least.
E．People can effectively train or upskill themselves to meet their specific professional needs.
F．But a retailer or warehouse company is not going to retrain its staff to help them move to a different sector.
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）Mind the gap year
Young people in Finland enjoy one of the world's best school systems. By the age of 15 they perform above average in international tests of science, reading and math. That makes it annoying that once they leave school, their progress often comes to a stop. In America 90% of those who begin bachelor's degree do so in the same year they finish school. In Finland only 20% do.
13 Universities have traditionally made applicants pass long- winded entrance exams, in addition to tests they take at school. Excelling at both in the same year is difficult: school-leavers commonly perform worse than applicants who are a few years older and have had more time to prepare.
The result is that Finland's smartest cookies end up taking at least one and sometimes several unplanned gap years. Many find that a pain. 14 Finland's population is among the fastest-ageing in Europe. It cannot afford to let ambitious youngsters idle for such a long time.
The government is trying to shake things up. Changes that came into full force last year require universities to accept at least half of applicants solely on the basis of their scores in school. 15 Mr. Pekkarinen says early signs suggest the reforms are helping to bring down the age at which most students start their studies.
Making admissions more efficient will help the government benefit more from the cash it is spending in expanding the number of spots on offer. The share of young Finns with a degree has not changed much for a decade. 16 The government wants to hit 50% by 2030. Last year it funded about 4000 more places to help youngsters put out by the pandemic. Perhaps one day Finland's school-leavers will come to miss all the time they used to get off.
A．It is also bad for the economy.
B．At 42% it is below the rich-country average.
C．Highly selective admissions are one explanation.
D．The corona virus has sped up a trend already under way.
E．Many candidates still sit entrance tests, but the idea is that universities should no longer require them to do much of work in advance.
F．Colleges have experienced a rise in demand since test-optional policies went into effect.
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）An environmental group in Colombia is leading a project to save wild areas in the San Lucas mountains with the help of coffee growers. 17 Colombia has more different kinds of living things than any country after neighboring Brazil, but destruction of forests has increased since 2016.
Government information shows that in 2017, almost 220,000 hectares of forest were destroyed compared to 124,000 hectares in 2015. Areas like San Lucas have been threatened by mining and growers of coca plants, which are used to make the drug cocaine.
To date, the project includes 10 families who farm 400 hectares of coffee plants. WebConserva said the project costs about $77,000 dollars a year. The group said it hopes that, in time, 200 families will be included. At that level, 20,000 hectares of untouched forest could be protected. In San Lucas, the families promise not to cut down trees to expand their crops or to hunt wild animals from the forest. 18
Arcadio Barajas is among those taking part. His new coffee plantation establishes a barrier between cattle ranches and forests where wild animals like the jaguar live and hunt. The presence of the coffee fields reduces the likelihood that there will be conflict between cattle ranchers and the big cats. Barajas said that cutting down the forest to plant coca and killing wildlife were against his faith. 19 “I’m taking care of the environment, the forest and the animals, so that I don’t end up ruined as well,” he said.
Arnobis Romero is a former coca grower and miner. He said many families depended on illegal activities to support their children. For example, at times one kilogram of Coca could be sold for $760. Romero said, “We feel really proud to look after this biodiversity and to leave it... for future generations.”
20 But each year, hundreds of thousands of hectares of land are destroyed. Activists want San Lucas to be protected as a national park, but the process has been slow.
A．In return, they receive $250 to $300 for 125 kilograms of coffee.
B．It protects forests, biodiversity and ecosystems at the same time.
C．Colombia has set aside 16 percent of its territory as protected land.
D．Gold mining and coca farming make more money than coffee growing.
E．But now he feels that growing coffee lets him be a good steward of the land.
F．The goal is to limit additional development in the northern San Lucas area which is rich in biodiversity, meaning many forms of life live there.
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）The Cube has his own voice
I arrive at the Szepilona Bisztro, on a leafy road on the “Buda” side of Budapest, holding a Rubik’s Cube and searching for the man who had created it almost 50 years ago. I feel unworthy to have lunch with Emo Rubik, not the least reason of which is because the Cube I am holding has never been solved.
Rubik arrives punctually. He’s been coming to this restaurant since the late 1960s, when he was a graduate student, before he had invented one of the world’s most successful puzzles — a cube with 43 quintillion combinations, only one of which is correct.
21 At that time, Rubik was living in his family’s apartment on a grand avenue on the “Pest” side of the city. He was a professor of architecture, but his room was “like a child’s pocket, full of marbles and treasures”.
In an attempt to help students understand three-dimensional problems, he tried to build a set of cubes that stayed together but could also move independently. 22 He painted each side a different colour. But after he had twisted it, he realised that he could not easily return it to its original state.
“It was a more difficult task to find a system to solve it than it had been to create the thing itself” he says. In the end, it took him a month. And solving it gave him a “happy feeling of freedom’’, he said at the time. The Rubik’s Cube was born, and to date more than 450 million have been sold, the craze reaching its peak in the early 1980s.
Rubik was 29 when he “discovered” the Cube in 1974. By 1979, Rubik had sold 300,000. 23 From there, it spread across the world, with some 100 million Rubik’s Cubes being sold in only three years. “I can’t imagine there being a higher type for it than there had been in the 1980s,” he says. He motions to my Cube. 24 Rubik comforts me with a Japanese slogan from the 1980s, coined for a game: “a minute to learn and a lifetime to master”.
A．But the content of the Cube is so wide that it can be a symbol of logical thinking, a way of life.
B．Eventually he came up with a six-sided structure with nine interlocking cubes on each side.
C．His moment of inspiration came in the spring of 1974.
D．I am forced to admit that I haven’t solved it yet.
E．Rubik was born towards the end of the Second World War to an aircraft engineer father and a poet mother.
F．The following year he was offered the chance to take his invention to a toy fair in New York.
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）What the Next Era of Globalization Will Look Like
Editor: You talk in the book about how fragile many global supply chains have become. Why would a less globalized, more localized supply chain tend to be more resilient
Rana: Well, for starters, you have proximity (亲近). 25 . We had these “just-in-time”, “efficient” supply chains that were built, taking products around the world. It saves big companies a lot of money as long as nothing is going wrong in the world. But when anything goes wrong, be it a tsunami, be it a geopolitical event, be it a war, a trade war, a cold war, a hot war, you get problems. 26
Also, I would say when I think of resiliency, I think of sustainability. And well before the pandemic or the war in Ukraine, companies were actually already starting to think about localization for all kinds of reasons. 27 . The wage productivity arbitrage(工资套利)was losing its appeal. Wages were rising enough in the east so that the arbitrage didn’t make as much sense as it used to.
Finally, you are starting to have environmental concerns where companies are being asked to consider, “Okay, how many units of carbon are you expending to tote X product to Y location ” All of this was sort of pushing that notion of localization for resiliency.
Editor: 28 . Why not use antitrust(反垄断)to encourage more competition-but keep supply chains globalized
Rana: I don’t see them as an either-or proposition; I see them as ideas that work hand in hand. Let me give you an example: Right after the pandemic hits, everybody goes into lockdown, suddenly nobody’s eating out. Restaurants are closed; grocery stores have huge lines in front of them. And yet there are no products on the shelves. You can’t find tomato sauce, you can’t find juice. There are all these strange gaps that start to appear. And you might say, “Well, why is that ”
A．Whereas when you have more localized systems, you just don’t have those sorts of problems of hauling things halfway around the world.
B．In markets where you did have more localized agriculture or greater use of community farm programs or farmers markets, you didn’t have that problem.
C．You write that monopoly (垄断)is a source of weakness, because it means companies and consumers rely on a single source.
D．One of the messages in my book that I’m really trying to get across is place matters: The world is not flat; the world is bumpy(颠簸的).
E．One of which is that the sort of cheap capital for cheap labor model between the U. S. and Asia didn’t really work.
F．An efficient market theory would say that prices of commodities always reflect all available information about the supply and demand.
（22-23高二下·上海·期中）Teaching is widely recognized to be a stressful occupation, characterized by numerous and varied challenges: administrative burdens, long hours, classroom management difficulties, to name but a few. 29 They are also paid less than other workers with similar experience and education, a gap that has grown from 4.3% in 1996 to 17% in 2015. Further, teachers face significant social and political scrutiny as to how they do their jobs .
30 The statistics on teacher turnover are grim: Research estimates that between 19% and 30% of new teachers leave the field within the first five years of teaching, which can reduce the team spirits of their campus community and negatively affect student learning. In the most recent PDK poll, half of teachers surveyed said they had considered leaving the profession within the last year, with low pay and high stress most frequently cited as the reasons. Of course, teacher stress is not unique to the United States. In fact, research has yielded remarkably consistent findings around the world, with roughly 20-25% of the teaching workforce reporting high levels of stress.
But if it’s clear that teacher stress is widespread, it’s not always clear how teacher stress should be defined. Traditionally, educational policy research has focused on working conditions (i.e., school administration) as the main driver of occupational health. That is, teacher stress tends to be viewed as a result of working in a stressful environment, often characterized as lacking sufficient funding or effective leadership. 31 In many schools, some teachers are stressed out while others are not; but if working conditions were all that mattered, then every teacher in the school would be equally stressed.
Chris Kyriacou and others have argued that teacher stress is better understood as resulting from a mismatch between the pressures and demands made on educators and their ability to cope with those demands. Workforce conditions alone are not sufficient to explain why some teachers are highly stressed. Rather, what matters most is how each teacher sees the demands they face in relation to the resources they have available to meet those demands. 32 And if this is true, then it should be possible to identify and intervene with teachers who are most vulnerable to stress, above and beyond efforts to improve the larger working environment.
A．These demands take a toll, resulting in job dissatisfaction, workplace fatigue, burnout, and reduced occupational commitment.
B．Just as beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, stress depends on the teacher’s unique view of their classroom.
C．For example, this holds true for 25% of teachers in Great Britain and Italy; 20-22% in Malaysia and Germany; and 25-26% in Australia and the U.S.
D．However, if only 20-25% of teachers report high levels of stress, then that would suggest that the working environment itself is only part of the issue.
E．Teachers are isolated from colleagues for much of the day, spending less than 5% of their work time collaborating with peers.
F．Clearly, then, there must be more to the story.
（21-22高二下·上海·期中）A Schoolyard Garden
Have you ever eaten something that you grew in your own garden Many people have not had the pleasure of this experience. Alice Waters, the owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant, set out to change all that for a special group of students at Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, California.
Waters worked with the school’s principal, Neil Smith, to create a cooking and gardening program at the school. 33 . She also believes that there is a strong relationship between food, health, and the environment. Her goal at the middle school was to show children the pleasure in gardening and in preparing the foods that they cultivated. She wanted to teach them that a healthy body and a healthy environment go hand in hand.
The project that Waters began took a lot of time and patience. 34 . At the same time, renovation was begun to turn an old, unused cafeteria into a kitchen where students could prepare foods and share meals with their teachers.
In the 1995-1996 school year, the first usable crops were planted. They included greens such as arugula and mustard, as well as lettuce, carrots, and potatoes. The following year brought the addition of plants such as apples, plums, black currants, hazelnuts, figs, raspberries, runner beans, and hibiscus. 35 .
Students have found that they look forward to the time they spend in the garden each week. They have learned how to weed, prune, and harvest. They have learned about the life cycles of various plants. They also know how to enrich the soil through composting, a process in which leftover scraps of fruits and vegetables are used as fertilizer. 36 .
Alice Waters dreams that one day there will be a garden in every school in the United States. She hopes that school lunches can be prepared using the produce from the gardens and other locally—grown organic produce.
A．She relied on the help of teachers, students, and community volunteers to turn a parking lot into a garden.
B．Waters believes in the importance of people knowing where their food comes from.
C．Waters believes in people joining their hands to teach children to become better citizens.
D．Many have discovered that they like fruits and vegetables that they had never before been willing to try.
E．However, they found it difficult to decide what crops to plant in this garden.
F．Every year since then, new crops are added and old crops are evaluated to make sure that they are best suited for the environment and the needs of the school.
（21-22高二下·上海杨浦·期中）Volcanoes in Indonesia
“The hardest bit of the job is having enough sleep,” admits Martanto, a 29-year-old geophysicist at the monitoring centre for Agung, a volcano in Bali which started erupting(爆发) on November 25th. For the past two weeks he and half a dozen others have relocated from Bandung, in West Java, to keep watch on Agung every hour of the day, occasionally in continuous 32-hour shifts.
37 It was home to both the biggest eruption of modern times, that of Tambora in 1815, and the second-biggest, of Krakatoa in 1883. Agung’s previous eruption, in 1963, was the most explosive of the 20th century in Indonesia. Gas, rock and ash were ejected to a height of 25km above the crater(火山口). More than 1, 000 people died. “Previous eruptions, in 1843 and 1710-11, were similarly destructive”, says Devy Kamil Syahbana of the Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Centre(PVMBG) in Bandung.
38 The first, of which there are 69, are active volcanoes which have erupted at least once since 1600. The second are active but have not erupted since 1600. The third are potentially active openings in the earth’s crust, such as fumaroles. The first type, of which Agung is one, are monitored 24 hours a day by an observer in a station nearby, from which they can see the peak. They then feedback information to the main centre in Bandung.
Eruptions, in short, are hard to predict with precision. Sinabung, on the island of Sumatra, erupted suddenly in 2010 and then again in 2013 and 2016. 39 As a result, PVMBG had not been monitoring it, and those living nearby were not prepared to evacuate. It is still erupting; thousands of people have had to be permanently relocated.
Even when volcanoes are known to be active, and there are enough monitoring data, it is not easy to judge how destructive an eruption might be. 40 Call for an evacuation too early, and people might decide the risk is overblown and return to their homes.
A．Mr. Syahbana’s colleagues have divided the country’s volcanoes into three categories.
B．But before that it had not erupted for more than 400 years.
C．Technology helps with the monitoring too.
D．“Such decisions”, says Matthew Watson of the University of Bristol, “require a good deal of expert judgment under great uncertainty”.
E．Late on October 24th 2010 he decided that an eruption was at hand and called for an evacuation.
F．Indonesia is the country with the most volcanoes in the world, with 127 active ones.
