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难度：★★ 话题：Attitude 建议时间：5分钟文章词数：349 正确率： /3

Do you believe that “showing effort” should count more than it does, or do you think it’s a misleading reward system that has a bad effect on the American character, both in school and out?

To be perfectly honest, if I hadn’t been awarded points for effort, I might have never completed grade school. On our report cards, the “E” was right there over the “F”: Effort was dangerously close to failure but you could stop yourself from failing if you tried hard.

My inability to complete the most basic forms of math would have kept me in fourth grade long past middle age if the principal hadn’t taken pity and let me move along. I passed my classes because I displayed effort, not because I learned math. But how can we help young people understand life rarely rewards you for effort, especially if that effort doesn’t lead to understanding or success?

Rarely in life do we actually appreciate something more fully because it took a lot of effort. Nobody wants to hear her doctor announce, “Boy, did I ever have trouble with your surgery! I had to get three guys to help me.”

Why, then, do we like to think that somebody must suffer to produce a work of art? I recently learned from Pamela Katz’s book The Partnership that the song Mack the Knife took less than 24 hours to write. And in my office I have printed out the following line from New York agent Betsy Lerner’s book The Forest for the Trees: “Your struggle to produce a piece of writing of interest and value means nothing to the reader. He only cares if the piece succeeds.”

Let’s not pretend there’s no difference between effort and accomplishment; let’s not pretend there’s no difference between those who try hard and those who do well.

We should learn to take real pride in a job well done and not expect praise for one simply carried out. What we need is to think honestly about our abilities, our talents, and our limitations. And that will take some real effort.

By Gina Barreca

The Courant

1. The author gives her own example of getting an E in math to prove that ______.

A. great effort may sometimes save you from failing

B. you may work hard but still get bad results

C. getting an E is much more difficult than getting an F

D. her hard work helped her to make great progress in math

2. We can infer from the article that ______.

A. young people don’t know that effort is the most rewarding factor in life

B. it is the doctor’s effort that patients appreciate the most

C. people often appreciate something for various reasons other than effort

D. it is true that as long as artists suffer a lot, they can create masterpieces

3. What was the author’s purpose in writing this passage?

A. To suggest that you should make an effort in doing the things you love.

B. To say that it is necessary to appreciate others’ efforts and accomplishments.

C. To prove that showing effort is a misleading reward system that has nothing but only bad effects.

D. To advise people to think about their abilities, talents and limitations first instead of effort.

B

难度：★★★ 话题：Society 建议时间：6分钟文章词数：357 正确率： /3

There are many people you are well advised to treat kindly: Your child’s teacher, your husband or wife, your boss and so on.

Until now, that best-behavior-required list has not included your Uber driver, or for that matter, taxi drivers. Old thinking: Hey, they’re here to serve me. I don’t have to make a special effort to be nice to them.

Dangerously wrong.

A recent New York Times story told the instructive tale of a Uber passenger, Hussein Kanji, who says he’s really not sure how he made his driver angry. All he knows is that his driver-generated rating went way down and the wait for a Uber car became hours instead of minutes.

Beware, Uberians: If you’re feeling angry when you slide into the back seat and you give your driver the silent treatment, your reputation may get damaged in the driver-generated ratings. If you’re among the people one Uber driver described as “generally negative”, watch out.

Uber isn’t the only front on this battlefield. The ability to rate someone’s service is one of the successes of the Internet. It helps everyone weed out people with bad attitudes and worse habits.

These ratings should cut both ways. A while back, the auction site eBay made many of its sellers angry when it started preventing them from giving negative ratings to buyers. Until then, sellers and buyers had threatened each other with negative reviews. Too many negative reviews could get you thrown off.

Then eBay shifted the balance of power to buyers. Sellers can still write a bad comment, but the overall rating cannot be anything but positive. Thus eBay has become a place where all is for the best. Think positive!

We know that being nice to people all day can be exhausting. We’ve also seen people who shout at those who don’t measure up to their expectations for service.

Uber is reportedly about to come to Chicago. It is a welcome competitor here because it fits the needs of customers in a new way. We know Uber is a two-way street. But drivers who get too picky may end up with no passengers.

Everyone, behave.

4. In general, people think of Uber drivers as people who ______.

A. they can take advantage of B. they don’t have to be nice to

C. are required to be on their best behavior

D. need better treatment from customers

5. Negative driver-generated ratings mean that ______.

A. customers have to wait for a longer time when using Uber cars

B. drivers are too slow to pick up customers

C. Uber drivers can refuse to work for certain customers

D. customers have done damage to Uber cars

6. The example of eBay in the article is probably meant to show that ______.

A. in the Internet age, buyers have always had the advantage of ratings

B. the power of ratings should be given to both sides of a service

C. the main reason why eBay has become a successful auction site

D. controversy between customers and sellers has only come about recently

7. The author has written this article to ______.

A. show that when using services like Uber, your behavior directly affects the service you get

B. prove that giving and receiving bad ratings can influence your life

C. suggest that tools like Uber and eBay can reflect what kind of person you are

D. stress that both customers and service providers should be generally respectful and positive

C

难度：★★★★ 话题：Society 建议时间：9分钟文章词数：499 正确率： /4

We live in a time when technology has enabled everyone to be a journalist, yet not everyone has the proper training. Whether out of ignorance or out of a sense of honor, some of the journalism online has done a better job of changing public opinion than showing the whole truth.

Two recent stories are perfect reminders of the difference between the urge to change minds and basic journalism ethics.

“A college kid took some birds from a nearby tree and was sentenced to 10 years in prison,” went a recent online headline from the Chinese Internet. The accompanying vote showed that 85 percent of respondents sided with the student. Some joked that most boys would be guilty of such a crime because everyone had stolen birds when they were children.

Left out of the original report was the fact that the birds in question were falcons, which are on the nation’s list of protected, endangered species. Birdwatchers also said that it was unlikely Yan Xiaotian, the 21-year-old defendant, had found the 12 birds in one tree. For this particular species, he had to search a much larger area.

For me, the most important questions are: Did he know it was illegal before he took the birds and did he know that before he sold them?

Follow-up reporting has found that the evidence showed that Yan knew what he was doing. The only point of uncertainty is the very first time he took the first birds when he could be unaware of their status and value. As a matter of fact, the prosecutor started out asking for a light punishment, but took a U-turn when data from Yan’s cellphone clearly showed that he had stolen them.

The punishment, while sounding harsh, followed the law almost to the letter. The court has since said it would review the case, a sign of giving in to public pressure.

Let’s look at the second story, which can be read as either “Elderly man had to walk in his shorts for hours in Sanya after his bike was taken by the city’s quasi-police” or “Retired official illegally parked his bike for a swim and made the city apologize and fire a low-paid city management staff member”.

Both played up different parts of the same story. For me, Bi Guochang’s age and former official title are not relevant to the case. The key is whether he indeed parked his bike illegally and whether proper procedures were being followed by taking it away and making him get it back. Yet the reports focused on the image of an old man walking only in his shorts. He could have phoned his family for backup or taken a taxi home first before complaining, as most would do in that situation.

Such stories read like badly-written morality tales, with everything in black and white and a simple yes-or-no message. Real life is much more complicated. Reporters have to be neutral and avoid taking sides too early.

China Daily

8. The main purpose of the article is ______.

A. to show that there is an urgent need to improve current journalism ethics

B. to prove that everyone can be a good journalist even without proper training in journalism

C. to suggest that journalists should remain neutral and have basic ethics

D. to remind journalists that they can change the public’s opinions

9. Which of the following statements is TRUE about the college student who was sentenced to prison, according to the article?

A. He took some birds from a nearby tree and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

B. He didn’t know that he was breaking the law when he took the birds.

C. It is highly possible that he took the 12 birds from different trees.

D. He had no idea that the birds he caught were actually falcons.

10. What does the underlined phrase “followed the law almost to the letter” suggest?

A. The judges had followed the law strictly.

B. The punishment was too much for the student.

C. The student didn’t get fair treatment from the judges.

D. There was almost nothing written in the law about this type of crime.

11. Which of the following statements about the second story is TRUE?

A. The reports focused on the appearance of Bi Guochang rather than the truth.

B. Bi Guochang couldn’t call others for help because he had nothing left on him.

C. The local officers didn’t follow proper procedures when they dealt with Bi’s case.

D. The author believe the city’s quasi-police are to blame for Bi’s troubles.

D

难度：★★★★ 话题：Social class 建议时间：7分钟文章词数：344 正确率： /4

According to the BBC, I’m an “Emergent Service Worker”. But I don’t really think much of a survey that claims to decide my class based on five questions I can answer in less than 60 seconds. In fact, I don’t really think much of the whole idea of “class” at all.

However, it raises an interesting question: What is the relevance of class in today’s globalized, modern world?

Following the Industrial Revolution, society was divided into the middle, upper and working classes in Britain. Such a classification made sense at a time when education and family background had a direct impact on a person’s social standing and future. Today, however, that’s no longer the case – people now enjoy a social mobility that was unheard of back then.

So it’s about time our old-fashioned method of classifying the population was changed. But even though I appreciate things other than wealth and education level being included in the new system, I don’t understand how musical tastes, hobbies, and the people you make friends with relate to your social class. These are all preferences that come from our personalities and emotions.

We now live in such a diversified world that putting anyone in a certain group based on something as simple as this system is to take away their personal achievements and humanity.

Take me as an example: I grew up in a row of houses (working class), to parents with a stable income (middle class) and went to one of the best universities (upper class). My best friends are farmers (working), I listen to rock music (middle) and I occasionally enjoy going to art galleries (upper). Giving me one of these classes would effectively get rid of two-thirds of my identity and the experiences that shaped me as a person.

The fact is that categorizing the world into different classes just doesn’t do us justice. It’s a scientific construct that, to me, bears no connection to reality and merely leads to social prejudice. Science has done a lot for us, but this time it’s misleading us.

By Lukas Thibaut

12. The BBC survey mentioned in the article ______.

A. tests people’s knowledge of social class

B. is designed to identify people’s social class quickly

C. shows people’s preferences when they make friends

D. encourages people to voice their opinions about social class

13. Which of the following factors does the old-fashioned way of classifying people consider?

a. wealth b. family background c. education level

d. musical taste e. the people you make friends with

A. abc B. abd C. abe D. ace

14. According to the second-to-last paragraph, the author uses himself as an example to ______.

A. describe how proud he is of his family background

B. show that he has a deep interest in the life of the upper classes

C. prove that social class doesn’t make much sense any more

D. discuss how personality influences one’s understanding of social class

15. We can infer from the article that ______.

A. labeling people with social classes can be misleading

B. prejudices still exist widely among people of different British social classes

C. social status still matters in today’s globalized, modern world

D. the author find it exciting to be classified as an “Emergent Service Worker”

E

难度：★★★ 话题：Healthy life 建议时间：7分钟文章词数：377 正确率： /4

When Kentucky Fried Chicken announced several weeks ago that it would be introducing grilled chicken (烤鸡), I’m embarrassed to admit how excited I felt.

I became a Kentucky Fried fan back in the 1980s when I was a teen. But over the next two decades I cut back for health reasons. Why, then, did I want the Colonel’s new, healthier product so badly?

For one thing, I wasn’t alone in my interest in the chicken. Thanks to Internet coupons for free meals, crowds went running to restaurants across the country. After accepting more than 10 million coupons, the chain had to stop the free food give-away. CEO Roger Eaton later apologized. But his “apology” was more a sign of celebration than regret. “Not in our wildest imagination could we believe the response we’ve gotten,” Eaton said.

After all, the whole point of the coupon was to draw attention to the new product.

But Eaton’s real aim, I suspect, was far more dangerous. Like every other fast food CEO, he faces a serious challenge in this age of nutritional awareness: How to get folks to eat food that is bad for them.

Companies have found ways to make money from consumer concerns over nutrition by introducing “healthy” menu options.

A recent study of fast food eating habits showed that people who even consider a healthy item feel they have a right to the high-fat option. This may be news to academics, but I think the fast food bosses have known about it for years. They understand how their customers think.

I tried KFC grilled chicken a few days ago. It is much healthier than the chain’s Original Recipe. The problem is that when it came time to order my food, I felt I could go ahead and order some unhealthy food too. I gave myself permission to order two sides, and in the end, my meal was more than 800 calories. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers 2,000 calories to be a normal daily amount.

KFC’s grilled chicken may go on to be a great success. But like every “healthy” option offered by fast food chains, it’s a trick. The Colonel couldn’t care less whether you lose weight, as long as you keep making him money.

16. What’s the writer’s attitude toward Kentucky Fried Chicken’s new product, grilled chicken?

A. Embarrassed. B. Hateful. C. Excited. D. Indifferent.

17. In the writer’s opinion, KFC aimed to ______ by providing Internet coupons for free meals.

A. draw attention to the new product

B. help poor people

C. make business look good

D. make money from nutrition awareness

18. The 8th paragraph shows that ______.

A. the writer enjoyed grilled chicken a lot more than fried chicken

B. you should always say no to high-fat food

C. the writer felt like he had the right to buy high fat food along with a healthier option

D. you need to watch out for the calories you eat at each meal

19. We can learn from the article that fast food chains offered “healthy” menu options to ______.

A. help customers lose weight B. get customers to feel good about them

C. follow official regulations D. earn more money