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In our contemporary culture, the prospect of communicating with—or even looking at—a stranger is virtually unbearable. Everyone around us seems to agree by the way they cling to their phones, even without a __1__ on a subway.It’s a sad reality—our desire to avoid interacting with other human beings—because there’s __2__ to be gained from talking to the stranger standing by you. But you wouldn’t know it, __3__ into your phone. This universal protection sends the __4__: “Please don’t approach me.”What is it that makes us feel we need to hide __5__ our screens?One answer is fear, according to Jon Wortmann, executive mental coach. We fear rejection, or that our innocent social advances will be __6__ as “weird”. We fear we’ll be__7__. We fear we’ll be disruptive. Strangers are inherently __8__ to us, so we are more likely to feel __9__ when communicating with them compared with our friends and acquaintances. To avoid this anxiety, we __10__ to our phones. “Phones become our security blanket,” Wortmann says. “They are our happy glasses that protect us from what we perceive is going to be more __11__”.But once we rip off the bandaid, tuck our smartphones in our pockets and look up, it doesn’t __12__ so bad. In one 2011 experiment, behavioral scientists Nicholas Epley and Juliana Schroeder asked commuters to do the unthinkable: Start a __13__. They had Chicago train commuters talk to their fellow __14__. “When Dr. Epley and Ms. Schroeder asked other people in the same train station to __15__ how they would feel after talking to a stranger, the commuters thought their __16__ would be more pleasant if they sat on their own,” the New York Times summarizes. Though the participants didn’t expect a positive experience, after they __17__ with the experiment, “not a single person reported having been embarrassed.”__18__, these commutes were reportedly more enjoyable compared with those without communication, which makes absolute sense, __19__ human beings thrive off of social connections. It’s that __20__: Talking to strangers can make you feel connected.

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While fossil fuels- coal, oil, gas- still generate roughly 85 percent of the world's energy supply, it's clearer than ever that the future belongs to renewable sources such as wind and solar. The move to renewables is picking up momentum around the world: They now account for more than half of new power sources going on line.Some growth stems from a commitment by governments and farsighted Business to fund cleaner energy sources. But increasingly the stories about the plummeting prices of renewables, especially wind and solar. The cost of solar panels has dropped by 80 percent and the cost of wind turbines by close to one-third in the past eight years.In many parts of the world renewable energy is already a principal energy source. In Scotland, for example, wind turbines provide enough electricity to power 95 percent of homes. While the rest of the world takes the lead, notably China and Europe, the United States is also seeing a remarkable shift. In March, for the first time, wind and solar power accounted for more than 10 percent of the power generated in the US, reported the US Energy Information Administration.President Trump has underlined fossil fuels— especially coal—as the path to economic growth. In a recent speech in Iowa, he dismissed wind power as an unreliable energy source. But that message did not play well with many in Iowa, where wind turbines dot the fields and provide 36 percent of the state's electricity generation — and where tech giants like Microsoft are being attracted by the availability of clean energy to power their data centers.The question “what happens when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine?" has provided a quick put-down for skeptics. But a boost in the storage-capacity of batteries is making their ability to keep power flowing around the clock more likely.The advance is driven in part by vehicle manufacturers, who are placing big bets on battery-powered electric vehicles. Although electric cars are still a rarity on roads now, this massive investment could change the picture rapidly in coming years.While there's a long way to go, the trend lines for renewables are spiking. The pace of change in energy sources appears to be speeding up perhaps: just in time to have a meaningful effect in slowing climate change. What Washington does-or doesn't do- to promote alternative energy may mean less and less a time of a global shift in thought.1.The word "plummeting"(Line 3,Para.2) is closest in meaning to(  ).  2.According to Paragraph 3, the use of renewable energy in America  (  ).    3.It can be learned that in Iowa, (  ).    4.Which of the following is true about clean energy according to Paragraphs 5&6?5.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that renewable energy(  ).  

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The outbreak of swine flu that was first detected in Mexico was declared a global epidemic on June 11, 2009. It is the first worldwide epidemic (1)by the World Health Organization in 41 years.The heightened alert (2) an emergency meeting with flu expects in Geneva that assembled after a sharp rise in cases in Australia, and rising (3) in Britain, Japan, Chile and elsewhere.But the epidemic is (4) in severity, according to Margaret Chan, the organization’s director general, (5) the overwhelming majority of patients experiencing only mild symptoms and a full recovery, often in the (6) of any medical treatment.The outbreak came to global (7) in late April 2009, when Mexican authorities noted an unusually large number of hospitalizations and deaths (8) healthy adults. As much of Mexico City shut down at the height of a panic, cases began to (9) in New York City, the southwestern United States and around the world.In the United States, new cases seemed to fade (10) warmer weather arrived. But in late September 2009, officials reported there was (11) flu activity in almost every state and that virtually all the (12) tested are the new swine flu, also known as (A) H1N1, not seasonal flu. In the U. S. it has (13) more than one million people, and caused more than 600 deaths and more than 6,000 hospitalizations.Federal health officials (14) Tamiflu for children from the national stockpile and began (15) orders from the states for the new swine flu vaccine. The new vaccine, which is different from the annual flu vaccine, is (16) ahead of expectations. More than three million doses were to be made available in early October 2009, though most of those (17)doses were of the FluMist nasal spray type, which is not (18) for pregnant women, people over 50 or those with breathing difficulties, heart disease or several other (19) But it was still possible to vaccinate people in other high-risk groups: health care workers, people (20) infants and healthy young people. (338 words)

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How to Disagree with Someone more powerful than you.Your boss proposes a new initiative you think won’t work. Your senior colleague outlines a project timeline you think is unrealist. What do you say when you disagree with someone who has more power than you do? How do you decide whether it's worth speaking up? And if you do, what exactly should you say? Here is how to disagree with someone more powerful than you.1.(  )After this risk assessment, You may decide it’s best to hold off on voicing your opinion. Maybe you haven’t finished thinking the problem through the whole discussion was a surprise to you, or you want to get a clearer sense of what the group thinks. If you think other people are going to disagree too, you might want to gather your army first. People can contribute experience or information to your thinking--all the things that would make the disagreement stronger or more valid It' s also a good idea to delay the conversation if you re in a meeting or other public space. Discussing the issue in private will make the powerful person feel less threatened.2. (  )Before you share your thoughts, think about what the powerful person cares about—it may be “the credibility of their team of getting a project done on time. You're more likely to be heard if you can connect your disagreement to a higher purpose. When you do speak up, don' t assume the link will be clear You ll want to state it overtly, contextualizing your statements so that you re seen not as a disagreeable underling but as a colleague who' s trying to advance a shared goal. The discussionwill then become more like a chess game than a boxing match,” says Weeks3. (  )This step may sound overly deferential, but it's a smart way to give the powerful person psychological safety and control. You can say something like, I know we seem to be moving toward a first-quarter commitment here i have reasons to think that won't work i' d like to way out my reasoning. Would that be ok? This gives the person a choice, allowing them to verbally opt in. And, assuming they say yes it will make you feel more confident about voicing you disagreement.4.(  )You might feel your heart racing or your face turning red but do whatever you can to remain neutral in both your words and actions. When your body language communicates reluctance or anxiety,it undercuts the message. It sends a mixed message, and your counterpart gets to choose what to read. Deep breaths can help, as can speaking more slowly and deliberately. When we feel panicky we tend to talk louder and faster. Simply slowing the pace and talking in an even tone helps the other person calm down and does the same or you. It also makes you seem confident, even if you aren’t.5.(  )Emphasize that you re offering your opinion, not gospel truth.I may be a well-informed, well-researched opinion, but it's still an opinion, my talk tentatively and slightly understate your confidence instead of saying something like,"If we set an end-of-quarter deadline, we'll never make it," say,This is just my opinion, but don’t see how we will make that deadline. Having asserted your position(as a position, not as a fact)demonstrate equal curiosity about other views remind the person that this isyour point of view and then invite critique. Be open to hearing other opinions.

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Even in traditional offices, “the lingua franca of corporate America has gotten much more emotional and much more right-brained than it was 20 years ago,” said Harvard Business School professor Nancy Koehn. She started spinning off examples. “If you and I parachuted back to Fortune 500 companies in 1990, we would see much less frequent use of terms like journey, mission, passion. There were goals, there were strategies, there were objectives, but we didn’t talk about energy; we didn’t talk about passion.”Koehn pointed out that this new era of corporate vocabulary is very “team—-oriented—and not by coincidence. “Let’s not forget sports—in male—dominated corporate America, it’s still a big deal. It’s not explicitly conscious; it’s the idea that I’m a coach, and you’re my team, and we’re in this together. There are lots and lots of CEOs in very different companies, but most think of themselves as coaches and this is their team and they want to win.”These terms are also intended to infuse work with meaning-and, as Khurana points out, increase allegiance to the firm. “You have the importation of terminology that historically used to be associated with non-profit organizations and religious organizations: Terms like vision, values, passion, and purpose,” said Khurana.This new focus on personal fulfillment can help keep employees motivated amid increasingly loud debates over work-life balance. The “mommy wars” of the 1990s are still going on today, prompting arguments about why women still can’t have it all and books like Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, whose title has become a buzzword in its own right. Terms like unplug, offline, life-hack, bandwidth, and capacity are all about setting boundaries between the office and the home. But if your work is your “passion,” you’ll be more likely to devote yourself to it, even if that means going home for dinner and then working long after the kids are in bed.But this seems to be the irony of office speak: Everyone makes fun of it, but managers love it, companies depend on it, and regular people willingly absorb it. As Nunberg said, “You can get people to think it’s nonsense at the same time that you buy into it.” In a workplace that’s fundamentally indifferent to your life and its meaning, office speak can help you figure out how you relate to your work-and how your work defines who you are.1.According to Nancy Koehn, office language has become ( ).2.“Team”-oriented corporate vocabulary is closely related to ( ). 3.Khurana believes that the importation of terminology aims to ( ). 4.It can be inferred that Lean In ( ). 5.Which of the following statements is true about office speak?

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Although GMOs have been in our food supply for 20 years, the controversy has moved to center stage. Recent documentaries and experts on The Doctor Oz Show have fanned the flames. About 75 percent of consumers say they are concerned about the safety of genetically modified food, according to a New York Times survey. Maine and Connecticut recently passed bills requiring labeling of all foods made with GMOs; many other states are considering mandatory labeling. The European Union already requires labeling, and several countries, including France, have banned the planting of genetically modified crops.In a big red flag-raising study, French researchers reported last year in Food and Chemical Toxicology that rats developed huge tumors after living on genetically modified corn for two years. “Genetic engineering can have unintended consequences,” says Bill Freese, science policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety. Artificial genes force plants to produce unnatural proteins, he says, and no one knows how those may affect human health.However, hundreds of other studies have found no trouble with GMOs, says Ruth MacDonald, professor, and chair of food science at Iowa State University. After looking at more than 130 research projects—including animal studies and searches for known toxins or allergens in GMO foods—the European Union concluded that there’s nothing especially risky about them. In September, the editors of Scientific American denounced the efforts to label GMO foods, stating that there’s no proof that so-called genetically modified organisms can endanger people’s health. Adding genes to crops isn’t any more dangerous than traditional breeding, which farmers have done for thousands of years, the American Association for the Advancement of Science declared in 2012. Old methods of modifying crops mixed tens of thousands of genes with unpredictable results. The fact that scientists can now insert single genes into corn or soybeans shouldn’t raise any new alarms, says Fedoroff.There doesn’t appear to be a scientific reason to ban GMO foods from your kitchen to protect your health. But it is healthy to limit your intake of the processed foods that often contain them. And don’t assume that GMO-free packaged food is necessarily healthy. Organic cookies can still contain too much sugar or salt.26. According to the passage, GMO means ___________.27. Why has France forbidden the planting of genetically modified crops?28. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?29. What is the author’s attitude towards GMO foods?30. The word “organic” in the last sentence of the last paragraph most probably means ________.

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When an invention is made, the inventor has three possible courses of action open to him: he can give the invention to the world by publishing it, keep the idea secret, or patent it.A granted patent is the result of a bargain struck between an inventor and the state, by which the inventor gets a limited period of monopoly and publishes full details of his invention to the public after that period terminates. Only in most exceptional circumstances is the life-span of a patent extended to alter this normal process of events.The longest extension ever granted was to Georges Valensi; his 1939 patent for color TV receiver circuitry was extended until 1971 because for most of the patent’s normal life there was no color TV to receive and thus no hope of reward for the invention.Because a patent remains permanently public after it has terminated, the shelves of the library attached to the patent office contain details of literally millions of ideas that are free for anyone to use and if older than half a century, sometimes even re-patent. Indeed, patent experts often advise anyone wishing to avoid the high cost of conducting a search through live patents that the one sure way of avoiding violation of any other inventor’s right is to plagiarize a dead patent. Likewise, because publication of an idea in any other form permanently invalidates further patents on that idea, it is traditionally safe to take ideas from other areas of print. Much modern technological advance is based on these presumptions of legal security.Anyone closely involved in patent and inventions soon learns that most “new” ideas are, in fact, as old as the hills. It is their reduction to commercial practice, either through necessity or dedication, or through the availability of new technology, that makes news and money. The basic patent for the theory of magnetic recording dates back to 1886. Many of the original ideas behind television originate from the late 19th and early 20th century. Even the Volkswagen rear engine car was anticipated by a 1904 patent for a cart with the horse at the rear.31. The passage is mainly about ____________.32. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?33. Georges Valensi’s patent lasted until 1971 because ___________.34. The word “plagiarize” in Para. 4 most probably means “__________”.35. From the passage we learn that _____________.

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An 18th-century statesman Edmund Burke once said, “All that is needed for the triumph of a misguided cause is that good people do nothing.” One such cause now seeks to end biomedical research because of the theory that animals have rights to rule out their use in research. Scientists need to respond forcefully to animal rights advocates, whose arguments are confusing the public and thereby threatening advances in health knowledge and care. Leaders of the animal rights movement target biomedical research because it depends on public funding, and few people understand the process of health care research. Hearing allegations of cruelty to animals in research settings, many are perplexed that anyone would deliberately harm an animal.For example, a grandmotherly woman setting up an animal rights booth at a recent street fair was distributing brochures that encouraged readers not to use anything that comes from or is tested in animals—no meat, no fur, no medicines. Asked if she opposed immunizations, she wanted to know if vaccines come from animal research. When assured that they do, she replied, “Then I would have to say yes.” Asked what happen when epidemics return, she said, “Don’t worry, scientists will find some way by using computers.” Such well-meaning people just don’t understand.Scientists must communicate their message to the public in a compassionate, understandable way—in human terms, not in the language of molecular biology. We need to make clear the connection between animal research and a grandmother’s hip replacement, a father’s bypass operation, a baby’s vaccinations, and even a pet’s shots. To those who are unaware that animal research was needed to produce these treatments, as well as new treatments and vaccines, animal research seems wasteful at best and cruel at worst.Much can be done. Scientists could “adopt” middle school classes and present their own research. They should be quick to respond to letters to the editor, lest animal rights misinformation go unchallenged and acquire a deceptive appearance of truth. Research institutions could be opened to tours, to show that laboratory animals receive humane care. Finally, because the ultimate stakeholders are patients, the health research community should actively recruit to its cause not only well-known personalities such as Stephen Cooper, who has made courageous statements about the value of animal research, but all who receive medical treatment. If good people do nothing, there is a real possibility that an uninformed citizenry will extinguish the precious embers of medical progress.36. The author begins his article with Edmund Burke’s words to ___________.37. Misled people tend to think that using an animal in research is ____________.38. The example of the grandmotherly woman is used to show the public’s _____________.39. The author believes that, in face of the challenge from animal rights advocates, scientists should _____________.40. From the text we learn that Stephen Cooper is ___________.

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Insurance companies provide a service to the community by protecting it against expected and unexpected disasters. Before an insurance company will agree to insure anything, it collects accurate figures about the risk. It knows, for example, that the risk of a man being killed in a plane accident is less than the risk he takes in crossing a busy road. This enables it to quote (报价)low figures for travel insurance. Sometimes the risk may be high, as in motor-racing or mountaineering. Then the company charges a much higher price. If too many climbers have accidents, the price rises still further. If the majority of climbers fall off mountains, the company will refuse to insure them.An ordinary householder may wish to protect his home against fire or his property against burglary. A shop-keeper may wish to insure against theft. In normal cases, the company will check its statistics and quote a premium (保险费). If it is suspicious, it may refuse to quote. If it insures a shop and then receives a suspicious claim, it will investigate the claim as a means of protecting itself against false claims. It is not unknown for a businessman in debt to burn down his own premises(房产)so that he can claim much money from his insurance company. He can be sure that the fire will be investigated most carefully. Insurance companies also accept insurance against shipwreck or disaster in the air. Planes and ships are very expensive, so a large premium is charged, but a reduction is given to companies with an accident-free record.Every week insurance companies receive premium payments from customers. These payments can form a very large total running into millions of dollars. The company does not leave the money in the bank. It invests in property, shares, farms and even antique paintings and stamps. Its aim is to obtain the best possible return on its investment. This is not as greedy as it may seem, since this is one way by which it can keep its premiums down and continue to make a profit while being of service to the community.1. According to the first paragraph in the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?2. The word “quote”(Line 3, Paragraph 2)most probably means ( ).3. From the passage, we know that if accidents will happen nine times out of ten or more, the insurance company will ( ).4. According to the passage, if an air plane has an accident-free record, it usually pays to the insurance company ( ).5. Which of the following will the insurance company NOT provide insurance service for?6. How do insurance companies make profit?7. The main idea of the last paragraph is ( ).

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Forests give us shade, quiet and one of the harder challenges in the fight against climate change. Even as we humans count on forests to soak up a good share of the carbon dioxide we produce, we are threatening their ability to do so. The climate change we are hastening could one day leave us with forests that emit more carbon than they absorb.Thankfully, there is a way out of this trap—but it involves striking a subtle balance. Helping forests flourish as valuable “carbon sinks” long into the future may require reducing their capacity to sequester carbon now. California is leading the way, as it does on so many climate efforts, in figuring out the details.The state’s proposed Forest Carbon Plan aims to double efforts to thin out young trees and clear brush in parts of the forest, including by controlled burning. This temporarily lowers carbon―carrying capacity. But the remaining trees draw a greater share of the available moisture, so they grow and thrive, restoring the forest’s capacity to pull carbon from the air. Healthy trees are also better able to fend off bark beetles. The landscape is rendered less combustible. Even in the event of a fire, fewer trees are consumed.The need for such planning is increasingly urgent. Already, since 2010, drought and beetles have killed more than 100 million trees in California, most of them in 2016 alone, and wildfires have scorched hundreds of thousands of acres.California’s plan envisions treating 35,000 acres of forest a year by 2020, and 60,000 by 2030—financed from the proceeds of the state’s emissions-permit auctions. That’s only a small share of the total acreage that could benefit, an estimated half a million acres in all, so it will be important to prioritize areas at greatest risk of fire or drought.The strategy also aims to ensure that carbon in woody material removed from the forests is locked away in the form of solid lumber, burned as biofuel in vehicles that would otherwise run on fossil fuels, or used in compost or animal feed. New research on transportation biofuels is under way, and the state plans to encourage lumber production close to forest lands. In future the state proposes to take an inventory of its forests’ carbon-storing capacity every five years.State governments are well accustomed to managing forests, including those owned by the U.S. Forest Service, but traditionally they’ve focused on wildlife, watersheds and opportunities for recreation. Only recently have they come to see the vital part forests will have to play in storing carbon. California’s plan, which is expected to be finalized by the governor early next year, should serve as a model.1.By saying “one of the harder challenges,” the author implies that(  ).2.To maintain forests as valuable “carbon sinks,” we may need to (  ).  3.California’s Forest Carbon Plan endeavors to (  ).  4.What is essential to California’s plan according to Paragraph 5?5.The author’s attitude to California’s plan can best be described as(  ).

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On a recent sunny day, 13,000 chickens roam over Larry Brown’s 40 windswept acres in Shiner, Texas. Some rest in the shade of a parked car. Others drink water with the cows. This all seems random, but it’s by design, part of what the $6.1 billion U.S. egg industry bets will be its next big thing: climate-friendly eggs.These eggs, which are making their debut now on shelves for as much as $8 a dozen, are still labeled organic and animal-friendly, but they’re also from birds that live on farms using regenerative agriculture—special techniques to cultivate rich soils that can trap greenhouse gases. Such eggs could be marketed as helping to fight climate change.“I’m excited about our progress,” says Brown, who harvests eggs for Denver-based NestFresh Eggs and is adding more cover crops that draw worms and crickets for the chickens to eat. The birds’ waste then fertilizes fields. Such improvements “allow our hens to forage for higher-quality natural feed that will be good for the land, the hens, and the eggs that we supply to our customers.”The egg industry’s push is the first major test of whether animal products from regenerative farms can become the next premium offering. In barely more than a decade, organic eggs went from being dismissed as a niche product in natural foods stores to being sold at Walmart. More recently there were similar doubts about probiotics and plant-based meats, but both have exploded into major supermarket categories. If the sustainable-egg rollout is successful, it could open the floodgates for regenerative beef, broccoli, and beyond.Regenerative products could be a hard sell, because the concept is tough to define quickly, says Julie Stanton, associate professor of agricultural economics at Pennsylvania State University Brandywine. Such farming also brings minimal, if any, improvement to the food products (though some producers say their eggs have more protein).The industry is betting that the same consumers paying more for premium attributes such as free-range, non-GMO, and pasture-raised eggs will embrace sustainability. Surveys show that younger generations are more concerned about climate change, and some of the success of plant-based meat can be chalked up to shoppers wanting to signal their desire to protect the environment. Young adults “really care about the planet,” says John Brunnquell, president of Egg Innovations. “They are absolutely altering the food chain beyond what I think even they understand what they’re doing.”1. The climate-friendly eggs are produced ________.2. Larry Brown is excited about his progress in ________.3. The example of organic eggs is used in Paragraph 4 to suggest ________.4. It can be learned from the last paragraph that young people ________.5. John Brunnquell would disagree with Julie Stanton over regenerative product’s ________.

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With so much focus on children’s use of screens, it's easy for parents to forget about their own screen use. “Tech is designed to really suck on you in,” says Jenny Radesky in her study of digital play, "and digital products are there to promote maximal engagement. It makes it hard to disengage, and leads to a lot of bleed-over into the family routine.”Radesky has studied the use of mobile phones and tablets at mealtimes by giving mother-child pairs a food-testing exercise. She found that mothers who used devices during the exercise started 20 percent fewer verbal and 39 percent fewer nonverbal interactions with their children. During a separate observation, she saw that phones became a source of tension in the family. Parents would be looking at their emails while the children would be making excited bids for their attention.Infants are wired to look at parents’ faces to try to understand their world, and if those faces are blank and unresponsive—as they often are when absorbed in a device-it can be extremely disconcerting foe the children. Radesky cites the “still face experiment” devised by developmental psychologist Ed Tronick in the 1970s. In it, a mother is asked to interact with her child in a normal way before putting on a blank expression and not giving them any visual social feedback; The child becomes increasingly distressed as she tries to capture her mother’s attention. "Parents don't have to be exquisitely parents at all times, but there needs to be a balance and parents need to be responsive and sensitive to a child’s verbal or nonverbal expressions of an emotional need," says Radesky.On the other hand, Tronick himself is concerned that the worries about kids' use of screens are born out of an “oppressive ideology that demands that parents should always be interacting” with their children: “It’s based on a somewhat fantasized, very white, very upper-middle-class ideology that says if you’re failing to expose your child to 30,000 words you are neglecting them.” Tronick believes that just because a child isn’t learning from the screen doesn’t mean there’s no value to it-particularly if it gives parents time to have a shower, do housework or simply have a break from their child. Parents, he says, can get a lot out of using their devices to speak to a friend or get some work out of the way. This can make them feel happier, which lets then be more available to their child the rest of the time.1.According to Jenny Radesky, digital products are designed to(  ).2.Radesky’s food-testing exercise shows that mothers’ use of devices  (  ).  3.Radesky’s cites the “still face experiment” to show that  (  ).  4.The oppressive ideology mentioned by Tronick requires parents to (  ).  5.According to Tronick, kid’s use of screens may(  ).

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Why do people read negative Internet comments and do other things that will obviously be painful? Because humans have an inherent need to _1_ uncertainty, according to a recent study in Psychological Science. The new research reveals that the need to know is strong that people will _2_ to satisfy their curiosity even when it is clear the answer will _3_. In a series of experiments, behavioral scientists at the University of Chicago and the Wisconsin school of Business tested students’ willingness to _4_ themselves to unpleasant stimuli in an effort to satisfy curiosity. For one _5_, each participant was shown a pile of pens that the researcher claimed were from a previous experiment. The twist? Half of the pens would _6_ an electric shock when clicked. Twenty-seven students were told with pens were electrified; another twenty-seven were told only that some were electrified. _7_ left alone in the room. The students who did not know which ones would shock them clicked more pens and incurred more shocks than the students who knew that would _8_. Subsequent experiments reproduced this effect with other stimuli, _9_ the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard and photographs of disgusting insects. The drive to _10_ is deeply rooted in humans, much the same as the basic drives for _11_ or shelter, says Christopher Hsee of the University of Chicago. Curiosity is often considered a good instinct—it can _12_ new scientific advances, for instance—but sometimes such _13_ can backfire. The insight that curiosity can drive you to do 14 things is a profound one. Unhealthycuriosity is possible to _15_, however. In a final experiment, participants who were encouraged to _16_ how they would feel after viewing an unpleasant picture were less likely to _17_ to see such an image. These results suggest that imagining the _18_ of following through on one’s curiosity ahead of time can help determine _19_ it is worth the endeavor. “Thinking about long-term _20_ is key to reducing the possible negative effects of curiosity,” Hsee says. In other words, don’t read online comments.

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Five ways to make conversation with anyoneConversations are links, which means when you have a conversation with a new person, a link gets formed and every conversation you have after that moment will strengthen the link. You meet new people every day: the grocery worker, the cab driver, new people at work or the security guard at the door. Simply starting a conversation with them will form a link. Here are five simple ways that you can make the fit move and start a conversation with strangers.1.                                               Suppose you are in a room with someone you don't know and something within you says “I want to talk with this person”-this is something that mostly happens with all of us. You wanted to say something-the first word-but it just won't come out, it feels like it is stuck somewhere. I know the feeling and here is my advice: just get it out. Just think: what is the worst that could happen? They won't talk with you? Well, they are not talking you now! I truly believe that once you get that first word out everything will just flow. I truly believe that once you get that first word out everything else will just flow. So keep it simple "hi", "hey" or "hello"-do the best you can to gather all of the enthusiasm and energy you can, put on a big smile and say "hi".2.                                               It's a problem all of us face; you have limited time with the person that you want to talk with and you want to make this talk memorable. Honestly, if we got stuck in the rut of “hi”, “hello”, “how are you?” and “what's going on?”, you will fail to give the initial jolt to the conversation that can make it so memorable.So don't be afraid to ask more personal questions. Trust me, you'll be surprised to see how much people are willing to share if you just ask.3.                                                When you meet a person for the first time, make an effort to find the things which you and that person have in common so that you can build the conversation from that point. When you start conversation from there and then move outwards, you'll find all of a sudden that the conversation becomes a lot easier.4.                                                     Imagine you are pouring your heart out to someone and they are just busy on their phone, and if you ask for their attention you get the response “I can multitask”. So when someone tries to communicate with you, just be in that communication wholeheartedly. Make eye contact. Trust me, eye contact is where all the magic happens. When you make eye contact, you can feel the conversation.5.                                               You all came into a conversation where you first met the person, but after some time you may have met again and have forgotten their name. Isn't that awkward! So, remember the little details of the people you met or you talked with; perhaps the places they have been to, the places they want to go, the things they like, the things they hate-whatever you talk about. When you remember such things you can automatically become investor in their well being. So they feel a responsibility to you to keep that relationship going.That's it. Five amazing ways that you can make conversation with almost anyone. Every person is a really good book to read, or to have a conversation with!

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When Microsoft bought task management app Wunderlist and mobile calendar Sunrise in 2015, it picked up two newcomers that were attracting considerable buzz in Silicon Valley. Microsoft’s own Office dominates the market for “productivity” software, but the start-ups represented a new wave of technology designed from the ground up for the smart phone world.Both apps, however, were later scrapped, after Microsoft said it had used their best features in its own products. Their teams of engineers stayed on, making them two of the many “acquit-hires”that the biggest companies have used to feed their insatiable hunger for tech talent.To Microsoft’s critics, the fates of Wunderlist and Sunrise are examples of a remorseless drive by Big Tech to chew up any innovative companies that lie in their.path. “They bought the seedlings and closed them down,” complained Paul Arnold, a partner at San Francisco-based Switch Ventures, putting paid to businesses that might one day turn into competitors. Microsoft declined to comment.Like other start-up investors, Mr Arnold’ s own business often depends on selling start-ups to larger tech companies, though he admits to mixed feelings about the result:“I think these things are good for me, if I put my selfish hat on. But are they good for the American economy? I don’t know.”The US Federal Trade Commission says it wants to find the answer to that question. This week, it asked the five most valuable US tech companies for information about their many small acquisitions over the past decade. Although only a research project at this stage, the request has raised the prospect of regulators wading into early-stage tech markets that until now have been beyond their reach.Given their combined market value of more than $5.5tn, rifling through such small deals—many of them much less prominent than Wunderlist and Sunrise—might seem beside the point. Between them, the five companies (Apple, Microsoft, Google,Amazon and Facebook) have spent an average of only $3.4bn a year on sub-$1bn acquisitions over the past five years—a drop in the ocean compared with their massive financial reserves, and the more than $130bn of venture capital that was invested in the US last year.However, critics say that the big companies use such deals to buy their most threatening potential competitors before their businesses have a chance to gain momentum, in some cases as part of a “buy and kill”. tactic to simply close them down.1.What is true about Wunderlist and sunrise after their acquisitions(  ).2. Microsoft’s critics believe that the big tech companies tend to (  ) . 3.PaulArnold is concerned that small acquisitions might( ).4.The US Federal Trade Commission intend to( ).5.For the five biggest tech companies, their small acquisition have( ).

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“Reskilling” is something that sounds like a buzzword but is actually a requirement if we plan to have a future where a lot of would-be workers do not get left behind. We know we are moving into a period where the jobs in demand will change rapidly, as will the requirements of the jobs that remain. Research by the World Economic Forum finds that on average 42 per cent of the “core skills” within job roles will change by 2022. That is a very short timeline.The question of who should pay for reskilling is a thorny one. For individual companies, the temptation is always to let go of workers whose skills are no longer in demand and replace them with those whose skills are. That does not always happen. AT&T is often given as the gold standard of a company that decided to do a massive reskilling program rather than go with a fire-and-hire strategy. Other companies had also pledged to create their own plans. When the skills mismatch is in the broader economy, though, the focus usually turns to government to handle. Efforts in Canada and elsewhere have been arguably languid at best, and have given us a situation where we frequently hear of employers begging for workers, even at times and in regions where unemployment is high.With the pandemic, unemployment is very high indeed. In February, at 3.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent respectively, unemployment rates in Canada and United States were at generational lows and worker shortages were everywhere. As of May, those rates had spiked up to 13.3 per cent and 13.7 per cent, and although many worker shortages had disappeared, not all had done so. In the medical field, to take an obvious example, the pandemic meant that there were still clear shortages of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel.Of course, it is not like you can take an unemployed waiter and train him to be a doctor in a few weeks. But even if you cannot close that gap, maybe you can close others, and doing so would be to the benefit of all concerned. That seems to be the case in Sweden: When forced to furlough 90 per cent of their cabin staff, Scandinavian Airlines decided to start up a short retraining program that reskilled the laid-off workers to support hospital staff. The effort was a collective one and involved other companies as well as a Swedish university.1.Research by the World Economic Forum suggests(  ).2.AT&T is cited to show(  ).3.Efforts to resolve the skills mismatch in Canada(  ).4.We can learn from Paragraph 3 that there was(  ).5.Scandinavian Airlines decided to(  ).

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Robert F. Kennedy once said that a country's GDP measures “everything except that which makes life worthwhile.” With Britain voting to leave the European Union, and GDP already predicted to slow as a result, it is now a timely moment to assess what he was referring to.The question of GDP and its usefulness has annoyed policymakers for over half a century. Many argue that it is a flawed concept. It measures things that do not matter and misses things that do. By most recent measures, the UK's GDP has been the envy of the Western world, with record low unemployment and high growth figures. If everything was going so well, then why did over 17 million people vote for Brexit, despite the warnings about what it could do to their country's economic prospects?A recent annual study of countries and their ability to convert growth into well-being sheds some light on that question. Across the 163 countries measured, the UK is one of the poorest performers in ensuring that economic growth is translated into meaningful improvements for its citizens. Rather than just focusing on GDP, over 40 different sets of criteria from health, education and civil society engagement have been measured to get a more rounded assessment of how countries are performing.While all of these countries face their own challenges, there are a number of consistent themes. Yes, there has been a budding economic recovery since the 2008 global crash, but in key indicators in areas such as health and education, major economies have continued to decline. Yet this isn't the case with all countries. Some relatively poor European countries have seen huge improvements across measures including civil society, income equality and the environment.This is a lesson that rich countries can learn: When GDP is no longer regarded as the sole measure of a country's success, the world looks very different.So, what Kennedy was referring to was that while GDP has been the most common method for measuring the economic activity of nations, as a measure, it is no longer enough. It does not include important factors such as environmental quality or education outcomes — all things that contribute to a person's sense of well-being.The sharp hit to growth predicted around the world and in the UK could lead to a decline in the everyday services we depend on for our well-being and for growth. But policymakers who refocus efforts on improving well-being rather than simply worrying about GDP figures could avoid the forecasted doom and may even see progress.1.Robert F. Kennedy is cited because he(  ).2.It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that (  ).  3.Which of the following is true about the recent annual study?4.In the last two paragraphs, the author suggests that (  ).  5.Which of the following is the best title for the text?

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