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How many cabs in New York City? How many tears in a bottle of wine? These aren’t just the lyrics (歌词)to a song by the Australian musician Paul Kelly. They are the kind of questions you are likely to be asked during a job interview.
In recent years, it has become common for bosses to ask interview questions that are impossible to answer. There is no right answer to these “brainteasers”. Instead, they are supposed to help an interviewer calculate an applicant’s ability to reason. What matters is how you come to the conclusion, not what conclusion you arrive at.
Brainteasers started out in management consultancy firms. Young graduates hoping to join the company would be asked: “How many phone booths are there in Manhattan?” They weren ’ t expected to blurt out (脱 口说出)a random number — instead, they were expected to show they could solve even the most stupid problem.
As consultants swarmed across other organizations, they bought their inscrutable (难 以理解的)questions with them. Now, people applying for a job in a call centre can expect to be asked how a nuclear power plant works.
While many bosses have great confidence in how good or effective brainteasers are, a research paper published in the journal Applied Psychology found they are useless for spotting the best candidate for the job. What they are great for is to make employers feel like intellectual giants.
The study’s findings are not surprising. Studies have repeatedly found that most methods of selecting job candidates are hopelessly flawed (有缺点的).Job interviews are among the worst way of picking the right person for the job.
The results of this research raise the question: if interviews are bad at picking the right person for the job, what are they there for? One feeling I have is that many job selection processes are thinly disguised (伪装的)forms of suffering, designed to make applicants feel worthless and boost the confidence of the person asking the question.
Think about the extensive list of personal skills required for even the most lowly entry-level job. Or those painful assessment centres where you are supposed to play nice with people you are competing against to get the job. And then there are the firms that ask applicants to make a presentation to convey how awesome the firms are. All these exercises seem designed not to get the best person for the role, but to assure the boss how great they are, and remind you just how lucky you would be to get this boring job.
Passage outline | Supporting details |
Introduction to brainteasers | They are widely used in job interviews and the answers are 1. to interpretation. They focus more on an applicant’s2. skills rather than the outcomes. |
3. and popularity of brainteasers | They started out in management consultancy firms and spread to other organizations. Nowadays，a job applicant is often asked questions 4. to the job he applies for. |
Research findings | 5. to popular belief of the bosses, brainteasers are actually useless for selecting candidates. They are just meant to show off the 6. of the employers. |
In—depth Analysis | Many job selection processes make job applicants have a poor 7. of themselves and the employers more confident. Some job applicants are asked to show skills, some of which are 8. the requirements of a certain occupation. In some assessment centres, job applicants are required to play nice with their 9.. Some job applicants are supposed to make a presentation to 10. the firms. |
It was 2012, and somewhere on a cassava (木暑)and banana farm in rural Tanzania, there were four of us standing in a circle: me, two farmers named Joyce and Elijah, and the former secretary general of the United Nations，Kofi Annan.
Elijah and Joyce did most of the talking. They told us how this farm was unlike any they had worked on; how there were improved crop varieties and new tools to process the harvest. There was even a daycare centre near the farm. This way, women could spend more time selling what they grew* I rattled off (不假思索地说出)some questions. Do you sell your cassava only here一or do you ship it somewhere else? How far is the market? Have you seen a difference in your yields? Kofi, though, mostly listened.
Later, after we left the fields and walked towards the daycare centre where there was a bigger crowd, Kofi started talking. He was telling jokes, trying to put everyone at ease, and doing a very good job of it. The man had the deepest, most infectious laugh I’ve ever heard and an incredibly commanding voice. He sounded like an actor playing himself.
Kofi and I had attended a lot of the same UN events, and he’d visited our foundation’s offices in Seattle a few times, so I’d seen him charm a room before. But this day on the cassava farm was different. He was completely at home here. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised: Kofi Annan, of all the world leaders I had met, had spent the most time thinking about how to help places like this farm and people like Joyce and Elijah.
When my husband Bill and I started our foundation in 2000，we still had so many questions about the best ways to fight poverty and disease, and Kofi, it seemed, already had the answers. That year, he’d written a manifesto (宣目)about the UN’s role in the 21st century. In its final pages, he’d included a set of targets around poverty and disease reduction that he wanted the world to achieve by 2015. These became known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), and at first, critics dismissed them immediately. Cut extreme poverty in half? Stop the spread of HIV, malaria and TB, the three greatest killers in poor countries? At best, it was overly optimistic.
Kofi wasn’t satisfied with just setting the goals, though. He wanted to push the world to achieve them. No other secretary general was so able to connect the UN’s heart with its brain, its mission to lift up the sick and the poor with an effective plan for doing so. He was a master，too, at bringing world leaders along for the ride.
Today, there are 27 million people alive who would have otherwise died from HIV-related illness, TB or malaria And they live, in large part, because Kofi gathered the world to establish the Global Fund, which pays for medicines and things that prevent those diseases from spreading, such as mosquito nets. The world met its goal of halving the global poverty rate by 2015; in fact, it did so five years ahead of schedule, in 2010. “Development experts，” one observer wrote, “are still rubbing their eyes.
When he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001，Kofi said that “today’s real borders are not between nations, but between the powerful and powerless”. He saw Africa’s small farmers as part of the latter camp and wanted to give them a way to lift themselves out of poverty. This was what led us to that cassava farm back in 2012.
I remember that after our visit that day, Kofi thanked me for the foundation’s work. He was generous in his praise，and then he gave me a nickname. “Mama Melinda，’’ he called me.
It was a term of respect, typically given to an elder, and I felt honored but surprised. Mama Melinda? If there was one person who deserved such an honour, I thought it wasn’t me.
1.Kofi Annan’s inspection of the farm is mentioned to .
A. introduce the carefree lifestyle of African people
B. illustrate his close relationship with African farmers
C. emphasize the gravity of poverty in African countries
D. show his concern for the poverty-relief work in Africa
2.We can know from the passage that the MDG .
A. failed to win support from leaders of the world
B. was too ambitious and optimistic to be successful
C. focused more on the goals than effective measures
D. revealed Kofi ’ s extraordinary wisdom and capability
3.What can we infer from the underlined part in Para.7?
A. It was hard to see where the hope lay.
B. The success of the MDG was unbelievable .
C. The development experts were moved to tears.
D. The long-term commitment made people sleepy.
4.We can learn from Kofi’s words in Para.8 that .
A. the powerful people rule over the powerless masses
B. the powerful nations often occupy their powerless neighbors
C. the gap between the rich and the poor separates the world apart
D. the rich and the poor countries should compromise on border issues
5.Which of the following can be used to describe Kofi Annan?
A. Charming, aggressive and stubborn. B. Ambitious, easy-going and dutiful.
C. Conservative, humorous and positive. D. Bureaucratic, sympathetic and generous.
6.What’s the best title for the passage?
A. Mama Melinda: a nickname with great honour.
B. The UN: an organization full of different voices.
C. Africa: a land blessed with considerable opportunities.
D. Kofi Annan: a statesman devoted to global development.
We are obsessed (迷恋)with ourselves. We study our history, our psychology, our philosophy. Much of our knowledge revolves (使旋转)around humankind itself, as if we were the most important thing in the universe.
But in the course of the centuries we have come to realize just how many wrong ideas we’ve had. We have learned of the existence of black holes, waves of space, and of the extraordinary molecular structures in every cell of our bodies.
The more we discover, the more we understand that what we don’t yet know is greater than what we know. The more powerful our telescopes, the stranger and more unexpected are the heavens we see. The closer we look at the minute detail of matter, the more we discover of its profound structure.
In a famous story told by Plato in the seventh book of The Republic, some men are chained at the bottom of a dark cave and see only shadows cast upon a wall by a fire behind them. They think that this is reality. One of them frees himself, leaves the cave and discovers the light of the sun and the wider world. At first the light, to which his eyes are unaccustomed, stuns and confuses him. But eventually he can see and returns excitedly to his companions to tell them what he has seen. They find it hard to believe.
We are all in the depths of a cave, chained by our ignorance, our prejudices, and our weak senses reveal only shadows. If we try to see further, we are confused: we are unaccustomed. But we try. This is science. Scientific thinking explores and redraws the world, gradually offering us better and better images of it, teaching us to think in ever more effective ways. Its strength is its capacity to demolish (推翻)old ideas, to reveal new regions of reality, and to construct new, more effective images of the world. This adventure rests upon the entirety of past knowledge, but at its heart is change.
The incompleteness and the uncertainty of our knowledge, hung over the abyss (深渊) of what we don’t know, does not make life meaningless: it makes it interesting and precious.
1.What does the author want to tell us in the first three paragraphs?
A. The new discoveries of the universe prove to be wrong.
B. Man has created splendid cultures in the course of centuries.
C. Our knowledge of the universe is incomplete and uncertain.
D. The existing technologies are enough for further exploration.
2.The story told by Plato is meant to .
A. make us aware of the cruelty of reality
B. encourage us to explore the unknown world
C. applaud the heroic deeds of chasing freedom
D. justify our ignorance and prejudice about the world
3.What does the author want to stress in the passage?
A. Exploring the universe makes our life meaningful.
B. Leaving things as they are makes our life perfect.
C. New discoveries of the universe will cause confusion.
D. Past knowledge prevents us constructing a new world.
Researchers around the world interested in uncovering complex human disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, could soon have access to cloned monkeys with genomes that have been edited to display these conditions in China.
On 24 January, scientists at the Institute of Neuroscience (ION) in Shanghai reported that they had used gene-editing to disable a gene in monkeys that is crucial to their sleep- wake cycle. The scientists then cloned one of those monkeys to produce five primates (灵 长目动物)with almost identical (相同的) genes. It is the first time that researchers have cloned a gene-edited monkey.
Primates are the best animal model for studying higher cognitive (认知的)functions and brain disorders in humans, says neuroscientist Mu-ming Poo, ION’S director and co-founder of the new 720 million yuan (US$106 million) centre. The advantage of creating cloned monkeys is that it reduces the number of animals needed for certain types of experiments, such as testing whether a drug works.
But some scientists think that experiments using monkeys should be a last approach because of their higher levels of cognition. Mitchell Lazar, who studies metabolic disease at the University of Pennsylvania, says that some experiments in mice—for example, research into the genes behind human diseases—are equally appropriate scientifically as in primates. Research in mice is also more accepted by the public, and the animals are cheaper and quicker to produce. Lazar worries that if scientists have ready access to populations of gene-edited monkeys, they might use them for experiments when rodents (啮齿动物)would do.
Poo says that mice are not a good substitute for studying higher cognitive functions and brain disorders in humans. He argues that cloning will reduce the burden on monkeys by cutting the number used in labs. The ION follows strict international guidelines for animal research, he says.
Poo’s team will continue to study the effect of gene editing on their five cloned monkeys. The group disabled a gene, BMAL1, that has a crucial role in maintaining circadian rhythm (生理节奏)，the internal clock that helps a healthy sleep-wake cycle. In people, BMAL1 mutations have been linked to diabetes, hypertension and depression.
The monkeys with the disabled BMAL1 genes move more at night and sleep less overall. They also display psychosis-related symptoms, such as fear and anxiety, when put in unfamiliar environments.
The team ’ s next step is to look in detail at the neural (神经的)mechanisms that might create these problems. It will also take advantage of the genetically identical monkeys to hunt for diagnostic markers of circadian rhythm-related disorders and possible treatments.
1.Why were the genetically identical monkeys cloned?
A. To prove scientists’ innovation in cloning animals.
B. To study the rare characteristics of cloned monkeys.
C. To explore many possibilities for monkeys’ cognition.
D. To provide improved animal models of human diseases.
2.What does Mitchell Lazar think of cloning monkeys?
A. It is of little value.
B. It is of much practice.
C. It is hardly acceptable.
D. It is completely illegal.
3.From the passage we can know that Poo’s team will .
A. continue to disable a gene on the monkeys
B. try to clone more monkeys and edit their genes
C. find the similarities between humans and monkeys
D. determine the cause of sleep disorders and find cures
4.What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. Chinese effort to clone gene-edited monkeys kicks off.
B. Chinese dream to clone monkeys has finally come true.
C. Cloning monkeys is an important breakthrough in science.
D. Cloning gene-edited monkeys has caused some moral risks.
We believe every kid deserves a childhood. The opportunity to be a kid. Sunshine in dark days. That’s why we’ve partnered with The Sunshine Kids™.
The non-profit Sunshine Kids™ established in 1982, is committed to bringing sunshine to young cancer patients’ lives by providing positive group activities and emotional support, helping them do what kids are supposed to do—have fun and celebrate life. The foundation provides a variety of free programs and events for kids receiving cancer treatments in hospitals across North America.
Each year Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network members raise $2 million+ through a wide variety of fundraisers and community events, and through ticket sales and contributions made at our annual Sales Convention.
The Sunshine Kids™ and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices look forward to the day when the Foundation will no longer need to exist. But until that day, both organizations remain dedicated to the cause.
Talk to your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices agent to see how you can bring sunshine into the lives of young cancer patients.
1.According to the advertisement, the Sunshine Kids™ Foundation .
A. provides free medical treatment for kids with cancer
B. is meant to bring joy and support to kids with cancer
C. is funded by government budget and personal donations
D. expects the very day when kids will be free from cancer
2.The purpose of the advertisement is to __________.
A. appeal to people to contribute to charity
B. educate people on the importance of charity
C. promote Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
D. offer consultant service to the Sunshine Kids顶
As a child I never worried about losing my hearing, even though many other members of my family had done so. It seemed I was one of the ____ ones. I had a lovely voice and felt ____ about my singing. At 13,1 made my debut (初次登台)in a school production of Carlo Menotti ’ s opera and knew then that I ____ on stage.
But then I noticed that ____ I didn’t sit at the front in lectures, I would ____to hear. I went to the hospital to have a ____ test. I felt desperate，my ambitions ____ by a diagnosis of incurable nerve deafness.
However, my bravery persuaded me to ____ my plans and I went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music. I kept my ____ a closely guarded secret, convinced that admitting it would ____ my career. I won roles on merit (凭成绩)，but the added fear and anxiety at auditions (试听) ____ me.
At 28, I made my debut at New Sadler’s Wells Opera. But my hearing loss was ____ I couldn ’ t hear myself sing well any more. I ’ d get a feeling of terror and want to ____ before every performance. ____ a superb technician fitted in-the-ear hearing aids, making me self-conscious and my confidence ____ I was fast learning to ____ , singing by sensation. Recording music is now a joy and acoustic (原声的)sounds through the headphones help me ____.
____ in technology mean my latest hearing aids are wireless, and my ____ is at its peak. I continue to tour the world. This year, I decided it was time to be ____ , not ashamed, and went public as the only deaf mezzo-soprano in the world.
1.A. clever B. lucky C. pitiful D. active
2.A. curious B. anxious C. awkward D. confident
3.A. belonged B. sacrificed C. survived D. trembled
4.A. though B. since C. if D. after
5.A. struggle B. hesitate C. pretend D. cease
6.A. blood B. hearing C. sight D. memory
7.A. achieved B. developed C. crushed D. extended
8.A. figure out B. stick to C. go over D. give up
9.A. background B. scores C. ambitions D. deafness
10.A. start B. further C. change D. ruin
11.A. puzzled B. consumed C. impressed D. motivated
12.A. accelerating B. compensating C. recovering D. disappearing
13.A. rest B. play C. drill D. flee
14.A. Thankfully B. Clearly C. Actually D. Generally
15.A. Faded B. grew C. counted D. helped
16.A. forget B. judge C. cooperate D. adapt
17.A. laugh B. howl C. relax D. sleep
18.A. Drawbacks B. Applications C. Improvements D. Regulations
19.A. Attention B. performance C. intelligence D. energy
20.A. Famous B. creative C. proud D. innocent
