Would you like to work at home in the future? Working from home gets a bad rap (名声）.Google the phrase 一 you’ll see a cheat or low-level jobs.
But Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Nicholas Bloom says requiring workers to be in the office is an outdated work tradition. It ignores(忽视）today’s fine communications methods and long commutes(通勤）and actually hurts firms and workers.
“Working from home is a future-looking technology, ” Bloom told an audience during a program TEDx-Stanford, “and I think it has a bright future. ” To test his idea, Bloom, with co-researcher James, did research on a largest travel company, Chip. They invited volunteers to a study in which half worked from home for nine months, coming into the office one day a week and half worked only from the office. Bloom tracked (跟踪）these two groups for about two years. The results? “We found a 13% improvement in performance from people working at home. ” Bloom Rays. Two reasons led to that uptick: First, people working from home actually work all the time. As to people working from the office, they might be delayed by traffic or take a long-time lunch with a workmate. They are less likely to be on the clock for the full workday. Second, Bloom says, people at home are able to concentrate better. “The office is actually an amazingly noisy environment, ‘ There’s a cake in the break room; Bob’s leaving, so come and join us for dinner. ’”
Also, his study found that workers’ quitting jobs at the company dropped by 50% when they were allowed to work from home.
Bloom hopes this example helps kill the negative (负面的）opinions on working from borne. For workers they’re much more productive and happier. For managers, you don’t have to spend so much time hiring(雇佣）and training people. For firms，you make far more profit (利润）.For society，there，s a huge saving of reducing traffic jams, driving times and，finally, pollution.
1.According to Nicholas Bloom, people working from the office usually .
A.Get low salaries.
B.Have rich working resources.
C.Waste a lot of time on the way.
D.Develop strong communication skills.
2.What does the underlined word “uptick” in Paragraph 4 most probably mean?
A.Increase. B.Popularity.
C.Failure. D.Fall.
3.What’s an advantage of working from home according to Nicholas Bloom?
A.It can reduce traffic jams and pollution.
B.It makes workers’ family life much happier.
C.It can strengthen the ties of the whole company.
D.It builds up managers’ experience in training workers.
4.We can infer from the passage that .
A.working from home will still have a bad rap
B.working at the office is better than at home
C.fewer people will quit jobs in the future
D.working from home is a future-looking
The Cool Taxi is a Hackney Carriage that was changed into a freezer on wheels, using dry ice to keep the inside cool for passengers. It has a number of features designed to keep riders cool, including a freezer filled with ice lollies (冰棍)and a state-of-the-art air conditioning system.
A spokesperson for Andrews Air Conditioning said，“Britain has become a hot country, and the British are feeling the heat. For commuters(通勤者）there is nothing worse on a hot day than getting into a hot taxi, so we wanted to help to avoid this experience with Cool Taxi.
Cool Taxi driver Tony，who has driven a taxi for 11 years, said, “I have done 10 London summers in the taxi and I know you need some good air conditioning. It would be impossible to work without it. You need to keep cool and stay hydrated (水分)，and sometimes in a typical taxi this is difficult to keep. ”
Elizabeth Ann Iliffe，who was paying a visit to London from the South East，said，“It is amazing. It feels just like a scene(场境)from Frozen. It’s nice to step in just for a few minutes to have a break from the heat and cool off. ”
The Cool Taxi in running for a limited(有限的）lime at present time, However，it has proved popular with passengers and could he considered for full-time operation across the summer months in the future.
1.What can we learn from what Tony said?
A.He finds it hard to keep the taxi well air-conditioned.
B.He thinks it impossible to provide good air conditioning.
C.He is used to driving taxis in hot summer for a long time.
D.He will try his best to improve the conditions of the taxi.
2.What does the underlined “It” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A.Having a break. B.Taking die cool taxi.
C.A scene from Frozen. D.Her journey in London.
3.What is the text mainly about?
A.The popularity of London’s taxis.
B.The future of taxi industry in London.
C.London’s Cool Taxi filled with dry ice.
D.The management of the Cool Taxi in London.
4.We can infer from the passage that the author is about the future of Cool Taxi.
A.pessimistic B.optimistic
C.uncertain D.careful
Earlier this year, artist Malik was about to post a selfie (自拍照）from the Brooklyn Bridge when he had the second thought. He wanted to share something different with his friends and the world.
Malik thought that the social media (媒体）had become impersonal and he wanted to connect with people in a more meaningful way. Therefore, the Reading Project was born. He began leaving piles of his books in famous New York City locations with a card containing simple instructions put inside each one: take a book, read it and share your thoughts with the artist by email.
The piles of books themselves can be seen as works of art, and so is the process (过程）of sharing. Unlike many of the things we share today, he likes to keep the project off social media. To keep the project pure (纯的），he doesn’t even turn around as he walks away once he has left a pile of books. When he has left them behind, he prefers email to be the only way that he learns what happens to them. The project has now taken him — and his books — all over the world, including London.
“I hope people pick them up and I also hope they read them and let me know their feelings on them. And even if they don't let me know, I just hope they will read the books，” Malik said.
He has received thousands of messages from people in more than 30 countries all over the world. For Malik, kooks are meaningless and lifeless if they gather dust(灰尘）on a shelf and are never read again. He intends to carry on with the project for some time，with a plan to visit Brazil and then decides whether he will continue it or not.
Most of all, lie loves the connection the books give him with strangers across the world， which is something that oilier posts could never achieve,
1.What hit Malik when he intended to post a selfie?
A.His selfie being not very attractive for a long time.
B.That social media made people close to each other.
C.His thoughts that it should be shared with more people.
D.That a new way could be used to connect with the world,
2.Why does Malik prefer others to connect with him by email?
A.He isn’t good at talking with people face to face.
B.It is a quick way to know what happens.
C.He doesn't want to be troubles by social media.
D.He thinks people needn’t know the process of sharing.
3.What can we infer about Malik's project from the text?
A.It won’t last long for a lack of books.
B.It was first started on Brooklyn Bridge.
C.It has improved the relation among strangers.
D.It has proved to be helpful to connect with others.
4.What is the best title for this text?
A.Read Books Offered by Malik
B.Connecting with Strangers by Sharing Books
C.Change the Relationship with Strangers
D.Make Meaningless Books Meaningful
At this selection of five museums, more French will be heard and visitors might feel a sense of satisfaction when knowing they have arrived at a place that native Parisians also enjoy when going on a trip.
Museum of Natural History
Being a must-see place in the museum at present, the Grand Gallery of Evolution dates back to the 1880s. Playing as a zoology building in the past, it reopened to the public in 1994. The entire museum exhibits more than 9,000 preserved(保存）animals and insects.
Museum of Music
The museums collection covers centuries of European classical music and instruments, with decorated pianos and hundreds of horns and string instruments. Live performances take place in the galleries of the museum every day. The museum provides two versions (版本）of its English-language audio (声音的）guide, one for children and the other for adults.
Fairground Art Museum
At this museum, guides describe the history of Europe’s traveling fairs and explain signs (符号）that identify the beginning of the country with a carousel horse (旋转木马）.Book your tickets ahead of time on the museum’s website. Tours in French are offered several days a week all year round，and English -language tours are offered in the summer months.
Museum of Arts and Crafts
It was founded during the French Revolution to show its advanced (先进的）science and technologies and has since received several updates (更新）.Early planes，including the first to cross the English Channel, hang from the ceiling of one building. The collection has different exhibitions, with ancient cars, early engines and elements (元素)used in the building of the Statue of Liberty.
1.What do we know about the Grand Gallery of Evolution?
A.It was once closed to the public.
B.It was first built 25 years ago.
C.It studies all kinds of wildlife in nature.
D.It shows several thousand kinds of animals.
2.What suggestion is given to visitors to the Fairground Art Museum?
A.Choose a proper guide for your travel.
B.Learn some French before your travel.
C.Know the history of France ahead of time.
D.Book tickets beforehand at proper time.
3.What can we infer about the Museum of Arts and Crafts?
A.It keeps many old collections.
B.It still keeps its original look.
C.It's a museum about art and culture.
D.It only provides French-speaking guides.
请认真阅读下文信息，并按要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
A new regulation by China’s Ministry of Education aims to grant primary and middle school teachers more room in punishing their students in order to achieve better teaching results.
The regulation lists punishments available to teachers in three categories based on the level of severity of the offense, including naming and shaming, forced standing that lasts no longer than one class session, and suspension of class for no longer than one week.
Zhang Lifeng, a 43-year-old parent, welcomed the move. “The regulation should have come earlier,” she said. “It will benefit both teachers and students as well as parents.”
However, a ninth grader at a middle school, disagreed. “It is normal for adolescent students to make mistakes. I don’t think punishments are necessary. They may cause more trouble,” he said.
Chen Xianzhe, a professor with the School of Education at South China Normal University, said punishments are just a part of the teaching process.
The regulation asks schools to draft their own regulations accordingly to clarify the rules for teachers in taking disciplinary actions against their students.
（写作内容）
1、用约30个单词概括上述信息的主要内容；
2、谈谈你如何看待教育惩戒，并简述理由；
3、请你对教育惩戒规则的实施提出合理建议(至少两点)。
（写作要求）
1、写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2、作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3、不必写标题。
（评分标准）
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当
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请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
This is a stranger truth that anyone older than 25 will already know: as life goes on, time seems to speed up. Think back to childhood when holidays seemed to last forever and you attended a school for what felt like decades. Now consider last year, by contrast, and it probably raced by. As those in their 30s and 40s will know, the effect gets worse with age—and, for people in their 70s, a year can flash by in what seems like days. “Where did the time go?” we wonder.
One study found that if you’re 40, assuming you live to be 80, your life, in terms of your subjective experience of time, is already 70 percent gone. It’s all rather terrifying. Fortunately, though, you have the power to change things.
The best explanation is that memories seem longer when our brains have to process more information. Childhood and young adulthood are full of novelty—the first time you rode a bike, had a romance, go job—but, as we get older, things get more routine. You can test this out by recalling a recent experience of novelty in your life, such as travel. A few years back, I went skiing for the first time, and that four-day trip still feels “long”. But a four-day period in my ordinary life zooms by too quickly for me to notice.
One solution, then, is obvious: do lots of new stuff. Travel more, if you can, and to unfamiliar places. Try new hobbies and meet new people—you’ll be taxing your brain, and the result will be a life that feels longer, more expansive and meaningful. But smaller changes work, too: even altering the route you take to the office, reading different kinds of novels or varying where you buy your sandwich at lunchtime will have some impact.
But novelty can only go so far. Besides, a fulfilling life requires routine: you can’t build deep relationships, or rise through the ranks at work if you’re always switching friends or jobs or even spouses. That’s why the Buddhist teacher Shinzen Young suggests an additional strategy: learn to meditate(冥想). Even a few minutes a day will enhance your concentration, and the better you get at concentrating, the more information your brain will take in during any experience, no matter how boring.
You’ll be making your whole life a little more novel. You’ll be more present and time will pass less quickly; in effect, you’ll extend your life—without magic pills or groundbreaking medical technology.
Title: How to stop time speeding up | |
Passage outline | Supporting details |
A truth familiar to 1. | ●Everything seemed to last longer in our childhood, 2. holidays. ●With people 3., the worsening effect makes them believe time goes faster and faster. |
Findings of a previous study | There exists an explicit gap between our real age and our 4. understanding of how old we are. |
The best explanation | 5. something fresh can make our memories last. |
Two possible 6. on handling the problem | ●Doing new stuff 7. much effort of our brain, causing a seemingly longer and more meaningful life. ●Making minor changes is also an 8. way to create longer feelings. ●Meditation helps people concentrate on routine and 9. more information from boring experiences. |
Conclusion | Even without medication, people can live a more novel life and experiencing slow flow of time actually 10. their life. |
