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Part 2
Reading Comprehension

Section A Reading in the Context

Read the following passage with ten missing words.Learn to guess the meanings of them from the context and then select one word for each blank from the list of choices given in a word bank following the passage.Each word can be used only once.

Mind-based therapy programs may help ease chronic back pain,new research suggests.

Patients who took part in such programs were more 1 to have noticeable and lasting improvements in back pain than those who stuck to their usual routines,investigators found.

Both of the 2 tested in the study—mindfulness-based stress reduction(MBSR)and cognitive (认知的)behavioral therapy(CBT)—can be helpful for people who haven’t 3 from other therapies,said lead author Daniel Cherkin,of the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle.

“Maybe it’ll make a difference for them,”he told Reuters Health.

MBSR attempts to increase a person’s attention to thoughts,emotions and 4 in the moment through yoga and meditation,the researchers explain in the Journal of the American Medical Association.CBT educates people about pain and its relation to reactions and activities.CBT also 5 instructions and tools to cope with pain.

While CBT is known to be 6 for chronic pain and is recommended for lower back pain,before now only one other study had looked at MBSR for chronic low back pain,the researchers say.

Cherkin and colleagues 7 assigned 342 adults with chronic low back pain to one of three groups.The pain had no known cause and had lasted for at least three months.

One group continued 8 they were doing to manage their pain.A second group also received MBSR and a third took part in CBT.

Participants in the two mind-body therapy groups were offered eight weekly two-hour group sessions.The MBSR group was also offered a six-hour retreat.

Overall,about 54 percent 9 six or more sessions.After six months,there was“meaningful improvement”in about 61 percent of the MBSR group,58 percent of the CBT group and 44 percent of the usual care group.Patients with meaningful improvement were 10 less disabled,the report suggests.

Likewise,about 44 percent of the MBSR group and 45 percent of the CBT group ended up with remarkable reductions in the bothersomeness of their pain,compared to 27 percent of the usual care group.

Section B Reading and Matching

Read the following passage with ten statements attached to it.Each statement contains information given in one of the paragraphs.Identify the paragraph from which the information is derived.You may choose a paragraph more than once.

Not“I think,therefore I am.”

[A]Sometimes thinking is a bad idea.It was the fifth set of a semi-final at the 2011 US Open.After four hours of epic tennis,Roger Federer needed one more point to see off his young challenger,Novak Djokovic.As Federer prepared to serve,the crowd roared in anticipation.At the other end,Djokovic nodded,as if in acceptance of his fate.

[B]Federer served fast and deep to Djokovic’s right.Seconds later he found himself stranded,uncomprehending.Djokovic had returned his serve with a forehand (正拍击球)of such lethal precision that Federer couldn’t get near it.The indifference of Djokovic’s stroke thrilled the crowd.People called it“one of the all-time great shots”.

[C]Djokovic won the game,set,match and tournament.At his press conference,Federer was a study in quiet fury.It was tough,he said,to lose because of a“lucky shot”.Some players do that,he continued:“How can you play a shot like that on match point?”Asked the same question,Djokovic smiled.“Yeah,I tend to do that on match points.It kinda works.”

[D]Federer’s inability to win Grand Slams hasn’t been due to physical decline so much as a new mental defect that emerges at crucial moments.In the jargon of sport,he has been“choking”.This,say the experts,is caused by thinking too much.When a footballer misses a penalty or a golfer fluffs (失误)a putt,it is because they have become selfconscious.By thinking too hard,they lose the fluid physical grace required to succeed.Perhaps Federer was so upset because,deep down,he recognized that his opponent had tapped into a resource that he,an all-time great,is finding harder to reach:unthinking.

[E]Unthinking is the ability to apply years of learning at the crucial moment by removing your thinking self from the equation.Its power is not confined to sport:actors and musicians know about it,too,and are apt to say that their best work happens in a kind of trance (发呆).Thinking too much can kill not just physical performance but mental inspiration.Bob Dylan,recalling his youthful ability to write songs without even trying,described the making of“Like a Rolling Stone”as a“piece of vomit,20 pages long”.It hasn’t stopped the song being voted the best of all time.

[F]In less dramatic ways the same principle applies to all of us.A fundamental paradox of human psychology is that thinking can be bad for us.When we follow our own thoughts too closely,we can lose our bearings,as our inner chatter drowns out common sense.A study of shopping behaviour found that the less information people were given about a brand of jam,the better the choice they made.When offered details of ingredients,they got puzzled by their options and ended up choosing a jam they didn’t like.

[G]If a rat is faced with a puzzle in which food is placed on its left 60% of the time and on the right 40% of the time,it will quickly deduce that the left side is more rewarding,and head there every time,thus achieving a 60% success rate.Young children adopt the same strategy.When Yale undergraduates play the game,they try to figure out some underlying pattern,and end up doing worse than the rat or the child.We really can be too clever for our own good.

[H]By allowing ourselves to listen to our(better)instincts,we can tap into a kind of compressed wisdom.The psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer argues that much of our behaviour is based on deceptively sophisticated rules of thumb (经验法则).A robot programmed to chase and catch a ball would need to compute a series of complex differential equations to track the ball’s trajectory (轨迹).But baseball players do so by instinctively following simple rules:Run in the right general direction,and adjust your speed to keep a constant angle between eye and ball.

[I]To make good decisions in a complex world,Gigerenzer says,you have to be skilled at ignoring information.He found that a portfolio (投资组合)of stocks picked by people he interviewed in the street did better than those chosen by experts.The pedestrians picked companies they’d heard of,which was a better guide to future success than any analysis of price-earning ratios.

[J] Researchers from Columbia Business School conducted an experiment in which people were asked to predict outcomes across a range of fields,from politics to the weather to the winner of “American Idol”.They found that those who placed high trust in their feelings made better predictions than those who didn’t.The result only applied,however,when the participants had some prior knowledge.

[K]This last point is vital.Unthinking is not the same as ignorance;you can’t unthink if you haven’t already thought.Djokovic was able to pull off his wonder shot because he had played a thousand variations on it in previous matches and practice;Dylan’s lyrical outpourings drew on his immersion in folk songs,French poetry and American legends.The unconscious minds of great artists and sportsmen are like dense rainforests,which send up spores (种子)of inspiration.

[L]The higher the stakes,the more overthinking is a problem.In high performance fields it’s the older and more successful performers who are most prone to choke,because expectation is piled upon them.An opera singer launching into an aria (咏叹调)at La Scala cannot afford to think how her technique might be improved.When Federer plays a match point these days,he may feel as if he’s standing on the cliff edge of his reputation.

[M]Professor Claude Steele,of Stanford,studies the effects of performance anxiety on academic tests.He set a group of students consisting of African Americans and Caucasians (白种人)a test,telling them it would measure intellectual ability.The African Americans performed worse than the Caucasians.Steele then gave a separate group the same test,telling them it was just a preparatory drill.The gulf narrowed sharply.The“achievement gap”in education has complex causes,but one may be that bright African American students are more likely to feel they are representing their ethnic group,which leads them to overthink.

[N]How do you learn to unthink?Dylan believes the creative impulse needs protecting from self-analysis:“As you get older,you get smarter,and that can hinder you... You’ve got to programme your brain not to think too much.”The only reliable cure for overthinking seems to be enjoyment,something that both success and analysis can dull.Experienced athletes and artists often complain that they have lost touch with what made them love what they do in the first place.

[O]We live in an age of self-reflection,analyzing every aspect of our work,micro commentating on our own lives online,reading articles urging us to ponder what makes us happy.Much of this may be worthwhile,but we also need to put thinking in its place.Djokovic’s return was both the culmination (极致)of his life’s effort and an expression of careless joy.It kinda worked.

__________1.Experienced musicians or athletes with high expectations might end up in poor performances.

__________2.By thinking too hard,athletes lose the fluid physical grace required to succeed.

__________3.The publicity of companies can be a better guide for choosing stocks than analysis of price-earnings ratios.

__________4.Intelligent people might not be able to figure out some simple puzzles because they resort to hard thinking instead of intuitive deductions.

__________5.Enjoying can help people to get over overthinking.

__________6.People can be confused by thinking too much about the details of matters and end up in wrong decisions.

__________7.Relying on our instincts,we can accomplish some seemingly complicated actions.

__________8.Apart from sport,unthinking ability can be applied to fields like performing art and music.

__________9.Without pre-knowledge or previous practice of their own fields,artists and sportsmen cannot achieve their success.

__________10.Djokovic’s return shows sometimes careless joy works better than self-reflection.

Section C Reading in Depth

Read the following passages carefully and then finish the tasks below.

PASSAGE 1

[A]One hundred years ago,in March 1922,the first major film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s“Dracula”(《德古拉》:吸血鬼为题材的恐怖小说)had its premiere in Berlin.Not that it was called“Dracula”.The film-makers hadn’t asked for permission to adapt the famous vampire novel of 1897,so they changed the characters’names.Jonathan Harker,the estate agent who ventures to Transylvania,was renamed Thomas Hutter(and played by Gustav von Wangenheim).Harker’s fiancée,Mina,became Hutter’s wife Ellen(Greta Schröder).Count Dracula is Count Orlok(Max Schreck).And the film,directed by F.W.Murnau,luxuriated in the shiver-inducing title“Nosferatu:A Symphony of Horror”.

[B]No one was fooled.Stoker’s dogged widow,Florence,sued the producers for copyright infringement,and the courts ordered all copies of the film and negatives to be destroyed.If it weren’t for a stray print that turned up in Paris,one of the masterpieces of Weimar cinema would have been lost forever.(Today viewers can stream it on Shudder,a service dedicated to horror and thriller titles.)

[C]A century on,“Nosferatu”is still revered for its experimental techniques—shooting on rugged locations as well as in a studio;using stop-motion animation and fast-motion footage—and for the abundance of horror-movie conventions it established.The film includes villagers in a pub who warn the hero not to proceed,and the idea that vampires are burnt to ash by sunlight.It is the archetypal“Dracula”film.And yet its most strikingly modern aspects are those that leave Stoker’s novel behind.

[D]One departure from the source material is that when Orlok travels from Transylvania to Germany,he brings along a swarm of plague-carrying rats.Crosses are chalked on doors in the fictional town of Wisborg;a line of coffins is carried down the main street.After the influenza epidemic that began in 1918,these images would have chilled audiences as much as did the horrifying count.They remain chilling today.

[E]Another change is the omission of Stoker’s masculine band of vampire-slayers.While the men in“Nosferatu”bustle around,achieving nothing,it is Ellen who consults a book of undead legends,against her husband’s instructions,and she who sacrifices herself to defeat Orlok and save the town.Ellen even shoos the useless Hutter out of the house so he won’t get in the way of her plan.The producer,Albin Grau,wrote an article in 1921 describing the first world war as a“cosmic vampire”,and some critics see“Nosferatu”as a response to the wartime slaughter that helped push women into the workplace.Whatever the reason for Ellen’s courage,this feminist twist on Stoker’s story established another horror-movie staple—the woman who deals with a monstrous villain singlehandedly.

[F]Think of Ridley Scott’s interstellar vampire film“Alien”(1979).After the male crew members unwittingly invite a toothy predator into their spaceship,ignoring the objections of Ripley(Sigourney Weaver),it is up to her to destroy the thing herself.It may be a coincidence that Ripley’s first name is Ellen,too.But these two heroines,decades apart,are united by a core belief:monster-hunting is women’s work.

Question 1-6

Passage 1 has six paragraphs,A-F.Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.Match each heading with correct paragraphs A-F.

Paragraphs List of headings

1.An example was cited to support the feminist twist.

2.A lawsuit was mentioned.

3.Some experimental filming techniques were employed.

4.A fiction was first adapted to a movie.

5.A notorious plague in history has been reflected in the film.

6.A character twist in vampire-slayers was established.

Question 7-12

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the article?

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE if the statement contradicts the in formation

NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

__________7.The first film adaptation of“Dracula”was called“Nosferatu:A Symphony of Horror”.

__________8.All the copies and negatives of“Nosferatu:A Symphony of Horror”were destroyed because of the copyright infringement.

__________9.The most outstanding characteristic of“Nosferatu:A Symphony of Horror”leaves the modernism behind.

__________10.The director refers to other source material when Orlok brings along plague-carrying rats from Transylvania to Germany in the film.

__________11.One of the impacts of the WWI is said to push women out of family and get employed.

__________12.The first name of Ripley in“Alien”is Ellen,which may echo the same belief of feminist twist in“Nosferatu:A Symphony of Horror”.

PASSAGE 2

The college admissions process produces anxiety for many students and parents,but the anxiety is particularly heightened among Asian American families.The reason:Asian Americans are more likely than other groups to believe that attending an elite university—and preferably an Ivy League one—is a necessary step to a successful career.

A growing body of research has established that Asian Americans tend to disproportionately value prestige when it comes to higher education.In general,Asian Americans would rather be a below-average student at a top 10 school than an above-average student at a top 100 school.Several psychological studies show that white students are more likely to prefer the opposite.

The importance placed on prestige is partly why so many Asian American organizations have joined lawsuits against Harvard and other Ivy League universities for allegedly capping admissions of Asian American students.

But there is also growing evidence that this faith in elite credentials may be misplaced.According to a 2015 investigation by Business Insider,only one CEO of a top 10 Fortune 500 company had gotten their undergraduate degree from an Ivy League university.Only 30% of American-born CEOS of the top 100 companies attended an elite college.

A recent report on leadership diversity at top technology companies found that Asian Americans are the racial group least likely to be promoted into managerial and executive ranks.White men and women are twice as likely as Asians to hold executive positions.And while white women are breaking through the glass ceiling,Asian women are not.

Asian Americans also fall behind in earnings.College-educated,U.S.-born Asian men earn 8% less than white men.Although Asian American women are likely to earn as much as white women,they are less likely to be in a manage role.

There are at least two explanations for why Asian Americans are hitting the ceiling in their professional lives.In numerous interviews with corporate leaders,we learn that Asian Americans are less likely to be seen as leadership material,and are thus given fewer opportunities to advance and succeed.

But research also indicates that Asian Americans are less likely than white and black Americans to engage in civic activity,which is strongly correlated with corporate leaderships.According to the Current Population Survey,17.9% of Asian Americans engage in volunteerism,compared to 26.4% of whites and 19.3% of blacks.Analysis of the 2016 National Asian American Survey shows that only 59% of Asian Americans make charitable contributions,compared to 68% of whites and 65% of blacks.This lack of engagement outside of work is handicapping Asian Americans in their careers.

As the corporate world works to address issues of bias,Asian Americans should consider that what people do in college and afterward is a stronger predictor of success than the status of the college they choose to attend.At the very least,this should help quell the anxiety of high school seniors awaiting admissions from their first-choice schools.

1.What message does the passage intend to convey?

A.Asian Americans should not be discriminated in the workplace.

B.Asian Americans should value less of the prestigious universities.

C.Asian Americans should develop their leadership skills.

D.Asian Americans should be more valued in the workplace.

2.According to the author,what do Asian Americans lack?

A.Civic engagement

B.Extracurricular activities

C.Managerial experience

D.Academic intelligence

3.How do Asian Americans do at the American workplace?

A.Asian women are breaking through the glass ceiling.

B.Asian women are likely to earn as much as white women.

C.Asian men are breaking through the glass ceiling.

D.Asian men are likely to earn as much as white men.

4.Why do Asian American groups file lawsuits against the elite universities?

A.Because the universities judge Asian Americans by different standards.

B.Because Asian Americans are allegedly discriminated in the universities.

C.Because the universities allegedly put restrictions on enrolling Asian Americans.

D.Because Asian Americans hope to be treated differently than other groups.

5.Why do Asian Americans think very highly of prestigious universities?

A.Because they would rather be an above-average student at a top 100 school.

B.Because they would rather be a below-average student at a top 10 school.

C.Because they think it’s more likely that they will succeed with an elite diploma.

D.Because they think it’s a great success to get admitted into a prestigious university.PASSAGE 3

LG Electronics Inc.will exit its unprofitable smartphone business after years of struggling to compete with industry leaders Apple Inc.and Samsung Electronics Co.,as well as fastgrowing Chinese rivals.It wasn’t an unexpected move,following years of speculation about a pullback and after Chief Executive Kwon Bong-seok declared in January that all options were under consideration regarding the mobile division’s fate.

The Seoul-based firm,following a unanimous board vote Monday,said it would halt mobile phone production and sales by July 31.LG had once been the world’s third-largest phone maker by shipments and remained the biggest U.S.vendor after Apple and Samsung.But LG’s overall phone business has withered in the past six years or so.It has been in the red for 23 straight quarters,with the accumulated losses exceeding$4.4 billion.

The move allows LG to give priority to future growth drivers,such as electric-vehicle components and robotics,and focus on a home-appliances business that boomed during the pandemic (大流行病),the company said.The South Korean electronics giant,despite the mobile losses,is expected to forecast record first-quarter operating profits in a disclosure due later this week,according to industry analysts.

LG,which first broke intomobile-phones business in1995,has found itself caught in the middle of a smartphone industry transitioning to next-generation 5G technology.On the high end,Apple and Samsung can fetch$1,000 or more for their newest gadgets by relying on powerful brands.On the lower end,firms selling handsets for just several hundred dollars have eked out (勉强维持)profits by paying other contract firms to do the engineering and design work,while giving up pricier advertising channelsfor online-only campaigns.

That has left LG in an unsteady state,given that its other lines of business in flats creen televisions,kitchen appliances and other gadgetry compete with the top players for the deepest-pocketed buyers,said Tom Kang,a Seoul-based research director at Counterpoint Research,a market researcher.About 90% of LG’s phones were being designed and engineered externally,he added.“The big bosses start to think,‘Why are we in this business if all we are doing is putting our brand on it?’”Mr.Kang said.

LG Electronics’shares rose after the smartphone-exit announcement Monday morning,though ended the day down 2.5%.The mobile business represented about 8% of LG’s total annual revenue last year.In a regulatory filing,LG said the move would hurt its revenue in subsequent months,though would ultimately help it improve its business and financial health.Dropping the phone business could improve annual profit by up to 800 billion South Korean won(about$708 million)in the coming years,said Jeff Kim,deputy head of research at Seoul-based KB Securities.

LG represented just 2.2% of the smartphone market in 2020,and was the ninth-largest vendor,according to market researcher Strategy Analytics.It was strongest in the U.S.,its home market of South Korea and Brazil.The company’s failures didn’t result from a lack of flash.LG has won various industry innovation awards over the years touting its experimental phone designs and features.

Its G8 ThinQ device from2019 boasted“Hand ID”technology,where a front-facing camera could unlock the phone by reading the lines and contours of a user’s palm.The upper display of LG’s dual-screen Wing handset,released last year,could turn 90 degrees,forming a T-shape that made multitasking easier.Itonce released a customizable,modular-design phone that let users exchange its batteries with external batteries within seconds.But those creative devices failed to win a broad audience.Just one of every 10 LG phones were priced at$300 ormore,meaning the company’s sales were overwhelmingly catering to buyers not looking for all the bells and whistles,said Woody Oh,a Seoul-based analyst at Strategy Analytics.

With LG on the way out,rivals offering lower-priced phones in the U.S.,South Korea and Brazil,including Samsung,Alphabet Inc.’s Google Pixel and Chinese upstarts,could scoop up extra market share,Mr.Oh added.Chinese smartphone brands—including Huawei Technologies Co.,Xiaomi,Vivo Electronics Corp.And Oppo Electronics Corp.—accounted for a record 57% combined market share in 2020,according to Strategy Analytics.Two decades ago,Chinese phone makers hadn’t cracked 1% of global sales.

Questions 1-6

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

LG Electronics Inc.,the Seoul-based firm,first broke into mobile-phones business in 1995 and later grew into the world’s 1_____phone maker by shipments.However,LG’s overall phone business has 2_____in the past few years.It has found itself stuck in the middle of a smartphone industry 3_____to the next-generation 5G technology.After billions of dollars of 4_,LG said it would 5_____its smartphone business,so as to focus on its other lines of business and give 6_____to future growth drivers.

Questions 7-10

Look at the following statements(Questions 7-10)and the list of people in the box below.Match each statement with the correct person A-D.

7.The firm’s phones were outsourced to contract firms.

8.Other phone-making companies will benefit from LG’s dropping its phone business.

9.All options were explored with regard to the mobile phone’s fate.

10.Exiting the phone business would benefit the company financially. V+BHu+vDH9AbGlQBmIEV57MONXJ8PYCOSgmc7PE1Tyke8KawIQimMVINk+VN3DH6

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