The sharing economy, represented by companies like Airbnb or Uber, is the latest fashion craze. But many supporters have overlooked the reality that this new business model is largely based on escaping regulations and breaking the law.
Airbnb is an Internet-based service that allows people to rent out spare rooms to strangers for short stays. Uber is an Internet taxi service that allows thousands of people to answer ride requests with their own cars. There are hundreds of other such services.
The good thing about the sharing economy is that it promotes the use of underused resources. Millions of people have houses or apartments with empty rooms, and Airbnb allows them to profit from these rooms while allowing guests a place to stay at prices that are often far less than those charged by hotels. Uber offers prices that are competitive with standard taxi prices and their drivers are often much quicker and more trustworthy.
But the downside of the sharing economy has gotten much less attention. Most cities and states both tax and regulate hotels, and the tourists who stay in hotels are usually an important source of tax income. But many of Airbnb’s customers are not paying the taxes required under the law.
Airbnb can also raise issues of safety for its customers and trouble for hosts’ neighbors. Hotels are regularly inspected to ensure that they are not fire traps and that they don’t form other risks for visitors. Airbnb hosts face no such inspections.
Since Airbnb is allowing people to escape taxes and regulations, the company is simply promoting thefts. Others in the economy will lose by bearing an additional tax burden or being forced to live next to an apartment unit with a never-ending series of noisy visitors.
The same story may apply with Uber. Uber is currently in disputes over whether its cars meet the safety and insurance requirements imposed on standard taxis. Also, if Uber and related services flood the market, they could harm all taxi drivers’ ability to earn a minimum wage.
This downside of the sharing needs to be taken seriously, but that doesn’t mean the current tax and regulatory structure is perfect.
1.What is the positive thing about the sharing economy?
A. It is a global trend.
B. It is beyond regulations.
C. It draws on spare resources.
D. It brings in modest profits.
2.What is the problem with Airbnb customers according to the passage?
A. They are not regularly inspected.
B. They are likely to commit thefts.
C. They are allowed not to pay taxes.
D. They can be noisy to hosts’ neighbours.
3.What is the argument over Uber according to the passage?
A. Whether it guarantees customers’ safety.
B. Whether it provides reliable services.
C. Whether it lowers customers’ expenses.
D. Whether it can compete with standard taxis.
4.What will be talked about in the following paragraphs?
A. Existing regulations and laws.
B. Necessary improvements of current laws.
C. Further development of Airbnb and Uber.
D. More downsides of Airbnb and Uber.
There is no doubt that many parents want to mold (塑造)their child to be better, faster, smarter and more skilled. Even though human parents can’t do that, a robot that builds its own children can. Scientists at the University of Cambridge in England have created a mother robot that not only creates its own children, but tests out their performance.
The mother robot analyzes(分析)the performance of each of the “children” it creates, and passes down good characters to the next generation. For example, as the mother creates them and puts them to work, she measures how they’re behaving, and she uses data from this behavior to create the next generation of robots.
The mother robot can actually build hundreds of child robots and see the performance of these child robots. And if their performance is good, keep their design for the next generation. And if bad, just let it go.
“We program the robots based on some functions that define(规定)the reward the robots are going to get, depending on the construction that they make. They cannot change their own reward. For the child robot, the longer the distance the robot walks, the better the reward it receives,” said Fumiya Iida, the lead researcher.
After several generations, the “children” were
running twice as fast.
“The mother robot produced 500 robots to see which one is good and which one is bad,” said Iida.
The researchers believe that the machines can be used in a car factory, for example, where robot cameras examine each ear in production line, find out any mistakes, and then design a better car.
1.What is special about the mother robot?
A. It can analyze data
B. It can create child robots
C. It’s smarter than human mothers
D. It can build and improve its own children.
2.How does the mother robot mold her own children to be better?
A. It teachers them how to behave better.
B. It reprograms the bad ones after analyzing their performance
C. It copies hundreds of child robots and then chooses the best ones.
D. It keeps the good characters for the next generation to create a better robot.
3.What is the key point in influencing the child robot to receive a reward?
A. Size B. Distance.
C. Behavior D. Speed.
假如你是李华，是金鼎中学校刊记者，请你为校刊写一篇英语短文，介绍最近在我国很多城市发生的雾霭（haze）天气。请参考以下要点：
危害；
原因；
如何自我防护；
注意：
1、词数100左右；
2、开头已给出，不计入总词数。
Recently haze pollution has happened in cities of China
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（^），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Tom was having much trouble get up in the morning and was always late with work. His boss wanted to fire him if he didn’t start coming on time, but he went to the doctor for a help. The doctor gave him some medicine and told him to take them before he went to bed. The man does as told and slept really well, wake up before the alarm had even gone off. He had time for a properly breakfast and was the first reach the factory. “Boss,” he said, “that medicine really works!” “I’m pleasing to hear it,” said his boss, “but where were you yesterday?”
For Rachael and Leigh Barman, there is only one wish on their Christmas list this year---that their sick daughter Paige should survive/live until December 25. Fifteen-year-old Paige suffers from 1.rare brain disease, 2.affects(影响) as few as 12 people in the world, and could kill her any day 3.warning(警告).
And her condition has gone even 4. (bad) in recent months. Her parents filled the family home with Christmas decorations 5. September 1st so she could enjoy the rest of her life. Since then, she has 6. (regular) opened Christmas presents and received visitors---but she sleeps for up to 19 hours a day, her parents knowing that each time she closes her eyes, she may never wake up.
Mrs. Barman 7.(describe) dealing with the condition as “like being on death row” as she never knew if 8. daughter would wake up the next morning.
The mother said: “She always loves Christmas and I get my heart 9.(break) when I see her suffering like this. Our best Christmas present would be having Paige with us at Christmas. No matter 10. she leaves the world, we make sure that she is always happy.”
I was ten when I first sat with my grandmother behind the cashier(收银台) in her grocery store. 1. I quickly learned the importance of treating customers politely and saying “thank you.”
At first I was paid in candy. 2. I worked every day after school, and during the summer and on weekends and holidays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. My father helped me set up a bank account._ 3.
By the time I was 12, my grandmother thought I had done such a good job that she promoted me to selling cosmetics(化妆品). I developed the ability to look customers directly in the eye. Even though I was just a kid, women would ask me such things as “What color do you think I should wear?” I took a real interest in their questions and was able to translate what they wanted into makeup(化妆) ideas. 4.
The job taught me a valuable lesson: to be a successful salesperson, you didn’t need to be a rocket scientist—you needed to be a great listener. 5. Expect they are no longer women buying cosmetics from me; instead, they are kids who tell me which toys they would like to see designed and developed.
A. Later I received 50 cents an hour.
B. Before long, she let me sit there by myself.
C. I ended up selling a record amount of cosmetics.
D. Today I still carry that lesson with me: I listen to customers.
E. My grandma’s trust taught me how to handle responsibility（承担责任）.
F. Soon I found myself looking more beautiful than ever before.
G. Watching my money grow was more rewarding/worthy than anything I could have bought.
