That robots, automation, and software can replace people might seem obvious to anyone who’s worked in automotive manufacturing. But MIT business scholars Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee’s claim is more troubling and controversial. They believe that rapid technological change has been destroying jobs faster than it is creating them.
They believe that technology increases productivity and makes societies wealthier, but it became clear to them that the same technologies making many jobs safer, easier, and more productive were also reducing the demand for many types of human workers. Technologies like the Web, artificial intelligence, and big data are automating many routine tasks. Countless traditional white-collar jobs, such as many in the post office and in customer service, have disappeared.
As evidence, Brynjolfsson and McAfee point to a chart on which separate lines represent productivity and total employment in the United States. For years after World War II, the two lines closely tracked each other, with increases in jobs corresponding to increases in productivity. Then, beginning in 2000, the lines diverge; productivity continues to rise steadily, but employment suddenly shrinks. By 2011, a significant gap appears between the two lines, showing economic growth with no parallel increase in job creation.
United States Productivity and Employment
But are these new technologies really responsible for a decade of lackluster (无生气) job growth? David Autor, an economist at MIT who has studied the connections between jobs and technology, doubts that technology could account for such a sudden change in total employment. Moreover, he also doubts that productivity has, in fact, risen steadily in the United States in the past decade. If he’s right, it raises the possibility that poor job growth could be simply a result of a depressed economy. The sudden slowdown in job creation “is a big puzzle,” he says, “but there’s not a lot of evidence that it’s linked to computers.” “To be sure, computer technologies are changing the types of jobs available, but that is very different from saying technology is affecting the total number of jobs,” he adds. “Jobs can change a lot without there being huge changes in employment rates.”
Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist, says that while technological changes can be painful for workers whose skills no longer match the needs of employers, no historical pattern shows these shifts leading to a net decrease in jobs over an extended period. Still, Katz doesn’t dismiss the notion that there is something different about today’s digital technologies. Though he expects the historical pattern to hold, it is “genuinely a question,” he says. “If technology disrupts enough, who knows what will happen?”
1.Which period on the chart strongly supports McAfee’s claim?
A. 1947—1967. B. 1985—1987.
C. 1997—2000. D. 2011—2013.
2.According to David Autor, the change in job growth ________.
A. is not necessarily caused by technology
B. results from a weakening economy
C. has no connection with productivity
D. affects the current types of jobs
3.What is Lawrence Katz’s attitude towards the topic?
A. Optimistic. B. Defensive.
C. Objective. D. Disapproving.
4.The main purpose of the passage is to ________.
A. show the relation between productivity and job creation
B. discuss the effect of technological advances on employment
C. argue against the wide use of artificial intelligence
D. explain the impact of technologies on productivity
Scientists say we are all born with a knack for mathematics. Every time we scan the cafeteria for a table that will fit all of our friends, we’re exercising the ancient estimation center in our brain.
Stanislas Dehaene was the first researcher to show that this part of the brain exists. In 1989, he met Mr. N who had suffered a serious brain injury. Mr. N couldn’t recognize the number 5, or add 2 and 2. But he still knew that there are “about 50 minutes” in an hour. Dehaene drew an important conclusion from his case: there must be two separate mathematical areas in our brains. One area is responsible for the math we learn in school, and the other judges approximate amounts.
So what does the brain’s estimation center do for us? Harvard University researcher Elizabeth Spelke has spent a lot of time posing math problems to preschoolers. When he asks 5-year-olds to solve a problem like 21+30, they can’t do it. But he has also asked them questions such as, “Sarah has 21 candles and gets 30 more. John has 34 candles. Who has more candles?” It turns out preschoolers are great at solving questions like that. Before they’ve learned how to do math with numerals and symbols, their brains’ approximation centers are already hard at work.
After we learn symbolic math, do we still have any use for our inborn math sense? Justin Halberda at Johns Hopkins University gave us an answer in his study. He challenged a group of 14-year-olds with an approximation test: The kids stared at a computer screen and saw groups of yellow and blue dots flash by, too quickly to count. Then they had to say whether there had been more blue dots or yellow dots. The researchers found that most were able to answer correctly when there were 25 yellow dots and 10 blue ones. When the groups were closer in size, 11 yellow dots and 10 blue ones, fewer kids answered correctly.
The big surprise in this study came when the researcher compared the kids’ approximation test scores to their scores on standardized math tests. He found that kids who did better on the flashing dot test had better standardized test scores, and vice versa (反之亦然). It seems that, far from being irrelevant, your math sense might predict your ability at formal math.
1.From the first two studies, we can learn that estimation center ________.
A. is divided into two separate mathematical areas
B. can help figure out numerals and symbols problems
C. functions independently in both kids’ and adults’ brains
D. works better when symbolic parts are injured or undergrown
2.What most surprised Justin in the study of 14-year-olds?
A. The variety of math abilities in different students.
B. The link between technology skills and estimation skills.
C. The difficulty of the task as the number of dots increased.
D. The connection between estimation skills and formal math ability.
3.What could be the best title for the passage?
A. Born with a Sense of Math
B. Go beyond What You Can Learn
C. Symbolic Math and Estimation Math
D. Our Brain一a Born Mathematician
Three Feet From Gold
Darby’s uncle was caught by the “gold fever” in the gold-rush days, and went west to dig and grow rich. After months of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore (矿石). He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. So, with the “strike”, he returned home. And with the help of Darby, he borrowed a lot of money. After buying the machinery and having it shipped, Uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.
The first car of ore was mined. And the returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Uncle and Darby!
Then something happened! The vein (矿脉) of gold ore disappeared! They drilled on, but all in vain. Finally, they decided to quit and sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars. The junk man called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer’s calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darbys had stopped drilling! The junk man took millions of dollars in the vein, because he knew enough to seek expert’s advice before giving up.
Most of the money which went into the machinery was borrowed through the efforts of Darby, who was then a very young man. The money came from his relatives because of their faith in him. He paid back every dollar of it, although he was years in doing so.
Long afterward, Mr. Darby made another discovery that desire can be changed into gold. This discovery came after he went into the business of selling life insurance. Remembering that he lost a huge fortune, for he stopped three feet from gold, Darby profited by the experience in his chosen work, saying to himself, “I stopped three feet from gold, but I will never stop because men say ‘no’ when I ask them to buy insurance.”
Darby sold more than a million dollars in life insurance annually. He owes his “stickability” to the lesson he learned from his “quitability” in the gold mining business.
1.Darby’s uncle went back home to ________.
A. receive his reward
B. seek financial support
C. look for more helpers
D. consult an engineer
2.The Darbys failed in mining business because of ________.
A. quitting drilling on
B. the disappearance of the vein
C. the shortage of the machinery
D. competing against the junk man
3.From the passage, we can know Darby ________.
A. was unable to pay off the debts
B. mined his gold from the failure
C. learned a lesson from selling insurance
D. devoted himself to making new discoveries
4.The author intends to tell us that ________.
A. hopes and difficulties exist side by side
B. correct decisions stems from correct judgement
C. we should catch it when an opportunity comes
D. we won’t reach our goal unless we persist
Climbing Without Ropes
The popular image of the mountain climber is of a person carefully climbing a steep cliff with a network of safety ropes, but it is not the only kind. Many climbers now enjoy bouldering. It’s more accessible and better for the environment.
What is bouldering? Bouldering is a sport that involves climbing on, over, and around boulders up to approximately twenty feet above the ground. Participants employ no safety ropes. | ||
Why boulder? • improve your climbing skills by focusing on basics • places to climb, such as climbing walls at gyms and parks, easy to find • less time commitment to bouldering than to mountain climbing • intellectual and physical enjoyment as one solves problems |
| Bouldering Terms crimp: a very small handhold foothold: a place where one may place a foot to aid in climbing boulder jug: a very large handhold that is easy to use problem: The path up a boulder is referred to as the “problem” that one must solve. The “solution” is the sequence of moves one makes up and over a boulder. |
Here is an example of a climber addressing a bouldering problem.
Figure 1: The climber has two routes she could take, one to the left and one to the right. The left one appears easier because it has a jug within easy reach, but look what happens if she chooses that direction. She gets stuck on the rock and has to go back down. Sometimes that is even more difficult than going up.
Figure 2: The climber takes the one to the right this time. Using a foothold and placing her right hand in a crimp, she is able to lift herself up and locate other handholds. After only a few moves, she is able to throw her leg over the top of the boulder and pull herself up.
1.According to the passage, bouldering ________.
A. is an indoor sport B. has no safety protection
C. needs maps and equipment D. is a steep cliff climbing
2.Bouldering becomes popular because ________.
A. it challenges the limits B. it costs less
C. it builds minds and bodies D. it is a team game
3.According to the example, the right route is ________.
A. a shortcut B. a dead end
C. tough but to the top D. lined with jugs
4.The passage is likely to appear in ________.
A. a book review B. a science report
C. a newspaper advertisement D. a sports magazine
A Good Man
It’s a late Saturday afternoon in early March, and I am sweating in search of the only gift my son wants from Los Angeles: a ______ to the homes of the stars such as Brad Pitt and Jet Li.
A cheerful taxi driver says, “No problem. Map sellers are everywhere!” When the taxi stops, a fellow ______ with a thin folded sheet and says: “Ten dollars.”
Ten dollars! With absolute ______, I inform him, “That’s too much.” The map man leaves. I begin walking, certain I’ll find a (an)______ star map soon.
I am ______. There’s hardly anybody on the street. There don’t seem to be many real stores, just cars and bars. No maps. No stars. Blocks pass. The sun begins to sink. At the edge of West Hollywood,______ fellow wanders ahead, selling star maps to some teenage girls.
Ten dollars ______. Forget it. My son will ______.
That night, I call my wife. “Did you get one of those maps to the stars? He’s been talking about ______ else.”
This ______ is hard to ignore, It’s late. At all-night markets: no maps. I head back to the hotel. Morning is coming. There will be one last ______. After I check out, I take a taxi. But at nine in the morning, map sellers are ______ to be found.
“You know,” says the driver, “The guys with the maps just ain’t up yet!” He’s right.
“Forget it. Let’s go to the airport.”
“Well,” says the driver, “I could ______ you one if you like.”
Sure. Trust this guy? I might as well throw cash onto the freeway. But exiting the taxi, I ______ my last chance. I hand him $13 and my business card. Three weeks pass. I’ve ______ on the star map. My son has stopped mentioning it.
Then one afternoon, sticking out from under piles of flyers, there it is: a big white envelope. There is a small note. I can hardly read it,______ I make out a few phrases一“forgive ______,” “taxi’s been down” and, finally, “here’s map for your son.” There’s no return address. It’s signed, “kind regards, M.”
I hold the note in my hand,______ what my son said to me when I got back from Los Angeles.
“Did you meet any ______, Dad?” he asked.
Now I know what to tell him.
“Yes, I did. I met a guy named M.”
If you never ______ anybody, you’ll never find the good guys.
1.A. decoration B. map C. book D. symbol
2.A. argues B. requests C. competes D. approaches
3.A. assurance B. permission C. anxiety D. bargain
4.A. perfect B. inexpensive C. proper D. detailed
5.A. shocked B. confused C. impatient D. wrong
6.A. one B. some C. another D. either
7.A. still B. even C. almost D. yet
8.A. believe B. regret C. understand D. admit
9.A. anything B. everything C. something D. nothing
10.A. idea B. news C. change D. reason
11.A. try B. journey C. action D. minute
12.A. everywhere B. somewhere C. anywhere D. nowhere
13.A. give B. mail C. show D. spare
14.A. create B. recognize C. deserve D. blow
15.A. given up B. thrown doubts C. refused offers D. dropped in
16.A. and B. or C. but D. for
17.A. fault B. delay C. carelessness D. rudeness
18.A. remembering B. reminding C. reviewing D. realizing
19.A. admirers B. friends C. stars D. heroes
20.A. look up to B. turn to C. have faith in D. agree with
What is your main reason for choosing one restaurant another?
A. over B. of
C. from D. for
