题型:任务型阅读 题类:模拟题 难易度:困难
江苏省兴化一中2018届高三英语考前适应性练习试卷
Age has its privileges in America, and one of the most important of them is the senior citizen discount. Eligibility(资格) is determined not by one's need but by the date on one's birth certificate. The discounts have become a routine part of many businesses—as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.
People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them; yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent (有支付能力的). Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that "elderly" means "needy". Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor. But most of them aren't.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases, the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant(刺激物) in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involve a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Supported by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job—thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a privilege to a group with millions of members who don't need them.
It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can't take care of themselves and need special treatment; and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against—discrimination by age.
Outline | Details |
Introduction | Age determines whether an American can be given a discount, which is a commonin American business life today. |
Origin of senior citizen discount | Since the senior citizens are often treated as people who are in they are given such priority. |
situation | ●The situation has changed a lot where the majority of the elderly are not poor at all. ●Younger Americans were at a(n) directly or indirectly due to the discounts given to the elderly, thus leading to conflicts between generations. ●The number of older Americans to work rather than retire is on the increase, which means opportunities for young workers. ●It is no longer a kind of charity because millions of senior citizens don't need the priority . |
Conclusion | ●It's unwise to offer discount priority to the elderly. ●It will mislead people to think they are unable to to themselves. ●People may think that they are ungrateful and they're hurting the of other age groups. ●Actually senior citizen discounts, to some extent, against their age. |
All company leaders will face major business decisions throughout their time as the heads of their organizations. Difficult decisions related to activities such as M&A, leadership changes, restructuring, and massive growth plans will directly impact the company's employees.
If you've already established trust with your workforce, you can significantly minimize potential negative impacts and make sure your employees will buy into your decisions, even if they don't necessarily agree with them. But earning their faith takes time. As a leader, you are trusted only to the degree that people believe in your ability, consistency, and commitment to deliver. The good news is that there do exist some strategies to help you earn confidence.
Instill trust through an employee engagement program
By encouraging consistent feedback and establishing an honest environment, employees will trust the direction and information you give them. Create a highly engaged culture by prioritizing real-time recognition, continuous feedback, and ongoing goal-setting.
Change and react with meaningful conversations. You've likely had to adjust your business plan in the middle of the year. Real-time, continuous communication helps you keep employees in the loop and adjust to expectations as your organization's needs change.
Giving timely feedback is the most effective way to communicate expectations. Not only that, but saving your big praise until the end of the year isn't just ineffective—it makes it more difficult to deliver.
Ongoing goal-setting can help people understand where their contributions fit within the organization and where they need to aim. Better yet, these can be transparent across the organization so everyone is held accountable for the outcomes and behaviors that drive your business and cultural success.
Gather and measure sentiment (情感) during times of change
Part of the difficulty in making tough business decisions is that leaders don't want to surprise or disappoint employees. Think about the last time you made a major company-wide announcement. Did you know if employees were happy? Were they shocked? Or even worse, did you have no insight into their reactions at all? If you regularly measure employee sentiment through real-time pulse surveys—especially during times of change—you can more accurately pinpoint reactions and cope with issues immediately. The results of these pulse surveys empower your leadership team to be more forthcoming, moving forward, earning the trust of employees and strengthening a transparent company culture.
If there is a strong link between employees and managers to the goals of the organization, the vision and values of the company will be embraced by all.
At the end of the day, the mindset shouldn't be about how you can make tough decisions easier, but how you can make those decisions in a way that won't negatively impact your employees or your organization's objectives. Create a cooperative feedback culture, and when the time comes to make difficult decisions, you know that with your team's insights in mind and trust in the leadership, the decision will be accepted willingly.
Earning employee's faith takes time | |
Passage outline | Supporting details |
Introduction | ◆ Trust from workforce can minimize negative impacts of difficult decisions and ensure employees' {#blank#}1{#/blank#} of your decisions. ◆ Only when employees think you are capable, consistent, and {#blank#}2{#/blank#} will they believe in you. |
Strategies to {#blank#}3{#/blank#} on | {#blank#}4{#/blank#} employees in some programs. ◆ Timely and continuous communication is necessary because proper {#blank#}5{#/blank#} are likely to be made to your business plan. ◆ Real-time feedback is valuable in communicating expectations and the {#blank#}6{#/blank#} in giving praise will make it harder to deliver. ◆ Ongoing goal-setting can make employees {#blank#}7{#/blank#} of where their aims are. |
Gather and measure sentiment during times of change. ◆ Regular measurement of employee sentiment can help you know how they react so that you can {#blank#}8{#/blank#} issues instantly. ◆ The vision and values of the company will be widely accepted if employees and managers are closely united in order to {#blank#}9{#/blank#} their common goal. | |
Conclusion | It is the {#blank#}10{#/blank#} impact of your decisions on the organization's objectives and the creation of a cooperative feedback culture that count. |
Asthma(哮喘) is a long-lasting breathing disease that affects millions of Americans, many of whom are children. People who get asthma will suffer from lack of breath, difficulty in breathing or coughing--which are caused by the tightening of the muscles in airways. Untreated asthma can lead to poor lung function and death, but asthma can also be effectively controlled with proper treatments.
Research is discovering genes that contribute to the development of asthma. This development has pointed researchers to the role of indoor and outdoor pollution as environmental factors that contribute to the increased occurrence of asthma.
The Indoor Pollution
Indoor pollution has increased with the developments in building materials and in heating and air conditioning systems. In addition to poisonous gases that come from paint, other materials like dust and perfumes used in household products such as washing powder are recycled continuously through the house, winter and summer.
Unlike the days before central heating or before whole-house air conditioning, these materials and chemicals cannot get out of modern homes. Most often, they cause breathing problems in the members of the family with the least-developed autoimmune(自身免疫的) systems. Proper venting (通风) and use of environmentally-friendly building materials and carpeting can help reduce the presence of these chemicals.
The Out door pollution
Researchers have also established outdoor pollution's role as a probable cause of asthma. Asthma has been proven to result from some fuel products. Smog and the small matters carried by it have been recognized as a factor which leads to asthma since the 19th century when London saw more and more diseases in the industrial population. Industrial pollutants and other chemicals which are produced in water treatment and open treated water like that found in the swimming pools also contribute to increased cases of asthma as well as other illnesses.
Those most affected by the increase of industrial and environmental pollution are children. Although much has been done to control the levels of pollution in the US, there still remains much to do as it is a worldwide phenomenon. Until an international effort can be made to limit carbon emissions, the occurrence of environmental asthma will probably continue to increase.
The {#blank#}1{#/blank#} between asthma and air pollution | ||
The {#blank#}2{#/blank#} of asthma | ● lack of breath ● difficulty in breathing ● coughing | |
The possible {#blank#}3{#/blank#} of untreated asthma | ● poor lung function ● death | |
{#blank#}4{#/blank#} contributing to the increased asthma | Indoor pollution | ●It is {#blank#}5{#/blank#} by building materials and heating and air conditioning systems. ●{#blank#}6{#/blank#} some poisonous gases, dust and perfumes worsen pollution. ●Some material and chemicals{#blank#}7{#/blank#} in modern homes. |
Outdoor pollution | ●Smog and the small matters carried by it cause asthma, which is proven by a(n) {#blank#}8{#/blank#} number of lung diseases in the industrial population. ●Industrial pollutants and other chemicals in water are{#blank#}9{#/blank#} to people's health.79 to people's health. | |
Conclusion | Only when all countries join together to limit carbon emissions can people be {#blank#}10{#/blank#} rom suffering environmental asthma. |
Why the youth sense anger in faces
We tend to believe that older people are more positive and younger people are more sensitive to social cues (暗示).
Recently scientists investigated this idea by testing 10,000 men and women. They wanted to see if age affected a person's ability to identify facial emotions, such as fear and anger.
The researchers from McLean Hospital in the US used a Web-based platform to collect happiness data. It showed the participants two headshots (头部特写)of random people. They were then asked to identify which subject was angrier, happier, or more fearful.
The research found that younger people were able to better identify angry and fearful facial cues than older people.
"From studies and anecdotal evidence, we know that the everyday experiences of an adolescent are different from an older person, but we wanted to understand how these experiences might be linked with differences in basic emotion understanding,wrote Laura Germine, the study's senior author.
But what is it that makes young people more sensitive?
"This is the exact age when young people are most sensitive to forms of negative social cues, such as bullying," Lauren Rutter, the study's lead author, told Science Daily. "The normal development of anger sensitivity can contribute to some of the challenges that arise during this phase of development.
On the contrary across the whole 10,000-person survey, researchers found no decline in the perception (感知)of happiness among older participants.
"What's remarkable is that we see declines in many visual perceptual abilities as we get older, but here we did not see such declines in the perception of happiness, Germine told Neuro Science News.
She added that these findings fit well with other researches, showing that older adults tend to have more positive emotions and a positive outlook.
Following the paper's release, Rutter told Neuro Science News that gathering their primary research online allowed the team to research into a "much larger and more diverse sample set" than previous studies.
Title: Why the youth sense anger in faces | |
Purpose of the research | The idea {#blank#}1{#/blank#} whether age affects people's ability to identify facial emotions. |
Process of the research | The researchers {#blank#}2{#/blank#} happiness data on a web-based platform. |
Two {#blank#}3{#/blank#} head shots were shown to the participants. | |
Participants were asked to identify the more {#blank#}4{#/blank#} subject. | |
{#blank#}5{#/blank#}of the research | Younger people are {#blank#}6{#/blank#} at identifying negative social cues. |
Adolescence is the exact age when anger sensitivity reaches its {#blank#}7{#/blank#}. | |
Perception of happiness isn't on the {#blank#}8{#/blank#} with age. | |
Self-assessment of the research | What the research proves {#blank#}9{#/blank#} with other researches. |
In comparison with previous studies, the sample set of the research is superior in its size and {#blank#}10{#/blank#}. |
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