C
Why Black Friday Shoppers Still Crowd Stores
To many of us, the ideas of rushing out to a superstore the day after Thanksgiving is appealing. Why would anyone race to crowded stores when they could stay in with family, or watch college football? We can’t say we know the answer for sure. But we do feel amazed at those who pour into stores looking for Black Friday bargains. Seemingly, nothing can stop them. Not the weather. Not the crowds. And not the fact that hurrying to a store in the age of instant e-commerce seems so…last century. To be sure, holiday shopping habits do appear to be shifting. The National Retail (零售) Federation has stopped breaking up its holiday sales numbers by whether they come from e-tail purchases or from physical stores. It’s a pretty good sign that retailers don’t want to bring further attention to the declining fortunes of brick-and-mortar stores. But there is no denying that people still love going to stores. Actual shopping in actual places remains an important part of the holiday ceremony for millions of Americans. To many, it’s the difference between playing a sport and playing a video game. As commercial as stores may be, they are still places where actual human beings interact. In a store, the “courageous” shopper performs the approving act of finding a present. That item might be heavily promoted by the store, but it doesn’t drop into one’s cart. It is picked up and examined before a decision is made. Maybe it gets put back on the shelf when the shopper changes his or her mind. Maybe there is a conversation with a sales clerk. The process is not that different than it would have been decades ago. Online, the shopper has barely logged in before being faced with disturbing algorithmic (大数据的) suggestions based on earlier purchases. This hardly qualifies as shopping. This hardly qualifies as thinking. Perhaps we are reading too much into the Black Friday phenomenon. But we
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suspect one reason Black Friday remains is that it involves an act of resistance
against the Internet age. That would hardly be unreasonable. There aren’t many studies showing that time spent in stores is bad for one’s health, while there are quite a few drawing a link between time spent online and depression. Perhaps the people crowding into stores aren’t the crazy ones after all.
38. What can we infer from the first two paragraphs? A. Physical stores are not so popular as before. B. People spend more on Black Friday bargains. C. Americans have an unhealthy shopping habit. D. Goods in stores are cheaper than those online.
39. The author thinks people love to go holiday shopping mainly because ________. A. they feel tired of shopping online B. they think it is good for their health C. they hope to pass down the holiday tradition D. they can have real communication with others
40. What does the author think of the Black Friday phenomenon? A. Puzzling. B. Unusual. C. Out-of-date. D. Understandable.
41. What is mainly discussed in the passage? A. The psychology of shopping. B. The development of retailing. C. The influences of e-commerce. D. The features of holiday economy.
D
An open office is supposed to force employees to cooperate. To have them talk more face to face. To get them off instant messenger (IM) and brainstorming new ideas. But a recent study by two researchers offers evidence to support what many people who work in open offices already know: It doesn’t really work that way. The noise causes people to put on headphones and tune out. The lack of privacy causes others to work from home when they can. And the sense of being in a fishbowl means many choose email over a desk-side chat. Ethan Bernstein and Stephen Turban, two Harvard Business School professors, studied two Fortune 500 companies that made the shift to an open office environment from one where workers had more privacy. Using “sociometric” electronic badges (徽章) and microphones, as well as data on email and instant messenger use by employees, the researchers found in the first study that after the organization made the move to open-plan offices, workers spent 73% less time in face-to-face interaction. Meanwhile, email use rose 67% and IM use went up 75%. The participants wore the badges and microphones for several weeks before the office was redesigned and for several after, and the company gave the researchers access to their electronic communications. The results were astonishing. “We were surprised by the degree to which we found the effect,” Bernstein said. The badges could tell that two people had a face-to-face interaction without recording actual spoken words. The researchers were careful to make sure other factors weren’t in question—the business cycle was similar, for instance, and the group of employees were the same. In a second study, the researchers looked at the changes in interaction between specific pairs of colleagues, finding a similar drop in face-to-face communication and a smaller but still significant increase in electronic correspondence. Another wrinkle in their research, Bernstein said, is that not only did workers shift the way of communication they used, but they also tended to interact with
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different groups of people online than they did in person. Moving from one kind of communication to another may not be all bad—“maybe email is just more efficient,” he said—but if managers want certain teams of people to be interacting, that may be lost more than they think. The shift in office space could “have strong effects on productivity and the quality of work”. Bernstein hopes the research will offer evidence that will help managers consider the possible trade-offs of moving to an open office plan. In seeking a lower cost per square foot, they buy into the idea that it will also lead to more cooperation, even if it’s not clear that’s true. “I don’t blame the architects,” he said. “But I do think we spend more of our time thinking about how to design workplaces based on the observer’s angle”—the manger—“rather than the observed.” 42. 43. 44.
Employers prefer an open office because they think it can ______. A. increase competition B. improve communication C. create a safe environment
D. motivate workers’ responsibility
Why was there an increase in electronic correspondence among employees? A. Because they thought little of desk-side chat. B. Because they shifted to a new business cycle. C. Because they wanted to protect their privacy. D. Because they needed to complete more tasks.
What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 5 refer to? A. The researchers. B. The managers.
C. Certain teams of people. D. Different groups of workers.
45.
As for the design of workplaces, what is Bernstein’s major concern? A. Connectivity. B. Accessibility. C. User-friendliness. D. Cost-effectiveness.
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第二节（共5小题；每小题2分，共10分）
根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
The concept of “the body” is closely related to the ideas of “illness” and A. B. C. There are other types of social factors too.
All of these factors affect the condition of a person’s health.
Their housing conditions and neighbourhoods need to be improved.
“health”. ______ (46) The main reasons for the differences are genetic, and the fact D. that people’s bodies change as they age. However, a huge range of research indicates E.
that there are social factors too. Poorer people are more likely to eat “unhealthy” foods, to smoke cigarettes and F. to be employed in repetitive, physically difficult work. ______ (47) That is to say, the physical shapes of bodies are strongly influenced by social factors. G. These social factors are also closely linked to emotional wellbeing. People with low or no incomes are more likely to have mental health problems. ______ (48) For example, certain people with mental health issues may be at risk of becoming homeless, just as a person who is homeless may have an increased risk of illnesses such as depression. ______ (49) Bodies are young or old, short or tall, big or small, weak or strong. Whether these judgements matter and whether they are positive or negative depends on the cultural and historical contexts. The culture, and media, of different societies promote very different valuations of body shapes. ______ (50) Currently, in rich societies the idea of slimness is highly valued, but historically this was different. It is easy for people to feel undervalued because of factors they have no power to change, for example, their age and height. Equally, they can feel pressured into making changes to their appearance when there is a choice, which in some cases can lead to an unhealthy interest in weight loss. Therefore, sociologists are suggesting that we should not just view bodies and minds in biological terms, but also in social terms.
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What is considered as attractive or ugly, normal or abnormal varies greatly.
All of us exist in “bodies” of different shapes, heights, colours and physical abilities.
Social factors in general play an important role in the development of people’s
body conditions.
It is not clear, however, whether the situation of being poor causes mental
illness, or whether it is the other way around.
第三部分：书面表达（共两节，35分）
假设你是红星中学学生李华。请根据以下四幅图的先后顺序，写一篇英文周记，记录你参加冬奥会吉祥物征集活动的全过程。
第一节（15分）
注意：词数不少于60。
假设你是红星中学学生李华，你的英国朋友Jim在邮件中提到他对北京的
提示词：吉祥物 mascot
胡同很感兴趣，请你给他回复邮件，介绍一个你喜欢或你熟悉的胡同。内容包
官方公众号 official account
括：
1．该胡同的名称； 2．该胡同的特点； 3．发出来京邀请。 注意：1．词数不少于50；
2．开头和结尾已给出，不计人总词数。
Dear Jim,
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Yours, Li Hua
（请务必将作文写在答题卡指定区域内） 第二节（20分）
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