10 Jan READING

Across cultures, wisdom has been considered one of the most revered human qualities. Although the truly wise may seem few and far between, empirical research examining wisdom suggests that it isn’t an exceptional trait possessed by a small handful of bearded philosophers after all – in fact, the latest studies suggest that most of us have the ability to make wise decisions, given the right context.

1.What point does the writer make in the first paragraph?

• Wisdom appears to be unique to the human race.

• A basic assumption about wisdom may be wrong

• Concepts of wisdom may depend on the society we belong to.

• There is still much to be discovered about the nature of wisdom

'It appears that experiential, situational, and cultural factors are even more powerful in shaping wisdom

than previously imagined,' says Associate Professor Igor Grossmann of the University of Waterloo in

Ontario, Canada.

2.What does Igor Grossmann suggest about ability to make wise decisions?

• It can vary greatly from one person to another

• Earlier research into it was based on unreliable data

• The importance of certain influences on it was underestimated.

• Various branches of psychology define it according to their own criteria.

It seems that it's not so much that some people simply possess wisdom and others lack it, but that our

ability to reason wisely depends on a variety of external factors. 'It is impossible to characterize thought

processes attributed to wisdom without considering the role of contextual factors,' explains Grossmann.

'In other words, wisdom is not solely an "inner quality" but rather unfolds as a function of situations people

happen to be in. Some situations are more likely to promote wisdom than others.

3.According to the third paragraph, Grossmann claims that the level of wisdom an individual shows

• can be greater than they think it is.

• will be different in different circumstances

• may be determined by particular aspects of their personality

Grossmann and his colleagues have also found that one of the most reliable ways to support wisdom in

our own day-to-day decisions is to look at scenarios from a third-party perspective, as though giving

advice to a friend. Research suggests that when adopting a first-person viewpoint we focus on the focal

features of the environment and when we adopt a third-person, observer viewpoint we reason more

broadly and focus more on interpersonal and moral ideals such as justice and impartiality. Looking at

problems from this more expansive viewpoint appears to foster cognitive processes related to wise

decisions.

4.What is described in this paragraph?

• a difficulty encountered when attempting to reason wisely

• an example of the type of person who is likely to reason wisely

• a controversial view about the benefits of reasoning wisely

• a recommended strategy that can help people to reason wisely

Choose the correct heading for this paragraph:

The pyramids are the most famous monuments of ancient Egypt and still hold enormous interest for people in the present day. These grand, impressive tributes to the memory of the Egyptian kings have become linked with the country even though other cultures, such as the Chinese and Mayan, also built pyramids. The evolution of the pyramid form has been written and argued about for centuries. However, there is no question that, as far as Egypt is concerned, it began with one monument to one king designed by one brilliant architect: the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara

金字塔是古埃及最著名的古迹，至今仍吸引着人们的极大兴趣。尽管中国和玛雅等其他文化也建造了金字塔，但这些宏伟、令人印象深刻的埃及国王纪念碑已与埃及联系在一起。几个世纪以来，关于金字塔形式的演变一直有很多文字记载和争论。然而，毫无疑问，就埃及而言，金字塔始于一位杰出建筑师为一位国王设计的纪念碑：萨卡拉的乔瑟尔阶梯金字塔。

• The areas and artefacts within the pyramid itself

• a difficult task for those involved

• a king who saved his people

• a single certainty among other less definite facts

Choose the correct heading for this paragraph:

1. Djoser was the first king of the Third Dynasty of Egypt and the first to build in stone. Prior to Djoser’s reign, tombs were rectangular monuments made of dried clay brick, which covered underground passages where the deceased person was buried. For reasons which remain unclear, Djoser’s main official, whose name was Imhotep, conceived of building a taller, more impressive tomb for his king by stacking stone slabs on top of one another, progressively making them smaller, to form the shape now known as the Step Pyramid. Djoser is thought to have reigned for 19 years, but some historians and scholars attribute a much longer time for his rule, owing to the number and size of the monuments he built.

2. 乔瑟是埃及第三王朝的第一位国王，也是第一位用石头建造墓碑的国王。在乔瑟统治之前，陵墓是用干粘土砖砌成的长方形纪念碑，覆盖着埋葬死者的地下通道。乔瑟的主要官员名叫伊姆霍特普（Imhotep），他设想为国王建造一个更高大、更令人印象深刻的陵墓，方法是将石板堆叠在一起，逐渐变小，形成现在被称为阶梯金字塔的形状。人们认为乔瑟尔在位 19 年，但一些历史学家和学者认为他的统治时间要长得多，因为他建造的纪念碑数量多、规模大。

• the answers to some unexpected questions

• An idea for changing the design of burial structures

• a pyramid design that others copied

• a difficult task for those involved

1. Choose the correct heading for this paragraph:

2. Unfortunately, all of the precautions and intricate design of the underground network did not prevent ancient robbers from finding a way in. Djoser’s grave goods, and even his body, were stolen at some point in the past and all archaeologists found were a small number of his valuables overlooked by the thieves. There was enough left throughout the pyramid and its complex, however, to astonish and amaze the archaeologists who excavated it.

3. 不幸的是，所有的预防措施和地下网络的复杂设计都没能阻止古代盗贼找到进入的通道。乔瑟的随葬品，甚至他的遗体，都在过去的某个时刻被盗走了，考古学家发现的只是被盗贼忽略的少量贵重物品。然而，整个金字塔及其建筑群中留下的东西足以让发掘它的考古学家们惊叹不已。

• a king who saved his people

• an idea for changing the design of burial structures

• An incredible experience despite the few remains

• the answers to some unexpected questions

According to a leading business consultancy, 3-14% of the global workforce will need to switch to a different occupation within the next 10-15 years, and all workers will need to adapt as their occupations evolve alongside increasingly capable machines. Automation – or ‘embodied artificial intelligence’ (AI) – is one aspect of the disruptive effects of technology on the labor market. ‘Disembodied AI’, like the algorithms running in our smartphones, is another.

据一家领先的商业咨询公司称，在未来 10-15 年内，全球将有 3% 至 14% 的劳动力需要转行，而所有工人都需要随着他们的职业与能力越来越强的机器一起发展而做出调整。自动化--或 "实体人工智能"（AI）--是技术对劳动力市场产生颠覆性影响的一个方面。另一个方面是 "非实体人工智能"，比如我们智能手机中运行的算法。

This paragraph tells us about:

• the kinds of jobs that will be most affected by the growth of AI.

• the extent to which AI will after the nature of the work that people do.

• the proportion of the world’s labour force who will have jobs in AI in the future.

• the difference between ways that embodied and disembodied AI with impact on workers.

Dr Stella Pachidi from Cambridge Judge Business School believes that some of the most fundamental changes are happening as a result of the ‘algorithmication’ of jobs that are dependent on data rather than on production – the so-called knowledge economy. Algorithms are capable of learning from data to undertake tasks that previously needed human judgement, such as reading legal contracts, analysing medical scans and gathering market intelligence.

剑桥大学贾奇商学院的斯特拉-帕奇迪（Stella Pachidi）博士认为，一些最根本的变化是由于依赖数据而非生产的工作（即所谓的知识经济）的 "算法化 "而发生的。算法能够从数据中学习，完成以前需要人工判断的任务，如阅读法律合同、分析医学扫描和收集市场情报。

According to the second paragraph, what is Stella Pachidi’s view of the ‘knowledge economy’?

• It is having an influence on the number of jobs available.

• It is changing people’s attitudes towards their occupations.

• It is the main reason why the production sector is declining.

• It is a key factor driving current developments in the workplace.

His recently published research answers the question of whether automation, AI and robotics will mean a ‘jobless future’ by looking at the causes of unemployment. ‘History is clear that change can mean redundancies. But social policies can tackle this through retraining and redeployment.’

In his recently published research, Ewan McGaughey:

• challenges the idea that redundancy is a negative thing.

• shows the profound effect of mass unemployment on society.

• highlights some differences between past and future job losses.

• illustrates how changes in the job market can be successfully handled.