Careercast.com is out with its list of best and worst jobs of 2012. It’s bad news for the writer of this story, but much brighter for the folks who program the code that keeps this website busy.
Using a method that looked at physical demands, work environment, income, stress and hiring outlook, career Website Careercast.com, ranked the top 200 jobs. They also ranked the jobs with the most stress. Not surprisingly, none of the most stressful jobs show up on the best jobs list.
At the top is software engineer and at the bottom is the lumberjack. Cutting trees failed to skate above the bottom 10 percent in all ranking categories, except income. “Unemployment for lumberjacks is very high, and the demand for their services is expected to continue to fall through 2016. And while working outside all day may seem like a great job perk(有额外津贴的工作), being a lumberjack not only is considered the worst job, but also one of the world’s most dangerous,” according to Careercast.com. And, for that most dangerous job, a lumberjack earns a little more than $32,000 a year. That’s about $56,000 less than the easy job of a software engineer, which has the average salary at $88,000 a year, according to Careercast.
Here’s a complete look at the best and worst jobs. And, take a look at the most stressful jobs. You may be surprised.
Best Jobs Worst Jobs Most Stressful Jobs
Software Engineer Lumberjack Enlisted Soldier
Actuary Dairy Farmer Firefighter
Human Resources Manager Enlisted Military Soldier Airline Pilot
Dental Hygienist Oil Rig Worker Military General
Financial Planner Reporter (Newspaper) Police Officer
Audiologist Waiter/Waitress Event Coordinator
Occupational Therapist Meter Reader Public Relations Executive
Online Advertising Manager Dishwasher Corporate Executive Computer Systems Analyst Butcher Photojournalist
Mathematician Broadcaster Taxi DriverWho might be most interested in the passage?
| A．Job-hunters. | B．Net surfers. |
| C．Employers. | D．Educators. |
Which of the following was not considered when Careercast.com ranked the top 200 jobs?
| A．Hiring outlook. | B．Pressure. |
| C．Mental demands. | D．Salary. |
What do we know about the lumberjack?
| A．Although the lumberjack has high unemployment, it isn’t considered the worst job. |
| B．On the best jobs list, the lumberjack isn’t at the bottom. |
| C．More lumberjacks’ services will be needed after 2016. |
| D．A lumberjack earns less than half of a software engineer’s salary a year. |
According to the passage, the list is good news for ______.
| A．Online Advertising Managers. | B．Reporters. |
| C．Firefighters. | D．Dairy Farmers. |
What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To describe the advantages of different careers. |
| B．To provide career information. |
| C．To explain why a software engineer is the best job. |
| D．To analyze why a lumberjack is the worst job. |
Why is June 6, 1990 a special day for Mommy?
| A．Her dream of being a mother came true. |
| B．She found her origin from her Chinese mother. |
| C．She wrote the letter to her daughter. |
| D．Her female line was well linked. |
How does Mommy feel about her being given away?
| A．It is bitter and disappointing. |
| B．It is painful but understandable. |
| C．She feels sorry but sympathetic. |
| D．She feels hurt and angry. |
What does “I stood out like a sore thumb” in Paragraph 5 mean?
| A．I walked clumsily out of pains. |
| B．I was not easy to love due to jealousy. |
| C．I was impatient out of fear. |
| D．I looked different from others. |
What can be inferred from Mommy’s Anglo family life?
| A．She used to experience an identity crisis. |
| B．She fought against her American identity. |
| C．She forgot the pains of her early years. |
| D．She kept her love for Asia from childhood. |
Why did Mommy name her daughter “Shao-ming?”
| A．To match her own birth-name. |
| B．To brighten the lives of the family. |
| C．To identify her with Chinese origin. |
| D．To justify her pride in Chinese culture. |
By “Your past is more complete than mine,” Mommy means ________.
| A．her past was completed earlier than Shao-ming’s |
| B．Shao-ming has got motherly care and a sense of roots |
| C．her mother didn’t comfort her the way she did Shao-ming |
| D．her past was spent brokenly, first in Asia, then in the US |
Most damagingly, anger weakens a person's ability to think clearly and keep control over his behaviour. The angry person loses objectivity in evaluating the emotional significance of the person or situation that arouses his anger.
Not everyone experiences anger in the same way; what angers one person may amuse another. The specific expression of anger also differs from person to person based on biological and cultural forces. In contemporary culture, physical expressions of anger are generally considered too socially harmful to be tolerated. We no longer regard duels (决斗) as an appropriate expression of anger resulting from one person's awareness of insulting behaviour on the part of another.
Anger can be identified in the brain, where the electrical activity changes. Under most conditions EEG (脑电图) measures of electrical activity show balanced activity between the right and left prefrontal (额叶前部) areas. Behaviourally this corresponds to the general even-handed disposition (意向) that most of us possess most of the time. But when we are angry the EEG of the right and left prefrontal areas aren't balanced and, as a result of this, we're likely to react. And our behavioural response to anger is different from our response to other emotions, whether positive or negative.
Most positive emotions are associated with approach behaviour: we move closer to people we like. Most negative emotions, in contrast, are associated with avoidance behaviour: we move away from people and things that we dislike or that make us anxious. But anger is an exception to this pattern. The angrier we are, the more likely we are to move towards the object of our anger. This corresponds to what psychologists refer to as of ensive anger: the angry person moves closer in order to influence and control the person or situation causing his anger. This approach-and-confront behaviour is accompanied by a leftward prefrontal asymmetry (不对称) of EEG activity. Interestingly, this asymmetry lessens if the angry person can experience empathy (同感) towards the individual who is bringing forth the angry response. In defensive anger, in contrast, the EEG asymmetry is directed to the right and the angry person feels helpless in the face of the anger-inspiring situation.
| 1． |
The "duels" example in Paragraph 2 proves that the expression of anger.
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| 2． |
What changes can be found in an angry brain?
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| 3． |
Which of the following is typical of offensive anger?
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| 4． |
What is the key message of the last paragraph?
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However wealthy we may be, we can never find enough hours in the day to do everything we want. Economics deals with this problem through the concept of opportunity cost, which simply refers to whether someone's time or money could be better spent on something else.
Every hour of our time has a value. For every hour we work at one job we could quite easily be doing another, or be sleeping or watching a film. Each of these options has a different opportunity cost-namely, what they cost us in missed opportunities.
Say you intend to watch a football match but the tickets are expensive and it will take you a couple of hours to get to and from the stadium. Why not, you might reason, watch the game from home and use the leftover money and time to have dinner with friends? This-the alternative use of your cash and time-is the opportunity cost.
For economists, every decision is made by knowledge of what one must forgo-in terms of money and enjoyment-in order to take it up. By knowing precisely what you are receiving and what you are missing out on, you ought to be able to make better-informed, more reasonable decisions. Consider that most famous economic rule of all: there's no such thing as a free lunch. Even if someone offers to take you out to lunch for free, the time you will spend in the restaurant still costs you something in terms of forgone opportunities.
Some people find the idea of opportunity cost extremely discouraging: imagine spending your entire life calculating whether your time would be better spent elsewhere doing something more profitable or enjoyable. Yet, in a sense it's human nature to do precisely that-we assess the advantages and disadvantages of decisions all the time.
In the business world, a popular phrase is "value for money." People want their cash to go as far as possible. However, another is fast obtaining an advantage: "value for time." The biggest restriction on our resources is the number of hours we can devote to something, so we look to maximize the return we get on our investment of time. By reading this passage you are giving over a bit of your time which could be spent doing other activities, such as sleeping and eating. In return, however, this passage will help you to think like an economist, closely considering the opportunity cost of each of your decisions.
| 1． |
According to the passage, the concept of "opportunity cost" is applied to.
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| 2． |
The "leftover ... time" in Paragraph 3 probably refers to the time.
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| 3． |
What are forgone opportunities?
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Why did the BeauxArts style attract American entrepreneurs?
| A．It helped display their money status. |
| B．It was created by famous architects. |
| C．It was named after a famous institute. |
| D．It represented the 19th century urban culture. |
What is unique of SieMatic BeauxArts?
| A．Its designs are anti-conventional. |
| B．Its designs come from famous structures. |
| C．Its customers can enjoy their own composition. |
| D．Its customers can choose from various new styles. |
Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage.
Kids and Ponds
Years ago there was a group of kids who would hang around at some local ponds in the woods near their houses in Warwick, Rhode Island. In summer they caught frogs and fish. When winter arrived they couldn't wait to go skating. Time passed, and the ponds became the only open space for the kids to enjoy themselves in that neighborhood.
One day. a thirteen-year-old boy from this group of kids read in the local newspaper that a developer wanted to fill in the ponds and build over a hundred small houses called condominiums. So the boy went door to door and gathered more than two hundred signatures (签名）to stop the development A group of citizens met and decided to support him.
At the meeting of the town planning board (委员会)，the boy was quite nervous at first and spoke very softly. But when he saw the faces of his friends and neighbors in the crowd and thought about what was happening to their favorite ponds，his voice grew louder. He told the town officials that they should speak for the citizens. He also insisted that they should leave enough space for children. A few days later，the developer stopped his plan.
Nine years later, when that teen was a senior in college, he was informed that the developer was back with his proposal to build condominiums. Now twenty-two years old, he was studying wetlands ecology. He again appeared before the town planning board. This time as an expert witness, he used environmental protection laws to explain restrictions on development in and around wetlands and the knowledge of wetlands ecology to help improve the development. Finally some condominiums were built, but less than half the number the developer wanted. The ponds where those kids used to hang around were protected by a strip of natural land，and are still there today.
| 1． |
What did the kids like to do at the local ponds in winter? |
| 2． |
How did the boy win the citizens' support? |
| 3． |
What did the boy tell the town officials? |
| 4． |
What helped the boy to protect the ponds successfully nine years later? |
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