GEPT 中高級全真模擬試題 Mock 4

第一部分：聽力測驗（Listening Comprehension）

Part 1：問答（Question-Response）

說明： 每題會播放一個英文問句，請從三個選項中選出最適當的回應。

Question 1

I’ve been reflecting on how much of my identity is genuinely my own versus how much is shaped by the expectations of my family, my culture, and my social environment. Sometimes I feel like I’m playing a role that was assigned to me rather than one I chose. Is this a common feeling?

(A) You should try to be more independent and ignore what your family thinks. (B) What you’re describing is what psychologists call “self-authorship” — the process of moving from externally defined identity to an internally authored one. And yes, it’s not only common but is considered a key developmental task of early adulthood. Most people wrestle with this for years. (C) Everyone’s identity is shaped by their environment to some degree.

Question 2

Do you think that reading fiction has any practical value beyond entertainment? I sometimes feel guilty spending time on novels when I could be reading something more obviously useful.

(A) Novels are just stories and you should prioritize non-fiction if you want to learn. (B) Extensive research suggests that reading literary fiction improves what psychologists call “theory of mind” — the ability to understand and infer the mental states of others. Essentially, novels are empathy simulators. They expose you to the interior lives of others in a way that builds emotional intelligence. That seems highly practical to me. (C) You can learn a lot of vocabulary from reading novels in a foreign language.

Question 3

How do you know when a relationship — whether romantic, professional, or friendship — has run its course and it’s time to let it go rather than keep working at it?

(A) You should always try to work things out before ending a relationship. (B) One useful framework is to distinguish between relationships that are draining due to temporary external circumstances — which can be weathered — and those that are draining due to fundamental mismatches in values, respect, or reciprocity. If you consistently feel smaller rather than larger after interacting with someone, if you hide important parts of yourself to maintain the connection, or if you are the only one doing the work of maintaining the relationship, these are signals worth listening to. (C) Most relationships naturally fade over time without formal endings.

Question 4

I’ve been wrestling with the idea of forgiveness. Some people say forgiveness is essential for healing, while others argue that some things are unforgivable and that the pressure to forgive is a form of victim-blaming. Where do you stand?

(A) You should always forgive because holding onto anger only hurts yourself. (B) This is genuinely difficult terrain. I think we need to distinguish between forgiveness as an internal process — releasing the hold that resentment has on you — and forgiveness as a social performance — publicly declaring that what was done is now acceptable. The first can be healing without the second. And crucially, forgiveness should never be demanded of the harmed party; it can only be authentically offered. Some wounds may need to be processed and integrated rather than forgiven in the conventional sense. (C) Forgiveness is a religious concept that doesn’t apply in secular contexts.

Question 5

With all the discussion about work-life balance, I’m curious: do you think it’s possible to be truly passionate about your work and still maintain healthy boundaries, or does deep passion inevitably involve some level of imbalance?

(A) If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. (B) This is one of the unexamined tensions in modern career culture. The “follow your passion” narrative, while well-intentioned, can become a trap that justifies exploitation — both self-exploitation and exploitation by employers. Genuine passion for work is wonderful, but even passionate people need rest, need variety, need relationships beyond work. The goal is not perfect balance — life is too variable for that — but sustainable rhythms where work enriches life rather than consuming it. A passion that leaves no room for anything else is not passion; it’s obsession, and obsession is not sustainable. (C) Successful people in every field tend to work much longer hours than average.

Question 6

I find that I’m much more creative and productive late at night, but society is structured around early mornings. Should I try to change my natural rhythm to fit the world, or should I structure my life around my chronotype even if it creates friction?

(A) Early risers are more successful in every field according to research. (B) Chronobiology research confirms that there are genuine individual differences in circadian rhythms — “night owls” and “morning larks” are real biological categories, not just preferences. The practical answer depends on your circumstances. If your career and relationships can accommodate a later schedule, lean into your natural rhythm — you will be healthier and more productive. If they cannot, don’t try to completely override your biology; instead, focus on shifting your rhythm gradually (by 15 minutes per day) and maximizing consistent sleep timing, which matters more than whether the time is early or late. (C) You should follow the standard schedule because that’s how society operates.

Question 7

How do you think the practice of mindfulness meditation — paying deliberate, non-judgmental attention to the present moment — has become so mainstream in Western culture, and is this cultural translation losing something essential from its Buddhist origins?

(A) Mindfulness has been scientifically proven to reduce stress and anxiety. (B) This is a rich and contested question. On one hand, the secular adaptation of mindfulness has made genuine psychological benefits accessible to millions who would never engage with Buddhist practice. On the other, the extraction of meditation from its ethical framework — its connection to compassion, to non-harming, to the cultivation of wisdom — arguably transforms it from a path of liberation into a productivity tool. The corporate version of mindfulness that teaches employees to manage their stress so they can work harder is a particularly stark example of this distortion. I think the honest position is that both things are true: the secular adaptation is valuable, and something important is lost in translation. (C) Buddhist monks have been practicing meditation for thousands of years.

Question 8

I’m struggling with whether to speak up about an ethical concern at my workplace. The issue isn’t illegal, but it feels wrong to me — a marketing campaign that I think deliberately exaggerates the benefits of our product. If I say something, I might damage my career. If I stay silent, I’m complicit. What would you do?

(A) You should report it to the government consumer protection agency anonymously. (B) This is the classic ethical dilemma of the individual within an organization. First, check whether there is an internal reporting channel — many companies have ethics hotlines or ombudspersons. Second, document your concerns in writing, framing them in terms of risk to the company’s reputation and customer trust, not just personal discomfort. Organizations respond better to arguments about risk than arguments about morality. Third, consider the proportionality of the issue. If the exaggeration genuinely misleads vulnerable customers, the moral calculus is different from if it is industry-standard puffery. If after these steps you remain genuinely troubled, start quietly exploring other employment options. Having an exit strategy makes ethical action less terrifying. (C) You should just keep your head down and focus on your own work.

Question 9

Do you believe that love is primarily a feeling or a choice?

(A) True love is an overwhelming feeling that you can’t control. (B) The healthiest framing, in my view, is that love begins as a feeling but endures as a choice. The initial attraction, the giddy intoxication of early connection — these are feelings, and they are real and valuable. But they are also, by their nature, temporary. What sustains a relationship over decades is the daily choice to show up, to pay attention, to extend patience, to do the unglamorous work of repair after conflict. Love as a feeling is what gets people together. Love as a choice is what keeps them together. The most enduring relationships seem to be built by people who understand this distinction. (C) Love means different things in different cultures and time periods.

Question 10

What’s your perspective on the argument that in the attention economy, our attention itself has become a commodity to be bought, sold, and exploited — and that we need to think of attention as a finite, precious resource?

(A) People should spend less time on their phones and more time in nature. (B) I find this argument profoundly compelling. When we treat attention as infinite — as something we can scatter across dozens of notifications, tabs, and feeds — we are operating on a faulty assumption with real consequences. Cognitive science tells us that attention is strictly limited: we can only hold a small amount of information in conscious awareness at any given moment. The companies that compete for our attention — social media platforms, streaming services, news outlets — are engaged in a zero-sum battle for a resource that is fundamentally scarce. Recognizing attention as a precious and exhaustible resource changes behavior: it makes us more protective of where we direct it, more skeptical of technologies whose business model is attention extraction, and more intentional about dedicating time to what we claim to value. (C) The attention economy has created many successful businesses and jobs.

Question 11

I keep hearing that networking is essential for career success, but I find formal networking events awkward and transactional. Is there a more authentic way to build professional relationships?

(A) You just need to force yourself to attend more networking events and practice. (B) The most powerful professional relationships almost never start at formal networking events. They emerge from shared work, shared learning, and shared interests. The most effective “networking” is simply doing excellent work that others can see, being genuinely helpful to people without keeping score, and pursuing interests that bring you into contact with people across different fields. Join a cross-functional project. Offer to help someone with a problem you know how to solve. Write about what you’re learning. Attend events not to “network” but to learn something you’re genuinely curious about — the conversations that follow will be natural rather than forced. (C) Networking is indeed the most important factor in career advancement.

Question 12

In your opinion, does having children tend to make people happier or less happy? The research seems contradictory.

(A) People with children report higher levels of life satisfaction overall. (B) The research is indeed fascinatingly contradictory. On a moment-by-moment basis, studies tracking people’s hourly mood reports find that parents report more negative emotions — more stress, more fatigue, more irritation — than non-parents. But on broader measures of life satisfaction and meaning, parents often score higher, especially in the long term. The resolution of this paradox, I think, is that children reduce happiness as it is commonly measured — pleasure, ease, freedom — while providing something distinct from happiness: a sense of purpose, of connection to the future, of participating in something larger than oneself. Whether this is worth the cost is genuinely subjective; there is no universal answer. (C) The decision to have children should not be based on happiness research.

Question 13

I’ve noticed that my best insights — creative solutions to problems, new ideas for projects — almost never come when I’m sitting at my desk trying to think hard. They arrive in the shower, or on a walk, or just as I’m falling asleep. Why is that?

(A) Creative ideas come at random and cannot be predicted or encouraged. (B) This is a well-documented psychological phenomenon. Intense, focused concentration activates what neuroscientists call the “task-positive network” in the brain. But creative insight often requires the “default mode network” — the brain activity that occurs when we are not focused on an external task, when our mind is wandering freely. During these periods, the brain makes associative connections between ideas that logical, sequential thinking keeps separate. This is why many great scientists and artists have structured their days with deliberate periods of what looks like idleness. The practical lesson is that real thinking requires both modes: focused work to load the problem into your mind, and unfocused time to let the unconscious work on it. (C) You should try meditating for 20 minutes every morning before starting work.

Question 14

How should we evaluate the character of historical figures who did great things but also committed terrible acts — the founding fathers who wrote about liberty while owning slaves, the brilliant artists who were abusive to their families? Can greatness coexist with moral failure?

(A) We should judge historical figures by modern moral standards and condemn their failures. (B) This is genuinely one of the hardest problems in how we relate to history. I think we need to hold multiple truths simultaneously. The greatness of a person’s achievements and the magnitude of their moral failures are both real; neither cancels the other. We should neither dismiss the achievements because of the failures nor excuse the failures because of the achievements. The most honest posture is to study the whole person — the light and the shadow — and to resist the impulse toward either simple veneration or simple condemnation. The complexity of historical figures is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be acknowledged. (C) We should only celebrate historical figures who lived up to modern ethical standards.

Question 15

What do you think about the growing practice of people curating their online presence as if they were a personal brand, carefully managing what they share to project a specific image? Is this healthy self-presentation or a form of inauthenticity?

(A) Building a personal brand is essential for career success in the modern economy. (B) I find it deeply troubling, though I understand the structural pressures that create it. When every aspect of a person’s life becomes potential content to be optimized for engagement and professional advancement, the line between authentic self-expression and strategic performance blurs to the point of disappearance. The psychological cost is difficult to measure but I suspect it’s significant — the constant curation creates a split between the performed self and the private self that can erode genuine self-knowledge. The irony is that in a world saturated with carefully constructed personal brands, genuine authenticity — the willingness to be imperfect, uncertain, and inconsistent — becomes increasingly rare and, paradoxically, increasingly compelling. (C) Social media is just a tool and everyone has the right to use it however they want.

Part 2：簡短對話（Short Conversations）

說明： 每段對話後有兩個問題，請從四個選項中選出最佳答案。

Conversation 1

Dr. Williams: Ms. Park, I’ve reviewed your grant proposal on urban heat island mitigation strategies. The scope is impressive — too impressive, actually. You’re proposing to study six cities across three continents with a budget that would barely cover fieldwork in two. Ms. Park: I was worried about that. I tend to over-design my projects. What would you suggest cutting? Dr. Williams: The comparative international dimension is the most novel part of your proposal — that’s what makes it competitive for this particular grant. But you don’t need six cities. Pick three that represent meaningfully different climate zones and governance structures. Barcelona for Mediterranean, Singapore for tropical, and Chicago for continental. That still gives you a strong comparative framework. Ms. Park: That makes sense. I can reduce the project timeline from three years to two as well, which would bring the budget into range. Dr. Williams: Good. One more thing. Your methodology section is solid on the quantitative side — the surface temperature measurements, the satellite data — but thin on the qualitative side. If you’re going to make claims about community-level impacts, you need a plan for interviewing residents. Budget for a research assistant to do the interviews and transcribe them. That’s not a cost to cut; it’s an essential dimension of the research. Ms. Park: Understood. I’ll incorporate those changes and send you a revised draft by next Wednesday.

Question 16: What is Dr. Williams’s main suggestion for reducing the project scope?

(A) Focus on only one city instead of six (B) Narrow from six cities to three representing different climate zones (C) Eliminate the international dimension entirely and focus on the U.S. (D) Change the topic from urban heat islands to a different subject

Question 17: What gap in the methodology does Dr. Williams identify?

(A) The quantitative methods are weak and need stronger statistical analysis. (B) The project lacks qualitative methods to assess community-level impacts. (C) The satellite data sources are too expensive for the proposed budget. (D) The project timeline is too short to collect meaningful temperature data.

Conversation 2

Mindy: Dad, I got my college acceptance letters. I’ve been accepted to the engineering program at the public university here, and also to the environmental science program at the private university three hours away. Father: That’s wonderful, Mindy! Congratulations. Have you decided which one you’re leaning toward? Mindy: That’s the problem. I haven’t. The public university is more practical — lower tuition, close to home, a solid engineering degree that leads directly to jobs. The private university is more… me. The environmental science program is exactly what I care about. But it costs almost twice as much, and the career path is less clear. Father: Let’s separate the questions. First, financially. We can afford either option. Your mother and I saved for this, and there are scholarships and work-study programs. So let’s not make the decision based only on price. Mindy: That’s a huge relief. I was afraid I was being selfish even considering the expensive option. Father: Second, the career question. An engineering degree from a public university and an environmental science degree from a private university are both perfectly respectable. You will find work either way. The real question is which program will keep you engaged enough to do your best work. You said environmental science is more “you.” That matters. A lot. Mindy: So you think I should go with the environmental science program? Father: I think you should go where you will thrive, not just where you will survive. And I suspect you already know which one that is.

Question 18: What are the two college options Mindy is considering?

(A) Engineering at a private university vs. environmental science at a public university (B) Engineering at a public university vs. environmental science at a private university (C) Engineering at both universities, just different locations (D) A gap year vs. starting university immediately

Question 19: What is the father’s advice?

(A) Choose the public option because it is more financially responsible. (B) Choose the option where Mindy will thrive, which he suspects she already knows. (C) Take a gap year and reconsider both options later. (D) Apply to more universities to find a third option that combines both interests.

Conversation 3

Editor: James, I read your draft on the city council corruption investigation. It’s strong reporting, but there’s a structural problem. You’ve buried the most damning finding — the direct quote from the former aide confirming the kickback scheme — on page four of the draft. James: I was trying to build the narrative chronologically. Start with the initial suspicion, then the investigation, then the evidence. Editor: Chronology is not your friend here. Readers need the punchline first, then the story of how we got there. Lead with the quote. First paragraph. “A former senior aide to Councilmember Morrison has alleged…” Then you can walk readers through the investigation that uncovered it. James: That feels… less literary. I wanted the reader to experience the discovery process. Editor: Journalism is not literature — or rather, it’s a specific kind of literature where the reader’s time and attention are the most precious resources. They need to know within the first three paragraphs whether they should keep reading. Give them the revelation, then reward them with the detailed story. This isn’t a mystery novel where the reveal comes at the end. James: You’re right. I’ll restructure the piece and have a revised version by tonight. Editor: One more thing. You have a single anonymous source for the kickback claim. As it stands, that’s publishable but weak. Is there a second source, or documentation, we can add? James: The aide showed me a spreadsheet of off-book payments. I couldn’t keep a copy, but I took detailed notes. I can describe the spreadsheet without reproducing it. Editor: Do that. Add that description right after the quote. It will make the allegation much harder to dismiss.

Question 20: What structural change does the editor request?

(A) Organize the story by the geographic location of different incidents. (B) Lead with the strongest finding rather than telling the story chronologically. (C) Add more background information about Councilmember Morrison’s career. (D) Split the story into a series of shorter articles published over several days.

Question 21: How does the editor want James to strengthen the sourcing of the key allegation?

(A) Find a second source or add the description of the spreadsheet James was shown. (B) Get Councilmember Morrison to comment on the allegations before publication. (C) Remove the allegation entirely until a second source can be confirmed. (D) File a freedom of information request to obtain the official records.

Conversation 4

Therapist: So, you mentioned in our last session that you’ve been noticing a pattern of people-pleasing — of saying yes when you want to say no. Have you had any opportunities to practice with that since we last spoke? Client: Actually, yes. My sister asked me to host the entire extended family dinner this weekend — she does this thing where she volunteers me for things in front of everyone so I can’t say no. I could feel the yes forming in my mouth, but I paused and said, “Let me check my calendar and get back to you.” Therapist: That’s a significant step. You didn’t say no, but you didn’t say the automatic yes either. How did it feel? Client: Terrifying, honestly. She looked surprised. And then I felt guilty for the rest of the evening, like I had been rude. But I also felt… something like relief? Just knowing that I had a choice, even if I didn’t fully exercise it. Therapist: That guilt response is important information. It tells us that somewhere along the way, you learned that setting a boundary is the same as being unkind. That’s not true — boundaries are how healthy relationships function — but the feeling is real and it will take practice to rewire that association. What did you actually end up doing about the dinner? Client: I called her the next day and said I could help with the dinner but I couldn’t host the whole thing. She was a bit annoyed but she accepted it. Therapist: That’s boundary-setting in action. Not all or nothing — partial, negotiated, but authentic. How do you feel about it now? Client: Better. Still a little guilty, but mostly proud of myself. Which I realize is a strange thing to be proud of. Therapist: It’s not strange at all. You did something difficult that goes against a lifetime of conditioning. Pride is entirely appropriate.

Question 22: What pattern does the client identify in their behavior?

(A) They tend to avoid family gatherings and isolate themselves. (B) They have a people-pleasing pattern of saying yes when they want to say no. (C) They have a tendency to overcommit and then cancel at the last minute. (D) They struggle to delegate tasks and try to do everything themselves.

Question 23: What progress does the client report?

(A) They successfully said an outright no to their sister’s request. (B) They made a boundary by not giving an automatic yes and later negotiated partial participation. (C) They agreed to host but asked for help with the cooking. (D) They decided to stop attending family gatherings entirely.

Conversation 5

CFO: The board is scheduled to meet in two weeks, and I want to make sure the financial presentation addresses the concerns that came up last quarter. Specifically, our R&D spending, which several board members felt was growing faster than revenue. Analyst: I’ve been running the numbers. R&D as a percentage of revenue was 14% last year, up from 11% the year before. It’s projected to hit 16% this year if we maintain the current hiring plan. That’s a legitimate concern. CFO: The board needs to understand two things. First, that this is a strategic choice, not runaway spending. Second, that we have a clear framework for evaluating whether the investment is paying off. Analyst: I can build that into the presentation. For the strategic framing, I would emphasize that all three of our major product launches scheduled for next year trace directly to R&D investments made 18 to 24 months ago. The pipeline is visible. For the evaluation framework, I’d suggest tracking three metrics: time from research to commercialization, patent applications per R&D dollar, and revenue from products launched in the past three years as a percentage of total revenue. CFO: Those are exactly the right metrics. Add one more: R&D spending by product line, so the board can see that we’re focusing investment on the highest-growth segments, not spreading it evenly everywhere. Analyst: Got it. I’ll prepare a dashboard with those four metrics, trend lines over the past five years, and benchmarks against two competitors. CFO: Perfect. Draft by Friday so we have time to refine before the board packet goes out.

Question 24: What concern did the board raise last quarter?

(A) Revenue was declining in the company’s core business segments. (B) R&D spending was growing faster than revenue growth. (C) The company was losing market share to competitors. (D) Too many product launches had failed in the past year.

Question 25: What four metrics will be used to evaluate R&D investment effectiveness?

(A) Employee retention, customer satisfaction, market share, and operating margin (B) Time to commercialization, patents per R&D dollar, new product revenue share, and R&D spending by product line (C) Revenue growth, profit margin, return on assets, and earnings per share (D) Number of products launched, customer acquisition cost, lifetime value, and churn rate

Conversation 6

Presenter: Jason, I saw your talk proposal for the upcoming conference on “The Ethics of Persuasive Technology.” I’m on the selection committee, and I wanted to give you some informal feedback before we make final decisions. Jason: I’d really appreciate that. Fire away. Presenter: The proposal is genuinely interesting — the argument that “dark patterns” in interface design should be regulated like consumer fraud is provocative and timely. The issue is that your proposal reads like an academic paper abstract rather than a conference talk. Conference talks need drama. They need a journey. Jason: Can you give me an example of what you mean by “drama”? Presenter: Instead of starting with “This paper analyzes the prevalence of dark patterns in e-commerce,” start with a story. “Three weeks ago, I tried to cancel a subscription. It took me 47 clicks, two phone calls, and a formal complaint to the consumer protection agency to get it done. That was not an accident. That was a design decision.” Now the audience is emotionally invested. The analytical framework that follows will land differently. Jason: That makes complete sense. I think I’ve been writing for journals so long I forgot how to write for people. Presenter: Exactly. And the conclusion needs a call to action. Don’t end with “further research is needed” — end with something the audience can do on Monday morning. “Here are three questions every designer should ask before shipping a feature.” Give them tools, not just analysis. Jason: I’ll rewrite the proposal over the weekend. Do I resubmit through the portal or send it directly to you? Presenter: Resubmit through the portal. The deadline is next Friday. I’ll make a note that a revised version is coming.

Question 26: What is Jason’s proposed talk about?

(A) The future of e-commerce platforms and digital marketplaces (B) The ethics of persuasive technology and regulation of “dark patterns” in interface design (C) New research methodologies for studying consumer behavior online (D) The history of consumer protection laws in the digital age

Question 27: What advice does the selection committee member give for improving the proposal?

(A) Make the talk longer and include more academic citations. (B) Start with a relatable story to emotionally engage the audience and end with actionable tools. (C) Focus purely on the technical aspects and avoid ethical discussions. (D) Submit the proposal to a different conference that focuses on academic papers.

Conversation 7

Investor: So Marco, you’ve pitched the technology — the AI-powered crop monitoring drone system — and it’s genuinely impressive. But I’ve seen a dozen ag-tech startups with great technology that went nowhere. What makes you different? Marco: That’s the right question to ask. The technology is not our differentiator — honestly, in two years, every serious ag-tech company will have similar capabilities. Our differentiator is distribution. We’ve spent the last eighteen months building relationships not with individual farmers — that’s too slow and too expensive as a customer acquisition strategy — but with agricultural cooperatives. Investor: Walk me through how that works in practice. Marco: Take the Green Valley Cooperative in central Taiwan. They represent 800 rice farmers. We did a pilot with twelve of their members. Yield improvement averaged 8.3% — that’s an additional $120 p er h ec t a re p erse a so n . T h ecoo p er a t i v e l e a d ers hi p s a wt h e d a t a, an d t h e y^{'} re n o w reco mm e n d in gu s t o t h e i re n t i re m e mb ers hi p . T h e i re n d orse m e n t i s m ore p o w er f u lt hanan y ma r k e t in g w eco u l dd o, b ec a u se f a r m ers t r u s tt h e i rcoo p er a t i v e, n o tt ec h s t a r t u p s . * I n v es t or : * A n d t h e u ni t eco n o mi cso n t ha t c hann e l ? * M a rco : * C u s t o m er a c q u i s i t i o n cos tt h ro ug h t h ecoo p er a t i v ec hann e l i s ab o u t$ 300 per farmer, compared to roughly $900 i f w e w ere g o in g d i rec t . A nn u a l s u b scr i pt i o ni s$ 800 per farmer. So we’re looking at a payback period of less than five months. The cooperative takes a small commission — 10% — which we’re happy to pay because it aligns their incentives with ours. Investor: That’s compelling. What about expansion beyond Taiwan? Marco: The cooperative model exists in almost every agricultural economy — Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, parts of Europe. We’re designing our go-to-market playbook to be replicable across any market with strong agricultural cooperatives. Japan is our next target, with a planned entry in Q2 next year.

Question 28: What does Marco identify as the startup’s key differentiator?

(A) The superior accuracy of their AI crop monitoring technology (B) Their distribution strategy through agricultural cooperatives, not the technology itself (C) Their lower pricing compared to all competitors in the market (D) Their team of agricultural scientists with decades of farming experience

Question 29: What results did the pilot program achieve?

(A) Customer acquisition cost was reduced to zero through word of mouth. (B) Yield improvement averaged 8.3%, equivalent to an additional $120 per hectare. (C) The cooperative agreed to buy the entire startup outright. (D) Customer satisfaction ratings exceeded 95% among all participating farmers.

Question 30: How does the cooperative go-to-market model affect customer acquisition costs?

(A) It increases costs but provides more reliable customer retention. (B) It reduces the cost from approximately $900 t o$ 300 per farmer. (C) It eliminates all marketing costs because farmers find the product on their own. (D) It costs exactly the same as direct sales but reaches more farmers.

Part 3：簡短獨白（Short Talks）

說明： 每段獨白後有三個問題，請從四個選項中選出最佳答案。

Talk 1

“The Ig Nobel Prizes, awarded annually since 1991, honor scientific research that ‘first makes you laugh, then makes you think.’ While often dismissed as a joke, the Ig Nobels serve a serious purpose. They celebrate the spirit of curiosity that drives all science — the willingness to ask questions that seem ridiculous at first glance and to follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Consider some past winners. A 2014 Ig Nobel in physics was awarded for research measuring the friction between a shoe and a banana peel — and demonstrating why banana peels are, in fact, scientifically slippery. Silly? On the surface, absolutely. But the methodology developed to measure friction between biological materials and surfaces has applications in designing safer flooring for hospitals and factories.

The 2011 mathematics prize was awarded to researchers who each predicted the end of the world, and then tracked what happened when their predictions failed — providing a rich ethnographic study of how apocalyptic belief systems manage cognitive dissonance when prophecy fails. The 2022 economics prize went to researchers who mathematically modeled why success often comes not to the most talented but to the luckiest.

The Nobel Prize ceremony is a solemn, white-tie affair in Stockholm. The Ig Nobel ceremony is a deliberately chaotic event at Harvard University where winners are given one minute to explain their work before being cut off by an eight-year-old girl saying ‘Please stop, I’m bored.’ Paper airplanes fly through the auditorium. Real Nobel laureates hand out the prizes while wearing silly hats.

This juxtaposition is not mockery; it’s commentary. The Ig Nobels remind us that science, at its best, is playful. The boundary between a stupid question and a brilliant insight is often invisible until someone crosses it. By celebrating the seemingly trivial and the apparently absurd, the Ig Nobels honor the fundamental scientific virtue: the refusal to take oneself too seriously.”

Question 31: What is the stated criterion for receiving an Ig Nobel Prize?

(A) Research that makes you laugh first, then makes you think (B) Research that has been rejected by the Nobel Prize committee (C) Studies conducted with a budget of less than $10,000 (D) Discoveries that were made entirely by accident

Question 32: According to the talk, what was the practical significance of the banana peel friction study?

(A) It proved that cartoons have been scientifically accurate about banana peels. (B) The methodology has applications in designing safer flooring for hospitals and factories. (C) It led to the development of a new type of non-slip banana that doesn’t cause falls. (D) It demonstrated that physics cannot explain everyday phenomena.

Question 33: How does the talk characterize the relationship between the Ig Nobels and science?

(A) The Ig Nobels mock science and undermine public respect for research. (B) The Ig Nobels remind people that science, at its best, is playful and curious. (C) The Ig Nobels are a competitor to the Nobel Prize and cause confusion. (D) The Ig Nobels serve no purpose other than entertainment for scientists.

Talk 2

“Breaking news from the United Nations Climate Summit in Nairobi. Delegates from 174 countries have reached a landmark agreement on a global carbon pricing mechanism, capping twenty years of negotiations that many observers had written off as hopelessly stalled.

The agreement, formalized in the Nairobi Accord, establishes a minimum global carbon price of $50 p er m e t r i c t o n o f CO 2 e q u i v a l e n t, t o b e im pl e m e n t e d b y 2030, w i t ha p a t h w a y t o$ 100 per ton by 2035. The mechanism includes a ‘Climate Equity Fund’ — a pool of $200 billion annually, funded by a percentage of carbon pricing revenues from developed nations — to support clean energy transitions in developing countries.

The key breakthrough came from what diplomats are calling the ‘Singapore Compromise.’ Developing nations, led by India and a bloc of African countries, had long resisted a global carbon price, arguing that it would penalize countries that contributed least to historical emissions while impeding their economic development. The compromise forged by Singapore’s negotiating team created a differentiated timeline: high-income nations must implement the minimum price by 2028, middle-income nations by 2032, and low-income nations receive a waiver until 2038.

Environmental groups have offered cautious praise. Greenpeace International called the agreement ‘a historic step forward, but two decades late and $50 per ton too low.’ Economic analysts at the International Monetary Fund, which has long advocated for carbon pricing as the most efficient mechanism for emissions reduction, were more positive. The IMF’s chief economist described the differentiated timeline as ‘an elegant solution to the equity problems that have plagued carbon pricing discussions for decades.’

The agreement now faces a substantial implementation challenge. Carbon pricing requires robust monitoring, reporting, and verification systems — infrastructure that many signatory nations currently lack. The Nairobi Accord includes provisions for technical assistance and capacity building, but the gap between treaty language and operational reality is wide and historically treacherous.”

Question 34: What is the minimum carbon price established by the Nairobi Accord for 2030?

(A) $25 p er m e t r i c t o n (B)$ 50 per metric ton (C) $75 p er m e t r i c t o n (D)$ 100 per metric ton

Question 35: What was the “Singapore Compromise”?

(A) All nations must implement carbon pricing on the same timeline. (B) A differentiated timeline where high-income, middle-income, and low-income nations have different implementation schedules. (C) Carbon pricing would be voluntary rather than mandatory for all signatory nations. (D) The carbon price would be set by each country individually rather than globally.

Question 36: What concern does the talk raise about implementation?

(A) The carbon price is too low to have any meaningful effect on emissions. (B) Many signatory nations lack the monitoring, reporting, and verification infrastructure needed. (C) The United States and China both refused to sign the agreement. (D) The climate equity fund is funded entirely by voluntary contributions with no enforcement mechanism.

Talk 3

“What I want to share with you today is not a finding from my research. It’s a mistake. A mistake that I made early in my career, that I published, that was cited by other researchers, and that turned out to be wrong. I’m sharing this because I think our profession has a problem with how we handle error — or more precisely, with how we avoid admitting it.

The mistake was in a paper I published in 2012 on the relationship between urban density and social capital. My analysis suggested a strong negative correlation: as neighborhoods became denser, measures of social trust and civic engagement declined. The finding aligned with a popular narrative about the alienating effects of city life, and the paper received considerable attention. Policymakers cited it in debates about urban planning. It was taught in urban sociology courses.

In 2018, a PhD student in my department attempted to replicate the analysis using a larger, more recent dataset from the same survey instrument. The correlation disappeared. Completely. None of the density effects replicated.

My first response, which I’m ashamed to admit, was defensive. I scrutinized her methodology. I questioned whether the expanded dataset was comparable. I looked for reasons to dismiss her results rather than interrogating my own. It was a textbook example of confirmation bias in action.

Eventually, with the patient persistence of that PhD student, I did what I should have done immediately. I went back to my original data and analysis code. And I found the error — a coding mistake that had systematically biased the results in the direction of my hypothesis. It was not fraud; it was not deliberate. It was a bug. But the effect was the same as if it had been.

I published a formal correction in 2019. But you know what happened? The original paper continues to be cited far more often than the correction. The wrong finding lives on. The retraction was published, but the idea — that density erodes social capital — had already escaped into the world and taken on a life of its own.

The lesson I want you to take away is not that researchers should be more careful — though we should. It is that our system of scientific communication is structurally incapable of self-correction. We reward novelty and certainty; we do not reward retraction and humility. Until that changes, science will continue to build on foundations that we know, or should know, are unsound.”

Question 37: What was the error in the speaker’s 2012 paper?

(A) The survey data used was fabricated by a research assistant. (B) A coding mistake had systematically biased the results toward the researcher’s hypothesis. (C) The sample size was too small to support statistically significant conclusions. (D) The researchers had misinterpreted the survey questions in the original questionnaire.

Question 38: What happened after the speaker published the formal correction in 2019?

(A) The original paper was widely discredited and stopped being cited entirely. (B) The original paper continues to be cited far more often than the correction. (C) The speaker was fired from the university and banned from publishing. (D) Other researchers rushed to replicate the study and confirmed the original finding.

Question 39: What broader critique of scientific communication does the speaker offer?

(A) Journals take too long to review and publish new research findings. (B) The system rewards novelty and certainty but does not reward retraction and humility. (C) Too many journals are published in languages other than English, limiting accessibility. (D) Peer review is entirely ineffective and should be abolished as a quality control mechanism.

Talk 4

“Good afternoon, and thank you for joining this emergency town hall. As many of you are aware, the Riverdale neighborhood experienced flooding of a severity we have not seen in fifty years. Over the past 72 hours, emergency services have evacuated 340 households, and preliminary damage assessments suggest at least $40 million in structural damage to homes and businesses.

I want to be absolutely transparent about three things: what we know, what we don’t know, and what we are doing.

Here’s what we know. The flooding was caused by a combination of factors. We received 280 millimeters of rain in a 36-hour period — roughly triple the average for this time of year. This volume overwhelmed our stormwater drainage system, which was designed in 1982 for the rainfall patterns of that era. Additionally, the Riverdale flood levee, which was scheduled for reinforcement next year, experienced a partial breach at approximately 4 a.m. on Saturday. I want to be clear: the levee breach is our responsibility. The city owns and maintains that infrastructure, and it failed.

Here’s what we don’t know. We do not yet know when all displaced families can safely return to their homes. We do not know the full extent of the damage because many areas remain inaccessible. And while we have no confirmed casualties, we are still attempting to reach three households in the most heavily affected zone.

Here’s what we are doing. We have opened two emergency shelters — one at Riverdale High School and one at the Community Recreation Center. Both are staffed with Red Cross volunteers and have medical personnel on site. FEMA representatives will be at both locations starting tomorrow morning to begin processing individual assistance applications. We have deployed pumps and sandbags to control ongoing water ingress, and we have contracted an engineering firm to conduct an emergency assessment of the levee system, with a preliminary report expected within 48 hours.

I will hold another briefing tomorrow at 10 a.m., and we are updating the city website hourly. I know this is frightening and disruptive. I am not here to minimize that. I am here to tell you that we are deploying every resource we have, and that we will not stop until every family is safe and every question is answered.”

Question 40: According to the speaker, what caused the levee breach?

(A) An earthquake that damaged the levee structure undetected (B) The levee was city-owned infrastructure that failed during the extreme rainfall event (C) A construction company working nearby accidentally damaged the levee (D) The levee had been purposefully sabotaged by unknown individuals

Question 41: How much rain fell during the 36-hour period mentioned?

(A) 180 millimeters (B) 220 millimeters (C) 280 millimeters (D) 350 millimeters

Question 42: What immediate action has been taken regarding the levee?

(A) The levee has been completely rebuilt within 72 hours. (B) An engineering firm has been contracted to produce a preliminary assessment within 48 hours. (C) All residents have been permanently relocated away from the flood zone. (D) The city has sued the original levee construction company for negligence.

Talk 5

“The ancient Library of Alexandria has become, in the popular imagination, a symbol of irretrievable loss — a vast repository of classical knowledge destroyed in a single catastrophic fire, taking with it works of literature, philosophy, and science that we can never recover. The image is tragic, romantic, and mostly wrong.

Historians now believe that the Library of Alexandria did not perish in a single dramatic event but declined gradually over several centuries through a combination of neglect, budget cuts, political instability, and multiple smaller fires. The great library was not a building that burned to the ground one night; it was an institution that slowly withered as the intellectual culture that sustained it changed.

The library was founded around 300 BCE under the Ptolemaic dynasty, part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion — the Temple of the Muses, from which we derive our modern word ‘museum.’ At its peak, it likely held somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 scrolls — not books as we know them but papyrus rolls, each containing a single work or portion of a larger work. The collection was built through an ambitious and sometimes aggressive acquisition policy: ships docking at Alexandria were reportedly searched for books, which were confiscated, copied, and returned — sometimes with the copy rather than the original.

The most famous story of the library’s destruction — that it was burned by Julius Caesar’s troops in 48 BCE — is now considered a significant exaggeration. Contemporary accounts suggest that Caesar’s fire destroyed a warehouse of books near the harbor, possibly containing copies intended for export, rather than the library itself. The library was likely damaged but not destroyed at this point.

The real death of the Library of Alexandria was slower and sadder. As Alexandria declined as a center of learning, as political support for the Mouseion waned, and as the cultural value placed on the preservation of pagan classical texts diminished in an increasingly Christianized Roman Empire, the library simply ceased to function. The last known head of the library was Theon, father of the mathematician Hypatia, in the late 4th century CE. After that, silence.

Most of the texts lost from the ancient world were not destroyed in a single fire. They were lost through the mundane failure of institutions to maintain what their predecessors had built. The Library of Alexandria is a cautionary tale not about random catastrophe but about the fragility of cultural memory — and about how easily we lose what earlier generations built, not because it was destroyed but because we stopped caring enough to maintain it.”

Question 43: According to the talk, what is wrong with the popular image of the Library of Alexandria’s destruction?

(A) The library was never as large or important as popular culture suggests. (B) The library declined gradually over centuries, not in a single catastrophic fire. (C) The library was actually destroyed by an earthquake, not by fire as commonly believed. (D) All the library’s texts were successfully copied and preserved in other cities before its destruction.

Question 44: How did the library acquire its collection during its peak?

(A) Through generous donations from scholars and philosophers across the ancient world (B) By searching ships docked at Alexandria and confiscating books for copying (C) Through a monopoly on the papyrus trade that allowed it to buy scrolls cheaply (D) By sending teams of scribes throughout the known world to copy texts on site

Question 45: What does the speaker identify as the real cause of most ancient texts being lost?

(A) Multiple fires spread over several centuries that collectively destroyed the entire collection (B) The mundane failure of institutions to maintain what earlier generations had built (C) Deliberate destruction by Christian authorities who viewed pagan texts as heretical (D) The physical deterioration of papyrus scrolls which naturally disintegrated over time

第二部分：閱讀測驗（Reading Comprehension）

Part 1：詞彙和結構（Vocabulary & Structure）

說明： 請選出最適合填入空格的答案。

Question 46

The diplomat’s carefully ___ statement managed to express concern without alienating any of the negotiating parties.

(A) inflammatory (B) measured (C) reckless (D) spontaneous

Question 47

Were the company to ___ its aggressive expansion strategy, it would risk exhausting its cash reserves before any of the new markets become profitable.

(A) pursue (B) pursued (C) pursuing (D) be pursuing

Question 48

The novel’s power lies in its ability to ___ the mundane details of everyday life with profound philosophical significance.

(A) strip (B) deprive (C) imbue (D) extract

Question 49

The experimental results were ___ with the theoretical predictions, lending strong support to the researchers’ hypothesis.

(A) inconsistent (B) contradictory (C) at odds (D) consistent

Question 50

The documentary ___ light on the overlooked contributions of women scientists whose work was often attributed to their male colleagues.

(A) extinguished (B) cast (C) dimmed (D) hid

Question 51

Seldom ___ such a comprehensive study been attempted, and the results justify the extraordinary effort involved.

(A) has (B) have (C) is (D) was

Question 52

The committee’s final report was notable not for its recommendations but for its ___ of the structural inequality at the heart of the education system.

(A) celebration (B) concealment (C) indictment (D) acquittal

Question 53

___ the available evidence is far from conclusive, it is sufficient to warrant a larger, more rigorous investigation.

(A) As if (B) Even though (C) Provided that (D) In case

Question 54

The artist’s later work represents a radical ___ from the representational style that had defined her early career.

(A) continuation (B) adherence (C) departure (D) commitment

Question 55

The startup’s value proposition was ___ compelling that investors competed aggressively for a stake in the initial funding round.

(A) so (B) such (C) very (D) too

Question 56

The international community’s response to the humanitarian crisis was widely criticized as ___ — issuing statements of concern while taking no meaningful action.

(A) decisive (B) hypocritical (C) generous (D) prompt

Question 57

It is imperative that the organization ___ its governance structure to address the conflicts of interest identified in the external audit.

(A) reforms (B) reform (C) reformed (D) will reform

Question 58

The memoir offers an ___ honest account of addiction and recovery, refusing to soften or romanticize either the depths of despair or the difficulty of healing.

(A) conveniently (B) selectively (C) unflinchingly (D) reluctantly

Question 59

___ essential these cultural traditions may be to the community’s identity, without formal documentation and transmission, they risk being lost within a generation.

(A) Despite (B) Whatever (C) However (D) Although

Question 60

The defense attorney’s cross-examination skillfully ___ inconsistencies in the witness’s testimony without appearing aggressive or disrespectful.

(A) exposed (B) concealed (C) ignored (D) invented

Part 2：段落填空（Cloze Test）

說明： 以下三篇短文各有五個空格，請選出最適合的答案。

Passage 1

The concept of a universal basic income — a regular, unconditional cash payment to every citizen — has moved from the margins of economic discourse to the mainstream over the past decade. Though the idea has historical (61) ___ stretching back to Thomas Paine in the 18th century, the current wave of interest is driven by contemporary concerns: automation-related job displacement, rising inequality, and the demonstrated inadequacy of existing welfare systems.

Proponents argue that a universal basic income would provide a floor beneath which no citizen could fall, eliminating the extreme poverty and economic insecurity that (62) ___ even in wealthy nations. They contend that it would empower workers to refuse exploitative employment, encourage entrepreneurship by providing a safety net for risk-taking, and recognize the value of unpaid work such as caregiving that the market economy fails to compensate.

Critics raise both philosophical and practical (63) ___. Philosophically, some argue that unconditionally providing income without requiring work undermines the social contract and the dignity that comes from productive contribution. Practically, the cost is formidable. A basic income set at the poverty line in a country like the United States would cost approximately $3 trillion annually — roughly half the entire federal budget. Even with (64) ___ tax increases and the elimination of existing welfare programs, the fiscal math is challenging.

The evidence from pilot programs is mixed. A two-year experiment in Finland found that basic income recipients reported significantly higher well-being and lower stress, but showed no significant difference in employment rates compared to a control group. A more extensive trial in Kenya, run by the charity GiveDirectly, is still ongoing but early results suggest positive effects on mental health, food security, and small business formation.

What seems clear is that the universal basic income, whatever its (65) ___, has succeeded as a provocation. It has forced a long-overdue conversation about the nature of work, the distribution of wealth, and the purpose of social policy in an era of unprecedented technological capacity.

Question 61

(A) interruptions (B) precedents (C) obstacles (D) contradictions

Question 62

(A) vanish (B) thrive (C) persist (D) dissolve

Question 63

(A) endorsements (B) celebrations (C) approvals (D) objections

Question 64

(A) minimal (B) insufficient (C) substantial (D) unnecessary

Question 65

(A) feasibility (B) popularity (C) complexity (D) simplicity

Passage 2

In the world of professional sports, the term “clutch performance” refers to an athlete’s ability to perform at their best under the highest pressure — the final minutes of a tied game, the penalty shootout, the championship point. The mythology around clutch performers suggests that some athletes possess a mysterious “clutch gene” — an innate quality that (66) ___ them from their peers.

The scientific evidence, however, tells a different story. Researchers who have analyzed performance data across multiple sports, including basketball free throws in the NBA, penalty kicks in professional soccer, and putts on the PGA Tour, consistently find that the concept of a stable clutch ability is largely a (67) ___. In study after study, athletes’ performance under pressure is not significantly different from what would be predicted by their overall skill level. What varies is not the athlete’s ability but the narrative we construct around a small number of highly visible, highly memorable moments.

This does not mean that pressure has no effect. It does — but the effect is (68) ___. Some athletes perform slightly better under pressure; some perform slightly worse. The differences are small, they vary across situations, and they are not consistent enough across an athlete’s career to constitute a reliable trait.

Where does the myth persist? Because our memories are (69) ___. We remember the buzzer-beater that won the championship and forget the twenty times that same player missed a shot in the final minute of a less memorable game. We remember the soccer player who converted the decisive penalty in the World Cup final and forget the two penalty misses earlier in the tournament. Our sense of who is “clutch” is shaped more by the (70) ___ of our memories than by the actual statistical record.

Question 66

(A) isolates (B) separates (C) distinguishes (D) extracts

Question 67

(A) reality (B) fact (C) myth (D) certainty

Question 68

(A) uniform (B) predictable (C) consistent (D) variable

Question 69

(A) accurate (B) selective (C) comprehensive (D) objective

Question 70

(A) reliability (B) accuracy (C) selectivity (D) objectivity

Passage 3

The photography of Dorothea Lange, particularly her iconic 1936 image “Migrant Mother,” has become synonymous with the Great Depression in the American public imagination. The photograph — a weary woman in worn clothing, her face etched with worry, two children hiding their faces against her shoulders — captured something essential about an era of profound economic suffering. Yet the circumstances of the photograph’s creation and the life of its subject raise uncomfortable questions about the ethics of documentary photography.

Lange was working for the Farm Security Administration, a government agency that commissioned photographers to document rural poverty and build public support for New Deal programs. On a rainy day in March 1936, driving past a pea-pickers’ camp in Nipomo, California, Lange made a decision to turn back. She spent approximately ten minutes with Florence Owens Thompson, a 32-year-old mother of seven, taking six photographs. The interaction, by Lange’s own later (71) ___, involved little conversation. Lange did not ask Thompson’s name, and the name she later recorded — “Florence Thompson” — was incorrect; Thompson had remarried and her surname was actually Owens.

“Migrant Mother” was published widely, became the defining image of Depression-era suffering, and established Lange’s reputation as one of America’s great photographers. Thompson, meanwhile, remained in poverty. She never (72) ___ directly from the photograph’s fame, and in her later years expressed bitterness that Lange had profited from her image while she continued to struggle.

The ethical tension at the heart of documentary photography is this: the photographer (73) ___ suffering into art, and in doing so, serves a larger social purpose — raising awareness, mobilizing compassion, driving policy change. But the individual who provided the raw material for that art receives, at best, recognition and, at worst, exploitation. The question is whether the (74) ___ good justifies the individual cost.

Lange herself wrestled with this question. “I had to get my work done,” she once said, an acknowledgment that feels both honest and defensive. Thompson’s children, interviewed decades later, expressed (75) ___ feelings: pride in the photograph’s power, resentment at their mother’s treatment, gratitude that the image helped their family receive some assistance when it was published.

Question 71

(A) denial (B) account (C) fiction (D) imagination

Question 72

(A) benefited (B) suffered (C) withdrew (D) avoided

Question 73

(A) destroys (B) transforms (C) ignores (D) diminishes

Question 74

(A) superficial (B) personal (C) greater (D) minimal

Question 75

(A) simple (B) mixed (C) negative (D) positive

Part 3：閱讀理解（Reading Comprehension）

說明： 閱讀以下短文，並根據文章內容回答問題。

Passage 1

In 1804, a boy was found wandering naked and mute in the forests of Aveyron, in southern France. He appeared to be about twelve years old, had no language, walked on all fours at times, and showed no recognition of human social conventions. He became known as Victor, the “Wild Boy of Aveyron,” and his case became a scientific sensation across Europe.

A young physician named Jean-Marc Gaspard Itard took charge of Victor’s education, spending five years attempting to teach him language, social behavior, and cognitive skills. Itard’s detailed reports of this work are now considered foundational texts in the fields of special education and child development.

The results of Itard’s efforts were modest at best. Victor did learn to recognize some written words, to perform simple tasks, and to show affection toward his caregivers. But he never learned to speak, never fully integrated into human society, and the question of whether he had been abandoned because of an intellectual disability or had become intellectually disabled through isolation was never resolved.

Victor’s case, and the handful of similar cases of “feral children” reported before and since, raises a profound question that remains relevant today: what aspects of human cognition require social interaction to develop? The philosopher William James once speculated that a baby’s sensory experience is a “blooming, buzzing confusion” — that without the organizing framework provided by social interaction and language, we cannot make sense of our own perceptions.

Modern neuroscience has confirmed much of this intuition. The brain develops through an active, bidirectional process in which genetic programs and environmental input are inseparable. The visual cortex requires visual input during a critical developmental window to organize properly; children born with cataracts that are not removed until later childhood never develop fully normal vision even after the physical obstruction is corrected. Language acquisition similarly requires linguistic input during early childhood. Children deprived of language exposure — whether through deafness in a non-signing environment or through extreme social neglect — never fully acquire grammatical competence if exposed to language only after early adolescence.

Victor’s tragedy, then, was not just a personal one. It was a demonstration of something fundamental about human nature: that our cognitive capacities, which feel so innate and inevitable, are in fact the product of a delicate developmental dance between biology and environment. Without the partner of human interaction, the dance cannot proceed.

Question 76: What did Itard attempt to do with Victor?

(A) Study him as a natural specimen without interfering with his wild behavior (B) Teach him language, social behavior, and cognitive skills over five years (C) Return him to the forest to observe whether he could survive independently (D) Prove that feral children were a myth and that Victor was an ordinary orphan

Question 77: According to the passage, what has neuroscience confirmed about brain development?

(A) The brain develops entirely according to genetic programs, independent of environment. (B) Brain development requires environmental input, with critical developmental windows for systems like vision and language. (C) The brain is fully formed at birth and does not change significantly through childhood. (D) Social interaction is not necessary for the development of cognitive capacities.

Question 78: What does the passage identify as the broader significance of Victor’s case?

(A) It demonstrated that feral children were historical fabrications. (B) It proved that intellectual disability is always caused by genetics. (C) It revealed that human cognition requires social interaction to fully develop. (D) It showed that Itard’s educational methods were fundamentally flawed.

Passage 2

From: [email protected] To: All Staff Subject: Introduction of Mental Health Days and Revised Leave Policy

Dear Team,

I am pleased to announce several changes to our leave policy, effective June 1, 2026, designed to better support the holistic well-being of every employee.

Mental Health Days

Effective immediately, all full-time employees are entitled to five “mental health days” per calendar year, in addition to existing sick leave and vacation allowances. These days may be used for any purpose related to mental and emotional well-being — rest, therapy appointments, personal reflection, or simply a day away from work to recharge.

Mental health days require no medical documentation and no explanation of the specific reason. When requesting a mental health day through our HR portal, you will see a new leave category labeled “Wellness Day.” No manager may ask an employee to justify or explain their use of a wellness day. This policy is rooted in the recognition that mental health is health, and that the distinction between physical and mental illness is both artificial and counterproductive.

Revised Bereavement Leave

Our bereavement leave policy has been expanded from three days to ten days for immediate family members (spouse, child, parent, sibling) and from one day to five days for extended family members (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins). This expansion acknowledges that grief does not resolve within a long weekend and that returning to work while processing significant loss is both personally difficult and professionally unproductive.

Flexible Hours for Caregivers

Employees with caregiving responsibilities — for children, aging parents, or family members with disabilities — may now apply for flexible working hours through a streamlined approval process. Requests will be approved within five business days unless there is a demonstrable operational conflict that cannot be resolved. The burden of demonstrating such a conflict rests with the manager, not the employee.

Why This Matters

These policies are not merely an employee benefit. They are a recognition of a simple truth: people who are struggling with their mental health, grieving a loss, or stretched thin by caregiving responsibilities cannot perform at their best. Supporting employees through these challenges is not only the right thing to do — it is the smart thing to do.

If you have questions about any of these policies, please contact the HR team or speak confidentially with your manager.

With appreciation, Dr. Amanda Reyes Chief People Officer

Question 79: What documentation is required for a mental health day?

(A) A doctor’s note or therapist’s letter confirming the need for leave (B) An explanation of the specific reason for the leave request (C) No medical documentation or explanation of the reason is required (D) Manager approval based on current workload and team capacity

Question 80: How long is the bereavement leave for an immediate family member under the revised policy?

(A) Three days (B) Five days (C) Seven days (D) Ten days

Question 81: Who bears the burden of demonstrating operational conflict in flexible hours requests?

(A) The employee, who must provide documentation of caregiving responsibilities (B) The manager, who must demonstrate a demonstrable operational conflict (C) HR, who mediates between the employee and the manager (D) An external arbitration panel that reviews disputed requests

Passage 3

The Silk Road, that ancient network of trade routes stretching from the Mediterranean to East Asia, has become a powerful metaphor for globalization and cultural exchange. The term itself was coined in the 19th century by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen — it is a modern invention, not an ancient one. No traveler in antiquity ever said they were “taking the Silk Road.” The routes were not a single highway but a shifting, decentralized network that changed with political fortunes, weather patterns, and the rise and fall of oasis cities.

The traditional narrative of the Silk Road is one of East-West connection: Chinese silk flowing to Rome, Roman glass and gold flowing to China. But recent scholarship, led by historians such as Valerie Hansen, has substantially revised this picture. The revisionist account suggests that the Silk Road trade was far less voluminous than previously imagined, that most goods traveled only short distances through local intermediaries rather than across the entire network, and that the cultural and intellectual exchanges — the spread of Buddhism from India to China, of Islam across Central Asia, of technologies such as papermaking — were ultimately far more significant than the commercial ones.

Hansen’s influential 2012 book, “The Silk Road: A New History,” draws on archaeological discoveries and documents in multiple languages to make her case. She argues that the Silk Road was not a superhighway of international commerce but a “a chain of local markets.” A typical bale of silk might be traded five or six times, moving a few hundred kilometers with each transaction, before reaching its final destination. The individuals facilitating this trade were often not the romantic caravans of camels carrying goods from Chang’an to Antioch but small-scale peddlers operating within culturally and linguistically familiar zones.

This revision does not diminish the Silk Road’s historical importance; it reframes it. The real significance of these trade routes was not the goods that moved along them but the ideas. Buddhism traveled from its birthplace in India along the Silk Road to become the dominant religion of China, Korea, and Japan. Islam spread across Central Asia along the same routes. Technologies — the magnetic compass, gunpowder, papermaking — diffused westward. Foods we now consider fundamental to regional cuisines — the noodle, the orange, the grape — moved along these paths.

The Silk Road, in this revised understanding, is less a story of merchants and more a story of monks, migrants, and the slow, cumulative transformation of civilizations through contact. It is, in a sense, the prehistory of globalization — not globalization as it is imagined by economists, measured in trade volumes and capital flows, but globalization as it is lived: the messy, uneven, unpredictable process by which human societies encounter each other and are changed in the encounter.

Question 82: According to the passage, who coined the term “Silk Road”?

(A) An ancient Chinese historian during the Han dynasty (B) A Roman merchant who traveled the route in the 2nd century CE (C) The German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in the 19th century (D) The historian Valerie Hansen in her 2012 book

Question 83: What is the “revisionist account” of Silk Road trade?

(A) Trade was far more voluminous than traditionally believed. (B) Most goods traveled short distances through local intermediaries, and cultural/intellectual exchanges were more significant than commercial ones. (C) The Silk Road was exclusively used for religious pilgrimages, not commerce. (D) The traditional narrative was completely accurate and needed no revision.

Question 84: According to the passage, what is the revised understanding of the Silk Road’s significance?

(A) It is a story primarily about the commercial success of Chinese silk merchants. (B) It is less about merchants and more about the transmission of ideas, religions, and technologies. (C) It had minimal historical importance and has been exaggerated by historians. (D) Its primary legacy is the modern terminology it contributed to geography.

Passage 4

In September 2025, the city of Barcelona made international headlines for an unusual policy experiment: it announced that it would begin paying residents who chose to leave their cars at home and walk, bike, or take public transit instead. The “Move Green” program, as it was named, used a smartphone app that tracked participants’ transportation choices and awarded points for each trip taken without a private vehicle. Points could be redeemed for credits on public transit, discounts at local businesses, or direct cash payments — up to 250 euros per year for the most active participants.

The program was launched as a pilot with 10,000 participants, selected to be demographically representative of the city. Preliminary results after six months were promising. Participants reduced their private car usage by an average of 28%. Bicycle trips increased by 42%, and public transit usage increased by 17%. Air quality sensors in neighborhoods with high program participation showed measurable decreases in nitrogen dioxide levels.

The approach, economists note, is an example of a “nudge plus” — an intervention that combines behavioral insights with financial incentives. Traditional car-reduction strategies have relied on making driving more expensive (congestion pricing, parking fees, fuel taxes) or making alternatives more attractive (bike lanes, transit investment). Barcelona’s program does both: the incentive rewards alternative choices directly, while the app’s tracking provides participants with concrete feedback about their transportation patterns and carbon footprint.

Critics have raised several concerns. Some argue that the program essentially pays people (disproportionately the affluent, who are more likely to own cars in the first place) to do what they should be doing anyway, and that the money would be better spent on infrastructure for all rather than incentives for a few. Others note that the behavioral effects may not persist once the incentives are removed — that participants may return to driving once they are no longer being paid not to.

The city government has framed the program not as a permanent subsidy but as a catalyst — a way to break car-dependence habits and introduce residents to alternatives they might continue using once the financial incentive ends. Whether this bet pays off will require longer-term data. But the early results, at minimum, provide evidence that direct incentives can shift transportation behavior, and that the line between infrastructure investment and behavioral intervention may be blurrier than traditional policy frames suggest.

Question 85: How does the “Move Green” program work?

(A) It charges residents a fee every time they drive a private vehicle within city limits. (B) It rewards participants with points redeemable for credits, discounts, or cash when they avoid using private cars. (C) It provides free bicycles to all city residents who agree to stop driving their cars permanently. (D) It bans private vehicles from the city center and requires all residents to use public transit.

Question 86: What changes were observed after the first six months?

(A) Private car usage remained unchanged, but public satisfaction with transit increased. (B) Car usage decreased by 28%, and bike trips and public transit usage increased significantly. (C) The program was cancelled due to lack of participant interest and engagement. (D) Most participants found ways to game the app and earn points without actually changing behavior.

Question 87: How does the city frame the purpose of the financial incentives?

(A) As a permanent subsidy that will continue indefinitely as part of the city budget (B) As compensation for residents who are forced to give up their cars by law (C) As a catalyst to break car-dependence habits, with the hope that behavior continues after incentives end (D) As a wealth transfer from lower-income residents to higher-income residents who own cars

Passage 5

The “banality of evil” — a phrase coined by political theorist Hannah Arendt in her 1963 book “Eichmann in Jerusalem” — has become one of those rare academic concepts that escapes the academy and enters common discourse. Arendt used the phrase to describe Adolf Eichmann, a chief architect of the Holocaust, whom she observed during his trial in Jerusalem. She expected to find a monster. Instead, she found a bureaucrat — a man who seemed not driven by ideological fanaticism or sadistic cruelty but by a bland careerism, a desire to do his job well and advance within the organization.

This observation was explosive, and it remains controversial. Critics accused Arendt of minimizing Eichmann’s guilt by portraying him as a thoughtless functionary rather than a committed Nazi ideologue. Recent scholarship based on historical documents Arendt did not have access to suggests that Eichmann was indeed more ideologically committed than the “banality” thesis suggests. But the power of the concept does not depend on the accuracy of its application to Eichmann in particular.

What makes the concept enduring is that it identifies a genuine and troubling psychological phenomenon: the capacity of ordinary people, operating within organizational structures, to participate in terrible things without experiencing themselves as evil. Arendt’s insight was not about Eichmann alone. It was about the psychological mechanics by which moral responsibility is dissolved within bureaucratic systems.

Consider the classic experiments by psychologist Stanley Milgram, conducted in the early 1960s — roughly contemporaneous with the Eichmann trial. Milgram found that ordinary people, instructed by an authority figure in a lab coat, were willing to administer what they believed were dangerous electric shocks to another person. The participants were not sadists; most were visibly distressed by what they were doing. But they continued, because an authority figure told them to, because the experiment required it, because they had committed to participating.

The connection between Arendt’s analysis and Milgram’s findings is not coincidental. Both were responses to the central moral question of the post-Holocaust era: how do people do terrible things? The answers point not toward exceptional evil but toward disturbingly common psychological mechanisms: the diffusion of responsibility, the power of authority, the gradual escalation that normalizes the previously unthinkable, and the human tendency to see oneself as a small cog in a large machine.

The lesson is not that everyone is capable of genocide. It is that systems can produce terrible outcomes even when composed of individuals who, if asked, would describe themselves as decent people just doing their jobs. Recognizing this does not excuse the individuals. It warns the rest of us.

Question 88: What did Hannah Arendt expect to find in Adolf Eichmann?

(A) An intellectually brilliant strategist who had outsmarted the Allied forces (B) A monster driven by ideological fanaticism and sadistic cruelty (C) A broken, remorseful man crushed by guilt for his crimes (D) A minor functionary with very little actual responsibility for the Holocaust

Question 89: According to the passage, what did Milgram’s experiments demonstrate?

(A) Only people with pre-existing sadistic tendencies will obey harmful commands. (B) Ordinary people were willing to administer dangerous shocks when instructed by an authority figure. (C) Most people will immediately refuse to participate in activities that might harm others. (D) Obedience to authority is a phenomenon unique to German culture.

Question 90: What does the passage identify as the “lesson” of the banality of evil concept?

(A) That everyone, without exception, is capable of genocide under the right circumstances (B) That Eichmann was innocent and should not have been convicted in Jerusalem (C) That recognizing the systemic production of evil warns us to be vigilant, not to excuse individuals (D) That bureaucratic systems are inherently evil and should be abolished entirely

第三部分：寫作測驗（Writing）

Part 1：中譯英（Chinese-to-English Translation）

說明： 請將以下中文句子翻譯成英文。

Question 91

這部紀錄片不僅記錄了氣候變遷對沿海社區的實際影響，更深刻地探討了人類社會面對環境災難時所展現出的韌性與脆弱。

參考詞彙：documentary / not only…but also / tangible impacts / coastal communities / explore / resilience and fragility / in the face of / environmental disasters

參考答案：This documentary not only records the tangible impacts of climate change on coastal communities but also profoundly explores the resilience and fragility that human societies display in the face of environmental disasters.

Question 92

在我看來，真正成功的教育改革不在於引進最新的科技設備，而在於培養教師啟發學生獨立思考和表達自我的能力。

參考詞彙：from my perspective / successful education reform / lies not in / introducing / latest technological equipment / cultivating / inspire / independent thinking / self-expression

參考答案：From my perspective, truly successful education reform lies not in introducing the latest technological equipment but in cultivating teachers’ ability to inspire students to think independently and express themselves.

Question 93

雖然網路讓資訊的傳播變得前所未有的快速，但同時也使得區分事實與假象比以往任何時候都更加困難。

參考詞彙：although / spread of information / unprecedented / at the same time / distinguish / fact from fiction / more difficult than ever

參考答案：Although the internet has made the spread of information unprecedentedly fast, it has also, at the same time, made distinguishing fact from fiction more difficult than ever before.

Question 94

這篇研究論文的核心貢獻在於揭示了傳統經濟模型長期以來忽略的一項關鍵變數：社會信任在市場運作中的作用。

參考詞彙：core contribution / lies in / reveal / traditional economic models / long overlooked / critical variable / social trust / functioning of markets

參考答案：The core contribution of this research paper lies in revealing a critical variable that traditional economic models have long overlooked: the role of social trust in the functioning of markets.

Question 95

唯有我們願意放下成見、真誠對話，才能在日益兩極化的社會中搭建起理解與合作的橋梁。

參考詞彙：only when / be willing to / set aside / prejudice / engage in sincere dialogue / increasingly polarized / build bridges / understanding and cooperation

參考答案：Only when we are willing to set aside our prejudices and engage in sincere dialogue can we build bridges of understanding and cooperation in an increasingly polarized society.

Part 2：引導寫作（Guided Writing）

說明： 請根據以下提示，寫一篇約 150-200 字的英文短文。

題目：The Value of Failure in Personal Growth

許多成功人士都曾表示，他們人生中最重要的學習來自失敗而非成功。然而，我們的社會和教育體系往往將失敗視為需要避免的負面結果。請撰寫一篇短文，探討失敗在個人成長中的價值，並以自身或他人的例子佐證。

大綱建議：

社會對失敗的普遍態度
失敗在教育／職場中的正面價值
失敗轉化為成長的必要條件
個人反思或具體例子

參考答案（約 195 字）：

Our society maintains a deeply ambivalent relationship with failure. We pay lip service to the idea that “failure is a stepping stone to success,” yet our education systems penalize mistakes with low grades, our workplaces reward consistent performance over bold experimentation, and our social media feeds present an endless stream of curated success stories that make failure feel like a private shame rather than a universal experience.

The genuine value of failure lies in its function as a feedback mechanism of unparalleled clarity. Success often obscures the reasons behind it — was it skill, or was it luck? Failure, properly interrogated, provides specific, actionable information. A failed business venture teaches which assumptions about the market were wrong. A rejected manuscript teaches something about voice or structure that acceptance would not. A failed relationship clarifies what one actually needs from a partner in ways that an easy but superficial connection never could.

However, failure does not automatically produce growth. For failure to become a teacher, several conditions must be met. First, the failure must be survivable — not catastrophic, not so devastating that recovery is impossible. Second, the person must have the psychological resources and support systems to process the experience rather than simply suppress it. Third, there must be a willingness to engage in the uncomfortable work of honest self-examination, asking not just “what went wrong?” but “what did I contribute to this outcome?”

I experienced this personally when I failed my first university entrance exam. The initial shame was overwhelming. But the experience forced me to examine my study habits, my relationship with pressure, and my motivations for pursuing higher education in the first place. The person who eventually entered university a year later was not just better prepared academically — she was more self-aware, more resilient, and more genuinely motivated than the one who had failed.

第四部分：口說測驗（Speaking）

Part 1：朗讀（Reading Aloud）

說明： 請朗讀以下短文，注意發音、語調和意群斷句。

朗讀短文：

“Perhaps the greatest obstacle to understanding history is the temptation to judge the past by the standards of the present. When we look back at earlier eras, we see their moral blind spots with a clarity that they could not — slave-owning founders who wrote beautifully about liberty, colonial administrators who sincerely believed they were civilizing the ‘lesser races,’ medical researchers who conducted experiments on vulnerable populations without anything resembling informed consent. The impulse to condemn is understandable, but it is also an evasion. The more difficult and more valuable exercise is to ask: what are the blind spots of our own time? What practices that we consider normal, necessary, or even progressive will our descendants look back on with horror? The study of history, approached with humility, is partly an exercise in recognizing the limits of our own moral vision.”

發音重點：

obstacle：/ˈɑːbstəkəl/，三個音節，不要漏掉 k 音
temptation：/tempˈteɪʃən/，三個音節，注意 /mp/ 和 /pt/ 的發音
vulnerable：/ˈvʌlnərəbəl/，三個音節，注意 /l/ 和 /n/ 的位置
descendants：/dɪˈsendənts/，三個音節，注意 ce 是無聲的 s
humility：/hjuːˈmɪləti/，四音節，注意 h 發音

Part 2：回答問題（Question Response）

說明： 請用 3-5 句完整的英文回答以下問題。深入分析，展現批判性思考。

Question 1: Some people believe that travel is the best form of education. Do you agree or disagree, and why?

參考答案：I agree, with the important qualification that not all travel is educational. The kind of travel that educates is travel that disrupts one’s assumptions — that exposes the traveler to genuinely different ways of organizing daily life, of relating to strangers, of thinking about time and obligation and community. A tourist who stays in familiar hotel chains, eats familiar food, and photographs landmarks from the same angle as everyone else may enjoy the trip but is unlikely to learn much from it. The transformative kind of travel, by contrast, requires discomfort — the disorientation of not speaking the language well, of not knowing the social codes, of being the outsider who makes embarrassing mistakes. This is education of a kind that no classroom can replicate, because it is education not of the intellect alone but of the whole person. It teaches not just facts about other cultures but humility about one’s own cultural assumptions — the recognition that practices you took to be natural and inevitable are, in fact, contingent and specific. I believe this kind of experiential learning is one of the most powerful correctives to parochialism that exists.

Question 2: Do you think that in the future, robots and AI will be able to replace human teachers? Why or why not?

參考答案：I believe AI will transform teaching profoundly but will not replace human teachers in any complete sense. AI can personalize instruction at a scale that human teachers cannot — adapting the pace of a math lesson to each student’s demonstrated understanding, generating infinite practice problems at exactly the right difficulty level, providing immediate feedback on writing mechanics. These are genuine and valuable capabilities. But teaching, at its most essential level, is not primarily about the transmission of information. It is about modeling intellectual virtues — curiosity, intellectual humility, the willingness to say “I don’t know, let’s find out together.” It is about seeing a student who is struggling not just academically but personally and knowing when to push and when to be gentle. It is about the relationship — the student who works harder in a subject because they don’t want to disappoint a teacher who believes in them. These relational dimensions of teaching require capacities that AI does not possess: genuine empathy, not simulated; authentic presence, not algorithmic responsiveness; and most importantly, the moral weight of being a human being who has actually lived a life and can speak from experience rather than from training data.

Question 3: How do you think social norms around work and career have changed compared to your parents’ generation?

參考答案：The shift from my parents’ generation to mine regarding work has been dramatic and multi-dimensional. My parents’ generation largely operated under an implicit social contract: work hard for one organization, remain loyal, and you would be rewarded with job security, a predictable career ladder, and a comfortable retirement. This model was never universal, but it was the dominant aspirational narrative. For my generation, that contract has been decisively broken. Job security is rare. Loyalty is frequently unrewarded — or punished, as those who stay at one company too long are seen as lacking ambition. The “gig economy” and the “portfolio career” — assembling a living from multiple income streams rather than relying on a single employer — have moved from the margins to the mainstream. Additionally, the blurring of work/life boundaries through constant digital connectivity means that for many, the workday never truly ends. On the positive side, my generation is less willing to suffer silently in jobs that are meaningless or exploitative. There is a greater expectation that work should align with personal values and provide some sense of purpose beyond a paycheck. I think this generational shift is neither entirely positive nor entirely negative — it is simply the world we have inherited, and the task is to navigate it with as much agency and integrity as possible.

Question 4: What does it mean to live a meaningful life, in your view?

參考答案：I think a meaningful life is one characterized by a sense of connection — to other people, to purposeful work, and to something larger than oneself. The connection to other people is perhaps the most foundational. Meaning, I believe, is found far more reliably in relationships characterized by love, care, and mutual investment than in individual achievements or acquisitions. The people on their deathbeds, according to those who work with the dying, almost never wish they had spent more time at the office or acquired more possessions. They wish they had spent more time with the people they loved. Connection to purposeful work does not necessarily mean having a glamorous or historically significant career. It means feeling that what you do with your days matters in some way — that you are contributing to something, solving real problems, making something better than it was. Connection to something larger than oneself — whether that is framed as God, nature, human progress, art, or the flourishing of future generations — provides a context within which individual suffering and disappointment become bearable. I think meaning in life is not found all at once but built gradually, choice by choice, in the accumulation of what we pay attention to and what we commit ourselves to.

Question 5: Do you believe that history has a direction — that human societies are progressing toward something better — or is history simply one thing after another, without an overarching arc?

參考答案：This is one of the deepest and most contested questions in the philosophy of history. I find myself holding a complex position. On the empirical level, the data is clear that human well-being by many objective measures has improved dramatically. Fewer people live in extreme poverty. More people live under some form of democratic governance. Life expectancy has roughly doubled in the past century. Violence, as documented by scholars like Steven Pinker, has declined dramatically over the long arc of history. These are genuine achievements.

However, I resist the notion of an inevitable arc toward progress. The 20th century, which produced unprecedented material prosperity, also produced the Holocaust, the Soviet gulags, the Cambodian killing fields, and nuclear weapons capable of ending human civilization. Technological progress has given us both antibiotics and the capacity for engineered pandemics. Progress is real but it is fragile, contingent, and reversible. It is not a force of history but the result of specific human choices, institutions, and struggles. I think the healthiest posture is neither triumphalist optimism nor despairing cynicism but what might be called “tragic hope” — the recognition that progress is possible, that it has been achieved in the past, that it is worth working toward, but that it is never guaranteed and can be lost through complacency or malice. The arc of history does not bend toward justice on its own; it bends when people bend it.

Part 3：看圖申論（Picture-Based Discussion）

說明： 請觀察以下情境並回答問題。

情境描述： 一張數據圖表顯示四個國家的「國民每週平均休閒閱讀時間」從 2005 年到 2025 年的變化。台灣：從每週 4.2 小時降到 2.1 小時；日本：從 3.5 小時降到 2.8 小時；美國：從 3.8 小時降到 2.4 小時；法國：從 5.1 小時降到 4.3 小時。同時，四個國家的「智慧型手機每日平均使用時間」從 2015 年的約 2.5 小時增加到 2025 年的約 5.5 小時。一項針對大學生的調查顯示，62% 的受訪者表示「想多讀書但總是忍不住滑手機」。

Question A: What do the data reveal about the relationship between leisure reading and smartphone use across these countries?

參考答案：The data presents a compelling, though not definitive, case for a substitution effect: as smartphone use has risen dramatically, leisure reading has declined across all four countries. France is the most interesting case here. It starts from the highest reading baseline (5.1 hours) and maintains the highest rate even as it declines. This suggests that cultural factors — France has a strong literary culture and government policies that protect independent bookstores — can slow the erosion of reading even in the face of digital competition, but not stop it entirely.

Taiwan’s decline is the steepest, from 4.2 to 2.1 hours — more than halved in two decades. This likely reflects a particularly rapid and deep adoption of smartphone-centric digital culture. While correlation does not prove causation — other factors like longer working hours, more demanding education systems, or the changing nature of leisure activities may also contribute — the near-perfect inverse relationship across all four countries makes the substitution hypothesis difficult to dismiss.

The survey finding that 62% of students “want to read more but can’t stop scrolling” is particularly poignant. It suggests that the decline is not simply a matter of preference — people choosing, freely and authentically, to read less. It describes a failure of agency: a genuine desire for the deep engagement of reading being overwhelmed by technologies that are, by design, more immediately rewarding and harder to disengage from.

Question B: If the decline of deep reading is a real concern, what do we lose as individuals and as a society?

參考答案：The loss of deep reading carries consequences that extend beyond the merely literary. There is a growing body of research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience suggesting that the kind of sustained, immersive reading that a book demands — as opposed to the fragmented, scanning-based reading that characterizes screen interaction — develops capacities that are difficult to cultivate through other means.

First, deep reading builds what researchers call “sustained attention” — the ability to follow a complex line of thought over an extended period without being pulled away. This is a foundational cognitive capacity that underlies not just reading but all forms of deep thinking. If we are, as a generation, losing the ability to sustain attention, the cost goes far beyond literature.

Second, narrative fiction in particular has been shown to improve empathy and theory of mind — the ability to understand the mental and emotional states of others. When we read a novel, we spend hours inside someone else’s consciousness, inhabiting perspectives and experiences that are not our own. This is a form of cognitive and emotional exercise that no other medium quite replicates.

Third, and perhaps most radically, deep reading cultivates a particular relationship with time. It requires and develops patience — the willingness to delay resolution, to tolerate ambiguity, to trust that meaning will emerge gradually rather than instantaneously. This is antithetical to the rhythm of the scroll, which conditions us to expect immediate reward and to abandon anything that does not deliver it.

As a society, we lose a shared cultural vocabulary when reading declines. Books are among our most powerful vehicles for transmitting values, for grappling with moral complexity, for imagining alternative futures. A society that reads less is not necessarily a worse society, but it is a society that has lost one of its most important tools for collective self-examination.

Question C: Assuming you wanted to encourage more deep reading in your own community, what approaches do you think would be most effective?

參考答案：I believe effective approaches must address the structural and environmental factors that make deep reading difficult, not simply moralize about its value. Telling people they should read more is about as effective as telling them they should exercise more or eat better — the intention is already present; the barrier is execution.

First, I would focus on environmental design rather than willpower. For deep reading, the equivalent of keeping junk food out of the house is keeping the phone physically distant during designated reading time. Many people find that putting their phone in another room, or using a dedicated e-reader without notifications, dramatically increases their capacity to read.

Second, I believe in the power of social accountability. Book clubs, reading challenges with friends, or simply scheduling a regular “reading hour” with others transforms reading from a solitary struggle against distraction into a shared commitment. The social pressure of having someone ask “what are you reading?” is surprisingly powerful.

Third, I would advocate for starting with books that are genuinely compelling rather than books that feel virtuous. Many people’s reading habits are killed by the sense that reading should be improving — the classics, the important non-fiction, the award winners. But the most important habit to build is the habit itself, and the best way to do that is to read whatever genuinely absorbs you, even if it is not intellectually prestigious. Once the habit is established, it can be broadened.

Fourth, and perhaps most counterintuitively, I think we should stop framing reading in opposition to technology. Audiobooks, e-readers, and reading apps that track progress and allow social sharing can serve as bridges rather than barriers. The goal is to read deeply, not to read in a particular format. If audiobooks make literature accessible during commutes that would otherwise be spent scrolling, that is a net gain.

Finally, and most fundamentally, I think we need to model deep reading as a culture. Children who grow up in homes where adults read — not because they should, but because they genuinely want to — absorb reading as a valued activity without ever needing to be told. The most powerful intervention may simply be to be seen reading, with visible absorption and pleasure, by the people around us.

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# Answer Key

Listening

Part 1: 問答

Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer
1	B	6	B	11	B
2	B	7	B	12	B
3	B	8	B	13	B
4	B	9	B	14	B
5	B	10	B	15	B

Part 2: 簡短對話

Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer
16	B	21	A	26	B
17	B	22	B	27	B
18	B	23	B	28	B
19	B	24	B	29	B
20	B	25	B	30	B

Part 3: 簡短獨白

Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer
31	A	36	B	41	C
32	B	37	B	42	B
33	B	38	B	43	B
34	B	39	B	44	B
35	B	40	B	45	B

Reading

Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer
46	B	56	B	66	C	76	B
47	A	57	B	67	C	77	B
48	C	58	C	68	D	78	C
49	D	59	C	69	B	79	C
50	B	60	A	70	C	80	D
51	A	61	B	71	B	81	B
52	C	62	C	72	A	82	C
53	B	63	D	73	B	83	B
54	C	64	C	74	C	84	B
55	A	65	A	75	B	85	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	86	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	87	C
—	—	—	—	—	—	88	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	89	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	90	C

解鎖內容

GEPT-中高級-Mock-4

GEPT 中高級全真模擬試題 Mock 4

第一部分：聽力測驗（Listening Comprehension）

Part 1：問答（Question-Response）

Part 2：簡短對話（Short Conversations）

Part 3：簡短獨白（Short Talks）

第二部分：閱讀測驗（Reading Comprehension）

Part 1：詞彙和結構（Vocabulary & Structure）

Part 2：段落填空（Cloze Test）

Part 3：閱讀理解（Reading Comprehension）

第三部分：寫作測驗（Writing）

Part 1：中譯英（Chinese-to-English Translation）

Part 2：引導寫作（Guided Writing）

第四部分：口說測驗（Speaking）

Part 1：朗讀（Reading Aloud）

Part 2：回答問題（Question Response）

Part 3：看圖申論（Picture-Based Discussion）

Listening

Part 1: 問答

Part 2: 簡短對話

Part 3: 簡短獨白

Reading

關係圖譜

目錄

Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer
46	B	56	B	66	C	76	B
47	A	57	B	67	C	77	B
48	C	58	C	68	D	78	C
49	D	59	C	69	B	79	C
50	B	60	A	70	C	80	D
51	A	61	B	71	B	81	B
52	C	62	C	72	A	82	C
53	B	63	D	73	B	83	B
54	C	64	C	74	C	84	B
55	A	65	A	75	B	85	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	86	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	87	C
—	—	—	—	—	—	88	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	89	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	90	C

Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer
46	B	56	B	66	C	76	B
47	A	57	B	67	C	77	B
48	C	58	C	68	D	78	C
49	D	59	C	69	B	79	C
50	B	60	A	70	C	80	D
51	A	61	B	71	B	81	B
52	C	62	C	72	A	82	C
53	B	63	D	73	B	83	B
54	C	64	C	74	C	84	B
55	A	65	A	75	B	85	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	86	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	87	C
—	—	—	—	—	—	88	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	89	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	90	C

GEPT-中高級-Mock-4

GEPT 中高級 全真模擬試題 Mock 4

第一部分：聽力測驗（Listening Comprehension）

Part 1：問答（Question-Response）

Part 2：簡短對話（Short Conversations）

Part 3：簡短獨白（Short Talks）

第二部分：閱讀測驗（Reading Comprehension）

Part 1：詞彙和結構（Vocabulary & Structure）

Part 2：段落填空（Cloze Test）

Part 3：閱讀理解（Reading Comprehension）

第三部分：寫作測驗（Writing）

Part 1：中譯英（Chinese-to-English Translation）

Part 2：引導寫作（Guided Writing）

第四部分：口說測驗（Speaking）

Part 1：朗讀（Reading Aloud）

Part 2：回答問題（Question Response）

Part 3：看圖申論（Picture-Based Discussion）

Listening

Part 1: 問答

Part 2: 簡短對話

Part 3: 簡短獨白

Reading

威威學習信

關係圖譜

目錄

GEPT 中高級全真模擬試題 Mock 4

Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer	Q	Answer
46	B	56	B	66	C	76	B
47	A	57	B	67	C	77	B
48	C	58	C	68	D	78	C
49	D	59	C	69	B	79	C
50	B	60	A	70	C	80	D
51	A	61	B	71	B	81	B
52	C	62	C	72	A	82	C
53	B	63	D	73	B	83	B
54	C	64	C	74	C	84	B
55	A	65	A	75	B	85	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	86	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	87	C
—	—	—	—	—	—	88	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	89	B
—	—	—	—	—	—	90	C