第 11 至 15 題為題組 

       Mystery shoppers are paid consumers who are hired to shop in stores and collect data. They are sent to a wide variety of service-based businesses, including stores, restaurants, and banks—potentially anywhere customers are served. Sometimes referred to as secret shoppers, mystery shoppers__11__ regular customers to purchase items, eat in restaurants, make inquiries, or return items. They grade and report on the quality of products, customer service, and environment of the stores __12__ they are assigned. 

        When evaluating a business, mystery shoppers have to follow certain standard procedures to avoid __13__ . They are often given a checklist that provides directions on what to observe or look out for to ensure consistency. Sometimes these shoppers collect data about their “normal” observations, such as cleanliness of the store or timeliness of the service. They may also pretend to be __14__ customers, arguing with a salesperson without a good reason. With the data they collect, mystery shoppers can identify areas for __15__ and thereby help enhance the quality of products and services. In this way, these secret shoppers may help a business gain a competitive edge.

        The modern worker rolls out of bed, groans, and turns off an alarm clock before reluctantly getting up for the day’s work. But how did people get to work on time before alarm clocks were widely used?             During the second Industrial Age, people toiled at unusual hours in mines or factories and often had to get up for work early in the morning. They __16__ alarm clocks because adjustable alarms had been invented by the mid-19th century. But the new device was still relatively expensive and unreliable. British workers thus relied on a human alarm clock known as a “knocker-up.” __17__ sticks or pea shooters, the human alarms would tour the streets, tap on windows, or blast them with dried peas, trying to wake paying customers in time for work. 

      Whether they wielded rods or pea shooters, knockers-up became __18__ throughout the United Kingdom. Every morning, these people, often older in age, were seen in big streets and small alleys, waking up their customers professionally. They usually would not leave people’s houses until they were sure their customers were awake.

      While the practice continued in some parts of the country until the 1970s, it __19__ as alarm clocks became more widespread and affordable. Today, beeping alarm clocks and smartphones that play morning music are surely simpler and more convenient. However, they cannot __20__ the personal attention coming from the distinctive tap of a pea shooter.

第 21 至 30 題為題組 

       On a hilltop overlooking the 2011-tsunami hit Otsuchi Town in northeastern Japan, there is a white phone booth standing all alone in the wind. The lonely “wind phone” serves to connect family members to their __21__ loved ones who died in the tsunami that claimed 18,000 lives. People come to speak to those they have lost, to say the words they never got to say on that __22__ day. 

       The idea for the wind phone was first __23__ by a Japanese garden designer named Itaru Sasaki, who was grieving over the death of his cousin in 2010, before the tsunami. Feeling that he needed a private space to help him navigate through the __24__ , Sasaki positioned a booth where he could “speak” to the dead relative. The booth he built __25__ only an old dial phone with a disconnected phone line. When he stepped into the booth, he could pick up the phone to call his cousin, telling him how he was, and how he missed him. Sasaki stated in an interview: “Because my thoughts couldn’t be __26__ through a regular phone line, I wanted them to be carried on the wind.” Hence, the wind phone allows Sasaki to create a oneway conversation with deep, soulful personal meaning, and renders the grieving process more __27__ for him. 

       Sasaki opened his wind phone to the public in 2011, after the devastating tsunami. News about the phone gradually spread, and the booth has become a __28__ between the living and the dead. Phones resembling the wind phone have since been built around the world. Some were even set up to allow people to call their loved ones lost in the COVID-19 pandemic. 

       Grieving is a natural __29__ for coping with loss of a loved one, and people grieve in various ways. For those who speak into the wind phone, __30__ is always there: They believe that their messages will— through some unknown way—reach the deceased.

 (AB) passed on (AC) bridge (AD) sorrow (AE) hope (BC) departed (BD) mechanism (BE) housed (CD) manageable (CE) fateful (DE) brought forth

        While Dr. Weinstein, a surgeon at Dartmouth College, was trying to lift a heavy box, he twisted his back. The pain was agonizing. The surgeon could not sit, and when he lay down he could barely get up. So he decided to go out for a run. He took an aspirin, iced the injured area, and off he went. When he returned, he felt “pretty good.” 

       __31__ When people have sprained a muscle or tendon, they are usually advised not to go right back to exercising until the pain goes away. But Dr. Weinstein says that approach is outdated and counterproductive. In fact, when active people consult him, he usually tells them to just keep exercising.        Dr. Weinstein is not alone in his treatment of sports injury, but the specific advice can differ from specialist to specialist. __32__ They nevertheless caution that a cutback may be necessary, such as running shorter distances or going more slowly. Others say the patients may need to engage in sports outside of their usual, main sport (that is, to cross-train), at least some of the time. Still others say the safest thing to do is cross-train all the time until the pain is gone. __33__ Their consensus, however, is that unless the injury involves something as serious as a broken bone or a ripped muscle, moderate exercise can actually speed healing. 

       __34__ Thus, more and more patients are now advised to keep moving despite the pain. The rule of thumb, however, is to see a doctor first and get an accurate diagnosis. If a serious injury is ruled out and the pain is not getting worse after exercising, then the exercise “makes a lot of sense.” 

(A) For example, an injured runner might end up cycling and swimming instead of running.
(B) Over time, researchers have come to realize the importance of exercising when injured.
(C) Many suggest that most patients can continue with the sport they love.
(D) This seems to run counter to the common practice.

        One fine morning in 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral went for a walk in the woods with his dog. Upon their return home, he found a lot of burrs (from plants) stuck to the dog’s fur and his pants. He immediately rushed to his microscope and examined the burrs attached on his pants—feeling a lightbulb moment coming on. 

        Upon closer examination, de Mestral observed that the burrs, which appeared straight to the naked eye, actually contained many small hooks that clung firmly to the loops in the fabric of his pants. He determined that if he could recreate the same thing, making hooks-and-loops that bind to each other firmly, he could produce a strong fastener with many uses. 

      De Mestral’s first challenge was finding a fabric for a strong bonding system. He first tried cotton, but it proved too soft and could not withstand repeated openings and closures. After years of research and testing, he learned that synthetics worked best and eventually settled on heat-treated nylon, a strong and durable substance. By 1955, he had completed an improved version of the product, with each square inch of material containing 300 hooks, which made it stay fastened and yet easy enough to pull apart when needed. Named “Velcro,” from the French words velours (velvet) and crochet (hook), the new product received a patent from the Swiss government in 1955. De Mestral thus began mass-producing Velcro, opening plants in Europe and eventually into Canada and the United States.

    Initially Velcro did not fare well. As most fashion critics considered it ugly and cheap-looking, the use of Velcro was limited to athletic equipment. In the early 1960s, the product received a huge boost in popularity when NASA began using it in a lot of equipment that went into space along with astronauts. Today, de Mestral’s design is found almost everywhere: clothing and footwear, toys, airline seat cushions, blood pressure cuffs and surgeons’ gowns. Most impressively, the magical fastener was used in the first human artificial heart transplantation to hold together parts of the device.