Most of us probably cannot imagine modern life without social media, which has both the potential to negatively impact our mental and emotional heath if used blindly and the ability to connect us in many unexpected ways.
With social media, friendships go beyond geography. We are able to find friends old and new, thus maintaining old friendships and making new ones. Some would question the quality of these friendships, but perhaps what is important is that a link exists between you and that person. Then, we can possibly build friendship upon this link in the future.
Nevertheless, social media does consume our energy and lower our self-esteem (自尊) at times. A 2013 study by Ethan Kross and Philippe Verduyn, published by the Public Library of Science, found that the more a person uses Facebook, the more miserable he feels about his own life. An internet celebrity (名人) Essena O’Neill recently announced to quit social media, saying it is “not real life”, taking countless photos just to look great in a single post and seeking social approval from “likes” and “views” have left her feeling “empty”.
However, those affected are usually teenagers who possess shaky self-identities. It is only natural for teenagers to seek popularity and social recognition. However, for every teenager who feels jealous, envious or depressed online, there is another who chooses to feel energetic, inspired and accepted by positive social connections.
From what perspective do we wish to approach social media? Social media does not cause unhappiness; it simply provides an alternative platform for teenagers to experiment with as they grow up, something they have always done offline. Teen activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai says, “What is interesting is the power and impact of social media... we must try to use social media in a good way.”
1. Which best describes the impact of social media on friendship?| A．Social media helps build friendships across distances. |
| B．Social media improves the quality of new friendships. |
| C．Social media only has a short-term impact on friendships. |
| D．Social media makes it harder to maintain old friendships. |
| A．To explain a rule. | B．To make a prediction. |
| C．To present a fact. | D．To prove an argument. |
| A．Positive. | B．Objective. | C．Doubtful. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Demand for advances in social media. |
| B．The wide applications of social media |
| C．Advice on using social media positively. |
| D．The possible harm of social media to users. |
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【推荐1】Gretchen Altman is smiling, leaning back casually, a cup of coffee in hand — Hills Bros. Coffee, to be precise. It looks like a casual shot, but if you hit like, leave a comment, and tag a friend, you can get three different cups of coffee, for free.
Altman is part of a growing trend of "micro-influencers". She has a small following — around 6,000 on Instagram (社交平台).Her going rate is $300 to $800 to promote something. She does some posts in exchange for free goods, as long as it's stuff she believes in.
As a micro-influencer she has a much closer relationship with her followers than a big social media star. "I'm just living a normal life and people relate to that," she says. "They just feel like I'm a friend of theirs."
But it worries consumer rights groups. Several recent studies have found that young audiences are largely unable to understand when something is sponsored content.
In some cases, it's clear. When a big star takes to a social media to advertise Coca-Cola, for example, the assumption is that he or she's probably getting paid to do so. And the posts are clearly labeled as ads, with the caption "advertisement" or "sponsored content".
But what happens when an everyday person with just a couple thousand followers takes to social media to extol(颂扬）the virtues of a product? The motivations are not so clear-cut. The problem with these social media posts is that you don't know whether it's an ad or not.
Altman is diligent about using those hashtags(标签).She loves what she does and sees it as a business, but she doesn't necessarily want to be a social media celebrity.
"With social media being so integrated into our everyday lives, we have this unique opportunity that I don't think anyone has ever had before where we can each be our own brand," Altman says.
1. What does a micro-influencer do according to the passage?| A．Offer enough likes. | B．Recommend some comments. |
| C．Post to increase sales. | D．Create advertisements. |
| A．Ads with caption on posts. | B．The unclear motivations of the posts. |
| C．Sponsored ads content. | D．The increasingly growing number of audiences |
| A．Pleased | B．Upset. |
| C．Ambitious. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．We Can Each Be Our Own Top Brand |
| B．To be a Micro-influencer or to be a Big Star |
| C．Hills Bros. Coffee, Your Coffee |
| D．Instagram Advertising: Do You Know It, When You See It |
【推荐2】After finishing my teaching for a school year. I thought that I should go back to Montreal, Quebec, my hometown, for a visit. My main goal was to relax in preparation for the challenges of my retirement in the coming year.
Through my stay in Montreal, I met lots of Chinese who were trying hard to succeed and then led a better life in Canada. Some travelled thousands of miles to get knowledge. When I spoke with some of them about the major barrier they had to face after they arrived in Canada, they all talked about the two official languages of Canada. But I was impressed by their ability to express their ideas while they were changing between English and French.
Almost all of those people said they often felt homesick. They missed their families and friends. Though Montreal had lots of Chinese restaurants, they longed for a home-cooked meal.
I met some tourists who were trying to realize their childhood dreams of experiencing the life in a developed country. When I asked them if Montreal had lived up to their expectations, they hesitated. They said that reality never agreed with fantasies. However, they were glad to have the opportunity to visit Montreal and didn’t regret taking the trip.
Not all the Chinese people I met were happy. I once met a young lady who met with a gentleman through the Internet. However, to her disappointment, he disappeared after he promised to marry her in Montreal.
I was served by another Chinese person who could not deal with the challenges of studying in an English-speaking environment and ended up working in a restaurant with low pay.
Exploring different parts of the world, without any doubt, is a rich experience .However, one should be realistic when it comes to leaving his hometown to start a new life in a foreign country. One should spend time examining the advantages and shortcomings of the adventure before he decides to chase an uncertain dream of achieving success or leading a better life.
1. Why did the author go back to his hometown?| A．To meet his old friends. | B．To study a new language. |
| C．To go on with his teaching. | D．To prepare for his retirement life. |
| A．Food. | B．Languages. | C．Homesickness. | D．Income. |
| A．overseas Chinese are good at communication in Canada |
| B．people often express their regret at the trip to Montreal |
| C．overseas Chinese feel disappointed at their life in Canada |
| D．people should think carefully before chasing their dreams abroad |
| A．Improving Life Skills in Canada | B．Exploring Different Parts of Canada |
| C．Struggling for a Better Life in Canada | D．Going to Canada — Your Ideal Destination |
【推荐3】A small town in western France has gone viral for marking a busy crossroads with overlapping (重叠的) white lines in order to confuse motorists and make them slow down.
The town of Bauné, near Angers, is home to only about 1,700 people, but it has to deal with heavy traffic on a daily basis because of its location at the crossroads between two departmental roads — D74 and D82. Some of the roughly 2,300 vehicles that pass through Bauné every day can have speeds of over 100 km/h, even though the town’s crossroads is clearly marked with signs limiting the speed at 30 km/h. In order to get drivers to slow down, local authorities came up with the idea of using confusing road markings in the form of overlapping continuous lines. Interestingly enough, the strategy worked like a charm!
Photos of the odd road markings on the busy crossroads of Bauné went viral on French social media recently and left a lot of people scratching (抓) their heads. Many people have pointed out that a continuous white line is impassable (不可通行的), so having the lines overlap and cover the entire square doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Others simply wondered why the local authorities didn’t use more traditional means of decreasing vehicle speed, like a roundabout (环形交叉路口) or traffic lights.
According to Grégoire Jauneault, deputy mayor of Loire-Authion and the person in charge of local development, the deliberately confusing road markings started working on the day they were completed, with data showing a significant decrease in motorists’ speeds. However, a part of the local community predicted that the result was only temporary and that as soon as motorists figured out the game, they would go right back to their speeding ways.
1. What’s the purpose of marking a busy crossroads with overlapping white lines?| A．To make headlines on social media. |
| B．To reduce traffic jam at the crossroads |
| C．To make drivers slow down their speed. |
| D．To reduce the number of people crossing the crossroads. |
| A．Only 1,7000 people living there. |
| B．The speed limit is 100 km/h at the crossroads. |
| C．Traffic jam happens every day at the crossroads. |
| D．Roughly 2,300 vehicles pass through Bauné every week. |
| A．Doubtful | B．Supportive | C．Opposed | D．Objective |
| A．In a textbook | B．In the newspaper |
| C．In a research paper | D．In a travel magazine |
【推荐1】In the amazing natural environment, some birds capture our imaginations. We point to swans as an example of true love since they mate for life. We admire eagles for their power to fly at high altitudes. Owls have been associated with wisdom since the ancient Greeks used an owl for the symbol of Athena, goddess of wisdom. White storks (白鹳), too, deserve high praises, which have been featured in legends since ancient times.
Storks are migratory (迁徙的) creatures which winter in tropical Africa. In spring they make the exhausting trip back to Central Europe, arriving from the end of February to mid-April at the previous year’s nesting site. The Germans and Dutch often constructed high platforms on their roofs for storks to build nests on because they believed storks brought good luck. Germans also believe storks found babies in caves and delivered them to new parents. The parents would let the storks know they wanted a baby by leaving candy on a windowsill (窗台).
A romantic stork story has touched people around the world, especially people in Croatia. In 1993, a retired man named Vokic came upon a wounded female stork near a small Croatian village. Vokic took her home, named her Malena, fed her and kept her company. They even watched TV together. In 2002, Malena acquired a mate named Klepetan. Every fall for 19 years, Klepetan would migrate to South Africa and then return to Malena in Croatia each spring. People would anxiously await the news of Klepetan’s return. Over the years the long-legged couple raised 66 chicks. Vokic built nests for them and helped out with the chicks. Sadly, Malena passed away in 2021, and Croatians mourned. Vokic’s hope is that Klepetan will return this year and perhaps find a new mate.
Malena and Klepetan’s story makes it appear that storks are monogamous (一夫一妻的), but that isn’t always true. They can change mates after migration. Whether storks mate for life or not, they are beloved by many.
1. Why does the writer mention another three types of birds before white storks?| A．To advise readers to protect the birds. |
| B．To help readers to remember the names. |
| C．To guide readers to understand the following. |
| D．To encourage readers to create the imaginations. |
| A．Babies. | B．Germans. | C．Candies. | D．Caves. |
| A．To have a baby. | B．To feed the stork. | C．To catch the bird. | D．To win good luck. |
| A．Vokic is good at keeping storks. |
| B．White storks are monogamous birds. |
| C．Croatia is suitable for storks raising chicks. |
| D．Man and storks are in a harmonious community. |
【推荐2】Beijing set a target to hold “high-tech Winter Games” after it won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Soon after, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology was made the leading party to provide technical support for the Games. In collaboration with relevant parties, it drew up the “Action Plan for Science and Technology at the Winter Olympics, “ the results of which were applied in this year’s test events.
“During the test events in February and April this year, we tested and applied 133 types of techs in a number of key areas. Since October, another 228 pieces of technologies have been tested and applied in test events, athlete training schedules and prep work for the winter games, ” said Wu Yuanbin, director of the ministry’s Social Scientific Development Department, during a press conference.
For the Games next year, high-tech will be applied for four proposes: support COVID-19 measures, reduce carbon emissions, ensure the safety of the events and create a better viewing experience for the viewers. To achieve these results, a number of new and experimental techs will be used, including 5G and hydrogen vehicles.
“The much-anticipated 5G signals will cover all venues, including the roads that connect them. This will provide network connectivity for applications such as ultra-high-definition video and smart services. Eighty hydrogen vehicles were tested in Zhangjiakou. And during the Winter Games, more than 700 hydro- gen buses will be stationed in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou to provide transportation, “ said Yu Hong, director of the Technical Department of Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee.
The target of hosting high-tech Olympics isn’t just for the convenience of thousands of participants during this event. The organizing committee once said they wish to use the Games as an experimental model that could help the world build future smart cities that would benefit residents, industries and the environment.
1. Which department is chiefly responsible to provide technical support?| A．Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee. |
| B．The Social Scientific Development Department. |
| C．The Ministry of Science and Technology of China. |
| D．The Technical Department of Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee. |
| A．95. | B．228. | C．456. | D．361. |
| A．The athletes take hydrogen buses to and from the Olympic sites. |
| B．Accurate COVID-19 Testing is made with the support of high-tech. |
| C．The carbon emissions rise greatly as a result of the application of high-tech. |
| D．The audience enjoy a better view of games with ultra-high-definition videos. |
| A．5G signals will cover all venues at the 2022 Winter Olympics. |
| B．Beijing 2022 organizers promise high-tech, green, safe event. |
| C．Beijing will hold the best Winter Games. |
| D．The world will build more smart cities with the help of Beijing 2022. |
【推荐3】An AI model can be used to detect stress in office workers based on how they use their mouse and keyboard. A new study suggests that a machine-learning model using these two elements was more accurate at detecting stress in people than a model that tracked their heart-rate data.
“We saw that the models that just used the mouse and keyboard data performed better than the models that had the heart-rate data in it,” says Mart Naegelin. a Ph. D. student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and one of the study’s authors.
Naegelin and her fellow researchers used machine-learning models to analyze data on keyboard-typing activity, mouse movements and heart-rate data. They also studied the data of a combination of two or all three of these elements to determine which performed best in terms of measuring stress. They found that the model trained on mouse and keyboard data performed better than the model that used mouse, keyboard and heart rates. Of the single-modality (形态) models, the heart-rate data performed the worst. “The test was conducted in an environment that simulated an office environment, so the results still need to be confirmed in real-life scenarios (情况),” Naegelin says.
In the experiment, participants were divided into three groups. A control group carried out assigned tasks, such as planning meetings and collecting data, with no additional work. A second group at times answered questions from managers in person in a mock interview scenario while completing other assigned tasks. And members of a third group were, at certain points, interrupted with additional questions sent through an online chat on top of tasks assigned to other groups. At regular intervals during the experiment, participants were asked to rate their stress levels through a computer questionnaire.
Researchers learned that workers made longer, less accurate movements with their mouse, as well as more typing errors, when they were stressed. Shorter, more direct movements with the mouse were tied to lower stress levels. The study didn’t focus on why increased levels of stress are thought to affect muscle activity.
The researchers say they believe a stress-detection system that logs keyboard and mouse movements might be beneficial as a self-help tool for employees alongside other initiatives to improve workplace mental health. But employee participation would need to be optional and based on informed consent (同意), and companies would need to commit to protecting user privacy.
It remains to be seen how this technology will evolve and be adopted in practice, but the potential for AI to contribute positively to employee well-being is an appealing avenue for future exploration.
1. What do we know from Naegelin’s study?| A．Heart-rate data has little connection with stress. |
| B．Mouse and keyboard data proves effective in stress detection. |
| C．Mouse data performs worst in measuring stress among all models. |
| D．Using more elements in a model increases accuracy in stress detection. |
| A．The research process. | B．The research findings. |
| C．The research purpose. | D．The research background. |
| A．AI models based on mouse and keyboard data have been widely applied. |
| B．Naegelin’s study explains why muscle activity can affect stress levels. |
| C．Employers need to respect employees’ privacy while detecting stress. |
| D．A stress-detection system improves physical health at the workplace. |
| A．To introduce a new model to detect stress. |
| B．To compare different models in stress detection. |
| C．To show the disadvantages of being overstressed. |
| D．To state the importance of a stress-detection system. |
【推荐1】Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers. But now that information is being spread and monitored in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules. By tracking people’s e-mails and online posts, scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.
“The ‘if it bleeds’ rule works for mass media,” says Jonah Berger, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. “They want your eyeballs and don’t care how you're feeling. But when you share a story with your friends, you care a lot more how they react. You don’t want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer.”
Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication — e-mails, Web posts and reviews, face-to-face conversations — found that it tended to be more positive than negative, but that didn't necessarily mean people preferred positive news. Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things? To test for that possibility, Dr. Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times’ website. He and a Penn colleague analyzed the “most e-mailed” list for six months. One of his first findings was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles. He found that science amazed Times’ readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.
Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny, or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety, but not articles that left them merely sad. They needed to be aroused one way or the other, and they preferred good to bad. The more positive an article, the more likely it was to be shared, as Dr. Berger explains in his new book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On.
1. How does the author bring out the new rules of media?| A．By giving a definition. | B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By presenting an argument. | D．By introducing the background. |
| A．attentive to their own story making | B．eager for frequent eye contact |
| C．particular about their physical contact | D．careful about others’ response |
| A．A technological breakthrough. | B．A solution to poverty. |
| C．An individual’s life of unemployment. | D．A historical short story. |
| A．Sad Stories Actually Travel Far and Wide | B．Online News Attracts More People |
| C．Good News Beats Bad on Social Networks | D．Reading Habits Change with the Times |
【推荐2】Social media is one of the fastest-growing industries in today’s world. A study conducted by the US think tank (智囊团) Pew Research Center showed that 92 percent of teenagers go online daily.
The wide spread of social media has changed nearly all parts of teenagers’ lives.
Changing relationships
High school student Elly Cooper from Illinois said social media often reduces face-to-face communication.
“It makes in-person relationships harder because people give attention to their phones instead of their boyfriends or girlfriends,” Cooper said.
There’s also a greater possibility of things getting lost in translation over social media.
“If half of your relationship is over social media, you don’t really know how the other person is reacting,” Sienna Schulte, a junior student from Illinois, said.
Yet, some people believe social media has made it easier to start relationships with anyone from anywhere. Beth Kaplan from Illinois met her long-distance friend through social media. He currently lives in Scotland, but they’re still able to frequently communicate with one another.
“I can feel close to someone that I’m talking to via（通过）FaceTime,” Kaplan said.
Wanting to be “liked”
The rise of social media has changed the way teenagers see themselves.
The 19-year-old Essena O’Neill announced on the social networking service Instagram that she was quitting social media because it made her obsessed (痴迷) with appearing perfect online.
Negative comments also can do great damage to a teenager’s self-esteem (自尊).
In particular, anonymous (匿名的) social media apps such as Yik Yak may provide opportunities for cyber bullying (网络欺凌).
The app allows users within 5 miles (8 km) to create and add comments to everything. Teenagers who get negative comments on these sites can’t help but feel hurt.
Opening new doors
However, Armin Korsos, a student from Illinois, takes advantage of the comments he receives over social media to improve his videos on the social networking site Youtube.
“Social media can help people show themselves and their talents to the world in a way that was never possible before,” Korsos said.
But Korsos recognizes that social media has become a distraction (让人分心的事).“Social media, though it helps people connect with their friends and stay updated, is not all necessary.”
1. What is the article mainly about?| A．The major problems with social media. |
| B．The effect of social media on teenagers. |
| C．How teenagers benefit from social media. |
| D．Why social media appeals so much to teenagers. |
| A．It pushes people to meet their friends more often offline. |
| B．It encourages people to pay more attention to those around them. |
| C．It enables users to understand accurately what others are talking about online. |
| D．It allows people to keep in touch with their friends who live far away more easily. |
| A．she couldn’t tolerate cyberbullying on social media |
| B．she wanted to spend more time with her friends in reality |
| C．she was troubled by her desire to look perfect on social media |
| D．she always felt hurt by the negative information online |
| A．The use of social media taught him to turn negative comments into motivations. |
| B．Social media can easily become an addiction(着迷), despite its benefits. |
| C．Social media is mostly a distraction to teenagers, so it is unnecessary for it to exist. |
| D．If used well, social media can create opportunities for teenagers to develop themselves. |
For millions of Facebook users, choosing which photo to use for an online profile is an important decision. According to a study by researchers at the UT Dallas Center, the photos we select may reflect individual preferences, but they also appear to reflect more deeply rooted, unconscious cultural differences. Previous research has shown that culture can affect not only language and custom, but also how we experience the world and process information. Western cultures, for example, condition people to think of themselves as highly independent entities (实体), whereas East Asian cultures stress collectivism and interdependence.
Dr. Denise Park, co-director of the Center at UT Dallas, and former graduate student Dr. Chih-Mao Huang of the University of Illinois, were curious about whether these patterns of cultural influence extend to cyberspace. In a paper published in the International Journal of Psychology, they examined the profile photographs of more than 500 active Facebook users from the United States and East Asia. Overall, they found that profile photos of Americans are more likely to focus on the individual’s face, while the profiles of East Asians tend to less emphasize the face and include more background features. Americans also show greater smile intensity compared to East Asian Facebook users.
The findings show marked cultural differences in the focus of attention among East Asian and American Facebook users. Moreover, they echo previous research on cultural influences on visual sense, attention, and reasoning in the offline world.
“We believe these findings relate to a cultural difference to be more individualistic and independent in the US and more communal and interdependent in Asia,” said Park.
The research also found that cultural influences over our self-presentation online can shift over time and from place to place. In one of the study samples, Americans studying in Japan and Japanese studying in the United States both showed a tendency to adjust their profile photos to the general preferences of their host country.
“Facebook constitutes an extended social context in which personal profiles mirror various individual characteristics, private thoughts, and social behaviors,” noted Huang. “As such, the study presents a new approach to investigate cognition and behaviors across cultures by using Facebook as a data collection platform.”
1. What may an online profile photo reflect?2. According to the research, how are American and East Asian Facebook users different in choosing their profile photos?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
In one of the study samples, Americans studying in Japan showed a tendency to adjust their profile photos to the general preferences of America.
4. Apart from cultural differences, what other factors might influence one’s choice of profile photo on social media? And give some examples. (In about 40 words)
