In the past, video conference technology was mainly used for just a few elements of business meetings or hangouts (聚集处) with friends and family. Now, video conference tools are important for our productivity, learning and social interaction. We use them not only for fun, but mainly as a meaningful part of our work.
However, once we start to join endless video calls for a few hours each day, we become very tired. This term is called “zoom tiredness”, and it’s related to overusing virtual (虚拟的) communication platforms.
There are some advantages of using video conferencing tools. Without them, it might be impossible for us to work from home. But what we haven’t expected is a price that we need to pay for that sort of convenience.
When we are having a face-to-face conversation with others, everything seems pretty natural. While speaking, you look into the eyes, sometimes slightly moving your stare onto something else. You know when to stop talking and when to speak up. Even if you’re in a conference room with 10 people, you don’t have a terrible feeling of being observed all the time. You notice that people mostly look at the person who is speaking, and then they move their attention onto someone else. But when you use a teleconferencing tool, things are different. Being physically on camera makes you very aware of being watched all the time, because you don’t know who is looking at you. You just see many faces on your screen.
Marissa Shuffler from Clemson University once said, “When you’re on a video conference, you know everybody’s looking at you; you are on stage, so there comes the social pressure—a feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is stressful.”
Moreover, there is another interesting tendency as far as video calls are concerned. Who are you looking at most of the time? The answer is yourself. For most people, it’s hard not to look at their own face if they can see it on the screen. We are likely to make sure that our head is at the right angle and that our shirt is tidy.
1. What might cause the so-called “zoom tiredness”?| A．The fast pace of modern life. |
| B．Getting bored with video calls. |
| C．The wide spread of video technology. |
| D．Spending too much time on video calls. |
| A．Higher cost | B．More pressure |
| C．More free time | D．Better performance |
| A．The popularity of video calls | B．People’s attitude towards video calls |
| C．Some unexpected effects of video calls | D．Changes in people’s way of communication |
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【推荐1】So much of our daily life relates to the internet, from work to education and even talking with friends. The more online accounts and devices you have, the more internet dangers you will face. That’s why it’s more important to understand internet safety rules which protect you and your family from threats that may harm your data and devices.
Make sure you’re using a safe internet connection
Although using public Wi-Fi is not recommended, it’s sometimes unavoidable when you are out. However, when you go online in a public place and use a public Wi-Fi connection, you have no direct control over its safety, which could leave you vulnerable (易受伤的) to cyberattacks.
Choose strong passwords
Passwords are one of the biggest weak spots when it comes to online safety. People often choose passwords that are easy to remember.
Developers are often working to make products safe, monitoring the latest threats and rolling out security patches (安全补丁) in case of weaknesses in their software. By using the updated operating systems and apps, you will benefit from the latest security patches. This is especially important for apps that include payment, health or other personal information about a user.
Be careful of uncertain links and where you click
| A．Be careful of what and where you post |
| B．Keep software and operating systems updated |
| C．Read on to find out about the ways to stay safe online |
| D．A careless click can give out your personal data online |
| E．But some of those sites may have poor data protection policies |
| F．Therefore, it’s easy for hackers to break into your system |
| G．So, if necessary, avoid carrying out personal businesses that use private data |
They also tend to prefer instant messaging to e-mail, and they are depending on the Internet more frequently than before to communicate with others who have the same professions, hobbies and political interests. Online purchases still remain unpopular in China. Three-quarters of users surveyed have never bought anything over the Internet, and only 10 percent make purchases even once a month. Among those who do buy online, most pay for entertainment while others buy phone cards, or computer hardware or software.
“Many people don’t trust the quality of goods bought online,” Guo said Wednesday. “If they buy it in a store and don’t like it, they can easily bring it back.”
The survey was done in five major cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Changsha. Results do not necessarily project countrywide because Internet use in rural areas is lower than in cities. Guo describes the typical netizen in the five cities surveyed as young, male, richer and more highly educated. Males make up two-thirds of the Internet community, and more than 80 percent of users are under 24. Among people ages 25 to 29, 60 percent to 80 percent go online.
China has more than 100 million people online, second in the world to the United States.
1. A typical Chinese Internet user may be the one who _________.| A．likes to send e-mails | B．likes to buy goods online |
| C．likes to pay for entertainment | D．likes the games sites |
| A．it is more difficult for sales returns |
| B．people haven’t computers |
| C．it is not convenient to purchase on line |
| D．all goods bought online are of low quality |
| A．well educated | B．richer | C．female | D．young |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
【推荐3】In the digital age, we are becoming accustomed to technological innovations, and the fact that they can have a deep impact on our lives.
The number of the smartphone adult users has reached 85 percent in the UK population. Meanwhile streaming and 5G tech are changing the way we watch movies, TV shows and sports events. But Artificial Intelligence(AI) is probably the biggest game-changer of them all. The biggest impacts have nothing to do with robots or even digital assistants like Google Home. Here are two real-world applications of AI that are already changing our world for the better
One is better medical diagnose. If you had some illness, would you want to be diagnosed by a doctor or a machine? You’d probably say the former, but in reality, the question is not that simple. Today, human expertise and AI work side by side to make faster, better diagnoses. Think of it this way—a doctor can spend an hour reading six or seven cases while AI can do six or seven thousand in seconds and then present the doctor with a range of possible medical conditions along with their related probabilities.
The other is reducing fraud( 欺 诈 ) . Fraud against big businesses seems nothing to do with us. In fact, it often ends up affecting us all, especially when insurance companies, for example, are forced to increase the premium( 保 费 ) to cover losses. AI is being used more and more in insurtech, both to speed up the claim( 索 赔 ) process and to mark possibly fraudulent claims more reliably. It does this by analysing big data trends. Faster processing and reduced fraud are good news for everyone, and that can save money for us.
1. What has affected the way of our lives most?| A．Reading books. | B．Digital assistants. |
| C．Smart robots. | D．Artificial Intelligence. |
| A．Professional knowledge | B．Interesting hobbies |
| C．Medical conditions | D．Scientific research |
| A．AI can benefit us a lot. |
| B．AI can help us earn money. |
| C．AI makes the claim process slow. |
| D．AI makes us increase the premium. |
| A．How AI Is Reducing Fraud in Our Live. |
| B．How AI Is Touching All Our Lives for the Better. |
| C．What Advantages AI Is Bringing to Medical Diagnose. |
| D．In What Aspects AI Is Changing the Way of Entertainment. |
【推荐1】Swap, Don’t shop!
You keep hearing about recycling, right? But it doesn’t end with bottles, cans, and paper. Clothing takes a huge amount of natural resources to make, and buying loads of new clothing (or throwing out old clothing) is not healthy for the environment. So what to do with all those perfectly-good-but-you’re-maybe-a-little-sick-of-them clothes piled on your bedroom floor?
A successful swap depends on the selection of clothes, the organization of the event, and, obviously, how much fun it has. It’s really easy to do! Here are a few pointers.
●Invite 5—10 people so you have a nice selection.
●Tell everyone to bring clean clothes in good condition.
●Put different types of clothing on different surfaces in the room. Have everyone put their clothes in the right spots.
●Set a starting time. Maybe you say “go”, or turn on a certain song, or whatever.
| A．Less people than that |
| B．Hold a clothing swap |
| C．If two people are competing |
| D．Just keep music playing throughout |
| E．Donate whatever goods are left over |
| F．Place a few mirrors around your room |
| G．They should also prepare plenty of reusable bags to carry their “new” clothes home |
【推荐2】Have you ever run into a careless cell phone user on the street? Perhaps they were busy talking, texting (发消息) or checking updates on WeChat (微信) without looking at what was going on around them. As the number of this new “species” of human has kept rising, they have been given a new name-phubbers (低头族，埋头玩手机的人).
Recently, a cartoon (动画片) made by students from China Central Academy of Fine Arts put this group of people under the spotlight. In the short film, phubbers with various social identities are buried in their phones. A doctor plays with his cell phone while letting his patient die, a pretty woman takes selfie (自拍照) in front of a car accident site (车祸现场), and a father loses his child without knowing about it while using his mobile phone. A chain of similar events eventually leads to the destruction (毁灭) of the world.
Although the ending sounds overstated (夸张), the damage (伤害, 损害) that phubbing can bring is real. Your health is the first to bear (承受) the effect and result of it. “Continuously stretching your head to check your cell phone could damage your neck,” Guangming Daily quoted doctors as saying, “the neck (脖子) is like a rope that breaks after long-term stretching.” Also, staring at cell phones for long periods of time will damage your eyesight (视力) gradually, according to the report.
But that’s not all. Being a phubber could also damage your social skills and drag you away from your friends and family. At get-togethers with family or friends, many people tend to stick to their cell phones while others are chatting happily with each other and this creates a strange atmosphere, Qilu Evening News reported.
It can also cost you your life. There have been lots of reports on phubbers who fell to their death, suffered accidents, and were robbed of their cell phones in broad daylight.
1. The author gives the example of a cartoon in Paragraph 2 ______.| A．to advertise (宣传，为……打广告) the cartoon made by students. |
| B．to inform (告知) people of the bad effects of plubbing. |
| C．to show the world will finally be destroyed (破坏，毁灭) by phubbers. |
| D．to ask doctors not to use cell phones while treating patients. |
| A．hide | B．use | C．cover | D．pay all attention to |
| A．His social skills could be affected. |
| B．His neck and eyesight will be gradually harmed. |
| C．He will cause the destruction of the world. |
| D．He might get separated from (远离) his friends and family. |
| A．Advice on how to use a cell phone. |
| B．People who are addicted to phubbing. |
| C．Results of phubbing. |
| D．Measures (措施) to reduce the risks (风险，危险) of phubbing. |
【推荐3】Among the annoying challenges facing the middle class is one that will probably go unmentioned in the next presidential campaign: What happens when the robots come for their jobs?
Don't dismiss that possibility entirely. About half of U.S. jobs are at high risk of being automated, according to a University of Oxford study, with the middle class disproportionately squeezed. Lower-income jobs like gardening or day care don't appeal to robots. But many middle-class occupations-trucking, financial advice, software engineering — have aroused their interest, or soon will. The rich own the robots, so they will be fine.
This isn't to be alarmist. Optimists point out that technological upheaval has benefited workers in the past. The Industrial Revolution didn't go so well for Luddites whose jobs were displaced by mechanized looms, but it eventually raised living standards and created more jobs than it destroyed. Likewise, automation should eventually boost productivity, stimulate demand by driving down prices, and free workers from hard, boring work. But in the medium term, middle-class workers may need a lot of help adjusting.
The first step, as Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee argue in The Second Machine Age, should be rethinking education and job training. Curriculums — from grammar school to college — should evolve to focus less on memorizing facts and more on creativity and complex communication. Vocational schools should do a better job of fostering problem-solving skills and helping students work alongside robots. Online education can supplement the traditional kind. It could make extra training and instruction affordable. Professionals trying to acquire new skills will be able to do so without going into debt.
The challenge of coping with automation underlines the need for the U.S. to revive its fading business dynamism: Starting new companies must be made easier. In previous eras of drastic technological change, entrepreneurs smoothed the transition by dreaming up ways to combine labor and machines. The best uses of 3D printers and virtual reality haven't been invented yet. The U.S. needs the new companies that will invent them.
Finally, because automation threatens to widen the gap between capital income and labor income, taxes and the safety net will have to be rethought. Taxes on low-wage labor need to be cut, and wage subsidies such as the earned income tax credit should be expanded: This would boost incomes, encourage work, reward companies for job creation, and reduce inequality.
Technology will improve society in ways big and small over the next few years, yet this will be little comfort to those who find their lives and careers upended by automation. Destroying the machines that are coming for our jobs would be nuts. But policies to help workers adapt will be indispensable.
1. what does the underlined word “their” in the second paragraph refer to?| A．Low-income workers. | B．Robot owners. |
| C．Robots. | D．Researchers of the study. |
| A．All jobs will be threatened by the coming of robots. |
| B．Optimists' opinions on new tech find little support. |
| C．Issues arising from automation need to be tackled. |
| D．Negative consequences of new tech can be avoided. |
| A．innovative potential | B．job-hunting skills |
| C．communication skills | D．cooperative spirit |
| A．encouraging the development of automation | B．boosting incomes |
| C．easing the hostility between rich and poor | D．bridging the income gap |
【推荐1】That artificial food dyes (染料) are unhealthy is not news. Some are known to cause hyperactivity (多动症) in some children, affecting their ability to learn. But regulatory agencies (监管机构) around the world don’t necessarily agree on which food dyes are a problem, or why. That may soon change. A 2021 peer-reviewed report by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment concluded that artificial food dyes “cause or worsen neurobehavioral (神经行为的) problems in some children” and that the current levels that are regarded safe for consumption by the federal government are too high.
California is now considering requiring warning labels on food products and dietary supplements containing the seven most commonly used artificial dyes. The warning label requirement would put California on par with the European Union, which since 2010 has required food products containing certain artificial food dyes to carry warning labels about their negative effect on activity and attention in children.
Artificial dyes are used in foods for one reason: to make products look prettier. Bright colors make candies appealing, especially to kids. But dyes are also in chocolate cake mixes, salad dressings and other products that don’t seem to cry out for a color boost.
In Europe, it was the 2010 label lawmaking that triggered (引发) companies’ decisions to reformulate. “If you’re a company, you do not want to put a warning label on your product.” says Lefferts, an environmental health consultant. Warning labels are why European Starburst Fruit Chews are now colored with natural products, not the artificial dyes that brighten their North American counterparts (同类商品).
Given that artificial food dyes are used far more than needed, we need to be more cautious. After all, we don’t dye fresh fruits and vegetables, but we do dye candy and sprinkles, points out Joe Schwarcz, a chemistry professor at McGill University in Montreal. “The foods in which you find food dyes are foods that are poor in nutrition,” he says. “If you limit foods that contain food dyes, you automatically make your diet better.”
1. What can we learn about artificial food dyes from paragraph 1?| A．A 2021 report confirmed their negative effects. |
| B．The fact that they are harmful is newly revealed. |
| C．Regulatory agencies consider them a serious problem. |
| D．The Federal government thinks their current standard too high. |
| A．In opposition to. | B．In line with. | C．Ahead of. | D．Behind. |
| A．Food companies will stop coloring their products. |
| B．More fresh fruits and vegetables will appear in the market. |
| C．Food companies may replace artificial dyes with natural products. |
| D．It will be hard to find packaged foods without warning labels of dyes. |
| A．Approving. | B．Neutral. | C．Tolerant. | D．Concerned. |
【推荐2】Healthy eating doesn’t just mean what you eat, but how you eat. Here is some advice(建议) on healthy eating.
Eat with others. It can help you to see others’ healthy eating habits. If you usually eat with your parents, you can find that the food you eat is more delicious.
Listen to your body. Ask yourself if you are really hungry. Have a glass of water to see if you are thirsty---sometimes you are just thirsty, you need no food. Stop eating before you feel full.
Eat breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. After you don’t eat for the past ten hours, your body needs food to get you going. You can be cleverer after eating breakfast.
Eat healthy snacks like fruits, yogurt or cheese. We all need snacks sometimes. In fact, it’s a good idea to eat two healthy snacks between your three meals. This doesn’t mean that you can eat a bag of chips instead of a meal.
Don’t eat dinner late. With our busy life, we always put off eating dinner time. Try to eat dinner at least 3 hours before you go to bed. This will give your body a chance to digest most of the food before you sleep.
1. The writer gives us ________ pieces of advice on healthy eating.| A．4 | B．5 | C．6 | D．7 |
| A．Fruits | B．Yogurt | C．Chips | D．Ice cream |
| A．Snacks are bad for our health. |
| B．We should keeping eating until we are full. |
| C．Dinner is the most important meal of the day. |
| D．We should have dinner at least 3 hours before going to bed. |
| A．where to eat | B．how to eat | C．what to eat | D．when to eat |
【推荐3】According to a new USDA(the U.S.Department of Agriculture)report,U.S.forests could worsen global warming because they are being destroyed by natural disasters and are losing their ability to absorb planet-warming gases as they get older.The report predicts that the ability of forests to absorb carbon will start declining after 2025 and that forests could release up to 100 million metric tons of carbon a year as their emissions from decaying(腐烂)trees go above their carbon absorption.Forests could become a“substantial carbon source”by 2070,the USDA report says.
The loss of carbon absorption is driven in part by natural disasters such as wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes,which are increasing in frequency and strength as global temperatures rise.The disasters destroy forestland,destroying its ecosystem and decreasing its ability to absorb carbon,according to Lynn Riley,a senior manager of climate science at the American Forest Foundation.Aging forests also contribute.The report found that older,mature trees absorb less carbon than younger trees of the same species,and U.S.forests are rapidly aging.
This trend is likely to continue,as forests come under increasing threat from climate change and exploitation(开采).The typical tropical forest may become a carbon source by the 2060s,according to Simon Lewis,professor in the school of geography at Leeds University. “Humans have been lucky so far,as tropical forests are cleaning up lots of our pollution,but they can’t keep doing that indefinitely,”he said.“We need to cut down fossil fuel emissions before the global carbon cycle starts working against us.”
U.S.forests currently absorb 11 percent of U.S.carbon emissions,or 150 million metric tons of carbon a year,equal to the combined emissions from 40 coal power plants,according to there port.The loss of forests as natural carbon absorbers will require the U.S.to cut emissions more rapidly to reach net zero.“As we work to decarbonize(碳减排),forests are one of the greatest tools.If we were to lose that tool,it means we will contribute that much more in emissions,”Riley said.
1. What is the main finding of the report?| A．Forests are suffering from decaying trees. |
| B．Forests could contribute to global warming. |
| C．Forests are being destroyed by natural disasters. |
| D．Forests have become substantial carbon absorbers. |
| A．The key role of forests in the ecosystem. |
| B．The consequences of frequent natural disasters. |
| C．The impact of rising global temperatures on forests. |
| D．The reasons for forests’ declining ability to absorb carbon. |
| A．Reducing fossil fuel emissions. |
| B．Cleaning up decaying trees in time. |
| C．Planting trees on a large scale. |
| D．Limiting the exploitation of forests. |
| A．To offer suggestions on forest management. |
| B．To stress the significance of forest protection. |
| C．To present the efforts made to reach net zero. |
| D．To show the carbon emissions from coal power plants. |
