“Looking good, feeling good” is a common phrase, but for many middle school students, it brings up the issue of appearance anxiety. In a world where social media often sets unrealistic beauty standards, teenagers can feel pressured to look a certain way. This pressure can lead to a lack of confidence and happiness.
Dressing in a style that reflects personal taste, rather than simply following fashion trends, can be a step towards overcoming this anxiety. Wearing clothes that make one feel comfortable and confident can help boost self-esteem. It’s important for students to understand that fashion is a way to express themselves, not a standard they must meet.
Healthy eating is also crucial. A balanced diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, and grains, helps maintain a healthy body and mind. Sometimes, teens worry too much about their weight, which can lead to unhealthy eating habits. Learning about nutrition and understanding that healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes can help alleviate these concerns.
Physical activity plays a significant role in mental well-being. Regular exercise, like playing a sport or going for a walk, not only keeps the body fit but also releases endorphins, improving mood and reducing stress. It's a natural way to fight the anxiety that comes with appearance concerns.
Finally, it's essential for middle school students to focus on mental health. Engaging in hobbies, spending time with friends, and seeking support when needed can contribute to a more positive self-image. Understanding that everyone's unique and that real beauty comes from within is vital. Feeling good about oneself should come from personal achievements and qualities, not just from outward appearance.
1. What is the main concern addressed in the article regarding middle school students?| A．Choosing the right fashion trends. |
| B．Coping with appearance anxiety. |
| C．Learning about nutrition and exercise. |
| D．Finding comfortable clothing. |
| A．It can lead to unrealistic beauty standards. |
| B．It can help in overcoming appearance anxiety. |
| C．It pressures students to follow fashion trends. |
| D．It results in a lack of interest in fashion. |
| A．It sets beauty standards for students. |
| B．It mainly helps in weight management. |
| C．It improves mood and reduces stress. |
| D．It has no significant impact on mental well-being. |
| A．It helps in achieving academic success. |
| B．It contributes to a more positive self-image. |
| C．It encourages following social media trends. |
| D．It increases interest in fashion and style. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Test anxiety is a form of performance anxiety. Wanting to perform well can be a strong encouraging factor that helps you prepare for success.
Get a good night’s sleep. Since your brain is responsible for taking all the information you’ve studied and storing it for test day, getting seven to nine hours of sleep will help you remember what you’ve learned. Proper rest is also important for calming yourself.
Try to do some exercise. The importance of exercise goes far beyond (超出) its physical benefits. Exercise can also help you to calm your mind and relax. You can lift weights and practice yoga in the gym.
Form a picture of success in your mind. When you imagine success, you create a mental image (心理意象) of yourself performing well on the test and achieving your goal.
| A．Take time to master what you’ve learned. |
| B．Feeling rushed will only increase the anxiety. |
| C．Don’t pay attention to what other people are doing. |
| D．You can also go for a walk with your family outside. |
| E．Therefore, have a good sleep when preparing for a big test. |
| F．This can help prepare your mind and body for the test experience. |
| G．However, the pressure to get a good grade may cause you to experience anxiety. |
【推荐2】Even though we may believe that it’s important to say thank you, sometimes expressing gratitude is easier said than done. We might find ourselves getting hung up on the best way to deliver the message.
However, it’s possible that we might be making our thanks more complex. In a paper, researchers compared the effects of expressing thanks in person, over a video call, and over text. And, while people generally expect an in-person thank you to be the most effective, what happened in reality was quite different: Sending a thank-you over text was almost as effective as that. Additionally, texting may be especially well-suited for situations where we feel awkward or embarrassed about expressing our appreciation.
In the study, 219 college students participated in a gratitude activity in which they wrote about three things they were grateful for over a two- week period. After writing, the students were asked to actually thank the persons involved. Some connected with the gratitude recipients (接受者) in person, others via video call, and others via text. At the beginning and end of the two weeks，participants completed surveys measuring their feelings of well-being, connections with others, loneliness and happiness.
The researchers found that people who expressed gratitude gained increased happiness, with only a few differences for the different methods of gratitude expression. Overall, video calls were just as beneficial as meeting in person. Texting was slightly less effective than video calling- it didn’t make people feel more connected and happier, while video calling did. However, participants who sent their thanks over text still experienced benefits: Texting improved their well- being and reduced their loneliness.
Overall, however, the message is that we shouldn’t worry about finding just the “best” way to express our gratitude. In fact, you re better off sending a quick thank you shortly after you receive the kindness than waiting for an occasion to schedule an in-person visit. Don’t put it off just for finding the best way—many times our gratitude goes unsaid because we spend too much time on the details.
1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Making a video call. | B．Sending a text message. |
| C．Expressing thanks in person. | D．Writing a thank-you letter. |
| A．To find the effect of expressing thanks on them. |
| B．To measure their physical health. |
| C．To collect a lot more ways to express thanks. |
| D．To know their views on gratitude. |
| A．In-person gratitude was less likely to be accepted. |
| B．Expressing gratitude could benefit mental health. |
| C．Ways of gratitude expression should be improved. |
| D．Texting made the gratitude recipients much happier. |
| A．Search for the best way. | B．Wait for an in-person visit. |
| C．Express gratitude in time. | D．Make careful preparations. |
Tips to Increase Your Productivity
Want to get more done in your day? Of course you do.
Make a plan for your day. Make sure you know how you want your day to go in advance, even before you start.
Break large tasks down into bits accomplished easily. Do you have a large project that’s just so big that you keep putting it off? Or maybe you’re just unsure of where to begin, so you put it off.
Always set your priorities.
| A．A good way is to break the project down into more manageable ones. |
| B．It’s important to accomplish the most important tasks first. |
| C．This can provide you a roadmap for the day. |
| D．To stay competitive in any industry, you need to improve your productivity. |
| E．Be aware of when you are the most productive. |
| F．Reward yourself if you are productive. |
| G．It’s tough to meet depressed people who are productive. |
【推荐1】New research from Barclays Life Skills found that 70% of the British noticed language changes at work over the last five years. Gen Z, people aged 18-24, appears to be leading the change. “Our research shows that the next generation are clearly going to make their mark on the workforce when it comes to how we communicate,” said Kirstie Mackey, head of Barclays Life Skills.
“Yours truly”, “Yours sincerely”, and “To whom it may concern” were the three phrases mostly likely to disappear from the workplace within the next ten years. “Compliments” and “Respects” at the end of an email were the fourth and fifth most likely to go extinct. While these phrases are behind the times in the eyes of the British, “thanks!” and “thanks so much” were found to be increasingly popular, with 46% and 50% of respondents (受访者) saying these were friendly responses.
Other more informal phrases, however, were considered to be more divisive — simply going with the short form for thank you, “ta!” was considered over-familiar by 29% of respondents, but friendly by 23%. And “hiya” was viewed as friendly by 42%, but as over-familiar by 26%.
The survey shows 49% of Gen Z often use immediate messaging platforms at work, but just 27% of those aged over 55 do so. That age group still prefers email, saying this method feels more professional.
Language expert Laura Bailey says the change toward a more informal way goes hand in hand with the appearance of workplace messaging platforms. “The generational differences can be explained by broader changes in what different age groups were familiar with,” Bailey said.
While traditional letter-writing styles translate into any form of written communication for older workers, younger ones have been influenced by changing language styles that spread quickly through social media, Bailey added.
Barclays Life Skills’ Mackey said that given office-proper language was changing, there were a few things to remember. Avoiding over-familiarity with co-workers and making sure your tone (语气) is considered as friendly were two of them, she said. Another important consideration was whether a short message or email would be enough to express what you want to say, and thinking about which choice the email receiver would favor, Mackey suggested.
1. What did the new research find about Gen Z?| A．They prefer formal language in the workplace. |
| B．They show less interest in new style of communication. |
| C．They place higher importance on direct communication. |
| D．They drive the changes in communication styles at work. |
| A．They’re extinct. | B．They’re friendly. |
| C．They’re over-familiar. | D．They’re old-fashioned. |
| A．They may replace emails soon. | B．They make office language informal. |
| C．They are more convenient than emails. | D．They are destroying the English language. |
| A．Use formal and proper language. |
| B．Consider the message receiver’s preference. |
| C．Keep their distance from senior co-workers. |
| D．Avoid sending short emails to familiar people. |
【推荐2】Student loan (贷款) debt has become a worldwide problem. In America, the country's overall student debt reached a record of $1.6 trillion in 2019. The average person with student loan debt owed between $20,000 and $25,000. A recent Japanese government report says it has been lending over $9 billion yearly to students since 2010. Similar conditions exist in Africa and South America.
Several factors account for high student loan debt. One is that employers everywhere have increased their demands for skilled workers, making higher education a requirement for many jobs. The students, however, after graduation, often find that their country's economy is not strong enough to support their financial needs, so their ability to pay back the loan becomes a problem.
To solve the problem, many countries are seeking their ways. Australia has developed a system where students do not have to pay anything back until they are earning at least $40,000 a year. In America, several candidates running for president in the 2020 election have offered more extreme solutions that all or at least some of these loans will be forgiven.
Some professors in several universities recently studied what the effects of debt forgiveness might be. They found that, overall, sudden debt relief greatly improved the borrowers' lives. Not only did they have more money, but they were more likely to move to a new area and seek better paying work.
Yet the professors' research doesn’t include what might happen to financial institutions or the overall economy if debt were totally forgiven. It only looks at how debt forgiveness would help the borrowers. They warn of some other possible negative effects. If a borrower knew that if he ran into any trouble he would be saved because he could get the debt relief, then he might actually become more reckless (轻率的) with his borrowing in the future.
No matter what, the professors agree that if countries do decide to approve some student debt relief the neediest students should be helped first.
1. What can we learn about student loan debt relief?| A．It will surely provide some benefits to borrowers. |
| B．It has already been carried out in the United States. |
| C．It aims to encourage more students to borrow money. |
| D．It will prevent a person from landing a well-paying job. |
| A．Uncaring | B．Positive | C．Disapproving | D．Cautious |
| A．Student loan debt is the most serious problem worldwide. |
| B．Growing global student debt fuels search for solutions. |
| C．Student loan debt tends to pull the needy out of trouble. |
| D．People hold different opinions on debt forgiveness. |
【推荐3】Do you always fall asleep on bus journeys?
One popular view is about the white noise. It is a continuous sound like the hum of tires or the purring of the car. White noise masks (掩盖) distracting noise and is helpful for people who have trouble getting sleep.
Another view as to why it’s easy to fall asleep in buses or trains is because of the rocking (摇晃) movement that’s similar to what comforted us when we were babies. However, it’s not the movement itself that leads to a better sleep.
An increase in carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) in public transportation can be one reason, too.
| A．Rather, it’s the link between rocking and sleeping. |
| B．Why do we sleep better on the coach than in our bed? |
| C．It may also help mothers settle babies with mild sleep problems. |
| D．Cars and other vehicles are a perfect environment that produces it. |
| E．Buses and trains get crowded every day with people going to and from work. |
| F．It seems to be much easier to fall asleep on a running bus than in the comfortable bed. |
| G．The running vehicle offers a comfortable rocking environment for those with sleep problems. |
【推荐1】Can you be too beautiful? It is hardly a problem that most of us have to bother — as much as we might like to dream that it were the case.
Yet the blessings and curses of beauty have been a long-standing interest in psychology. Do those blessed with shiny faces and an attractive body live in a cloud of appreciation — or does it sometimes pay to be ordinary? At the most basic level, beauty might be thought to carry a kind of halo (光环) around it; we see that someone has one good quality, and by association, our deep mind may assume that they have other good ones too.
But if beauty pays in most circumstances, there are still situations where it can have opposite results. While attractive men may be considered better leaders, for instance, hidden sexist prejudices (偏见) can work against attractive women, making them less likely to be hired for high-level jobs that require power. And as you might expect, good-looking people of both sexes run into envy — one study found that if you are interviewed by someone of the same sex, they may be less likely to employ you if they judge that you are more attractive than they are.
More worryingly, being beautiful or handsome could harm your medical care. We tend to link good looks to health, meaning that illnesses are often taken less seriously when they affect the good-looking. When treating people for pain, for instance, doctors tend to take less care over the more attractive people.
To conclude, scientists point out that focusing too much on your appearance can itself be harmful if it creates stress and anxiety — even for those already blessed with good looks. “If you are crazy about attractiveness, it may affect your experience and interactions,” she says. It’s an outdated saying, but no amount of beauty can make up for a bad personality. As the writer Dorothy Parker put it so elegantly: “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.”
1. From paragraph 1, we can learn that .| A．some may be bothered by their unattractive appearance |
| B．most people are not afraid of being too beautiful |
| C．we might always dream about being bothered by others |
| D．being too beautiful can be a problem bothering everyone |
| A．Doctors care more about beautiful patients. |
| B．Beautiful people tend to have a healthy body. |
| C．Attractive women and men have equal chance of leadership. |
| D．Focusing too much on your appearance can be harmful. |
| A．The more beautiful outside, the less beautiful inside. |
| B．Beauty can help make a better personality. |
| C．Beauty cannot make up for bad personalities. |
| D．Ugly people have more confidence in their personality. |
| A．What is Real Beauty? | B．The Bad Effects of Beauty |
| C．Benefits of Beauty | D．Beauty, a Blessing? |
【推荐2】In the rich countries of the West, the electric vehicle revolution is well occurring. Climate-conscious consumers drive Teslas or Polestars for reasons of morality (道德) and fashion. Poorer countries are also experiencing a wave of electrified trend. In Bangladesh, electric three-wheeler taxis, known as tuk-tuks, are rapidly replacing gas-powered ones on the streets. Such electric vehicles are climate friendly, cost effective, and help reduce air pollution.
Yet a glance under the hood (引擎盖) of these vehicles shows a poisonous secret: each tuk-tuk runs on five massive lead-acid batteries (铅酸电池), containing almost 300 pounds of lead (铅) in total. Every year and a half or so, when those batteries need to be replaced and recycled, about 60 pounds of lead leaks into the environment. Battery recycling, often at small-scale unregulated factories, is a highly profitable (高利润的) but deadly business.
Lead is dangerous, and any exposure to it is harmful to human health. Lead that has entered the environment hurts people on an unexpected scale. The numerous ways lead enters air, water, soil, and homes across the developing world and the enormous damage it does to human health, wealth, and welfare cause one of the biggest environmental problems in the world yet receives little attention.
The World Bank estimates that lead kills 5.5 million people per year, making it a bigger global killer than AIDS, malaria, diabetes, and road traffic deaths combined. On top of the shocking deaths, the social burden of lead poisoning is heavy, as is its contribution to global inequality — our research on the cognitive (认知的) effects of lead poisoning suggests that it may explain about one-fifth of the educational achievement gap between rich and poor countries.
But unlike many challenges faced by developing countries, lead poisoning is a problem that can be resolved through financial investment (财政投入). Better monitoring, research, and rules can help protect children all over the world from the unpleasant effects of lead poisoning and reduce the massive global costs it brings.
1. How does the author describe the lead problem in paragraph 2?| A．By listing some numbers. | B．By analyzing hidden causes. |
| C．By making an interesting comparison. | D．By explaining its working principle. |
| A．Lead enters poor countries in one way. |
| B．Lead leaking has been avoided in all the countries. |
| C．Lead will definitely not harm anymore. |
| D．Lead poisoning may make poor societies poorer. |
| A．Fixing these used batteries. | B．Reducing the cost of recycling lead. |
| C．Ignoring the illegal use of lead. | D．Putting certain effort and money. |
| A．The Impacts of Lead Poisoning on Man. |
| B．The Global Lead Poisoning Problem. |
| C．The Ways to Solve Lead Problem. |
| D．The Benefits of Using Electric Vehicles. |
【推荐3】High-quality customer service is preached (宣扬) by many, but actually keeping customers happy is easier said than done.
Shoppers seldom complain to the manager or owner of a retail store, but instead will alert their friends, relatives, co-workers, strangers and anyone who will listen.
Store managers are often the last to hear complaints, and often find out only when their regular customers decide to frequent their competitors, according to a study jointly conducted by Verde group and Wharton school.
“Storytelling hurts retailers and entertains consumers,” said Paula Courtney, president of the Verde group. “The store loses the customer, but the shopper must also find a replacement.”
On average, every unhappy customer will complain to at least four others, and will no longer visit the specific store. For every dissatisfied customer, a store will lose up to three more due to negative reviews. The resulting “snowball effect” can be disastrous to retailers.
According to the research, shoppers who purchased clothing encountered the most problems. Ranked second and third were grocery and electronics customers.
The most common complaints include filled parking lots, cluttered (塞满了的) shelves, overloaded racks, out-of-stock items, long check-out lines, and rude salespeople.
During peak shopping hours, some retailers solved the parking problems by getting moonlighting (业余兼职的) local police to work as parking attendants. Some hired flag wavers to direct customers to empty parking spaces. This guidance eliminated the need for customers to circle the parking lot endlessly, and avoided confrontation between those eyeing the same parking space.
Retailers can relieve the headaches by redesigning store layouts, pre-stocking sales items, hiring speedy and experienced cashiers, and having sales representatives on hand to answer questions.
Most importantly, salespeople should be diplomatic and polite with angry customers.
“Retailers who’re responsive and friendly are more likely to smooth over issues than those who aren’t so friendly,” said Professor Stephen Hoch. “Maybe something as simple as a greeter at the store entrance would help.”
Customers can also improve future shopping experiences by filing complaints to the retailer, instead of complaining to the rest of the world. Retailers are hard-pressed to improve when they have no idea what is wrong.
1. Why are store managers often the last to hear complaints?| A．Because most customers won’t bother to complain even if they have had unhappy experiences. |
| B．Because customers would rather relate their unhappy experiences to people around them. |
| C．Because few customers believe the service will be improved. |
| D．Because customers have no easy access to store managers. |
| A．New customers are bound to replace old ones. |
| B．It is not likely the shopper can find the same products in other stores. |
| C．Most stores provide the same kinds of goods. |
| D．Not complaining to the manager causes the shopper some trouble too. |
| A．can stay longer browsing in the store | B．won’t have trouble parking their cars |
| C．won’t have any worries about security | D．can find their cars easily after shopping |
| A．The manners of salespeople. | B．Hiring of efficient employees. |
| C．Huge supply of goods for sale. | D．The design of store layouts. |
| A．exert pressure on stores to improve their service |
| B．settle their disputes with stores in a diplomatic way |
| C．voice their dissatisfaction to store managers directly |
| D．shop around and make comparisons between stores |
