We say that technology is a double-edged sword—while it brings convenience, it also brings new problems. The sword of “social media” even has a gender preference in its damage. It cuts deeper into girls than boys.
Earlier studies have shown that spending too much time on social media is bad for teenagers’mental health. Constantly watching their friends show off “perfect” lives can hurt their own self-esteem. That’s not to mention the problems caused by online shaming and bullying.
Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University in the US, recently discovered an alarming trend: Since 2010, the number of teenage girls who suffer from major depression—showing signs like self-harm and suicide—has increased much faster than that of boys. In an article she wrote at The Conversation, Twenge said social media, again, was to blame.
For starters, girls use social media more than boys. Boys tend to spend their screen time on games, where they talk to their teammates through headphones. This counts as real human contact. Girls, however, simply type and browse through posts, which is a much isolated experience. “They’re not having a real-time conversation with someone,” Mary Fristad, psychologist at The Ohio State University, told NPR.
And when it comes to online shaming, girls are also more vulnerable than boys. “Girls face more pressure about their appearance, which could be exacerbated (加重) by social media,” wrote Twenge.
Shannon McLaughlin, for example, is an 18-year-old from Blackburn College in the US. She shared with the Guardian how social media made her feel depressed. “I was constantly confronted by women with skinny bodies who were praised for the way they looked. This was only made worse by the diet fixes and skinny culture,” she said. But McLaughlin found a solution. She started volunteering with the National Citizen Service, where she made face-to-face contact with people. “It's so easy to forget the importance of real connections when we have hundreds of people that we’re trying to impress at our fingertips,” she told the Guardian. And she hopes that others “look up from their phones and focus more on the world around them”.
1. What did Twenge find in her recent study?A.Overuse of social media harms teenagers’ mental health. |
B.Social media does more harm to girls than boys. |
C.Girls suffered more t rom bullving than boys. |
D.Online shaming and bullving are to blame for teenagers’ depression. |
A.Girls have less real-time interaction with people. |
B.Playing games allows boys to have more fun than girls. |
C.Girls suffer more pressure on social media. |
D.Girls usually desire more contact with others. |
A.adjusting oneself well | B.fighting back bravely |
C.being unconcerned about something | D.being likely to be at risk of something |
A.Ignore social media and stop following a diet. | B.Connect more with the real world. |
C.Constantly take part in volunteer work. | D.Make better use of phones for socializing. |
A.A gender preference | B.Skinny culture |
C.Social media anxiety | D.A double-edged sword |
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【推荐1】Every pet owner loves his pet. There is no argument here.
But when we asked our readers whether they would clone their beloved animals,the responses(反应)were split almost down the middle. Of the 228 readers who answered it,108 would clone their beloved animals,111 would not and nine weighed each side without offering an opinion.
Clearly,from readers’responses,this is an issue that reaches deeply into both the joy and eventual sadness of owning a pet. It also shows people’s widely different expectations over the developing scientific procedure.
Most of the respondents who favored the idea strongly believed it would produce at least a close copy of the original;many felt the process would actually return an exact copy. Those on the other side,however,held little hope that cloning could truly recreate a pet;many simply didn’t wish to go against the natural law of life and death.
Both sides expressed equal love for their animals. More than a few respondents owned“the dog/cat in the world”.They thought of their pets as their“best friend”,“a member of the family”,“the light of their life”.They told moving stories of pets’ heroism,intelligence and selfless devotion.
Few wonder the loss is so disturbing(令人不安的)and the cloning so attractive.“People become very close to their animals,and the loss can be just as hard to bear as when a friend or family member dies,”says Gary A. Kowalski,author of Goodbye Friend:Healing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet. “For me,cloning feels like an attempt to turn death away... It’s understandable. Death is always painful. It’s difficult to deal with it. It’s hard to accept.”
But would cloning reduce the blow? This question seemed to be at the heart of this problem.
1. While talking about the readers’ responses,the expression“eventual sadness of owning a pet”refers to _______.A.the troubles one has to deal with in keeping a pet |
B.the high cost of owning a pet |
C.the death of one’s pet |
D.the dangers involved in the cloning of a pet |
A.He has never thought about the problem of cloning. |
B.He is in favor of the idea of cloning pets. |
C.He has lost his beloved pets. |
D.He has doubts about the cloning of pets. |
A.Can cloning make the pain one suffers less when a pet dies? |
B.Can pet owners afford the cost of cloning? |
C.Does cloning go against the law of nature? |
D.How reliably does cloning produce an exact copy of one's pet? |
【推荐2】Bullying(霸凌) can take a variety of forms, from the verbal to the physical as well as indirect forms, such as being excluded from social groups. Bullying is clearly unpleasant, and can make the child experiencing it feel unworthy and depressed. In extreme cases it can even lead to suicide, though this is thankfully rare.
Until recently, not much was known about the topic, and little help was available to teachers to deal with bullying. Perhaps as a consequence, schools would often deny the problem. „There is no bullying at this school‟ has been a common answer if asked, almost certainly untrue. Fortunately more schools are now saying: “There is not much bullying here, but when it occurs we have a clear policy for dealing with it.” Three factors are involved in this change. First is an awareness of the severity of the problem. Second, a number of resources to help tackle bullying have become available in Britain. For example, the Scottish Council for Research in Education produced a package of materials, Action Against Bullying, circulated to all schools in England and Wales as well as in Scotland. In Ireland, Guidelines on Countering Bullying Behaviour in Post-Primary Schools was published, too. Third, there is evidence that these materials work, and that schools can achieve something.
Evidence suggests that a key step is to develop a policy on bullying, saying clearly what bullying means, and giving explicit guidelines on what will be done if it occurs, what records will be kept, who will be informed and what punishments will be employed. The policy should be developed through consultation over a period of time. Pupils, parents and staff should feel they have been involved in the policy. Other actions can be taken to back up the policy. There are ways of dealing with the topic through the curriculum, using video, drama and literature. But curriculum work alone may only have short-term effects; it should be an addition to policy work. There are also ways of working with individual pupils, or in small groups. Work in the playground is important, too. One helpful step is to train lunchtime supervisors to distinguish bullying from playful fighting, and help them break up conflicts. Another possibility is to improve the playground environment, so that pupils are less likely to be led into bullying from boredom or frustration.
With these developments, schools can expect that at least the most serious kinds of bullying can largely be prevented. The more effort is put in and the wider the whole school is involved, the more substantial the results are likely to be. The reduction in bullying and the consequent improvement in pupil happiness is surely a worthwhile objective.
1. The writer thinks that the response „There is no bullying at this school‟ shows .A.bullying can be easily dealt with |
B.bullying doesn‟t exist in the school |
C.the school knows nothing about bullying |
D.the school lacks the knowledge and resources about bullying |
A.reasons for the increased rate of bullying are clear |
B.in the previous years, British government policy failed |
C.developments in dealing with bullying have led to a solution |
D.there is no research into how common bullying is in British schools |
A.Develop a policy through consultation. |
B.Deal with the topic through the curriculum. |
C.Work with individual pupils or in small groups. |
D.Give detailed guidelines on the right things to do. |
A.Bullying: what parents can do |
B.Bullying: are the schools to blame? |
C.Bullying: the link with academic failure |
D.Bullying: from no way out to prevention |
【推荐3】For high school leavers starting out in the working world, it is very important to learn particular skills and practise how to behave in an interview or how to find all internship(实习). In some countries, schools have programs to help students onto the path to work. In the United States, however, such programs are still few and far between.
Research shows that if high schools provide career-related courses, students are likely to get higher earnings in later years. The students are more likely to stay in school, graduate and go on to higher education.
In Germany, students as young as 13 and 14 are expected to do internships. German companies work with schools to make sure that young people get the education they need for future employment.
But in America, education reform programs focus on how well students do in exams instead of bringing them into contact with the working world. Harvard Education school professor Robert Schwartz has criticized education reformers for trying to place all graduates directly on the four-year college track. Schwartz argued that this approach leaves the country’s most vulnerable (易受影响的) kids with no jobs and no skills.
Schwartz believed that the best career programs encourage kids to go for higher education while also teaching them valuable practical skills at high school. James Madison High School in New York, for example, encourages students to choose classes on career-based courses. The school then helps them gain on-the-job experience in those fields while they’re still at high school.
However, even for teens whose schools encourage them to connect with work, the job market is daunting. In the US, unemployment rates for 16-to-l9-year-olds are above 20 percent for the third summer in a row.
“The risk is that if teenagers miss out on the summer job experience, they become part of this generation of teens who had trouble in landing a job,” said Michael, a researcher in the US.
1. In the author’s opinion, American high school leavers _______.A.have enough career-related courses |
B.need more career advice from their schools |
C.perform better in exams than German students |
D.can get higher earnings in later years |
A.there is no need for kids to go for higher education in the US |
B.students should get contact with the working world at high school |
C.education reform should focus on students’ performance in exams |
D.teenagers in the US can’t miss out on the summer job experience |
A.Unemployment rates for US teenagers remain high at the moment. |
B.Students with career-based courses never have problems finding a job. |
C.US companies work with schools to prepare young people for future employment. |
D.High school leavers with no practical skills can’t find a job absolutely. |
A.Arguments about recent US education reform. |
B.Tips on finding jobs for high school leavers. |
C.The lack of career-based courses in US high schools. |
D.Advice for American high school leavers. |
A.discouraging | B.interesting |
C.creative | D.unbearable |
【推荐1】Off the coast of Formentera, an island, lives seagrass that stretches 15 kilometres. The seagrass, covering several hectares, is made up of a single organism. The grasses are also long-lived, for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Along with two other kinds of coastal ecosystems—mangrove swamps(红树沼泽)and tidal marshes, seagrass meadows are particularly good at taking carbon dioxide from the air.
This role was highlighted in a report, which was published on March 2nd by UNESCO, on blue carbon—the carbon taken in by Earth's oceanic and coastal ecosystems. In total around 33 billion tons of carbon dioxide, about three-quarters of the world's emissions(排放)in 2019, are locked away in the planet's blue carbon sinks(碳汇). Research by Carlos Duarte, the report's author and a marine ecologist, has shown that one hectare of seagrass can suck as much carbon dioxide each year as 15 hectares of rainforest.
One reason that blue—carbon ecosystems make such effective sinks is that underwater forests are thicker than the land-based woods. They can also trap floating pieces and organic matter, which settles on the sea floor and can double the amount of carbon stored away. They have another advantage, too. Climate change is leading to more wildfires around the world. As forests burn, their carbon stocks are released back into the atmosphere. Unlike forests on land, blue-carbon ecosystems do not burn.
Blue-carbon ecosystems may not be fired, but they remain affected to other sorts of disasters. In May 2020 hurricane Amphan destroyed 1,200 square kilometres of mangrove forest. A marine(海洋的)heatwave in Australian waters in 2010 and 2011 damaged around one third of the world's largest seagrass meadow in Shark Bay. “Mangrove forests can weaken or control waves and provide natural barriers to storm surges. Protecting and expanding them, then, appears to be a must,” said a marine biologist.
1. What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?A.The real definition of blue carbon. |
B.The special features of the seagrass. |
C.The doubt about the blue-carbon ecosystems. |
D.The capacity of the blue-carbon ecosystems to store carbon. |
A.They aren't influenced by natural disasters. |
B.They have great ability to absorb carbon. |
C.Their carbon stocks are released back. |
D.There are more underwater animals. |
A.Mangrove forests are too strong to be broken. |
B.Mangrove forests can strengthen waves. |
C.Humans should preserve blue-carbon ecosystems. |
D.Blue carbon ecosystems can be fired. |
A.Plants in the Ocean Are Better at Storing Carbon |
B.The Grasses Can Store More Carbon Than Your Expectation |
C.Mangrove Forests Can Control Waves Efficiently |
D.Blue-Carbon Ecosystem Are Expanding Much Faster |
【推荐2】People who have trouble walking or moving around often have a hard time enjoying the beach. But hundreds of beaches in Greece now offer a new way for people in wheelchairs to get into the water by themselves. It’s called Seatrac.
Seatrac is basically a chair on a moving ramp (坡道) that can carry a disabled person into the sea. It is operated by remote (远程的) control. Once in the sea, the person can either remain in the chair, enjoying the water, or go for a swim. When the person is ready to get out of the water, the Seatrac system brings the chair back to the top the ramp.
Seatrac was invented and developed in Greece. When one of the inventors, Ignatios Fotiou, was talking with a friend who used a wheelchair, the friend said he enjoyed the sea, but didn’t like having to be carried into the ocean. Mr Fotiou realized there must be a way to make it easier for wheelchair users to get into the water. Mr Fotiou worked with his partner and a professor at a Greek university to design the system. Finnally, they formed a company called TOBEA to build and sell the systems.
The company worked hard to make the system simple enough to be put in place and easy to run. A wooden walkway allows wheerchair users to reach the Seatrac. The system uses solar (太阳能的) power. It doesn’t require outside power, and can continue to run even if the electricity goes out. The Seatrac system can easily be packed up and stored when the swimming season ends.
The Seatrac system is being used at over 220 beaches in Greece, Cypris, Italy, and Latvia. TOBEA hopes to offer Seatrac in other countries. TOBEA has created a website showing where beaches with these special services can be found. The Greek govenment hopes that Seatrac will help attract more tourists to the country.
1. What is Seatrac able to do?A.Watch out of the disabled in the sea. |
B.Choose the suitable beach for the disabled. |
C.Help the disabled get in and out of the sea safely. |
D.Enable the disabled to move around the beach freely. |
A.His partner’s advice. | B.His love for the sea. |
C.his wish to start a company. | D.The difficulty his friend faced. |
A.It is becoming more popular. | B.It should be well protected. |
C.It needs to be fully introduced to the public. | D.It is environmentally friendly and convenient. |
A.Expectations for Seatrac. | B.The practical application of Seatrac. |
C.The popularity of Seatrac. | D.Special services Seatrac provides. |
【推荐3】There is an English saying: “Laughter is best medicine.” Until recently, few people took the saying seriously. Now, however, doctors have begun to look into laughter and the effects it has on the human body. They have found that laughter really can improve people’s health.
Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body. People watched funny films while doctors checked their heart, blood pressure, breathing and muscles. It was found that laughter has similar effects to physical exercises. It increases blood pressure, the heart beating and breathing. It also works several groups of muscles in the face, the stomach, and even the feet. If laughter exercises the body, it must be beneficial.
Other tests have shown that laughter appears to be able to reduce the effect of pain on the body. In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programs. The group that tolerated(忍受) the pain for the longest time was the groups which listened to a funny program. The reason why laughter can reduce pain seems to be that it helps to produce a kind of chemicals in the brain which diminish both stress and pain.
As a result of these discoveries, some doctors in the United States now hold laughter clinics, in which they help to improve their patients’ condition by encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like laughing, making them smile is enough to produce beneficial(有益的) effects similar to those who are caused by laughter.
1. The main idea of the passage is ________.A.laughter and physical exercises have similar effects. |
B.smile can produce the same effects as laughter |
C.pain can be reduced by laughter |
D.laughter is best medicine |
A.test | B.stop | C.reduce | D.increase |
A.to give better condition to their patients |
B.in order to improve patients’ health |
C.to make patients smile all the time |
D.to prove smile and laughter have the same effect |