by Helaia Fox
If you're looking for a moving story that explores themes of mental illness, grief (悲痛), and love, pick up a copy of How It Feels to Float and follow Biz as she comes of age. This moving novel will stay with you long after you finish reading it.
Two Can Keep a Secretby Karen M. MeManus
Put on your crime-solving cap and get swept away in this thriller about a girl, a boy, and a string of unsolved murders. As threats and clues pile up, you’ll be burning the midnight oil trying to finish the book before dawn.
Forest of a Thousand Lanternsby Julie C. Dao
The first book in the Rise of the Empress series takes the bones of a traditional fairy tale — a poor girl fated for power, an evil queen determined to stop her, love for someone who doesn't love back and magic — and gives them a richly imagined East Asian setting.
Duneby Frank Herbert
If the Star Wars movies have made you fall in love with the space opera, eventually you're going to read Frank Herbert's most famous creation. The story of centuries-old political plotting — about warring factions (派系) battling over control of the extremely valuable planet Arrakis — is a classic and remains a wonderful introduction to the larger, more complex world of science fiction just beyond the Star Wars trilogies.
1. What is How It Feels to Float mainly about?| A．The murder of a teenage girl. |
| B．A girl's space adventures. |
| C．Challenges of growing up. |
| D．A poor girl with special powers. |
| A．A fairy tale. | B．A science-fiction story. |
| C．A love story. | D．A detective story. |
| A．How It Feels to Float | B．Two Can Keep a Secret |
| C．Forest of a thousand Lanterns | D．Dune |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】A Florida public school district is defending its decision to add a parental advisory notice to over 100 possibly “unsuitable” books as the new school year begins.
Collier County Public School has added an “advisory, notice to parents” label to physical copies in its library and the district’s online catalog (目录). Each label says, “This Advisory Notice shall serve to inform you that this book has been identified by some community members as unsuitable for students. The decision as to whether this book is suitable shall be the decision of the parents who have the right to oversee their children’s education.”
To ensure that parents control what their children are reading from the media center collection, the school provides parents with directions for entering the online system to view books checked out by their children.
PEN America, a group that tracks book censorship (审查), published a list of all 110 flagged titles. “This alarming development is just the latest in attacks against students’ freedom to read in Florida,” Jonathan Friedman, PEN: America’s director, said in a statement, “Even if reading these books is not technically limited, the labeling of these books risks having a negative influence, making the books hard to sell.”
But Nicole Neily, president of the conservative Parents Defending Education, compared Collier’s advisory notice to rating a movie or video game for mature content. “This is a creative solution to an ongoing issue in society: the library isn’t prohibiting books, but merely providing parents with information so they can make an informed decision,” he said.
Book challenges have intensified in the wake of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Law. Several states have passed versions of the law, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis regarded as a defense of parents’ right to direct their children’s education. He thinks school districts should work with parents and keep the lines of communication open.
1. What’s the purpose of the parental advisory notice?| A．To gather advice from parents. |
| B．To monitor school daily management. |
| C．To warn parents of inappropriate content in books. |
| D．To remind parents to attach importance to children’s reading. |
| A．Panic among parents. | B．Resistance to paper books. |
| C．A decline in the book sales. | D．A fall in students’ reading interest. |
| A．Giving away. | B．Caring about. | C．Drawing on. | D．Holding back. |
| A．The Growing Book Challenges |
| B．The Booklist Unsuitable for Students |
| C．School Works with Parents for Students’ Growth |
| D．School District Defends Parental Book Advisories |
【推荐2】Technology seems to discourage slow, immersive reading. Reading on a screen, particularly a phone screen, tires your eyes and makes it harder for you to keep your place. So online writing tends to be more skimmable and list-like than print. The cognitive neuroscientist Mary Walt argued recently that this “new norm” of skim reading is producing “an invisible, game-changing transformation” in how readers process words. The neuronal circuit that sustains the brain’s capacity to read now favors the rapid absorption of information, rather than skills developed by deeper reading, like critical analysis.
We shouldn’t overplay this danger. All readers skim. Skimming is the skill we acquire as children as we learn to read more skillfully. From about the age of nine, our eyes start to bounce around the page, reading only about a quarter of the words properly, and filling in the gaps by inference. Nor is there anything new in these fears about declining attention spans. So far, the anxieties have proved to be false alarms. “Quite a few critics have been worried about attention span lately and see very short stories as signs of cultural decline,” the American author Selvin Brown wrote. “No one ever said that poems were evidence of short attention spans.”
And yet the Internet has certainly changed the way we read. For a start, it means that there is more to read, because more people than ever are writing. If you time travelled just a few decades into the past, you would wonder at how little writing was happening outside a classroom. And digital writing is meant for rapid release and response. An online article starts forming a comment string underneath as soon as it is published. This mode of writing and reading can be interactive and fun. But often it treats other people’s words as something to be quickly harvested as fodder to say something else. Everyone talks over the top of everyone else, desperate to be heard.
Perhaps we should slow down. Reading is constantly promoted as a social good and source of personal achievement. But this advocacy often emphasizes “enthusiastic”, “passionate” or “eager” reading, none of which adjectives suggest slow, quiet absorption.
To a slow reader, a piece of writing can only be fully understood by immersing oneself in the words and their slow comprehension of a line of thought. The slow reader is like a swimmer who stops counting the number of pool laps he has done and just enjoys how his body feels and moves in water.
The human need for this kind of deep reading is too tenacious for any new technology to destroy. We often assume that technological change can’t be stopped and happens in one direction, so that older media like “dead-tree” books are kicked out by newer, more virtual forms. In practice, older technologies can coexist with new ones. The Kindle has not killed off the printed book any more than the car killed off the bicycle. We still want to enjoy slowly-formed ideas and carefully-chosen words. Even in a fast-moving age, there is time for slow reading.
1. What is the author’s attitude towards Selvin Brown’s opinion?| A．Favorable. | B．Critical. | C．Doubtful. | D．Objective. |
| A．advocacy of passionate reading helps promote slow reading |
| B．digital writing leads to too much speaking and not enough reflection |
| C．the public should be aware of the impact skimming has on neuronal circuits |
| D．the number of Internet readers is declining due to the advances of technology |
| A．Comprehensive. | B．Complicated. | C．Determined. | D．Apparent. |
| A．Slow Reading Is Here to Stay |
| B．Digital Technology Prevents Slow Reading |
| C．Screen vs. Print: Which Requires Deep Reading? |
| D．Reading Is Not a Race: The Wonder of Deep Reading |
【推荐3】In 2012 my wife and I decided to open our bookstore in spite of unfavorable situations. The challenges facing small bookstores were-and remain-significant. Apart from the obvious rise in online selling, the increase in the popularity of e-books has negatively affected independent providers.
The question is why a new, small-scale（小规模的）provide would voluntarily enter such a challenging market? From a personal view, our reasoning was sound: we wanted to share our love of great books and reading for pleasure with as many like-minded people as possible.
Having done our homework, one thing became clear. In order for us to succeed, we would have to offer something that none of our larger competitors already provided. And so we started the Willoughby Book Club. We set up our website in the summer of 2012, and we haven’t looked back.
The idea of service is simple. We offer a range of book subscription gift packages, available in three-month, six-month and 12-month options. Our customers choose a package, tell us a little about the person they’re buying it for, and we use this information to send the receiver a hand-picked, gift-wrapped book once a month. We also recently decided to give one new book to Book Aid International for every gift subscription sold. These books are sent out to sub-Saharan Africa, supporting the educational work there. Within four months of starting out, we won the Young Bookseller of the Year Award at the 2013 Bookseller awards.
Our brief journey from new booksellers to award receivers has been challenging and rewarding. The biggest thing we’ve learned is that, despite the pressures facing independent providers, there is a place for them in the UK market. It’s just a question of finding it.
1. What challenges do the couple have to face when opening their bookstore?| A．Their bookstore is in an unfavourable place. |
| B．They are short of money and manpower. |
| C．Their books tore has limited great books. |
| D．Online selling and e-books are gaining popularity. |
| A．accurate | B．controversial |
| C．reliable | D．safe |
| A．setting up a book club |
| B．building their website |
| C．sending the customers gifts every month |
| D．aiding some Africans by giving them new boos |
| A．It is anything but challenging. |
| B．It is difficult but worth it. |
| C．It is too difficult to succeed. |
| D．It is just a question. |
【推荐1】A speech in a play by Shakespeare can be as short as a word or as long as several hundred. But what is the most common length?
Staying away from Shakespeare himself for a moment, we can take Ben Jonson’s play Volpone (1606) and count the number of speeches and their lengths. The most common length is four words. The next most common length is five words. Of the other 16 Jonson’s plays, 12 also have a speech length mode (模式) of four. It was not just Jonson; it was everybody. After 1602, four-word speeches were the most common kind across all the early modern plays that survived.
The London theatre industry took off in the late 1580s and early 1590s and we see a concentration of speech length modes of nine or ten. After 1602, the mode of four predominated. If we look just at Shakespeare’s plays, we find him doing what everyone else did: changing from favoring nine-word speeches to favouring four-word speeches around 1597-1602 and never going back.
Our suggestion is that the playwrights (剧作家) learned progressively from one another how to represent more closely the speech lengths of everyday exchanges and found that audiences responded well to these. They started to focus less on strict writing rules and more on the liveliness of everyday speech.
Another way to think of this is offered by the Russian literary scholar Boris Yarkho. He put forward an “index (指数) of liveliness” — the ratio of the number of speeches to the total number of lines in a play. He researched the works of the 17th-century French playwright Pierre Corneille and found that his comedies have a higher index because of their shorter speeches. The move from a mode of nine words to a mode of four represents the shortened average speech, and thus a move to livelier drama in Yarkho’s terms.
Nevertheless, we have no record of any dramatist or playgoer reflecting on the shortening of average speech lengths; our only knowledge of it comes from counting the words in the plays for ourselves.
1. What happened in English plays around the 1600s?| A．Their storylines were about famous writers. | B．They were influenced by a poetic writing style. |
| C．They featured different storytelling techniques. | D．Their speeches were generally shorter in length. |
| A．Remained unique. | B．Took the leading position. |
| C．Disappeared slowly. | D．Played an educational role. |
| A．To challenge traditional writing rules. | B．To stand out by applying their unique style. |
| C．To avoid being affected by social values. | D．To create realistic and acceptable speeches. |
| A．It saved actors the trouble of memorizing their lines. |
| B．It reflected people's preference for serious dialogues. |
| C．It helped present dramas in an active and pleasant way. |
| D．It made the characters express their feelings effectively. |
【推荐2】The US scientists at the University of Vermont and Tufts University who created the first living robots say the life forms, known as xenobots, can now reproduce — and in a way not seen in plants and animals.
Formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) from which it takes its name, xenobots are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) wide. The tiny blob were first brought out in 2020 after experiments showed that they could move, work together in groups and self-heal.
“I was shocked by it,” said Michael Levin, a professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University who was co-lead author of the new research, adding that when you free the cells from the rest of the frogs’ embryo(胚胎) and you give them a chance to figure out how to be in a new environment and a new way to reproduce.
“In that way it’s a robot but it’s also clearly an organism made from genetically unmodified frog cell.” said Josh Bongard, a computer science professor and robotics expert at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study.
Bongard said they found that the xenobots, which were initially sphere-shaped and made from around 3,000 cells, could replicate(复制). But it happened rarely and only in specific situations. The xenobots used “active replication” — a process that is known to occur at the molecular(分子的) level but has never been observed before at the scale of whole cells or organisms.
The xenobots are very early technology — think of a 1940s computer — and don’t yet have any practical applications. However, this combination of molecular biology and artificial intelligence could potentially be used in a host of tasks in the body and the environment, according to Bongard. This may include things like collecting microplastics in the oceans, inspecting root systems and regenerative medicine.
1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?| A．American scientists found that African clawed frog can reproduce. |
| B．Xenobots got its name because they are less than a millimeter wide. |
| C．Xenobots are an entirely new life form different from any animal or plant. |
| D．African clawed frog could move, work together in groups, self-heal and reproduce. |
| A．He was surprised by what have been found. |
| B．Xenobots could replicate only in particular circumstances. |
| C．The cells from frogs figure out a new way to move and reproduce. |
| D．Xenobots are very early technology that have a few actual applications. |
| A．Unfavorable. | B．Concerned. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Positive. |
| A．The explanation of xenobots’ difference. |
| B．The introduction to the first living robots. |
| C．The amazement of the creation of xenobots. |
| D．The presentation of molecular active replication. |
【推荐3】The coronavirus pandemic has created an environment for research on social connection. One of the most common areas of inquiry over the past couple of years was how our sudden mass shift to digital communication — away from face-to-face — affected overall social connectedness. Researchers studied nearly 3,000 adults during the pandemic’s early months and found that email, social media, online gaming, and texting were not fungible for in-person interactions. Voice and video calls, were somewhat better.
Social connectedness is a key to happiness. Lower it, and you will be worse off — and so will your loved ones, especially your kids. One 2014 survey revealed that 62 percent of U.S. children thought their parents were too distracted to listen to them. The No. 1 reason was parents’ phone use.
It is clear that scrolling or surfing will reduce social connection: You do them instead of interacting. Virtual communications such as texting are by design interactive and should theoretically be less harmful. However, text messages can’t convey emotion very well, because we can’t hear or see our conversational partners. These technologies are to in-person interactions what a black-and-white, pixelated (像素化的) version of the Mona Lisa is to the real thing; identifiable, but incapable of producing the same emotional effects.
With communications on line, we tend to hop from person to person and thus swap depth for breadth. However, research has shown that deeper conversations bring more well-being than short communications. Meanwhile, in a recent study, teens who texted more often than their peers tended to experience more depression, more anxiety and poorer relationships with their fathers.
It might seem strange that we would voluntarily adopt technologies that hurt our happiness. One of the explanations is convenience. Vegetating (无所事事) in front of a screen is simply easier than talking with a person, and virtual communications such as texting are faster and easier than a visit or a phone call. Think of these technologies as grab-and-go food at a convenience store: It’s not great, but it sure is easy — and after you eat enough microwave foods, you forget what the real thing tastes like.
In all, for most of us — especially people who grew up with it — the internet is an unquestioned part of the ecosystem of life. Quitting the virtual communications from our life is clearly not the answer. Since we’re not going back to life before this kind of technology, we can and should use it mindfully in service of love.
1. What does the underlined word “fungible” most probably mean?| A．Responsible. | B．Changeable. | C．Reliable. | D．Replaceable. |
| A．disapproving | B．doubtful | C．supportive | D．cautious |
| A．Virtual Communication Does Little Harm to People |
| B．Technology Can Make Your Relationships Shallower |
| C．Quitting Virtual Communication Is Just around the Corner |
| D．Technology Creates a Good Environment for Deeper Conversations |
【推荐1】With the average American going through more than 700 pounds of paper per year, many firms are looking for ways to discourage their employees from over-using the office printer.
Toshiba America Business Solutions has come up with an alternative idea. It has introduced the e-STUDI04508LP, a printer that gives users the option to print with erasable toner (墨粉) — allowing a single piece of paper to be reused several times.
To reuse a piece of paper, the printer basically uses the same process as a normal printer, but in reverse (反过来), said Bill Melo, chief marketing executive for Toshiba America Business Solutions. Paper printed with the erasable toner is fed back into the printer, superheated, and the toner gets removed and put in a discard tank.
There are a couple of catches. All of the printouts using the erasable toner have to be in blue ink, which is the only color in which erasable toner is now available. And the company said that people may want to stop reusing the printouts after five times through the eraser because small traces of erased text will build up over time.
The $15,420 printer is aimed at offices and schools, where there are often large numbers of printouts that outlive their usefulness quickly. With the erasable toner, it' s possible to load any short-lived handouts back onto the printer to be erased and then reused.
Still, convincing customers to commit to erasable toner isn't always easy. Melo said not all its customers were happy about only having the erasable option.
The model, Melo said, should better serve the needs of those who want to be environmentally conscious but also may need something more permanent on occasion.
1. What' s special about Toshiba' s printer?| A．It' s low-priced. | B．It' s fashionable. |
| C．It' s lightweight. | D．It' s eco-friendly. |
| A．A discard tank. | B．Light colored ink. |
| C．Special writing paper. | D．A high enough temperature. |
| A．Theories. | B．Differences. |
| C．Problems. | D．Characteristics. |
| A．They asked for more patterns. |
| B．Some expressed dissatisfaction. |
| C．They considered it hard to operate. |
| D．Some worried about its recycling. |
【推荐2】Messages in honor of Stan Lee are pouring in on social media and other online sites.
Lee is the creator of famous comic book (连环漫画) characters, including Spider-Man, the Hulk, Black Panther and others. He died in Los Angeles, California, Monday. He was 95 years old. Marvel Entertainment and its parent company, Walt Disney, posted a video about the late writer, editor and publisher on their websites. Disney chairman and chief Bob Iger said Lee is "a super hero in his own right to Marvel fans around the world." He compared Lee to his comic book characters with "the power to inspire, to entertain, and to connect."
Lee was born Stanley Martin Leiber in New York City. He began writing for comic books at 19. He wrote under the name Stan Lee. He explained that he used a false name because he wanted to write a serious and great piece of literature someday. He did not want his link with comic books to be known when that happened. But it never did happen. As the pride in his work grew, he decided to legally change his name to Stan Lee.
Lee's comic book heroes stand apart from its competitor DC, the company that produced the seemingly perfect heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. Lee's character often had super power, but they also had weaknesses and moral (道德的) failings. In a piece for Marvel in 1969, Lee discussed the importance of creating these balanced characters. Nobody is all good, or all bad, he wrote, like Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man. He is a deeply gifted inventor with serious mental health issues; or, Peter Parker, a sensitive, brainy high-school student who has no idea how to deal with the frightening abilities he gets from the bite of a radioactive spider. Even Steve Rogers, whose Captain America was the most Superman-like of the Marvel group, had problems. Rejected as a candidate for the armed forces, he volunteers to take a "supersoldier" substance to make him a super-fighting machine.
Actor Chris Evans has played that character in several Hollywood films. He posted a tribute (悼念) to Captain America's creator on Twitter Monday."There will never be another Stan Lee," he wrote. Actor, writer and funny man Seth Rogen never played one of Lee's characters but he remembered him with thanks in a Tweet."Thank you Stan Lee for making people who feel different realize they are special," he wrote.
1. Stan Lee created many famous comic character, except ________.| A．Iron Man | B．Superman |
| C．Captain America | D．Spider Man |
| A．he wanted to be famous for the false name |
| B．he didn't want to be known as a comic book writer |
| C．he wanted his name to be linked with his comic books |
| D．he didn't want to be known as a serious literature writer |
| A．They are good at making people feel special. |
| B．They are moral figures without weak points. |
| C．They are more balanced characters than DC heroes. |
| D．They are seemingly perfect heroes with super powers. |
| A．To remember a great cartoonist. |
| B．To introduce marvel comic heroes. |
| C．To encourage studies on comics. |
| D．To promote products of marvel. |
【推荐3】Fireflies flash not just for mating (交配), but survival, a new study suggests. Scientists wanted to find out if there’s more to the lightning bug’s signature blinking glow (一闪一闪的亮光) than finding a mate. Some experts had assumed it was a glaring signal to predators (捕食者), like bats, that fireflies taste bad.
To test out whether the glow acted like that, researchers at Boise State University in Idaho put bats and fireflies in front of high-speed cameras. They published their results in Wednesday’s journal Science Advances.
The painstaking experiment required researchers to introduce western bats, which had never seen lightning bugs before, to the insects. Later, they hand-painted firefly bellies black, turning off their night lights but avoiding the holes the insects breathe through. When the bats first saw the unfamiliar lit-up fireflies, they acted excitedly and ate a lot of the bugs, only to get a bad taste in their mouths.“They shake their heads and spit and generally hate their caretakers for giving them such a rude meal,” said study author Jesse Barber, a Boise State biology professor and author of the study. After a few tries, the bats then avoided the glowing fireflies. Despite the popular misconception, bats aren’t blind, a study author noted.
Once the fireflies essentially taught bats that they taste bad, Barber and his colleagues introduced the darkened fireflies. About 40 percent of the painted ones were eaten, while none of the normal fireflies were eaten. Researchers also think the way lightning bugs fly signals what they are. To test that they put fireflies on fishing lines and the bats went after them, despite already knowing that fireflies don’t taste good. The results make sense and are valuable, said Nick Dowdy, a Purdue University researcher in Indiana, who was not involved in the study.
Scientists already knew that fireflies have distinctive flash patterns that tell others who they are and where they are. And some females prefer males that flash at higher rates, according to study co-author Marc Branham of University of Florida. Barber noted that even in their larval (幼虫) stage, the bugs glow and don’t get eaten. So he theorized that when it comes to evolution, fireflies’ glowing trait (特点) may have developed first as protection from predators and later became a mating signal.
So, Barber said, “Bats may have invented fireflies.”
1. The purpose of the researchers’ study is to see________
| A．whether fireflies flash to warn their predators away |
| B．how fireflies react to high-speed cameras |
| C．how fireflies flash to attract a mate |
| D．when fireflies make a bright light |
| A．To hide their flashes. |
| B．To make them fly faster. |
| C．To make them more energetic. |
| D．To change their flying patterns. |
| A．Bats have influenced fireflies’ evolution. |
| B．Bats and fireflies depend on each other. |
| C．Bats have similar traits to fireflies. |
| D．Bats tend to avoid larval fireflies. |
【推荐1】A sensational new scientific discovery in the ocean near Australia may explain the most massive extinction of living things in Earth’s history. For years, scholars have been frustrated in trying to analyze why 90 to 95 percent of sea life and 75 percent of and life vanished about 250 million years ago. The extinctions were so enormous that they are called The Great Dying. To date, some authorities on ancient life thought that a volcanic eruption or a sudden change in the environment affected all life on Earth. Other specialists have doubted these theories, maintaining that it was not plausible that a solo volcano could bring about such chaos. From the outset, critics believed these claims were exaggerated.
By contrast, there is wide acceptance of the idea that a meteor (流星)which hit Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago was the primary cause of the dinosaurs’ extinction. Nevertheless, until now they had no evidence of an intense meteor impact 185 mill on years earlier. Now they do.
American geologists have been examining rock samples from a deep sea crater (火山口)near the northwest coast of Australia. The samples were initially collected and preserved by petroleum technicians seeking oil. Now the geologists and their colleagues believe that the precise splits in the rock’s structure show a typical pattern for meteors. There is a clear distinction from volcanic patterns. In fact, a spokesperson went so far as to say that these rocks completely revise the way scientists perceive the mass extinctions from the ancient era. Academics say that the meteor’s crater s the size of Mount Qomolangma, the highest mountain on Earth! Literally, the meteor made a mark on Earth as it drowned in the sea. The Earth could not absorb such a harsh blow without sustaining global devastation. Things must have come to a standstill. Evidently, the blow was fatal for many forms of life.
Bear in mind that all this was long before mammals---including humans--emerged in Earth’s history. Still, we would be wise to pay attention to the damage a meteor can cause. Fortunately, meteor strikes on Earth are few and far between.
1. The word “plausible” (paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to “______”.| A．available | B．incredible |
| C．reasonable | D．ridiculous |
| A．Because they were very resistant | B．Because there weren’t any then |
| C．Because they lived in isolated areas | D．Because they hid themselves in the caves |
| A．Scholars agreed that a single volcano caused The Great Dying |
| B．75 percent of land life continued 250 million years ago |
| C．Volcanic rocks and meteors have different patterns |
| D．When the meteor hit land Mount Qomolangma sprang up. |
| A．The Dinosaurs’ End | B．Crater on Qomolangma |
| C．Contradictory Claims | D．A Meteor’s Impact |
【推荐2】The phrase "digital nomads(游民)" suggests joyful people who escape their daily work to travel the world, working with laptops on beaches. Relevant statistics regularly made the headline: “There will be one billion digital nomads by 2035".
I started researching digital nomads in 2015, and it took me three years to develop an understanding of what might be going on. I've met hundreds of people who think of themselves as digital nomads and many more who have dreamed about becoming one. The first thing I learned is that how people feel about the label “digital nomad" changes over time. People starting out often assume it's a permanent lifestyle, but that's rarely the case. One of my respondents explained, “I don't go around calling myself a digital nomad now. It's a bit silly." Indeed, there's still debate about whether it's a buzzword(时髦用语) or a real phenomenon. Some have even tried to figure out how “authentic" a digital nomad is, by how much they move from place to place. And there has been heated debate online about who's a real digital nomad, and who is merely self-promoting.
Most of the digital nomads I spoke to, who once had well-paid jobs, told me that they were escaping from deeply-rooted problems in the contemporary Western workplace. One of my respondents, Zeb, was working three restaurant jobs to pay the rent in San Francisco. The city sucked up all his time and money. This made him abandon his plans to sell recycled products online. Swapping expensive California for affordable South-East Asia helped Zeb to launch his own business. Lisette a skilled translator from Hamburg, Germany, is able to produce high-quality work quickly. She soon tired of the culture of presenteeism (出勤主义) at her workplace. She explained, “I'm efficient and I like to get the work done and leave on time. :Others were obviously scared to leave first, so they would sit at their desks and play with their computers."
Nearly 40% of British adults believe their jobs don't make sense. Their housing is of poor quality and too expensive, and the economies don't provide young people with wages they can live on. With these challenges, it's hardly surprising that those new to the world are already desperate to escape. Yet there are certain complexities that come with living as a citizen of the world. As Lsstte said, "Digital nomads can quickly become isolated." Digital nomads have to shoulder responsibility for almost every aspect of modern life: their mental health, daily routine, income, safety and shelter. Most digital nomads travel on tourist visas, which requires them to move regularly ---an experience my participants have described as disorienting (使人迷失方向的).
For those digital nomads who make a living as professional bloggers, it's also part of their job to sell the life-style. As a result, many try to present a stable and happy image online. Lissette explained, "There 's a danger---when my aunt sees my picture online, she thinks that everything looks so happy here on the beach. Of course, my digital identity always looks happier than my real life." But at some point, most of my research participants feel sorrow for the loss of some aspects, such as location dependence, regular work hours. or an office party. They miss some of the things they were escaping. Many nomads I've interviewed just pack up and go home without telling anyone. Being a digital nomad can be rewarding and offers an escape from the boring office hour. But it’s important that digital nomads think deeply about the importance of community and mental health in their lives. Freedom does not mean the same thing for everyone.
1. What does the author think of digital nomads?| A．Easy to get on with. | B．Difficult to define. |
| C．Extremely popular. | D．About to disappear. |
| A．Fierce competition. | B．Economic pressure. |
| C．Rigid working system. | D．Violation of personal space. |
| A．Travelling the world. | B．Enjoying more free time. |
| C．Receiving steady incomes. | D．Being free from real-life pressures. |
| A．Think twice before becoming a digital nomad. |
| B．Share your real life and job on the Internet. |
| C．Have a much more comfortable lifestyle. |
| D．Resign from a dead-end job as soon as possible. |
| A．Digital nomads: what future jobs will be like |
| B．Digital nomads: a trend that will take over the world |
| C．Digital nomads: an effective way to escape your everyday work |
| D．Digital nomads: what it's really like to work while traveling the world |
【推荐3】For several months, Cara has been working up the courage to approach her mom about what she saw on Instagram. Not long ago, the 11-year-old discovered that her mom had been posting photos of her, without her permission for much of her life.
Like most other modern kids, Cara grew up surrounded by social media. Facebook, Twitter, You Tube and Instagram have been around since she was a baby. While many kids may not yet have accounts themselves, their parents, schools, sports teams, and organizations have been creating an online presence for them since birth. The shock of realizing that details about your life have been shared online without your agreement or knowledge has become a pivotal(关键的) experience in the lives of many teens.
Recently a parenting blogger(博主) wrote in a Washington Post essay that despite her 14-year-old daughter's horror at discovering that her mother had shared years of personal stories and information about her online, she simply could not stop posting on her blog and social media. The writer claimed that promising her daughter that she would stop posting about her publicly on the Internet "would mean shutting down a vital part of myself, which isn't necessarily good for me or her. "
Cara and other teens say they hope to lay down ground rules for their parents, Cara wants her mom to tell her the next time she posts about her, and the 11-year-old would like veto power over any photo, which exposes her privacy or is against her wish, before it goes up.
Some legislatures(立法机构) are also getting involved. In 2014, Europe's highest court ruled that Internet providers must give users the "right to be forgotten". Under the ruling, European citizens can apply to have past damaging information, including crimes committed as a minor, hidden from Google search results. And in France, strict privacy laws mean kids can sue their own parents for publishing secret or private details of their lives without agreement In the United States, however, teens aren't offered such protections, and many simply walk on eggshells.
1. What is the main idea of the second paragraph?| A．Many social media have appeared before the young. |
| B．Many people don’t realize they have an online presence. |
| C．Many social media have a great influence on teens' life. |
| D．Many teens' life has been shared online without their permission. |
| A．She feels happy. | B．She feels terrible. |
| C．She feels very relaxed. | D．She feels so embarrassed. |
| A．The right to say no. |
| B．The right to choose a leader. |
| C．The right to make something perfect |
| D．The right to change the original material. |
| A．He is satisfied with the current situation |
| B．He pays no attention to the situation at all. |
| C．He thinks American government should make laws. |
| D．He feels a little bit disappointed at the current situation. |
