3 . My generation--people born after 1990 --are accustomed to “all-in-platform” life, where we use mobile apps of different platforms to do almost everything in life.

For instance, I ordered a cup of coffee on Monday using an online delivery app. Then, I called a taxi by tapping on the app of a ride-booking service. Next, I bought some necessities on shopping platform Taobao. That done, I moved on to various other online destinations to get my daily fix of music, reading, social networking and so forth.

Platforms now play an increasingly important role in almost all aspects of day-to-day life, not just in economic and political processes. Consumption and social interaction are closely linked to platforms now.

But, I began to get confused recently. I thought I was being treated differently. My friend and I called a taxi at the same time on a ride-hailing platform (打车平台) and found that for the same destination, the prices were different. The price indicated on my phone was higher. One of the potential reasons could have been that I regularly use the ride-hailing platform and have a higher ranking while my friend doesn’t use it that often. So, the ride-hailing platform offers discounts to newbies like her, to attract and have such customers.

China’s latest efforts in regulating monopolistic (垄断的) or improper market behavior are of great significance in protecting consumers’ lawful rights.

“The essence of platform-based monopoly (垄断) is that a large number of users are gathered on only a select few platform companies, leading to uneven data gathering different platforms. But in China some platforms use their own data and traffic (流量) to expand capital in a disorderly way,” said Wang Yong, deputy director of the Institute of Economics at Tinghua University.

Data monopoly also brought another inconvenience for consumers--platforms block links to each other. For instance, link to We Chat Pay of Tencent is not available on Alibuba’s Taobao while there is no Alipay link on JD app’s payment options.

“More efforts should also be made to strike a good balance between personal information protection and interconnection between platforms. Companies are being encouraged to further develop data safety technology so that the data are available but not visible.”

1. What is the author’s purpose in writing Para. 2?

A．To offer some tips on using apps on mobile phone.

B．To share his experience with mobile apps.

C．To further explain what is “all-in-platform” life.

D．To help readers familiarize themselves with mobile apps.

2. What could be inferred from Paragraph 4?

A．The author encountered so called “big data price discrimination”.

B．The author and his friend were treated differently by taxi drivers.

C．Due to the author’s higher ranking, the platform offered him a cheaper price.

D．The ride-hailing platform offers discounts to regular customers.

3. What is the author’s attitude towards data monopoly?

A．Sympathetic.

B．Approving.

C．Critical.

D．Grateful.

4. What does the passage focus on?

A．Data monopolies and the inconvenience they bring to mobile app life.

B．Mobile apps have greatly changed our lives.

C．How to protect personal information on mobile apps.

D．Platforms have impacted every aspect of our daily lives.

4 . People with mild cognitive impairment (轻度认知障碍), or MCI, are 30 percent more likely to reverse (扭转) symptoms if they think positively about ageing, according to a study carried out by the Yale School of Public Health.

MCI is usually considered a one-way process, but according to Professor Becca Levy, lead author of the study, that’s not the case at all. She said, “Most people assume there is no recovery from MCI, but in fact half of those who have it do recover.”

MCI is a condition which causes memory loss and difficulty in thinking clearly. Symptoms might include forgetting events, or often losing things. Other more physical symptoms such as a loss of smell or spatial perception have also been linked to MCI. It is mostly diagnosed in people over 60, and often leads to Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia (痴呆).

The study involved 1, 716 participants aged 65 and above. It was conducted over a twelve-year period between 2008 and 2020, with seven data collection waves performed every two years. Results showed that those who came to the study with MCI were 30 percent more likely to make a full recovery if they were upbeat about ageing. They were also likely to recover two years faster than those with more negative age beliefs, such as “The older I get, the more   useless I feel”. Those who came to the study without MCI were also far less likely to develop it if they felt more age-positive, regardless of their physical health or age.

Factors such as age, race and gender have previously been examined for links to recovery, but this is the first study to look at cultural factors—in this case, beliefs about ageing.

While the study definitely led to positive results, researchers still have not known exactly why. “A limitation is that we did not examine the mechanism of positive age beliefs in cognitive recovery,” says Levy.

1. What is most people’s assumption about MCI?

A．The old often ignore it.	B．People with it can’t recover.
C．It’s hardly related to ageing.	D．It can be cured in a short time.

2. What is paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．Some facts about MCI.	B．The root causes of MCI.
C．The participants of the study.	D．Different forms of dementia.

3. What contributes to overcoming MCI according to the study?

A．Forgetting about ageing.	B．Examining its mechanism.
C．Living with healthy people.	D．Holding positive age beliefs

4. From which is the text most probably taken?

A．A report on technology.	B．A chemistry textbook.
C．A first aid brochure.	D．A health magazine.

5 . Going against the tide of flocking to well-known tourist destinations on vacation, a growing number of holidaymakers in China tend to spend their leisure time at lesser-known attractions. Reverse tourism (逆向旅游) has appeared as a   new trend among young holidaymakers in China.

According to data from an online travel agency, the number of rooms booked at hotels in less-traveled cities during the holiday was up 30 percent year-on-year. Bookings for four-star or five-star hotels in less-traveled places all increased ten times at a minimum. Some lesser-known scenic spots posted double-digit (两位数的) growth during the holiday. Baimaiquan Park in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, received 52,100 visits in the seven days, up to 15.78 percent year-over-year.

Besides crowds, some vacationers chose less-traveled places to save on the cost of trips to popular destinations. In addition, lesser-known attractions are not as “commercial” as developed ones and are able to offer more actual experiences and natural encounters.

Essentially speaking, total relaxation is becoming a real expectation for many people when they travel. Changes in demand may be the fundamental reason for the popularity of reverse tourism. COVID-19 is another key factor fueling reverse tourism. As preventive measures continue, traveling has an unpredictable quality. Travelers have thus become more cautious and tend to choose local attractions or places with fewer tourists.

“The rise of reverse tourism is not a bad thing,” said Zhengzhou Daily. It means that vacationers now have more options, which brings more possibilities to the tourism market. More importantly, it noted, the trend is set to force popular destinations to improve themselves instead of resting on their past honor.

Jiang Han, a senior researcher, said that reverse tourism will become one of the future directions for the market. To give a real boost to the tourism market, Jiang suggested that more efforts be made to tap the potential of underestimated, lesser-known destinations. It is necessary to dig deeper into the local customs and highlight the local characteristics to improve the quality of local tourism.

1. What do the statistics in paragraph 2 tell us?

A．The popularity of travel agency in China.

B．The high income of hotels during holidays.

C．The contributions of tourism to the economy.

D．The increasing trend of reverse tourism in China.

2. What may be the root cause of the rise of reverse tourism?

A．The impact of COVID-19.

B．Holidaymakers’ changing needs for travel.

C．The lower cost of heading to less-traveled places.

D．The lack of innovative improvements in famous attractions.

3. What does Zhengzhou Daily think of reverse tourism?

A．It will drop with the recovery of economy.

B．It benefits both tourists and the tourism market.

C．It is beneficial to spread local culture to tourists.

D．It blocks the development of some popular resorts.

4. What is Jiang Han’s advice on developing the tourism market?

A．Upgrading the supporting facilities in tourist areas.

B．Improving the management rules of tourist attractions further.

C．Exploring the potential and features of lesser-known attractions.

D．Promoting the local characteristics of China through online media.

6 . People who give, live longer, studies have shown. Now, a new study by University of Michigan shows that why people volunteer—not whether they volunteer—is what really counts.

For the study, Konrath and colleagues analyzed data collected in 2008 and 2012 aiming at the same random samples of 3,376 people. Overall, they found that just 2.3 percent of those who once worked as volunteers had died, compared to 4.3 percent of non-volunteers. They further found that how much people volunteered mattered as well—only 1.8 percent of regular volunteers died, compared with 2.5 percent of occasional volunteers.

But what really made a difference were people’s motives for volunteering. The researchers asked people to rate how important they found various reasons for volunteering, and they found that the more important people rated reasons such as feeling pity for people in need, the more likely they were to be alive. Those who rated motives related to personal benefit as more important were more likely to have died, and just as likely to die as those who didn’t volunteer at all. These reasons included volunteering because they enjoyed the social contact, to escape their own problems, or to explore their own strengths.

Konrath says the current findings suggest it may be a poor idea to encourage people to volunteer because it’s good for them. “Volunteering is increasingly being encouraged in schools and organizations. Some groups say that it’s okay to want benefits for yourself, and encourage people to think of volunteering as an exchange for personal interests. Some groups emphasize the health benefits received through volunteering.” Konrath added, “Of course, it’s reasonable for volunteers to expect benefits for themselves. But the potential health benefits of volunteering are significantly reduced if self-benefit becomes a person’s main motive.”

1. What does the new study mainly find?

A．How we volunteer makes sense to others.	B．How often we volunteer makes a difference.
C．Whether we volunteer decides our well-being.	D．Why we volunteer has an impact on our health.

2. How did the researchers do the study?

A．By analyzing statistics.	B．By rating volunteers’ performances.
C．By doing lab experiments.	D．By grouping participants randomly.

3. Which of the following motives will probably contribute to a longer life?

A．To develop abilities.	B．To make more friends.
C．To help the poor people.	D．To solve personal problems.

4. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．Practical suggestions on further studies.	B．A further explanation of the current findings.
C．Potential applications of the research method.	D．A reasonable doubt about the research results.

7 . Art and science may seem like opposite things. One means the creative flow of ideas, and the other means cold, hard data-some people believe. In fact, the two have much in common. Now, a study finds art can help students remember better what they have learned in the science class.

Mariale Hardiman, an education specialist at Johns Hopkins University, noticed that students who used art in the classroom listened more carefully. They might ask more questions. They might volunteer more ideas. What’s more, students seemed to remember more of what they had been taught when their science lessons had involved(涉及) art. To prove that, Hardiman teamed up with some researchers and six local schools.

In the experiment, the researchers worked with teachers in 16 fifth-grade classrooms. They provided traditional science lessons and art-focused ones. In a traditional science class, for example, students might read aloud from a book. In the art-focused one, they might sing the information instead.

The team randomly assigned(随机分配) each of the 350 students to either a traditional science classroom or an art-focused one. Students then learned science using that way for the whole unit-about three weeks. When they changed to a new topic, they also changed to the other type of class. This way, each student had both an art-focused class and a traditional one. Every unit was taught in both ways, to different groups of students. This enabled the researchers to see how students did in both types of classes.

The team found that students who started off in a traditional class performed better after they moved into an art-focused class. But those who started off in an art-focused class did well even when they went back to a traditional science class. These students appeared to use some of the art techniques(技巧) after going back to a traditional class. Classroom teachers reported that many students continued to sing the songs that they learned after finishing the unit. “The more we hear something, the more we retain it,” Hardiman says. “It suggests that the arts may help students apply creative ways of learning on their own.”

1. Why did Mariale Hardiman do the study?

A．To prove the importance of art at school.

B．To see if art might improve science learning

C．To find a way to help her students learn better.

D．To know how to encourage students to ask questions.

2. What were the students required to do in the experiment?

A．Take two types of classes.	B．Learn three units in total.
C．Learn two topics for three weeks.	D．Choose what they’d like to learn.

3. What does the underlined word “retain” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Finish.

B．Express.

C．Improve.

D．Memorize.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Art helps students develop creativity.

B．Art-focused classes interest students a lot.

C．Art can make science easier to remember.

D．Art has something in common with science.

8 . Have you ever been in mid-conversation with someone, when you look over and find them standing in the same position as you or holding the same facial expression? It may seem like they have consciously copied you, but it is much more likely that it is the chameleon (变色龙) effect at play.

The chameleon effect is the unconscious imitation of another person’s gestures or behavior. Just as a chameleon attempts to match any environment’s colors, people acquire the behavior of others to bring them closer together and help make their interactions smooth.

The chameleon effect was confirmed in an experiment by psychologists John Bargh and Tanya Chartrand in 1999. The part of their experiment included 78 people, who each spoke with an experimenter. During the test, Bargh and Chartrand studied whether participants would copy the actions of someone they hadn’t met before, like moving the foot and touching the face. The second part measured the impact that copying someone has on the person being imitated.

In the first stage, participants increased their face touching by 20% and their foot movement by 50% while in conversation about a photograph with the experimenter. The individuals weren’t aware of what they were being studied for, and the photograph was used to catch their attention to insure unconscious acts. The second stage involved half of the participants being copied, and then rating the likability of the experimenter. The results, showed that those who were imitated scored the experimenter higher. It has shown that when someone copies our behavior, we develop more positive feelings about them. These interactions could be a person unconsciously willing to be liked, and forming a moment of connection.

The main reasons behind humans’ imitation are positive. However, when people carry this chameleon effect to the extreme, they can lose their sense of self. Those who change their entire personalities in different groups often go undetected. But more common signs of the chameleon effect are easier to notice. Next time you are in a social gathering, take a look around and you might just see some chameleons for yourself.

1. Why do people imitate others’ behavior?

A．To show admiration for others.	B．To adapt to the surroundings.
C．To establish a connection with others.	D．To attract others’ attention.

2. How did the experimenter guarantee participants’ unconscious behaviors?

A．By directing their attention to a photo.	B．By keeping an eye on their actions.
C．By telling them the purpose of the study.	D．By evaluating the impacts of imitation.

3. What conclusion can be drawn from the experiment?

A．People tend to like those who imitate their behavior.

B．Too much of the chameleon effect can be beneficial.

C．People imitating others are not easy to be detected.

D．The copied movements help people to feel relaxed.

4. Which of the following shows the chameleon effect according to the passage?

A．Students adopt teachers’ accents for fun after class.

B．People change their habits to please others on purpose.

C．A comedian copies a celebrity vividly on stage.

D．A husband and his wife share similar behaviors over time.