1 . Is Managing Kids' Screen Time a Good Idea?

Screen time is a big topic of conversation in today's households, particularly during the pandemic when online education hours have multiplied for many students.    1    They hope to spare their kids from the countless challenges that technology can bring. Yet the challenges of screen time overuse seldom come from kids' devices themselves, but rather from the tense relationships that technology can bring to families.    2    But technology has positive benefits too. Since every child and family is different, managing screen time calls for joint family decision-making.

If parents believe they can manage a child's screen time through adolescence, they are not only fooling themselves but also inviting relationship trouble with their teens. It is a myth to think that parents can or should manage their kids' screen time through authoritarian restrictions, even during elementary school.     3     When children are left out of those decisions, they often become less communicative with parents and siblings. This is the opposite of what parents want to achieve.

    4     From early ages, children are quite capable of understanding that a good life involves awareness and balance. Just as they learn right from wrong, and good from bad, they can also learn to use technology in healthy ways. Learning how to regulate oneself and develop healthy behaviors is one of the primary tasks of childhood and adolescence. What happens when an adult tries to regulate a child is that the child misses out on the opportunity to learn for themselves. Enforced restrictions can also make children feel helpless and less confident.

To be clear, this article is not suggesting that families never use apps or trackers, or that there should be no restrictions on screen time.    5    Parents should give voice to children and involve them in the planning and decision-making process.

A．Of course, there are websites that are unhealthy for kids to access.

B．The alternative is to involve children in decisions that govern screen time.

C．However, every family needs a family media plan between family members.

D．The goal is to see, hear, feel, and understand how children view screen time.

E．To manage children's screen time, parents have invested in apps and trackers.

F．To get children involved, parents should trust and develop kids' self-awareness.

G．What it is suggesting is that parents look at managing screen time in a different way.

2 . We’ve all heard it before: to be successful, get out of bed early. After all, Apple CEO Tim Cook gets up at 3:45 am, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne at 3:30 am and Richard Branson at 5:45 am- - -and, as we know, “The early bird catches the worm.” Indeed, it may be true that those who get up early have a jump start on the day before others are even out of bed.

But just because some successful people wake up early, does that mean it’s a trait most of them share? And if the idea of having exercised, planned your day, eaten breakfast, visualized and done one task before 8 am. makes you want to roll over and hit snooze until next Saturday, are you really doomed to a less successful life?

For about half of us, this isn’t really an issue. It’s estimated that some 50% of the population isn’t really morning- oriented or evening oriented, but somewhere in the middle. Roughly one in four of us, though, tend more toward bright-eyed early risers, and another one in four are night owls. For them, the effect can go beyond falling asleep in front of the TV at10 pm or being regularly late for work.

Numerous studies have found that morning people are more self-directed and agreeable. And compared to night owls, they are less likely to be depressed, drink or smoke.

Although morning types may achieve more academically, night owls tend to perform better on measures of memory, processing speed and cognitive ability, even when they have to perform those tasks in the morning. Night-time people are also more open and more creative. And one study shows that night owls are as healthy and wise as morning types- and a little bit wealthier.

Still think the morning people sound more like CEO material? Don’t set your alarm for 5 am just, yet, as it turns out, overhauling (大修) your sleep times may not have much effect.

“If people are left to their naturally preferred times, they feel much better. They say that they are much more productive. The mental capacity they have is much broader,” says Oxford University biologist Katharina Wulf. On the other hand, she says, pushing people too far out of their natural preference can be harmful. When they wake early, for example, night owls are still producing melatonin (褪黑激素 ). “Then, you disrupt it and push the body to be in the daytime mode. That can have lots of negative, physiological consequences,” Wulff says like a different sensitivity to insulin and glucose (葡萄糖) which can cause weight gain.

1. What can we know from the 4th and 5th paragraphs?

A．Neither night owls no morning persons perform better than the middle ones.

B．To beat night-time people, ask them to do maths calculation in the morning.

C．Night owls tend to sacrifice their health for their wealth.

D．Morning types are more conservative but more optimistic.

2. Which of the following does Katharina Wulff support?

A．Don’t fall asleep in front of the TV.

B．Better not overhaul your sleep times.

C．Stop sting your alarm for 5 am.

D．Avoid being-regularly late for work.

3. What does the author do in the first three paragraphs?

A．raising the problem→analysing the problem→solving the problem.

B．presenting author’s viewpoint → providing supporting proofs→making a conclusion.

C．leading in the topic→challenging a viewpoint → discussing about the topic.

D．introducing a viewpoint -raising the question→presenting author’s viewpoint.

4. Why does the author write this article?

A．To argue against the view that the early bird catches the worm.

B．To compare the differences between early risers and night owls.

C．To advise people to get up neither too early nor too late.

D．To explain why some people are more successful.

3 . I was standing in the checkout line behind a woman who looked to be in her 60s. When it was her turn to pay, the cashier greeted her by name and asked her how she was doing.

The woman looked down, shook her head and said: “Not so good. My husband just lost his job. The truth is, I don’t know how I’m going to get through these days.” Then she gave the cashier food stamps(食品券).

My heart ached. I wanted to help but didn’t know how. Should I offer to pay for her groceries, or ask for her husband’s resume(简历)?

Walking into the parking lot, I spotted the woman returning her shopping cart. I remembered something in my purse that I thought could help her. It wasn’t a handful of cash or an offer of a job for her husband, but maybe it would make her life better.

“Excuse me,” I said, my voice trembling a bit. “I couldn’t help overhearing what you said to the cashier. It sounds like you’ re going through a really hard time right now. I’m so sorry. I’d like to give you something. ”

I handed her the small card from my purse. When the woman read the two words “You Matter” on the card, she began to cry. And through her tears, she said: “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

I was a little startled by her reply. Having never done anything like this before, I didn’t know what kind of reaction I might receive. All I could think to say was: “Would it be OK to give you a hug? ”

A few days earlier, one of my workmates gave a similar card to me as encouragement for a project I was working on. When I read the card, I felt a warm glow spread inside of me. Deeply touched, I ordered my own box of “You Matter” cards and started sharing them.

1. What was the woman’s trouble?

A．She lost her job.

B．She needed more food stamps.

C．She didn’t know how to get through the hard time.

D．She didn’t have enough money to pay for her groceries.

2. How did the author help the woman?

A．She inspired the woman with a card.

B．She bought some food for the woman.

C．She gave the woman a handful of money.

D．She offered the woman’s husband a better job.

3. What does the underlined word “startled” most probably mean?

A．Moved.

B．Surprised.

C．Pleased.

D．Annoyed.

4. Which could be the best title for the text?

A．You Decide Who You Are	B．Bad Things Will Go Away
C．The Help from a Stranger	D．The Power of a Small Card

4 . Alzheimer's AI

An estimated 5.7 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer's disease-the most common type of dementia(痴呆）－and that number is expected to more than double by 2050. Early diagnosis is crucial for patients to benefit from the few therapies available. But no scans can deliver a conclusive diagnosis while a person is alive; instead doctors have to conduct numerous and complicated clinical and neuropsychological tests.So there is growing interest in developing artificial intelligence to identify Alzheimer's based on brain imaging.

Researchers at the University of California,San Francisco, have now successfully trained an AI algorithm(算法）to recognize one of the early signs of Alzheimer's-a reduction in the brain's glucose（葡萄糖）consumption-in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging.

The algorithm accurately predicted an eventual Alzheimer's diagnosis in nearly all the test cases, according to the study. In PET imaging, a very small amount of a radioactive compound are injected into the body, producing three-dimensional images of metabolism(新陈代谢）,circulation and other cellular activities. PET is well suited for an AI diagnostic tool because Alzheimer's leads to subtle changes in the brain's metabolism that begin years before neural(神经的） tissue starts to go downhill, says study co-author Jae Ho Sohn,a radiologist at UCSF. These changes are "very hard for radiologists to pick up,"he notes.

The algorithm was trained and tested on 2,100 PET brain images from about 1,000 people 55 years and older. The images came from a 12-year study that tracked people who would ultimately be diagnosed with Alzheimer's, as well as those with mild memory declines and healthy control participants. The algorithm was trained on 90 percent of the data and tested on the remaining 10 percent. It was then retested on a second, independent data set from 40 patients monitored for 10 years. The algorithm was highly sensitive and was able to recognize 81 percent of the patients in the first test group and 100 percent in the second who would be diagnosed with Alzheimer's six years later, on average. The findings were published in February in Radiology.

The algorithm is based on "deep learning ,a machine-learning technique that uses artificial neural networks programmed to learn from examples. "This is one of the first promising,preliminary(初步的） applications of deep learning to the diagnosis of Alzheimer's," says Christian Salvatore, a physicist at Italy's National Research Council, who was not involved in the study. “The model performs very well when identifying patients with mild or late diagnoses", he says, “but catching it in the earliest stages remains one of the most critical open issues in this field."

1. People are increasingly interested in using AI to identify Alzheimer's because______

A．the number of people suffering from dementia is more than doubling

B．diagnostic methods that are both reliable and convenient are in need

C．there are only a limited number of effective therapies for the patients

D．diagnosing Alzheimer's disease through AI is still an unexplored area

2. What can we learn about PET imaging?

A．It recognizes the worsening of the neural tissue.

B．It reduces the glucose consumption in the brain.

C．It changes the pattern of the brain's metabolism.

D．It photographs various kinds of cellular activities.

3. According to Paragraph 4,_________.

A．90% of the people in the study were trained on the algorithm

B．the participants in the study consist of people both young and old

C．81% of the people in the first test group were diagnosed with Alzheimer's

D．the algorithm managed to recognize all the patients in the second test group

4. What can be inferred from Paragraph 5?

A．The algorithm serves as a promising treatment of Alzheimer's.

B．Deep learning has been widely applied in diagnosing Alzheimer's.

C．To detect Alzheimer's in its earliest stages calls for more exploration.

D．Whether to use the model to detect Alzheimer's remains a critical issue.

5 .

What we do The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) responds quickly and efficiently to help people affected by armed conflict. We also respond to disasters in, conflict zones, because the effects of a disaster are compounded if a county is already at war.
Coronavirus: COVID-19 pandemic For people living in conflict zones, the pandemic spread of coronavirus disease (also known as COVID-19) represents a dramatic threat to life. Health systems are destroyed by war, and it could be difficult for people in these areas to prioritize actions related to the coronavirus COVID-19 as there could be many other more immediate threats to life, such as gunfire and bombings.	Enabling people with disabilities& physical rehabilitation In addition to developing our own. Prosthetics technology we have acquired a high level of expertise and attach great importance to maintaining support for a project over many years. As well as providing physical recovery services, we help people with disabilities play a full part in society. This includes promoting the setting up of small business, providing professional training and promoting sport.
Migrants, refugees, shelter seekers The ICRC has adopted a broad description of migrants, to involve all people who leave or flee from their home to seek safety or better prospects abroad, and who may be in disaster and need of protection or humanitarian assistance. Refugees and shelter seekers, who are entitled to specific protection under international law, are included in this description.	Access to education Around the world, millions of people affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence are unable to get an education. The fighting can destroy or damage education facilities, it can make it unsafe to get to school and to be in school. In prolonged (旷日持久的) conflicts, entire generations can remain without education due to economic hardship and to poorly resourced and weakened education systems. This increases social and economic vulnerabilities and raises the risk of exclusion and abuse for many people, particularly girls. For people affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence, the ability to continue or to restart their education is among their top priorities. Education enables people to live and rebuild their lives with dignity and provides them with knowledge and skills to make important decisions about their life, livelihood, and well-being.

1. The access to education can be             .

A．particularly difficult for the girls only in prolonged conflicts

B．spoiled in conflict zones due to the loss of education facilities

C．the least important thing for those suffering from the war

D．effective in helping people flee their homes

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．The entire generations who have suffered so long from war may go without education.

B．All people away from home or in need take part in the charity campaign for migrants.

C．The ICRC not only provide physical recovery services but also help the disabled to play sports through professional training.

D．The victims of war also consider the prevention of COVID-19 the most important.

3. We can most probably find this passage from             .

A．a newspaper

B．the ICRC official website

C．a booklet of charity activities

D．an academic journal

6 . When I re-entered the full-time workforce a few years ago after a decade of lonely self-employment, there was one thing I was looking forward to the most: the opportunity to have work friends once again. It wasn’t until I entered the corporate world that I realized, for me at least, being friends with colleagues didn’t emerge as a thing on the list at all. This is surprising when you consider the current common emphasis by scholars and trainers and managers on the importance of cultivating close interpersonal relationships at work. So much research has been done to explore the way in which collegial ties can help overcome a range of work place-issues affecting productivity and the quality of work output such as team-based conflict, jealousy, undermining, anger, and more.

Perhaps my expectations of lunches, watercooler’ gossip and caring, deep and meaningful conversations were a legacy of the last time I was in that kind of office environment-Whereas now, as I near the end of my fourth decade, I realize work can be fully functional and entirely fulfilling without needing to be best mates with the people sitting next to you or form a close bond with them.

In an academic analysis just published in the profoundly-respected Journal of Management, researchers have looked-at the concept of “indifferent relationships ”. It’s a simple term that illustrates the fact that relationships at work can reasonably be not close, not important, not sensible and even, dare I say it, disposable or replaceable.

Indifferent relationships are neither positive nor negative. The limited research conducted thus far indicates they’ re especially dominant among those who value independence over cooperation, and harmony over conflict. Indifference is also the preferred option among those who are socially lazy. Maintaining relationships over the long term takes effort. For some of us, too much effort, actually.

As noted above, indifferent relationships may not always be the most helpful approach in resolving some of the issues that pop up at work. But there are nonetheless several proven benefits. One of those is efficiency. Less time chatting and socializing means more time working and yielding (产出).

The other is self-esteem. As human beings, we’re prepared to compare ourselves to each other in what is an anxiety-provoking phenomenon. Apparently, we look down on acquaintances more so than close friends. Since the former is most common among those more likely involved in indifferent relationships, their predominance can boost individuals’ sense of self-worth.

Ego aside, a third advantage is that the emotional neutrality of indifferent relationships has been found to enhance critical evaluation, to strengthen one’s focus on task resolution, and to gain greater access to valuable information. None of that might be as fun as after-work socializing but, hey, I’ll take it anyway

1. What did the author realize when he re-entered the corporate world?

A．Making hew mends with this workmates was not as easy as he had thought.

B．Cultivating positive interpersonal relationships helped him shake off lonely feelings.

C．Building close relationships with his colleagues was not as important as he had expected.

D．Working in the corporate world requires more interpersonal skills than self-employment.

2. What be inferred about relationships at work from an academic analysis?

A．They should be cultivated.

B．They are actual irrelevant.

C．They are vital to corporate culture.

D．They should be reasonably intimate.

3. What does the author say about people who are socially lazy?

A．They feel uncomfortable when engaging in social interactions.

B．They often find themselves in confrontation with their colleagues.

C．They lack basic communication skills in dealing with interpersonal issues.

D．They are unwilling to make efforts to maintain workplace relationships.

4. What is one of the benefits of indifferent relationships?

A．They provide fun at work.

B．They improve work efficiency.

C．They help resolve differences.

D．They help control emotions.

8 . One Mother to Another

On Wednesday evening, our daughter, who was at a boarding school over 200 kilometers away, told us that she had lost her phone when she took part in an activity off campus. We realized that we had little chance of finding it.

The next morning, my phone beeped (哔哔响) loudly. A kind voice announced that she had something that belonged to my daughter. I _______ that I lived a three-hour drive away, and told her I would ask a friend to fetch the phone. My daughter had written my number on the inside of her phone’s case — good thinking!

After contacting the people I know who lived near the school, I was out of _______ — no one could go and _______ the phone, not surprisingly as it was the working day and everyone was busy. I decided to ask the lady to post the phone to my daughter. But when I sent her a text to ask if this would be OK, she replied, “We will _______ it and we’re going to drive down to the boarding school tonight.” To my _______, this wonderful couple, who had already spent a busy day at work, was making a round trip on the night, _______ for returning a phone to a complete stranger. How touching it was!

I gave them directions and they _______ the phone into the hands of my daughter at her boarding house. The only word of an explanation was, “I’ve got children of my own, and I know how a mother _______.”

We had thought that the chance of getting back the phone was _______, but we got it back in such a short time. It was a wonderful reminder of the good in the world and how the actions of one person can __________ the world to another.

1.

A．suggested

B．reported

C．explained

D．argued

2.

A．date

B．luck

C．work

D．control

3.

A．pick up

B．carry out

C．hand in

D．give away

4.

A．find

B．show

C．miss

D．take

5.

A．regret

B．surprise

C．amusement

D．disappointment

6.

A．especially

B．certainly

C．definitely

D．probably

7.

A．conducted

B．arranged

C．delivered

D．identified

8.

A．doubts

B．interests

C．predicts

D．worries

9.

A．free

B．slim

C．hard

D．fair

10.

A．tell

B．face

C．mean

D．join

9 . 语法填空

I love music. When I was 16, I formed my first band     1    (call) Frog. At the beginning, we depended on playing instruments in the street to earn money. Then we wore false beards pretending to be famous musicians. In addition, we added    2    (humor) acts to our performances and played jokes on one another. Soon，our “funny jazz” became famous and we     3    (invite) to perform everywhere. Afterwards, we made a record in a studio. About one million     4    (copy) were sold and we became rich and popular.

10 . The future belongs to the flexible mind. This is the argument behind best-selling author Leonard Mlodinow’s new book, Elastic.    1    

Do we need to develop a flexible mind?

Times and surroundings we live in demand a flexible style of thinking. In politics, we now have to cope with more scandals in a single year than we used to encounter in a lifetime. Meanwhile, the speed and processing power of computers makes it difficult for us to navigate a landscape in which the number of websites has been doubling every two to three years.     2     More importantly, social attitudes are changing just as fast.

Logical thought is an analysis that can be described by an algorithm (算术) of the kind that computers follow. Elastic thought cannot. Logical thought is solved to help us face the everyday challenges of life while elastic thought helps us succeed when circumstances change.     3    Logical thought can determine how to drive from our home to the grocery store most efficiently, but it’s elastic thought that inspired us to invent the automobile.

    4     One of the abilities to flexible thinking that is difficult to cultivate is the power to relax our mind and let our guard down. If we are constantly alerted, our ideas may have a narrow range and tend to be conventional.

One can also cultivate flexible thinking by adjusting one’s external conditions.

Studies show that sitting in a darkened room, or closing our eyes, can widen our perspective. Low ceilings, narrow corridors, and windowless offices have the opposite effect. Being able to think without any kind of time pressure is also important when striving for novel ideas.     5     A short phone call, email or even a text message can redirect your attention and thoughts.

Another way we can try is to pay special attention to one of our strongly held beliefs, take it seriously and recall times in the past that we were wrong about something, even though we’d been confident of being right. In fact, more generally, introducing a little disagreement to our intellectual interactions may also be helpful.

A．The way we use and access them is also subject to frequent “disastrous changes”.

B．It examines the ever-increasing changes we find ourselves living through, and the ways of thinking best suited to them.

C．Flexible thinking comes naturally to all humans, but it may be blocked by our ability to tune out “crazy” idea.

D．In what way is it hard to think “flexibly”?

E．It is where our new ideas come from.

F．Just as important, interruptions are deadly.

G．How can we learn to be more flexible in our own thinking?