1 . Are you happy with your appearance?
“Almost all the girls with single-fold eyelids (单眼皮) in our class have had double eyelid operations,” Zeng, a Senior 2 student from Chengdu, told Xinhua. Zeng had the same surgery done this summer.
From popular photo-editing apps to plastic surgery (整形手术), it seems that large eyes, pale skin and a skinny body are the only standard for beauty these days. But can following this standard really make us feel good about ourselves?
“Many teenagers are upset about their appearance because they believe in unrealistic standards of beauty,” experts say.
However, trying to live up to strict standards can make us feel anxious. What troubles us is not just our “imperfect” looks, but the fact that we criticize ourselves too much.
A.Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. |
B.Body image anxiety is common among teenagers. |
C.Guys care just as much as girls do about their body image. |
D.Some teenagers might feel negative about their appearance. |
E.It’s common for teenagers to feel confident about their appearance. |
F.She and many of her classmates believe bigger eyes look more beautiful. |
G.Perfect faces and bodies are everywhere in advertising, TV shows and social media. |
2 . 听下面一段较长对话,回答以下小题。
1. Which family holiday does the man recommend?A.The one on the 18th. | B.The one on the 19th. | C.The one on the 20th. |
A.France. | B.Spain. | C.Greece. |
A.It is a five-star hotel. | B.It has its own beach. | C.It has a swimming pool. |
3 . TikTok has pushed a new safety update to its app that allows parents to take more control of their teenager’s accounts, as social media companies come under increasing pressure to make their platforms safer for children.
The company said that its Family Pairing now enables parents to turn off comments on their children’s videos entirely or limit them to friends only. Parents whose accounts are linked to their kids will also be able to set their accounts to private ones, turn off the search function for content or users, and limit who can see which videos their children have liked.
The Family Pairing lets parents see how long their children are spending on TikTok each day and limit the content they can see.
TikTok allows children to register (注册) and create an account if they’re over the age of 13. All they need to do is provide their date of birth. However, because TikTok doesn’t require registrants (注册人) to prove their identities, some children under 13 have registered by lying about their age, according to U.K. regulator Ofcom (英国通信管理局)
Alexandra Evans, head of child safety public policy for TikTok in Europe, told CNBC that Family Pairing has “put itself in parents’ shoes”since it was launched. “If we’re thinking of it as a toolbox, we want to offer more tools,” she said on a video call ahead of the announcement.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?A.The safety tips from TikTok. |
B.The limits on Family Pairing. |
C.New apps explored by TikTok. |
D.The functions of Family Pairing. |
A.The low age limit of users. |
B.The demand for users’ birth dates. |
C.TikTok’s failure to check identities. |
D.The difficulty in opening an account. |
A.Uninterested. | B.Objective. | C.Disappointed. | D.Favorable. |
A.TikTok’s Safety Update |
B.New Guidelines for Safety |
C.Family Pairing under Debate |
D.Controlling Your Kids Online |
A funny thing happened to Arthur when he was on the way to work one day. As he walked along Park Avenue near the First National Bank, he heard the sound of someone trying to start a car. He tried again and again but couldn’t get the car moving. Arthur turned and looked inside at the face of a young man who looked worried.
Arthur stopped and said, “It looks like you’ve got a problem.”
“I’m afraid so. I’m in a big hurry but I can’t start my car.”
“Is there something I can do to help?” Arthur asked. The young man looked at the two suitcases in the back seat and then said, “Thanks. If you’re sure it wouldn’t be too much trouble, you could help me get these suitcases into a taxi.”
“No trouble at all. I’d be glad to help.”
The young man got out and took one of the suitcases from the back seat. After placing it on the ground, he turned to get the other one. Just as Arthur picked up the first suitcase and started walking, he heard the long loud noise of an alarm.
It was from the bank. There had been a robbery (抢劫)!
Park Avenue had been quiet a moment before. Now the air was filled with the sound of the alarm and the shouts of people running from all directions. Cars stopped and the passengers joined the crowd in front of the bank. People asked each other, “What happened?” But everyone had a different answer.
Arthur still carrying the suitcase, turned to look at the bank and walked right into a young woman in front of him.
She looked at the suitcase and then at him. Arthur was surprised. “Why is she looking at me like that?” he thought. “The suitcase! She thinks I’m the bank thief!”
Arthur looked around at the crowd of people. He became frightened, and without another thought, he started to run.
注意:续写的词数应为150左右。
Paragraph 1:
As he was running, Arthur heard the young man shouting behind, “Stop! Stop!” _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
The taxi stopped in front of the police station. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5 . Fears over the disruption (干扰) to classrooms from pupils using smartphones have made the government decide to carry out research into the way technology affects behaviour in schools.
Children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 16, according to Tom Bennett, the school behaviour expert leading the research. “Children are using smartphones too young,” he said. People ask me, “When should I give my child a smartphone?” and I say “Whenever you’re comfortable with them viewing violence, because their curiosity (好奇心) will take them there.” According to him, teachers should not allow them unless necessary.
Mr. Bennett is already leading another study into how teachers are trained to deal with bad behaviour. He has now been asked to look at the wider challenges of managing modern classrooms. Although technology can improve learning, teachers have reported that the growing number of children bringing smartphones into class is leading to disruption, officials warn.
“We need to make sure the advice we give to schools, and the methods being used are fit for the 21st century when even primary school pupils may be bringing in phones. That is why we have taken the decision to widen Tom Bennett’s research to look at how teachers can deal with bad behaviour,” said Nick Gibb, Minister of State for Schools.
Most schools have some policies about smartphone use. However, the picture is far from uniform (统一的) — from complete bans (禁止) to partial bans. “I think smartphones in a classroom may be a temptation (诱惑) for students, but that isn’t to say that I would ban them. ”said Mr. Bennett. “My personal advice is that schools should think very carefully before allowing them. I think the basic rule should be not to allow them unless teachers invite them in for a certain reason.”
1. Why was the research started?A.To find out the advantages of technology. |
B.To learn about children’s behaviour in class. |
C.To look at how smartphones affect kids at school. |
D.To prevent children from using smartphones in class. |
A.To look into students’ behaviour at home. |
B.To change parents’ attitudes to smartphones. |
C.To encourage children to attend modern classrooms. |
D.To make sure that schools use proper methods to teach students. |
A.Many pupils use smartphones for learning. |
B.Schools have to try harder to ban smartphone use. |
C.Students always have a good reason to use smartphones. |
D.Different schools have different policies about smartphone use. |
A.It is helpful in teaching. |
B.Schools should take it seriously. |
C.It should be banned completely. |
D.There should be a uniform rule. |
6 . People from East Asia tend to have more difficulties than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.
Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly (均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.
“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said. “Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and overlook the mouth.”
According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. “The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said. “Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion. Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less.”
In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.
1. What does the discovery show about Westerners?A.They pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth. |
B.They consider facial expressions universally reliable. |
C.They observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways. |
D.They have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions. |
A.To get their faces impressive. | B.To make a face at each other. |
C.To classify some face pictures. | D.To observe the researchers’ faces. |
A.They do translation more successfully. | B.They study the mouth more frequently. |
C.They examine the eyes more attentively. | D.They read facial expressions more correctly. |
A.The Eye as the Window to the Soul | B.Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions |
C.Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills | D.How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding |
Agriculture is a fundamental
A.differences B.privileged C.exploring D.account E.amazement F.research G.strongly H.unthinkable I.separately J.recognize K.education |
Perri Klass and her mother, Sheil a Solomon Klass, both gifted professional writers, prove to be ideal co-writers as they examine their decades of motherhood, daughterhood, and the wonderful ways their lives have overlapped(重叠).
Perri notes with
A child of the Depression(大萧条), Sheil a was raised in Brooklyn by parents who considered
Each writing in her own unmistakable voice, Perri and Sheil a take turns
Looking deep into the lives they have lived
9 . New Caledonian crows are well-known for using different types of tools for preying (捕食) from tree holes and other hiding places. While they firmly hold their tools in the bill, they need to put them down to eat. This is when crows are at risk of losing their tools by accidentally dropping them or having them stolen by other crows.
In an earlier study, researchers in the UK had discovered that crows keep their tools safe when not needed, using one of two “safekeeping” strategies—they either securely hold them trapped underfoot, or temporarily put them into a nearby hole or behind bark. But are crows more careful when handling particularly valuable tools?
“Many of us will fuss (大惊小怪) about a brand-new phone, making sure it does not get scratched, dropped or lost. But we may handle an old phone with a cracked screen quite carelessly,” said lead author Barbara Klump from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Germany.
Crows at one of the team’s long-term study sites use two different kinds of stick tools: complex hooked tools and basic non-hooked tools. The former are painstakingly crafted from a relatively scarce plant species, while the latter are simply twigs (细枝) sourced from the forest floor. “Hooked tools are not only more costly to obtain, but they are also much more efficient,” explained Barbara Klump. “Depending on the foraging (觅食) task, crows can get prey with these tools up to ten times faster than with non-hooked tools.”
In their new study, the researchers now discovered that New Caledonian crows are more likely to keep valuable hooked tools safe between uses than the more basic non-hooked tools. “It was exciting to see crows are just a bit more careful with tools that are more efficient and more costly to replace. This suggests that they have some conception of the relative value’ of different tool types,” noted study co-author James St Clair.
This is the first study to investigate how animals handle and store tools of different kinds, providing a new way to measure how much they value these objects.
1. Why are phones mentioned in paragraph 3?A.To indicate the necessity of phones in our daily life. |
B.To emphasize people’s attachment to their old devices. |
C.To stress the similarity between humans and crows. |
D.To show people’s improper attitude to old things. |
A.It can be gotten easily. | B.It can be adjusted freely. |
C.It can make crows’ foraging more productive. | D.It can prevent crows from danger. |
A.Their secret hiding places. | B.Their unusual eating habits. |
C.Their creation of complex tools. | D.Their treatment of valuable tools. |
A.Crows Use Strategies to Gain Valuable Tools |
B.Crows Learn to Use Special Tools for Preying |
C.New Discovery of How Crows Make Tools |
D.New Caledonian Crows Keep Favorite Tools Safer |
10 . Qibao Ancient Village
Qibao, located in the center of Minhang District, Shanghai, is a village with a history of one thousand years. In the village, wine and tea are served on old-fashioned square tables together with long benches, long-mouth copper pots and flat-end chopstick used. The most famous snacks in old Shanghai are square pastry, rice wine and steamed salted pork in wine.
Entrance Ticket: 45 yuan per all-in-one ticket (preferable price of 30 yuan is available now), covering almost all tourist attractions inside the village.
Telephone: 021-21087225
Jinshan Village of Farmer Painting
Villagers skillfully make good use of folk arts such as printing and dyeing, embroidery (刺绣), wood carving. They take the various folk customs and the busy scenes of labor of villagers in the lower Changjiang valley as the theme of paintings and create farmer paintings in a simple style.
Entrance Ticket: 30 yuan/person
Telephone: 021-57355555
Merry Countryside Tour in Zhonghua Village
The village provides tourists with accommodations, tours, chess, cards, fitness and entertainment through renting out separate farmhouse and sells tourist products and agricultural by-products related to the merry countryside tour.
Entrance Ticket: Free Telephone: 021-57395433
Pudong Lingkong Agric Gardening
It is one of Shanghai countryside tour scenic spots, which features art of teapots, crop plantation and export. The Geological Science Popularization Hall stores up tens of thousands of rare stones collected all over the world.
Entrance Ticket: 50 yuan /person
Telephone: 021-33935557
1. What can you do when you are in Qibao?A.Enter the village for free. | B.See busy scenes of labor of villagers. |
C.Experience various folk customs. | D.Taste steamed salted pork in wine. |
A.Jinshan Village. | B.Qibao Ancient Village. |
C.Zhonghua Village. | D.Pudong Lingkong Agric Gardening. |
A.City developments. | B.Countryside life. |
C.Traditional customs. | D.Agricultural achievements. |