1 . Sometimes the people least likely to engage with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Zoom are the people who can benefit from it the most.
The “silent generation”, or those born between 1928 and 1945, aren’t usually mentioned alongside the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. A study this year said that 45 percent of people over 65 use social media sites. Yet, for the majority of seniors, it is more about gathering information than sharing things about themselves.
For example, AARP has pointed out that Facebook’s largest function for older folks has been helping them keep in touch with their families, especially their grandchildren. But this doesn’t really reflect the digital connectivity (连接) many elders are experiencing.
BJ, a friend who just turned 80, does not own a computer, yet he’s one of the 4 out of 10 seniors with a smartphone, which never leaves his side. For him social media is purely social — no grandkids, just people from every stage of his eight decades. It has kept him youthful and connected. He has figured out how to make Facebook and Instagram work for him by asking his younger friends for help when he gets stuck.
Jesse Epstein, who has been teaching in a college for 44 years.He moved to Costa Rica with his wife and young child four years ago when he was 70. “I wouldn’t be able to live the life I now lead without the assistance of Zoom, Google Classroom, WhatsApp, and Microsoft Teams,” Epstein tells me on the phone, speaking from his home in Tamarindo. “My current students are all masters-level schoolteachers. I use Zoom to observe and evaluate how well they incorporate (融入) these technologies into their lessons live in the classroom. I was surprised by how much more attentive students seemed to be online than they typically were in the classroom receiving the same material.”
He keeps in touch in a very real way with friends he’s known for decades. “Networking technologies have supported all my life choices and helped me and my family achieve a level of freedom and independence which I didn’t think was possible for someone in their mid-seventies,” he adds.
1. Why are the elderly called the “silent generation”?| A．They hardly share personal experiences online. |
| B．They are too shy to deliver a speech in public. |
| C．They never keep in touch with others online. |
| D．They are unfortunately speech-impaired. |
| A．To express good attitudes towards life. |
| B．To explore possible ways to stay young. |
| C．To reflect the popularity of Facebook. |
| D．To show the real social connection. |
| A．Students are more likely to concentrate on the class. |
| B．All his life choices are backed by online technologies. |
| C．He can improve his teaching skills and methods. |
| D．His family members have freedom and independence. |
| A．Social Media Gives the Silent Generation a Voice |
| B．Social Apps Are Welcomed by People of All Ages |
| C．Networking Technologies Are a Double-edged Sword |
| D．The Silent Generation Are Eager for Connectivity |
2 . Many cases of online bullying have been making the social media rounds in recent years. Negative moral judgment, cyber threats, and verbal violence(语言暴力) pollute the digital world. Meanwhile, some platforms, attracting network traffic, tend to turn a blind eye to the roaring of verbal violence and so the list continues to cause a great stir on social media from time to time.
There are 43.88 billion people surfing the Internet and spending a weekly average of 28.5 hours online. The question becomes: What measures can help build a good cyber environment and, more importantly, limit online violence?
While providing the public with more room to express and share their ideas, the Internet for some serves as a platform to hurt others. Online anonymity(匿名) makes it possible for some netizens to stop obeying all morals, as well as the related laws and rules. With their identities covered, netizens can be less worried to do what they want to do, thinking that they don’t have to bear legal responsibility. Cyber space is not lawless area. To create a healthy cyber space and limit online violence, real-name registration can prove effective. Law breaker and platforms that refuse to take responsibility should also be punished.
Good laws are what it takes to manage the present situation. To limit cyber bullying and clean the digital space, one key step is to strengthen lawmaking and law enforcement(执行). Prevention is better than cure. Strict law enforcement appears to be more important.
However, some countries still lack special laws targeting cyber violence, and only have a few terms and unsystematic rules in place-too weak to deal with the complicated violence online. At this point, though sometimes illegal acts like verbal violence will lead to a maximum of three years in prison, it can be costly and difficult for sufferers to collect evidence and safeguard their rights. The number of cyber bullying cases published is very low. There are a few technical difficulties here. It is hard to identify who should bear the blame and sufferers have no idea who they should file a complaint against.
1. What does the underlined “the list” in paragraph I refer to?| A．Social media. | B．The roaring of verbal violence. |
| C．Cases of online bullying. | D．Moral judgment, cyber threats, and verbal violence |
| A．They can hide their real identities. |
| B．They think they can escape punishment even if they do something wrong. |
| C．They want to express and share their ideas secretly. |
| D．They want to create a healthy cyber space and limit online violence. |
| A．Netizens who cover their identities don’t have to bear legal responsibility. |
| B．Verbal violence may result in one or two years in prison. |
| C．Sufferers are not good at Internet technology. |
| D．Sufferers usually have no idea how to file a complaint. |
| A．Some advice for sufferers to collect evidence and safeguard rights. |
| B．Current laws against cyber violence. |
| C．How to identify different types of cyber bullying cases. |
| D．Difficulties in collecting evidence and safeguarding rights. |
Digital screen time before bed can have a negative impact on the quality of your sleep.
Much
Seeing something right before bed that either makes you upset
Studies have also found that exciting or violent video games will increase heart rate, make it even
A writer, named Daphne K. Lee, in 2020
4 . For Italy, part of the challenge is to transform places like Colle di Tora, a small town outside Rome, which are not so much cut off from the modern world, as a little behind.
At the moment the post office-which the town’s 360 residents rely on to withdraw cash, as there is no bank-sometimes closes down because its Internet fails. Bad weather can interrupt the signal, and is also a problem for mobile phone reception and streaming TV services.
The last time a customer tried to pay by card in Anna Rita Pani’s grocery store, things got a bit awkward. They had to wait 15 minutes for the card reader to work.
Simona Cardella said her teenage daughter struggled with online lessons while schools were closed. Sometimes the audio was off, sometimes the video was off, and if the weather was bad, the signal was cut off completely.
Mayor Pandolfi notes that taking latest generation broadband（光纤宽带）to isolated（隔绝的）areas like Colle Di Tora could make them attractive locations for remote working. For other residents, it would just bring them into the 21st century. Pani’s 22-year-old son Nicolas is a keen gamer, but he complains it can take “four-five days” to download a game that his friends in Rome can get in a couple of hours.
Fortunately, Colle di Tora is on a government list of 200 cities for building the fibre optic broadband. This week, workers were laying fibre optic cables in one of the main squares, and telecoms company Open Fiber said super-fast Internet would be operational by the year’s end.
Nearly a quarter of Italians do not use the Internet, and one third of households have no fixed connection, according to figures by national statistics agency Istat. The government wants every Italian to have access to super-fast Internet by 2026-but it has a long way to go.
1. What does the author think of towns like Colle di Tora?| A．Places in imagination. | B．Places everyone wants to visit. |
| C．Places falling behind. | D．Places with unique cultures. |
| A．To present their lifestyles. | B．To make a comparison. |
| C．To clarify a concept. | D．To show the bad network. |
| A．Make it fit for telework. | B．Attract many more visitors. |
| C．Bring peace to the residents. | D．Allow the government to manage the town. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Negative. | C．Optimistic. | D．Cautious. |
1. What is the conversation mainly about?
| A．The time spent online at work. |
| B．The use of the Internet for work. |
| C．The effect of time management online. |
| A．To kill time. | B．To help him relax. | C．To talk with friends. |
| A．Spend little time chatting online. |
| B．Go on Facebook every day. |
| C．Try to be more creative by browsing the Web. |
6 . At the present time, the Internet is a major part of our lives. It’s always in our hands or pockets. Whatever we are doing is somehow linked(连接) to the Internet. We start finding our connections online as well, which is quite impressive. We find a person on a social media platform (社交媒体平台),see we have a shared interest and start chatting!
Online friendships in the past were doubted and not considered reliable because you didn’t know who was behind the screen. But now, when we can go shopping online, clear bills in online banks, and virtually attend schools, why can’t we find some real friends online?
With online friends, there are several advantages. When we find something catchy in someone — the very first quality of our online friend, we only then encourage ourselves to find ways to talk to them. We can share with them our everyday things, and what’s better than texting our friends our secrets? We can be present together with them on interested forums(论坛). We can share looks just through a click. And the best part is that we can shoot them a real quick message whenever we need their expert advice.
With all these strengths of an online friend, also come some weak points which make some people afraid to find their friends online. Some people believe that the person they are talking to on the screen is not real or trying to get information about their private life. They feel uncomfortable sharing and chatting with a person who they’ve never met in real life. Another problem that comes in the way of online friends is hanging out. People can’t really hang out with their online friends. The other problem is miscommunication, which sometimes leads to the end of a friendship.
Despite all these problems, online company is a perfect form of relationship between two or more. After all, we would notice these problems in any other kind of relationship or friendship. Miscommunication or a trust issue is always present even in face-to-face communication.
1. What is paragraph 1 mainly about?| A．How the Internet has changed our daily life. |
| B．whether people should make online friends. |
| C．Why a good friendship is difficult to develop. |
| D．What made making friends online a reality. |
| A．Easy. | B．Possible. | C．Dependable. | D．Lasting. |
| A．By telling stories. | B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By explaining general rules. | D．By providing research results. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Neutral. | C．Unclear. | D．Supportive |
7 . Where am I? What am I doing? If you're one of my 500 friends online, you'll always be the first to know. My phone and laptop are never out of touching distance, so I'm endlessly checking through all my social networking apps - whether I'm having a coffee, on my way to school, watching TV. . . even when I'm in the shower. I have a never - ending flow of messages and updates from all the people I associate with online. Yet the truth of the matter is: I feel lonely
I'm not the only person who feels this way. According to research, over two-thirds of young people find it easier to make friends online than it is “in real life”. I'm a shy person, but I'm wired up (上线) every day, like most of my friends. On the surface, phones bring us closer together. But in reality, my mind is always a million miles away.
I often feel depressed, dissatisfied and alone. Since I spend so much time socializing online, I even become a procrastinator (拖延者) . I keep postponing things that are important in my real life: homework, tasks, connecting with my friends and family members in a meaningful way. It's funny that my friends and I chatter away online so much, but we end up having nothing to say when we meet.
What is rally worrying is that no one I know, including myself could go cold turkey. I can't even imagine going without social networking for a week - think of all the important appointments, invitations and news updates you would miss! Alcoholics (酗酒者) who want to quit drinking can avoid drinks, but how do we give up our phones? After all, I need it for my studies because my teachers and classmates need to contact me at any time. So, that's the problem with social networking. We're hard-wired in, but we're more disconnected than ever.
1. The author always uses his phone and laptop to __________ .| A．avoid feeling a sense of loneliness |
| B．explore ways of enriching his social life |
| C．follow the updates on his online social network |
| D．receive help with his addiction to online socializing |
| A．He is an alcohol addict | B．He is a poor web chatter |
| C．He is a mild procrastinator | D．He is a heavy social media user |
| A．social media have created many offline problems |
| B．it's difficult to break away from online socializing |
| C．people are unwilling to interact face to face anymore |
| D．the benefits of social networking are too good to miss |
| A．So Close, Yet So Far |
| B．The Young Never Felt More Alone |
| C．Social Networking Worsens Relationships |
| D．More Social Media, Better Online Socializing |
8 . You're just about to check out with your online purchases when you realize that some items have been slipped into your shopping cart. It turns out that you had to uncheck a specific box to avoid these sneaky(鬼鬼祟祟的) charges. You were lucky enough to spot this bit of trickery. However, inattentive or rushed buyers might totally miss the extra charge.
This is just one example of what's called "dark pattern web design". These are user interfaces(界面) and website designs meant to trick you into doing something you didn't really mean to do, such as spending more money, sharing personal data or subscribing to an annoying newsletter. Often, you'll find these dark patterns on shopping sites.
The term "dark pattern" was coined by Harry Brignull. He's an online user experience professional. Brignull says that he first started seeing problems like these around 2009. "I kept noticing these instances of bad design that didn't seem like mistakes," he says. "I kept finding things that were annoying or frustrating, but seemed to be designed on purpose, to benefit the company doing them." So, he started DarkPatterns.org to spread the news about these practices. He hopes that by shedding light on this immoral form of digital profiteering, users will become smarter and companies will be less likely to use it.
It seemed a step in the right direction when in May 2018, the European Union passed the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR). The idea is that websites must provide very clear notifications(告知)that allow users to opt out of surveillance(监视) and cookie tracking. The result? Companies are actively crafting notifications to cheat people into accepting surveillance instead of rejecting it. U.S. lawmakers are still debating how to build privacy laws that will really work. Until better laws and enforcement are in place, pay close attention to dark patterns on websites so you won't get caught.
1. Under what circumstances can "dark pattern web design" work?| A．Users' bad mood. | B．Users' hotheaded buying. |
| C．Users' carelessness. | D．Users' lack of specific knowledge. |
| A．To remind companies of the mistakes they made. |
| B．To give Internet users an insight into dark patterns. |
| C．To urge companies to improve their website designs. |
| D．To urge Internet users to keep off shopping online. |
| A．It is a privacy law. | B．It is well received by consumers. |
| C．It needs further improvement. | D．It benefits websites. |
| A．Should we stay away from shopping online? |
| B．Are we suffering from “dark pattern" of some websites? |
| C．How to protect our own interests. |
| D．Can companies benefit from “dark patterns”? |
Twenty years ago, the idea of sharing our lives so
However,
There are a number of reasons for this. When
We don't have to disconnect from the Internet
