1 . T. S. Eliot wrote of “Distracted from distraction by distraction /Filled with fancies and empty of meaning.” T. S. Eliot never had a smartphone.
Neither did I for a long time. No Facebook account; not even email. But according to my date of manufacture, I’m supposed to be a digital native. Perhaps it’s because by the age of 20 I was living in the Welsh countryside with no signal and no Wi-Fi.
When I finally fell into the digital world, I fell hard. Unlike my friends for whom social media and mobile technology had grown and flowered around them, for me it was a sudden immersion. I got Facebook, Twitter and Gmail accounts at the same time that I got an iPhone 4. I would check my phone; five minutes later I would check my phone again. I was addicted and it started to affect my relationships with friends and family
One night, without a word, I abandoned my iPhone and bought a Nokia 3310 and became the talk of the town. Soon I became aware that not only had I stolen secret time back from the hurried days, but somehow a secret space as well. I could stretch out, free to think again, to be wholly creative and to learn meaningfully.
But, wherever I went I got bloody lost. Wandering blindly around London, only to miss appointments, became a frequent pastime (消遣). What did we do before Google Maps? I was useless. The change was worth it, though. I’ll sound like an overstatement but I think it changed my life. My choices are broader and healthier because I’m not being screamed at all day.
I bought a new Samsung phone last week. I had been scared of the rate of progress, crying: “Stop the train! Stop the madness.” But I want to be part of building the future, and to do that, you’ve got to swim in contemporary waters. Rejecting the modern world doesn’t help anyone. It slows you down and I need to be efficient. Time will tell whether I’ve mastered the wisdom to reject constantly checking my phone.
1. What can be learned about the author when she lived in the Welsh countryside?| A．She read a lot of T. S. Eliot. | B．She had no friends to talk with. |
| C．She had no access to the Internet. | D．She was afraid of the digital world. |
| A．She thought she needed a spare phone. | B．She found her iPhone stopped working. |
| C．She wanted to attract people’s attention. | D．She hoped to break her smartphone addiction. |
| A．She led a simple and healthy life. | B．She found her life was in a mess. |
| C．She spent more time with her friends. | D．She became an example for other people. |
| A．To seek wisdom. | B．To stop her madness. |
| C．To keep pace with the times. | D．To get back to the real world. |
2 . Family vlogging — the frequent recording and uploading of personal videos of the family, usually on video sharing website — has become big business nowadays, especially among parents of young children. The more viewers such videos can get, the more money the family can make. At first thought, it does seem like an easy way to make money. However, are we doing right by putting their lives up for public attention?
For one thing, as the children grow up, they increasingly become aware that what they do needs to be admirable enough for the public to enjoy — Being young children, they also would want to do whatever it takes to please others. They then feel the pressure to be perfect, and as that is something not always possible, they become anxious and stressed. Comments from viewers and the expectations of sponsors (赞助者) can also affect the parents’ reactions towards their children.
Another problem is the lack of privacy in the children’s lives. As the children reach adolescence, there is a greaser need for personal space. At 12 or 13, very few children would appreciate being filmed while eating or having a conversation with their friends. Teenhood is a time of significant change in an individual, both physically and emotionally, and is a time when parents need to protect their children and guide them, instead of exposing them to the eyes of the public.
Family vlogging can be irresistible, given how it allows parents to bring greater fun to their family lives. There is also the easy money and the fame to look forward to. Indeed, all would probably go well, but only as long as parents keep in mind that, if not managed well, making their children live their lives in the unforgiving eyes of the public could prove to be a big mistake.
1. How does vlogging about children’s lives influence the family?| A．Children will get used to public attention. |
| B．Children may suffer from too much pressure. |
| C．Parents may show no concern for their children. |
| D．Parents become addicted to exposing their children to the public. |
| A．By providing examples | B．By listing numbers |
| C．By making comparisons | D．By analyzing causes |
| A．To introduce a new big business |
| B．To show how vlogging influence people’s lives. |
| C．To persuade parents to watch out for comments from viewers. |
| D．To convince parents of the danger of vlogging about children’s lives. |
| A．negative | B．positive | C．neutral | D．uninterested |
3 . Wikipedia (维基百科) started in 2001 and has quickly gone from having just a few pages to having millions of pages with all kinds of information. It is even an ad-free website as it receives money from donations (捐赠).
Wikipedia is one of the most useful sites for students across the world. But because Wikipedia allows the public to freely edit (编辑) pages, should teachers allow their students to use the site to help them with their studies?
History teacher Luca Signore said, “I think it has good information and it is great for a starting point as you can quickly find information. I use it myself. However, it still gets edited by people who are not experts. You have no way of knowing whether something is completely true for certain.”
Students agree that Wikipedia may be the easiest site to get information from and it is especially helpful in history classes. Junior Alison Snyder believes, “You can use it for general background information, but as much as I’d like to, we shouldn’t be able to cite (引用) Wikipedia.”
Teachers should be able to allow students to use the site on a regular basis as the site is an amazing tool for students to quickly and easily get information for a class. However, it is clear that students shouldn’t be allowed to cite sources as some of the information might be a little bit incorrect.
Junior Maxine Moss agrees. “Yes, students should be able to use it on a regular basis because it is probably the easiest site to find information, but it is hard to tell if certain things are totally true.”
It is agreed that students should be allowed to use the website to get information as pages are, for the most part, fairly correct. However, citing items is a totally different story as the pages used on Wikipedia could have incorrect information and there are so many other sources out there with similar information from experts on certain subject matters.
1. What is good about Wikipedia according to Paragraph 1?| A．it can be freely edited. | B．It was created by teachers. |
| C．It has no advertisements. | D．It provides free information. |
| A．He seldom uses Wikipedia. |
| B．He is against people editing Wikipedia. |
| C．He doesn’t allow his students to use Wikipedia. |
| D．He believes Wikipedia should be used in certain ways. |
| A．Wikipedia is full of little mistakes. |
| B．Wikipedia is more trouble than help. |
| C．Wikipedia is helpful to some degree. |
| D．Wikipedia is not proper for students. |
| A．It is risky. | B．It is boring. |
| C．It is a wise choice. | D．It is OK for beginners. |
4 . Online games are very popular among people. They make a large amount of money and have a large user base, including lots of teenagers. But now, new rules on online games have been introduced, which are aimed at fighting against addiction (成瘾) among underage players.
Adult players need to spend most of their time paying attention to work and family, and cannot play games as often as they want. However, underage players have more spare time, but less responsibility and self-control. Children without a clear purpose in life, where there is less family education and school management, might easily become addicted to all kinds of online games and online novels.
The most direct impact of an addiction to online games among underage players is on their psychological (心理) health. According to psychologists, people seriously addicted to games can become anxious, bad tempered, and avoid responsibility.
However, Chinese parents are more worried that their children will lack interest in studying if they become addicted to online games, as academic success is important for students. Additionally, when their children become addicted to such games, most parents do not know how to deal with the situation.
To carry out the new rules to the best effect, more specific issues need to be solved, such as managing foreign online games, ensuring that facial recognition technologies used by games companies have the wanted effect or making sure online game providers can only offer one-hour services to underage players on Saturdays and Sundays. While there are always loopholes (漏洞) in new rules, authorities should act quickly to close them.
There is no doubt that online games have harmful effects on young people. It is not acceptable for a large number of teenagers or those even younger, to become addicted to these games.
1. What’s the purpose of the new rules on online games?| A．To raise awareness of Internet safety. |
| B．To bring in new computer programs. |
| C．To reduce the grown-up user base. |
| D．To prevent the teenagers’ addiction. |
| A．They can learn more knowledge on the Internet. |
| B．They have more free time and less self-control. |
| C．They have purposes in life but lack higher education. |
| D．They maintain a sense of curiosity about the Internet. |
| A．How to reduce parents’ anxiety about kids’ study. |
| B．How to find loopholes in the popular online games. |
| C．How to control the service time of online game providers. |
| D．How to invent a facial recognition game for young players. |
| A．Confused. | B．Negative. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Uninterested. |
