1 . When you get in a car, you expect it will have functioning brakes. When you pick up medicine at the drugstore, you expect it won’t be polluted. But it wasn’t always like this. The safety of these products was terrible when they first came to market. It took much research and regulation to figure out how users can enjoy the benefits of these products without getting harmed.     1    

Social media risks are everywhere. The dangers that algorithms designed to maximize attention represent to teens have become impossible to ignore. Other product design elements, often called “dark patterns,” designed to keep people using for longer, also appear to tip young users into social media overuse.     2     They say it’s their users’ fault for engaging with harmful content in the first place, even if those users are children or the content is financial trickery. They also claim to be defending free speech.

    3     Under the Digital Services Act, which came into effect in Europe this year, platforms are required to take action to stop the spread of illegal content and can be fined up to 6 percent of their global incomes if they don’t do so. If this law is enforced, maintaining the safety of their algorithms and networks will be the most financially sound decision for platforms to make.

Despite these efforts, two things are clear. First, online safety problems are leading to real, offline suffering. Second, social media companies can’t, or won’t, solve these safety problems on their own.     4       Even safety issues like cyberbullying that we thought were solved can pop right back up. As our society moves online to an ever-greater degree, the idea that anyone, even teens, can just “stay off social media” becomes less and less realistic.     5    

A．And those problems aren’t going away.

B．The current issues aren’t really about offline suffering.

C．Platforms already have systems to remove violent or harmful content.

D．Similarly, social media needs product safety standards to keep users safe.

E．It’s time we should require social media to take safety seriously, for everyone’s sake.

F．Internet platforms, however, have shifted blame on the consumers whenever criticized.

G．Some authorities are taking steps to hold social media platforms accountable for the content.

2 . 阅读下面短文,在空白处填人1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

The Internet is one of the     1     (great) creations and provides people with instant access     2     an endless supply of knowledge and entertainment. Using a search engine, you can ask almost any question     3     may confuse you, and find a web page with information about that question. There are also millions of videos on websites or social media,     4     (explain) various topics.

In the past, it would take days and sometimes even months     5     (receive) a letter from someone else. Today, with the Internet, you can send an e-mail to anyone in the world and often have it     6     (deliver) in less than a minute.

However, the Internet is not without its     7     (disadvantage). Playing games on the Internet can become very addictive, which leads to much time being wasted. And constant connectivity means some people     8       (expect) to be available to work at any time of the day, even if they previously refused to.

Despite the drawbacks, the Internet has     9     (undoubted) changed the way we live, work and communicate, and it’s here to stay. It’s up to us to use it wisely and make     10    most of its benefits while minimizing its negative effects.

3 . How to Protect Against Undue Influence Online

The potential for undue influence has become increasingly significant in this era of digital interconnectivity. Undue influence can affect our perceptions and influence our decisions. It may even end anger our autonomy (自主) and mental health.     1    

Understand what undue influence is

The first step to protecting yourself is understanding what undue influence is. Undue influence refers to a situation in which an individual or group employs unreasonable control over another person’s behavior information, thoughts, and emotions.     2     Disinformation campaigns, persuasive advertising, and even content designed to cause fear, uncertainty, or dependency may often appear online.

Develop media literacy skills

In an age of fake news, it is crucial to develop media literacy skills.     3     Become a consumer who can tell the quality of information, identify the source, check for credibility, and look for your unconscious assumptions and preferences.

    4    

Delete as much data as you can about yourself. Be mindful of what information you share online, and always ensure that your online activities are secured through reliable sources. Review all policies on platforms, especially “free” ones. If you aren’t paying, then you are the product, as in many cases, they are selling your data.

By including these steps into your digital life, you can protect yourself from undue influence in the online world, ensuring that you can think and act independently, free from ill control.

    5     It is your mind. Only you should control it!

A．Prioritize privacy

B．Be mindful of free ones

C．It’s vital to have a health y Internet and real-life balance.

D．In the digital world, undue influence can take many forms.

E．Everyone deserves the right to live free from undue influence.

F．They involve analyzing, evaluating, and creating media in various forms.

G．Here are some essential strategies for you to protect yourself online from undue influence.

4 . Users should reduce their screen time

According to the researchers from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), long and consistent use of social media can lead to depression, stress, and anxiety among users of all ages.     1     This effect is driven by a constant urge to check and interact with the content on these platforms.

However, if you reduce the time you spend on your phone every day, you can spare a few more hours for outdoor activity.     2     Reducing your screen time also allows you to develop better in-person relationships. Positive social interactions release mood-boosting neurochemicals that promote overall happiness.

Here are a few tips to reduce your screen time:

Set limits. Many mobile devices and apps can record the amount of time you spend on your device. You might decide you only want to spend three hours online each day. From there, you can track your time to ensure you don’t go beyond the limit.

Remove distractions (使人分心的事物). Whenever you’re working on something else, try placing your phone in another room or closing your laptop.     3     You might also be less likely to conduct an Internet search that turns into an extended browsing (浏览) session.

    4     Accessing the Internet takes seconds, which can easily become a convenient habit. However, making specific plans to see friends or go outside can help you deliberately break away from the screen.

Create a habit.     5     For example, instead of grabbing your phone first thing in the morning, leave a pen and paper beside your bed and spend a few minutes journaling when you wake up. This way, you can train your brain to enjoy alternative forms of happiness and lessen the urge to log on to social media immediately.

A．Plan activities.

B．Develop friendships.

C．The process takes continuous effort.

D．Many users even experience social media addiction.

E．It means reminding yourself of other sources of entertainment.

F．Research shows many positive effects, such as lower blood pressure and stress.

G．This way, you will have less desire to pick up your phone each time the screen lights up.

5 . Digital technologies are taking up too much of our time and attention. Many of us will spend a significant part of our lives staring at screens, missing out on satisfying relationships and feeling more emotional pain. For many years, we’ve been taught that the solution to this potential harm is some form of digital detox (脱瘾), which mainly shows us what not to do after our digital addiction.     1     Try the following three steps to achieve balance in your and your family’s digital life:

Determine your problem times

Identify the times and situations when being on screens is making your life worse. It could be when you are streaming a TV series right before bed, feeling depressed afterward and losing hours of sleep. Or you could be getting stuck on your device at the dinner table and end up getting distracted.     2     Identify your top two or three problem situations.

    3    

Once you identify the pain points, for example, scrolling (滚动浏览) on TikTok for hours keeps you from sleeping and makes you feel depressed afterward), ask yourself: What is screen time replacing and what goals is it serving? In other words, what are you actually hungry for? You might be endlessly scrolling because you want to feel uplifted at the end of the day. Write down the things you really want.

Try a substitute

    4     It’s crucial to pick something that consistently makes you feel good. For example, if your goal is social connection, make plans for a nice meal with a friend or take that weekly meeting in person rather than via Zoom. If your goal is inspiration, schedule time for oil painting, reading historical fiction or whatever it is that uplifts you.     5     And at last, you will become empowered, healthy and wise digital citizens.

A．Identify your true desire.

B．Determine your pain points.

C．Pretty soon, these replacements will make you feel more satisfied.

D．But the only way to truly gain control is to take positive steps in advance.

E．Or maybe you are inefficient at work because you’re doing too much online shopping.

F．Ask yourself how you can meet those needs through something other than screen time.

G．If your digital life is out of balance, reducing time on devices is an important first step.

6 . Social media has completely taken over everyday life, affecting how society runs and changing individuals in ways that even they can feel. While social media can act as a platform for people to express themselves, it can also be overwhelming, especially for high school teens.

To teenager Bryson Lan, deleting social media helped eliminate a significant distraction in his routine and keep up with teachers. “I was scrolling (滚动) through social networking sites so much,” Lan said. “I was also starting to struggle since I entered my high school year. When school started, I was super overwhelmed (不知所措的), and I was just not ready for it.

Most teenagers fear that by eliminating these apps, they will miss out on connections with their peers and feel a significant loss to their social life. However, Lan found he didn’t miss anything during his time without social media.

Another problem with social media is the amount of “junk content” posted. People are regularly posting and updating on social media, and much of the content has no meaning to other viewers and is ultimately a time suck.

However, social media isn’t all negative. Social media can be a place to develop passions and boost creativity. For example, Lan found his interest in photography blossom after seeing works from other photographers on social media. “Social media is a good place where you can have a portfolio (作品集) or upload your works,” Lan said. “A lot of people have photography accounts or art accounts. In some ways, I think it actually furthers your hobby.”

The vast audience that social media can reach brings convenience and effectiveness in the spread of art. Although some people might be discouraged by other artists’ impressive works, Lan is inspired to produce better photographs.

“Thanks to this revolutionary development of social media, we can enjoy a world where everyone is closer than before,” Lan said. “But we also need to have the skills to make good use of social media, and that depends on each person’s efforts.”

1. What did getting rid of social media bring Lan?

A．More distractions.	B．Confusion about life.
C．A smaller social circle.	D．More attention on his studies.

2. What does the underlined phrase “a time suck” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．A waste of time.

B．A timetable.

C．A lack of time.

D．A time switch.

3. What’s Lan’s attitude towards social media?

A．Doubtful.

B．Unclear.

C．Objective.

D．Supportive.

4. What’s the main idea of the text?

A．Most teenagers’ opinions on social media.	B．The effects social media has on teenagers.
C．Innovative development of social media.	D．The problems social media brings people.

7 . Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word. For the other blanks, fill in each blank with one proper word. Make sure that your answers are grammatically correct.

OpenAI Announces ChatGPT Successor GPT-4

OpenAI has released GPT-4, the latest version of its hugely popular artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.

The new model can respond to images by providing recipe suggestions from photos of ingredients as well as writing captions and descriptions. It can also process up to 25,000 words, about eight times as many as ChatGPT. Millions of people have used ChatGPT since it     1     (launch) in November 2022. Popular requests for it include writing songs, poems, marketing copy, computer code, and helping with homework,     2     teachers say students shouldn’t use it. ChatGPT answers questions     3     (employ) natural human-like language, and it can also imitate other writing styles such as songwriters and authors, using the Internet as its knowledge database.

There are concerns that it could one day take over many jobs currently     4     (do) by humans. OpenAI said it     5     (spend) six months on safety features for GPT-4, and on human feedback. However, it warned that it     6     still be subject to sharing disinformation.

GPT-4 will initially be available to ChatGPT Plus subscribers,     7     pay $20 per month for easy access to the service. It’s already powering Microsoft’s Bing search engine platform. The tech giant has invested $10b    8     OpenAI.

GPT-4 has “    9     (advanced) reasoning skills” than ChatGPT, OpenAI said. The model can, for example, find available meeting times for three schedules.

OpenAI also announced new partnerships with language learning app Duolingo and Be My Eyes, an application for the visually impaired,     10     (create) AI Chatbots which can assist their users using natural language.

However, like its predecessors (被替代的事物), OpenAI has warned that GPT-4 is still not fully reliable and it may invent facts or make reasoning errors.

8 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. breakthroughs B. core C. driver D. empower E. fully F. increasingly G. mounting H. potential I. promoting J. seeks K. serves

Companies Help Integrate (整合) Digital Real Economies

Chinese platform companies are doubling down on the most advanced digital technologies to seek new drivers in revenue (财政收入) growth, as the country puts greater emphasis on     1     the in-depth integration of the digital and real economies, experts and company executives said.

Despite the depressing global outlook and       2     uncertainties, China’s platform economy is playing a(n)     3     vital role in boosting technological innovation and high-quality development.

During an earnings conference with investors on Thursday, Zhang Yong, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, said that cloud computing is one of the company’s       4     strategies for the future, and Alibaba Cloud is also the foundation through which the company     5     the real economy and drives the integration of the digital and real economies.

Noting that this is a critical period for technological     6     and development in cloud computing and AI, Zhang said he believed in the vast     7     of industrial digitalization and the role of cloud computing as the focus of the digital economy.

Revenue in the cloud business, Alibaba’s main growth     8     besides e-commerce, reached 20.18 billion yuan during the October-December period, an increase of 3% year-on-year, mainly driven by public cloud growth.

The company is making efforts to make use of digital technologies to help small and medium-sized enterprises and speed up industrial transformation (工业转型) in an effort to     9     the real economy.

The tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference in mid-December said that platform companies will be supported to “    10     display their capabilities” in encouraging economic growth, job creation and international competition. The conference also emphasized the need to energetically develop the digital economy.

9 . Imagine having the opportunity to sing together with hundreds of other people while you are at home alone. You can do this in a virtual choir. Virtual choir members record themselves while they perform alone on video. These videos are uploaded onto the Internet, and then they are put together into one video that you can see online—a virtual choir. Anyone can take part in a virtual choir from anywhere—all you need is a video camera and an Internet connection. A virtual choir enables people to add their voices to those of other individuals and become part of the global community. It has proved to be a positive influence on the lives of many people.

The virtual choir was the idea of award-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre. He fell in love with Mozart’s classical music when he sang for the university choir. Moved by this music, he said, “It was like seeing color for the first time.“ Over ten years after his graduation, Whitacre’s original compositions began to become quite popular among choirs and singers. This led to the creation of the virtual choir.

In 2009,Whitacre received a video of a girl who was singing one of his works. Inspired, he asked his fans to make videos, which he then joined together into one performance. His first virtual choir, “Lux Aurumque”, had 198 singers from 12 different countries. It has received millions of views on the Internet. Since then, the virtual choir has become a worldwide phenomenon. Whitacre’s next effort was the virtual Youth Choir for UNICEF, which was first seen on stage on 23 July 2014 in the UK. Altogether, 2,292 young people from 80 countries joined in to sing Whitacre’s song “What If”.

The virtual choir is a wonderful way for people around the world to sing with one voice and thus make the world a better place.

1. Which of the following is a virtual choir?

A．Many members performing on their own.

B．Hundreds of people singing together on a stage.

C．Many people singing online together at the same time.

D．Individual singing videos combined into one on the Internet.

2. What resulted in the appearance of the virtual choir?

A．The popularity of Whitacre’s composition.

B．The encouragement of Whitacre’s professor.

C．Whitacre’s desire of being a famous composer.

D．Whitacre’s love for communication with others.

3. What can we learn about Whitacre’s first virtual choir?

A．He had thousands of his fans make videos.

B．He joined nearly two hundred videos together.

C．He made his first virtual choir on stage in the UK.

D．He asked a girl to sing his work to make it popular.

4. What is the purpose of the last paragraph?

A．To advertise Whitacre’s music composition.

B．To introduce the influence of the virtual choir.

C．To persuade people to join Whitacre’s choir team.

D．To appeal to netizens to compose their own music.

10 . While the benefits of Zoom and other videoconferencing tools made them absolutely essential in the pandemic (疫情), the research suggests that heavy reliance on the technology comes at a cost to creative thinking.

Brucks at Columbia University and her team started their investigation when managers reported having trouble innovating with remote workers. Brucks doubted whether videoconferencing was a factor, suspecting that difficulties coordinating (协调) large, global teams online might be to blame instead.

To find out, the researchers analysed ideas for new products generated by 1,490 engineers for a multinational company. The engineers, who were in Finland, Hungary, India, Israel and Portugal, were randomly paired up and given an hour or so to brainstorm products either in person or over videoconferencing. They then selected their best idea.

Writing in Nature, the researchers report that the engineers produced more ideas, and more innovative ideas, when working face to face. “They are not only generating a larger number of creative ideas, but their best idea is better,” Brucks said. Virtual teams were just as good at selecting the best ideas from a bunch as those that met in person.

“Visual focus is a huge component of cognitive (认知) focus. When you’re focused on the screen and ignoring the rest of the environment, that affects how you approach the task,” said Brucks. “It’s uniquely bad for creativity because it’s inhibiting broader exploration.”

Brucks said the impact on the real world “could be huge”, leading to a division of labour between face-to-face and virtual meetings that could “permanently reshape the office and work schedules”. But she urged businesses to be cautious, because if virtual meetings are cheaper than in-person ones, they may still be more cost-effective.

Asked for tips, Brucks said people could save more creative tasks for in-person meetings, or turn off their camera when coming up with ideas. “I think it unlocks more creative thinking,” she said.

1. Why did Brucks conduct the research?

A．To prove her assumption.

B．To clarify a new concept.

C．To make a comparison.

D．To explain a rule.

2. What is the finding of the research?

A．Face-to-face gatherings promote cross-culture ties.	B．Workers think less creatively in virtual meetings.
C．Individual work generates more innovative ideas.	D．Videoconferencing has an irreplaceable role.

3. What does the underlined word “inhibiting” in paragraph 5 mean?

A．Encouraging.

B．Requiring.

C．Beginning.

D．Preventing.

4. What does Brucks say about virtual meetings?

A．They should be used accordingly.	B．They’ll make office workers divided.
C．They’ll give way to in-person meetings.	D．They help businesses run more efficiently.