1 . Screen time includes all those hours you spend in front of your computer at work, and the time you spend playing with your cell phone or watching TV.
It's bad for your health. Being in front of a screen is almost always sedentary (久坐的) behavior, which relates to things like lower fitness levels. Turn this around by choosing something active. You do not have to do exercise at the gym.
It messes up your sleep. When teenagers have more than four hours of screen time per day, and especially when they use their screens before going to bed, they have trouble falling asleep. If you're not sleeping well, it will not only make you feel tired the next day, but it can also affect your performance at work or in school.
It hinders (妨碍) your brain’s performance.
| A．It all adds up. |
| B．Here comes a solution. |
| C．If you should use a screen, try to do just that. |
| D．It’s not good for developing communication skills. |
| E．You can take a walk, or work on a project at home. |
| F．Kids do better in school when they have less screen time. |
| G．So it’s worth the effort to use your screen less and get more rest. |
2 . Social network Facebook has announced that it is pausing work on Instagram Kids, a young people’s version of Instagram, the photo and video-sharing app that Facebook owns. Instagram Kids would have been for 10 to 12-year-olds, who cannot officially use Instagram because it has an age limit of 13.
However, Facebook has recently been criticized for the effect that Instagram can have on teenagers’ mental health, and in particular how girls feel about their bodies.
Facebook has since published its own research which suggests that Instagram more often has a positive effect. However, the criticism has made the company decide that now is a bad time to develop the app for people who are younger than teenagers.
Adam Mosseri, the boss of the Instagram, said that this would give the company time to listen to and work with parents, experts, public officials and politicians and to show that Instagram Kids would take into account concerns around the mental health and wellbeing of its users.
Instagram Kids has not been completely cancelled, but if it is eventually launched in the future, you’ll need a parent or guardian’s permission to sign up. There will be no advertisements and you will only be able to access “age-appropriate” photos and videos.
Mosseri said that he understood people’s worries about the project and that these steps should help the company to get things right. However, several US politicians have called on Instagram not to restart work on the app. “A pause is not enough,” said a statement from four politicians who are keenly opposed to Instagram Kids. “Facebook has completely given up the benefit of the doubt when it comes to protecting young people online and it must completely abandon this project,” the statement said.
1. What has Facebook especially criticized for recently?| A．Leaking teenagers’ privacy. | B．Publishing its own research result. |
| C．Damaging teenagers’ physical health. | D．Affecting girls’ feelings about their bodies. |
| A．The official age limit of 13 | B．Joint efforts of all walks of life. |
| C．Pausing work on Instagram Kids. | D．Concerns about the mental health. |
| A．Parents’ or guardians’ permission to sign up. | B．Facebook’s determination in pausing the app. |
| C．Access to “age-appropriate” photos and videos. | D．Rules to protect online teenagers in the restarted project. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Opposed | C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
3 . I realized this spring that I have spent far too much time on the internet this past year, for obvious reasons, I suspect I'm not alone. And just like magic, Suzanne park's Sunny Song will never Be Famous came across my desk, a story about a 17-year old Korean American influencer who ends up in a digital detox (脱瘾) camp. My first reaction was to shrink (退缩), worried about how much of my social media self I would see in this book, and how much relative cure I would undoubtedly require as a result. But Sunny Song is such an amazing character that I was laughing out loud by page 10.
Sunny was literally born an influencer. Thanks to a video of Sunny dancing as a child, “Goggle Girl” became internet famous. She kept up the character as she grew older, obtaining almost 10,000 subscribers to her You Tube channel alone. But disaster strikes when she forgets to turn off the camera one afternoon during a live stream and a brownie ( a cake ) cooking video turns into an unprepared show with Sunny in underwear. The widely spread “Brownie Gate” will result in Sunny's being kicked out from her L A. private school-unless her parents send her to a digital detox camp, under the principal's request.
The customers in the camp are internet addicts ranging from fantasy sports and gaming players to mean girl internet celebrities. Sunny is forced to spend a month in the cornfields of Iowa on this historic family farm among these celebrities with no digital devices whatsoever, except the burner phone she brought secretly in because she's in the running for an influencer competition, and she actually has a shot!
Sunny Song Will never Be Famous was a total joy to read. I appreciate that Park does not approach social media as the enemy in this book, and for that reason I can enthusiastically recommend it to any young folks who are particularly skillful at web. Sunny reminds readers of the power of internet fare, and the consequences if that power isn't used widely.
1. How did the author feel when first seeing the book?| A．Amazed | B．Excited | C．Confident | D．Concerned. |
| A．To promote her popular videos, | B．To experience a life as a celebrity, |
| C．To avoid being removed from her school. | D．To acquire more knowledge about social media. |
| A．People there are physically abused | B．Life there is cut off from the outside. |
| C．It holds many competitions monthly | D．It is specially designed for internet celebrities. |
| A．To review a book. | B．To introduce a great camp, |
| C．To record an unforgettable experience | D．To stress the advantage of social medin. |
4 . Ashlee Thomas' struggles are just one example of Instagram's potential"toxic"effect on teen girls,as highlighted in he congressional(国会的) testimony(证词)of Frances Haugen on Friday.
"I believe Facebook's products harm children,encourage division and weaken our democracy, said Haugen, a 37-year-old former Facebook product manager who worked on civic integrity issues at the company.
Facebook's own internal research,cited by Haugen,showed"13.5%of teen girls on Instagram Instagram is owned by Facebook) say the platform makes thoughts of 'Suicide and Self Injury worse"and 17% say the platform makes" Eating Issues"such as anorexia(厌食症)worse.
Its research also claimed Facebook's platforms"make body image issues worse for l in 3 teen girls."
"The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their profits before people,"Haugen said during her opening remarks."Congressional action is needed. They wont solve this crisis without your help."
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the platform he built to defend the company against Haugen's allegations(指控),saying in a 1,300-word statement that the tech giant's research on its impact on children was being misrepresented.
"We care deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health,"Zuckerberg wrote.
He added, "Many of the claims don't make any sense.If we wanted to ignore research, why would we create an industry-leading research program to understand these important issues in the first place?"
In a statement, Facebook doubted the interpretation(解释) of the research and insisted th percentages are much lower.The company has also said it welcomes regulation.
Still, those familiar with the workings of the tech world say it will take much more to save teens.
"Their business model's putting kids into these kinds of loops of engagement,"said Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology."And that's what I’m really worried about...that there isn't some quick fix to this thing.It’s the intrinsic((固有的)nature of the product."
1. What issue does this article mainly talk about?| A．Facebook's development problems. |
| B．Children's poor eating habits. |
| C．Facebook's possible harm on its users. |
| D．Instagram's business model. |
| A．poisonous | B．Immediate |
| C．beneficial | D．dramatic |
| A．Whether there is a Facebook internal research. |
| B．Whether the result of the internal research is true. |
| C．Whether Facebook accepts regulation. |
| D．Whether Facebook cares about its users. |
A． |
B． |
C． |
D． |
5 . The American Academy of Pediatrics has warned about the potential negative effects of social media on young kids and teens. But the same risks may be true for adults. A review study suggests addiction symptoms (症状), such as failure to pay attention to personal life and escapism, appear to be present in some people who use Facebook excessively (过度).
A study also shows when people stop using the Internet, they also go through small but measurable physical effects. Rather than improving health, as frequent interactions (互动) with offline social networks do, the findings show that interacting with Facebook may predict the opposite result for young adults—it may undermine it.
In fact, another study found that social media use is linked to greater feelings of social isolation (隔离), mentally and physically. We fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others as we check our Facebook pages. The study looked at how we make comparisons with others’ posts, in “upward” or “downward” directions—that is, feeling that we are either worse or better off than our friends. It turned out that both types of comparisons made people feel worse, which is surprising, since in real life, only upward comparisons make people feel bad. But in the social network world, it seems that any kind of comparison is linked to depressive symptoms.
All of this is not to say that there is no benefit of social media—obviously it keeps us connected across great distances, and helps us find people we had lost touch with years ago. But visiting social networks when you have some time to kill is very likely a bad idea. If you are feeling brave, try taking a little break, and see how it goes. And if you are going to keep “using” it, then at least try to use it reasonably.
1. What might researchers think about “using Facebook excessively”?| A．It’s problem behavior. |
| B．It’s costly and time-consuming. |
| C．It’s sometimes a solution to social isolation. |
| D．It’s leading people to become imaginative. |
| A．Present. | B．Destroy. |
| C．Check. | D．Ensure. |
| A．Social media are being given too much importance. |
| B．Young Facebook users feel more isolated than their elders. |
| C．All kinds of comparisons on social media upset people. |
| D．Downward comparisons link closer to depression than upward ones. |
| A．Social media affect people’s mental health. |
| B．Comparing ourselves with others may lead to depression. |
| C．Social networks have more advantages than disadvantages. |
| D．Nowadays people tend to turn to the Internet for satisfaction. |
6 . Last month, I began my own two-week-long digital detox. I got the inspiration from the tech writer Paul Miller, who got away from the Internet for a whole year. It was not worth mentioning as against the time Miller spent offline, but it was the longest I had gone through without almost any Internet in 13 years.
Why did I do it? For a while I felt the urge to try fully disconnecting to free myself from the endless work. I wanted to take a break from it all for a couple of weeks at least to see what would happen. After all, throughout the last decade, I’ve been online 24 – 7, overreacting to my email inbox and social feed (传送) – living in a world where the line between the digital world and the real world gets a bit unclear at times.
I haven’t of course forgotten that I’m CEO of a social media company. My work is built around the premise (前提) that being connected makes our lives richer, more rewarding and more efficient. Still, I’d forgotten one key lesson along the way: moderation. As more and more of my life was spent scanning social feed and checking out my inbox, I realized that I needed to step back and get a whole new perspective.
So on my winter vacation to Mexico, I took a break from being active on the Internet for the entire trip. For the whole 14 days, I ate a lot of delicious fish tacos, surfed and fixed up my cottage on the beach. I didn’t write or send any emails. I didn’t scan any Top 10 lists of feed. The one I did give myself was checking my email inbox occasionally—just to make sure an emergency wasn’t unfolding while I was away.
What I learned from my short experiment was actually not too unlike what Miller learned. I didn’t end up discovering that technology is evil. In fact, I found myself reflecting on how technology over the last few years had let me experience some of the most rewarding and eventful moments of my life.
1. Why did the author begin digital detox for two weeks?| A．Because Miller recommended him to do so. |
| B．Because he was tired of his empty life. |
| C．Because he wanted to live a digital life. |
| D．Because he intended to experience an Internet-free life. |
| A．to a large degree | B．in an honest way |
| C．in an appropriate way | D．to a very small degree |
| A．To deal with emergencies. | B．For the sake of his health. |
| C．To find some delicious food to eat. | D．To watch Top 10 lists closely. |
| A．The author holds an objective attitude towards technology. |
| B．The author finds technology is harmful. |
| C．The author will advise digital detox completely. |
| D．The author will no longer use the Internet. |
7 . A couple of years ago Brian Arthur, an academic of the Palo Alto Research Centre, made a surprising prediction. In the next two to three decades, Western digital networks would end up performing functions equal to the size of the “real” US economy. Or, to put it another way, if you looked at all the work being done by electronic supply chains, robots, communications systems—and the bar code—then the digital economy would “exceed the physical economy in size”, Arthur wrote, on the basis of productivity and output calculations.
It sounds impressive. But it also raises a crucial question: as those digital networks increase in size, what are flesh-and-blood workers going to do in this future world? Simon Head, an academic who teaches at the University of Oxford and New York University, joined in this debate with a book entitled Mindless: Why Smarter Machines Are Making Dumber Humans.
As the subtitle suggests, Head is extremely pessimistic. He thinks the digital networks keep replacing jobs that used to be performed by the middle classes, throwing them out of work or into thankless, dull ones, as a few groups of skilled managers (or business owners) get wealthier. As a result, income inequality keeps growing and digital systems increasingly influence what we all do, overriding human common sense. This can be seen in the financial sector, Head argues, pointing out that digitization has overtaken many manufacturing companies.
But the real foretaste of the future—and digital hell—is with companies such as Walmart and Amazon, he claims. While the word “Amazon” tends to bring delight to consumers, given its wonderfully efficient shopping experience, people working inside the company’s warehouses live in a world of electronic observation, low wages and physically demanding work. And, of course, the rise of Amazon has also been deeply painful for many independent retailers, suppliers and writers.
On one level, Head’s anger is nothing new. Academics have been writing about the digitization revolution for some time. But what is perhaps most interesting of all about Head’s view is that while he writes from an annoyed viewpoint, even he cannot find any answers.
Unlike those early Luddites who simply destroyed 19th-century weaving machines, Head does not want to ban bar codes. Instead, he wants “higher-paying, higher-skilled jobs, with the digital networks used to supplement (增补) rather than replace employees’ expert knowledge or skill” in a new corporate culture where workers are treated with respect (or at least more attention than those robots). But while he mentions a few “case histories where alternative, employee-friendly cultures have taken root”, he also admits “these are not easily copied elsewhere”.
Thus, he admires “Germany’s culture of codetermination and labour-management partnership”, for example, or “the John Lewis Partnership in the United Kingdom, the employee-owned and the best high-quality retail chain in the country” or “exceptional US companies like Lincoln Electric”. But he also warns that “it would be delusional (妄想的) to think that, in the United States, the area of these alternative work cultures will expand naturally”. The Amazon example is just too strong.
The real problem of invisible digitization is exactly that: the revolution is unseen. Thus, while “the progressive response to the cruelty of 19th-century capitalism was fueled by a growing awareness of what was going on behind factory walls, digital networks are invisible”.
If you want to be cheerful, it is possible to hope that this howl of anger is simply a passing phrase. When millions of people lost their agricultural jobs in earlier centuries, nobody foresaw these labourers would find factory work. But it is also possible to imagine a darker future: as the French economist Thomas Piketty writes in another thought-provoking book, Capital in the Twenty-first Century, it is not clear what could stop this digitization trend—and the growing inequality it causes.
Either way, the key point is this: we have barely begun to understand the full implications of this second, digitized economy. That is a point we all need to consider more deeply. Start, perhaps, on the next occasion when you scan a bar code or place an order on Amazon with ease.
1. Amazon is mentioned to indicate that digital networks __________.| A．make the middle-class workers worse off |
| B．improve the efficiency of physical workers |
| C．exercise little influence on traditional retailing |
| D．bring customers excellent shopping experiences |
| A．free people from physical work | B．create an employee-friendly culture |
| C．assist workers with real skills | D．improve employers’ income and skills |
| A．By making a comparison. | B．By giving an example. |
| C．By confirming a prediction. | D．By challenging an assumption. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Favourable. |
| C．Negative. | D．Cautious. |
8 . 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 |
9 . 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”? |
10 . A new study has found that more than 30 percent of babies as young as 6 months old are using smartphones. The survey asked parents twenty questions about when their children were first exposed to mobile media devices. What makes everyone so alarmed is that the study has found that children are being exposed to mobile devices earlier than ever before.
But before we all jump on the judgment train, let’s stop and think about how much more ubiquitous smartphones are now than they were even five years ago. It’s not that parents have gotten lazier, which some reporters have suggested. It’s that more parents have access to smartphones that they can use to show family pictures to entertain a baby or play music that a toddler can dance with.
What the study didn’t address was how much time these babies are spending looking at smartphones. Nor did it assess what these babies are looking at. Is it 5 minutes of music in the grocery store while Mom or Dad gets the food into the cart? Or is it 30 minutes of watching videos while a parent sacks out on the couch? There is a big difference between the two scenarios (场景).
By the numbers, the study found that among babies younger than 1 year old, 52 percent had watched television on mobile devices, 36 percent had been allowed to scroll the screen, 15 percent had used apps and 12 percent had played video games. Around 25 percent of kids had already called someone at this age.
The American Academy of Pediatrics frowns upon any screen time for children under the age of two. But I don’t think we need to necessarily panic. I did not have a smartphone when my girls were this age but I can tell you right now that if I had owned one, there would have been many occasions when I would have gladly handed over my phone to play music or a video or even a video game if it would have calmed a screaming baby. They would have turned out just fine.
1. What would be the answer to one of the questions according to the study?| A．Some babies use smartphones very early. |
| B．Smartphones bring children convenience. |
| C．Children are clever enough to use electronic devices. |
| D．Science and technology are developing rapidly. |
| A．Unique. | B．Uncommon. | C．Non-existent. | D．Universal. |
| A．babies can use smartphones as they like |
| B．watching videos is interesting for babies |
| C．it doesn’t matter what babies are looking at |
| D．using smartphones too long is improper for babies |
| A．Nearly half of them had used apps on smartphones. |
| B．Half of them had watched television on smartphones. |
| C．About a quarter of them had made a telephone call to others. |
| D．None of them had been allowed to use smartphones. |
