1 . Nowadays, people are increasingly interacting with others in social media environments where algorithms control the flow of social information they see. People’s interactions with online algorithms may affect how they learn from others, with negative consequences including social misperceptions, conflict and the spread of misinformation.
On social media platforms, algorithms are mainly designed to amplify (放大) information that sustains engagement, meaning they keep people clicking on content and coming back to the platforms. There is evidence suggesting that a side effect of this design is that algorithms amplify information people are strongly biased (偏向的) to learn from. We call this information “PRIME”, for prestigious, in-group, moral and emotional information.
In our evolutionary past, biases to learn from PRIME information were very advantageous: Learning from prestigious individuals is efficient because these people are successful and their behavior can be copied. Paying attention to people who violate moral norms is important because punishing them helps the community maintain cooperation. But what happens when PRIME information becomes amplified by algorithms and some people exploit (利用) algorithm amplification to promote themselves? Prestige becomes a poor signal of success because people can fake prestige on social media. News become filled with negative and moral information so that there is conflict rather than cooperation.
The interaction of human psychology and algorithm amplification leads to disfunction because social learning supports cooperation and problem-solving, but social media algorithms are designed to increase engagement. We call it functional mismatch. One of the key outcomes of functional mismatch is that people start to form incorrect perceptions of their social world, which often occurs in the field of politics. Recent research suggests that when algorithms selectively amplify more extreme political views, people begin to think that their political in-group and out-group are more sharply divided than they really are. Such “false polarization” might be an important source of greater political conflict.
So what’s next? A key question is what can be done to make algorithms facilitate accurate human social learning rather than exploit social learning biases. Some research team is working on new algorithm designs that increase engagement while also punishing PRIME information. This may maintain user activity that social media platforms seek, but also make people’s social perceptions more accurate.
1. What are social media algorithms targeted at?| A．Improving social environment. | B．Generating PRIME information. |
| C．Avoiding side effects of social media. | D．Raising the media platform click rate. |
| A．To make an assumption. | B．To illustrate a conclusion. |
| C．To explain a political issue. | D．To present an extreme case. |
| A．boost engagement and regulate amplification |
| B．strengthen social learning and delete biases |
| C．identify biases and punish PRIME information |
| D．monitor media platforms and guarantee users’ privacy |
| A．PRIME information meets with misperceptions |
| B．Algorithms control the flow of social information |
| C．Social media algorithms twist human social learning |
| D．Online algorithm designs face unexpected challenges |
Recent research suggests that if an argument gets resolved，the emotional response tied to it is significantly reduced or almost completely erased．Thus，it may be worth bringing up issues with your friends， family members，or classmates rather than holding them back．
There is a difference between arguing and fighting．Arguing is that you and your opponent present your concerns and discuss the feelings and issues related to those concerns．You can engage in an argument respectfully without stirring up（激起） anger．Fighting，however，usually involves personal attacks，raising of voices， and storming out．Discussing your issues and resolving them instead of stuffing them down can improve your emotional health．In a study，2.000 people were asked to record their feelings and experiences for eight days in a row．When people had an argument that they considered resolved， they had half the reactivity （情绪反应） of those who avoided an argument．Reactivity is an increase in negative emotions or a decrease in positive emotions．In other words，resolving an argument cuts your negative feelings by half．One day later， people who had a resolved argument reported no increase of negative emotions compared with those who avoided an argument． This means that resolving an argument can feel like you have reached a state of resolution——and you are less likely to be annoyed．
Moreover，the older you are，the more likely you will come to a resolution after an argument．This may be because more life experience usually leads to more defined priorities．You are more likely to distinguish between what matters and what does not．
It is easier to avoid a discussion，but risking talking about it may eventually lead to a better outcome．
1. According to this passage，what is arguing？2. Why is it that“the older you are， the more likely you will come to a resolution after an argument”？
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement，then underline it and explain why．
Resolving arguments can improve your emotional health，because it increases your reactivity and reduces the chance of you getting angry．
4. In addition to improving emotional health，what do you think are some other benefits of resolving an argument？ （In about 40 words）
3 . A young man was about to go to the office when he received a phone call from a nurse who told him his father was injured and in hospital. So he
The nurse
Throughout the night the young man
Sunrise
| A．jogged | B．rushed | C．jumped | D．slid |
| A．left | B．forgot | C．remained | D．removed |
| A．more | B．better | C．worse | D．finer |
| A．in favor of | B．in search of | C．in fear of | D．in memory of |
| A．despair | B．joy | C．relief | D．anxiety |
| A．called in | B．turned in | C．took in | D．broke in |
| A．directed | B．connected | C．appointed | D．joined |
| A．roared | B．shouted | C．whispered | D．whistled |
| A．faintly | B．positively | C．passively | D．generously |
| A．turned | B．tended | C．led | D．adapted |
| A．confirmed | B．announced | C．recommended | D．ensured |
| A．received | B．reserved | C．revised | D．rejected |
| A．advancing | B．approaching | C．amounting | D．assuming |
| A．obvious | B．impressive | C．impossible | D．necessary |
| A．reading | B．writing | C．drawing | D．demanding |
Crying is a natural response to emotions. Regardless of
5 . You look up at the sky on a clear and dark night, you’ll see more stars than your eyes can count. Most of these stars have planets, similar to our own, orbiting them. With so many celestial bodies floating out in space, you can’t help but question whether other forms of life exist in the universe. And if that’s the case, is it possible to contact them?
Science is still somewhat divided on this issue. Currently, no evidence exists to suggest that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. Yet with an estimated one trillion planets in our galaxy alone, it seems highly likely that Earthlings aren’t the only intelligent creatures out there. Some claim that life can only develop under perfect circumstances, and Earth is perhaps the only example of this. Other scientists object to this claim, and point out that even on Earth, life can find a way under the most extreme circumstances.
Some people believe that aliens have already visited our planet, but this information is being kept secret by governments. The most famous incident of this kind occurred in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. On that date, many residents reported seeing an unusual flying disc streak through the sky, before it crashed in a field. When the military heard about the crash, they quickly sealed off the area. A few hours later, the army base announced that it had recovered a flying disk. Shortly after, this statement was retracted and it was said that it was a weather balloon that crashed. However, years later one local mortician even claimed that the military had him secretly perform an autopsy on a dead alien body.
Others believe that there certainly are other life forms out there, but the distance between us is too great. Even if we could somehow create a spaceship that travels at the speed of light, it would still probably take several lifetimes to reach them. Then again, we might never have to do this if aliens reach us first.
1. Why do some scientists think there is life on other planets?| A．Because an unusual flying disc was ever witnessed. |
| B．Because life exists despite extreme conditions as those on the Earth do. |
| C．Because the government’s statement seemed suspicious. |
| D．Because there are a great number of planets in the universe. |
| A．Examined again to guarantee the correctness. | B．Emphasized again to persuade people. |
| C．Formally taken back what has been said. | D．Seriously criticized due to poor evidence |
| A．Are we alone in the universe? | B．Is it possible to contact aliens? |
| C．Intelligent life in the universe. | D．Planets floating out in space. |
| A．Objective. | B．Humorous. | C．Cautious. | D．Anxious. |
6 . “Find your passion!” When discussing future career options or selecting a major in college, your parents often say this. The very expression is meant to inspire. But is it good advice?
“Finding” a passion implies that it already exists and is simply waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately, this idea is not what science tells us.
To study this, researchers use a framework of “fixed” and “growth” mindsets.They argue that encouraging people to “find” their passion may cause them to eventually believe that interests and passions are inborn and relatively unchangeable.
Researchers have revealed that a fixed mindset of interest can decrease creativity. If people believe they are limited to only a few inborn interests and, in consequence, do not explore other areas, they may miss seeing important connections across domains.
Evidently, people can do a lot to embrace a growth mindset of interest. First, realize that your interests and passions aren’t pre-existing. Take an active role in developing your passions. Second, practise positive self-talk. When you lack interest in a new task, pay attention to your inner dialogue.
| A．So can a growth mindset of interest be taught? |
| B．Instead passions, like interests, are developed. |
| C．People who think this have a fixed mindset of interest. |
| D．Of course, not every activity will become a burning passion. |
| E．As such,seeing interests as fixed limits their creative potential. |
| F．Don’t expect that pursuing new interests will always be easy or exciting. |
| G．Replace self-critical thoughts with positive ones that encourage growth and learning. |
7 . Researchers have long known that the brain links kinds of new facts, related or not, when they are learned about the same time. For the first time, scientists have recorded routes in the brain of that kind of contextual memory, the frequent change of thoughts and emotions that surrounds every piece of newly learned information.
The recordings, taken from the brains of people awaiting surgery for epilepsy (癫痫), suggest that new memories of even abstract facts are encoded (编码) in a brain-cell order that also contains information about what else was happening during and just before the memory was formed.
In the new study, doctors from the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University took recordings from a small piece of metal implanted in the brains of 69 people with severe epilepsy. The implants allow doctors to pinpoint the location of the flash floods of brain activity that cause epileptic happening. The patients performed a simple memory task. They watched a series of nouns appear on a computer screen, and after a brief disturbance recalled as many of the words as they could, in any order. Repeated trials, with different lists of words, showed a predictable effect: The participants tended to remember the words in groups, beginning with one and recalling those that were just before or after.
This pattern, which scientists call the contiguity effect, is similar to what often happens in the card game concentration, in which players try to identify pairs in a row of cards lying face-down. Pairs overturned close are often remembered together. The way the process works, the researchers say, is something like reconstructing a night’s activities after a hangover: remembering a fact (a broken table) recalls a scene (dancing), which in turn brings to mind more facts, like the other people who were there.
Sure enough, the people in the study whose neural (神经) updating signals were strongest showed the most striking pattern of remembering words in groups. “When you activate one memory, you are reactivating a little bit of what was happening around the time the memory was formed, and this process is what gives you that feeling of time travel,” said Dr Michael J. Kahana.
1. What does “contextual memory” refer to according to the text?| A．Memories about the past facts. |
| B．Unrelated facts linked together. |
| C．Ideas and feelings around new facts. |
| D．New facts encoded into brain alone. |
| A．To track the brain activity of contextual memory. |
| B．To find the brain activity causing epilepsy. |
| C．To show the formation of memory. |
| D．To test the new cure for epilepsy. |
| A．Implication. | B．Similarity. | C．Contrast. | D．Neighborhood. |
| A．The feature of the research method. | B．The category of the research subjects. |
| C．A brief summary of the research process. | D．A further explanation of the research results. |
8 . Hem an Bekele is not your typical high school student．Rather than spending his free time playing video games or staring at his phone, this 14 year-old from Fairfax, Virginia was calling professors and conducting experiments, all to create a soap that could treat skin cancer, and to make it affordable for everyone who needs it．His work won him the grand prize in this year’s 3M Young Scientist’s Challenge, a competition that encourages kids to think of unique ways to solve everyday problems.
Growing up in Ethiopia, Bekele found in pity that people working outside were likely to end up getting skin cancer．Skin cancer did have cures and was treatable in most cases．However, the average price of skin cancer treatment globally was almost $40,000．Those shocking statistics really inspired him to create a more accessible solution．He started doing experiments and working on different things, and that turned into his bar of soap as a project.
A lot of his research and development started in his family’s kitchen and in his basement．But as he reached the final of the competition, he realized that he did need to do a little bit more outside of just his house．So he reached out to people at University of Virginia and people at Georgetown, and he got a lot of assistance．The number one person would be Deborah Isabelle, who helped him organize and structure his ideas during the finalist competition．Bekele said that he definitely couldn’t have done that all by himself.
Bekele’s award-winning soap is a compound based bar of soap and it’s charged with different cancer fighting chemicals．The color of the soap is a bit of a dark type of white and it has a rough surface, which could be a good exfoliant（去角质剂）．It does have a strong medicine smell and feel a bit stickier．The whole point of it is that even once you wash off the soaps, the medicinal parts will stay on your skin．It can activate the body’s immune cells to defend cancer.
Bekele won 25,000 prize money and he was going to use it to continue research．He said, “I still need a lot of resources to be able to conduct this research, so this money will definitely help me achieve it.”
1. Why did Heman Bekele start working on creating the soap?| A．Because he thought it was a fun project. |
| B．Because he wanted to win a science competition. |
| C．Because he found skin cancer treatment unaffordable. |
| D．Because he wanted to create a unique soap for everyone. |
| A．Well begun is half done. | B．Learn humbly, ask willingly. |
| C．Actions speak louder than words. | D．Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. |
| A．What features the soap has. | B．How the soap is used. |
| C．What chemicals the soap contains. | D．How the soap is produced. |
| A．Patient and talented. | B．Friendly and ambitious. |
| C．Cautious and generous. | D．Caring and devoted. |
9 . It was a week after my mom had passed away and I didn’t know how to go on with life. So when I received an email from a friend about a race benefiting cancer research, I ignored it. It seemed to prick my heart, as cancer was the disease that had taken my mother away from me.
But something about my friend’s words—“I can help organize the whole thing”—stuck with me. I felt obliged（有义务的）to agree. In the weeks to come, I managed to re-enter the world of the living. I checked our team’s website daily, feeling proud each time a donation ticked up our total. I knew my mom would have wanted it that way. She was the type who never got defeated. It was this very spirit that helped me get by.
When the race ended, I noticed the runners all had one thing in common: There were big smiles on their faces. They made it look so rewarding and effortless. I wanted in.
So I enrolled in another race two months later. Considering I could barely run a mile, it was ambitious. But my friend and I made a training plan so I wouldn’t come in last. I followed it religiously and didn’t let anything get in my way.
Running up and down the city’s hills, I was flooded with memories. I had lived there after college and my mother had visited often. I passed Bloomingdale’s, recalling the time she and I had gotten into a screaming argument there.
I was about to beat myself up when I remembered what Mom had said after her diagnosis of cancer. “I don’t want you to feel guilty about anything.” Her paper-thin hands had held me tightly. A weight lifted from my shoulders.
When the race day arrived, I gave it my all for my mom and for all she had taught me and continued to teach me. As I ran, whenever I felt like slowing down, I pictured her cheering me on.
Crossing the finish line, I was filled with her love and a sense of peace.1. Why did the author ignore the email in the beginning?
| A．She felt it hard to finish the race. |
| B．She had no time to join in the event. |
| C．She thought the research meaningless. |
| D．She was reminded of her mother’s death. |
| A．The company of her friends. | B．The inspiration from her mom. |
| C．The pleasure in going for a run. | D．The success in organizing an event. |
| A．Considerate and polite. | B．Brave and humorous. |
| C．Strong-willed and caring. | D．Outgoing and patient. |
| A．How I Got Healed in Running | B．The Loss of Sweet Memories |
| C．What Matters Most in Running | D．The Rewards of Great Friendship |
| A．crisis | B．convention | C．stereotypes | D．substances |
