Social media is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world today. A study carried out by the PewResearch Center showed that 92% of teenagers go online daily. The wide use of social media has changed nearly all parts of teenagers’ lives.
High school student Elly Cooper from Illinois said social media often reduces face-to-face communication. “It makes in-person relationships harder because people give attention to their phones instead of persons,” Cooper said. Yet, some people believe social media has made it easier to start relationships with anyone from anywhere.
The rise of social media has changed the way teenagers see themselves. The 19-year-old Essena O’Neill announced on the social networking service Instagram that she had stopped using social media. She thought she had gotten lost in appearing perfect online. Negative comments can also do damage to a teenager’s self-esteem (自尊). Teenagers who get negative comments can’t help but feel hurt. In particular, some social media apps such as Yik Yak may provide opportunities for cyber bullying (网络欺凌).
However, Armin Korsos, a student from Illinois, takes advantage of the comments he receives over social media to improve his videos on the social networking site YouTube. “Social media can help people show themselves and their talents to the world in a way that was never possible before,” Korsos said.
But Korsos realizes that social media has become a distraction (让人分心的事). “Social media is not all necessary, though it helps people connect with their friends and know each other well anytime.”
A. Wanting to be “liked”B. Developing good habits
C. Changing relationships
D. Opening new doors
A. We have always looked to “experts” to remember things for us. And even in more informal ways, long-term couples also learn to rely on each other for remembering Information.
B. According to research, the rise of Baidu and other search engines has changed the way our brain store and recall Information.
C. Interestingly, the brain is a malleable (可塑的) organ which changes according to our circumstances, so it is not just Baidu that can really change the way we remember things.
D. We no longer need to store so much Information in our heads. With the touch of a button or the click of a mouse, we will find enough information from the largest libraries and museums in the world at our command.
E. We are more likely to remember something we might not be able to find on the internet, forgetting information we believe we can find online. We are not better at remembering where we can get the information than remembering the information itself.
1. /'reɪʃ(ə)l/
2. /'pəʊətri/
3. /vi:ɪkəl/
4. /'lɪtərətʃə/
5. / 'dʒʌŋgəl/
1. /’brervəri/
2. /’brəʊʃə/
3. /rɪ’fɔ:m/
4. /ɪ’stæblɪʃ/
5. /dɪ’preʃən/
5 . It was a busy morning and I had several things to do before it became too hot to be outside the house. As I was walking by the side of a busy road, I saw an old lady, maybe in her 80s standing dangerously close to the traffic. Although my mind was preoccupied (心事重重的), I thought to myself that I should warn her not to stand so close to the disordered traffic rushing by.
When I reached the place where the old lady was standing, I noticed that she was trying to get the attention of passers-by who of course were too busy to take note of her. She kept pointing to the middle of the road. When I tried to gently move her back further away from the busy road, she said that she was standing there because she had dropped her house key in the middle of the road and was unable to open her house without the key. I looked around and no one seemed to be interested in the two of us. I knew I was getting late but decided to help.
The traffic was busy on the road with people on their bikes and office goers in cars as well as school buses rushing with school children. It was the worst time of the day to cross a busy road without a traffic light. I asked the old lady to stay at a safe distance, took a deep breath, and I myself carefully stepped onto the road waving my hands madly almost expecting to be hit by an oncoming vehicle. At first one lane (车道) stopped and then I moved further on to the middle of the road continuing to wave my hand. Just then a school bus was approaching me and I bravely stepped in front of it to stop it.
The driver seemed so angry that he shouted at me.
I carefully helped the old lady leave the crowded street.
| A．I explained to him that I was going to fetch the key for the old lady. The driver understood me and was moved by my behavior. He said he would block the car behind him so I could get the key. I walked to the middle of the road, found the old lady’s key, and handed it into her hand. At this time, I heard cheers coming from the school bus. |
| B．I asked him what the problem was. He said he had just come from the airport without a customer and he had no money to pay for the bill. Hearing this,I comforted him patiently that everything would be fine later.After chatting with me,his anger slowly died down.He said goodbye to me with gratitude. |
| C．Knocked down by the bus, the old lady was lying on the road, crying loudly. Her cry attracted so many passers-by that the street was crowed in one minute. But nobody dared to give her a hand. Seeing this, I walked to her to help the old lady stand up . |
| D．She thanked me again and again. Considering that the old lady couldn’t follow the traffic rules, I thought it would be dangerous for her to go home alone. She might get into trouble again on the road. I decided to help her to the end. Asking the old lady to wait by the side of the road, I stopped a taxi and asked the driver to send the old lady home safely. |
A. Specifically, the Internet and mobile devices have completely changed the way people interact with each other.
B. While technology has developed over thousands of years, the last century has seen an explosion in it that has influenced fundamental changes in how humans see the world and interact with others.
C. Technology is more than an abstract concept associated with advanced tools and systems. It also shapes the way people behave, grow and develop, both within their own lives and in their relationships with others.
D. However, technology is sometimes considered to disconnect people from others around them. With cell phones, most people think that it’s easier and more convenient to text instead of meeting in person. An article shows that almost 60 percent of people feel disconnected from others around when they are on their phones.
E. Technology is helping people build newer and necessary communication skills in this sense. Office employees and managers use technology to send e-mails to one another in business. On social media, just share a few of your images and people start communicating on and about your images according to their viewpoint.
| A．he was almost in a state of pain | B．he lost his freedom due to severe pain |
| C．he had freedom of movement despite pain | D．he nearly lost his sense because of sharp pain |
| A．He is believed to be a badly-behaved boy. |
| B．He is known as an honest and upright boy. |
| C．He is considered to be a simple-minded boy. |
| D．He is seen as a promising and ambitious boy. |
9 . Facebook Is a Big Waster
During the first decade of the 21st century, a popular and new word has come into our vocabulary—Facebook. This is the most popular social networking website on the Internet. The main idea of Facebook is that you can keep in touch with all your friends around the world who have Facebook. You can send messages to your friend’s electronic wall, put up a status saying something like “Going to the mall, I need to get a new pair of shoes” or “it’s finally the weekend!”
In spite of the benefit it does on common people, it is true that this social network is a big waster. There are about 350 million active users on this website and 67% of them are between the ages of 13-25. More than 35 million users update their status every day.
The highest age group who use Facebook are teenagers. Most of them keep the website running whenever they are using the computer. if they aren’t in school or when they aren’t asleep. Facebook is just changing the new generation of youngsters unconsciously. The teenage life is one of the most important stages of life.
Facebook is also where people can see the gossip among their friends, virtual arguments, relationship status and updates, who is in whose “top friends”, you can become fan of anything, join groups, post pictures and videos, play childish games, invite friends to parties or events and a lot more. Generally, all these would just disturb (扰乱；妨碍) people into living life to the fullest. It’s not just teens who become addicted, even grown-ups do. An average person spends about 55 minutes on Facebook.
| A．And 2.5 billion photos are added each month. |
| B．Wasting it on Facebook is not encouraging in any way. |
| C．As a result, the average Facebook users have 130 friends who they share links with. |
| D．This statistic isn’t that bad but some people spend about 3-5 hours. |
| E．It is time people should take a break from Facebook once in a while. |
A. During this time, he made paintings of circus people and clowns which were a bit happier. Later, Picasso moved to Paris, where lots of new art was being created. He, along with an artist friend Georges Braque, came up with a unique abstract form of art--Cubism.
B. Picasso kept changing his art style and tried lots of different things, like making sculptures and pottery. He left behind a lot of art that still makes people think and feel different things. His work changed the way we understand and make art today.
C. Pablo Picasso was a famous artist born in Spain in 1881. He was very good at drawing from a young age and became one of the most important artists in the 1900s.
D. According to Picasso it was drawing objects as he thought them, not saw them, since in Cubism, artists show all parts of a scene at once, using simple shapes and putting them together in unusual ways, like a puzzle.
E. Early in his life, Picasso’s paintings were mostly in shades of blue and showed sad scenes, which is why that time is called his Blue Period. Later, he started using lighter colors like pinks and reds, which is known as his Rose Period.
