1 . If you’ve scrolled through your Facebook feed recently, you may have noticed something surprising: lots and lots of short videos.
What makes this “Reels” feature strange is that it is hugely addictive, which I know quite well from my own personal experience. Last Friday, I took a break and hit on one short clip of someone making dinner and, well, the next time I looked up it was 20 minutes later and the blank document on my computer monitor was confirming to me that my work was still not done.
However, as silly as it seems, Reels-is actually super important, and is at the centre of a major battle between the world’s largest tech firms. The format (格式) was first pioneered by TikTok-the Chinese-owned video app that has taken the world by storm since it launched in 2016. Today, TikTok has around 23 million UK users every month-including basically every person you know under the age of 25. And that fact has made Facebook and its parent company, Meta, very nervous indeed. As TikTok has continued to boom, Facebook has actually fallen in popularity among “Gen Z”. The reason Tik Tok has proven such a powerful challenger to Facebook’s social media dominance is almost entirely down to these sorts of short-form videos.
The format is almost perfectly optimised to be as addictive as possible: Tik Tok’s app shows you a short-form video, and if you don’t like it, you can simply swipe it away and another one will start playing instantly. And because it is portrait, not landscape, videos look “right” when viewed on your phone. What’s also smart is that TikTok’s algorithm (算法) picks videos for you based on what you actually watch, and not what you say you want.
Facebook isn’t the only app trying to do what TikTok does so well. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook’s parent company Meta, has integrated Reels even more aggressively into its app. And even Google is nervous, launching its own TikTok-style video section of YouTube(which it owns)a couple of years ago. As things stand, though TikTok currently maintains a healthy lead in the category, both YouTube and Facebook have deep pockets-so expect to see even more Reels and Shorts popping up in your feed as this intense battle continues to rage. You won’t be able to take your eyes off them.
1. Why did the author mention his own experience in paragraph 2?A.To illustrate the feature of short videos. |
B.To stress the importance of short videos. |
C.To prove his preference to short videos. |
D.To introduce the functions of short videos. |
A.It has shown the trend of the fall in popularity among “Gen Z”. |
B.It is perceived as a potential threat to Facebook’s social media dominance. |
C.Its number of registered UK users has reached 23 million since it launched in 2016. |
D.It underestimates the essential role of short videos in competition with large tech firms. |
A.The beautiful visual effects. |
B.The high video quality. |
C.The random recommendation. |
D.The quick switch between videos. |
A.The short videos have a profound impact on our daily life. |
B.TikTok seems to be losing its advantage over short videos in the short run. |
C.YouTube and Facebook may encounter financial difficulties in developing Shorts. |
D.A growing number of tech firms have engaged in fierce competition for the short video market. |
2 . Being overly emotional may mean reacting to negative feelings quickly instead of letting your intelligence weigh in. Chances are that you are relating to your emotions in a way that isn’t always constructive if you feel overly emotional.
Identify your emotions. It’s important to know what you feel so that you can address each emotion appropriately.
Interpret each emotion’s message.
Increase your empathy (共情). Empathy means observing your emotions less but the emotions of those around you more. If you find yourself focusing largely on your own emotions, take a step back and notice the emotions of the people around you.
A.Turn to professional aid. |
B.Challenge your negative emotions. |
C.Often, you feel emotions as a communication system. |
D.However, it’s vital to listen to your emotions in beneficial ways. |
E.Consider their emotional experience and recognize how they feel. |
F.Reflect on how your body reacts when you notice an emotion coming through. |
G.It means you allow your thoughts to come and observe them without judgement. |
3 . MyHeritage has announced the release of two new AI features which it promises will ‘revolutionise genealogy (系谱学)’ research, similar to how ChatGPT revolutionised searching the Internet.
The first feature, AI Record FinderTM, is an interactive chatbot that helps family historians find relevant historical records about a person of interest within MyHeritage’s database of 20 billion records. This free-text chat tool enables users to talk to an intelligent assistant to find information about their ancestors, relatives, or other people who have passed away.
In addition to AI Record FinderTM, MyHeritage has also introduced AI BiographerTM, another innovative feature that automatically generates a narrative biography about an ancestor’s life using information from historical records that match the person. This creates a Wikipedia-like biography, which gives users a complete understanding of their ancestor’s life story.
These two new features are integrated, allowing MyHeritage users to create an AI Biography for their ancestors using the AI Record FinderTM. With this integration, users can easily use a conversational AI to search for historical records. This makes it faster and easier to find information about their family members.
Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage, said of the new features, “We’re constantly pushing the boundaries of genealogy to reinvent the way people can discover their family history as we aim to reshape genealogy in the 21st century. Together, these advanced features strengthen MyHeritage’s position as the industry leader for innovative genealogy and continue our mission to make family history easier, more accessible, and more fun for everyone.” AI Record FinderTM is a disruptive feature that simplifies the way people can find information about their ancestors by making the search easier. AI Biographert M turns a person’s life details into a fascinating story. Not all our ancestors were famous, but they all deserve to be remembered!
1. What is a typical feature of AI Record FinderTM?A.It updates MyHeritage’s database. | B.It generates a narrative biography. |
C.It narrows down the target information. | D.It helps users interact with intelligent people. |
A.That AI genealogy promotes family history creation. |
B.That the new AI-driven features give way to MyHeritage. |
C.That MyHeritage spares no effort to advance genealogy. |
D.That more will be done to strengthen MyHeritage’s position. |
A.Relevant. | B.Pioneering. | C.Disturbing. | D.Comprehensive. |
A.MyHeritage Leads in AI Genealogy |
B.MyHeritage Promises to Revolutionise |
C.AI Features: A New Era for Genealogy |
D.AI Record Finder: Smart Search for Family Histories |
4 . How to overcome travel anxiety
Stress and anxiety around documents and procedures of travel is common. Here are some tips from experts on how to overcome travel anxiety and enjoy your holiday or trip.
Plan out your trip details. One of the reasons for your travel anxiety is that you’re being taken out of your comfort zone and won’t have full control over everything.
Make use of different relaxation techniques.
Have things with you that bring you joy. These can include physical item s like a book to read, or a game to play. It can be extremely useful in distracting you from your negative feelings. Alternatively, you can create a playlist of songs you love or have your favourite TV show with you.
Don’t forget your physical health. Being physically active is a great way to reduce feelings of anxiety and stress.
A.Brainstorm various kinds of anxiety. |
B.Understand where your anxiety originates. |
C.Frankly speaking, negative feelings can’t be avoided. |
D.Make sure to incorporate physical activity in your days. |
E.Deep breathing is a technique proven to help reduce stress. |
F.They will keep your mind occupied, decreasing your feelings of anxiety. |
G.To help ease that anxious feeling, try to plan out your trip in as much detail as possible. |
5 . Is forgiveness against our human nature? To answer our question, we need to ask a further question: What is the essence of our humanity? For the sake of simplicity, people consider two distinctly different views of humanity.
The first view involves dominance and power. In an early paper on the psychology of forgiveness, Droll (1984) made the interesting claim that humans’ essential nature is more aggressive than forgiving allows. Those who forgive are against their basic nature, much to their harm. In his opinion, forgivers are compromising their well-being as they offer mercy to others, who might then take advantage of them.
The second view involves the theme of cooperation, mutual respect, and even love as the basis of who we are as humans. Researchers find that to fully grow as human beings, we need both to receive love from and offer love to others. Without love, our connections with a wide range of individuals in our lives can fall apart. Even common sense strongly suggests that the will to power over others does not make for harmonious interactions. For example, how well has slavery worked as a mode of social harmony?
From this second viewpoint of who we are as humans, forgiveness plays a key role in the biological and psychological integrity of both individuals and communities because one of the outcomes of forgiveness, shown through scientific studies, is the decreasing of hate and the restoration of harmony. Forgiveness can break the cycle of anger. At least to the extent the people from whom you are estranged (不和的) accept your love and forgiveness and are prepared to make the required adjustments. Forgiveness can heal relationships and reconnect people.
As an important note, when we take a classical philosophical perspective, we see the distinction between potentiality and actuality. We are not necessarily born with the capacity to forgive, but instead with the potential to learn about it and to grow in our ability to forgive. The actuality of forgiving, in real situations, develops with practice.
1. What is Droll’s idea about forgiveness?A.People should offer mercy to others. |
B.Aggressive people should learn to forgive. |
C.Forgiveness depends on the nature of humanity. |
D.People who forgive can have their own welfare affected. |
A.To fight is to grow. | B.To give is to receive. |
C.To forgive is to abuse. | D.To dominate is to harm. |
A.Favorable. | B.Reserved. | C.Objective. | D.Skeptical. |
A.Forgiveness is in our nature. | B.Forgiveness grows with time. |
C.It takes practice to forgive. | D.Actuality is based on potentiality. |
1. What do the words “this trap” in the first paragraph refer to?
A.Having a racial bias. | B.Responding to wrong texts. | C.Criticizing political figures. |
A.Creative. | B.Promising. | C.Controversial. |
A.Its employees are irresponsible. |
B.It needs further improvement. |
C.Its security is doubted. |
1. How many nights is the man going to stay at the hotel?
A.One night. | B.Two nights. | C.Four nights. |
A.6:30 pm. | B.10:00 pm. | C.10:45 pm. |
A.A gym. | B.A restaurant. | C.A swimming pool. |
A.How good it is. | B.How much to pay for it. | C.Where and how long it is. |
1. Why are the two speakers upset?
A.It may snow during their vacation. |
B.They may not be able to take their vacation. |
C.They may fail to join the graduation ceremony. |
A.They are going skiing. |
B.They have made bookings for their plane. |
C.Their flight has been cancelled. |
A.The earthquake. | B.The bad winter. | C.A terrible flu. |
A.Talk to Professor Hampton. |
B.Speak to all of the other people. |
C.Call the travel agency. |
1. Where are the speakers probably?
A.On a game show. | B.In a spaceship. | C.In a bank. |
A.Anna Edison. | B.Sally K. Ride. | C.Valentina Tereshkova. |
1. What do we know about Mr Bannister?
A.He is new to the company. | B.He works on the trade deal. | C.He is not experienced enough. |
A.Mr Duncan. | B.Mrs Templeton. | C.Amelia. |