1 . Instead of going on a trip or buying herself new clothes, Xiao Tong from Wuhan, Hubei province, chose to celebrate her senior high school graduation in a different way. She went to a beauty clinic to undergo plastic surgery (整容手术)on her nose.
“I want to make a good impression and start my university life with a brand new look, ” the 18-year-old told Changjiang Daily. Like Xiao Tong, many young Chinese are anxious about their looks, and subject (使经受)themselves to cosmetic surgery. A medical beauty industry white paper by Research Global said 19 percent of Chinese medical beauty consumers in 2020 were aged 18 or under.
Young people have cosmetic surgery for different reasons, and improving self-confidence is one of them. Wang Fang, 18, from Beijing, felt that her eyes were too small. In 2019, after she got in university, Wang had a minor operation done on her eyelids. “Before I had the surgery, I had a negative idea of myself. Therefore, I had low self-esteem and no confidence, ” Wang told Beijing Youth Daily. “The cosmetic surgery changed the situation. I was comfortable with that. ”
But Jiang Wenxiu of the Department of Psychiatry, Zhongda Hospital, Southeast University in Jiangsu, advised that people should think twice before going under the knife. “Medical beauty apps only show how great plastic surgery can be, ” Jiang told China Daily. “They leave out all the negative stuff. ”
Today beauty clinics that see students as profitable plastic surgery customers are well aware that these young people are mostly short of money, so they use summer discounts, installment (分期付款) plans and other ways to attract their attention.Xiao Zhen, 17, from Chengdu, Sichuan province, is one of the victims.She took out a loan (贷款) of about 20, 000 yuan to get cosmetic surgery. But the large sum of money became a big burden. She had to drop out of school and go to work to pay off the loan. Besides the financial burden, potential health risks of plastic surgery also need to be considered. “If you have big problems with your look, you should wait until you are a full adult, then decide if you want to do something about it, ” Jiang said. “Then, with a stable mind, you can consider inner and outer beauty, and whether plastic surgery is for you. ”
1. Why is Xiao Tong’s experience mentioned in the beginning?| A．To introduce a different graduation celebration. |
| B．To describe how important appearances are to youths. |
| C．To give an example of students choosing plastic surgery. |
| D．To show the rising popularity of plastic surgery in China. |
| A．To feel better about herself. |
| B．To have a perfect appearance. |
| C．To avoid others’ bad comments. |
| D．To have a comfortable university life. |
| A．Most cases of plastic surgery are successful. |
| B．You need a loan to cover plastic surgery costs. |
| C．The number of students having plastic surgery is rising. |
| D．Promotions of plastic surgery do not give a full picture. |
| A．Inner beauty matters much more than outer beauty. |
| B．Risks of plastic surgery may affect your adult life. |
| C．People don’t need to be anxious about their looks. |
| D．Whether to have plastic surgery is decided when you are an adult. |
2 . Schoolchildren spend most of their time surrounded by their peers (同龄人). They spend a lot more time with classmates, teammates and fellow club members than with adults in their lives. Peer pressure can have a huge influence on the lives of children in grades two through twelve.
From birth through age six, the family shapes a child’s sense of identity (个性). Parents and brothers and sisters affect (影响) a child’s likes, dislikes, tastes in clothing, food and music and, perhaps most importantly, values. Once children enter school, they form connections to the larger group of their peers. This group brings new ideas and experiences. Peer pressure happens when a student’s actions are influenced by this group. The “pressure” happens when peers suggest or demand actions different from the child’s normal behavior and values.
Peer pressure leads to some disturbing negative (消极的) behavior in schoolchildren. In the USA, about 75% of high school students have tried alcohol (酒) offered by their friends in middle or high school. According to a survey, students felt pressured by their peers between 35 and 49% of the time. The power of peer pressure can result from a schoolchild’s growing desire to fit into a group.
Thankfully, peer pressure can also be positive (积极的). For example, wanting to join an athletic group of friends may force a student who has been sitting for a long time to try out for the soccer team. In a survey on peer pressure, 51% of teenagers felt that peer pressure was sometimes positive. One teenager responded, “Sometimes it can help you gain confidence.” Other examples of positive peer pressure include students encouraging a classmate to run for school president, or friends suggesting that that a talented peer try out for a talent show.
1. What leads to schoolchildren’s peer pressure?| A．The identity shaped by their family. | B．The connections with their classmates. |
| C．The childhood experiences with their friends. | D．The differences in their behavior and values. |
| A．To kill their boring time. | B．To fit into a peer group. |
| C．To help gain confidence | D．To improve social skills. |
| A．Peer pressure does more harm than good |
| B．Peer pressure is very good for schoolchildren’s growth. |
| C．Peer pressure is not necessarily bad for schoolchildren. |
| D．Peer pressure plays an important role in shaping a child’s values. |
| A．Why schoolchildren turn out the way they do | B．Ways to help schoolchildren deal with peer pressure |
| C．Peer pressure highly influences schoolchildren | D．How to improve schoolchildren’s behavior and values |
3 . “Why is he writing that way?” a girl asked her dad Daniel Funke, pointing to a picture of a football player. The photo showed the man writing his name with his pen turned upside down.
Of course, the photo was not the original one. It had been changed to look like him using the pen the wrong way. Funke quickly pointed out the mistake, and his daughter got an on-the-spot education in false information. By then, however, many people had already shared it on social media.
“The results of sharing false information can be very serious,” says Laeeq Khan, who heads the Social Media Analytics Lab at Ohio University in Athens. Sharing something that’s not true can cost people their lives, he says. Last year, people in India used a messaging app, WhatsApp, to spread false stories about a crime. The lies caused serious attacks in which people died. False information stories hurt people in other ways, too. For example, false reports lead some parents to refuse vaccines (疫苗) for their children. Yet without vaccines, children can get serious diseases or even die.
“About seven in ten Americans are telling us that false information has a big influence on the confidence in our government,” says Jeffrey Gottfried. He’s a news and media-research expert at Pew Research Center in Washington, D. C. Researchers there did a survey (调查) in the United States about the influence of made-up news. About half the people in the survey said they had shared false information online. Most of them said they didn’t realize it at the time.
Besides causing serious results, sharing a false story makes it harder for people to tell what’s real. And when people find out a story is not real, they may not trust other information from a person who spread it. Therefore, it’s of great significance to do fact-checking before sharing news stories. Only when we are more cautious (谨慎) about sharing news can we avoid being hurt.
1. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?| A．Many people believed the photo. |
| B．The football player wrote with his pen turned upside down. |
| C．Funke was not sure whether the picture is true. |
| D．The girl found the trick of the photo when she saw it. |
| A．By making comparisons. | B．By using numbers. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By sharing reasons. |
| A．False reports lead some parents to refuse vaccines for their children. |
| B．Made-up news spread faster than expected. |
| C．70% Americans doubt whether false news has a big influence on the confidence in the government. |
| D．Many Americans shared false information without knowing it. |
| A．Supporting. | B．Doubtful. | C．Worried. | D．Cautious. |
4 . The new school year has started and it looks much different for many teachers and students. With the COVID-19 pandemic still causing shutdowns, remote learning has become the new normal for schools around the country. Teachers already have the challenge to make lessons engaging for a classroom full of students. As kids are trying to learn from home, some teachers are getting extra creative to get students’ attention.
Bob Moss, a US history teacher at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas, decided to make the most out of the unusual classroom environment and make his subject come to life for his students. He decided to set out on what he called his “Great American History Road Trip.” He not only held remote classes on location at historic sites, but also posted aspects of his adventure on social media. He created a 15-day travel schedule of major historic sites around the county and filmed instructional videos for his students to watch and enjoy, starting on Aug. 21.
“This is something I’d never be able to do in a normal school year,” Moss said. “I was just trying to figure out, how can I make this school year interesting and fun for kids? I mean, I don’t know how to do remote teaching. I wasn’t trained to be an online teacher … So I figured, what if I teach history from the places where it happened? Maybe that would at least make them want to log in to find out where their teacher is every day.”
The 26-year-old experienced teacher used his personal savings to fund the trip. He loaded up himself with a few personal belongings and a lot of equipment to make sure he could capture each of the locations where history happened.
In the end, though, it was not only a unique learning opportunity for his students but also a way for him to find his passion for teaching once again in a challenging time.
1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?| A．Students become more creative than usual at home. |
| B．Making students interested in learning is a challenge. |
| C．Students prefer to study at home rather than at school. |
| D．Most teachers refuse to teach in a classroom full of students. |
| A．To promote American history. | B．To get trained to be an online teacher. |
| C．To become well known during shutdowns. | D．To make lessons more attractive to students. |
| A．By using his own money he saved. |
| B．By receiving donations from his school. |
| C．By filming instructional videos to earn money. |
| D．By advertising the locations where history happened. |
| A．Education is the key to success. | B．Nothing is difficult to a willing heart. |
| C．A good beginning makes a good ending. | D．A man becomes learned by asking questions. |
5 . An important part of raising your children is teaching them good manners as it helps them be more successful in life.
Saying “thank you” to service workers
Saying “thank you” is the base of all good manners but these days many children overlook thanking the people that help them in many little ways each day, like wait staff, store clerks, and bus drivers. It’s not just about politeness but about teaching children to recognize and acknowledge others’ contributions as valuable.
Taking turns talking
Teach your children to touch your arm and then wait patiently for you to acknowledge(理会)them before speaking. If they do interrupt, calmly tell them it’s rude to interrupt and let them know you’ll acknowledge them shortly.
Using their indoor voices
Covering a cough or sneeze
These days it’s more important than ever to teach children to cough or sneeze into a tissue or their elbow. It’s not just a matter of hygiene(卫生)——no one enjoys getting sprayed.
| A．Remember it goes both ways. |
| B．Therefore it makes others feel cared about. |
| C．Games are very important for children’s good manners. |
| D．Crying, laughing, or just talking, children can be very loud. |
| E．Lacking basic manners will affect kids in all areas of their lives. |
| F．It is also a way to help others feel safe and comfortable around you. |
| G．Eventually it’s about teaching them not to treat others as their servants. |
6 . To know parents’ influence on students’ learning, researchers studied 438 kids and their parents. Before a school year started, the researchers asked parents to write down how anxious they would feel in different situations connected with math like planning their money spending or checking their house’s size. They also checked their children’s math ability and math anxiety in a school year.
The study found kids whose parents were anxious about math learned less math over the school year. And these kids didn’t perform as well on the tests as those who hadn’t been exposed to math anxiety. Besides, these kids also were more likely to become nervous about math themselves. But these kids only “ caught ” that anxiety if their parents had often tried to help with their homework. This is an example of good intentions having a bad result.
The study’s result appeared in Psychological Science. Erin Maloney led the study. As someone who has personally experienced math anxiety, she says, “ I was always very nervous about math, not only taking tests but also learning the new concepts. So I really tried to balk at math, including finding excuses to miss math tests and not wanting to do math homework. ” It was only after she saw how math could be applied to her passion that she started to enjoy math.
Parents with math anxiety should still support their kids as the kids work on math homework, though. But they should know helping kids with schoolwork requires more than just going over facts and concepts. Parents should help kids look for ways to have fun with math, like playing math-based games. When kids have difficulty in learning, encourage them to bravely face it but don’t make them nervous.
What can students do if they’re already nervous about math? Maloney says, “ My earlier study showed that students who wrote about their fears of math for 7 to 10 minutes before taking a math test performed better on that test. After the writing process，many students said their fears weren’t such a big deal. ”
1. The 438 kids’ parents were asked to present ______ .| A．their attitudes to school education | B．their opinions on kids’ math ability |
| C．their ways to solve kids’ math anxiety | D．their math anxiety levels in their daily life |
| A．Kids are more likely to be afraid of math. |
| B．Some parents pay little attention to their kids’ study. |
| C．Kids can pick up negative thoughts about math from their parents. |
| D．Parents should help with their kids’ homework as little as possible. |
| A．Enjoy. | B．Avoid. | C．Learn. | D．Understand. |
| A．Working closely with their math teachers. |
| B．Seeking help during their learning process. |
| C．Sparing some time to go over their notes daily. |
| D．Removing math anxiety by admitting it to themselves. |
写作要点：随着世界太空技术的发展，人类的太空梦不再是梦。但是也有人觉得耗费大量的人力和财力来研究和开发太空资源不切实际，不如将这些人力和财力用来着重解决人类当前面临的重大问题，改善地球的生存环境。对此，你有何看法？
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Developing space technology, worthwhile or not?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________1. 社团的主要活动；
2. 报名方式及截止日期。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Mike,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
9 . In the digital age, we rely on technology such as social media in trying to build interesting and varied lives. Social networking sites like Facebook are designed and promoted to make us believe enthusiastically that they are able to open up new experiences for us. There are constant notifications (通知) and updates, urging us to check-in to find out what is new.
But if we do not use the technology wisely, we can end up becoming overly attached and trapped in a cycle of social media FOMO, a sign of deeper unhappiness. FOMO, or fear of missing out, is a fear that exciting or interesting events are happening somewhere else and that we are not able to join.
People who experience high levels of FOMO have been found to be more likely to give in to urges to write and check text messages while driving, as well as to use Facebook more often directly after waking, while going to sleep and during meals.
When it comes to lasting happiness, it is best not to give in to FOMO, but rather to deal with the cycle of desires that fuel it. Hard as it is, we are better off working toward facing the fearful reality that we cannot experience everything we might like than to get caught in a cycle of checking behaviors that only cause anxiety.
If we have become used to using social media as part of our attempts at living interesting lives, we must admit that it is not easy to change our approach. But change is almost always worthwhile in the long run.
The fact that FOMO is so common in our digital age is a sign that there is something wrong with the way we are pursuing happiness and that we are not as happy as we might think we are. It should warn us that, in our eagerness to use digital technology to try to make ourselves happier, we may unintentionally (无意之中) be bringing on exactly the opposite result.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The digital age has arrived. |
| B．Sites give netizens useful experiences. |
| C．People have fallen into modern technology. |
| D．Social media are designed to attract public attention. |
| A．Failing to use Facebook. | B．Answering a call during shopping, |
| C．Reading text messages on reaching offices. | D．Checking Facebook while driving. |
| A．To gain long-time happiness. | B．To speed the cycle of desires. |
| C．To work much better. | D．To reduce fearful reality. |
| A．Everybody has experienced FOMO. |
| B．Digital technology may make us unhappier. |
| C．Pursuing happiness is a sign of the digital age. |
| D．People may unintentionally get lost in technology. |
10 . While waiting in bus stations, airports or parks, some people are busy with a friendly conversation, and others read newspapers, comics (漫画), novels and pocket books. That was many years ago.
Today everyone uses smartphones, tablets and laptops at home, work and school. Exactly, it improves our communication, social media, entertainment and provides convenience to work. The computers, Interweb, and smartphones have become part of our everyday life.
However, the publishing houses suffer terrible losses, and the comics industry is out of business, for everyone goes digital and gadget (小玩意) dependent.
Especially in the COVID-19 times, the sales (销售) of PC, laptops and gadgets suddenly went up quickly. Because of health safety problems, people chose to shop online. Moreover, education happens through Online Distance Learning, which forced parents to buy desktops and smartphones. Yet behind the benefits and use of these modern gadgets is a sad reality. Many students lose the face-to-face conversation power. skills in public speaking, and social skills.
Another problem is health. The young generation today spends so much time on gadgets inside homes. They don’t live the traditional healthy outdoor life. The result is eyesight problems and enjoying very little sunlight.
For workers, too much exposure (暴露) to video call meetings has damaged their health. What’s more, many of us are expected to continue working at home.
Modern information technology (IT) has really-affected our way of life. In the COVID-19 times, these products of modern technology have protected us from public exposure and direct interaction with people. However, its continuous use can also harm people’s health and interest. Thus, we should take control of IT application in our life and not allow IT to endanger our health and safety.
1. What is the purpose of Paragraph 1?| A．To give tips on how to make good use of our time. | B．To draw readers’ interest in traditional ways of life. |
| C．To serve as the background information of the text. | D．To provide readers with a typical life scene many years ago. |
| A．A smartphone is more useful than a computer. | B．Without information technology, we can’t communicate |
| C．We are not able to work or study with no computers. | D．Information technology brings people many benefits. |
| A．Many students talk little face to face. | B．Many publishing houses turn to IT business. |
| C．Many parents are forced to learn to use IT gadgets. | D．Many workers are out of work and have to stay inside. |
| A．How did COVID-19 affect information technology? |
| B．How does modern information technology affect us? |
| C．How did modern technology become part of our everyday life? |
| D．How do people make use of modern technology? |
