1 . French parenting isn’t perfect, but there’s a lot we can learn from this kind but no-nonsense style of parenting.

French children are allowed to handle difficult things themselves.     1     The early years are when they discover all the cool ways their new body works and how to use it. To encourage this autonomy, French parents treat children more like adults-in-training than helpless babies. They believe kids feel confident when they’re able to deal with things on their own.

Fearful of hurting feelings, American parents tend to praise every child for everything.     2     However, all that praise eventually turns out to be pointless. By contrast, French adults give children appropriate praise, thus allowing them to feel a true sense of achievement and take pride in what they learn.

Painful experiences are the best learning opportunities and sheltering children from this fact of life will merely delay their emotional development. French doctors never say “sorry” when giving kids shots. The French believe undergoing hurts, is part of life and that there’s no reason to apologize for that.     3    

Plus, the expectation of eye contact and a polite hello starts from the minute French children can say hello. They know saying “hello” and good manners are non-negotiable. Teaching them about that will benefit them for a lifetime.     4     Be patient with little ones as they learn.

All the above feels easier said than done, especially as a tired parent facing an intolerable child.     5     Your efforts will end up with children’s better behaviour overall.

A．They mean what they say.

B．This isn’t to say it’ll come easily.

C．It might save tears in the short term.

D．They wish children to suffer sometimes.

E．Bearing a few blow-ups is worthwhile, though.

F．Parents have to spare them such psychological discomfort.

G．“Me do it!” is little kids’ favorite phrase and for good reason.

2 . Social media provides materialists with ideal opportunities to compare themselves with others, which makes them subject to passive and addictive user behavior. This stresses them out and, ultimately, leads to low life satisfaction, according to a new study.

The researchers headed by Dr. Phillip Ozimek from Germany employed 1, 230 people for their online survey. In order to participate, respondents had to visit at least one social media channel at least once a week. On average, the participants stated they spent just over two hours a day on social media.

The team used six different questionnaires to determine the extent to which the participants had a materialistic attitude and tended to compare themselves with others, whether they used social media more actively or passively, whether they were addicted to social media, how stressed and how satisfied they were with their lives.

“The data showed a stronger materialistic approach goes hand in hand with a tendency to compare oneself with others,” points out Ozimek. This comparison is easy to make on social media, primarily through passive use—by looking at the content posted by other users. Materialism and passive use were also linked to addictive use of social media.

“Users are constantly thinking about the respective channels and fear they’re missing out on something if they aren’t online,” explains Ozimek. “This in turn leads to poorer mental health like stress. The final link in the chain is reduced life satisfaction.”

“Overall, the study provides further evidence that the use of social media is associated with risks, especially for people with a highly materialistic mindset,” says the psychologist. “This is particularly worrying, because social media can stimulate and increase materialistic values through influence r marketing. Meanwhile, the platforms attract materialists anyway, as they’re a perfect way to satisfy materialistic needs.”

“It’s definitely a good idea to be aware of the amount of time you spend on social media and to reduce it,” recommends Ozimek, who advises against giving up social media completely. “If you did, you’re likely to over-correct.” He also suggests recording materialism and social media use in patients undergoing treatment for mental health disorders. “While these factors are often irrelevant, they can be a starting point for additional interventions patients can try out at home.”

1. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．The Virtual World, the Real Danger

B．Showing Superiority Causes Heavy Media Use

C．More Social Media Materialism, Less Happiness

D．Materialistic Values: A Stepping Stone to Discontent

2. To qualify for the survey, a participant must ______

A．be a big spender	B．specialize in data analysis
C．be a regular social media user	D．upload web surfing history

3. What kind of feeling is expressed by Ozimek in paragraph 6?

A．Pessimism.

B．Sympathy.

C．Shock.

D．Concern.

4. What does Ozimek propose concerning using social media?

A．Restricting the duration.	B．Logging onto well-rated websites.
C．Abandoning it for good.	D．Prohibiting patients from using it.

3 . With the rising cost of living, a growing number of adult children are moving back in with their parents. While lots of parents will enjoy the chance to spend more time with their grown-up children, having them move back in can also cause some problems.     1     ?

Sit down and talk

While the situation is clearly hard for the parents, Counselling Directory member Octavia Landy advises them to take a step back. “     2     ,” says Landy. “Talk with your kids. Parents need to find out: How are they? What would they like to happen in their life?”

    3    

When things get heated, it can be easy to just storm off and not really hear each other out. But every effort needs to be made, on both sides, to properly listen. “As parents, you need a cool head,” suggests Landy. “Bring the conversation back to the matter at hand, and listen to your kids.”

Set clear boundaries (界限)

“Boundaries and communication lie at the heart of this difficult situation,” says Landy. “At the moment, it feels as if no boundaries will lead to a sense of anger on your part. Consider what your boundaries look like.     4     . It’s important to check in with your kids on how things are going.”

Ask yourself what you need to feel happy in your home

Landy suggests parents ask themselves what they need to feel happy and safe in their home—and the answer might be a difficult one to come to terms with. “It might mean that you need to ask your kids to leave,” she says. “    5    .”

A．So, what can parents do

B．Put everything in good order

C．Be prepared to listen patiently

D．Are they cheered by the news from home

E．You’d better set a proper time for a family meeting

F．Work together to set basic rules and a timeline to be reviewed

G．If you fear your kids get homeless, then address these fears directly

4 . Smartphones and other digital devices control and consume our attention. This is true for young people. On public transport, they are checking social media or playing an addictive game rather than sleeping. Very few people are reading a book or having a conversation with fellow travelers.

Children today are digital natives. This means they have never known life without internet access. They have been raised on clicks. They jump from content to content without a second thought. In the words of the philosopher Han in his 2021 book Non-things, this kind of nonstop excitement means that we quickly come to need a new exciter. We get used to seeing reality as a source of exciters and surprises. We struggle to focus our attention on any one thing. This will disturb our cognitive (认知) system.

Books can train the brain to deeply focus its attention on one task while mobile devices encourage us to hang over the surface of things, but we do not fully grasp them. When we receive information in large amounts, it stops being meaningful. When faced with a large amount of it, our brains react by blocking the information. But the discarded content does not simply disappear from our minds. Instead, it remains. This prevents us from figuring out what we are interested in. It limits our attention length.

Mobile phone addiction and the way young people learn are both directly connected to the concept of mind wandering. Too much information input makes us switch off and lose attention. And this can be damaging in the long term.

In order to recover attention, the brain needs to take a break. It needs to find time and space where it can be free from constant noise. Adults can make the effort to find these much-needed spaces to focus attention. Children, on the other hand, have not yet gained this. They run the risk of never recovering their attention spans. If we give children and teenagers access to digital devices before they have developed these skills, their attention will be free to wander. It will then become harder and harder for them to focus on a task for the necessary amount of time.

1. What is a common scene among the young on public transport?

A．They are talking with each other.	B．They are usually sleeping.
C．Most of them are absorbed in reading.	D．They are lost in their phones.

2. What does Han think of too much clicking smartphones?

A．It reduces our ability to focus.

B．It weakens our need for fun immediately.

C．It increases our interest in traditional media.

D．It enables us to see reality as a source of surprises.

3. What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?

A．Mobile devices help us to fully understand books.

B．Smartphone addiction stops us forming a lasting attention.

C．Being exposed to smartphone information blocks our brain.

D．The information we get will disappear soon from our minds.

4. Where is the text probably taken from?

A．A science magazine.	B．A book review.
C．A biology textbook.	D．A smartphone ad.

5 . While screen time is known to affect sleep, new research suggests that interactive (互动的) activities, such as texting friends or playing video games, put off and reduce the time spent asleep to a greater degree than passive (被动的) screen time like watching television, especially for teens.

The team studied the daytime screen-based activities of 475 teenagers using daily surveys. They asked the teens how many hours they had spent that day communicating with friends through social media and how many hours they spent playing video games, surfing the internet and watching television or videos. Finally, the researchers asked if they had joined in any of these activities in the hour before bed.

Next, the team measured their sleep time for one week. The researchers found that the teens spent an average of two hours per day communicating with friends via social media, about 1.3 hours playing video games, less than an hour surfing the internet and about 1.7 hours watching television or videos. For every hour throughout the day that they used screens to communicate with friends, they fell asleep about 11 minutes later averagely. For every hour to play video games, they fell asleep about 9 minutes later. Those who talked, texted or played games in the hour before bed lost the most sleep: about 30 minutes later.

Interestingly, David, lead author of the study, said the team found no obvious relations between passive screen-based activities and sleep. “It could be that passive activities are less mentally exciting than interactive activities,” said Anne, co-author of the study. “It’s a tricky situation,” she said. “These screen tools are really important to everyone nowadays, so it’s hard to put a limit on them, but if you’re really looking out for a teenager’s health and well-being, you might consider limiting the more interactive activities, especially in the hour before bed.”

1. Which of the following belongs to interactive screen activities?

A．Seeing movies.	B．Watching videos.
C．Texting friends.	D．Surfing the internet.

2. Who might lose the most sleep according to the text?

A．Lucy who watched a three-hour movie before going to bed.

B．Jack who had a 30-minute video chat with his brother before bed.

C．Sam who played computer games for two hours throughout the day.

D．Amy who chatted with her friends on WeChat for one hour in the morning.

3. What does the underlined word “tricky” mean in paragraph 4?

A．Frightening.

B．Awkward.

C．Hopeless.

D．Encouraging.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Screen time activities cut down our sleep hours

B．Interactive screen use reduces sleep time in teenagers

C．Passive screen use is better than interactive screen use

D．Parents should prevent children from using social media

6 . The printed book is back. Recent studies have shown that students remember more information when they read a paper book compared to reading an e-book. One school responded to these findings by ditching its e-readers. The students found that “the ease of navigation (导航)” was greater when using a traditional book.

I love the way we now judge printed books using the language of the digital world. E-books may come with “navigational tools,” but it turns out the best navigational tools are the “devices” at the ends of your arms. You can use them to flip the pages forward and backward.   

Fans of digital books may point out that e-readers have a handy “search” tool. Old-fashioned books also have a search function, in which you turn back to the opening part to help you remember the hero’s name. They even have a “bookmark system,” which uses something called a “bookmark.”

Can a traditional book offer all the features of an e-book? Alas, no. It has no “progress bar (进度条)” indicating how much of the book has been read. Luckily, a clever tip is available: turn your book so that it can be viewed from the side or top. It will naturally form two parts joined in the middle. If the left part is thicker than the right one, you are more than halfway through.

Admittedly, e-books are lighter than paper books, but one must question whether this is really an advantage. In secondary school my body figure was actually transformed by the daily need to carry textbooks. For me and my fellow students, these weighty books would draw our shoulders back and our chests forward.

Educational fashions come and go, so maybe the return of traditional books won’t last. But for the moment, I find myself welcoming their wonderful return.

1. Which can best replace the underlined “ditching” in paragraph 1?

A．Referring to.	B．Getting rid of.
C．Getting used to.	D．Making use of.

2. What can serve as the “navigational tool” of printed books?

A．Bookmarks.

B．Fingers.

C．The progress bar.

D．The opening part.

3. What purpose does the example in paragraph 5 serve?

A．To explain an opposing idea.	B．To provide additional information.
C．To support the author’s argument.	D．To connect paragraph five and paragraph six.

4. What might be the best title?

A．Why the Printed Book Is Back?

B．How the Printed Book Benefits us?

C．What Future the Printed Book Faces?

D．Which Is Better, Printed Book or E-book?

7 . According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employees over 50 make up more than one-third of the workforce in the United States. And the labor force aged 75 and older is expected to increase by 96.5% by 2030. As the workforce ages and increasing numbers of grandparents care for their grandchildren, what once was intended for new parents is now applied to grandparents. Some workplaces are offering a new paid leave policy (政策) for older workers—grandternity leave.

As the name suggests, one of the most popular use cases for grandternity leave is employees taking time off when they become grandparents to help care for their grandchildren. It also enables employees to take paid leave to deal with medical treatment, spend time with their families, and take time away from work as needed.

In a competitive labor market with more than 10 million open jobs, employers still struggle to retain senior employees. They fall under the Baby Boomer generation and are characterized by their deep love for work and company responsibility. They are prized for their historical knowledge and old-fashioned work ethic (职业道德). Therefore, employers are seeking new, nontraditional benefits for these employees to prevent them from taking another job. Grandternity leave is just one example of personalized benefits suitable for older workers.

A handful of companies are already starting to offer their own form of grandternity leave. For example, Saga has rolled out a five-day paid grandternity leave to its 2,500 employees. Scott Merry, a 57-year-old IT specialist with Saga took grandternity leave to care for his new-born grandson. “It was just wonderful. It’s nice to work in this type of culture which values family time.” he said. Another company that became an early adopter (使用者) is HireVue. “Attracting and employing a various workforce should be top of mind for any organization,” said one of HireVue’s managers. “Offering a variety of benefits like grandternity leave is key to that.”

1. What does paragraph 1 focus on about the policy?

A．Its application.

B．Its influences.

C．Its limitations.

D．Its background.

2. What does the underlined word “retain” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Cut down.

B．Kick out.

C．Hold onto.

D．Pay for.

3. What can be inferred about Grandternity leave from the last paragraph?

A．It is a win-win practice.	B．It has been adopted widely.
C．It has a two-sided nature.	D．It is key to business success.

4. What is the purpose of this text?

A．To introduce a new paid leave.	B．To call for better working conditions.
C．To recommend several leading companies.	D．To warn of the effect of population ageing.

8 . If you had to make one life choice, right now, to set yourself on the path to future happiness, what would it be?

Would you choose to put more money into savings each month? To change careers?     1     What single choice could best ensure that when you reach your final days and look back, you’ll feel that you’ve lived a good life?

    2     Seventy-six percent said that becoming rich was their number one goal. Fifty percent said a major goal was to become famous. More than a decade later, after millennials (千禧一代) had spent more time as adults, similar questions were asked again in a pair of surveys.     3     But the top goals again included things like making money, having a successful career, and becoming debt-free.

Meanwhile, all day long we are surrounded by messages about what will make us happy, like ads. Other messages are in our daily living. When a friend buys a new car, we might wonder if a newer car would make our own life better. Over time we develop the feeling that our life is here, now, but the things we need for a good life are over there, or in the future.     4    

Looking at life through this lens, it’s easy to believe that the good life doesn’t really exist, or else that it’s only possible for others. However, the truth is: The good life is a complicated life. For everybody, the good life is joyful and challenging.     5     A good life comes from the things that make it hard.

A．Full of love, but also pain.

B．Fame was now lower on the list.

C．Would you decide to travel more?

D．They are always just out of reach.

E．What have you achieved in the past years?

F．It’s only human nature to pursue material comforts.

G．In a survey, millennials were asked about their most important life goals.

9 . While we like to think that people get ahead because of some combination of effort, talent, and knowing the right people, research shows that success is partly due to people’s nice appearance (外貌).

Attractive people do better in school, where they receive more help and are punished less; at work, where they get better pay and higher positions; in love, where they control the relationship; and among strangers, who think them more interesting, honest, and successful. Studies show that you’re more likely to get employed (雇佣) if you look clean and carefully dressed, that good-looking people make about 12% more money than less attractive guys, and that attractive saleswomen bring in more money than their less attractive partners. Psychologists call it the “beauty premium (美貌津贴)”. Basically speaking, the income differences between attractive and unattractive people is comparable to those between sexes or colors. In a paper titled “Why Beauty Matters”, University of Michigan information scientists Markus Mobius and Tanya Rosenblat pointed out three reasons.

1. Physically attractive workers are (wrongly) considered abler by employers.

Employers are likely to pay people more depending on how they look. In one of Mobius and Rosenblat’s experiments, would-be employers looking at photographs of would-be employees were ready to give 10.5% higher salaries to attractive people than to unattractive people.

Managers said that the first meeting and short interview only happened on the phone. In other words, you only need to sound attractive, and then you will get more salaries because of your possible beauty.

2. Physically attractive workers are more confident, and higher confidence increases salaries.

We all influenced by the “halo effect” — without realizing it, we take someone’s appearance to be showing their character. Experiments have shown that we consider attractive people as “more sociable, sexually warmer, mentally healthier, more intelligent, and more socially skilled” than unattractive people.

3. Physically attractive workers have social skills that raise their salaries when they communicate with employers.

Mobius and Rosenblat’s experiments also found that attractive people had higher level communication skills compared with unattractive people. Physical attractiveness increases social and communication skills, which in return raise an employer’s judgment (判断) on the worker’s working ability.

What do those of us who are not attractive do? We, on the one hand, should use scientific ways to make us more beautiful, such as wearing some beautiful clothes or making up. The important one is to be more confident. On the other hand, we can improve our temperament (气质) through improving our ability of expression and our knowledge. Just as Shakespeare said, love looks not with eyes, but with the mind.

1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?

A．Opinions of different people on beauty.

B．Advantages of good-looking people.

C．Tips on how to get employed successfully.

D．Ways of making more money in different positions.

2. According to “Why Beauty Matters”, employers ________.

A．need a good understanding of the unattractive workers

B．are ready to get along well with good-looking people

C．mistakenly believe that attractive people have greater ability

D．are unwilling to provide good-looking people with higher salaries

3. If you will be interviewed on the phone, what should you do?

A．To learn more about phone language.

B．To show your better knowledge of work.

C．To know what the hiring manager likes.

D．To sound attractive in your dialogue.

4. What does “halo effect” refer to in this passage?

A．Employers believe that a good-looking person has a good character.

B．Employers judge people according to their first impression about them.

C．Physically attractive workers are confident about their salaries.

D．Physically attractive workers are mentally healthier than unattractive people.