1 . Social media is taking over our lives: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and now, TikTok. These social media platforms have changed from a way to stay connected to an industry where even kids can make money off their posts. While this may seem like another opportunistic innovation, it’s really full of hidden false realities.
The median income (中位收入) recorded in the United States of America was about $63,000 in 2018. TikTokers can make anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 for a TikTok brand partnership, and TikTokers with over a million followers can make up to $30,000 a month—$360,000 a year. They are making more than the average person trying to feed their family and keep a roof over their heads simply by posting a 15-second video.
This is mad in more ways than one. Not only is it an overpaid “job”, it promotes undeserved admiration from viewers and a false sense of reality. Many of these famous TikTokers are still teens and the effects of fame at such an early stage in life might cause issues later in life, such as mental illness. Teens between the ages of 13 and 17 make up 27% of TikTok viewers, who can be easily influenced by what they are watching. They can put a false sense of self-value into who they look up to and what they represent: money, fame, being considered conventionally attractive.
While TikTok has become a great tool for marketing, it’s important to understand how this content affects young viewers. If we’re constantly consuming content that shows us all we need to do to be successful is be conventionally attractive and post a 15-second video featuring a new dance, it will challenge our knowledge of what really makes someone successful and will in turn affect our individual work ethnics (伦理). What about the people who miss birthdays and family holidays due to their jobs and aren’t getting paid nearly as much as these TikTokers?
Richard Colyer, president and creator of Metaphor, Inc, had his own view on this issue. “It sounds great that kids can make money for doing the latest dance moves in a 15-second video, but we should feed the minds of kids and not just their bank accounts. TikTok can be great if used properly. Money alone is not good; technology alone is not good and connectedness can be bad if it is only online.”
Again, as a fellow consumer of TikTok, I do enjoy the app when I have some time to kill and need a good laugh. I’m not against someone making a living on entertainment, but what does getting famous by posting a 15-second video teach young people?
1. What does the underlined word “this” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Social networking. |
| B．A job offered by TikTok. |
| C．Making money on social media. |
| D．Staying connected to the Internet. |
| A．TikTokers can hardly make ends meet. |
| B．Social media platforms like TikTok can make people overpaid. |
| C．Teens are wise to make a huge amount of money from TikTok. |
| D．TikTokers earn such a high income that they can support their family. |
| A．They are likely to develop false values. |
| B．They tend to live an adult life too soon. |
| C．They are forced to pay for certain services. |
| D．They may stop believing other social media. |
| A．Contents of videos need checking before their release online. |
| B．We have a responsibility to supply teens with food for thought. |
| C．Young TikTokers should be banned from opening bank accounts. |
| D．Money and technology can be good if used properly by TikTokers. |
2 . Every festival has its own meaning. Labor Day, for example, celebrates the value of hard work. Thanksgiving is about showing thanks to people around you. And Valentines’ Day is a time when you express love to your loved ones. But somehow it now seems that all festivals we just care about one thing — shopping. And that can be a big problem.
“In a way, over-consumption (过度消费) is the mother of all our environmental problems,” Kalle Lasn once told CNN. Lasn is the organizer of Buy Nothing Day, a day set up in Canada in 1992 to fight against unhealthy spending habits, and has now become an international event. It’s held on the day, which is known as Black Friday — a famous shopping day in the US and Canada.
You can see the irony (讽刺) here.
Even though the idea of Buy Nothing Day was brought up 26 years ago, we seem to need it now more than ever. It’s just as Lasn said, all the different kinds of pollution in our lives today — bad air quality, the reduction of forest area, endangered animal species, and plastic bags found in the ocean — seem to be the same cause: over-consumption.
The latest example is the Singles’ Day shopping craze of Nov 11, which saw a new sales record. But as Nie Li, a campaigner at Greenpeace, told Reuters, “Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste.” And it was reported that last year the Singles’ Day packages left more than 160,000 tons of waste, including plastic and cardboard. The Collins Dictionary has also just named “single-use” its Word of the Year, pointing out the problem that there’re too many things we tow out after only using them once.
So, Buy Nothing Day might only be here for one day a year, but it’s not just to remind us to the a break from shopping on that day, but to change our lifestyle completely, focusing on fun “with people we care about” rather than wasting money on useless things.
1. What’s the authors purpose of writing the first paragraph?| A．To express the people’s love for all festivals. |
| B．To talk about the meaning of the festivals. |
| C．To appreciate the value of the festivals. |
| D．To bring out the topic of the passage. |
| A．To help people save money. | B．To cut the cost for daily life. |
| C．To prevent over-consumption. | D．To set up a new sales record. |
| A．Opposed (反对的). | B．Supportive. |
| C．Unknown. | D．Neutral (中立的). |
| A．Creating a New Lifestyle | B．Buy Nothing Day |
| C．Festivals Around the World | D．A Change in People’s Life |
3 . There’s a child-like joy that comes with ordering something online. We sit refreshing the U. S. Postal Service or FedEx pages to see when our items will arrive and we become overly excited, hopeful and anxious. But why?
According to a psychotherapist Owen O’Kane, it’s anticipatory(预期的)pleasure that something positive and good is going to happen when we get this parcel. When our package finally arrives, many of us are satisfied. But that initial excitement has probably waned because our obsession(痴迷)with our parcel represents much more than the item we purchased. “What we’re talking about here is hope and having something to look forward to, but not the item itself.” O’Kane explains.
Anticipating good things is a formula that has fueled many helpful remarks through the years: Tomorrow is another day. However, anticipation isn’t always a good thing. In September, people went into a frenzy when it was announced that their mail delivery would become permanently slower. And now, many are worried about their items. This phenomenon is called pre-parcel anxiety. A delayed package may seem insignificant to some. But for others, getting your hopes up only for them to be thwarted(阻挠)is angering and anxiety-provoking.
O’Kane says these reactions are telling about more deep-rooted internal issues in our lives that go beyond a delayed package. “Anxiety is intolerance(不容忍)to uncertainty. So it’s really symbolic about something bigger, about that need to control and needing everything to be perfect. It’s important to practice self-care and treat ourselves with occasional gifts. However, O’Kane cautions comfort shopping is only a temporary fix. He adds many people often seek external solutions as a way of feeling better quickly, whereas a healthier long-term coping mechanism is to look inward and appreciate our life with “mindfulness, gratitude and savoring (鉴赏).” “We will find placing an order and receiving an item is stimulating on some level, but it is the most passive way to live. Challenge ourselves to take action in our life instead of waiting for it to arrive. ”
So the next time we feel the impulse to order and track something online, consider why.
1. What does the underlined word “waned” mean in paragraph 2?| A．Decreased. | B．Enforced. | C．Refueled. | D．Overwhelmed. |
| A．They are intolerant of waiting. | B．They are uncertain of delivery. |
| C．They want to stay in control. | D．They have internal issues in life. |
| A．We can seek external solutions to make us feel better. |
| B．Online purchases can solve our problems permanently. |
| C．We should find happiness and peace with what we have. |
| D．Online shopping is a positive way to distract us from sadness. |
| A．To weigh up the pros and cons(利弊)of online purchases. |
| B．To persuade us not to purchase online in the long run. |
| C．To analyze psychological happiness of online purchases. |
| D．To explain why we are so obsessed with online purchases. |
1. When will the woman go abroad?
| A．In ten weeks. | B．In March. | C．In May. |
| A．A little worried. | B．Very excited. | C．Unhappy. |
5 . With the job market becoming increasingly competitive every year, a growing number of fresh university graduates are choosing “delayed employment”.
Relaxation under pressure
Experts say more college students are deciding not to work upon graduation to avoid the pressure in the fight for positions. Some young people who are not faced with a heavy economic burden (经济负担) are simply staying at home, relying on parents.
More knowledge about the world
As the old Chinese saying goes, “traveling thousands of miles is better than reading thousands of books.”
There are more choices for young people born after 1995. But they are not willing to give in and take a job they don’t like.
| A．Personal interest. |
| B．Too many job choices. |
| C．Jobs related to their interests have greater attraction. |
| D．Why do these graduates decide to delay job search? |
| E．They just want to get relaxed before hunting for a job. |
| F．How do these graduates spend their time after graduation? |
| G．University students have learned a lot from books but lack practice. |
6 . Like most of us, I try to be mindful of food that goes to waste. The arugula (芝麻菜)was to make a nice green salad, rounding out a roast chicken dinner. But I ended up working late. Then friends called with a dinner invitation. I stuck the chicken in the freezer. But as days passed, the arugula went bad. Even worse, I had unthinkingly bought way too much; I could have made six salads with what I threw out.
In a world where nearly 800 million people a year go hungry, “food waste goes against the moral grain,” as Elizabeth Royte writes in this month’s cover story. It’s jaw-dropping how much perfectly good food is thrown away — from “ugly” (but quite eatable) vegetables rejected by grocers to large amounts of uneaten dishes thrown into restaurant garbage cans.
Producing food that no one eats wastes the water, fuel, and other resources used to grow it. That makes food waste an environmental problem. In fact, Royte writes, “if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world.”
If that’s hard to understand, let’s keep it as simple as the arugula at the back of my refrigerator. Mike Curtin sees my arugula story all the time — but for him, it's more like 12 bones of donated strawberries nearing their last days. Curtin is CEO of DC Central Kitchen in Washington, D.C., which recovers food and turns it into healthy meals. Last year it recovered more than 807,500 pounds of food by taking donations and collecting blemished (有瑕疵的) produce that otherwise would have rotted in fields. And the strawberries? Volunteers will wash, cut, and freeze or dry them for use in meals down the road.
Such methods seem obvious, yet so often we just don’t think. “Everyone can play a part in reducing waste, whether by not purchasing more food than necessary in your weekly shopping or by asking restaurants to not include the side dish you won’t eat,” Curtin says.
1. What does the author want to show by telling the arugula story?| A．We pay little attention to food waste. | B．We waste food unintentionally at times. |
| C．We waste more vegetables than meat. | D．We have good reasons for wasting food. |
| A．Moral decline. | B．Environmental harm. |
| C．Energy shortage. | D．Worldwide starvation. |
| A．It produces kitchen equipment. | B．It turns rotten arugula into clean fuel. |
| C．It helps local farmers grow fruits. | D．It makes meals out of unwanted food. |
| A．Buy only what is needed. | B．Reduce food consumption. |
| C．Go shopping once a week. | D．Eat in restaurants less often. |
7 . Sometime in the early 1960s, a significant thing happened in Sydney, Australia. The city discovered its harbor. Then, one after another, Sydney discovered lots of things that were just sort of there — broad parks, superb beaches, and a culturally diverse population. But it is the harbor that makes the city.
Andrew Reynolds, a cheerful fellow in his early 30s, pilots Sydney ferryboats for a living. I spent the whole morning shuttling back and forth across the harbor. After our third run Andrew shut down the engine, and we went our separate ways — he for a lunch break, I to explore the city.
“I’ll miss these old boats,” he said as we parted.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“Oh, they’re replacing them with catamarans. Catamarans are faster, but they’re not so elegant, and they’re not fun to pilot. But that’s progress, I guess.”
Everywhere in Sydney these days, change and progress are the watchwords (口号), and traditions are increasingly rare. Shirley Fitzgerald, the city’s official historian, told me that in its rush to modernity in the 1970s, Sydney swept aside much of its past, including many of its finest buildings. “Sydney is confused about itself,” she said. “We can’t seem to make up our minds whether we want a modern city or a traditional one. It’s a conflict that we aren’t getting any better at resolving (解决).”
On the other hand, being young and old at the same time has its attractions. I considered this when I met a thoughtful young businessman named Anthony. “Many people say that we lack culture in this country,” he told me. “What people forget is that the Italians, when they came to Australia, brought 2000 years of their culture, the Greeks some 3000 years, and the Chinese more still. We’ve got a foundation built on ancient cultures but with a drive and dynamism of a young country. It’s a pretty hard combination to beat.”
He is right, but I can’t help wishing they would keep those old ferries.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．Sydney’s striking architecture. | B．The cultural diversity of Sydney. |
| C．The key to Sydney’s development. | D．Sydney’s tourist attractions in the 1960s. |
| A．He goes to work by boat. | B．He looks forward to a new life. |
| C．He pilots catamarans well. | D．He is attached to the old ferries. |
| A．It is losing its traditions. | B．It should speed up its progress. |
| C．It should expand its population. | D．It is becoming more international. |
| A．A city can be young and old at the same time. |
| B．A city built on ancient cultures is more dynamic. |
| C．Modernity is usually achieved at the cost of elegance. |
| D．Compromise should be made between the local and the foreign. |
8 . 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? |
9 . “Ni Hao! I am your foreign friend. Just have a bite of our organic apples (有机苹果) and place your orders here!” Erik Nilson, a Swedish traveler, greeted through TikTok livestreams (抖音直播) in a village of Jiangxi Province. His livestreams increased that day’s sales greatly. After experiencing a special day of livestreaming, Erik said jokingly. “I wish I could change my job.”
This village is not alone. Nowadays, China’s e-commerce platforms (电商平台) like TikTok and Taobao have helped open up online markets for Chinese farmers’ produce. This has made livestreaming sales a new way to help poor farmers, with mobile phones becoming “new farm tools”.
“How can you make the audience believe that your products are delicious just through the screen in front of you?” The government in Hainan Province invites experts to teach farmers some necessary skills including how to make short videos and how to increase livestreaming sales. “However, at first, only a few villagers gave it a shot. So we helped them get training in livestreaming, short video marketing, and other courses. It wasn’t fancy, but simple, practical, and effective.”
“Everybody, please take a look. This is the best banana. Taste it.” said Pei Yanqin, 59, speaking with a strong local accent but communicating carefully with audience through her livestreaming software. Just over a year ago, she was one of those villagers with the least interest to get training.
Today, the village has developed eight e-commerce livestreaming courtyards. Some farmers work alone, while others are husband and wife teams. In the next step, the government will train more farmers to conduct the livestreams and develop multi-variety online sales.
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To promote the organic apples. | B．To share a travel experience of Erik. |
| C．To introduce the topic of the text. | D．To explain what the livestreams are. |
| A．turned it down. | B．had a try at it. | C．had access to it. | D．argued about it. |
| A．Erik Nilson came to China because he wants a new job. |
| B．Pei Yanqin has no interest in livestreaming sales at all. |
| C．Livestreaming has become the best way to help poor farmers. |
| D．Government is helping farmers become skilled in marketing online. |
| A．Business. | B．Education. | C．Science. | D．History. |
10 . Zhang Guimei, who has
At 17, she left her hometown Heilongjiang for Yunnan province. While teaching in Huaping county, she saw many girls
In 2008, Zhang’s school was
Zhang and her staff
The efforts paid
Due to her selfless work, Zhang was
| A．contributed | B．applied | C．belonged | D．responded |
| A．lantern | B．firework | C．education | D．midnight |
| A．figure out | B．set out | C．carry out | D．drop out |
| A．grateful | B．aware | C．concerned | D．curious |
| A．people | B．men | C．generations | D．women |
| A．addicted | B．shocked | C．likely | D．determined |
| A．Moved | B．Driven | C．Surprised | D．Touched |
| A．replaced | B．delivered | C．disguised | D．represent |
| A．limited | B．faithful | C．known | D．typical |
| A．completed | B．appointed | C．announced | D．confirmed |
| A．dropped | B．dived | C．walked | D．jumped |
| A．to retire | B．to perform | C．to marry | D．to leave |
| A．made | B．took | C．worked | D．spared |
| A．off | B．for | C．back | D．out |
| A．remove | B．repeat | C．refuse | D．realize |
| A．who | B．whose | C．that | D．which |
| A．which | B．that | C．where | D．who |
| A．awarded | B．arranged | C．achieved | D．attracted |
| A．said | B．told | C．spoke | D．talked |
| A．As well as | B．As soon as | C．As long as | D．As far as |
