2 . Tackling lonely emotions

Do you feel lonely? The World Health Organization (WHO) recently addressed loneliness as a pressing health threat.     1    

Loneliness is a state of mind marked by feelings of isolation despite wanting social connections. So people who are lonely usually experience the emotional pain of not being connected with others.     2     People who enjoy spending time by themselves continue to maintain positive social relationships that they can return to when they want connection.

Social isolation impacts the health and well-being of all age groups across the world.     3     Between 5 and 15 percent adolescents experience loneliness, but the numbers are likely to be underestimations, said the organization.

Social disconnection in adolescence can lead to poorer education outcomes, since young people who have experienced loneliness in high school are more likely to drop out of university. Lack of social connection carries a risk of early death equivalent to other better-known risk factors such as smoking, obesity and air pollution, or potentially even greater.     4     but previous studies have shown that loneliness has been linked to anxiety and depression and can increase the risk of heart disease by 30 percent. A 2015 study looked at the immune systems of its participants who were identified as lonely. It showed that they tend to have more inflammation(炎症) and less immunity.     5    

To tackle this crisis, the WHO launched the Commission on Social Connection, which held its first leadership meeting to outline solutions to build social connections at scale.

A．The following aspects are something concerning how to tackle loneliness.

B．It called for countries and organizations to make social connections a priority.

C．Solitude (独处) on the other hand, is voluntary.

D．It can be a result of feeling stressed due to loneliness.

E．According to the WHO, one in four old people experience social isolation.

F．Loneliness cannot be identified as a fatal emotional factor,

G．Loneliness not only has a far-reaching impact comparable to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day according to a 2017 study.

6 . In the days before the Internet, critical thinking was the most important skill of informed citizens. But in the digital age, according to Anastasia Kozyreva, a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development, and her colleagues, an even more important skill is critical ignoring.

As the researchers point out, we live in an attention economy where content producers on the Internet compete for our attention. They attract us with a lot of emotional and eye-catching stories while providing little useful information, so they can expose us to profit-generating advertisements. Therefore,we are no longer customers but products, and each link we click is a sale of our time and attention. Toprotect ourselves from this, Kozyreva advocates for learning the skill of critical ignoring, in which readers intentionally control their information environment to reduce exposure to false and low-quality information.

According to Kozyreva, critical ignoring comprises three strategies. The first is to design ourenvironments, which involves the removal of low-quality yet hard-to-resist information from around. Successful dieters need to keep unhealthy food out of their homes. Likewise, we need to set up a digital environment where attention-grabbing items are kept out of sight. As with dieting, if one tries to bank onwillpower not to click eye-catching “news”, he’ll surely fail. So, it’s better to just keep them out of sightto begin with.

The next is to evaluate the reliability of information, whose purpose is to protect you from false and misleading information. It can be realized by checking the source in the mainstream news agencies which have their reputations for being trustworthy.

The last goes by the phrase “do not feed the trolls.” Trolls are actors who internationally spread false and hurtful information online to cause harm. It may be appealing to respond to them to set the facts straight, but trolls just care about annoying others rather than facts. So, it’s best not to reward their bad behaviour with our attention.

By sharpening our critical ignoring skills in these ways, we can make the most of the Internet while avoiding falling victim to those who try to control our attention, time, and minds.

1. What can we learn about the attention economy from paragraph 2?

A．It offers little information.	B．It features depressing stories.
C．It saves time for Internet users.	D．It seeks profits from each click.

2. Why does the author mention dieters in paragraph 3?

A．To discuss the quality of information

B．To prove the benefits of healthy food.

C．To show the importance of environments.

D．To explain the effectiveness of willpower.

3. What should we do to handle Internet trolls according to the text?

A．Reveal their intention.	B．Turn a deaf ear to them.
C．Correct their behaviour.	D．Send hard facts to them.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Reasons for critical thinking in the attention economy.

B．Practising the skill of critical ignoring in the digital age.

C．Maximizing the benefits of critical ignoring on the Internet.

D．Strategies of abandoning critical thinking for Internet users

7 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

“Military-style” travel has become the     1     (late) fashion among Chinese college students. Videos of them taking such trips     2     (trend) on social media platforms in recent years. The reason why it has become so popular is     3     college students can spend as little money as possible traveling to as many places as they can during the weekend. They usually hop on a regular-speed train on a Friday night, arrive at the destination city and travel     4     (extensive) there on Saturday. Then, they can repeat the same busy schedule     5     returning to their universities on Monday morning.

Different people have different views, with some netizens     6     (praise) these college students for their high ability to implement their plans. However, others doubt     7     such a tight schedule is healthy.

According to some experts, the “military-style” travel is a form of budget travel appealing to specific groups of people who are less     8     (concern) with in-depth experiences and more focused on checking off popular tourist destinations. Therefore, this has led to the emergence of a type of tourism     9     travelers are willing to sacrifice comfort for     10     (affordable) and convenience.

8 . 最近，城市漫步在年轻人中流行起来。他们行走在城市里，去探索和了解城市。请你为学校英文报写一篇短文介绍该项运动。内容包括：
1. 城市漫步的好处；
2. 你的看法。
参考词汇：城市漫步 city walk
注意：
1. 词数100 左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9 . What is the place of art in a culture of inattention? Recent visitors to the Louvre report that tourists can now spend only a minute in front of the Mona Lisa before being asked to move on. Much of that time, for some of them, is spent taking photographs not even of the painting but of themselves with the painting in the background.

One view is that we have made tourism and gallery-going so easy that we have made it effectively impossible to appreciate what we’ve travelled to see. In this society, experience becomes goods like any other. There are queues to climb Everest as well as to see famous paintings. Thus, leisure is considered as hard labour rather than relaxation.

In the rapidly developing society, what gets lost is the quality of looking. Consider an extreme example, the late philosopher Richard Wollheim. When he visited the Louvre he could spend as much as four hours sitting before a painting. The first hour, he claimed, was necessary for incorrect impression to be removed. It was only then that the picture would begin to disclose itself. This seems unthinkable today, but it is still possible to organise. Even in the busiest museums there are many rooms and many pictures worth hours of contemplation (沉思) which the crowds largely ignore.

Marcel Proust, another lover of the Louvre, wrote: “It is only through art that we can escape from ourselves and know how another person sees a universe which is not the same as our own and whose landscapes would otherwise have remained as unknown as any there may be on the moon.” If any art remains worth seeing, it must lead us to such escapes. But a minute in front of a painting in a hurried, harried (烦扰) crowd won’t do that.

1. Why does the author mention the example in Louvre in Paragraph 1?

A．To express his concern about Louvre.	B．To report the popularity of Mona Lisa.
C．To introduce a good place to take photos.	D．To show a disappointing current situation.

2. Which of the following will Richard Wollheim agree?

A．People need to clear up their misunderstanding of paintings.

B．People have to stay at least 4 hours when appreciating paintings.

C．It is impossible for modern people to admire paintings attentively.

D．The longer one admires the paintings, the more unlikely he loves them.

3. What role does art play in our life according to Marcel Proust?

A．Art is of help for us to accept ourselves better.

B．Art makes our life more colourful and meaningful.

C．Art allows us to know the world in the view of others.

D．Art pushes us away from ourselves and explores the moon.

4. Which is the best title of the passage?

A．Into art attentively.	B．Escape from ourselves.
C．Beyond art completely.	D．Go to the museums often.

10 . A new study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology found that performing acts of kindness can heal depression and anxiety. 123 young participants from all works of life were divided into three groups. Two of the groups were equipped with techniques often used in dealing with depression: planning social activities or cognitive (认知的) reassessment. Members of the third group were instructed to perform three acts of kindness a day for two days out of the week.

Participants followed their instructions for ten weeks. The findings showed that participants in all three groups showed an increase in life satisfaction and a reduction of depression and anxiety symptoms (症状). “These results are encouraging because they suggest that all three study methods are efficacious at reducing anxiety and improving satisfaction,” the study’s co-author David Cregg said.

However, the group performing acts of kindness led to improvements not seen in the two other groups. “The acts of kindness still showed an advantage over both social activities and cognitive reassessment by making people feel more connected to other people, which is an important part of well-being.” The acts of kindness technique was the only means tested that helped people feel more connected to others.

“Social connection is strongly associated with well-being. Performing acts of kindness seems to be one of the best ways to promote those connections,” Cregg said. The authors noted that just participating in social activities did not improve feelings of social connection in this study. “There’s something specific about performing acts of kindness that makes people feel connected to others. It’s not enough to just be around other people, participating in social activities,” said co-author Jennifer Cheavens.

Some of the acts of kindness that participants later said they did include baking cookies for friends, offering to give a friend a ride, and leaving notes for roommates with words of encouragement. “Something as simple as helping other people can go above and beyond other treatments in helping heal people with depression and anxiety,” Cregg added.

1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?

A．Kind acts can solve all kinds of psychological problems.

B．All participants selected were not university students.

C．Planning social activities is the technique used in 3 groups.

D．Members in group three need to show kindness every day.

2. Which can replace the underlined word “efficacious” in the second paragraph?

A．Productive.

B．Equal.

C．Useless.

D．Misty.

3. What is the advantage of performing acts of kindness?

A．It is the best way to lift spirit.	B．It brings participants satisfaction.
C．It connects people to create happiness.	D．It is the easiest means to make friends.

4. What is the Cregg’s attitude towards perform acts of kindness?

A．Doubtful.

B．Cautious.

C．Indifferent.

D．Favorable.