1 . If you use social media to chase away loneliness, a new study suggests you’re going against the gain.

We may have heard a lot about the benefits of interacting with others online, but the findings of a study conducted by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists show a direct relationship between social media usage and feelings of isolation (隔绝). In short, the more time you spend on social media, the lonelier you may feel.

With increased interaction on a large number of apps that allow for endless virtual connectivity, loneliness seems like the last problem frequent social media users would face, but according to the leader of the study Brain Primack, it has the exact opposite effect.

“Mental health problems and social isolation are at widespread levels among young adults nowadays,” Primack said, “We are naturally social creature, but modem life tends to separate us instead of bringing us together. While it may seem that social media presents opportunities to fill the social void (空隙), I think this study suggests that it may not be the solution people were hoping for.”

Primack and his team examined the social media habits of 1,787 U.S. adults aged 19 to 32 via a questionnaire that asked about the time and frequency they spent on the most popular social media platforms. Eventually, they determined that young adults who are constantly logging into social media reported more feelings of isolation than those with less social media usage. Frequent exposure to unrealistic descriptions on social media instead of face-to-face social interactions may give people the impression that others are living happier, more connected lives, and this may users feel more socially isolated in comparison.

1. What does the underlined phrase “going against the grain” in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．Doing it all wrong.	B．On the way to success.
C．Taking a risk.	D．Making a difference.

2. How did Primack and his team conduct the study?

A．By providing explanations.	B．By collecting data online.
C．By doing a survey.	D．By describing their own experiences.

3. What can we learn from the study?

A．You will feel happier if you spend more time online.

B．Interaction online is not the solution to social isolation.

C．Virtual connectivity is best way to fill the social void.

D．Popular social media platforms can bring people together.

4. What does the text mainly tell us?

A．New study on social media usage has been published.

B．Face-to-face social interactions are on the way out.

C．Social media does users more harm than good.

D．Social media might make loneliness worse.

2 . 听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1. Where does the conversation take place?

A．Inside a car.

B．In a parking lot.

C．On the side of a street.

2. What did the man see the woman do in the car?

A．Look out of the window.

B．Answer her phone.

C．Do her hair.

3. Why was the man angry?

A．The woman damaged his car.

B．The woman borrowed his car.

C．The woman called the police.

4. How does the woman probably feel in the end?

A．Worried.

B．Relaxed.

C．Surprised.

3 . What are the speakers talking about?

A．A fire.

B．A matchbox.

C．A rain.

4 . Have you ever thought of quitting your job when you feel exhausted? Maybe most of you would say “yes”. After a particularly busy period at work, I decided to get away from it all by going on a hike in the mountains in southern France.

Before I left, I read an interesting story in a magazine. It read, “Once, while I was riding on a crowded bus, the man sitting next to me threw his cell phone out of the window when his phone rang. I was surprised. He looked at me, shrugged (耸耸肩) and looked away. I had no idea whether it was his or stolen or whether he even knew what a cell phone was or not, but he clearly wanted to be free of it, because it clearly troubled him.”

Billions of people across the world use cell phones. Though cell phones are a wonderful way for communication, they often do the exact opposite. Using cell phones can increase stress within families and friends.

So when I recently returned home, I got rid of my cell phone. Now I go outside without taking my phone with me. I’ve noticed things in my neighborhood I never noticed before, such as gardens. I’ve met new people, started conversations with neighbors I didn’t speak to before and talked with some of my friends face to face instead of chatting over the phone.

Instead of keeping me off from the world, stopping using my cell phone has helped me get even closer to my family and friends.

1. According to the story, the man on the bus threw away his cell phone because            .

A．it didn’t work properly	B．it was stolen from someone else
C．he didn’t like the phone’s style	D．he didn’t want to be bothered by it

2. We can learn from the passage that cell phones             .

A．are too expensive for many people

B．are of no use to the author

C．can also get people into trouble

D．can make life more interesting

3. What can we learn about the author?

A．He wants to own a garden now.

B．He always chatted with his neighbors.

C．He used to take his cell phone when going outside.

D．He once threw away his cell phone.

4. The main purpose of the passage is to               .

A．tell us not to let cell phones control our lives

B．encourage others to hike with him in France

C．share his experiences in France with us

D．teach us how to get along with neighbors

5 . Why should I teach my children history? That sounds like a stupid question to even ask. But, as I hear different home schooling teachers discuss history, I get the idea that there may be different reasons for teaching history. Let me briefly explain             the three good reasons for studying history and two bad reasons for studying history.
The major reason I see for studying history is that we can learn from the past. I am convinced that the world would be a much better place if more people understood the successes and failures of the past and the things that made these successes and failures. However, as the unfortunately true statement goes “the one thing we seem to learn from history is that we don’t seem to learn from history. ”Perhaps at least in teaching history, to my children I can do a small part in changing this.
A second major reason for studying history is that it is hard to understand the current political climate in the absence of an understanding of its historical context. We can not even understand who we are and where we are without history, much less             try to figure out where we are going or how we should get where we want to be.
I teach my children history, for one more reason. I purchased a set of historical audio tapes for our children. My seven-year-old son listened to them over and over. It was my hope that he would become inspired by the accomplishments of people like             the Wright brothers to accomplish things by himself. I think that it is good that we celebrate the accomplishments of people like Martin Luther King Jr. In doing so, young people are called on to stand for the principles that he stood for and             accomplish what he accomplished. I also think that by studying people like Adolph Hitler, people can learn to stand against the things that he stood for.
1. What message can we get from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2?

A．Many people aren’t clever enough to learn well from the past.

B．Many people fail to make good use of history and make the same mistakes.

C．Many people feel it hard to understand history.

D．Many people have no interest in studying history.

2. In Paragraph 3, the author shows that history is useful because

A．it makes the current political situation go smoothly

B．it helps us realize the importance of historical events

C．it helps us understand why things are the way they are

D．it helps people accept the present situation where they live

3. Some historical figures are mentioned in the last paragraph to show

A．people can be inspired to do good, while also learning to fight against evil

B．people may also learn from bad historical figures

C．more celebrations should be held to honor their achievements

D．today’s people can also achieve what they achieved

4. What uld be talked about in the following paragraph?

A．How to teach history effectively.

B．Some negative reasons for studying history.

C．How to get more people to study history.

D．Some bad historical figures.

6 . At three a.m., Jack Mills was sitting at the controls of the mail train. The train was made up of 13 cars. At the end of the train, 71 mailmen sat sorting the mail. Inside the second car, there were only five mailmen and 128 bags full of five-pound notes. This train had run more than 100 years without being robbed(抢劫). At three minutes past three, Mills and his helper, David Whitby, saw a yellow warning light. They slowed the train, and then stopped. Whitby went to the telephone beside the track. It was out of order. Then he saw a man moving between the second and the third cars. Before Whitby could give a warning, he was knocked down by two men. Mills’ cars with all the mailmen had been disconnected by the robbers. At the bridge, the bags of money were unloaded from the train and thrown into waiting trucks. One of the robbers who obviously knew the schedules(时刻表) of all the trains kept looking at his watch. At 3:45 he said, “That will have to be enough.” The robbers drove away with more than 2,500,000 pounds.
1. The robbery took place______.

A．before 3:03	B．in the early morning
C．after three o'clock in the afternoon	D．after 3:45

2. The robbers_____ before the train stopped.

A．were all in the train	B．forced Mills to stop the train
C．were waiting for the train to stop	D．ordered Mills to go on driving

3. Why didn’t the other mailmen help the mailmen in the second car when the robbery happened?

A．Because they were busy sorting the mail.

B．Because they didn’t want to help the mailmen in the second car.

C．Because the last eleven cars were separated from the front cars.

D．Because they knew nothing about the robbery.

4. One of the robbers kept looking at his watch because________.

A．he wanted to know the exact time	B．he enjoyed looking at his watch
C．he didn’t know when another train would come	D．they had to leave before another train came

5. Which the following is NOT true?

A．The train was out of order.

B．The telephone was put out of order by the robbers

C．Whitby had an assistant driver.

D．The robbers carried the money away by truck.

7 . If you want to stay young, sit down and have a good think. This is the research finding of a team of Japanese doctors, who say that most of out brains are not getting enough exercise, and as a result, we are growing old unnecessarily soon.
Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why quite healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a rather early age, and how the speed of getting old could be slowed down.
With a team of researchers at Tokyo National University, he set about measuring brain sizes of a thousand people of different ages with different jobs.
Computer technology helped the researchers to get most exact measurements of the sizes of the front and side parts of the brain, which have something to do with thinking and feeling, and decide the human character. As we all know, the back part of the brain, which controls task like eating and breathing, does not contract(萎缩) with age.
Contraction of front and side parts, as cells(细胞) die off, was seen in some people in their thirties, but it was still not found in some sixty and seventy-year-olds.
Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple way to prevent the contraction---using the head.
The findings show that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than those in the towns. Those with least possibility, says Matsuzawa, are lawyers, followed by university professors and doctors. White-collar workers doing the same work day after day in government offices are, however, as possible to have contracting brains as the farm workers, bus drivers and shop assistants.
1. The team of doctors wanted to find out ____.

A．at what point people grow live longer.

B．how to make people live longer

C．the size of certain people’s brains.

D．which group of people are the busiest

2. Their research findings are based on ______.c

A．an examination of farmers in northern Japan

B．using computer technology

C．examining the brain sizes of different people

D．tests given a thousand old people

3. The doctor’s tests show that ______.

A．our brains contract as we grow older

B．one part of the brain does not contract

C．sixty-year-olds have better brains than thirty-year-olds

D．contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country

4. According to the article, _____ are growing mentally old earlier.

A．engineers

B．office clerks

C．professors

D．researchers

5. The most possible conclusion of the article is that ____.

A．most of us should take more exercise

B．it’s better to live in the towns

C．the brain contracts if it is not used

D．the more one uses his brain, the sooner he becomes old

8 . As I was reading a recent story in Slate on 20-somethings complaining about how the economy was ruining their life plans, I couldn’t help but think the 20-somethings sounded like a bunch of spoiled children who grew up expecting everything to be easy for them. As a 20-something myself, I certainly share their disappointment: my husband and I probably won’t be able to buy a house until we’re in our 40s, and we too are burdened by student loans(贷款). But why should it be any different? Being young persons in America, shouldn’t they take up all of the challenges and opportunities that this country offers?

Consider some of these views shared in the Slate story: Jennifer, 29, owner of a two-bedroom apartment with her husband, worries that she won’t be able to have children for at least a decade because they can’t afford to buy a house yet.

I read that, and I thought, what planet is she living on where you need to own a house in order to have kids? Has she ever visited a developing country? Home ownership is a luxury(奢华), not a fertility requirement.

A 26-year-old in the story despairs(绝望) that he can’t afford to get a Ph.D. in literature. Well, that sounds a bit like expressing disappointment that no one will pay you to write poetry on the beach in Thailand for five years.

Yes, it’s sad that these young people feel so lost. But I think the problem is their extremely high expectations, not economic reality. Beth Kobliner, author of Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties, says that she thinks people’s expectations are slowly adjusting, but today’s 20-somethings grew up at a time when everyone’s wealth appeared to be expanding.

It seems a lot better for our mental health to focus on being grateful－for our one-bedroom apartments, for living in modern cities, or perhaps just for being able to eat three meals a day－than on longing for some kind of luxury life.

1. What makes the author think the 20-somethings sound like a bunch of spoiled children?

A．They expect everything to be easy for them.

B．They complain that the economy is spoiling their life plans.

C．They are reluctant（不情愿的） to face all of the challenges.

D．They are burdened by student loans.

2. The underlined word “fertility” in Paragraph 3 probably means      .

A．baby production	B．pleasant
C．baby comfort	D．essential

3. Which of the following is NOT one of the complaints of the 20-somethings?

A．They can’t have children for at least a decade to buy a house.

B．They have only one-bedroom apartment to live in.

C．They can’t buy a house until 40 because of student loans.

D．They despair at not being able to afford a Ph.D. in literature.

4. What is the author’s purpose of writing this passage?

A．To tell us what the author’s attitude towards the 20 – somethings.

B．To explain why young people can’t afford to buy a house.

C．To suggest what we should do when young people’s high hopes create despair.

D．To explain what the 20 – something’s high expectations are.