1 . Every morning in a city in Indonesia’s far east, sleepy teenagers can be seen walk slowly and with heavy steps through the streets on their unwilling way to school.
It is not a scene from some sci-fi movie but a controversial experiment to get the day off to a much earlier start for the sleep-deprived (缺乏睡眠的) teens. The pilot project in Kupang has twelfth-graders at 10 high schools start classes at 5:30 am.
Authorities say the project is intended to heighten children’s discipline. According to parents, though, their children are worn out by the time they get home. Schools in Indonesia generally start between 7:00 and 8:00 am. Teens in their school uniforms are now walking down dark streets or waiting for motorcycle taxis to get to school on time.
“It is extremely difficult and they now have to leave home while it’s still completely dark. I can’t accept this, for their safety is not guaranteed when it’s dark and quiet.” Rambu Ata, a mother to a 16-year-old, said, whose daughter Eureka now has to wake up at 4:00 am to get ready and ride a motorbike to school. “Now every time Eurek arrives home she is exhausted and falls asleep immediately.”
At least one scholar seems to agree.
“It has no connection with the effort to improve the quality of education,” Marsel Robot, an education expert from Nusa Cendana University. “In the long run, sleep deprivation could endanger the students’ health and cause a shift in behaviour. They will only sleep for a few hours and this is a serious risk for their health. This also will cause them stress and they will release their stress by acting out.”
A 2014 study published by the American Academy of paediatrics (儿科学) recommended that middle and high schoolers start classes at 8:30 am or later to allow enough time for sleep. The Kupang rule change was also challenged by local politicians, who demanded the government cancel what they called a baseless policy.
1. What is the purpose of the pilot project?| A．To punish students’ mistakes. | B．To let students learn more knowledge. |
| C．To deprive students of sleep. | D．To strengthen students’ self-control. |
| A．Controversial. | B．Unacceptable. | C．Uncontrollable. | D．Critical |
| A．Students’ safety. | B．The stress of parents. |
| C．Students’ health. | D．The quality of education. |
| A．An Unpopular Move for Teens to Start School at 5:30 am |
| B．Some Problems Existing Among Indonesia’s Teenagers |
| C．An Unsuccessful Experiment Concerning Safety |
| D．The Popularity of a Pilot Project in Kupang |
1. What was the truck carrying?
| A．Beer. | B．Animals. | C．Glass boxes. |
| A．He got hurt. | B．He ran away. | C．He felt upset. |
3 . A Dutch city will become the first in the world to ban meat adverts from public spaces in an effort to reduce consumption and greenhouse gas emissions (排放). Haarlem, which lies to the west of Amsterdam and has a population of 160,000, will pass the prohibition from 2024 after meat was added to a list of products thought to contribute to the climate crisis.
Adverts will not be allowed on Haarlem’s buses, shelters and screens in public spaces, causing complaints from the meat sector that the city government is “going too far in telling people what’s best for them”.
Recent studies suggest global food production is responsible for one-third of all planet-heating emissions, with the use of animals for meat accounting for twice the pollution of producing plant-based foods. Forests that absorb carbon dioxide are cut down for the grazing (放牧) of animals while fertilizers used for growing their feed are rich in nitrogen (氮), which can contribute to air and water pollution and climate change. Livestock also produces large quantities of methane (甲烷), a powerful greenhouse gas.
Ziggy Klazes, a councilor from the GroenLinks party, who drafted (起草) the law banning meat advertising, said she had not known the city would be the world’s first to enforce (执行) such a policy when she proposed it. She told the Haarlem 105 radio channel, “We are not about what people are baking and roasting in their own kitchen; if people wanted to continue eating meat, fine… Of course, there are a lot of people who find the decision unacceptable, but there are also a lot of people who think it’s fine.”
The ban also covers holiday flights, fossil fuels and cars that run on fossil fuels. The ban is delayed until 2024 due to existing contracts with companies that sell the products.
Research suggests that to meet the EU target of net zero emissions by 2050, meat consumption must be reduced to 24kg per person per year, compared with the current average of 82kg or 75.8kg in the Netherlands, which is the EU’s biggest meat exporter.
1. What does the underlined word prohibition in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Ban | B．city | C．climate | D．population |
| A．Acceptable | B．Dissatisfied | C．Uncared | D．Supportive |
| A．The seriousness of air pollution. |
| B．The benefits of eating plant-based foods. |
| C．The reasons for banning meat adverts in public. |
| D．The importance of protecting the environment. |
| A．24kg per person | B．82kg per person |
| C．75.8 per person | D．105kg per person |
4 . Emoji (表情符号) may be a fun form of communication but it is destroying the English language, a study has shown.
Smiling faces, love hearts, thumbs up and so on--rather than words--are the preferred way of communication by teenagers, who are considered the worst offenders in grammar and punctuation.
More than a third of British adults believe emoji is the reason for the fall in proper language usage. Of the two thousand adults, aged 16 to 65 who were asked their opinions, 94 percent thought English was in a state of decline, with 80 percent thinking youngsters as the worst offenders.
The most common mistakes made by British people are spelling mistakes (21 percent), followed closely by apostrophe (撇号) placement (16 percent) and the misuse of a comma (16 percent). More than half of British adults are not confident with their command of spelling and grammar. Furthermore, around three-quarters of adults rely on emoji to communicate.
The use of emoji has affected our culture so much that the Oxford Dictionary’s “Word of the Year’ in 2015 wasn’t actually a word at all--it was the “face with tears” emoji. That shows just what a great effect emoji has.
Meanwhile, research earlier showed that using emoji in emails when delivering bad news can soften the blow. It could help workplace communication, even though it could be seen as unprofessional.
The study found that emoji clearly increased the level of understanding in a message. Emoticons like the “smiling face” or “face with tears imitate (模仿)expressions and gestures and add a new layer of meaning. Interestingly, this only worked for positive emoji. The “sad face” had little or no effect on how people responded to the meaning.
1. What’s the author’s attitude to the effect of emoji?| A．Positive. | B．Concerned. | C．Surprised. | D．Indifferent |
| A．Most British people make spelling mistakes. |
| B．Few British people misuse emoji. |
| C．Most adults are unsure about grammar. |
| D．Less than half of adults depend on emoji. |
| A．The use of emoji. |
| B．The “face with tears” emoji. |
| C．The effect of emoji. |
| D．Emoji being 2015 “Word of the Year”. |
| A．Emoji makes emails look unprofessional. |
| B．Emoji imitates people’s expressions and gestures. |
| C．Emoji helps receivers understand his messages better. |
| D．It’s embarrassing to deliver bad news face to face. |
In history, countless women
It was these trailblazers
However, after the struggle of
And my grandmother has just called me this morning to instruct me the stage etiquette of being sweet and
The power of ideals has enabled women to be equal counterparts to men. I believe the whole world will treat both men and women
6 . You never really know how you’ll react to an emergency situation until it happens to you. Many people
“I rose and pressed on the brake and told my younger brother to call 911,” he said, recalling his thoughts in the moment. “I need to
The teenager held the
While Seamus handled the other kids, Connor and another student had just started giving Arthur CPR when the police arrived on the scene. Using a defibrillator(除颤器), they
The brothers are being
| A．complain | B．panic | C．accept | D．escape |
| A．latter | B．later | C．former | D．first |
| A．teacher | B．driver | C．coach | D．passenger |
| A．out of control | B．in flames | C．out of water | D．into pieces |
| A．directly | B．constantly | C．naturally | D．instantly |
| A．identify | B．drive | C．record | D．stop |
| A．seat | B．ring | C．wheel | D．door |
| A．crew | B．students | C．customers | D．police |
| A．still | B．calm | C．silent | D．awake |
| A．hug | B．nod | C．applause | D．laugh |
| A．happened | B．determined | C．managed | D．attempted |
| A．praised | B．rewarded | C．criticized | D．promoted |
| A．anxious | B．lost | C．upset | D．hurt |
| A．forgot | B．ignored | C．missed | D．skipped |
| A．showing up | B．hanging out | C．sticking around | D．stepping up |
7 . Do you sometimes ignore your mom while chatting with friends? If you’re a teen, that’s fairly common. And a new study may explain why so many adolescents tune out their moms’ voices.
Science has shown that young children’s brains are well adapted to their mothers’ voices. But as children grow into teenagers, everything is changing. The latest research shows that teenagers’ brains are now more adapted to the voices of strangers than their own mothers. This is what Daniel Abrams explains, who is a neuroscientist at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.
Abrams and his colleagues already knew that younger kids’ brains respond more strongly to their moms’ voices than to a stranger’s. “In adolescence, we show the exact opposite of that,” Abrams says. For teens, these brain regions respond more to unfamiliar voices than to their moms’. This shift in what voice arouses interest most seems to happen between ages 13 and 14. That’s when teenagers are in the midst of puberty (青春期), a roughly decade-long transition to adulthood.
These areas in the adolescents’ brains don’t stop responding to their moms, Abrams says. It’s just that unfamiliar voices become more rewarding and worthy of attention. Here’s why: As kids grow up, they expand their social connections way beyond their family. So their brains need to begin paying more attention to that broader world.
“As we mature, our survival depends less and less on maternal (母亲的) support,” says Leslie Seltzer, a biological anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was part of the team that carried out that 2011 study. Instead, she says, “We rely more and more on our peers — friends and others closer to our own age.”
Abrams said that although teenagers and their parents sometimes feel frustrated with missing information, it doesn’t matter. “This is the way the brain connects, and there is good reason.”
1. What do the underlined words “tune out” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Show respect to. | B．Cooperate with. | C．Pay little attention to. | D．Sing in tune with. |
| A．They are familiar to their mothers’ voices. |
| B．They are more excited hearing their mothers’ voices. |
| C．They respond more strongly to strangers’ voices than to their mothers’. |
| D．They deliberately ignore their mothers out of a desire to be independent. |
| A．Their brains just stop responding to their moms. |
| B．Their moms’ voices bring them a strong sense of frustration. |
| C．Their moms’ voices are no longer rewarding and worthy of attention. |
| D．Their brains need to pay more attention to social connections outside their family. |
| A．Disturbing. | B．Inspiring. | C．Insignificant. | D．Disappointing. |
| A．He hit a bicycle. | B．He drove too fast. | C．He ran into a tree. |
9 . I believe that we can use social media for a lot of great things and it’s important especially for business owners like me. Ever since I started my calligraphy business two years ago, I’ve never spent a day without going on social media, especially a kind of social app on my phone, on which I promoted my products and services and got in contact with possible customers.
Later I found it got in the way of more important things. I hate to say I was hooked by it, but I was. Every time I turned on my phone, I would dive into it. For a long time, I had been I ignoring other parts of my life, like my family, my friends and my happiness. One day, I was thinking that a break should have happened long before to me.
Then I decided to remove the app off my phone for a month and only use that on my computer to keep track of my business. I wanted a clean break to reflect and plan for the future.
I had believed that if I spent less time on the platform, I would miss out much. Actually, I was so wrong. During this month off, I realized there was much to enjoy in life. I found more time to enjoy my hobbies and contacted my good friends that I had lost touch with, I was refilled with energy in all aspects of my life.
This one month off the app on the phone was healthy for me. If it were not for my business, I would like not to have it on my phone. I downloaded the app again on my phone, but only used it to post my own content. I didn’t intend to paint social media in a negative light, but now I just don’t think the way I was using it was healthy. It’s difficult to find balance, but I’m going to try to do it anyway. I’m going back, but it’s going to be different.
1. What did the author mainly do on social media?| A．He connected with his friends. | B．He worked on business activities. |
| C．He learned calligraphy on his own. | D．He shared advice about keeping fit. |
| A．Opposed to. | B．Injured by. | C．Addicted to. | D．Frightened by. |
| A．It was meaningless to share on social media. |
| B．There was lots of fun away from social media. |
| C．The social app contributed little to his business. |
| D．The social app in the computer was more practical. |
| A．One month away from social media upsets him. |
| B．He wants to seek more hobbies on social media. |
| C．He has confidence in balancing social media and life. |
| D．His friends ask him to communicate on social media. |
10 . A promotion (促销活动) offering 98 yuan domestic plane tickets is being advertised by Chinese online travel platform LY.COM. While such a low price sounds amazing, there is just one catch: the purchaser is not told where the flight is heading, nor when it will take off.
The promotion has become a trending topic on Chinese social media as some people have been attempting to book them ahead of the upcoming May Day holiday. Labeled as a “destination blind box” on the site, tickets are purchased through a rather simple booking procedure, in which passengers provide their travel information, select a departure airport and then pay their 98 yuan. If the randomly chosen date and destination are unsuitable, users may ask for a refund, but once they “lock in” their tickets，there is no going back.
“Destination blind box” is now a hot topic on China’s online platforms. “I believe young people are a big target demographic (特定年龄段人口) for this promotion, because they not only enjoy the thrill of the unknown, but also like to show off their lives through these types of commercial activities. Like this one for instance, it doesn’t matter if they finally go or not. Booking a ticket and posting about it on social media can still suggest that one has adventurous and life-loving qualities,” said Fan, a marketing expert who has worked with civil aviation clients.
Many people not only shared the screenshots of tickets they drew, some even came up with a tutorial to teach the booking procedure under the free cancelling policy. However, some others claimed it is too rare to draw a ticket that is ideal. “If it wants to be a profitable activity, the release of the tickets must have been planned ahead and is not as random as it seems. It will not have popular airlines. The marketing campaign may also be aimed at the fast sale of some tickets from less popular airlines that were originally not that expensive. If they sell a large quantity of tickets, the company may still earn a profit even though the price is 98 yuan,” an expert in tourism suggested.
1. Which of the following best explains “catch” underlined in paragraph 1?| A．Benefit. | B．Mistake. |
| C．Disadvantage. | D．Charm. |
| A．The origin of “destination blind box”. |
| B．The purchase introduction to “destination blind box”. |
| C．The original purpose of “destination blind box”. |
| D．The popularity of “destination blind box”. |
| A．It allows them to experience various adventures. |
| B．It satisfies their desire to travel around China. |
| C．It helps them save money on the cost of travel. |
| D．It accords with their lifestyle and attitudes. |
| A．Economy. | B．Science. |
| C．Culture. | D．Advertisement. |
