1 . You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans — between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.
At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源) of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.
In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped (倾倒) from a truck all at once.
Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.
1. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?A.Beautifying the city he lives in. | B.Introducing eco-friendly products. |
C.Drawing public attention to plastic waste. | D.Reducing garbage on the beach. |
A.To show the difficulty of their recycling. |
B.To explain why they are useful. |
C.To voice his views on modern art. |
D.To find a substitute for them. |
A.Calming. | B.Disturbing. |
C.Refreshing. | D.Challenging. |
A.Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety |
B.Media Interest in Contemporary Art |
C.Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies |
D.Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures |
2 . 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. |
3 . Last year, 138,000 San Francisco residents used Airbnb, a popular app designed to connect home renters and travelers. It’s a striking number for a city with a population of about 850,000, and it was enough for Airbnb to win a major victory in local elections, as San Francisco voters struck down a debatable rule that would have placed time restrictions and other regulations on short-term rental services.
The company fiercely opposed the measure, Proposition F, with a nearly $10 million advertising campaign. It also contacted its San Franciscan users with messages urging them to vote against Proposition F.
Most people think of Airbnb as a kind of couch-surfing app. The service works for one-night stays on road trips and longer stays in cities, and it often has more competitive pricing than hotels. It’s a textbook example of the “sharing economy”, but not everyone is a fan.
The app has had unintended consequences in San Francisco. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported last year, a significant amount of renting on Airbnb is not in line with the company’s image: middle-class families putting up a spare room to help make ends meet. Some users have taken advantage of the service, using it to turn their multiple properties into vacation rentals or even full-time rentals. Backers of Proposition F argued that this trend takes spaces off the conventional, better-regulated housing market and contributes to rising costs.
“The fact is, widespread abuse of short-term rentals is taking much needed housing off the market and harming our neighborhoods,” said ShareBetter SF, a group that supported Proposition F. Hotel unions have protested the company’s practices in San Francisco and other cities, saying that it creates an illegal hotel system.
San Francisco is in the middle of a long-term, deeply rooted housing crisis that has seen the cost of living explode. Actually, explode is a generous term. The average monthly rent for an apartment is around $4, 000. Located on a narrow outcropping of land overlooking the bay, San Francisco simply doesn’t have enough space to accommodate the massive inflow of young, high-salaried tech employees flocking to Silicon Valley.
As the Los Angeles Times reported, some San Francisco residents supported the measure simply because it seemed like a way to check a big corporation. Opponents of Proposition F countered that the housing crisis runs much deeper, and that passing the rule would have discouraged a popular service while doing little to solve the city’s existing problems.
1. The intention of Proposition F is to ________.A.place time limits in local election. | B.set limits on short-term rental. |
C.strike down a controversial rule. | D.urge users to vote against Airbnb. |
A.It shrinks the living space of middle-class families. |
B.Users are taken advantage of by the service financially. |
C.It makes the house market more competitive. |
D.It indirectly leads to high house rental price. |
A.explosion of the living cost | B.its geographic characteristics |
C.generosity of local enterprises | D.inflow of migrant population |
A.objective | B.supportive |
C.negative | D.indifferent |
4 . In the digital age, we rely on technology such as social media in trying to build interesting and varied lives. Social networking sites like Facebook are designed and promoted to make us believe enthusiastically that they are able to open up new experiences for us. There are constant notifications (通知) and updates, urging us to check-in to find out what is new.
But if we do not use the technology wisely, we can end up becoming overly attached and trapped in a cycle of social media FOMO, a sign of deeper unhappiness. FOMO, or fear of missing out, is a fear that exciting or interesting events are happening somewhere else and that we are not able to join.
People who experience high levels of FOMO have been found to be more likely to give in to urges to write and check text messages while driving, as well as to use Facebook more often directly after waking, while going to sleep and during meals.
When it comes to lasting happiness, it is best not to give in to FOMO, but rather to deal with the cycle of desires that fuel it. Hard as it is, we are better off working toward facing the fearful reality that we cannot experience everything we might like than to get caught in a cycle of checking behaviors that only cause anxiety.
If we have become used to using social media as part of our attempts at living interesting lives, we must admit that it is not easy to change our approach. But change is almost always worthwhile in the long run.
The fact that FOMO is so common in our digital age is a sign that there is something wrong with the way we are pursuing happiness and that we are not as happy as we might think we are. It should warn us that, in our eagerness to use digital technology to try to make ourselves happier, we may unintentionally (无意之中) be bringing on exactly the opposite result.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?A.The digital age has arrived. |
B.Sites give netizens useful experiences. |
C.People have fallen into modern technology. |
D.Social media are designed to attract public attention. |
A.Failing to use Facebook. | B.Answering a call during shopping, |
C.Reading text messages on reaching offices. | D.Checking Facebook while driving. |
A.To gain long-time happiness. | B.To speed the cycle of desires. |
C.To work much better. | D.To reduce fearful reality. |
A.Everybody has experienced FOMO. |
B.Digital technology may make us unhappier. |
C.Pursuing happiness is a sign of the digital age. |
D.People may unintentionally get lost in technology. |
The spread of Western eating habits around the world is bad for human health and the environment. These findings come from a new report
David Tilman, a professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota, America,
The Western diet is high in sugar, fat, oil
6 . Getting less sleep has become a bad habit for most American kids. According to a new survey(调查) by the National Sleep Foundation, 51% of kids aged 10 to 18 go to bed at 10 pm or later on school nights, even though they have to get up early. Last year the Foundation reported that nearly 60% of 7- to 12-year-olds said they felt tired during the day, and 15% said they had fallen asleep at school.
How much sleep you need depends a lot on your age. Babies need a lot of rest: most of them sleep about 18 hours a day! Adults need about eight hours. For most school-age children, ten hours is ideal(理想的). But the new National Sleep Foundation survey found that 35% of 10- to 12-year-olds get only seven or eight hours. And guess what almost half of the surveyed kids said they do before bedtime? Watch TV.
“More children are going to bed with TVs on, and there are more opportunities(机会) to stay awake, with more homework, the Internet and the phone,” says Dr. Mary Carskadon, a sleep researcher at Brown University Medical School. She says these activities at bedtime can get kids all excited and make it hard for them to calm down and sleep. Other experts say part of the problem is chemical. Changing levels of body chemicals called hormones not only make teenagers’ bodies develop adult characteristics, but also make it hard for teenagers to fall asleep before 11 pm.
Because sleepiness is such a problem for teenagers, some school districts have decided to start high school classes later than they used to. Three years ago, schools in Edina, Minnesota, changed the start time from 7:25 am to 8:30 am. Students, parents and teachers are pleased with the results.
1. What is the new National Sleep Foundation survey on?A.American kids’ sleeping habits. | B.Teenagers’ sleep-related diseases. |
C.Activities to prevent sleeplessness. | D.Learning problems and lack of sleep. |
A.7 hours. | B.8 hours. |
C.10 hours. | D.18 hours. |
A.They are affected by certain body chemicals. |
B.They tend to do things that excite them. |
C.They follow their parents’ examples. |
D.They don’t need to go to school early. |
7 . To know parents’ influence on students’ learning, researchers studied 438 kids and their parents. Before a school year started, the researchers asked parents to write down how anxious they would feel in different situations connected with math like planning their money spending or checking their house’s size. They also checked their children’s math ability and math anxiety in a school year.
The study found kids whose parents were anxious about math learned less math over the school year. And these kids didn’t perform as well on the tests as those who hadn’t been exposed to math anxiety. Besides, these kids also were more likely to become nervous about math themselves. But these kids only “ caught ” that anxiety if their parents had often tried to help with their homework. This is an example of good intentions having a bad result.
The study’s result appeared in Psychological Science. Erin Maloney led the study. As someone who has personally experienced math anxiety, she says, “ I was always very nervous about math, not only taking tests but also learning the new concepts. So I really tried to balk at math, including finding excuses to miss math tests and not wanting to do math homework. ” It was only after she saw how math could be applied to her passion that she started to enjoy math.
Parents with math anxiety should still support their kids as the kids work on math homework, though. But they should know helping kids with schoolwork requires more than just going over facts and concepts. Parents should help kids look for ways to have fun with math, like playing math-based games. When kids have difficulty in learning, encourage them to bravely face it but don’t make them nervous.
What can students do if they’re already nervous about math? Maloney says, “ My earlier study showed that students who wrote about their fears of math for 7 to 10 minutes before taking a math test performed better on that test. After the writing process,many students said their fears weren’t such a big deal. ”
1. The 438 kids’ parents were asked to present ______ .A.their attitudes to school education | B.their opinions on kids’ math ability |
C.their ways to solve kids’ math anxiety | D.their math anxiety levels in their daily life |
A.Kids are more likely to be afraid of math. |
B.Some parents pay little attention to their kids’ study. |
C.Kids can pick up negative thoughts about math from their parents. |
D.Parents should help with their kids’ homework as little as possible. |
A.Enjoy. | B.Avoid. | C.Learn. | D.Understand. |
A.Working closely with their math teachers. |
B.Seeking help during their learning process. |
C.Sparing some time to go over their notes daily. |
D.Removing math anxiety by admitting it to themselves. |
8 . Charity is simple in theory: A heart warms, a hand reaches out. In practice, though, charity can become a troubled mix of motives (动机) and consequences. Giving can be driven by guilt (负罪感), duty, praise, or perhaps the hope that giving will somehow make up for past cruelty (残酷) or ignorance. Too little charity is far less than valuable. Too much can cause dependence, which makes the receiver continuously ask for more.
Giving from the heart is good. But critics (批评家) have long worried about misdirected charity that does more harm than good. In his 2012 book, Harmful Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Solve the Problem), Robert Lupton, an experienced social worker of 40 years of community work in inner-city Atlanta, argues that charity must not do for the poor what they can do for themselves.
Due to emergencies such as natural disasters, the afterward financial aid is greatly welcome. Mr. Lupton advocates (提倡) it should focus on the development of self-supporting. The task can be carried out via, for instance, offering microloans (小微贷款), hiring local builders and suppliers, and trying to found self-supported, locally owned and operated factories. What seldom works, he argues, are untargeted handouts from far-off providers and the sudden arrival of inexperienced volunteer-tourists hoping to earn personal reputation by digging wells or mending roofs that locals are perfectly able to take care of themselves.
Getting charity right isn’t easy. But from money raising to the rising in volunteering among Millennials (千禧一代), from the increasing worldwide willingness to give to the efforts by charity organizations to become more effective and fruitful, there is strong evidence that human beings’ ability of taking care of others is growing along with their ability to help without harming.
Charity can be as simple as holding the door for a stranger and as complex as a global campaign to get rid of malaria (疟疾). Charity works best when it returns the weak to strength, and helps a small town shaken by an earthquake get back on its feet. A successful charity is one that eventually is no longer needed.
1. What have critics worried about?A.There is much less charity than needed. | B.Charity can be driven by guilt and praise. |
C.Some charity providers are inexperienced. | D.Misdirected charity may cause dependence. |
A.Hiring local workers. | B.Founding factories. | C.Building houses for victims. | D.Giving untargeted handouts. |
A.It’s easy to give charity without harming. | B.Millennials enjoy earning personal reputation. |
C.People’s ability of giving charity is improving. | D.Charity organizations are spreading all over the world. |
A.To appeal for more charity. | B.To advocate getting charity right. |
C.To introduce Robert Lupton’s book. | D.To criticize unjust motives for charity. |
9 . Nowadays, cellphones play a big part in our life. Besides being a means of communication, cellphones also provide
A recent study was designed to
Researcher Dunn says, “Using a phone at the table is contagious(传染的).” His words are
Yesterday when I was at a restaurant, I noticed a woman never once looked at her cellphone when waiting for food; so I fought the
Actually, what
A.advice | B.protection | C.education | D.enjoyment |
A.choose | B.consider | C.experience | D.expect |
A.common | B.funny | C.special | D.strange |
A.amazing | B.understandable | C.uncomfortable | D.curious |
A.because of | B.rather than | C.along with | D.other than |
A.reduce | B.collect | C.use | D.determine |
A.decisions | B.interests | C.feelings | D.characters |
A.put away | B.stick to | C.pick up | D.turn on |
A.so | B.because | C.while | D.if |
A.hardly | B.quickly | C.indirectly | D.frequently |
A.communicated | B.argued | C.worked | D.finished |
A.true | B.confusing | C.friendly | D.misleading |
A.agreement | B.fear | C.wish | D.ability |
A.question | B.design | C.change | D.follow |
A.matters | B.encourages | C.challenges | D.improves |
10 . For many businesses, the Internet has created benefits that go beyond their wildest dreams. It has reduced the costs of advertising and increased visibility for companies all over the world. Such freedom of access to information has a dark side, though, and many businesses are learning about the hard way.
These days, if you want to find a particular shop, just type in the name of the place you’re looking for on Google Maps to get directions instantly. You can also get information about hours of operation, the business’s telephone number, and more.
Unfortunately, some dishonest folks are using dirty tricks to manipulate(暗中控制)the system and deceive users. The problem exists because Google Maps is partly a crowdsourced undertaking, meaning anyone can enter information about a business whether it is true or false. All dishonest competitors have to do is enter a fake address, incorrect business hours, or any other lie about their competitors.
Google Maps is also littered with thousands of businesses that don’t even exist. Clicking on their links directs users to ill-intentioned sites. One particular group of businesses that have been taken over by liars almost completely are locksmiths. A large percentage of them are illegal businesses that aren’t licensed. These dishonest artists know how vulnerable you are, and they only take cash.
Using Google Maps isn’t the only way that businesses are waging war against one another on the Internet. Some shady businesses post fake negative reviews of their competitors on websites such as Yelp. It is so common that it can be difficult to tell the genuine reviews from the fake ones.
Crowdsourcing allows us to find out the good and the bad about businesses. Unfortunately, the fake reviews and the cheat make finding reliable businesses online far less convenient. For business owner, being the victims of effective cyber-attacks can actually be nails in their coffins.
1. The benefit of using the Internet for business listed in the passage is ________.A.making it cheaper to promote one’s company |
B.making it easier for customers to contact one’s company |
C.making it convenient for one to communicate with clients |
D.making it simpler for one to find top-quality employees |
A.it provides a filter system to tell registered businesses from fake ones. |
B.it is hard for users to manipulate information without permission |
C.it will easily make users become virus-infected |
D.it is difficult to find a legal locksmith on there |
A.The businesses will start to take off. |
B.The businesses will go out of business. |
C.The businesses will need to advertise less often. |
D.The businesses will need to invest more money. |
A.The Internet has caused a lot of trouble for some businesses. |
B.The Internet has resulted in the death of traditional businesses. |
C.The Internet creates both benefits and problems for businesses. |
D.The Internet has brought more positive than negative results for business. |