1 . When did the voice inside your head start talking? I became aware of mine at about the age of 15. At night, I sometimes found it difficult to get to sleep because there was so much “mind chatter” inside my head.
In fact, mind chatter is quite common for human beings. Usually, whenever our attention isn’t focused, a stream of mental activities flows through our minds--thoughts about the future or the past, daydreams about various realities, or friends or other people. We often call this mental activity “thinking”, but this isn’t really so.
Real thinking suggests something active over which we have conscious (有意识的) control. It happens when we consciously use powers of reason and logic to evaluate different choices, make decisions and plans, organize our lives, solve problems and so on. But mind chatter isn’t like this. It’s purposeless, running through our heads no matter what our desires are and disturbing us.
For example, imagine you’re thinking about what courses to take for the next school year. As you are considering them, thoughts about your favorite subjects flood in, reminding you of a project that you really like. This makes you remember chatting with friends about a fascinating article on climate change. Suddenly, you remember the upcoming science fair and you worry about managing your time. All these thoughts leave you struggling to focus, and you end up seeking advice from classmates.
However, it’s unrealistic to expect to silence our mind chatter altogether. It’s such a natural part of our minds that it’s unlikely to disappear. We should accept it and treat it as a kind of physiological (生理的) process that takes place inside us but is not part of our identity. We should treat it in the same way that we treat the process like eating and the flow of our blood. We don’t get our sense of identity from them, so why should we identify with the voice inside our head?
1. How is real thinking different from mind chatter?| A．It is illogical. | B．It is related to active reasoning. |
| C．It lacks a clear purpose. | D．It is driven by desires. |
| A．Its inability to give advice. | B．Its connection to our memories. |
| C．Its impact on our concentration. | D．Its common presence in our mind. |
| A．It’s normal. | B．It’s unusual. | C．It’s beneficial. | D．It’s harmful. |
| A．To stress the importance of mind chatter. |
| B．To show mind chatter cannot define who we are. |
| C．To explain the link between mental and physical health. |
| D．To prove the human body’s physiological effect. |
2 . The Dark Side of Digital Age: Cyberbullying
What is cyberbully? Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices. It can include sharing personal and private information about someone else.
With the popularity of social media, comments, photos, posts, and content shared by individuals can often be viewed by strangers. What you post online stays public and can be seen by anyone. This forms an online reputation (名声) that can be checked by schools, employers, and others researching you.
Cyberbullying can be a big problem because it doesn’t stop easily and stays online forever. Detecting cyberbullying is also a big problem as it often happens out of sight from teachers and parents, making it harder to identify.
Every state has rules for schools to handle bullying. Nowadays, with cyberbullying on the rise, many states have updated these rules to include cyberbullying.
| A．Schools require support from families and society. |
| B．It requires joint efforts to create a safer online environment. |
| C．Schools must follow these rules or their own policies to deal with bullying. |
| D．Children find it hard to escape cyberbullying due to never-ending internet access. |
| E．It also includes sharing negative, harmful, false or mean comments on others. |
| F．Additionally, cyberbullying can damage reputations of all involved, not just the bullied person. |
| G．Cyberbullying often happens on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. |
3 . Professor Dallas Smythe first described commercial media as a system for delivering audiences to advertisers. This perception of the viewing public as a “market” for products as well as an audience for advertising reflects the economic preference of the current media system in America. The unplanned side effects of advertising, however, concern many critics (评论家).
Dinar Godrej holds the view that advertising creates an attack on our senses, that advertising can act as a “compulsive liar”, and that the disorder advertising creates attacks us with images and ideas that result in a cultural change that creates desires for goods that only the wealthy can actually get. This author takes the point of view that there is really nothing positive that advertising contributes to a society, and that just about everything about advertising is negative.
John Calfee addresses many of these issues but also focuses on how the information in ads benefits consumers. He takes the position that advertising functions in the public’s interest, and that even the argument about ads can be beneficial because they can result in competitive pricing for consumers. He also states that individuals can learn about important issues (such as health) through ads.
There are also more neutral (中立的) views, such as those held by people who see it as an economic engine to deliver “free” programs to people, or the idea that advertising is an art form in itself. Whatever the perspective, one thing is true: Advertising can have both obvious and potential (潜在的) impact. It can be defended on solid ground and criticized on solid ground.
1. Why does Dinar Godrej think advertising can be a “compulsive liar”?| A．It creates disorder in our body. | B．It is full of images and ideas. |
| C．It changes our feelings for goods. | D．It creates goods for the wealthy. |
| A．It helps control prices. | B．It decreases public’s interest. |
| C．It avoids arguments. | D．It is good for people’s health. |
| A．Few people hold neutral views on advertising. |
| B．We can not see all the impact of advertising. |
| C．Advertising encourages us to learn about art. |
| D．Advertising is seldom criticized by people. |
| A．Positive. | B．Objective. | C．Doubtful. | D．Subjective. |
4 . An increase in a country’s working-age population is a blessing. Lots of workers support relatively few children and retired people. So long as the labor market can absorb an increasing number of job-seekers, output per head will rise. That can boost savings and investment, leading to higher economic growth, more productivity gains and developmental speed-up. Yet for countries that fail to seize this opportunity, the results can be tough.
Consider Thailand. It is rapidly aging. In 2021, the share of Thais aged 65 or over hit 14%, a figure that is often used to define an aged society Soon Thailand will, like Japan, South Korea and most Western countries, see a decreasing supply of workers and flagging productivity and growth without extraordinary measures. Yet unlike Japan and the rest. Thailand is not a developed country. It has got old before it has got rich.
This is a big barrier to Thailand’s future development. To protect its aging citizens, many of whom are poor, Thailand’s government will have to spend more on health care and pensions (养老金). This will make it harder to invest in productivity-boosting skills and infrastructure (基础设施). And where Thailand goes, many developing countries will follow.
One conclusion is that countries with a working-age burst need seeking more economic growth out of it. India may never have a better chance than the present. It is widely accepted that privatization and looser foreign-investment rules could raise its growth rate.
Another conclusion is that developing countries need to start planning for old age earlier. They should reform their pension systems, including by raising retirement ages. They should encourage financial markets, providing options for long-term saving and health insurance. And they should try harder to increase female participation in the labor force. Getting more women into jobs would help deal with the fact that women live longer than men, but tend to have less savings and pensions, leaving them in difficult situations in old age.
1. What does “opportunity” in the first paragraph refer to?| A．Providing more jobs for working-age laborers. |
| B．Reducing support for children and the elderly. |
| C．Encouraging investment for economic growth. |
| D．Increasing economic output and labor productivity. |
| A．It causes a shortage of young workers. |
| B．It forces the country to invest in infrastructure. |
| C．It leads to less investment in economic development. |
| D．It increases the burden on the working-age population. |
| A．To extend women’s retirement ages. |
| B．To encourage women to be included in health insurance. |
| C．To equalize the number of men and women in the workplace. |
| D．To settle the conflict between women’s long lifespan and small pension. |
| A．Aging Problems in Developing Countries. |
| B．Planning Ahead for Aging Societies. |
| C．Challenges and Opportunities of Aging Societies. |
| D．The Role of Female Labors in Addressing the Aging Issue. |
5 . Back in the early 2000s, lots of people couldn’t imagine life without alarm clocks, CD players, calendars, cameras, or lots of other devices. But along came the iPhone and other smartphones, and they took over the functions of many things that we used to think were completely necessary.
The success of smartphones can be a model for dealing with climate change because they represent a different approach to design, which is to focus on function rather than form. This approach requires concentrating on understanding the problems, and then engineering a wide range of potential solutions. By adopting this mindset, we can completely change our thinking about energy efficiency (效率).
Traditionally, improvements in energy efficiency have mostly been centered on individual devices, which can be quite fruitful. But focusing on individual devices is like if Apple had spent effort inventing a better alarm clock, a better CD player, a better calendar, and a better camera. Now with an iPhone, we don’t need the standalone (独立运行的) devices at all, because it can function as all of them.
So when it comes to energy efficiency, instead of only installing more efficient heaters, we should focus on the desired function: warmth. Through creative designs like coating (给……涂层) our house, we can get rid of the need for heaters, significantly saving nearly 99% energy.
Similarly, rather than merely focusing on making cars more efficient, we should consider the desired function — transportation. By developing an efficient transportation system that reduces the need for private cars, we can achieve greater energy savings.
The most energy-efficient car or heater is no car, or no heater, while still being able to get around and stay warm. In other words, it’s not thinking efficiently, but thinking differently.
1. What makes the iPhone a good example of environmental protection?| A．Choosing a simplest design. |
| B．Combining possible functions. |
| C．Perfecting individual instruments. |
| D．Reducing the energy consumption. |
| A．Improving technologies. |
| B．Using recyclable materials. |
| C．Figuring out various solutions. |
| D．Concentrating on the necessary needs. |
| A．Inefficient. | B．Classical. | C．Useless. | D．Perfect. |
| A．Think out of the box | B．Differences make it unique |
| C．Be economical with energy | D．Step out of the comfort zone |
6 . More than half of the 1,000 consumers surveyed by Credit Karma said they have impulsively (冲动地) shopped to deal with feelings of stress, anxiety or depression. Twenty-three percent of respondents said they’ve maxed out (刷爆) a credit card in the past year.
As for age, 68 percent youngsters, responded by saying they have experienced it in the past, compared to 53 percent of the middle-aged and only 26 percent of the old.
In regards to genders, 48 percent of men and 31 percent of women who have stress spent said they had purchased alcohol when stressed. Eighty-two percent of women stress spent on clothing compared to 52 percent of men. Women also lead stress spending for jewellery, 42 percent, compared to 22 percent for men with men stress spending more for electronics 44 percent while 30 percent for women.
In fact, shopping to reduce stress can actually help you live a healthier life by making sure that your blood pressure is lowered. Shopping to relieve stress is also called shopping therapy (疗法) as a form of reducing stress.
The survey found that 82 percent had only positive feelings about their purchases and that the positive mood boost that followed those purchases was long-lasting.
However, the side effect of shopping therapy, for many, can start out as a relatively harmless mood booster but could possibly grow into a financial loss, cause conflict, and therefore add a large amount of stress to a person’s life.
1. How is the passage mainly developed?| A．By giving numbers. | B．By stating arguments. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By giving explanations. |
| A．Women were less likely to buy jewellery when stressed. |
| B．Over half of men had purchased alcohol when stressed. |
| C．More women preferred to buy clothes than men when stressed. |
| D．The favourite goods for men to reduce pressure was electronics. |
| A．Shopping therapy may increase pressure. |
| B．Shopping therapy can totally relieve pressure. |
| C．Shopping therapy’s positive effect can not last long. |
| D．Shopping therapy is not suitable for someone whose blood pressure is low. |
| A．Concerned. | B．Subjective. | C．Indifferent. | D．Objective. |
7 . Parenting styles have shifted over the years with the rapid changes in the world. Nowadays parents generally spend more time in finding out how best to raise their child whether it’s through technology or tried-and-tested parenting practices.
With easy access to countless websites and social media groups interested in parenting, modern parents are capable of finding answers to their questions, from managing a baby’s cries to communicating with a moody teenager. This increased availability (可利用性) of resources has made parents more involved in their children’s academic, emotional, and social development. They are also more eager to find out effective parenting methods to help them raise well-behaved and confident children.
A modern parenting style that has appeared is helicopter parenting, where parents are too much focused on their children. They help children with tasks that children can do on their own, like selecting activities and friends for them, or calling their teachers about homework matters. Such a parenting style can stifle the development of the children’s ability to handle responsibilities independently. Children might be ill-equipped with life skills such as making the bed, clearing their plates or doing their schoolwork. Always protecting children from failures may also stop them from developing adaptability and gaining skills like problem-solving.
On the other hand, parents in the past tended to monitor less. Children were given more freedom to manage their schoolwork and choose the friends they want to play with. In some families, children of the past were often expected to shoulder the responsibilities of caring for younger brothers and sisters and managing housework. Living in the pre-Internet era, parents were less informed about different parenting methods, and their parenting styles were guided more by their personalities, common sense and friendly advice from their parents and neighbours, rather than by social media influences or parenting websites. There is no one right way to raise a child. Each child is unique and should be raised differently by parents who are present, but not wandering; who are supportive but not controlling; and who protect but not care too much.
1. How does the increased availability of resources influence parenting style?| A．It saves parents’ much time spent on children. |
| B．It makes parents more relaxed in raising children. |
| C．It encourages parents to be less strict with their children. |
| D．It enables parents to be more active in their children’s development. |
| A．Bring about. | B．Hold back. | C．Take down. | D．Set up. |
| A．They educated kids in a strict way. |
| B．They over-judged their kids’ independence. |
| C．They afforded kids more space for self-growth. |
| D．They tended to stay away from social activities. |
| A．How parents raise all-round children. |
| B．How people improve parent-child relationship. |
| C．How parenting modes have changed over the years. |
| D．How information technology affects people’s lifestyles. |
8 . China’s generation-Z is not “lying flat”, an expression forgiving upon hard work, as is often claimed, and making an effort is still the mainstream of a group who believes success should be achieved by solid effort, Chinese officials said at a press conference on Thursday, in response to a question on how younger generations should achieve balance between a lifestyle of “lying flat” in face of great pressure and “involution,” which refers to severe internal competition that does not lead to productivity gains.
“Most Chinese youth hold an optimistic view on the future, and the saying’ lying flat’ is more of a joke to release pressure and express their feelings,” He Junke, a government official said at a press conference on Thursday.
At the press conference, China released the first nationwide whitepaper on youth development titled “Youth of China in the New Era,” which showcased achievements linked to the country’s youth development in the newer a and reflected the spirit of younger generation. The whitepaper was also released ahead of the 100th anniversary of the founding of CYLC (共青团).
He said China has attached great importance to deeper issues reflected by talk of “lying flat”, which emerged as young generation is subject to increasing pressure across work, study and life amid China’s unique demographic (人口统计学的，人口学的) structure and highly competitive labor market.
“Some in the younger generation feel cofused or lost. In response, authorities have scaled up the amount of support available to help solve their issues in education, employment, marriage and child raising,” He noted, while urging the whole society to support the mental development and psychology of generation-Z.
He pointed out that it is also important for certain young people to realize that it is unrealistic to build a career without taking responsibility and making endeavor. “All happiness is achieved through devoted effort, and making endeavor itself is also a kind of happiness,” He stressed.
1. What is He Junke’s attitude towards “lying flat”?| A．Objective. | B．Subjective. | C．Opposed. | D．Favorable. |
| A．More and more young people choose to lie flat in China, |
| B．Young people face great pressure in their study, work and life. |
| C．China’s population structure affects the supply of labor market. |
| D．The government needs to celebrate the 100th anniversary of CYLC. |
| A．Young people should take responsibility and make efforts to achieve success. |
| B．The whole society should care about young people’s physical and mental health. |
| C．Authorities should help young people and give them support in many aspects of life. |
| D．All of the above. |
| A．To call on a low carbon lifestyle. |
| B．To inform the latest research on the social development. |
| C．To set a goal for the young people who are under pressure on study. |
| D．To address a social problem among young generations in the newer era. |
Nowadays people’s screen time is really much. Both adults
Looking at a screen for a long time is harmful
In today’s society, it may not seem that we can cut screens out
10 . Aren’t mobile phones, QQ, e-mails and WeChat supposed to help us communicate more easily? Sadly, that’s not always. One day, for example, when I was walking through the park with my friend, suddenly his mobile phone rang and he answered it—leaving me alone and cutting our conversation dead! In fact, the park was filled with such people talking on their mobile phones. They talked with other people without even looking at them, or stopping to walk their dogs. Clearly, people preferred talking on the phone to face-to-face contacting.
Why is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected I feel? New communication technology seems to keep people away from each other. With e-mail over the Internet, we can communicate without seeing or talking to one another. With WeChat or QQ, you can have conversations without even meeting that person. Even some food stores are using self-scanner (自助扫描仪) so that you can check yourself out. As the contact between human beings becomes automated (自动化的), my feeling of being disconnected gets stronger. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against machines. I also own a mobile phone, a QQ, a WeChat and an e-mail account. Giving them up isn’t a good idea, because they are useful to have around. It’s just that when they keep us away from human contact, I begin to feel sad. More and more, I find myself answering e-mail instead of talking to people. The technology that helps keep us contact with each other is, in fact, making me feel more lonely.
What is to be done? Well, try to use less technology: no e-mailing people who live nearby, and no letting QQ and WeChat catch you all the time.
1. The purpose of the example in paragraph 1 is to show that people_________.| A．communicate more easily | B．dislike talking face to face |
| C．prefer talking on phones | D．are good at using phones |
| A．lonely | B．satisfied | C．stupid | D．interested |
| A．technology keeps people busier than before | B．technology is always useful to have around |
| C．the writer is going to give up phones | D．the writer would like to contact face to face |
| A．Technology and Human Life | B．The Importance of Technology |
| C．Technology and Human Contact | D．The Development of Technology |
