1 . We live in a world where we are usually exposed to (接触) news on social media that can be scary, upsetting, or confusing.
One of the places where we can look for “the helpers” is on social media platforms.
Looking for helpers on social media can be a valuable way to find hope and comfort in difficulty.
A.We’d better find some topics to talk about with the helper. |
B.Exercising, reading, and learning art are all good choices. |
C.Phones and computers have made information easier to gain. |
D.They offer a lot of content that can educate or support young viewers. |
E.It enables us to see things from different viewpoints and learn new things. |
F.However, looking for helpers on social media also comes with some challenges. |
G.Sometimes, it can be hard to deal with the negative thoughts that these events cause. |
2 . That artificial food dyes (染料) are unhealthy is not news. Some are known to cause hyperactivity (多动症) in some children, affecting their ability to learn. But regulatory agencies (监管机构) around the world don’t necessarily agree on which food dyes are a problem, or why. That may soon change. A 2021 peer-reviewed report by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment concluded that artificial food dyes “cause or worsen neurobehavioral (神经行为的) problems in some children” and that the current levels that are regarded safe for consumption by the federal government are too high.
California is now considering requiring warning labels on food products and dietary supplements containing the seven most commonly used artificial dyes. The warning label requirement would put California on par with the European Union, which since 2010 has required food products containing certain artificial food dyes to carry warning labels about their negative effect on activity and attention in children.
Artificial dyes are used in foods for one reason: to make products look prettier. Bright colors make candies appealing, especially to kids. But dyes are also in chocolate cake mixes, salad dressings and other products that don’t seem to cry out for a color boost.
In Europe, it was the 2010 label lawmaking that triggered (引发) companies’ decisions to reformulate. “If you’re a company, you do not want to put a warning label on your product.” says Lefferts, an environmental health consultant. Warning labels are why European Starburst Fruit Chews are now colored with natural products, not the artificial dyes that brighten their North American counterparts (同类商品).
Given that artificial food dyes are used far more than needed, we need to be more cautious. After all, we don’t dye fresh fruits and vegetables, but we do dye candy and sprinkles, points out Joe Schwarcz, a chemistry professor at McGill University in Montreal. “The foods in which you find food dyes are foods that are poor in nutrition,” he says. “If you limit foods that contain food dyes, you automatically make your diet better.”
1. What can we learn about artificial food dyes from paragraph 1?A.A 2021 report confirmed their negative effects. |
B.The fact that they are harmful is newly revealed. |
C.Regulatory agencies consider them a serious problem. |
D.The Federal government thinks their current standard too high. |
A.In opposition to. | B.In line with. | C.Ahead of. | D.Behind. |
A.Food companies will stop coloring their products. |
B.More fresh fruits and vegetables will appear in the market. |
C.Food companies may replace artificial dyes with natural products. |
D.It will be hard to find packaged foods without warning labels of dyes. |
A.Approving. | B.Neutral. | C.Tolerant. | D.Concerned. |
3 . Which is more important for parents, making more money to give the kids a better life or spending more time with them? It is a problem for parents and it is not easy to decide. A new study shows that today’s parents are spending more time with their children than parents in the past. According to the study, today’s college-educated mothers spend about 21.2 hours a week taking care of their children. But women with less education spend about 15.9 hours. Before 1995, it was only 12 hours.
Dads are spending more time on ball games. Before 1995, fathers with college educations only spent about 4.5 hours a week playing with their children. Today, it increases to 9.6 hours a week. For fathers with high school education, the time goes up from 3.7 hours to 6.8.
These days, parents don’t care more about the cleaning or the cooking. They are trying their best to spend time with their families. As for the kids, they don’t mind how much time their parents spend with them. They just want to enjoy the time their parents do be with them.
So, take part in the kids’ activities when you are with them, such as helping with homework or playing soccer with them.
1. How long do college-educated mothers spend taking care of their kids a week?A.About 9.6 hours. | B.About 12 hours. |
C.About 15.9 hours. | D.About 21.2 hours. |
A.Women with less education spend about12 hours staying with their kids, |
B.Mothers in the past spent less time staying with kids than mothers these days. |
C.Mothers with college education are lazier than those with less education. |
D.Dads spend more time staying with their kids than mothers do. |
A.About 4.5 hours. | B.Less than 9 hours. |
C.About 13.5 hours. | D.About 18 hours. |
A.They care about how much money their parents can make. |
B.They care about how much time their parents spend with them. |
C.They care if their parents are really with them. |
D.They care if their parents can give them a better life. |
4 . We’ve all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.
What’s the problem? It’s possible that we all don’t have enough conversational ability. It’s more likely that none of us start a conversation because it’s embarrassing and challenging, or we think it’s annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it’s a valuable social practice that leads to big benefits.
It is easy to consider small talk as unimportant, but we can’t forget that deep relationships wouldn’t even exist (存在) if there weren’t casual conversations. Small talk is the grease (润滑剂) for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. “Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk,” he explains. “The secret to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.”
In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, professor of psychology at UBC, invited people to a coffee shop. One group was asked to interact with its waiter, the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported obviously higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience. “It’s not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband,” says Dunn. “But interactions with peripheral (边缘的) members of our social network is important for our happiness and health.”
Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a greater sense of belonging, a link with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk. “Small talk is the basis of good manners,” he says.
1. What does the underline word “casual” in paragraph 3mean?A.Addictive | B.Public | C.Personal | D.Informal |
A.Showing good manners. | B.Making business deals. |
C.Focusing on a topic. | D.Keeping in contact with other people. |
A.It raises people’s confidence. | B.It makes people feel good. |
C.It improves family relationships. | D.It matters as much as a formal talk. |
A.Conversation Counts | B.Ways of Making Small Talk |
C.Importance of Small Talk | D.Uncomfortable Silence |
1. Where was the woman when the accident happened?
A.At a bus stop. | B.At a restaurant. | C.At a store. |
A.Around 1:00 p.m. | B.Around 1:10 p.m. | C.Around 1:15 p.m. |
A.It moved fast. |
B.It crashed into a walker. |
C.It was brought to a sudden stop. |
A.A doctor. | B.A reporter. | C.A policeman. |
1. Who did Fred have a fight with last night?
A.A storekeeper. | B.A policeman. | C.His brother. |
A.At home. | B.In the hospital. | C.In the police station. |
A.At about7. | B.At about 8. | C.At about 9. |
8 . Technology seems to discourage slow, immersive reading. Reading on a screen tires your eyes and makes it harder for you to keep your place. Online writing tends to be more skimmable and list-like than print. The cognitive neuroscientist Mary Walt argued recently that this “new norm” of skim reading is producing “an invisible, game -changing transformation” in how readers process words. The neuronal circuit that sustains the brain’s capacity to read now favors the rapid absorption of information.
We shouldn’t overplay this danger. All readers skim. From about the age of nine, our eyes start to bounce around the page, reading only about a quarter of the words properly, and filling in the gaps by inference. Nor is there anything new in these fears about declining attention spans. So far, the anxieties have proved to be false alarms. “Quite a few critics have been worried about attention spans lately and see very short stories as signs of cultural decline,” the American author Selvin Brown wrote. “No one ever said that poems were evidence of short attention spans.”
And yet the Internet has certainly changed the way we read. For a start, it means that there is more to read, because more people than ever are writing. And digital writing is meant for rapid release and response. This mode of writing and reading can be interactive and fun. But often it treats other people’s words as something to be quickly harvested as fodder (素材) to say something else. Everyone talks over the top of everyone else, desperate to be heard.
Perhaps we should slow down. Reading is constantly promoted as a social good and source of personal achievement. But this advocacy often emphasizes “enthusiastic” “passionate” or “eager” reading, none of which adjectives suggest slow, quiet absorption. To a slow reader, a piece of writing can only be fully understood by immersing oneself in the words and their slow comprehension of a line of thought.
The human need for this kind of deep reading is too tenacious for any new technology to destroy. We often assume that technological change can’t be stopped and happens in one direction, so that older media like “dead-tree” books are kicked out by newer, more virtual forms. In practice, older technologies can coexist with new ones. The Kindle has not killed off the printed book any more than the car killed off the bicycle. We still want to enjoy slowly. formed ideas and carefully-chosen words. Even in a fast-moving age, there is time for slow reading.
1. Selvin Brown would probably agree that ________.A.poetry reading is vital to attention spans |
B.the gravity of cultural decline is urgent |
C.fears of attention spans are unnecessary |
D.online writing harms immersive reading |
A.It demands writers to abandon traditional writing modes. |
B.It leads to too much talking and not enough deep reflection. |
C.It depends heavily on frequent interaction with the readers. |
D.It paves the way for enthusiastic, passionate or eager reading. |
A.Deep-rooted. |
B.Fast-advanced. |
C.Slowly-changed. |
D.Rarely-noticed. |
A.The Wonder of Deep Reading |
B.Slow Reading is Here to Stay |
C.The Internet is Changing the Way We Read |
D.Digital vs Print: A Life-and-Death Struggle |
利1. 有更多机会与别人交流和分享,更容易结交新的朋友;
2.能够更快捷地了解世界各地的最新信息。
弊1.个人隐私难以得到保障;
2.社交媒体会占据大量的时间,影响我们的现实生活。
你的观点……
注意:
1.写作词数应为80左右;
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
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10 . Keeping animals safe on the road
Roadkill is not a rare sight when driving down most highways and sometimes also on roadways in cities.
They chose Nanjing as the study subject, where there are more than 9,700 kilometers of paved roads. A total of nine roads were chosen for the research, including three national highways.
A.You may not feel good about seeing roadkill |
B.The object is to educate people about road safety |
C.The length of the roads combined was over 224.27 kilometers |
D.It refers to animals being hit by cars or other vehicles by accident. |
E.Cats, dogs and blackbirds were the three commonly killed animals |
F.In the past, research in China focused on roadkill in nature reserves |
G.Roadkill incidents are more likely to happen in November and January |