| Search this blog | HOME | PAGES | CATEGORIES | GALLERY | CONTACT |
________________________________________________ Today I thought I’d blog about a question that has been asked many times — how do you stay safe online and avoid bad experiences on the Internet? I’m not an expert, but many years as a blogger have taught me a thing or two. First of all, there’s the golden rule of the Internet: If you see or read something that makes you feel uncomfortable, leave the site immediately. Don’t post comments or click on anything. Second, protect your privacy. Don’t give out your address or phone number. Someone might use the information to steal your identity. Identity theft is a common and serious problem. Third, be polite. Being online is no excuse for being rude, and you don’t want to become a target for a troll or cyberbully. A troll is a person who posts comments or questions in order to stir up trouble online. Trolls often use several false names so that they can stay on a site. A cyberbully uses the Internet to be mean to others. Like a troll, a cyberbully will also write something mean but it is usually directed at particular people. He or she may also post embarrassing photos and information about those people. However, the more polite you are, the less likely it is you will be attacked. Have you had any bad experiences online, or do you have some good advice for staying safe? Post your comments below!
Last year, we were having problems in our chat room. Mean comments were being posted by someone we didn’t know. I think he or she was only trying to make trouble.
A girl at my school had a very bad experience online. A photo of her had been posted online and she was being made fun of. It seemed like a joke at first, but the girl was very upset. | |||||
1. Tick what the writer tells the reader in Paragraph 1.
definition of online safety
the writer’s knowledge
background information
the topic of the post
2. What words and phrases does the writer use to organise the information in Paragraph 2?
3. How does the writer end the post?
IS EXPLORING SPACE
A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY?
NASA satellite image of Typhoon Goni
Countries around the globe are spending billions of dollars and lots of time on various space missions, whether to Mars or other planets much further away. Some people argue that we should stop wasting time and money exploring space. Instead, we should feed the world’s poor and find immediate solutions to other problems, such as pollution and fatal diseases. However, others feel this is a shallow view which fails to realise how exploring space helps us.
Firstly, exploring space has already made a difference in the fight against world hunger. It has directly resulted in the many satellites that now orbit Earth. A number of the satellites record data on land and weather patterns. Then the data is transmitted to scientists on Earth. After careful analysis, the scientists can provide useful recommendations and advice for farmers. As a result, space-based science has helped farming in its efforts to grow enough food to feed Earth’s increasing population.
Secondly, space exploration has already promoted technological improvements that benefit us all. High-end products around the world are made to a higher standard now because of advanced technology which was first created to meet the requirements for space exploration. For example, space technologies have helped the research and development of different types of new material. They have also helped companies make better heart monitors and other machines that doctors regularly use. Today, space technologies are widely used in all kinds of industries, and everyday products such as GPS, memory foam pillows, and smartphone cameras are changing our lives.
Finally, sending astronauts into space has helped people to think about the world’s problems and even to find ways to solve them. Seeing pictures of our planet as an island in a black sea made people realise that our planet’s resources are limited. In order to provide for such a rapidly increasing population, scientists are trying to find other planets that could one day be our new home. The greatest attention at present is on Mars because it is closer to Earth. In the future, humans may live on both planets.
In closing, exploring space provides the world with many different benefits. Therefore, it should continue so as to provide new and better solutions to people’s short-term and long-term problems.
| A. Space exploration has already promoted technological improvements that benefit us. B. Sending astronauts into space has helped people to think about the world’s problems and even to find ways to solve them. C. Different opinions about space exploration. D. Exploration space provides the world with many benefits, so it should continue. E. Exploration space has made a difference in the fight against world hunger. |
Para.2:
Para.3:
Para.4:
Para.5:
3 . Are you happy with your appearance?
“Almost all the girls with single-fold eyelids (单眼皮) in our class have had double eyelid operations,” Zeng, a Senior 2 student from Chengdu, told Xinhua. Zeng had the same surgery done this summer.
From popular photo-editing apps to plastic surgery (整形手术), it seems that large eyes, pale skin and a skinny body are the only standard for beauty these days. But can following this standard really make us feel good about ourselves?
“Many teenagers are upset about their appearance because they believe in unrealistic standards of beauty,” experts say.
However, trying to live up to strict standards can make us feel anxious. What troubles us is not just our “imperfect” looks, but the fact that we criticize ourselves too much.
| A．Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. |
| B．Body image anxiety is common among teenagers. |
| C．Guys care just as much as girls do about their body image. |
| D．Some teenagers might feel negative about their appearance. |
| E．It’s common for teenagers to feel confident about their appearance. |
| F．She and many of her classmates believe bigger eyes look more beautiful. |
| G．Perfect faces and bodies are everywhere in advertising, TV shows and social media. |
4 . You know the feeling — you have left your phone at home and feel anxious, as if you have lost your connection to the world. “Nomophobia” (无手机恐惧症) affects teenagers and adults alike. You can even do an online test to see if you have it. Last week, researchers from Hong Kong warned that nomophobia is infecting everyone. Their study found that people who use their phones to store, share and access personal memories suffer most. When users were asked to describe how they felt about their phones, words such as “hurt” (neck pain was often reported) and “alone” predicted higher levels of nomophobia.
“The findings of our study suggest that users regard smartphones as their extended selves and get attached to the devices,” said Dr Kim Ki Joon. “People experience feelings of anxiety and unpleasantness when separated from their phones.” Meanwhile, an American study shows that smartphone separation can lead to an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.
So can being without your phone really give you separation anxiety? Professor Mark Griffiths, psychologist and director of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University, says it is what is on the phone that counts — the social networking that creates Fomo (fear of missing out).
“We are talking about an Internet-connected device that allows people to deal with lots of aspects of their lives,” says Griffiths. “You would have to surgically remove a phone from a teenager because their whole life is ingrained in this device.”
Griffiths thinks attachment theory, where we develop emotional dependency on the phone because it holds details of our lives, is a small part of nomophobia. For “screenagers”, it is Fomo that creates the most separation anxiety. If they can’t see what’s happening on WeChat or Weibo, they become panic-stricken about not knowing what’s going on socially. “But they adapt very quickly if you take them on holiday and there’s no Internet,” says Griffiths.
1. Which of the following may Dr Kim Ki Joon agree with?| A．We waste too much time on phones. |
| B．Phones have become part of some users. |
| C．Addiction to phones makes memories suffer. |
| D．Phones and blood pressure are closely linked. |
| A．We worry we may miss out what our friends are doing |
| B．We fear without phones we will run into a lot of trouble |
| C．We are accustomed to having a phone on us |
| D．We need our phones to help us store information |
| A．Approved of. | B．Relied on. | C．Opposed to. | D．Determined by. |
| A．In a research report. |
| B．In a science textbook. |
| C．In a popular science magazine. |
| D．In a fashion brochure. |
5 . Use Phones Respectfully
You probably spend more time on your smartphone than any other possessions. You take it everywhere—to school, to meals, and even to the bathroom.
Use “do not disturb” instead of “vibrate (振动)”.
Loud vibrations in your trousers are disturbing. People can hear your phone vibrate or not, depending on how violently it vibrates.
Tell others what you’re doing.
Sometimes, you will be in a situation where you need to use your smartphone.
Respect others’ privacy such as text messages and e-mail senders by not letting what they type appear on the home screen of your phone when you receive a new message. While you’re at it, use a password to make sure the information stays between you.
Ask permission to swipe (滑动).
When people hand you their phone to look at a photo, this doesn’t mean you can look through all of their photo albums.
| A．They probably want you to see the one photo they hand to you, not every photo they have taken. |
| B．Just tell people what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. |
| C．It is difficult to ignore it and it distracts people from what they are doing. |
| D．Don’t use the feature of SMS Preview on your home screen. |
| E．You should use your smartphone secretly. |
| F．Of course, using the smartphone is a great way to keep in touch and share life events. |
| G．So it’s thrilling to look through all their photos. |
6 . New technology rules the whole world now. But I still remember when I was a child, I did not have a cell phone or a computer because it was not necessary at all in those days. The internet was not popular, and the touch screen technology was unknown.
At this time here in the US smartphone are really a need, especially for young and business people. There are many applications really useful like maps, dictionaries, e-mails and games.
For me, I use my smartphone to check the weather and to look for something on the internet and of course to keep communicating through calls and texts. Besides, I like music applications, GPS and Facebook.
Many tests have discovered that cell phones cause damages to us because they send out radioactive(具有放射性的) waves to our bodies and this could cause cancer.
Psychologists say that these devices can affect behavior and I believe everyone knows it is harmful to the eyes if we are sitting for a long time in front of computer. However, it seems to be difficult for us to give up, even if we know how bad it is for our health. The use of technology becomes more and more important in our lives.
I think the use of technology has brought us unimaginable things. If we use technology correctly, I am sure it would be possible to decrease the damage to our bodies.
Keep in mind that it is important not to focus only on technology, but to spend time with our families and people close to us.
1. What can we know from the passage?| A．The author is a businessman working for a cell phone company. |
| B．The author has suffered a lot from the use of electrical devices. |
| C．The author knows little about the functions of modern cellphones. |
| D．The author is quite pleased with the various functions of cell phones. |
| A．It’s not necessary to add more applications to the cell phone. |
| B．Cell phones have made our world a boring place to live in. |
| C．New technology has done people more harm than good. |
| D．New technology makes people separated from each other. |
| A．keep | B．cause | C．reduce | D．add |
7 . Lee hyun-seok grew up in South Korea addicted to Japanese manga (漫画) series such as “Dragon Ball” and “Slam Dunk”. As soon as he could, he migrated to Tokyo to build a successful career as a manga artist and editor. Then in the early 2000s came “webtoons”, a South Korean cartoon innovation optimized for smartphones. Mr. Lee was at first unimpressed. Compared with manga’s inventive graphic styles and profound plots, he found webtoons just the opposite.
Yet Japanese manga is being eclipsed by Korean webtoons. Last year the manga print market shrank by 2.3% to ¥265bn ($1.9bn). The size of the global webtoons market was meanwhile valued at $3.7bn. Manga is going digital slowly, in part because it is still designed for print, so awkward to read on smartphones. Seeing which way the wind was blowing, Mr. Lee abandoned manga for the webtoon industry in 2014.
Though webtoons such as “Itaewon Class” and “Solo Levelling” have become popular among Japanese consumers, most Japanese publishers have stuck stubbornly to manga. “The Japanese industry is very conservative,” sighs Mr. Lee. The manga industry’s business model, in which stories are first published in weekly magazines and then in books, has hardly changed since the 1960s. Webtoons have grown so fast, in part because they can be read more easily. Other recent South Korean exports, such as the Netflix sensation “Squid Game” and BTS, a boy band, have taken the world by storm thanks to the same combination of innovation and smart marketing behind webtoons.
Some are concerned about the future. Japan’s manga fans are, like all its population, ageing. The average reader of the Weekly Shonen Magazine, a manga for children launched in 1989, is now over 30. “Manga could end up as old people’s culture,” warns Mr Lee. “Children these days are viewing through webtoons on their smartphones. Why not make something that suits their taste?”
1. What did Mr Lee think of “webtoons” in the early 2000s?| A．He considered it as inventive. | B．He considered it as attractive. |
| C．He considered it as original. | D．He considered it as shallow. |
| A．Ruined. | B．Outweighed. | C．Replaced. | D．Copied. |
| A．Japanese manga can be read more easily. |
| B．Since the 1960s, the manga has grown so fast. |
| C．The manga industry is unwilling to transform. |
| D．“Squid Game” was adopted from Japanese manga. |
| A．Worried. | B．Aggressive. | C．Confident. | D．Annoyed. |
8 . We all know what burnout (倦怠) is and why it’s bad. But fewer of us have heard of “boreout (闷爆)” — a related phenomenon that’s arguably just as harmful. “Boreout is different from burnout in the sense that bored-out employees rarely collapse from exhaustion. Bored-out people may be present physically but not in spirit, and people can keep doing this for a good while,” says Lotta Harju, who has studied boreout for years.
Workers who realize they’re experiencing boreout may also be unwilling to flag it up as an issue to managers or human resources. “While the behaviors that lead to burnout — overwork, driving oneself hard — are appreciated and rewarded by employers, boreout reflects a lack of interest and a lack of motivation,” says Harju. “These are not accepted in organizations.”
There are some quick fixes for boreout, like taking on work tasks that are more interesting to you. But a 2016 study Harju and her colleagues worked on showed that people who had boreout were less likely to engage in constructive activities like trying to find new, interesting challenges at work. What happens more often, she says, is that people will just show up at their desks and spend time shopping online, chatting with colleagues or planning other activities. She says that these people aren’t lazy, but are using these behaviours as “coping mechanisms”.
Fahri Ozsungur, an associate professor of economics at Mersin University, Turkey, who was behind the 2021 study on the health effects of boreout, points out that combating the phenomenon isn’t just down to the individual. “Giving meaning to the job is not just up to the employees,” he says. “It’s also up to management to create an office culture that makes people feel valued.”
If you think boreout is seriously affecting your health either physically or mentally, it may be valuable to ask yourself how you might be able to reselect your career path toward something healthier for you. Seek the advice from advisers, career consultants, friends and family. “I do not know whether there is a better way to figure out what works for you than trial and error,” Harju says. “Boreout can mark a transition to something else: a different career entirely, or a different role in the organization. If only people take its cue.”
1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To provide the background. | B．To tell us who Lotta Harju is. |
| C．To give a definition of burnout. | D．To introduce the topic of the text. |
| A．They lack relevant knowledge. |
| B．They are warned not to talk about it. |
| C．They fear to be laughed at by their colleagues. |
| D．They don’t want employers to know their lack of drive to work. |
| A．Encouraging. | B．Fighting. | C．Trusting. | D．Blaming. |
| A．Sticking to the job before adapting to it. |
| B．Forcing employers to give a salary increase. |
| C．Trying to spend more time with your family. |
| D．Considering changing a new job interesting you. |
9 . A meeting of The Washington Post employees was held on 5 August, 2013. Into the crowded hall entered the chairman Donald E. Graham, and his niece and publisher Katherine Weymouth. The air was thick. The newspaper was to get a new boss! Jeffrey P. Bezos of Amazon.com would buy the daily for $ 250 million in cash.
Both the uncle and the niece took turns in telling the news and answering their questions. Many of the audiences wept because they were unable to accept the news. “The rise of Internet and the change from print to digital technology have created a huge wave of competition for traditional news companies,” said Donald E. Graham.
In 2013, after struggling with the falling revenue(收益) for years, The New York Times(The NYT) sold its The Boston Globe newspaper for $70 million. The NYT bought the paper in 1993 for $1.1 billion. Just twenty years later, the company sold it for a cheaper price.
Nowadays, things seem to be worse than ever. Newspapers are reporting negative growth across US and Europe. Francis Gurry, the 4th Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization said that newspapers would disappear by 2040.
This may cause a lot of problems for media jobs. For example, layoffs(裁员) and salary cuts are very common now. Many of the journalists have already moved to different jobs where their writing and editing skills are of no use. A large number of former journalists work as marketing executives, or property developers. In Canada last year, Sun Media, the largest newspaper chain there, stopped its eight dailies, closing 360 jobs and slashing 500 positions.
The traditional media still send people out to collect stories. However, with the mobile phones today, everybody is a reporter. Therefore, the newspapers are forced to adapt in order to survive. That may be a revolution(革命), but at the cost of newspapers.
1. Why did Donald E. Graham decide to sell The Washington Post?| A．He really needed money. | B．He had trouble in governing it. |
| C．The company planned to do something else. | D．The company was at a disadvantage in competition. |
| A．Confident. | B．Negative. | C．Uninterested. | D．Curious. |
| A．Creating. | B．Requiring. | C．Cutting. | D．Changing. |
10 . In China, safety education is becoming more and more important now. The last Monday in March is for students to learn it at school.
Stampedes (踩踏), earthquakes and fires are the main accidents at school.
A stampede always happens in crowded places.
When earthquakes happen, you can get under a desk quickly and hold on.
When there’s a fire, leave the classroom quickly. It’s better to put something wet over your mouth and nose. In this way, you won’t breathe in smoke.
| A．Here is an example. |
| B．It helps students learn more about what they should do to keep themselves safe. |
| C．When students around you begin to push, just stand there and try to hold onto something. |
| D．Many people die in a fire, not because of the fire but smoke. |
| E．It is not smoke but fire that is dangerous. |
| F．Take a look. |
| G．It’ll protect you from falling things. |
