1 . Is it important for teenagers to own the latest cell-phone models? There are different ways of looking at this question.
First, why do teenagers need to have the latest models? Often it’s just to show off. The paradox is that there are many teenagers who own the latest cell-phone models but don’t even know how to use them properly. This is true. They just want one because their friends have similar ones, or because they take very good videos and photos.
On the other hand, if they do know how to use them, the latest cell phones are really good. They not only help teens to stay in touch with friends and family, but also help them to access the Internet and download pictures, videos or music they need when studying. These new phones are so powerful that having one is almost like having a whole library in your pocket. It’s an instant (即刻的) source of information that helps young people get the latest news. But many parents, thinking only of such positive sides, do not take into consideration the potential dangers. For example, children may constantly be distracted (分心) during class by sending and receiving text messages.
Each young generation loves the new technologies available — just think back to when you were a kid. But your job as a parent is to make sure your child gets the most out of this technology with the least possible harm.
1. According to the second paragraph, teenagers want to have the latest cell-phone models because ________.| A．they want to show they are fashionable |
| B．they think the latest models help them a lot with study |
| C．they think they can keep in touch with others more easily |
| D．they want to learn how to use new technologies |
| A．fault | B．problem | C．benefit | D．imagination |
| A．a new generation always loves new things |
| B．parents also liked technological products when they were young |
| C．parents should make sure children use the new technologies properly |
| D．parents shouldn’t allow children to own a cell Phone |
2 . The idea of low material desire, low consumption and refusing to work, marry and have children, concluded as a “lying down” lifestyle, recently struck a chord with many young Chinese who are eager to take pause to breathe in this fast-paced and highly-competitive society.
Many millennials (千禧一代) and generation Zs complained to the Global Times that burdens, including work stress, family disputes and financial strains, have pushed them “against the wall”. They said they hate the “involution(内卷),” joking that they would rather give up some of what they have than get trapped in an endless competition against peers.
“Instead of always following the ‘virtues’ of struggle, endure and sacrifice to bear the stresses, they prefer a temporary lying down as catharsis (宣泄) and adjustment,” said a scholar. “It is no wonder that some young people, under the growing pressures from child-raising to paying the mortgage (按揭) today, would try to live in a simple way and leave the worries behind.”
Interestingly, the majority of millennials and Gen Zs reached by the Global Times, who claim to be big fans of the lying down philosophy, acknowledged that they only accept a temporary lying down as a short rest. It is true that with the great improvement of living conditions, some Chinese youth have partially lost the spirit of hardship and are not willing to bear too much hard work. But in fact, lying down is not entirely comfortable. Young people who lie down always feel guilty about their constant loss of morale (士气) far beyond their reach.
“Young people on campus have both aspirations and confusion about their future, but most of us have rejected setting ourselves up in chains to waste opportunities and challenges,” a postgraduate student told the Global Times. “It’s no use running away. I have to ‘stand up’ and face the reality sooner or later.”
1. What does the underlined phrase in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Warned. | B．Punished. | C．Amused. | D．Touched. |
| A．Improvements in living conditions. |
| B．Growing pressure from family and social life. |
| C．Increasing material possessions from families. |
| D．Temporary adjustment to failure in competitions. |
| A．Understanding. | B．Intolerant. | C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
| A．They never really drop their responsibilities. |
| B．They really enjoy the “lying down” lifestyle. |
| C．They find their dreams far beyond their reach. |
| D．They would rather escape than take challenges. |
3 . You can’t emphasize more of the importance of physical education in the schools. Starting next year, most provincial-level regions in China will increase the weighting of physical education in the high school entrance exam, or zhongkao, the Ministry of Education said on Monday.
Director of the ministry’s department of physical, health and arts education Liu Jianjun said PE tests are currently mandatory(强制性的) in the zhongkao in all provincial-level regions, with scores ranging from 30 to 100 points. Based on recent reports the ministry received from local education authorities, most regions plan to significantly increase PE scores in the zhongkao next year, which marks an important development in reforming the evaluation of school physical education, he said.
In late October, Yunnan province increased the zhongkao scores for PE from 50 to 100 points, starting from the fall semester this year, the provincial education department said. It was the first provincial-level region to give PE and the three major subjects—Chinese language, mathematics and English—equal importance in the zhongkao.
The tests are conducted in every semester of middle school and are not intended to differentiate students, the education department said. The department does not encourage students to take after-school cram(塞进的) courses for PE. If they take PE courses seriously, exercise regularly and actively participate in sports competitions, they will achieve high scores in PE, it said.
China’s traditional idea of schooling puts more emphasis on academic education than physical education, and schools often treat PE as less important by not offering enough PE courses. It is also common for teachers in major subjects, such as Chinese language, mathematics and English, to use class time set aside for PE for their own subjects.
1. According to the article, why will the weighting of physical education in the zhongkao be increased?| A．Because it is welcome among students and teachers. |
| B．Because most Chinese have changed their traditional ideas. |
| C．Because physical education is more important than other subjects. |
| D．Because reforming the evaluation of school physical education is very important. |
| A．They needn’t take PE courses seriously. |
| B．They have to do sports regularly and actively. |
| C．They only need to take part in the sports which they are interested in. |
| D．They should be encouraged to take after-school cram courses for PE. |
| A．all the courses should be treated equally |
| B．schools needn’t have enough PE courses |
| C．PE classes should be set aside for other major classes |
| D．academic education is more important than physical education |
| A．map | B．guidebook | C．newspaper | D．novel |
4 . As a woman who goes outside almost every day, I’m used to people looking at me for all kinds of different reasons. In certain cases, it can be harder to tell who’s looking where: on a crowded train, or across a packed bar. If you’re unsure if a person is noticing you, there’s a little trick that I have found to be very effective: It’s called mirroring.
In a 1999 study, psychologists defined mirroring as “nonconscious mimicry (无意识模仿)of the postures, facial expressions and other behaviors of one’s interaction partners”. It’s long been used as a strategy that successful people can employ strategically to show their engagement (参与度) during job interviews or at work. They believe when done on purpose, mirroring can help people understand each other’s ideas or feelings very well.
It’s a proven method. In an experiment, volunteers were asked for their opinions about a series of advertisements. A member of a research team mirrored half the participants, taking care not to be too obvious. A few minutes later, the researcher “accidentally” dropped six pens on the floor. Participants who had been mimicked were two to three times more likely to pick up the pens. The study concluded that mimicry had not only increased goodwill towards the researcher, but also contributed to an increased social orientation (取向) in general.
If you want to know how to figure out if a person is looking at you, just throw out some kinds of gestures and see who copies you. But not everyone uses mirroring to figure out who’s making eyes at who. My years of experience of analyzing the messages sent consciously and unconsciously by the human body has left me with particularly good powers of observation. However, the average person has not had the same chance to improve this skill.
Of course, once you’ve figured out who’s watching you, it’s up to you and the watcher to decide what happens next. Not everybody watches with intent or enjoys getting hit on in public, so knowing how to react properly is very necessary.
1. What can we learn about mirroring from Paragraph 2?| A．It can benefit communication. |
| B．It helps people get out of bad habits. |
| C．People find it hard to apply at work. |
| D．Psychologists just started researching it recently. |
| A．It is beneficial for building teamwork. |
| B．It makes interaction partners less active. |
| C．It makes interaction partners more confused. |
| D．It has positive influences on interaction partners. |
| A．Some people have doubts about the effects of mirroring. |
| B．It is unnecessary for average people to master the skills of mirroring. |
| C．The author can use mirroring to read people’s body language well. |
| D．Average people lack the good ability to observe their surroundings. |
| A．Ways to draw people’s attention in public. |
| B．Reasons for people hating being watched by others. |
| C．Advice on dealing with situations where you are watched. |
| D．The importance of paying attention to one’s body language. |
5 . It’s time to reevaluate how women handle conflict at work. Being overworked or over-committed at home and on the job will not get you where you want to be in life. It will only slow you down and hinder your career goals.
Did you know women are more likely than men to feel exhausted? Nearly twice as many women than men aged 18—44 reported feeling “very tired” or “exhausted”, according to a recent study.
This may not be surprising given that this is the age range when women have children. It’s also the age range when many women are trying to balance careers and home. One reason women may feel exhausted is that they have a hard time saying “no”. Women want to be able to do it all—volunteer for school parties or cook delicious meals—and so their answer to any request is often “Yes, I can.”
Women struggle to say “no” in the workplace for similar reasons, including the desire to be liked by their colleagues. Unfortunately, this inability to say “no” may be hurting women’s heath as well as their career.
At the workplace, men use conflict as a way to position themselves, while women often avoid conflict or strive to be the peacemaker, because they don’t want to be viewed as aggressive or disruptive at work. For example, there’s a problem that needs to be addressed immediately, resulting in a dispute over who should be the one to fix it. Men are more likely to face that dispute from the perspective of what benefits them most, whereas women may approach the same dispute from the perspective of what’s the easiest and quickest way to resolve the problem—even if that means doing the boring work themselves.
This difference in handling conflict could be the deciding factor on who gets promoted to a leadership position and who does not. Leaders have to be able to assign and manage resources wisely—including staff expertise. Shouldering more of the workload may not earn you that promotion. Instead, it may highlight your inability to assign effectively.
1. What does the underlined word “hinder” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．set | B．block | C．stimulate | D．achieve |
| A．They are too devoted to work and unable to relax as a result. |
| B．They are obliged to take up too many responsibilities. |
| C．They do their best to cooperate with their workmates. |
| D．They struggle to satisfy the demands of both work and home. |
| A．women tend to be easily content |
| B．men are generally more persuasive |
| C．men tend to put their personal interests first |
| D．women are much more ready to compromise |
| A．The ability to allocate work. |
| B．The courage to admit failure. |
| C．A dominant personality. |
| D．A strong sense of responsibility. |
6 . Vaccines(疫苗) are required for entry into school in most places in the United States,the government does allow for exceptions, like religious reasons.
In the last few years,the rates of vaccine-preventable illness have been on the rise. In most cases, these outbreaks began with children who were unvaccinated. To deal with this threat,some schools in New York have been refusing to allow unvaccinated children to attend school.Several parents thought this was unfair and charged. Just recently, though, a court ruled in favor of the city schools.
The court made the right decision.Vaccine policy depends not only on the added protection that vaccines provide for those who get shots,but also on the decreased probability that anyone will come into contact with the disease. This is known as community immunity(免疫力).It refers to the fact that when enough people are immunized,then there really can’t be an outbreak.And if there can’t be an outbreak,then everyone is protected.
This is important because there are people who cannot be given immunizations for various reasons.For example,small babies can’t be given all vaccines.In 1995,the chickenpox(水痘)vaccine was introduced in the United States.Over time,more and more children received it. In 2011.a study looked at how the program affected the number of children who died from the disease.
The first thing noted in the paper was that death from chickenpox went down considerably after the vaccine was introduced.From 2001 through 2007,the rates of death remained much lower.with just a few children dying from chickenpox nationally each year.
What’s more,from 2004 through 2007,not one child less than 1 year of age died in the United States from chickenpox,This is important because we cannot give the chickenpox vaccine to babies.In other words,all those babies were saved not because we vaccinated them against this illness,but because older children were vaccinated. Therefore,people who refuse to vaccinate their children aren’t just putting themselves at risk-they’re putting everyone else in danger,too.
1. Whose benefit did the judges take into consideration?| A．School leaders’. |
| B．Students’. |
| C．Several parents’. |
| D．Unvaccinated kids’. |
| A．Requiring everyone to be immunized. |
| B．Vaccinating babies as early as possible. |
| C．Making sure enough people are vaccinate. |
| D．Separating unvaccinated people from the vaccinated. |
| A．The vaccine is safe for every kid. |
| B．No deaths have been found since 2004. |
| C．The vaccine has decreased the death rate. |
| D．The vaccine is even more effective for babies. |
| A．No vaccine,no risk. |
| B．No vaccine.no school. |
| C．Vaccination is a personal choice. |
| D．Vaccine-preventable illness is dropping. |
7 . A diet to save humankind
When I was a child, my family would always sit down together for meals. My favourite was among the simplest: pasta in tomato sauce. We ate fresh vegetables and fruit, and, starting in our teenage years, sipped a glass of red wine. We ate together. I indulged with a few slices of Italian ham and practised a wide variety of outdoor sports. This centuries - old Mediterranean diet kept me fit and trim - and turned out to be good not just for my personal well-being, but for the planet’s health too.
In 2021 we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of UNESCO’s designation of this Mediterranean diet as a ”Cultural Heritage of Humanity“.
Poor nutrition is a global problem, not just an Italian one. The fact that it’s hitting Italy, the land where the Mediterranean diet originated, represents a dangerous paradox(矛盾)- one of many troubling the world of food. After years of decline, hunger is back on the rise. Globally, some 821 m people still do not have enough to eat. Yet while the poor south starves, the rich north gorges: some 2bn people are overweight or obese. We waste one-third of global food production.
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals can show us the way. They aim to ”end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.“ These goals are ambitious but achievable.
Governments must provide incentives to support sustainable agriculture, slash food waste and meet nutritional challenges. This does not just mean taxing unhealthy foods.
We must change our diet. A food and environment pyramid which highlights the close links between food’s nutritional value and environmental impact has been devised. This ”double pyramid“ is based on the traditional Mediterranean diet of my childhood. Everyone can and must continue to have fun at the dinner table - while eating what is good for our health and our planet.
| A．Without a change in our diets, this disastrous cycle will worsen. |
| B．Farmers should use fertilizers more efficiently and reduce costs. |
| C．It is a diet full of vegetables, fruits and whole grains, with only occasional meat. |
| D．Farm animals consume an estimated two-thirds of all the land dedicated to agriculture and contribute about half of farming-related greenhouse-gas emissions. |
| E．Unfortunately, Italians have been turning away from their traditional healthy diet. |
| F．A more effective policy is to make healthy food, accessible and affordable for consumers and profitable for farmers. |
8 . Over the last 25 years, British society has changed a great deal. In some ways, however, very little has changed. Ideas about social class whether a person is “working-class” or “middle-class” are one area in which changes have been extremely slow.
In the past, the working-class tended to be paid less than middle-class people, such as teachers and doctors. As a result of this and also of the fact that workers’ jobs were generally much less secure, distinct differences in life-styles and attitudes came into existence. The typical working man would collect his wages on Friday evening and then give them to his wife, leaving a little for drinking or betting.
The type of what a middle-class man did with his money was perhaps nearer the truth. He was and still is likely to take a longer-term view. Not only did he regard buying a house to provide him and his family with security. Only in very few cases did workers have the opportunity (or the education and training) to make such long-term plans.
Nowadays, much has changed. In a large number of cases factory workers earn as much. Social security and laws have made it less necessary than before to worry about “tomorrow”. Working-class people seem slowly to be losing the feeling of inferiority (自卑感) they had in the past. In fact there has been a growing tendency in the past few years for the middle-classes to feel slightly ashamed of their position.
The changes in both life-styles and attitudes are probably most easily seen among younger people. They generally tend to share very similar tastes in music and clothes. They spend their money enjoying themselves, and save for holidays or longer-term plans when necessary. There seems to be much less difference than in previous generations. Nevertheless, we still have a wide gap between the well-paid and the low-paid. As long as this gap exists, there will always be a possibility that new problems will appear between different groups.
1. Which of the following is seen as the main cause of class differences in the past?| A．Life style and occupation. | B．Attitude and income. |
| C．Income and job security. | D．Job security and hobbies. |
| A．the description of middle-class ways of spending money is quite real |
| B．working-class ways of spending the weekend remain the same |
| C．working-class drinking habits differ from the past |
| D．middle-class attitudes towards their positions have changed greatly |
| A．They had to save money for security. |
| B．They couldn’t make long-term plans. |
| C．They could make as much money as they do now. |
| D．They didn’t have the sense of inferiority. |
| A．they are provided with social security |
| B．they can get much income |
| C．better jobs are available for all of them |
| D．the government offers legal protection |
| A．Changes are slowly taking place in all aspects of the British society. |
| B．The difference between working-class and middle-class young people is narrowing. |
| C．The gap in income between the two classes will still remain. |
| D．Middle-class people may sometimes feel a little inferior. |
9 . The sound that woke Damian Languell at 8:15 in the morning was so loud he assumed it came from inside his house in Wade, Maine. As he got up to investigate, he heard another sound, this one coming most definitely from outside. Looking out of his bedroom window, he noticed a tree enveloped in smoke about 500 yards away. A car wrapped around the tree’s base, its engine on fire.
Grabbing buckets of water, he and his wife ran to the crash site. Up close, the accident looked worse. The car was split nearly in two, and the tree was where the driver’s seat ought to have been, as if planted there. No one should have survived this crash, and yet there was 20-year-old Quintin Thompson, his terrified face pressed against the driver’s side window, in visible pain.
Languell tried putting out the fire with his buckets of water but failed. When the flames got into the front seats, he knew he had to get the young man out. So Languell opened the car’s back door and climbed in. Using a pocket knife he’d brought with him, he cut through Thompson’s seat belt. Now that Thompson was free, Languell pulled him out, and dragged him to safety before the entire car was in flames.
It is empathy that drove Languell to help, just as he said, “My heart goes out to Thompson. When you are that close to that level of hurt, you feel it so directly.” For his heroic action, Languell was added to the list of real-life heroes changing the world.
1. What do we know about Quintin Thompson?| A．He was successfully rescued. |
| B．He was capable of helping himself out. |
| C．He saved his car from fire. |
| D．He remained calm all the time. |
| A．Wisdom. | B．Sympathy. | C．Honesty. | D．Humor. |
| A．Caring and thankful. | B．Careless and generous. |
| C．Creative and hard-working. | D．Courageous and helpful. |
10 . Kyle Cassidy and three other members of the Annenberg Running Group were stretching on the grounds of the University of Pennsylvania, waiting for a few latecomers. The Penn colleagues and other community members meet three days a week for a nearly 30-minute jog and an occasional lecture. That’s right—during some runs, one of them delivers a talk. Topics range from the brain to Bitcoin.
But on this day last January, it would not be their normal run. The first clue that something was unusual was the man who sprinted past them. “What an amazing speed!” Cassidy told Runner’s World admiringly. Cassidy discovered why the sprinter was so fleet of foot when another man ran by, yelling, “Help! He took my phone and laptop!”
At that very point, the group did what running clubs do: They ran, trailing the suspect down the streets of Philadelphia until he ducked into a construction site. Cassidy ran around to the far side of the site to cut the thief off while the others wandered the neighborhood hoping he had thrown the loot in a backyard.
No luck. So they decided to ask residents whether they’d seen the guy. When they knocked on the door of one row house, they were in for a surprise. They didn’t know he had hidden behind a bush by that very house. As the owner opened the door, the suspect rushed out from behind the bush and right into the arms of campus police, who’d joined the chase shortly behind the runners.
The members of this running group are not hard-core athletes. But they do understand the benefit of a little exercise. “Running is typically a useless sport where you turn fat cells into heat,” Cassidy told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “But occasionally it can be useful, and here was one of those opportunities.”
1. Why do the group members gather together?| A．To do some stretching. | B．To have a regular run. |
| C．To deliver a lecture. | D．To cover some topics. |
| A．pushed | B．rushed | C．jumped | D．escaped |
| A．the help of the runners | B．the owner of the row house |
| C．the joint efforts of the people | D．the campus police on guard |
| A．Athletic and generous. | B．Courageous and ambitious. |
| C．Thoughtful and strict. | D．Helpful and humorous. |
