1 . If you’ve been joining in chat room conversation, or exchanging e-mail with your e-pals, you have become one of the millions who write in a special short form of English. And you’ve got a sense of humor about short forms like SOHF (= sense of humor failure) to describe Internet newcomers who don’t understand you.
Across the globe, every night teenagers and their elders are “talking” online — many of them all talking at the same time. It’s fast: try talking to six people at once. It’s brief: three or four words per exchange. It takes wit (风趣) and quick fingers.
And it requires tremendous linguistic economy (语言省略). There’s neither time nor space for explanations. Why consume precious key-strokes telling six friends you have to leave for a moment to take care of your little brother when BRB (be right back) will do?
Want to enter a conversation? Just type PMFJI (=pardon me for jumping in). Interested in whom you’re talking to? A/S/L, the nearly universal request to know your pal’s age, sex and location. You may get 15/M/NY as a response from your pal.
If something makes you laugh, say you’re OTF (=on the floor), or LOL(= laughing out loud), or combine the two into ROTFL (= rolling on the floor laughing).
And when it’s time to get back to work or go to bed, you type GTG (got to go) or TTYL (= talk to you later).
People want to write as fast as possible, and they want to get their ideas across as quickly as they can. Capital letters (大写字母) are left in the dust, except when expressing strong feelings, as it takes more time to hold down the “Shift” key and use capitals. Punctuation (标点) is going, too.
1. How do many people talk on the Internet?| A．By sending short e-mails. |
| B．By using a peculiar short form of English. |
| C．By using peculiar English words and expressions. |
| D．In a funny way. |
| A．You have to speak fast and fluently. |
| B．You should speak with wit and humor. |
| C．You should pay much attention to the use of exact words. |
| D．You have to express your ideas in a brief way. |
| A．You are talking to a girl who is 17 and lives in New York. |
| B．The person who is talking to you is a l7-foot-tall girl from New York. |
| C．You are talking to 17 girls who are from New York. |
| D．The person on the other end is 17 from New York and he is fine. |
| A．Some people leave their letters in the dustbin. |
| B．Some people never use “Shift” in their writing. |
| C．People seldom use capital letters and punctuation. |
| D．Many people only use the capital or punctuation. |
2 . While social media can be useful in connecting you to family, friends and colleagues, there can be negative effects. But you can avoid the negative effects by following these words of advice.
Spend a limited amount of time on social media.
It is wise to disconnect from social media now and then. If you feel you’re addicted to social media, set a daily time limit for yourself.
Protect your privacy.
There are many ways to protect your privacy. One way is to create different friend lists, such as Family, Friends and Colleagues. Then you can send posts to just the people in one or more particular lists. In addition, before you post, think about your writing, photos, comments and other content since anything you share, even within closed groups, is public on social media.
Live your real life.
Some people are so attached to social media that they spend much of their time during events taking pictures and posting.
People are looking for different things when they go onto social media sites: acknowledgement, attention, approval, appreciation, etc. Identify which of these you’re looking for and think about whether you can get it satisfied in a more constructive way than going online.
Remember, you’re the boss of being on social media.
| A．It doesn’t give orders to you. |
| B．Provide yourself with satisfaction. |
| C．Understand what you need from social media. |
| D．Turn off your computer and do things in the real world. |
| E．What you post can be shared around the world in a short time. |
| F．Many people spend hours a day posting, reading posts, and watching videos. |
| G．They don’t allow themselves to be in the moment and actually enjoy the event. |
3 . My mother used to take me to my grandparents’ in Belgium during the school holidays. While I would play chess with my grandfather, he would tell me stories about growing up, falling in love, and travelling around the world.
I didn’t realize the importance of preserving memories until my grandfather passed away, which ultimately changed my outlook on remembering our loved ones and the stories we share. I thought about solutions to help other people record the precious memories for those they love—before it’s too late. So I began matching ghostwriters (代笔人) to clients to help them write a book as smoothly and beautifully as possible, and Story Terrace was born.
Since then, we have explored the power of stories and their ability to connect us with our past and make sense of the present. It has been documented that increased family connection is significantly linked to less loneliness. Learning more about one’s family history, however, has been linked to boosting emotional health, increasing compassion and providing a deeper sense of cultures and traditions.
What we have found through our own research is that so many of us have missed out on the opportunity to explore our origins. 56 percent of Brits agreed that much of their family history is lost because they are no longer able to speak with the person who knows the most about it. A further 51 percent expressed regret as they wished they could tell their younger self to document their family’s life story, feeling that most of it had been forgotten. But when it comes to telling these stories, many don’t know where to begin.
We have seen numerous times when people come to us with random journal entries and notes from over the years, and these can be developed into a wonderful work of art that can be passed down for generations to come.
Half of the projects we see at StoryTerrace are heritage stories, with family occupying a dominant theme for most stories. Alongside this, common themes we see are of course love, overcoming challenges, settling in new surroundings and so on. However, family is a thread that always ties these together.
1. What does Story Terrace do?| A．It boosts the mood of your family members. |
| B．It gives treatment to people with mental illness. |
| C．It links people from different cultures together. |
| D．It helps turn your beloved one’s stories into a book. |
| A．Why StoryTerrace matters. |
| B．How StoryTerrace functions. |
| C．What StoryTerrace focuses on. |
| D．Where StoryTerrace beings your story. |
| A．It is part of the national heritage. |
| B．Its stories are mostly about family. |
| C．It dominates half of the market. |
| D．Its stories gain much popularity. |
| A．Family Stories Worth Telling |
| B．Create Your Own Story Books |
| C．Documents of Family History |
| D．Preserve Memories with StoryTerrace |
4 . It’s no secret that our jobs can have a major impact on our lives outside of work. But what many employers don’t realize is that how employees spend their time at work can have substantial spillover effects on their children.
To explore the impact of parents’ work on their children’s development, my team conducted a study that followed more than 370 low-wage, working-class families over more than ten years. We intentionally focused on low-wage families, as they generally receive far less attention in the work-family literature while facing some of the greatest challenges. We, therefore, could get more authentic data. We completed in-home interviews and first-hand observations of parent-child interactions with strict assessments and reports from parents and teachers.
The data showed that parents who experienced more autonomy on the job and who had more-supportive managers and coworkers were in turn warmer and more engaged when interacting with their kids. Checking back in with these families years later, we consistently saw that the children of employees who had had more-positive work experiences in their first years as parents had better reading and math skills, and better social skills.
So it is important to promote workers’ physical and mental health. Some organizations tend to focus on high-level policy changes such as flexible scheduling options, more paid leave, etc. And to be sure, these systemic initiatives are certainly important. But our research suggests that ensuring workers feel respected and supported in their daily work is often just as critical. That means employers should give employees the time and space to share their experiences and ideas. In this way, employers will ensure workers feel buoyant in their daily work. The workers will feel bright and lively, enjoying more autonomy and respect.
Ultimately, how companies treat their workers today will determine how the next generation grows up tomorrow. That means building workplaces that value the welfare of working parents — and that of their kids, too.
1. Why did the study choose the low-wage families?| A．To tackle their problems. |
| B．To give them more attention. |
| C．To learn more truth about the poor. |
| D．To make the study more convincing. |
| A．Humanity. | B．Policies. | C．Social systems. | D．Moral standards. |
| A．Romantic. | B．Cheerful. | C．Innocent. | D．Dominant. |
| A．Parents’ Experience at Work Impacts Their Kids |
| B．Working Parents Devote Little to Their Children |
| C．Employers Should Care for Employees’ Families |
| D．Companies Are Responsible for Workers’ Health |
5 . My son’s seventh birthday is approaching, so conversation at my house has naturally turned to organizing his party.
For his sixth birthday, we booked the local trampoline(蹦床) park. This worked out well. But the whole event cost us hundreds of pounds. This year, I’m trying to convince him that the dinosaur-themed park down the road offers just as much fun—and you don’t even need to wear special socks! This will be cheaper, because we aren’t required to hire a space—we can simply buy tickets for his mates.
But I still keep pondering over one thing—party bags. Why should a bunch of seven-year-olds, who have already been treated to a day out and a mountain of sugar, also be handed a bag full of pound-shop gifts for simply bothering to show up?
Party bags are an environmental disaster. I reckon my son attends 20 parties per year, and at each party there are 20 kids in attendance, which means 400 plastic bags in total. Within these 400 bags are perhaps 800 plastic toys, almost all of which fall apart on the journey home and then get binned instantly. The waste is shocking, and I don’t want to be part of it.
I know there are some party bag alternatives: one couple I know covered a table with Mr. Men books and got the kids to choose one each. At another party, I saw the hosts fill a bucket with soft toys and crumpled newspaper, and do a lucky dip (抽奖). Admirable efforts.
Even if that is a nice try, and even if the contents in the party bags don’t fall apart, so what? Will our guests think more highly of our child because of the party bags from our party? Will my child’s ability to make and keep friends be improved?
Well, the tradition for kid’s party bags ends with me, and it ends here, and it ends now. Who’s with me?
1. Why does the author recommend the dinosaur-themed park?| A．Because it’s more enjoyable. | B．Because it provides socks. |
| C．Because it can reduce cost. | D．Because it offers free tickets. |
| A．Gifts brought by guests. | B．Gifts prepared by hosts. |
| C．Gifts distributed by parks. | D．Gift a donated by charities. |
| A．Intolerant. | B．Objective. | C．Favorable. | D．In different. |
| A．Be recycled. | B．Be repaired. | C．Be thrown away. | D．Be given away. |
6 . Volunteering to help people in need combined with travelling to faraway places is a new trend in the travel industry. It is called voluntourism. People travel to other countries, learn languages and other cultures and gain new experiences. At the same time, they volunteer to help others who are not as well off as they are.
Recent statistics show that in the past few years voluntourism has been one of the fastest-growing areas of tourism. More than 1.6 million people around the world are volunteers in other countries. They work in Orphanages (孤儿院), help build schools, assist in hospitals and do farming work in developing countries. Some of them establish lasting bonds with people far away.
While voluntourism has been around for over a century, modern volunteering started with the Peace Corps, a program that the US government started in the 1960s.
Many people get involved in voluntourism. Students see it as a gap year after school, and others simply want to take time out from a job and do something else. Then there are those who are bored and merely seek adventure. However, many voluntourists do not see volunteering as what it is. They think it is a cheap way of traveling and don’t really want to get involved in hard work.
Critics say that if people really want to help those in need there are many opportunities in their own community to do this. Furthermore, volunteers are often not skilled enough for the tasks that they do. Travel experts point out that in some cases voluntourists are exploited(利用)by the organization that sets the trips.
Job organizations urge volunteers to inform themselves about organizations and projects before applying forjob. Serious development programs are mostly supported by international organizations.
1. What is the text mainly about?| A．A new adventure. | B．A new working style |
| C．A new trend in travel. | D．A new job opportunity |
| A．Most tourists’ opinions on voluntourism. | B．Reasons why people go voluntouring |
| C．Disadvantages to most voluntourists. | D．Methods of how to go voluntouring. |
| A．Most voluntourists really want to help others. |
| B．Travel is the absolute purpose of voluntourism. |
| C．Not everyone sees volunourism in a positive way. |
| D．Voluntourism needs support from international organization. |
7 . The UN this week launched a report urging companies to stop issuing false net-zero targets that amount to greenwashing.
Greenwashing is a term used to describe situations where companies mislead consumers by claiming to be eco-friendly or sustainable as a marketing plan rather than as a core principle of their business model. Often, these industries spend more money making themselves appear sustainable than they do taking actual sustainable measures into their company.
Cities, financial institutions, and scores of companies have announced plans to reduce their emissions to zero, which, in principle, should help the fight against climate change.
“The problem is that the criteria for these net-zero commitments have varying levels of precision and loopholes (漏洞),” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the launch of the report.
Many net-zero plans contain far-away or unclear targets and often call for the use of unproved technologies like carbon capture and tree planting, which effectively allow companies to continue polluting the atmosphere. Studies show that most of these net-zero plans will do little to stop temperatures from rising. For example, many oil majors have announced plans to reduce emissions from their operations to zero by 2050 that do not take into account the carbon emitted by the fossil fuels they sell, which would allow them to increase production. Far from decreasing, fossil fuel production is going strong.
To close these net-zero loopholes, the UN this week released a report that includes 10 recommendations to ensure that companies, cities, regions, and other non-state actors issue credible and accountable net zero commitments. “Their plans cannot rely on cheap carbon credits instead of immediately cutting their own emissions,” Guterres said.
Financial institutions need to cut down emissions from all their investments and businesses need to bring down the carbon footprint of their supply chain, the report said. The report’s lead author, Catherine McKenna, urged companies to release new net-zero targets within a year. The updated targets must contain concrete actionable details.
1. What does “greenwashing” refer to?| A．A green technology. | B．A misleading statement. |
| C．A business model. | D．A spending target. |
| A．To prove oil majors are really responsible. |
| B．To set some good examples for other companies. |
| C．To show some net- zero commitments make no sense. |
| D．To indicate the benefit of net zero plans to climate change. |
| A．Dissatisfied. | B．Guilty. | C．Shocked. | D．Confused. |
| A．Plant more trees. | B．Share more supply chains. |
| C．Depend on cheap carbon credits. | D．Make concrete actionable targets. |
8 . People generally feel secure with certainty. To be certain is to have power and control. Certainty is often used as a metric (衡量标准) of value, shaping how people view themselves and others. For example, people tend to respect those who present themselves ascertain while viewing those who express uncertainty as wishy-washy, and untrustworthy. Young people growing up in a culture that identifies strongly with certainty are told that to be certain is to be secure, right, and good. It is the idea, more than uncertainty itself, that causes great anxiety.
But the reality is that certainty is transient; it is more a feeling than a fact. Too often people act as if certainties are drawn in permanent marker: Thick, clear, definitive, and rigid. But they are not. They are actually drawn with pencil—ready for revision, editing, and change.
Spring tide’s recent report, The State of Religion and Young People: Navigating Uncertainty, allows us to hear how young people are questioning certainty and increasingly rejecting the rules that isolate them from themselves and one another. Milly, a 25-year-old quoted in the report, described her experience in a group discussion where uncertainty was welcomed rather than criticized：
“Like, struggling to know what or what not to believe....That’s something we talked about in the group. It actually makes me feel a little bit better. It’s like, oh, like we can have doubts. We can struggle with these feelings and they’re still, we’re still accepted, you know? So that was actually kind of refreshing” (Spring tide, 2021, p.46).
Young people are not rejecting certainty, but they are not accepting prepackaged answers or one-dimensional solutions. They are reexamining pre-drawn labels, beliefs, and identities and daring to ask “Why?” Their courage to question is an invitation to all of us to reconsider and rediscover uncertainty. We can listen to and learn from young people, embracing(拥抱)this opportunity as a moment of critical self-reflection and growth. If we will accept uncertainties, we might discover the ways that multiple beliefs, practices, values, identities, and communities can coexist and develop together.
1. What is the purpose of paragraph 1?| A．To explain a concept. |
| B．To advocate a culture. |
| C．To introduce a different opinion. |
| D．To confirm an assumption. |
| A．Changeable. | B．Predictable. |
| C．Popular. | D．Objective. |
| A．Intolerant. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Unconcerned. | D．Positive. |
| A．Unmask the Culture of Certainty |
| B．Embrace the Gift of Uncertainty |
| C．Certainty: Should It Be Rejected by the Young? |
| D．Uncertainty: Should It Be Blamed for Anxiety? |
9 . When 76-year-old Antoinette-Marie Williams played 17-year-old Emmett Daniels in chess for the first time, she gave Daniels a run for his money. Paired through DOROT, a New York organization which was launched in 1976, they are a perfect match. “I was a good opponent for him. I don’t think he expected it.” Williams told the CVS Health blog Fortune Well. Their weekly games have led Daniels and Williams to a cross-generational relationship that they both enjoy. Williams and Daniels’ relationship disproves the idea that people of different generations have little in common.
Since its founding, DOROT has achieved a reputation of excellence and innovation in the fields of aging services. Volunteers of young ages offer critical resources to older adults, in services specific to the person’s needs and interests, with the ultimate goal of lessening loneliness of the old.
Loneliness has been recognized as a significant social issue for many years, but the classification of loneliness as an epidemic(流行病) has emerged only in recent years. In 2018, the UK government appointed a Minister for Loneliness, highlighting the increasing concern around the issue. This followed the publication of the 2017 report by the Jo Cox Loneliness Commission, which found that loneliness was a growing social epidemic and called for a national strategy to address the issue.
Fortunately, there are ways to battle loneliness, including the intervention in the lives of isolated seniors by organizations like DOROT. It advocates building a support network by reaching out to family and friends, joining a community or social group, or volunteering to connect with like-minded people. The connection between Williams and Daniels shows that these inter-generational relationships play an important role in reducing loneliness and adding joy to the lives of all the participants, young and old.
Another way to battle loneliness is to use technology to stay connected with loved ones which fosters meaning and purpose through online activities and conversations. Practicing self-care is also encouraged, as is being patient because strong relationships take time and effort to create.
1. What does the underlined sentence in paragraph l probably mean?| A．She had a running race with Daniels. |
| B．Daniels felt disappointed. |
| C．Daniels had a tough win. |
| D．She gave Daniels money as a gift of greeting. |
| A．To make technological innovation. |
| B．To enhance the living standards of the elderly. |
| C．To offer job opportunities for people of all ages. |
| D．To provide seniors with inter-generational connection. |
| A．The solution to loneliness. |
| B．The root cause of loneliness. |
| C．The classification of loneliness. |
| D．The growing attention to loneliness. |
| A．Society Watch. | B．News Express. |
| C．Page Turner. | D．Science Study. |
10 . Crossing Phoenix, Arizona, are 180 miles of canals. In 1867, the city’s founding father, Jack Swilling saw the remains of irrigation (灌溉) channels wandering across the landscape. He realized that, centuries before, some society had farmed this desert. Soon after, Swilling began clearing the blocked canals to bring agriculture back to the region.
Three years later, Swilling and other pioneers met to consider names for their settlement. The top two were Pumpkinville and Stonewall. Luckily, English adventurer Darrell Duppa proposed a name inspired by the resurrection (复兴) of the canals. “A great race once lived here and another great race will live here in the future,” he considered. “I predict that a new city will spring, phoenix-like, from the ruins and ashes of the old.”
Gary Huckleberry, a researcher, said, “In the southwest, we have some serious issues to deal with in terms of water. The Colorado River is the main source of water for the southwest and it’s over distributed. We’ve got population growth and climate change. How are we going to deal with that? I think there’s something to be learned by looking at past societies who managed water for thousands of years.”
That great society was the Hohokam. Between 100 and 1450 AD, they constructed 1,000 miles of canals. As the Hohokam expanded their network, they constantly repaired, cleaned and diverted the canals. “It requires cooperation, because all the users of the water from that canal have to agree not only to construct it, but also to maintain it,” Henderson, a scientist, said. “Users would have to agree to certain conditions to keep the entire system going.” The Hohokam committed to sharing water and put themselves on timetables.
The Hohokam used canal irrigation for 3,000 years. “That, to me, is the definition of sustainable development,” Huckleberry said. “They learned how to sustainably farm, to manage water, to not destroy their soils in a way that is worthy and might give us insight into how we might deal with the current trouble. I think one of the key lessons is that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The reconstruction of canals. | B．The origin of the city’s name Phoenix. |
| C．The discovery of the irrigation channels. | D．The agricultural development in the settlement. |
| A．The source of water. | B．The climate change. |
| C．The population growth. | D．The over-distribution of water. |
| A．They were expert in farming. | B．They were poor at time management. |
| C．They had a strong sense of team spirit. | D．They fought for their rights to use water. |
| A．Canal irrigation is out of date. | B．Sustainable development matters. |
| C．Farming can solve current trouble. | D．The loss of soils is worse than before. |
