1 . This question has fascinated behavioural scientists for decades: why do we give money to charity?

The explanations for charitable giving fall into three broad categories, from the purely altruisic (利他的)— I donate because I value the social good done by the charity. The “impurely” altruistic— I donate because I extract value from knowing I contribute to the social good for the charity. And the not-at-all altruistic— I donate because I want to show off to potential mates how rich I am.

But are these motives strong enough to enable people to donate as much as they would want to? Most people support charities in one way or another, but often we struggle to make donations as often as we think we should. Although many people would like to leave a gift to charity in their will, they forget about it when the time comes.

Many people are also aware that they should donate to the causes that have the highest impact, but facts and figures are less attractive than narratives. In a series of experiments, it was found that people are much more responsive to charitable pleas that feature a single, identifiable beneficiary(受益者), than they are to statistical information about the scale of the problem being faced. When it comes to charitable giving, we are often ruled by our hearts and not our heads.

The good news is that charitable giving is contagious—seeing others give makes an individual more likely to give and gentle encouragement from an important person in your life can also make a big difference to your donation decisions— more than quadrupling them in our recent study. Habit also plays a part— in three recent experiments those who volunteered before were more likely to do donate their time than those who had not volunteered before.

In summary, behavioural science identifies a range of factors that influence our donations, and can help us to keep giving in the longer term. This is great news not just for charities, but also for donors.

1. What can we learn about people who do charitable giving?

A．Most people support charity as often as they think they should.

B．Some people don’t want to leave a gift to charity until the time comes.

C．Those who donate because they can gain an advantage are purely altruistic.

D．Some people send money to charity simply to tell others they are wealthy.

2. In which way will people donate more willingly?

A．Not revealing the names of the donors.

B．Showing figures about the seriousness of the problem.

C．Telling stories that feature a single, recognizable beneficiary.

D．Reminding people to write down what to donate in the will in advance.

3. What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 5 mean?

A．People will learn from others and follow the suit.

B．Many people are familiar with charitable giving.

C．Charitable giving helps the beneficiary in all aspects.

D．Charitable giving can bring a lot of benefits to donors.

4. What is the writing purpose of the passage?

A．To persuade more people to donate.

B．To explain the science behind why people donate.

C．To criticize some false charitable giving behaviours.

D．To explore approaches to making people donate more.

2 . The case for and against social media

Is social media harmful to teenagers?     1     Social media sites have been blamed for most of the world’s social problems from feeling disconnected and lonely to having difficulty forming meaningful relationships. Yet, many of us feel a need to use social media because it offers something we cannot find elsewhere, despite knowing the downsides.     2    

An argument for social media claims it can strengthen social bonds by facilitating relationships with people in different geographical areas. For example, social media has helped old school friends to get back in touch after many years without contact.     3     These are real benefits of using social media.

    4     The argument used by many people is that interactions on social media are no substitute for face-to-face communication. When you are out with friends how many times do they check their phones? for example.     5     Research highlights it is far more satisfying to physically laugh out loud in real life rather than to replace the act with a typed representation of laughter such as “haha” or “LOL”.       

Ideally, we should have enough self-control to be able to limit our use of social media, enjoying the benefits it can bring.

A．The disadvantages of social media.

B．In my opinion, the disadvantages of social media outweigh the benefits.

C．It is all too easy to become absorbed in this online life rather than communicate in real life.

D．People secure jobs now through social media or research information for their studies.

E．This is the question we are going to examine.

F．We will look at the arguments for and against using social media before answering the question.

G．We aim to control our use of social media.

3 . Reading poems is not exactly an everyday activity for most people. In fact, many people never read a poem once they get out of high school.

It is worth reminding ourselves that this has not always been the case in America. In the nineteenth century, a usual American activity was to sit around the fireside in the evening and read poems aloud. It is true that there was no television at that time, nor movie theatres, nor World Wide Web, to provide diversion. However, poems were a source of pleasure, of self-education, of connection to other people or to the world beyond one’s own community. Reading them was a social act as well as an individual one, and perhaps even more social than individual. Writing poems to share with friends and relations was, like reading poems by the fireside, another way in which poetry has a place in everyday life.

How did things change? Why are most Americans no longer comfortable with poetry, and why do most people today think that a poem has nothing to tell them and that they can do well without poems?

There are, I believe, three factors: poets, teachers, and we ourselves. Of these, the least important is the third: the world surrounding the poem has betrayed us more than we have betrayed the poem. Early in the twentieth century, poetry in English headed into directions unfavourable to the reading of poetry. Readers decided that poems were not for the fireside or the easy chair at night, and that they belonged where other difficult-to-read things belonged.

Poets failed the reader, so did teachers. They want their students to know something about the skills of a poem; they want their students to see that poems mean something. Yet what usually occurs when teachers push these concerns on their high school students is that young people decide poems are unpleasant crossword puzzles.

1. Why is reading poems thought to be a social act in the nineteenth century?

A．Because it built a link among people.

B．Because it helped unite a community.

C．Because it was a source of self-education.

D．Because it was a source of pleasure.

2. What does the underlined word “diversion” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．Stories.

B．Changes.

C．Amusements.

D．Concentrations.

3. What is the main cause of the great gap between readers and poetry?

A．Students are poorly educated in high school.

B．Poems have become difficult to understand.

C．Students are becoming less interested in poetry.

D．TV and the Internet are more attractive than poetry.

4. What does the author try to tell us by writing the text?

A．The history and changes of poetry.

B．The correct way for teachers to teach poetry.

C．The failure of poetry in people’s life nowadays.

D．The reason why people aren’t keen on poetry today.

4 . 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.

2. In order to talk to several people at the same time on the Internet, what should you do?

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.

3. If you get 17/F/NY as an answer to your A/S/L, what does it mean?

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.

4. To save time on the Internet, what do people do?

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.

5 . We live in a town with three beaches. There are two parts less than 10 minutes’ walk from home where neighborhood children gather to play. However, what my children want to do after school is pick up a screen — any screen — and stare at it for hours. They are not alone. Today’s children spend an average of four and a half hours a day looking at screens, split between watching television and using the Internet.

In the past few years, an increasing number of people and organisations have begun coming up with plans to counter this trend. A couple of years ago film-maker David Bond realised that his children, then aged five and three, were attached to screens to the point where he was able to say “chocolate” into his three-year-old son’s ear without getting a response. He realised that something needed to change, and, being a London media type, appointed himself “marketing director from Nature”. He documented his journey as he set about treating nature as a brand to be marketed to young people. The result was Project Wild Thing, a film which charts the birth of the World Network, a group of organisations with the common goal of getting children out into nature.

“Just five more minutes outdoors can make a difference,” David Bond says. “There is a lot of really interesting evidence which seems to be suggesting that if children are inspired up to the age of seven, then being outdoors will be on habit for life.” His own children have got into the habit of playing outside now: “We just send them out into the garden and tell them not to come back in for a while.”

Summer is upon us. There is an amazing world out there, and it needs our children as much as they need it. Let us get them out and let them play.

1. What is the problem with the author’s children?

A．They often annoy their neighbours.	B．They are tired of doing their homework.
C．They have no friends to play with	D．They stay in front of screens for too long.

2. How did David Bond advocate his idea?

A．By making a documentary film.	B．By organizing outdoor activities.
C．By advertising in London media.	D．By creating a network of friends.

3. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “charts” in paragraph 2?

A．records

B．predicts

C．delays

D．confirms

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Let Children Have Fun	B．Young Children Need More Free Time
C．Market Nature to Children	D．David Bond: A Role Model for Children