1 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. amused       B. common       C. complete       D. disconnecting       E. means F. mission       G. perform       H. positive       I. prepared       J. spreading K. struggle

The world of live action role-playing

For many people, the days of playing make-believe (假扮) ended in childhood. But for some, the game of make-believe lives on in Live Action Role-Playing, or LARP. This is a game where people act out characters in a(n)     1     plot. A gamemaster creates the plot and then puts together an event where people     2     the story. Those who find a particular plot interesting sign up for the event. Then the gamemaster, or the players themselves, make up their characters for the story. At the event, each person comes in costume and behaves as their character.

Although pretty much anything goes in LARP, nearly every event involves players completing a(n)     3     together. A gamemaster writes a goal into the plot and usually prepares challenges for the players. For example, a character may hold up the mission, making it hard to     4     the goal. LARP events can be as long as the gamemasters want them to be. They can last anywhere from a few hours to several days.

The genius of LARP is that each event can be any kind of story. The most     5     ones come from fantasy, historical, horror or science fiction genres (体裁). With such a variety of story types, LARP attracts all kinds of people. Some players enjoy LARP as a(n)     6     to practice creating or costume-making. Other players enjoy the challenge of going into different worlds and using their brains to solve puzzles. There are also those who simply want to have fun and make friends.

One     7     LARP players have is coming out of their LARP experiences and returning to the real world. This is especially common after a long event. Most players experience a “bleed,” which describes parts of their LARP experience     8     into their everyday life. Since all the senses — seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting — are at work,     9     becomes difficult. However, researchers agree that the overall effects of LARP are     10    . People of different backgrounds come together to grow their skills, play and express creativity.

2 . Directions: Complete the passage with the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. There is one extra that you do not need.

A. imperfections                  B. virtual              C. admittedly        D. distortion          E. spark             F. surprisingly G. focus   H. repeat   I. increasingly                J. heightened   K. mixed

Feeling Ugly on Zoom

Jane, a 40-year-old mental health professional from Ireland, never worried too much about how she looked. However, when her job went fully     1    , she found herself desperately anxious about Microsoft Teams (video) meetings. Her face looked rounder, her nose looked bigger, and her top lip looked thinner than she had ever noticed it while looking in the mirror.

“I’ve always thought that I was attractive, and people would always compliment my looks in person,” Jane says. “But on video, nobody was saying how nice it was to see my pretty face.”

In June 2021, Jane took matters into her own hands — or rather, her lips — and got her wrinkles plumped with filler. She was so pleased with the results that she plans to     2     the process every year.

As the pandemic forced the masses into video conferences throughout 2020, researchers noticed a phenomenon they called “Zoom dysmorphia” (畸形恐惧症). After months of remote meetings and social gatherings — and seeing their own faces on screen — more and more people became focused on their physical     3    . Shadi Kourosh, a Massachusetts dermatologist (皮肤科医生), coined the term after her clinic reopened for in-person appointments in the summer of 2020, when she noticed a huge increase in consultations for cosmetic procedures. Even more     4    , with the return to face-to-face interaction, consultation requests are not slowing down. While the trend may not only be attributable to Zoom, it is clear that the age of video conferencing has opened up a Pandora’s box of physical and mental insecurities.

Psychological studies have long associated time spent in front of the mirror with one’s     5    feelings of insecurity. However, Kourosh says that looking at yourself on a screen is more like looking into a funhouse mirror than an actual one. Front-facing cameras, with their close     6    , can distort (使……失真) people’s appearance, making eyes look smaller and noses seem bigger. Plus, people are not used to watching themselves while trying to pay attention to other people.

Doctors who perform cosmetic procedures are familiar with how the phenomenon of body dysmorphia has become     7     worsened in recent years by retouched (润饰的) celebrity photos or, even more recently, by social media filters. But most people are self-aware enough to know a social media filter is not real life. Zoom dysmorphia is tricker because people simply were not aware that video calls could cause     8    . These types of insecurities also affect a much broader section of society. Not everybody has a Snapchat account, but almost anybody who worked from home during the pandemic used video conferencing. The impact can be profound and lasting.

Jane has    9     feelings. Her job will be online for the foreseeable future. Feeling less attractive on screen than in real life, she is considering a rhinoplasty (隆鼻术) to improve her confidence. “But resolving my anxiety about my physical appearance is likely to     10    its own kind of insecurity,” she says. “It feels juvenile (幼稚的) as a 40-year-old women to think about my looks like a teenager. There’re bigger problems in the world.”